Adriana Monique Alvarez: The Power of You: Make More by Doing Less

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

---

Today’s guest is a USA today, bestselling author and has been seen in Forbes, Huffington post Fox, ABC NBC, and more. She’s here to talk to you today about dropping the excessive professionalism, embracing your uniqueness and not selling and how that could be your greatest source of cells. Please welcome Adriana Alvarez.

You’re ready to grow your business. And I love helping entrepreneurs find success. So let’s do this. I’m Damon Burton, Forbes contributor, author of the search engine optimization book, outrank and president of SEO national. I’ve been featured on Forbes, entrepreneur and hundreds of websites and podcasts for helping big businesses grow bigger and make more money by showing up higher on search engines, including shark tank, featured businesses, NBA teams, and Inc 5,000.

I’m bringing my successful network to you here@learningfromothers.com. Whether success to you means financial freedom, freedom of time or freedom of the soul. We’re in this together. Welcome to the learning from others podcast.

Ready to show up higher on search engines for words that you can monetize, but without paying for ads, download your free copy of my SEL book out. If you visit www.freeseobook.com today, Adriana Alvarez is here. Thanks for jumping on learning from others. Good. How about yourself? I’m good. Uh, as we were talking offline, before we hit the record button, had a, had a good busy last couple of weeks.

And it sounds like you’re the same. So I’m excited to learn more about what some of that madness means. So why don’t we tell our listeners, um, let’s help bridge that gap and Adriana. Who are you? What are we gonna learn from you today? Good question. I’m a lot of things. First and foremost, I’m a wife and a mother, and I’m a business woman that approaches work and life a little bit differently.

So, um, I love numbers. I love strategy. I love helping people get their story out and use that in such a way that people are drawn to them and go, oh, now that I get who you are and the depths of where you’ve traveled. I, I must work with you. I don’t even know what that might look like, but now I need to be closer to you.

Um, but I also, through this process, I’m very much connect to a broader support team. I, I connect with my angels, my guides and my ancestors, so that when I do go out and I interact with people and. Um, in relationships and I’m doing my work, I’m remembering the bigger picture and the larger vision and everything that I’m connected to so that when I get to the end of my life, I can say, yes, I did live well.

Not just, I was 16. And so what I love to show people is how do you do both? How do you live with full heart and soul remembering why you’re really here and make a lot of money, have a huge impact, inspire others and make sure that at the end of the day, your family thinks you’re as awesome as those people on the inner.

I am laughing at the last one because I can, I can relate to it so much. Um, so one of the things I mentioned before, before we jumped on is I was at a conference last week. And so part of that, I took my three kids down one at a time to meet some of the other people that I do business with, or some of the, you know, internet, celebrity kind of people.

And, um, it’s, it’s, it’s funny because my kids are 10 and younger and, and they’re starting to see that. Dad’s not just dad that has these other, other relationships in worlds that he’s a part of. And so that, that one hit home with me a little bit. Yes, I get it. All right. Kay. Now, before we dig deeper question number two is what do you suck at it?

Um, almost anything that’s not connected to people. Um, so it’s sort of a miracle that my audio and my video and everything is working this morning because in tech related and of course it’s the morning my husband’s gone. And so I was like, please, please pull this off right here. Is he your backup plan? A hundred percent.

My backup plan, like I I’ll, I don’t know nothing will work. And then, uh, he’ll just walk in. And then I go, oh, it’s working. And then he just turns around one. So were you sweating a little bit when I said I couldn’t hear you

big time, I was like, I was really, I was reaching for my rescue remedy. Oh crap. This is happening. Of course it’s happening. So, so for the listeners right before, right before we jumped on, um, uh, the software on my Andrey set yesterday. And so I have to keep restoring all these defaults before I jump on. So I couldn’t hear for just a brief moment so that no, that’s funny.

That’s funny. All right. Okay, so let’s talk about, um, you said you love numbers and strategy. Ha have you always been that way or did you realize at some point it was some sort of gift that you had? You know, I, I did not realize it until about five years ago. I met this woman. I was transitioning from this offline local BNI chamber type of.

To coming online. I had had two babies in 12 months and I knew a lot of things, obviously change was, was inevitable. And I met this really nice lady and in just an attempt to get to know her and her business better. I took one of her evaluations, one of her little tests. She did all of these types of personality tests and skill test talent test.

And I was shocked that all of these. Dots, we’re connecting to show this thread of how good I am with numbers and give it a purpose, not like good at numbers with like an accountant. Like not that type, but more where I could see the gaps that I could connect dots. And it was actually so incredibly helpful.

