the bossbabe podcast - 108. How To Overcome Your Self-Doubt + Claim Your Value In The Marketplace

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

As women, we’ve all struggled with claiming our value in the marketplace. We tend to underprice, yet overdeliver; negotiate out of fear rather than our worth, and give in to the self-doubt that we just aren’t worthy of wealth or financial freedom. If you resonate with any of this, then tune in because this is the episode for you. We’re joined by Allyson Byrd, Money Mindset Expert, and CEO of The Byrd Agency. Allyson's work has supported entrepreneurs in generating more than $16.9 million in the past 18 months. Her mission is to help people become financially independent, follow their entrepreneurial dreams, and create extraordinary careers for themselves. If you want to learn how to confidently take your sales to the next level, Allyson shares her tips on overcoming objections and how to claim your value within the marketplace. She’s also going to help you unpack the fears and self-doubt that are holding you back from achieving the wealth and success that you’re worthy of.  It’s time for women to unlearn the patterns that have been handed down to us and create a new reality in which wealth and financial independence are ours to claim - no questions asked.  Links: Organifi’s mission is to empower you to live a happier, healthier life with organic superfood blends. Use code BOSSBABE for 15% off your purchase at https://bossbabe.online/organifi Follow: @bossbabe.inc @daniellecanty @iamallysonbyrd

You cannot let the disease of perfection paralyze you from stepping into your purpose. Every woman listening to me now, don't you dare make service a replacement for your success. Don't you dare make service a replacement for your success. Don't you dare. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance, and learning how to balance it all.

I'm Danielle Canty, president and co-founder of Boss Babe, and your host for this episode. Now, today, I am interviewing Alison Bird, business strategist and CEO of Money Movers International and you guys are going to love this interview because throughout the years Alison has gained the nickname as the profit accelerator and this interview we're talking all things money. Now for some of you the topic of money can kind of make you feel a little bit uncomfortable but I really want you to ask why should it? Because that's the conversation that Alice and I talk about in this

interview because we want you to have the confidence to make money and sell and do it all apologetically and the reality is that unfortunately a lot of us are not unapologetic about it and some of you listening may really struggle with that and struggle with the imposter syndrome and this idea that you don't feel worthy of money you don't feel worthy of selling your services and you don't feel comfortable about raising your prices. And some of you sitting there right now might be thinking, why should I be getting paid the big bucks when there's other people out there selling things who are better than me, who are more established than me, you know, who know more than I do. Does that sound familiar familiar and I bring this up because I know

it's something that we hear a lot of in the boss babe community and we all strive to be unapologetic when we're talking about money and strive to earn more money and strive to claim more money but it isn't always that straightforward and what I love about Alison is she addresses all of that and during this interview we really walked through her journey as the profit accelerator and she gave a ton of tips on overcoming objections and how to claim your value within the marketplace because like me Alison truly believes it's time for us women to shift our internal dialogue and stop settling for anything less than we are worth and it's not only time for us to be financially independent it's time for us to be comfortable with the idea that we can be affluent, that we can build wealth

and we can build empires. So whether you're an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, or you have a side hustle and you want to learn how to confidently take your sales to the next level from the sales expert herself, then keep listening because this interview is not only full of resources but it's also really vulnerable and passionate and that is just two of the things I just love about Alison. I've actually been fortunate enough to get to know Alison over the last couple of years because she's taught in the society our membership and what I have known to be true about her is wherever she speaks she delivers and she turns up with so much passion but also knowledge that I know you guys are gonna absolutely

love this interview so as always I really would love to hear your takeaways so take a screenshot and share your biggest takeaways with me on instastories by tagging myself at Danielle Canty and tagging at bossbabe.inc. And without further ado, we are going to dive in to one of my favorite episodes. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, Alison. I am so excited to have you on here today. Talk all things sales and it's just been such an honor to have worked with you for the last

few years and I'm excited for you to share all your amazing tips with our listeners today. You know, I'm really looking forward to this. I think that the dialogue around money, around sales, around the confidence and the courage to claim your value in the marketplace is long overdue. And so I'm really thrilled that we get to talk about women being financially independent, creating extraordinary career goals, solopreneur goals, entrepreneurship goals, side hustle goals, all the things so that they can have all the money that they both desire and deserve. So let's rock this out. I love this. I'm so excited because yeah,

you're so right. I feel like personally for me growing up, money was like a bit of a dirty word and it was kind of like, oh, I want to earn money. And you felt guilty for saying that. So I'm excited just for us to lift the lid because I know both of us are so unapologetically ambitious now. And we just say how it is. We say what we want. We go after what we want. And that's what's helped lead to our success. But before we dive into that and get loads of tips, I really just want you to share a little about your story, because now you're a successful female entrepreneur, but it's not always been that case. So I'd love for you to kind of take a back to the beginning and share like what's led, some of the key things that have led to your courage and led to your position right now.

