Hey, hey, welcome to the show. I am on my way to the Dallas market center, which is basically my home away from home. And every time I'm headed to the Dallas market, it always brings me back to this one crazy moment. that I had in 2023 that totally transformed my business at the time. So let's say it was back early 2023 was a really rough time for our industry. I'm not even going to sugarcoat it.
It was probably one of my hardest times as a business owner and as an entrepreneur, it tested every single thing that I had in me. It tested all of my skills. It tested my mental toughness. It tested my. action taking, it tested my, my will, my willpower, everything. And, um, there was, like I said, a few quarters, there's probably two quarters where I was really going beyond all in. I mean, every Monday I would say, It at my computer, I had very elaborate strategy in place.
I had very elaborate email marketing plans. I was just doing everything I could to make a sale. It felt like it was, you know, fighting. for every single dollar, every single order. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before in the nine, 10 years prior to running my business. And what happened was I noticed my, really my mindset was down in the dumps. The more I got frustrated and overwhelmed and annoyed and pissed off. The harder it got to really bring in any sales at all.
And I was having these conversations, you guys, I know, I've been, I talk about my conversations with, with the industry and I was having conversations at Dallas market center. Every time I'd go there, that were just. So pitiful. They were just like people coming to me saying, Oh my gosh, I just can't get anything figured out. And I don't know what to do and all the things. And I was just like, I know I'm in the same boat. I I've trying every single piece of strategy. I've ever done.
And I just feel like I'm fighting tooth and nail for every single sale. And that was really the conversation that I was having, not only in real life with people, but also in my head. for months. Like I said, it was probably two quarters in a row of 2023. And one day I decided that, and I knew this, you know, but being an entrepreneur, this is part of one of the hardest parts of it is you and your mindset and being able to stay in the game, even if the results are not fricking good.
Because you will go through this. This is business there. It's cyclical. There will be times where things just are a little harder or a lot of harder, a lot of, a lot of harder than they normally are. And that's part of it. But Ooh, this is where, this is where the glory is born because let me tell you. So I decided one day I walked out to my barn.
I was out there, uh, you know, filling up the water troughs and just doing some chores, just trying to like think things through and think, okay, what, what can I do here for my business? How can I make it stronger? How can I get through this?
And I remember thinking, you know what, I'm going to decide that the past couple quarters do not define me in my business because I started to get to the point where I was literally like, and I'm, I'm being real, real honest with you here because this is the true struggles I don't care what level of business you're at. These struggles will come up and it's you, you have to know how to fight this and how to get through it and how to go to battle with your mind at times, make it tougher.
And I remember thinking I'm not going to let the last couple of quarters define my business over 10 years. This is not what I built my business upon. This is not how this is not defined the success that I've had because you know, I had, I had had tremendous success, but that it's like, that didn't even matter at that point. I was so, you know, just utterly focused. on the downside. And I, I was thinking to myself, you know, this, this is, this is not my defining moment.
This is not going to be what I think about when I think about my business. I am going to decide right here, right now, this fricking ends today. And that was a really hard step.
statement to make because, you know, sometimes, and you may know this in your personal life, like it's a little bit, um, you can get really sucked into the bad conversations because you think that that is, is going to actually make you feel better because, oh, there's other people going through it too, or, oh, it's hard for everybody. So it's hard for me, or, oh. You know, this is like the reality of what everyone's going through right now.
Like it's easier to find safety in that conversation than it is to rise above it. 1 million percent. And you're going to have to learn how to rise above those conversations, whether it's in your head or in real life. Time and time again as an entrepreneur. So I had this crazy epiphany moment when I was at the bar and I was looking at the horses and I was just like, you know what? F this. This is not defining me. This is not defining my business. I have created an incredible company.
I have so much to be grateful for. I, I know in my heart of hearts, things are going to turn around and it's going to happen right here, right now. Now mind you, we were in the middle of a market during this point. Okay. The market had been very slow. The traffic was slow. I was in my old showroom, my super cute, old, adorable showroom.