You know, when other people see something in you or it keeps showing up in your life and business, but you don’t fully acknowledge it. There there’s this gap that that happens. And so once I was able to see that, then I leaned into it even more because I find, um, women, especially, they tend to have just this idea or belief that, oh, no, I’m not good at numbers, or I’m not that good at strategy or, you know, connecting the dots.

So it was, it was very helpful to have that experience. Uh, have you taken the Colby index? No, I haven’t. You would probably, um, really enjoy that one. So, um, there’s a gentleman who has been on here, his name’s Justin brain and, um, he, he lives and dies by that thing and, you know, sort of a lot of people. And so what it does is it, it gives you like four number scores and it tells you exactly who you are and where your talents are and where you should go.

And not just based, not just like what you’re good at. Probably what you actually like to do. And so, you know, it’s funny as I become, I become reasonable friends with, with Justin and just like a week ago I made a post and he said, um, what a great post truly written by a Colby score, whatever, whatever, whatever.

Like, I don’t even know him. I don’t even remember what my score is, but I told it to him one time and I go, that’s amazing that you remember my score. And he goes, anytime I meet. I only pay attention to things, their name and their score. That’ll tell me everything in. Wow. So you should look into the Colby index and it’ll probably probably hook you up a little bit more.

I love that. Yeah. There’s things I find so interesting. All right. So now, now one thing you said was, now that I know your story, I must work with you. And so I’m a big advocate of, um, authenticity. And I even hate saying that word because it’s become so cliche and, and a lot of, uh, a lot of these environments of marketing and PR and stuff like that.

But, um, I’ve been able to find success by doing nothing other than giving and being authentic. Like I don’t run any paid ads. We have a seven figure agency. I’ve never spent any money on advertising. Um, all of our, it’s not just like on the financial side, it’s on my personal relationships. So my business relationships, and it’s like so simple that if you just embrace the world of.

Like amplifying who you are. You don’t have to exaggerate who you are, but just find more platforms or ways to share that with the people that it can resonate and you don’t even have to, you don’t even have to know who that is at the beginning, when I started this journey, it was, it wasn’t that long ago.

And I gave myself the freedom to say, well, I don’t know. I don’t know what social media to me is. Uh, but I’m willing to figure it out. And so then I let my, I went through the journey of tripping over myself and finding out where I feel comfortable not feel comfortable. And it’s just like endless opportunities since then.

Like, there’s been no slowdown in the momentum whatsoever just by going. Okay. Yeah. Like I’ll just do whatever it is that I feel like I should do. And it’s that simple. Absolutely. And, and that, I love how you say that because the tripping over ourselves is the part that I think, um, we have to give our selves permission to do it.

People tend to, you know, I see this with adults. Like kids are fine. Tripping over themselves, falling, not getting it perfectly at the first attempt. And when I know I’m sort of hitting the Siri, I call it serious adult syndrome is when I think the first time I do it, it has to be so perfectly polished and on-point otherwise, you know, oh, I’ve really messed up and it is, it’s just having fun with it and going, I’m gonna try that again.

And what if I experiment with this and give that a shot and see if I like this. Yeah, it really puts us in this very constricted place. Yeah. And I’ll give you kind of a fun story example that, um, it’s kind of silly, but emphasizes the point. Like, so before we were jumping on, I had mentioned my wife and I just celebrated our 15 year anniversary.

So as we, as, as I was getting ready to leave for a couple of days, I set up the autoresponder and in it, um, there was a lady that I worked with forever ago, um, probably 20 years ago. And I remember she. Well, this was when I was still in corporate. And so she was going away on a trip for whatever. And then in her auto-responder, it was just like nothing but jokes about playing in the sand and whatever, and don’t bug me.

And, and so I just, it’s always stuck with me. And so since, since then, anytime now as a business owner, anytime I go away, One it’s important to set those expectations. So I don’t set the auto responders the day I leave. I said it like five days before I leave to set the expectations and say, Hey, here’s, what’s coming up.

I’m going to be available in this capacity or not. But the rest of the team’s working. If you have anything urgent, do this. Yeah, here’s my calendar. Let’s talk when I get back. But within that I put, um, I put, Hey, you know, in a couple days I’m going to be out for three days. Um, me and my wife are celebrating our 15th anniversary.

Um, and if I want to stay married another 15 years, I, I will not be checking my email. And I got so many compliments and replies from my clients saying, yeah, Don’t check emails. Yes. This is the funniest autoresponder I’ve ever heard. And I think we get stuck in, in the, the serious adult syndrome where. I can’t say that in an autoresponder, or I can’t say that in whatever.