Oh my gosh, there are so many directions, Danielle, that I could go with that. I want to say to anyone listening, my invitation to you is number one, listen to this podcast several times over. Because what I share, I stand on so many years, and I stand on the shoulders of so many people. When I stepped into entrepreneurship, I was raising my hand wildly for a mentor. And I had no idea where that mentor was going to come from. And I'm so grateful that it came in the form of a woman named Lisa Nichols. And I'd never heard of Lisa Nichols before. And so many of you may go, oh my God, I know who she is. She is a feature teacher in the book, The Secret. She wrote an extraordinary book called No Matter What. She wrote a follow-up book called Abundance Now. And she had reached to almost 40 million people globally. And the way

that I came into even meeting her was I was writing a book and I decided to write a book because I said, most people that start in entrepreneurship, all right, I'm going to do this one thing. So the one thing I thought I would do was be a life coach. And I did not have my life together, but I was going to be a life coach. So I had a friend of my mother's that said, my husband does executive coaching and so he can help you. Well, it turns out not only did he do executive coaching for some of the largest organizations in North America, but he also sat on the board for the National Speakers Association. So when I met him, he said, oh girl, you need help. And he said, what you need to know is, and you want to write this down, if you're going to be effective in business, the first thing you've

got to master is being a spokesperson for your brand. And I thought a spokesperson for my brand, those were some $5 words to me. And I had just come out of corporation working for BlackBerry. So I had occupational thinking. So let me give you all a distinction. There's occupational thinking, which thinks like an employee. There's entrepreneurial thinking, which thinks like an employee. There's entrepreneurial thinking, which thinks like an innovative leader. There's intrapreneurial thinking, which thinks like an innovative leader, but you appreciate the guidance and leadership of a corporation. And then there's stinking thinking, which is when you are overwhelmed with thoughts that no longer serve you, that don't advance you, that make you doubt if you're equipped, if you're ready, they force you into

being small and you become an enemy within through the inner you within. So I was in this dichotomy of all of those things, all of them. And when he said, you need to become a spokesperson of your brand, you need to write a book, you need to do an audio accompaniment with the book, you need to price it, you need to find platforms, speak on them, sell the book, sell the audio accompaniment, then sell a consulting package to go with it where you become a life coach through the health and wellness programs into corporations. Then you need to scale. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And all of this was in meeting one. So that's one of the reasons why, Danielle, I'm such a super fan of your membership. I'm such a super fan of masterminds and things that bring women together that can help women facilitate all of that data.

Because it is not just easy to go out there and start speaking not only just your truth, but speaking the truth that is relevant to the market. So I decided I was going to do this book, write it. We're in Barnes and Noble with my ghost writer. The store is closing. I'm coming off the escalator. They close the lights out. I run into a table. The table that I run into was Lisa Nichols display. I knock it over. I pick up the book. I see this gorgeous brown skinned woman. I turn it over on the back. She's endorsed by Jack Canfield, Marcy Scheimhoff. She's endorsed by Mark Victor Hansen. Everyone that I could think of was great. Michael Beckwith. And I was immediately angered. I immediately felt like a black woman was already in the space. There was no more room

for me, which if you're a black indigenous woman of color, you instantly get that. You know that if we're in a corporation, we can't both have braids at the same time. You know, we can't have the same haircut at the same time. You know that we have to have distinctions because we've all heard the joke air quotes around that, that all black people look alike, which is beyond a microaggression. It's a full on aggression, but it's the thing that has made many black indigenous and women of color small. And we think, shit, you took up all the space. And it's the thing that what we don't talk about, Danielle, in front of white people, really puts us in black on black crime in corporations, black on black crime inside of entrepreneurship where we are not allies to one another because we think there's not enough space. So that's where I was, Danielle, in all transparency. I felt like Lisa took the space. I felt instantly defeated.

I was very sad. And I was also angry at God. Now, however you acknowledge God, divinity, source, light, energy that flows through you to you, created you, and you go to to ground yourself. I was instantly angered. And I said, why would you give me this mission? And she's doing it. Why would you give me this voice? And she's speaking it. And I heard what I believe was the voice of God within me that said, release your jealousy, release your envy. She will serve you for three days. I heard that release your jealousy, release your envy. She will serve you. Jealousy and envy are the two things that no one ever has. The two diseases that no one ever has. I ain't jealous.