Um, you guys know I've now moved into this monstrous, beautiful room, but I did have, you know, a cute little showroom at first and it served me well for a couple of years. Market was was currently going on now. I had my VP of operations in the showroom. She's there all week.
She's Frickin unbelievable if you guys have been to my showroom, you've met her Brenda She's like the most amazing person in the entire universe So she was in there and her and I had been talking all week, you know And I'm trying to like be positive and I'm trying to say thing, you know, it's okay We're gonna do great all the things, you know, but I hadn't really decided for myself inside You That, that was the reality.
Like I was telling myself that, but you know when you kind of tell yourself something kind of half ass, but then there's, there's that difference when you truly like flip the switch and believe something and it just goes into your heart of hearts where you're like, F this, I'm doing this. So I had that moment at the barn and I just said, you know what, we're done. We're done being, you know, down in the doldrums. We're done trying to, you know, climb our way out of whatever.
thing we think we're in right now. Like that's not how we operate. That's not how I've ever operated. And I'm, I'm so done with this conversation and everything that surrounds it. I'm, I fricking kid you not five minutes later after I had that conversation in my head and I get chills. thinking about it. Like my stomach is turning. I'm getting chills all over because it was just such a crazy effing moment.
Five minutes later, my VP of operations calls me and she goes, Allie, you're never gonna believe this. And I was like, oh, oh my God, what? And I already was like, you know, I was filling up the water at the barn. I was already like so excited when I saw B. I just knew, you know, when you just see a like, like all the little hair stand up, you just go, Oh my God, something amazing is about to happen. Like you could just tell she's like, Ali, you're never going to believe this.
I had to use the restroom, you know, market. It was like five 45 where we're closing at six. Um, she's like, I had to use the restroom. So I put my little sign on the door. She's like, it's a ghost town here. She goes, I run to the bathroom. I get out of the bathroom and I see these ladies going down the escalator. And I just say to them, like, you guys, again, Brenda is the most, the amazing action taker in the entire universe and it's from a genuine place of like she just loves to be a winner.
It's just amazing. And she said that, you know, ladies are going down the escalator. And I just said to them, Hey ladies, if you need anything, you know, I I'm, I'm open up here. I just had to run to the restroom. And she goes, I didn't even think anything of it. And she goes, they're going down the escalator. They've already made the decision to leave our floor. They look up and they go, Oh, are you Brenda? And she goes, yeah. And they're like having the conversation, right?
While they're going down the escalator. So just imagine that they go, Oh my gosh, we just saw your showroom. It's so cute. Um, we saw the little sign on the door that you'd run to the bathroom and they're, they're like, let us come back up. And so literally the very, like the very last people at the Dallas market center are going down the escalator on their way to leave. They see Brenda, they decide they're going to go back up to our showroom. They tell Brenda everybody's closed.
It seems like no one's there. Like no one's excited to sell to them. Basically we have buyers that are wanting to spend money and everybody had just kind of given up. They left early. They closed their showrooms early. So they go on to tell Brenda that they flew in on a private jet. from another state and they were so excited to be at Dallas market and were really disappointed because they just felt like nobody cared. And here we were the last one standing at 545, 555 at this point.
The last one there. And these women were so excited to come into our showroom and shop because they also happen to love everything that we had, right? So Brenda's having this like conversation, you know, again, as they're going up and down the escalators. So she takes them to the showroom. Anyways, they end up placing a massive order for us. And pretty much turn around our, in our entire market.
I, I say this story to, I tell you this story because I want you to know that how that one little flip of the switch in my mindset is what I believe activated a whole new market. new path for my business at that moment. Again, I get chills thinking about it. So Brenda's like, you're never going to believe what happens.
She calls me, she tells me the story and she's like, Allie, this, this is just, I just, she, she was basically telling me like, there's no way on earth this could have happened because there was literally no one in the building except us. Okay. And if there's one thing you know about us, we're not fricking giving up. We're going to see it through. We never close early. We never leave a day early. We never, that's just not our vibe. Like we are there for our customers through and through.