And it’s the total opposite, because what happens is people resonate with you as a human and then to what you were saying, you know, now that I know who you are, I want to do business. I think out of all the stuff I post online that attracts leads. That the business stuff may attract them, but they convert on the personal stuff.

They go, oh, you’re a dad. Cool. By the way. Oh, oh, you’re a husband. Cool. By the way, it is a hundred percent true. I have witnessed myself when I came, when I made that transition from offline to online. And I had two babies in my arms and I was completely sleep deprived. I found the same exact thing. So I would go on Facebook and I would write my little post about whatever I was going to lead or teach or invite them into.

And it was like, okay. But then I would tell a story about my boys or, you know, baptism by fire, into motherhood, and then boom. And I’m not even kidding you four years. The highest percentage of my clients are mothers who had babies. In a short span of time. It’s it’s the craziest thing or mothers who also traveled the world full-time with their kids, because we did that for five years before settling down a year ago.

So it’s true. That’s the personal stuff that makes them go. Oh yeah. I liked what you said over there now let’s do it together. Yeah, totally. Let’s talk about, um, your comment about connecting with angels guides and ancestors. So, um, to same, same kind of same kind of question. Is that something you’ve always been familiar with or did you, did you detect it later?

Yes, it is something I remember as a child having an awareness of another presence in the room or seeing, you know, not really a full image, but. Uh, light or something near me, but it was really, uh, there was two main times when this really came into focus at 18 years old, everyone thought, you know, the straight a student overachiever would go to college and all I wanted to do was travel the world and be a volunteer.

And so. I moved overseas as a volunteer. And so when I was for the first time, thousands of miles away from home and family and all of those structures, I really began to have these senses and sensation sensations more. And I began to hear things and know things. Then four years ago, I had a full-term stillbirth with my third pregnancy and that baby, that child.

That the communication with her for the last four years has been such practice in sharpening that and be coming aware of another world. And I think for, I talked to other mothers and parents, who’ve lost a child and it’s, it’s interesting. You all, you have this new motivation or this new design. To travel through two worlds because anytime, I mean, as a parent, I’m sure you can relate when you have a child here, you find ways to connect with them.

And when you have a child on the other side, you do the same thing. And so that’s what the path has looked like for me. So I want to talk about that. Um, uh, I, I, I realized that I haven’t told the LR. What you actually do. So I’m going to, I’m going to leave. I’m gonna, I’m gonna interject that as a cliffhanger and then we’ll get back.

So you help people start a successful six figure plus publishing companies. So I want to talk about that now that that’s sad, let’s go back to the other. So, um, yeah, it’s interesting because, uh, You know, I can’t imagine having a full term stillborn situation cause my wife and I had two miscarriages, but, but they not to discount either of the situations, but, but it wasn’t a full term thing.

And so going full term, I can only imagine is that much more intense and, and creates more of a circumstance where you’re saying like, you won’t be, want to continue that relationship and figure out ways. Um, and one thing that’s interesting is that. I don’t, I don’t, you know, I’m in the middle, right? Like I don’t, I don’t not, I don’t do or don’t believe in, in any, like, I’m open to whatever.

I don’t know which I don’t have a preference one way or the other though, because I don’t know enough. I’m not competent enough in whichever I want to believe. So I’m pretty neutral on it, but, but what’s interesting is my wife and my mother-in-law, her, her mom are super into like numbers and, um, like things like my mother-in-law’s really into butterflies.

And what’s interesting is. Um, I’m the, I’m the, I’m very much the rational type of person where it’s like, okay, well let’s reverse engineer that coincidence. And then explain it that way. She’s got so many freaking things that I can’t explain that, that this type of topic is fascinating to me because. My, my mother-in-law when, when my wife was born.

So my wife is a twin. And when she was born, um, it was far long enough ago that they didn’t have all the fancy ultrasounds to know that there was even two babies. And so my mother-in-law thought she was going to deliver one baby. Well, because there was two, she went into labor, prematurely. And so, so there was all the NICU stuff going on while that happened at the time, her eight year old brother, who’s now 40 something.

Um, he got hit. And so he was in intensive care while my wife and her brother were in NICU. So my mother-in-law was in there with these two things. Then fast forward, like five years, and then she gave birth to, um, my sister-in-law who’s since passed away that she was born with spina, bifida and water on the brain.