I ain't envious. I'm fine. But I was, Danielle. I was jealous and I was envious. And for 72 hours, I was blocked from my own breakthrough because I couldn't get over my own stinking thinking. Finally, let it go. I called a mentor who said, you know what? Call this person who's your former mentor. Actually, Lisa's going to be with that person. Called them. Here's the next

point. She said, oh, I am going to be with Lisa. Send me your packet, Danielle. Who had a packet? A packet. What is a packet at this point? And she said it as though I should know it send a packet I thought oh damn you know and yeah if you remember the show in the 70s good times all black cast Florida Evans was known for saying damn damn damn and I was just like what's a packet and I got off the phone and I literally, I know, listen, guys, do not judge me. I Googled a packet. Like I was like, what is a packet? I'm laughing because I'm thinking, goodness knows what came up on that search. And I was just like, what is a packet? What is a packet? And finally someone told me, okay, a packet is like your

speaker packet. You're going to put, now this is how long ago this was. I'm dating myself. I'm 43, FYI. And I've been an overnight success for the last 15 years. So let me just tell you guys that, okay? So finally, someone told me a packet is a CD. That's how you know, that's the dating, right? So you put a CD in it. You should have on the CD, it should be your speaking engagement. It should be testimonials. You should have a one sheet that says what you speak about. It was all these things that I didn't have. So let me just say this, write this down. Done is better than perfect. Let me say it again for the people in the cheap seats. Done is better than perfect. And you cannot let the disease, the dis-ease of perfection paralyze you from stepping into your purpose. Three Ps. Don't let the disease of perfection paralyze you from stepping into your purpose. Don't you do it.

And I said to, I called my connect back. I said, I don't have a packet, but what I do have is myself. And I'm going to come to where you are. And I didn't have a ton of money, but I was flying to see my boyfriend at the time. He said, I'll drive you. It's only five hours. We drove, we split a subway $5 foot long on the way. And we drove there. And that's when I met Lisa. And that changed the trajectory of my life. A mentor is someone that sees your future brighter than you can see it. And when they see your future brighter than you can see it, they are the supporting cast of one to help you

write the roadmap that gets you from where you are to where you ultimately desire to be. A mentor also helps you understand that your road is not all smooth, that it is paved with a lot of potholes and it's paved with a lot of darkness and uncertainty and fear and micro decisions that fatigue you, but they also strengthen you to become the greatest leader that you could ever be. A mentor is someone that you borrow belief from. And because you borrow their belief, now you have to pay dividends on that belief, just like any other investment. And so for me, I paid that back, so to speak, to Lisa by being a senior executive in her organization for five years. And I built her sales side of her company. And it was an extraordinary time. And in 2013, I gave my notice. I gave a six-month notice. In 2014, I walked away. So I gave my notice December, 2013. I left May 31st

with the most glorious sendoff on June 1, Danielle, I woke up and when my eyes popped open, I said, what the F did I just do? And I was so afraid that I would not know how to do everything I had done in Lisa's organization and for all of the companies that we supported during that time that somehow overnight I'd instantly forgotten. Self-doubt is natural. It is a natural occurrence. Fear is natural. It's natural. Trying to suffocate those teachers is not a smart or worthy use of your time and energy. What is a worthy use of your time and energy is having a support system, a roster, a board of directors that helps you. Made up of a life coach. If you can't afford one, get in a life coaching group. Made up of a business coach. If you can't afford one, join a mastermind or become a part of a business coaching group

or get courses. Have trainers. Have people that help you diffuse the fear storms and the self-doubt risings that are natural occurrences of you doing something you've never done so you can become the woman that you've always known you were born to be. And so today I am the co-founder of an extremely successful tech company that supports seven and eight figure entrepreneurial social media influencers. We build extraordinary platforms. We have a niche down into an area of charity specifically. So we build a platform, they promote it. They take very little monetization

from it. They donate most of it to clean water systems. They donate most of it to education in third world countries. They donate most of it to whatever their cause is. We build those platforms for them because we found out that there were influencers who wanted to do good in the world while they were doing good in their work. They wanted meaning beyond the money. And so I'm so grateful that that's my reality today. I'm so grateful that it's the privilege that I have today. I never thought that I would be here. And you don't always see exactly where

your vision is taking you. But what you do know is that where you are is not where you want to reside forever. So that's a little bit of my journey. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention, our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here