And this was such a shining moment because I'm 90 miles away from Dallas market center. I have this epiphany where I say to myself all alone in the barn, no, you know, civilization around except my animals. And I say, I'm not doing it anymore. This is not who we are. This is not what my business is. I've never built a business based on this mindset like WTF. It's over. It's done today.
And I get the phone call five minutes later from Brenda telling me this crazy once in a lifetime story that just was almost impossible. So what would have happened if I hadn't decided that things were going to change for me in my business? And I want you to think about this for you too, because this is so true. Where are you super duper focused on everything being so frustrating and so overwhelming and so hard, and you're putting yourself in that mindset and that state.
space instead of the place of what if everything just went right? What if I start posting on social media every day and stay in sales start flooding in? What if I start using my email marketing the right way and sales start flowing in? What if things become fun for me in my business? Like we didn't start this business. Especially in retail, right? We're not doing brain surgery here. We're selling fun products to people that we love.
Where are we letting the conversations get so South that it's not even fun anymore. And I want you to know that you can literally decide right now, just like I did to flip the switch on your mindset. And I'm telling you with fricking watch what happens. It is insane. And from that moment on, I had more and more moments like that. Where defeat was just not an option. And I didn't put a timeframe on it. I didn't say like, I have to have a sale in the next five minutes or I'm shutting my doors.
I just said, this is not about us. This, I mean, this is not what we're about. We're not about this. This is not the vibe of successful entrepreneurs. This is not the vibe of a successful business. Nobody can grow a business like that. No wonder because it's impossible to grow. from a place of lack. So I want you to really just think about, okay, where am I in my business? Super focused on not being there yet instead of celebrating where I am right now.
I mean, you know how fricking hard it is to even just to just have the guts to start a business. let alone then learning how to operate one when you probably have little to no experience going into this at all. And we're expecting ourselves to be like, you know, perfect business owners right off the bat. It takes a minute. It takes a minute to learn the skills. It takes a minute to figure it out. You got to be in this for the long haul.
Okay. If you want to build a massive business, you got to be in this for the long haul. It's not going to happen overnight. So let's just get That other way right here right now. And I love having these, these conversations with my, my clients inside the sales lab and just like, these are such, you know, really, truly the game changing conversations because listen, it's 10 years I've been in this business. I know the fricking strategy. Okay. Nothing changed in my strategy at that moment.
Nothing. I didn't decide like I was going to try some crazy hook and go viral and let, let, but no, all I did was. Was change my mindset and fully believe in myself. I get chills thinking about it cause it was just such a crazy moment. And then, like I said, from then over and over and over again, I built that mindset back up. I built it strong again. And I watched little things happen here and there little like, you know, winks at me.
from the universe, as they say, or from God, that we're like, you got this, you can do this, but you can't get those little winks and those little nods. If you're not even getting yourself in the game and putting yourself in the mindset that it takes to get there. And I just feel like this is not talked about enough. Like I said, it's not enough. It's not always the strategy. Yes. Do we love strategy? Yes. Does it set us up for success?
Yes. But so much of it is how you continue to move through your business day in and day out. No matter what the results are showing you, that's where the true growth comes from and just embracing that more. And then also embracing the fun side of the business and not getting so locked in. to everything has to happen right now for me or it's not meant to be. That is like the biggest crock of baloney I have ever heard.
And I have a private client that I was talking about this with the other day as well. Because she was having some major wins and was just like, well, you know, what if it doesn't happen? Or I don't know if that, and I'm like, I'm like, excuse me, it's happened. What do you mean? What if it doesn't happen? You've, it's already done. Why are we trying to reverse the success you've had? Like we don't, we do not operate in that funky place.