And so she had two premature children and two disabled children all at the same time. Wow. And so since then, um, so, so my, my sister-in-law passed away 10 years ago and here here’s where it gets into like the numbers thing is, so she passed away on, um, a third of the month, three months after my first son was born, he was born on a third of a month.

And then there’s like, all these things like that. At my sister-in-law’s funeral, we did the balloon things and this and that. And my mother-in-law, you know, didn’t want to let her go and things like that. And this one balloon just like, wouldn’t leave everything else has just like taken off. And this one just sticks and like covers.

And then, um, maybe one more story and then I’ll throw it back to you. Is a, is a. My wife will go to these like card reading things. And, and I’m, I’m always looking for the, for the screw up that, cause she’ll record the lady. I’ll let my wife record it. And so I’m like looking for the prompt where she, my wife unknowingly gave away the secret and there’s never any prompts.

And she’ll so one of the last time she went was, was. Two years ago. And she said like right out of the gate, she said something about, um, you know, you know, somebody in a wheelchair, my sister-in-law was in a wheelchair and, oh, she’s a man. She’s funny. And she was, she was like such a, she would just punk everybody.

And then, um, and then she said, I need to tell you not to worry, I’m free. Now I can run. And I’m like, what the fuck is going on? I can’t answer any of that. So it’s such an interesting concept to me because I can’t, I can’t argue against it as much as I want to. Oh yes. I hear you. And when you said that, These unexplainable, similar thing has happened in my time, you know, and a lot of numbers, uh, Nina was born on the ninth and I’m not even kidding.

You I’ll forget. I, I I’m to kind of give you a picture of who I am. I’m Lucy and I love Lucy. Okay. So. Al, I don’t even know what day it is and something amazing will happen and I’ll be laying in bed and I go, oh my God, it’s the ninth of the month. Right. It’s just interesting things. But yes. And I, this is been part of my journey.

Actually, I’m creating a card deck that my daughter is inspiring. She’s giving me the ideas for it. It’s really to my sons, but the whole world is going to get to benefit. And I’m working on this deck and I’m working with the designer and the experiences that she has. And she’s kind of like you she’s like, I don’t even.

I wasn’t expecting this, but this happened when I was putting this card to get there. And I swear your daughter like showed up when I was doing this all kinds of interesting things. And through this whole process, I mean, this has just been like in the last week. My daughter said, you know, there’s, there’s others for you to talk to.

There’s other people, other angels for you to communicate with. And I’m sitting here going, oh, well, you know, how does that fit into my business model? You know, I own a publishing house. I teach people how to start a publishing company. I teach them how to make money and it doesn’t, and that’s what Nina has done to my life is she has forced me to go.

You think that you have to continuously fit into these box. Or life is, is this cut and dry, this black and white. And she has wrecked all of that in the best possible way, because part of what has happened through this experience is I have let go of the roles and the identities and the masks and the things that I have worn and the ways I’ve behaved.

I just thought, well, that’s what people expect, right? If they, if they are going to trust me as a professional and trust me to help them do this, that, or the other, make this amount of money, then I need to be a certain way. And I’m, I’ve just let another layer of that go. It’s it’s kind of like what we talked about from the beginning.

It’s this is who I am, and this is what it looks like to go on the journey with me. And if that feels good, awesome. But it CA can no longer be this compartmentalized version of. Well, I think even our conversation underscores that like, I would have never expected, this is the path that we go down and talk in the middle of this.

But it, when, when you allow yourself to be yourself, it just kind of whatever the connection is, it just reveals itself. And then that’s the path you go down. So it’s, I think that’s, that’s an interesting kind of, um, Summary like this conversation is exactly what we’re talking about. It’s true. It’s, it’s no longer like, hi, this is who I am.

This is what I do. And that’s it. That’s that’s the whole story. Uh, and the people that there’s so many people that do that, and it’s not their fault to, you know, to an extent it’s, they, they don’t know any better, but it’s, it’s what we were talking about earlier with like autoresponders. And like, I can’t say that, or I can’t do that.

So many people get. These are the conversations I enjoy these, these are the, this is the only reason why I have this podcast. I have no exit game for this podcast. I am not monetizing this. I have other things to do that would make me a lot more money, but these are the types of things that I enjoy. And these are the relationships that this, these are the conversations that foster relationships, which are then often end up in business later.

But it doesn’t matter because these are, I would way rather get on, have these conversations. Then the guy that gets on and says, I I’m Chris, and here’s your three steps to success. And like, nobody wants to listen to it. Nobody’s going to monetize it. Nobody’s going to benefit. And just everybody wasted their time.

