 Hi everyone, this is George and welcome back to a kindred spirit conversation so Some of you who've been watching this know that I've been having some catch-up conversations with some some colleagues and friends I've known for a while for for years usually and catching up Finding out what each other is doing and Learning learning from each other and so Alice and I was just talking before we started recording and She was telling me about how she's made this shift from from offline Doing work offline with mastermind groups et cetera to online for the last few years And now she's making a focus again on offline and so I thought that was an interesting Journey, I just thought Allison. Can you share you share just for the sake of our recording here? What yeah, tell us about this journey Yeah, so I guess Well, I'd run a training consultancy business for a few years when I think we first met and That was at the point where I was thinking there's got to be an easier way because I was you know Five days a week training delivery and then preparing at weekends and traveling a lot So I thought there has to be an easier way passive income. Let's create our online course and At that time thought it would be much easier In terms of creation but also learning all the online and just getting caught up in everything in online It's just such just such a massive learning curve and don't get me wrong I don't regret it for one minute and it's definitely going to be part of you know, my business going forward But I think I went from everything being offline to thinking everything had to be online and forgetting the bits that I loved In my offline world Yeah, you know in that going out and speaking and running networking events and just going and meeting people and Asking them how I could help them and realizing that actually there were those were the things that I loved doing that helped my business Offline succeed and there's no reason why I can't still do those Yes, I have some aspects of online as well for people who who who are not local and who I do I do love connecting people online. I just don't like the technical side Yes, yes. Yeah, and and you had you had a team of people working for you Yeah, I had a team of five people in the end and it was it was costing a lot. It was costing literally I can remember overnight shelving my cost by around one and a half thousand two thousand dollars overnight a month Yeah, a month monthly costs and of course to cover that I was you know feeling like I was on this This this wheel trying to keep it all going to make it all worthwhile And of course as soon as I stopped that I'm feeling what I needed to do and focused on well What brings me joy? What is it? I love doing and That's when I just it just became clear It was connecting with people and there's a way that we can bring it together We don't have to be in the two pollers if we don't want to be obviously some people like either one But it's also possible to come up with a mix and actually it can be a perfect mix I think going forward and so what would you advise people who? Want to connect more with with the offline world To me it's starting with the people that you know and looking at what you love. Yeah, you know what do you enjoy doing and Look at what you like doing socially first You know, we don't need to try and become somebody we're not look at what you naturally feel you gravitate towards the type of people you gravitate towards Start to build up connections there the other thing I always but I look around and this this might sound awful to people watching it But when I look around and I go oh, there's not really any groups out there that I really that completely resonate And I just start my own. I mean I've always done that, you know 25 years ago. I set up a travel club You know, it's just who would I love to get together? I invite all for a cup or I'll write them right to my house And then something starts from there. Wow, and are you? You're you're in Scotland. I mean, are you sharing any of the stuff online in terms of getting more people to the offline group? How are you? How are you outreach? Yeah? I mean, I do I do have online and before I took this little sabbatical from my business that I've been through the last few months I'm just coming out of now and I mean, I run a Facebook group so that people offline connect with me there and the YouTube I was doing vlogging And I had started doing things like live streaming which will start to cut, you know start doing again Yes, yeah, there's definitely ways that I do even connect with my local audience online Yeah, of course. I also do the online fundraiser switch. I just love I mean That what I love doing is raising money for charitable causes. I Love connecting with my audience and it's just a perfect way Yes, perfect way to bring it together for me to get to know the people that are maybe following me You're touch base with me online. We connect through zoom because I do them through zoom Yeah, so we can see each other and then we meet up face-to-face. It's just lovely Well, and one of your core areas of expertise What you're gonna be coming up with a book is gift-to-profit or using And kind of combined kind of partnering with our passion for certain charities and Having that benefit our business as well. And so, yeah, you know, you kind of modeling that so so interesting that you mentioned Online group that you're are you still running the Facebook group that you you created or yeah? Yeah. Yeah, I'm still running it Our people is that a public group or Yeah, yeah, it's called the heart of his hub So it's heart and then the word then a bi z all one word heart of this heart of this heart of his hub It's a free public group that people can come in and it's just chat no self-promotion. It's just conversation and chat Cool. Well, I'll be sure to link that in the notes of the video. Oh, cool. Thank you. Yeah Yeah, I really appreciate hearing this transformation of yours because I think a lot of people I think it was human beings. It's easy for us to look at what what the sort of the gurus are telling us the The sort of famous people are telling us and looking around and everyone's kind of Join the bandwagon for certain certain And we feel like well gosh that must mean that that's the right way of going and It's like there. We cannot be reminded enough that it's okay to take a pause and to come back to Asking questions of our inner self to listen to that still small voice to say what is it that truly energizes me What is