with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business you know. Get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible i definitely recommend kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering boss babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe I love that thank you for being so vulnerable and so open and so raw Alison I literally you've had me in giggles the whole way through that too and it's just so inspiring and you're just so down to earth that's one of the things I absolutely love about

you you're willing to like show up even with the success that you had. You just remember exactly what it was like when you first began. And we always say as well, just talking about that mentor piece, I always say to the women in our society or the women that we work more closely with in our inner circles, like I'll believe in you until you believe in yourself. You can borrow my belief right now. I'm believing in you because I think it's really important because like you said, we all have self-doubt. And I personally have been very vulnerable on this podcast previously, where I shared about my ongoing suffering with imposter syndrome. And I think until you really start to recognize and there's more conversations had been, Hey, do you know what? That's completely normal. You are like most women or most men out there as well. And let's open that conversation.

And let's say, just like you're saying saying mentors help support masterminds groups community that's what really helps you not only elevate yourself but then internally elevate other people and those people around you so I just wanted to share like thank you for opening up that conversation again because I think it is really really important now I just want to come back around to a couple of pieces in your story because there's something that you said that I really resonate with and I know so many listeners are going to and it's where you actually, you had built successfully so you'd really helped build her sales team. You decided to make that decision to leave and then all of a sudden you're like, oh my goodness, how can I do it? And I see this a lot. Most of our listeners are ambitious women and the majority from that are female entrepreneurs. They've either started their

business or they're thinking about starting their business. And one thing I constantly talk about in a society is that a lot of people think when they start a new business, they're starting from scratch. They forget that all those years of experience that they've got, that they're taking forwards with them can actually really, really apply. But I know it's something that people really suffer from. So where we talk about, okay, leaving a role and starting your own business, how do people want to overcome that bit of self-doubt and to really push towards getting those first sales? Because I think getting into that momentum is something really key. And I'd love to hear your perspective on that. Yeah. So how do people get over that self-doubt and then how do they get into their first sales,

right? Yeah. Like leverage that doubt, turn that leverage, turn that doubt, sorry, into like encouragement to keep going. How do they get moving? Well, I think turning doubt into courage is like trying to turn a Brussels sprout into a chocolate bar, right? I love you thinking of this analogy. You can't. They are what they are. I think that what you have to do is break apart your self-doubt. Is your self-doubt rooted in personal fears? Is it being guided and fortified by past failures? Is it that your personal circumstances are echoing and you're looking around you and you're going, how the hell does this change? Is it that you have no community or wrong community? Have you not addressed your environment? Is your home full of clutter or is it a visual reflection of where it is that you're trying to go? I'm not talking about custom furniture if all you can afford is Ikea. That's not what I'm

talking about. What I'm talking about is, is your space clear for what it is you're inviting into your life? Do you have space or is the space taken up? What is your faith like? Are you waiting on God when God is waiting on you? Do you think there's time? Are you a procrastinator? Do you delay making decisions? Do you question your ability?

Are you cynical or jealous or angry at the success of others? Do you have limiting thoughts about your own ability? Do you have private doubts? Will I really do it? Do you lack follow through and resilience and buoyancy when you are rejected? I think that so many people want to label things doubt or fear, but they don't break it apart. And doubt or fear is like an onion. You got to cut that thing all the way open until it stings your eyes and until you are absolutely clear what's stopping you.

So my first step would be get clear on what's stopping you. Get clear on what's agitating you, what's unnerving you, what's making you have disbelief in the possibility. The best way that you can do that is by immersing yourself. Now, I'm not talking about toxic positivity here. I'm not talking about saying life is good when it feels really bad. I'm not encouraging you to be ignorant to what's real in your life. But I see too many people, Danielle, who try to make topical success work for them or they try to appropriate a culture of success. I'll give you an example.

You know your bills aren't paid, but you'll charge some Louboutin shoes or a Louis V bag just so you can put it in a photo shoot. So now you've appropriated a success you don't own. Hell yeah, you're going to feel like an imposter and you're going to feel fraudulent. So you need to go to the root to why you thought that was the only thing that made you acceptable to others. You need to go to that. You need to understand that. Okay. So before we continue, I'd love to give you some info on our sponsor for this week's episode. Okay. So I want to interrupt this episode quickly to tell you about a brand that I am completely obsessed with. So if you watch my stories, you'll know that every single morning I make a smoothie with Organifi protein. It is the best tasting protein I have ever found. I am completely obsessed with it and I don't just use it in smoothies. I use the vanilla protein to make protein pancakes and I use the chocolate protein to make brownies. So it kind of takes the guilt out of it and you get tons of protein in say brownies or anything else you're baking. It's such a good addition because it tastes so, so good.

