Alyson: Oh, I’m ready to rock it. I’m ready to just have a great time. I can’t wait.

John: Alyson has the enviable job marketing manager at Glazer Kennedy’s insiders circle working for Dan Kennedy and Dan Glazer, where she discovered her passion for all things direct response and infomarketing. She’s taken that passion and turned it into a business where she helps coach speakers and authors, creates info empires. Alyson, take a minute. Fill in some gaps from that intro and give us just a little glimpse in your professional life.

Alyson: All right. My favorite thing is to create copy and product, and personal life is pretty much consumed by that. My husband actually won’t watch Shark Tank with me anymore because I keep pausing it and giving him marketing lessons, so he’s like, “I’m done. I’m done watching Shark Tank; you have to watch it on your own.”

Yeah, I love was I do, and I get to live a really cool hanging out kinda life with me and my way too many rescue cats, and write copy from my home office in my PJs.

John: Love working in the PJs.

Alyson: That’s right.

John: Not gonna say that I’m in my PJs right now, but I’m also not gonna say that I’m not in my PJs right now.

Alyson: I have no problem telling people that I work in my hot pink sweat pants, and that’s just how we roll.

John: Alyson, Fire Nation, is taking her first ever trip to San Diego in February 2016 for traffic and conversion, so I’m excited for you to visit America’s finest city.

Alyson: Oh, I don’t know, I’m in Baltimore, and we’re pretty hometown proud over here, too.

John: Hey, I’m just saying the motto, that’s just our motto. I think –

Alyson: That’s just the motto.

John: Baltimore is like, “It just looks dirty.” That’s the motto.

Alyson: Yeah, we do. We’re charm city because we do have our own unique charm. You gotta know us to love us.

John: Oh, I love it, I love it. Alyson, let’s talk dollar and cents for a second before we really dive into your journey because entrepreneurs looking build viable businesses, looking to make money. I mean, let’s be honest, that’s the way we can stay at home and work in our PJs, etc. How do you, Alyson Lex, generate revenue today?

Alyson: Sure. Well, I actually have two facets to my business. My first is a done for you service, so I provide copywriting and infoproduct creation to coaches and infomarketers and speakers. The other facet is I’m a copy coach. I have a membership with a business partner, and we provide on-demand copy coaching to our members and help them make their marketing awesome.

John: Love it. I mean, you see, Fire Nation, Alyson’s taking her skills, the value that she can add to this world, and created products and services that not only best suit her skills, but the needs of her potential clients.

Alyson, you weren’t always a rock star, and just working from home, and hanging out, and working with the likes, in the past, of Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer.

You’ve had your ups, you’ve had your downs, we all have, we’re entrepreneurs. What would you consider, to date, your worst entrepreneurial moment? Now, Alyson, I want you to take us there. Take us down to the ground level and really tell us that story.

Alyson: All right. Well, I was out on my own, really truly on my own for the first time ever, so that’s a little scary to begin with. I was also working for myself, so I had no safety net and paying rent all on my own. A little nervous and a little scared, but I was making it work.

Then, one month, I stopped making it work. The work dried up a little bit, and didn’t matter how much I hustled, I couldn’t make rent, and I had to actually borrow rent money from my mom.

I’m fiercely independent, and I’m fiercely like, “I can do it,” and I put my head down and I work through whatever needs to be done, and to have to ask for that help really sucked. I actually had to borrow a car payment from my then-boyfriend.

He wasn’t too upset because later he asked me to marry him, so it worked out in my benefit, but before he gave me the rent, I did pay him back, so I feel like he owes me a couple hundred bucks now.

It sucked. It sucked to have to admit defeat in that sense that I ran out of money. I ran out of work, I ran out of money, and I promised that it would never happen again and I actually went and got a job.

I did what I had to do to get back on my feet. The end of the story is that I then later got laid off and started all over again, but that was a number of years ago, so it’s working a lot better this time around.

John: One of Fire Nation’s biggest fears, Alyson, is taking that leap, getting –

Alyson: That sucks.

John: – that early momentum because that early momentum, I mean, sometimes it’s there, I mean because you’re excited, you power it in, and you start getting those first couple clients, and then things, like you said, just kinda dry up.

It’s a huge fear that the money’s gonna run out. Obviously, in hindsight, it’s much easier. I mean, hindsight, we know, is 20-20, but looking back in hindsight, what are some reasons the money dried up for you? What did you do or not do that led to you running out of money?

Alyson: Well, I can actually think of a couple of things. The first one is I think I kinda bought into this whole, “I don’t have to work all the time if I’m gonna work from home and start my own business right at the start.”