And then you come in here and be informal. Everybody learns, everybody resonates more, everybody wins, relationships are established. So it’s kind of counterintuitive, but the, the informal way. This is the way to go. It’s true. It is very counterintuitive. And I, I would say this is, this is really where I feel like we’re being asked to go as, as entrepreneurs, but there’s a deeper, there’s a deeper purpose in that entrepreneurship.

On some level, we know that the work that we do in our business is really just the vehicle for being a blessing to others. You know, it’s exists. Yes. But the real reason it exists is because I have some gift to give, and I know that others are seeking and asking for that gift and I’m going to keep putting it out there and make it easier for us to, to meet.

But it does take courage to go through, like you said, to communicate with your audience in this. To show up over and over as the person, when somebody hires you, they’re not hiring a robotic set of, you know, S uh, tasks and numbers and measurements. They’re hiring human beings. They’re hiring individuals who have a life who have a family who have all of these other things.

And that’s what I never want us to forget in business. There’s a person, there’s a family, there’s a heart and soul behind that transaction. Yeah, that that’s where the relationship is. The one thing that one way that I summarize that is that clients may pay my company, but they signed because of me.

Absolutely. And there’s, you know, I just had a message yesterday, um, from a, uh, a gentleman has become a. Uh, he, I, I would, I would consider him a friend. We’ve never been person. He goes on different continents, but, um, you know, we, we messaged consistently and talk and chat here and there. And, um, he sent me a message yesterday and said, Hey, I need to talk, can I talk to you?

I need help. Not financial help. I need help. Um, because I need somebody, I feel like I’m, I’m stuck, like businesses grown I’m in a good place, but I need to figure out how to scale. Ethically and morally, and you are the only person that I can confidently say that still has a personal life maintains a forward-facing persona that is genuine, but is still growing.

That all just boils down to everything that Adrian is saying is it’s just authenticity. I don’t have any secret sauce. I think I’m the, I’m the opposite of secret sauce. I don’t look for the secret sauce and I just do what makes, what, what feels appropriate. And oftentimes it’s the slower play, but once it kicks in, I mean, there’s no end in sight, that’s it.

And you know, for the last year we came back to wherever. About 14 months ago after traveling full time. And that’s, what’s really been coming through for me a lot is the, the slow it down. The spend time in nature, lots and lots of family time. Lots of emphasis on those deep, meaningful relationships looking around and going, who do you admire?

Not just for their success. But for who they actually are, who they are when nobody’s looking and strengthening those relationships. And it’s kind of like what you said on the surface, it can kind of seem like what what’s that about, you know, is that, is that a good use of your time? Um, I’ve taken a lot of time back from, you know, social media and just sort of being places for the sake of being there.

And it has been so deep and so rich and it has led, like you said, it’s, it’s been a little bit. Pace and rhythm. Yeah. It has led to some of the best conversations, best projects, most exciting things that weren’t even on my radar. Yeah. Yeah. The, um, the, the event that I mentioned I was at last week, um, a good example of the slow play is, is you have to be open to a delayed gratification because with w what a lot of people think is like, well, you know, I could do this and it’s a dollar in $2 out, and it’s.

Gala Blea, scalable and quantifiable, which is true. And then they say, well, why would I do the other thing? Because I can’t quantify it. Well, you can. And I can’t scale it. Well, you can, it’s just like you said, a different pace and a different rhythm. So instead of $1 in $2 out, it’s $1 and nothing out, $1 in nothing out, $1 in $5,000 out.

And so you have to pay attention to it from the, the broader, the broader picture. And then, um, you know, this event I went to is I met Mo. I created more intimate relationships with successful people. In two days, the, honestly the first, it was like a four day event, but in two days I made a ton of relationships and probably 90% of those was in the first day.

And, and it was because of the delayed gratification. So there’s all these, these, you know, untouchable people that are super successful and. Part of the delayed gratification, how, uh, how has the Boston, those relationships is engaged with them online, but authentically don’t just be like cool post bro, and actually read it and offer some sort of insight or encouragement.

And then, um, what I w what I pay attention to is like the little things in their personal life. So if they mentioned it was there is, it was their birthday, then, then I’ll make a note. And so next. A week before their birthday. I know. And then I can send them a card or something, um, or something about their family or something about their accomplishments.

And I’ll send like little bits of encouragement. So I planted all these online seeds, never asking for anything. And then when I met them in person, they knew enough about me that they remembered my name and then. We, we, we skipped the handshake and went straight for the hug. And then a man that opened up the conversation for lunch, which opened up the conversation for dinner.