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at Organifi. So use the code BOSSBABE, 15% off at Organifi.com. And I'll let us dive back into the episode. So to this day, I own tons of great things, but you never see that reflected from me. Why? Because I don't need that as validation. If you need to see my Louis Vuitton bag for you to think that I can help you with your strategic direction of your corporation, you are not my boo. You are not mine. So I would say that. So how do you do that? I say, again, look at your affordability. The best thing that you can do is invest in your mental health. Have a therapist that helps you work through the truth of yourself. 15% of your success is based on four things, your skill, your knowledge, your talent, your education. Write that down. Put 15% at the top and then underneath skill, knowledge, talent, your education, write that down, put 15% at the top and then underneath skill,

knowledge, talent, and education. So then to the other side, 85% is based on who you give yourself permission to be and who you give yourself permission to be is based on have you dealt with your childhood trauma? Have you dealt with your childhood wounds? Have you dealt with what it is that you truly have as a vision for yourself? Let me give you an example. I have women that tell me all the time, oh, I don't want to be rich. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to be rich, Allison. And they say, I don't want to be rich. I just want to be comfortable. I don't want to be rich. I just want to be able to buy my time back. I don't want to be rich. I just want to be able to pay off my debt and build a new home. Yeah, that would be

nice if I could build a home. It'd be nice if I could drive a nice, reliable car. And then I say, what about your partner? Would your partner want a new car? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be nice. Okay. Okay. Do you have children? Yeah, I have kids. Okay. Do you want to pay for their college tuition? Yeah, that would be nice. Okay. Do you have a niece, nephew? You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd like to support them. Okay, great. What about parents? Are you connected to your parents? Do you want to help them have a comfortable life? Oh my God, I've always dreamed of that. What about siblings? Are you connected to siblings? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some people say, yeah, you know, it'd be nice to give them a holiday gift or take a vacation that I

could take, you know, my family on. That would be nice. Okay. What about a book? Do you feel like a book is in you? Yeah. Would you want to self-publish your book? Yeah.

You know what? That would be a great idea. What about a press tour? Would you do a press tour to support the book? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any nonprofit, any ideas that you have, any third world countries or inner city breakdowns that you'd like to be a contributor for. Oh my God. Yes. I believe that I can do this to change the world. Okay, great. So you would want to maybe form a team to eliminate water and food shortage, or maybe stop human trafficking or,

oh my God, yes, those are causes I'm so connected with. Okay. So let me just play this back. You want all of these things, but you don't want to be rich. There's so much emotional pain that comes with the idea or perception of owning wealth. For many of us, we subconsciously believe that rich is a filthy hybrid of greed and distancing from those that we love. So you've got to give yourself permission to shift your inner dialogue around settling the universal language that's buried within us of settling. Get a good job, be stable, don't take more than your share. How many of us have heard that, right? Emotional pain and negative perceptions on the wealthy, hidden resistances to money, which allows for other

partners to show up like scarcity, lack, and overwhelm. And give yourself permission to own rich as a mindfulness around money that has an intimate relationship to your worldwide contribution so that you know what rich is for you, what wealth is for you, what sustainable financial independence and affluence is for you is being able to be influential in the world through your contribution, through your cause, through your overflow, that you don't have to be indebted every time you try to be generous with yourself energetically or financially. So I believe that to answer your questions, number one, I've answered, how do you get through the fear, the doubt, all those things? You got to unpack it.

How do you get to a place where you start making sales? First, you got to deal with your dialogue around money because you will only sell to the level in which you believe you are worthy and you have value. So this is why I tell leaders all the time when they bring on a salesperson, I say, you better find out what their money cap is, where their upper limit is. Because if you're making them responsible for a quarter of a million, half a million dollars of sales on a monthly or let's say a quarterly basis, but they think $10,000 is a lot of money, they will magnetize and manufacture no's to prove themselves right in their money limitation. Does that make sense, Danielle?