I'm telling you that is just, uh, you know, there's no reason or like have y'all ever said before like, oh, well, I don't want to jinx it. Yes, things are going good, but I don't want to jinx it. F that. The more you celebrate and recognize every single little win that's going on in your business, the more big wins you'll have. That is just a freaking fact. And I'm not just saying it. I witness it in my business every single day.
So from that point moving forward, we have had explosive growth in my brand, explosive growth in our e commerce sites where I just expect every single day. excellence because that's what we've built over the past 10 years. And that's where I keep my focus. For example, right now, we are about to start doing business with a major retailer. And I mean, it's crazy.
The, the amount, A product that we're going to be selling over the next six months is going to supersede anything we've ever done ever in the history of our business. Now imagine if I would have given up when the going got tough a year ago. Can you believe it? I am about to literally do more sales in the next one month to six months than I've ever done in the history of my business. When just literally not so long ago, it was so hard to get even one sale.
Imagine if I would have given up and just said, Oh, well it's been a good 10 years, but can't seem to get past this little hump. Can't seem to get over my bad attitude. For being really honest, right? And now we're about to do more business than we've ever done ever. And it is insane, but I'm going, of course we are, because that's what we're about. We're about customer relationships. We're about growth. We're about expansion. We're about going big or going home.
We're about staying there when no one else, when everyone else wants to close their doors and go home early, we're there with bells and whistles on. Till the last customer is helped. Where do you close your doors early on your business? We've talked about this a little bit before where you closing up shop early or giving up early for the day or saying, ah, I don't know. Maybe I'll try that new thing tomorrow.
Maybe I'll watch that training tomorrow, or maybe I'll hop inside the membership tomorrow and celebrate the win. One follower is not enough to celebrate. I need a hundred followers. One sale isn't enough to celebrate. I need a hundred sales. Every sale we celebrate. I don't care if I get a hundred dollar sale or a 10, 000 sale. I celebrate them both with the same fricking enthusiasm because you have to be able to celebrate the small wins. If you want the big wins, you know why?
Cause you will never be satisfied. If you can't celebrate 1, 000 a month in sales, you won't celebrate 10, 000. You won't celebrate 20, 000 a month. So start celebrating everything. Who wants to live a life of a business that they're just not proud of, or they don't ever celebrate? Like, ew. That's a horrible way to live your life.
And so when I tell you things, and I tell my girls in the sales lab, I tell my girls in the trends, any of my programs, And the trendsetter membership, I say celebrate yourselves. It's not because it's like this woo woo rah rah thing. It's because that's what sets you up for success. Every win builds momentum. So today, right now, I want you to decide you're going to start celebrating every single fricking win that you have. This is how you're going to build a wildly successful business.
This is how you're going to get through all the moments. And It's the moments that will test you, the moments that will want you, that will have you wanting to turn around and run the other way to turn back around and face it. It's going to be building this tough mental fortitude, and I know you can do this. You just have to decide like I decided you say, okay, it's enough. Enough is enough. I'm here to have fun. I'm here to make money. I'm here to build a wildly successful business.
I want to work for myself. I want to have my own time and freedom. I want to build something that I wake up every morning excited about. feeling angst or anxiety to make that happen. Don factors. Don't, don't thi hit 10, 000 a month, I'm and great and lovely. No, amazing and great and lov 100 in sales. Whatever t you need to feel grateful know that you're worthy, of anything and everythin in this world. Because you are.
I'm going to give you the tools, you're going to learn the strategy, join the trendsetter membership or join sales lab, whatever you do. Watch my free content, but start also focusing on the personal growth side, your mindset, because this will be the true secret to your success. All right. I'm so, I'm almost to Dallas market. We're getting ready to go inside. I have just goosebumps thinking about that moment again. It's one of my favorite moments in business.
It just truly is because it's just, it was such a powerful, holy F moment. And I've just been able to watch everything unfold, like things that you just could never imagine happening start unfolding in front of your eyes. And you just go, Oh my gosh, here we are. Start celebrating every moment. Okay. I love you. I'll talk to you soon.