I mean, I bought into that lifestyle that I wanted but didn’t work to get, and so I didn’t hustle. I think a real hard truth is yeah, you can eventually get to that lifestyle where you don’t have to do that much work, and you can outsource a lot. You might be able to attain that for a workweek, but especially at the beginning, you’re hustling and you’re doing a whole lot of work for a whole lot of hours.
I think I had a unrealistic expectation to begin with. I think know thing that I could have done a little bit better was not try to be all things to all people. I really, since then, have learned to niche my services. My service business is focused on the infoproduct side of the world with coaches and speakers and such, so I’ve really figured out where I like to hang out.

Then, I think a third thing is I didn’t value my expertise, my information, and my knowledge enough, and my prices were a little on the low side.

John: I really wanna focus in on that one point that you said about how you were trying to be all things to all people. Fire Nation, when you try to be all things to all people, you often end up being nothing to nobody.

Alyson: That’s exactly it.

John: Nobody wants this Renaissance person that can do everything good, no. I want this one thing, and I want this one thing great. I’m not gonna go to a family practicitioning doctor for brain surgery. I’m gonna go to a flipping neurosurgeon, –

Alyson: The best one.

John: – and the best one, yeah. Fire Nation, it’s a simple answer. Just find that one thing that you wanna become unbelievable at, put your mind to it, and you will dominate that niche. Then your clients will be thrilled, they’ll be coming to you, the referrals will be amazing, you can raise your prices. I love that other point you made, Alyson, about your prices being too low. We all start there, but we eventually find our own net worth.

Awesome stuff, I love that, great takeaways all across the board. Alyson, just one sentence. Sum it up for us, just one brief sentence. What do you want Fire Nation to get from that story?

Alyson: Understand that at first, it’s gonna be really, really hard and really scary, the thought of failure might always be there, but follow what successful people have done and work really hard, and you will make it.

John: Let’s shift and let’s talk about another story within your journey, Alyson. This one’s gonna be an epiphany, an ah-ha moment, a lightbulb that went off at some point in Alyson’s journey. Now Alyson, you’ve had a ton of these, you’re gonna have a ton more, but you know Fire Nation by now. We are entrepreneurs. Tell us the story that’s gonna resonate with us of an epiphany moment, and take us to that moment in time. Tell us that story.

Alyson: Oh, boy. I’ve had so many of these. It’s really tough to pick one, and I think I have some of the same ones over and over again because it’s a mindset thing. I’ve gotta talk myself into believing them.

I was at a Mastermind meeting with a really cool group that I’m a member of. I was helping somebody figure out how they were gonna structure a program of theirs, and it just kinda flew out of my mouth.

I was just talking, and it just kind of structured itself effortlessly on my part, if you will, and somebody was just like, “Wow, that was kind of amazing,” and everybody was really impressed, and I thought it was no big deal because it was effortless, like I said.

It really hammered home the thought of I’m underestimating, again, my own knowledge, and what comes easy to me doesn’t come easy to everyone else.

I think that that was really the beginning of me falling even more in love with the infoproduct world because it does come easy to me, and I do like is so much. It is where my passion is. I used to be an education major in college, so teaching is at my heart, and not everybody has that skill. Not everybody can figure out how to teach somebody something.

John: Fire Nation, the curse of none is real. Just because you know something, oftentimes, you assume others know it, or just because something’s obvious to you, you assume that it’s obvious to other people. Guess what? It’s not. It’s not.

Alyson: Not at all.

John: The one thing that I love to share that I learned from law school, I was there for one semester, Alyson, I dropped out like a chump, was a subject matter expert in a court of law is somebody that knows more than the other people in the courtroom. That is the definition that the judge gives a subject matter expert. “This person knows more than other people. He’s a subject matter expert.”
Fire Nation, you are a subject matter expert. You are an expert witness if you know more than other people, so step up and be that person. Alyson, what was that thing that blurted out of your mouth?

Alyson: Well, it wasn’t just a one thing I just outlined her program for her in just a sentence, and I gave her her modules, and I just said, “This is how you’re gonna teach what you know to somebody, and you can charge a lot of money for it.” It wasn’t a really cool sentence. I wish it was because that we make a great soundbite or tweetable, but it just wasn’t.

John: You almost expected her to be like, “Duh,” but instead, she was like, “Wow.”

Alyson: Yeah, that’s exactly it. That’s exactly it.

John: Alyson, you have a lot of strengths. We’re gonna talk about one of those in a minute, but what would you say your biggest weakness as an entrepreneur is?

Alyson: Straight up, my distractibility and attention deficit disorder. I definitely require a team to help me implement and get things done. I’m an idea generator, and so I’m one idea off to the next. The implementation is a big issue for me.

John: Fire Nation, we are only as strong as our team. We all have our strengths, we all have our weaknesses. Plug those weaknesses not with yourself. Focus on your own strengths, that’s where your time’s best spent. Find people that have strengths in your weaknesses. Make that team. Alyson, what’s your biggest strength?