It makes so much sense. And I think this is such a great conversation. I'm so glad we are continuing on this path because I think this is really unspoken. And like you just said, you've built sales teams. Not only have you done that, but you're also an amazing saleswoman. So hearing these things from your perspective, I know that so many of our listeners are going to be like, oh, the penny's dropping. Like, oh yeah, I do that. Or, oh my goodness. Yes, that salesperson who I hired isn't actually performing. And if now I think about their money mindset, I can probably see why and where I need to support them. So I love this. Keep going. I'm also writing a ton of notes. So what I would say is that when you look at how do I

begin to change my own personal dialogue and how do I get the courage to go beyond, you've got to give yourself permission to reassociate yourself with money. And the first thing that I say to everyone, this is an easy, easy, easy task that will awaken you in such a big way. And awakening is the prelude to your awareness. Awareness is the prelude to your action plan. Okay? So you have to have an awakening to lead you to an awareness. The awareness leads you to your action plan. So here's what I would say. Ask your parents how much is the most amount of money they've ever made in a year. And if you go, oh my God, I can't have that dialogue. Well, that shows you right there where you have some

breakdowns that you can't even have a candid conversation with those that you love, right? And so for me, I'll give you an example. My mother never made over $40,000 a year ever. As a matter of fact, when my mother ascended and we went through her finances, what we found, Danielle, this astonished me. My mother got a new job working for a company called WorldCom. WorldCom became MCI or MCI became WorldCom. I can't remember. Anyway, eventually it was acquired by AT&T or Sprint or something. So it was long, long, long, long, long time ago, but I was younger. But Danielle, I remember when my mother got that job. It was such a big deal. My mother testified at church. If any of you grew up going to church, you know about a testimony service. She testified at church. We were so excited. We

went out to eat. I remember thinking, oh my God, we have money to go out to eat. It was such a big deal. And my mother was so proud and we were so proud of her. It wasn't until my mother's ascension that I saw that that job paid my mother roughly between $14,000 and $15,000 a year. When I went back into what my grandparents made, I found out I always thought my grandfather had so much money because he always had change in his pocket. And that's all I needed was change because all I wanted was gum and candy and chips. I found out that my grandfather retired making less than $3 an hour. So I want you all to think about my upper limit now, right? My mother now has not made over $40,000 a year. She later got an executive job and went on to do other things. So that's where her higher salaries came, but still not over $40,000 a year. My grandparents never made over, what is that? $8,000 a year, somewhere around there?

Like six, $8,000 a year, something like that. And then my great, great grandparents before that came off a reservation because I'm partially Indian, came off of reservations. And then we go into slavery and freedom right after that. We go into emancipated African-Americans right after that. When you go into that line, so then you understand that they probably weren't making $5 a month. So when I went into a corporation and started making $115,000 a year, that was now a point of arrival. That was a destination.

That was a place of finality. That was not a place of beginning. That's an aha moment for some of you. Why are you getting stopped where you are? Because you have gone now farther than anyone else in your family. Now you've got to deal with a generational rewrite. Allison, I thought you were going to tell me how to get on a phone and script a call. Allison, I thought you were going to tell me how to overcome an objection. Allison, I thought you were going to tell me how to get on a phone and script a call. Allison, I thought you were going to tell me how to overcome an objection. Allison, I thought you were going to tell me how to stand on a stage and sell. I thought maybe when Danielle asked you that question, you were going to tell me how to

convert from my live stream. Maybe you can YouTube that. You can YouTube that. But when you YouTube it and you do the technical action, what happens when your mental psyche and the ache of your soul and the knowledge that you don't have about what's stopping you now sabotages you from the inside out. That's why I'm telling you this because I've been where you are.

And I know that I got myself to the point where I was signing $30,000 contracts, 30,000 into 80,000 into a hundred thousand to the day that I sat at the table and I wrote a million dollar deal. And I literally got up from the table, Danielle. I was in a hotel room in the boardroom. We had such a huge suite that we had a boardroom in the hotel room. I got up, Danielle. I said, I'm just going to go get some ice. One of my partners in the deal said, who needs ice? I said, I need ice. I need ice. I walked to the ice area, walked out of the room to the ice area. If you've ever been in an ice area in a hotel, you know, it's just wet and it doesn't matter how nice the hotel

is. It's typically not really clean space. Correct. And Danielle, I fell to my knees and I said, is this really happening? And in that moment, I had to coach myself beyond my upper limit because honestly, I wanted to run. I wanted to run from the success I had prayed for. I wanted to run. In that moment, I felt unworthy. I felt like surely they're going to remember that I'm a high school dropout. Surely they're going to read my third book and understand that my dad was in prison and question my own ethics. Surely they're going to, like I thought of all the things that were going to suddenly flare up. Although all of that is public knowledge, all of that, you can read that in a Black Enterprise article today. You can hear that in my NPR interview. You can Google that with USA Today features. All of that is out there in the world, but Danielle, I felt it all crashing down on me right then.