And so within 24 to 48 hours here I am, uh, you know, Reasonably friends with several untouchable people, 72 hours later doing business with two of them. So it may have taken one year, three years to get those, but then when the time is right, everything just closes itself on its own. And so what I take away even more from that, at least for me, um, is that now I actually have, you know, the money’s great and everything, but now I actually.

Good authentic relationships with these people. And then they’re going to introduce me to other people that I can, that I can skip the line and create relationships with these people too. So it’s another counterintuitive thing is like, what I always say is I don’t fight for sales. I fight for relationships.

And then that takes care of the other one by itself. And when you actually embrace that, And you don’t care about the sales that’s when you get most of them. So it’s kind of, kind of ironic. It is the truth. It is absolutely the truth. I mean, I was just teaching this. I did a section a couple of weeks ago.

That’s what I told them. You know, develop these relationships, send, send the card. You know, I recently sent someone a gift certificate to go to dinner, you know, do the things that doesn’t really make sense in the online world, but it is literally paying attention to who people really are, what they enjoy, what makes them tick and making deposits.

It’s about making deposits in other people’s lives. And there’s a lot of ways we can do it and lucky. Once we value the relationship and we’re willing to invest there. Everything else. It all comes together. Yeah. All right. Let’s transition to talking about publishing and I actually have a good segue. So you, um, the listeners, can’t see.

Um, I’m trying to see if you can tell, can you see that very top bin right there? Can you see this little thing right here? It’s a book. And so the, here’s our transition into what we’re talking about giving and to actually publishing. So I bought that book off eBay. Um, it just arrived yesterday. It’s not for me.

I probably won’t give it to the person for at least another 30 to 60 days. Cause that’s this. As soon as that I’ll even have an opportunity to see them in person, this person is way out of my league, but. That’s the first seed that’s planted is I’m going to gift them. This, that they’re into certain types of old historical books.

I, they they’re in a certain religion and, and I found a, um, a book that was published by a prominent person in that religion. And it’s a signed copy. So it was like a hundred bucks. And so that, that’s a good example of, you know, planning, see it’s delayed gratification and having a genuine interest in fostering a relationship.

So there you go. Publishing books. There are, they’re very smooth, very smooth transition. So now let’s talk about how. We have a good life and make money. So why don’t you explain what a publishing company is and how you got into it, and then, um, how you help other people get into it? So it was something I had no intention of doing.

I just sort of fell into it because, um, I worked with so many clients who told me they were going to write a book and then they never did. And. I just started asking them why it, you know, when it’s the sort of thing you can’t look away. And for some reason you just keep digging and investigating and they would tell me, oh, it’s very complex and it’s overwhelming and it’s intimidating.

And you know, they’re running a business, they’re raising the kids, they’re doing all the things. And so. It was actually right when I was pregnant with Nina, I created this program and I thought, I’m just going to put this into bite sized chunks. So I took eight women and every single week they wrote an article for a publication because I found that was a big thing too.

In addition to publishing, being overwhelming, most people don’t have a practice of writing. And so if I don’t have a practice of writing and then I say, I’m going to write a book, that’s a big leap. So we were writing articles every single week, pitching them to publications and they all got accepted.

They all got yeses. It was my intention to have maternity leave and then start helping them write that, write their books. Right. So once everything happened with Nina, I kept my business going, but I didn’t launch anything new. It was two years ago that I really got that green light. Okay. I’m ready to do this now.

And so I put out one social media post, and I said, I’m going to put together like a multi-author book. You can contribute one chapter, 3000 words, right. Chunk it down. Do you want to participate? And I got 86 comments on that one post filled the book, launched it, and then did six books like that in nine months.

And I said, okay, I’m onto something. Clearly they were ready for it. And so then I started taking solo authors and I’m, it’s just. It has a it’s like its own momentum, a life of its own. It was right after we got here and I could feel another thing coming, a further expansion of it. And I got the idea to teach other women how to do the same thing.

And so once again, I went to the women who had written in the books with me and I said, this is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna take eight women through the process. Let’s see how it goes. And. Immediately, they raised their hands. We started it and help them do the same. So then I just, you know, did it again, did it again.

And so now we have a full like certification course and really what it does is it breaks, publishing down into simple steps because anything that’s complex or complicated. I love simplify. Yeah. I don’t like to be complicated just for the sake of, you know, all that’s going to make me look smart. I’d rather go the simple route.