Alyson: The flip side of that is the ideas. I actually keep an idea journal because I can’t keep them from not happened, and poor people in the grocery store checkout line, if I’m talking to them, I just thrust ideas on them. I’m like, “You can start your own business doing X, Y, Z.”

I get to help people figure out how to live the life they want and free themselves from a job they hate or what have you, and that’s my strength right there.

John: I can see this woman or man getting home at night with the bag of groceries, and looking at her significant other and being like, “You’ll never believe what happened to me in checkout line today. I think I’m gonna start a business.”

Alyson: I call myself that person. I am consistently that person everywhere I go.

John: Alyson, was is the one thing, besides being that person, which is an amazing trait, that has you more fired up than anything else right now?

Alyson: Right now, I have to tell you, I am so excited about this membership because it is – it’s still in its infancy, and I am super excited to get kind of in the trenches and coach with people because as a service provider, I do a lot of coaching, but I also do the implementing, or the writing, at least. We already talked about that implementation stuff.

With the coaching, it really allows me to live more where I have a good time and help people build those products, and see how they can market better, and use all these ideas, and see them come to life. I’m super excited to watch this grow.

John: Where can people find out more?

Alyson: Yeah, so that’s askacopyexpert.com.

John: Askacopyexpert.com. Now, Fire Nation, you’re gonna get some more value bombs like these coming up in the lightning round, but first, we’re gonna take a minute to thank our sponsors. Alyson, are you prepared for the lightning rounds?

Alyson: Oh, I hope so.

John: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Alyson: Fear, straight up that. That fear we talked about just a couple minutes ago of no safety net, fear of failure, running out of money, especially the second time around happening all over again.

Getting laid off, while it sucked at the time, it was a week before I got married, too, so it was a really stressful time, but it was really one of the best things that could have happened because it took the choice away.

John: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Alyson: The best advice I ever received was actually my maid of honor on my wedding day told me to remember every moment of the day, and I’ve actually used that advice throughout my whole life. I was at a concert, and I don’t use my phone to take pictures. I’m in the moment and remember it fully.

John: None of us can join you in that moment, then?

Alyson: No, I mean, I take a couple pictures, but you’re at a concert and everybody’s recording it they’re watching the people on the stage through their screen, and I’m watching the stage through my eyes, just more HD.

John: Yeah, no. It’s a great message, it’s a great mission. Share an Internet resource like Evernote with Fire Nation.

Alyson: Oh, Evernote’s a good one, too. Actually, kind of like Evernote because I use Evernote for my swipe file, is something called swiped.co, that’s S-W-I-P-E-D .co. I don’t know the guy who runs it, but it’s a bunch of swipe files of different sales letters and ads and different things like that you can use for your copy, and why they are good or not good.

John: Killer. Now if you can just recommend one book for our listeners, what would it be, and why?

Alyson: Oh man, just one?

John: Just one.

Alyson: All right, I’m gonna have to go with The No-BS Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy. I’ve read it a number of times, and it really hones in on the different ways that your time can be sucked away and how to really guard your time even better. As I mentioned a number of times, this implementation thing and ADD is rough for me, so anything that helps me guard my time better and use it best is great.

John: The No-BS Time Management. Fire Nation, I know you love audio, so I teamed up with Audible, and if you haven’t already, you can get an amazing audiobook for free at eofirebook.com. Now, Alyson, this is the last question of the lightning round, but it is a doozy. Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand-new world, identical to earth, but you knew no one.

You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have, your food and shelter, taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $500.00. What would you do in the next seven days?

Alyson: I would do two different things. One is I would get an account on one of the freelance websites, like Elance or Upwork, or oDesk, I think they’re all one company now, and begin bidding on jobs on there to get my service business going.

I would also join some strategic Facebook groups and really just start helping people so that I could drive them to a website that I would have built with my $500.00 and sell some coaching sessions, some laser coaching sessions.

John: Alyson, we started on fire. I wanna end on fire –

Alyson: All right.

John: – with a parting piece of guidance from you, the best way we can connect with you, and then we’ll say bye-bye.

Alyson: All right, a parting piece of guidance. Okay, so many of my infoproduct clients come to me and say, “I don’t know what to teach. Again, I don’t know anything that other people don’t already know.” The big takeaway is that you do know something people don’t know. You do have something to teach people, and you just have to look inside and figure out where it is and what it is.

Where you can get me, of course, at askacopyexpert.com. My website is also rockyourmarketing.com. There’s two websites, and from there, you can get me on social, you can find all of my contact information for Facebook and Twitter and what have you.

John: Fire Nation, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and you’ve been hanging out with AL and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com. Just type Alyson or Lex, that might be easier, L-E-X, into the search bar. Her show notes page will pop right up.

Again, you can go directly to askacopyexpert.com and rockyourmarketing.com, both of which will also be linked up on the show notes page. Alyson, I wanna thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flip side.