So when it comes to your sales courage and confidence, the best thing you can do for yourself that no one ever told me. No one ever told me, Alison, it's great to either have a therapist. If you can't invest in that, get in a therapy group, or now we have therapy apps. It's great to have a coach. It's great to have someone that can be a sounding board the first time that someone wanted to hire me for my full fee. So now my speaking fee is $15,000. At the time, my speaking fee was $8,000. I had an organization reach out to me and say, we want you for three speaking engagements, which meant they were going to pay me $24,000. And Danielle, I said to them,

why don't you wait for it? You ready? I'm ready. I said, why don't I speak the three times? Now, nobody, nobody said they weren't going to pay me the $24,000. Nobody. But I said to them, why don't I speak for the three times? And why don't you just pay me $8,000? I negotiated myself backwards. And you know what she said? You would do that for us? And the moment that she said it, I then glommed on to generosity. Yes, I'll be generous. Let me tell you something. Every woman listening to me now, don't you dare make service a replacement for your success.

Don't you dare. Don't you dare bend your knee and surrender to situations and circumstances that are non-ideal because you're too scared to do the work that it takes to become a five-fig six figure, multiple six figure. If you desire seven figure and more leader, do the work. I gifted that corporation unnecessarily. I gifted them unnecessarily. And it was because of my own lack of courage and confidence and I'm not resentful of that moment I paid for that I paid for that. You learned from it as a key thing. Yeah I learned from it as a key thing so yeah. Do you know what I'm so so I can hear the passion on your voice and I'm sat here with goosebumps because it's just so important to have these conversations

because I think for so so long like women are not it's going I don't want to be like super stereotypical because like but a lot of women have run into this like you say like playing themselves down being like oh no I'll do it I'm surely not worth that and I think when it's flagged to us and we see that in ourselves and we're like oh this was my upper limit and that's why I made those decisions it's so so empowering and what we're really passionate about on this podcast is having those uncomfortable conversations and lifting the lid. We are all been, you know, I think there was a study out that said, and they said, I quote, it was something around the line that says, 62% of Americans are aware of the pay inequity between black women and white men. Only 62%.

They were saying that like it was like a big figure i'm like a hundred percent of people should be aware of this like it needs to be a conversation that we're having i really truly believe that you know us showing up and talking about money in an unapologetic way and sharing our experiences is really really important to empower other women to go and have these conversations ask like well, well, okay, do those work. Ask generations back in your family what they've been earning. Ask your peers what they're earning. Ask your company what other people are earning. Because I think the more that we talk about this and we bring it into the open, and that is what's really important about making the change that we desire. You know, I think bringing things into open and just like

we've been learning with the Black Lives Matter movement, having these open conversations is the only way that we're going to create change. You know, the net worth of an African-American female in North America is $5, Danielle. Oh my gosh. The wealth disparity is so vast. The inequities are so great. And that's why I say all the time, nobody's trying to bridge the pay gap. We're trying to create our own dimension, our own reality, our own... It's just extraordinary that white people in North America specifically have 10 times the wealth of a black person. So I think that if you are a woman specifically, because let's just talk to all women and then I'll talk to black indigenous women of color, all women, let me be clear about this. CNBC reports that in order for women to join the top 1% of earners, we have to marry

rich versus bringing our own money to the table. Now, think about how antiquated that is. Because when they say we have to marry rich, that's now a traditional marriage between a woman and a man. That's a heterosexual relationship. And how aged out have we become with that being the only way that partnerships and romantic partnerships exist? That's so aged out. And yet that's a very current report. That's a two-year-old report. Also, I recently read online that it is right now a trend, if you will, that women are becoming financially free. This is what it said. It said, this is a trend that women are becoming financially free. There was no uprising that the word trend was used around women's financial freedom. The average female entrepreneur's salary is $63,000,

which means you could never survive in one of the most affluent and connected cities in North America or beyond. The greatest stressor for women everywhere is financial provision, stability, and access. So money worries are causing chronic illnesses, forcing us into work overload, long hours, tense relationship, poor concentration, and a lack of fulfillment. And so we've got to be the ones to start saying time is up for that. We've got to be the ones to resolve our emotional pain and negative perceptions on being affluent. Allison, what resource would you give me for that too? One resource is Joe Dispenza, Dr. Joe Dispenza's meditation, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself.