And so it simply shows women, how do you get into publishing? How do you create your first book? How do you get your first clients? How do you scale this? Um, how do you use that to parlay into podcast and media and all the rest of it? Speaking. And it works well. There’s I wrote a book how to create a six figure publishing house because I wanted to give some of the steps in there, but I also wanted to feature some of my success stories because what I find is, is I can say I’ve done it.

And that’s one thing. But if I say I’ve taken these other women through it and literally let them say in their own words, what they were able to accomplish, I find that’s really powerful. Yeah. W when others can speak on your behalf, uh, and supporting the underlying topic. Yeah. It’s definitely another level of, of power behind it.

Um, you, you would also have another book called the younger south butters. What is that about? Um, so the younger self letters, it’s another. Multi-author book that I decided to put together, but instead of going for just the Amazon bestseller, we went for us. We want to go for the bigger list. So it hit the USA today list.

And this book is another one of those, not just business. Like I didn’t think that it would make sense to have a book where we pull people together and they tell what they know. Um, in terms of, you know, professional talk. What I wanted entrepreneurs to do is to write this very heartfelt. To themselves. So they identified one moment in time, one season of their life, and they wrote the chapter to that version of themselves.

And, um, so I wanted to create, you know, that whole heart and soul aspect to it. And so that’s, that’s the concept for that book is who are you behind? The exterior behind the success behind the name. I love those types of things. And, and at that event last week, there was even a little bit of that. Where, where literally the very last thing we did the at this four day event was last five minutes was they passed out these letters and envelopes and said, all right, write a letter to yourself in a year.

You know, where do you want to be explained your goals? And then we will mail them back to you in a year. We’re not going to read them. These are, these are just entirely for you. And I actually. Um, when I was a senior and junior senior way back in the high school, our psychology teacher did that too. Um, unfortunately I will never get that letter because I knew I, I moved to town when I was little and I knew that was the case.

And so I put my grandparents’ address cause they were living there for eternity. Well, two years later they moved. So, so I’ll never get that ladder, but I remember writing it. I remember. Uh, I remember, um, an overall tone of it, but I don’t remember the details, but ever since that moment in, um, in that psychology class, that whole thing just totally fascinates me.

And so when, when I was reading your bio before we chatted, um, that’s kinda what I was thinking. It was something along those lines that. Just personally, those are intriguing to me. Um, how do you, so how do you, in the, in that book, when these other people are sharing, sharing their stories, do you make a transition between each of their chapters or is it like a.

No, no, it is. It is just the individual. Um, yeah, I think we did the same thing in that book, 3000 words. And so however they wanted to structure that chapter, they got to, and then after their chapter, we do put their bio and links where people could learn more. And this is, this is interesting because it was one of the things that we had to cross.

Um, is being okay with sharing that profound story first with ourselves and then obviously with the world and letting that be enough because there was this almost like this training of, well, now I should say what I think. You know, and how, how you can work with me and vomit on them. Yeah, exactly. And when we opened the conversation, they said, it feels like that’s what I’m supposed to do, because I’ve so heard this over and over, but I don’t want to, I just want to leave it.

And if people are curious to learn more, they have the links, they have the ways. And it’s been interesting to hear how that’s happened, how people have reached out to them and said, oh my gosh, your story about, you know, your childhood or your parents or this out of the. I could so relate to it and then they’re able to have the conversation of what can we do together.

And tell me more about your business. Yeah. What story is there a story that stands out the most in those chapters? Well, there’s, there’s so many powerful stories. You know, one in particular, this lady is really dear to my heart. She was actually the one client who kept asking me, like, how do you do this?

And. And then when I got the idea to teach others, I knew it was first and foremost for her. And in her chapter, she talks about being a child and witnessing her parents’ conflict and the domestic violence in her home. And when she was writing the chapter, she had this aha moment of that’s actually, when she learned how to be a leader and the way she had viewed it for all of her life was I had to grow up too quickly.

But in that moment, she got a reframe and said, actually, that’s when I learned how to leave. And she’s such an incredible leader, not because she knows how to bark orders and boss people around, but because she knows how to take people through situations that might feel chaotic or confusing or overwhelming, and she can compassionately lead them through that.

And now she has her own publishing house and that’s what, that’s the journey most people go on when they start writing because all of these things come up. And so that story really stood out to me. When you decide to write a chapter like this in a story like this, you have so many of your own aha moments.

You’re actually able to look at yourself through new eyes, which changes. Yeah, I can. There’s a lot of that that I can relate to. Um, the, some, I grew up lower middle class with, uh, you know, an alcoholic stepfather. And what I learned from that is exactly what you said is, uh, is, um, you know, there there’s like this, there’s this story that floats around on the internet and a little meme and it shows like a homeless gentleman and then a gentleman next to him in a suit.