draining me Why do I have these expectations that I must do this? I must do that. Can I let them go? Oh, yes, I'd say it's so liberating when we can start to say no and let those go and I don't know about you George, but I felt I think I felt that in that world. I felt that I There were don't get me wrong. There's been lots that I've loved in the online world and I've met a lot of wonderful wonderful people and but Starting again with something it was almost as if I forgot all the other skills that I had It was like I was the newbie and yes, there were all these other people who were the experts and I'm And it's only been when I stepped back. I thought hang on one minute Allison You've got all these other skills as I'm sure everybody else watching this will have We've all got skills. We've all got so many skills But we measure ourselves upon what we think we should be doing Yeah, and some of what we should be and I think some of what we learn in the online world And it's not it's gosh This isn't it's not meant to sound disrespectful because there's a lot of incredibly talented people out there But they're incredibly talented in their tiny little niche Yes, sometimes for those of us who are older who have a whole range of other experiences They don't talk about how they can bring them in but it doesn't mean we can't right and that we can't create our own Success formula our own way of making things work for us. Yeah, we can learn from people Take the bits that seem to resonate with us and create our own models of success right Beautiful. Wow. That's that's so true because A lot of what happens with online selling what these pro coaching programs training is they use I mean they they use kind of scarcity based marketing where It's like you are not complete your business is not complete your business is not going in the right direction Unless you You know use my model unless you do exactly what I tell you to do This is the one way to get something done And I think that's what disconnects us from oh, wow. Well such an authoritative person Yeah, right with such an amazing looking website or or you know, look at all the testimonials they've gotten which That's a whole other That's a whole other topic the testimonials are often of like a tiny few minority percent who were with them But it's like oh look at all this flashy stuff and then they must know how did how it works And then you know you pursue them and look they're making all this money And that's the other thing that's the other thing that I I I have been trying to remind people is that Money isn't always made in the most virtuous ways No Yeah, right. Yeah, definitely not. I definitely not in the online world. Oh my god the things that people I can remember one particular point because with my last, you know Last online launch I had and I was saying to people I'm not I'm just not prepared to compromise my values I'm just not going to do a b and c and I can remember posting that in two different groups One that we're both a member of and I got a very positive response there And I can remember posting it in the group whose training I'd been doing at that point in time And was attacked Was attacked for what's just your beliefs? It's and it was just you're right. It's my beliefs But they're not limiting their values. They're the ones that come from my heart You know, they're human beliefs and it's all about being compassionate and respectful to other people right and having integrity the basics You know, that's so interesting that you you had that reaction. It's such different actions It was very clear. I feel like the people who were attacking you or criticizing you were probably feeling confronted perhaps To look at their own beliefs and their own values and whether or not they're aligning with them in their actions Yes, maybe that's what it was. Maybe it was putting in a few buttons It was just it was just fascinating. You know, um, because all of us you're right, George all of us could all of us could implement a lot of Manipulative sales tactics and get sales. Yes You know for most of us or most of us like you and I Yes, that's not what this is about. Yes, we're in business to make money However, but doing it in a way that that that feels right that is generous and it's more based upon The positive impact we have on people's lives. Yeah, and what you're coming back to again is to make money by really expressing Your unique strengths Yeah, um to remember your your your your your joys and your unique strengths and to say wait a second Let me use this what I'm already good at What I can tell people really really love what I do and let me just use that Let me find a way to use that and earn money from it And then, you know, if I want to earn money in other ways I can do it more gradually Bringing my unique strengths online, for example, and figuring how to do it Virtuously instead of using these these formulas that we don't agree with But anyway, thank you for for sharing because I think that um, I think this will encourage people Yeah, no, bro. Can I ask you a quick question? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So so in all of this in all of this what brings you joy? That's a great question. I think I think right now what brings me joy is Sharing with my audience My my honest thoughts about my about my journey and bringing them The journeys of kindred spirits like you who Who can I mean, I'm hoping that we're creating this ecosystem of people who are Bringing more truly bring more wisdom into into business And that brings me a lot of joy So that's that's what's going on for me right now And I myself and learning I before we started recording I was saying I feel like in the last couple years I've been restarting my business every year reinventing myself every year and I think that's okay I think I think that is a sign of growth. That's a sign of development, you know, and so I'm learning to be learning to to love that process Evolution isn't it we all evolve Oh, yeah, yeah, it's that balance of learning and being true to ourselves That's right And integrating all of that and just be open to just be open to the evolution and and appreciate it, you know Yeah, um, so Allison, what are your what's what's what's the website you want people to visit you at now? Um, if you check me out at www.allison so that's alisoun.com Great. Yeah, I'll link that in the notes as well. Nice and easy Yeah, well great to talk with you. I'm just going to stop the recording for now. Okay. Cool. Thanks very much George