I love that. It's extraordinary, Breaking the Habit of Being Your yourself. And it's all about how you unlearn the things that you've learned from people that you love, admire, and respect. Don't detach from the love, the admiration, or the respect, but detach from the antiquated thinking that has expired in our present day. The second thing I would invite you into is reading a book called Happy Pocket Full of Money. Happy Pocket Full of Money. If you don't have the resource to order it right now, go on YouTube and the full audio book is on YouTube. So no cost there unless you want to

pay the nine bucks so you don't have commercials. I want you to remember that becoming a different person and creating new realities means you've got to be obsessed with that version of yourself that you're inviting. And for Black, Indigenous, women of color that are listening, let me tell you something. Let me tell you, I have risked being unrelatable and misunderstood to cultivate and curate the woman that I am today. And there have been relationships that have fallen away and relationships that have fallen in line as a result of the goals and the achievements that I had and have for my life. So there are two things that I want you to know. Write them down.

One right under the other. Risk being unrelatable and misunderstood. The second thing that I want you to write down is lift as you climb. Lift as you climb. It's only lonely at the top when you did not create space and focus and determination to build relationships on the way up.

There is no woman listening, whatever your socioeconomic background, whatever your race, your color, your creed, that has a responsibility to reduce yourself. No one. Know your power, trust your power, and be your power. There is a distinction. Everyone has heard, you can manifest and call in and do all of these things. There is a distinction on manifesting while black and brown, because there are so many other statistics and geographical and other disparities that we're fighting through from education to healthcare to all the different things.

And in spite of that, what I say to you, my sisters in this journey is do everything you can to create micro wins for yourself, to unlearn the patterns that have been handed down to you and begin creating a new and ultimate reality for yourself. I am a living testimony. My dad was in prison. It's the last place that I saw him. My mother worked three jobs to raise my sister and I. I dropped out of high school when I was 15 because I didn't have 20 cents every day to ride the bus to school. And I was so upset that that was my reality that I decided working at McDonald's was a better idea for me. I went back to high school when I was 19. I graduated when I was 20. I got a

scholarship to go to college. I then recognized that post-education was not the move for me. It is for others. But then I navigated through corporate, all kinds of corporate ladders and webs and all things from, you can have this because you are black or you cannot have this because you are black. You can have this because you are a woman. You cannot have this because you are a woman. And eventually one day I found my path into entrepreneurship. I failed miserably, Danielle. Within the first six months, I was on food stamps.

I was ashamed. I was embarrassed, but I broke the chain in my life and in my family. And within 18 months, we did our first half a million dollars. And I've never looked back from there. Again, I say I am a 15 year overnight success. And sis, if I can do it, I know you can. Alison, this has been the most amazing interview, honestly. I'm almost lost for words. Thank you so much for sharing so much of your story and sharing so many massive takeaways. I have a full stack of notes

and I know that everyone listening will be not only inspired, but they are fueled with so many amazing actionable tools. And I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you so, so much for the way that you've shown up on this podcast. It's been truly incredible and I appreciate you so much. So thank you, Alison. Now I want you to share with us, like how can people get in contact with you? How can people find you? Let us know your handles and your website so that people can look you up. Because I know there's going to be so many people getting like, how do I get more Alison in my life? Absolutely. You know, I am a super fan of success breeds success. So watch who you hang around and watch who influences

your thoughts because whatever you think about is what you will bring about. So if you'd like to think about the things that I discuss, which is money, meaning you're mattering in the world, your manifestations in the world, join me over on Instagram. I'm at, I am Alison Bird. And so Alison is spelled A-L-L-Y-S-O-N. Bird is B-Y-R-D. Alison means truth and Bird means messenger. And so what you can count on for

me is that I am always, isn't that great, Danielle? That is so great. So great. You can count on me that I'm always a messenger of truth for you. I love that. Thank you so much. And as always, please share with us your favorite takeaways. Please tag Allison at the handle she just shared, tag at Danielle Canty and at bossbabe.inc. And thank you so much again, Alison. You are a truth amazing truth messenger for sure. If you loved this episode, please subscribe, download a few more and please leave us a review. I really want to hear what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were. And I also want to know what you want to hear us talk about next. To say thanks for leaving us a review we'll send you a copy of The Boss Babe 25. The Boss Babe 25 is the 25 essential resources you

need for personal and professional growth. It covers everything from our favorite rituals, books and hacks. If you want a copy just leave us a review screenshot it and send to podcast at bossbib.com we will then email you a copy ASAP and since we love Instagram you can go to the hashtag the bossbib podcast and find our latest post and leave a question in the comments we love reading through the comments and we'll make sure to answer it on our next podcast