And it’s like both of these brothers. Yeah, we’re raised in the same family. They both had an alcoholic father and we asked each of them, why are you in the position that you are? And the homeless men said, I have now called father. And then the successful men of his who said I’m successful because they had an alcoholic father.

And so it’s what you decided to take away from it. So for me, it was. This is how not to raise a family. And so that’s contributed to now the 15 years of marriage, three kids, happy family. And it’s the same thing, even in my business. Um, the, one of the last gentleman I worked for before I started my agency, super toxic, super successful, but super toxic.

And, um, that was like, okay, this is how not. Treat your employees. And in 15 years I’ve never had an employee quit. And so you can decide what to take away from it. And maybe one story I’ll use to kind of wrap up this topic is. It’s so funny how all these stories are so relevant to the Savannah. Was that just last week?

So Tony Robbins was the closing speaker and one of the things he shared was when he was a kid, um, he grew up in broken homes more or less, and, and one day there was his, the constant arguments with his parents. And one day his father and mother were in an art. Somebody knocked on the door and he opened the door and it was somebody that just said, Hey, you know, Thanksgiving’s coming up.

I know you guys are struggling. Um, here’s some food. And so T as a kid, Tony, I think he said it was like around nine or something. I was excited for two reasons, one for food, but two, because then he felt he could go say, Hey dad, somebody is here. And that would stop that. And so then when he went and told his father, his father got frustrated, I was like, who’s here, you know, and goes, answers the door.

And then when the, when the gentlemen said, you know, here’s some food, his father. You chose to take it the wrong way. He chose to be offended by it because to him he’s not good enough. He’s not providing for his family. Somebody else has to do it for him. So he slammed the door and it hit one of the bags of food.

And so, and then it bounced back, which made his father more mad. So then he argued with the guy more and the guy’s like, I’m just a delivery guy. I don’t even know who’s sending this to you. And so he slammed the door again, but this. The guy leaned in to stop it and it hit his shoulder, which made him more mad.

And I’m going to mess up this quote just a little bit. Um, cause I can’t remember word for word, but, but. Then what the guy said was, sir, don’t let your ego get in the way of your family. And so then the guy grabbed the bags, so his father grabbed the bags and shut the door. And so it’s interesting from that is that then, um, you know, I’m not like this huge hype person for Tony Robbins, but he’s got this, um, He’s got the state and has gold to feed a billion people.

And it was birthed from that moment because he knew what it was like to be in there. And then that story really resonated with me because I did something similar a couple of years ago. I was the beneficiary of, you know, discounted lunch and free lunches at school. And so a couple of years ago, I called all the low income schools in the county had had one of my team members count on tally the past due lunch debt, and just wrote one check to the county and just paid off all that passed to lunch balance.

And so the whole, the whole point of all these examples is that, and, and the person that contributed. That chapter is you can choose how to interpret these moments. And it’s not to say that the moments are better or worse, but you can turn them into positives. And, uh, just about everything that I. Me personally, anything that I can point back, anything that I’m proud of.

I can point back to like a hard choice or a hard moment, and it, and the only difference between where I’m at versus where other people in my family that went through the same things is just how to interpret it. And if you choose to learn from it or not, so true, it is it’s, uh, it’s that moment by moment choice.

And, and I love what you said. Every thing that really matters to you, you can point back to a tough moment. And that’s, that’s, that’s the amazing part about being a human being is every single day we have that option.

Well, Adriana. I think we could go on for a lot longer. I want to be respectful of your time. I just realized how long we’ve been gone at this. And I hope I didn’t mess up any of your schedule that anything’s after this. I want to give you a last few moments to tell our listeners how they can find out more.

Um, I would love for them to check out almostspeaks.com. So it’s my initials. amaspeaks.com. They can get a copy of my book, but also have an opportunity to connect. Like I said, I, I really. Uh, find that connecting with someone, hearing what their biggest takeaway was from the discussion or where they’re at, what would support them.

That’s my favorite place to be. So I invite them to connect their very cool ama speaks.com Adrian Alvarez. Thanks for jumping on learning from others. Thank you, Damon Burton here, and thank you so much for listening to the learning from others podcast. I sincerely hope that today’s guest helped you learn so.

Since 2007, I’ve generated millions of dollars for businesses like yours. Ready to show up higher on search engines for words that you can monetize, but without paying for ads, download your free copy of my new SEO book outrank. If you visit www.freeseobook.com today.