Episode 005 - Alison Wheeler

Get ready for an engaging interview with Alison Wheeler, a seasoned coach with over 12 years of experience and an impressive background as a professional athlete and occupational therapist.

In this episode of Model the Master podcast, Christin dives into Alison's inspiring journey towards achieving 7 figures in revenue, transforming her body at the age of 40, and developing a resilient mindset that has helped her overcome challenges in both her personal and professional life.

Join us as we explore Alison's unique perspective on coaching and learn how she empowers her clients to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or simply looking to improve your own personal and professional growth, this interview is sure to provide valuable insights and motivation to help you on your own journey.

Transcript

Christin G. Gutierrez (00:00):

Welcome to Model the Master podcast, brought to you by Increpreneur, where we believe the fastest path to personal and professional growth is to model those who have gone before us. I'm your host Christin Gutierrez. Alison is a world renowned confidence-coach, a multi-disciplined award-winning performance athlete who underwent a total body transformation at 40 years old that resulted in winning her bodybuilding Pro Card, a 7 figure entrepreneur, and the author of “Living from the Inside Out”. Welcome to the show Alison.

Alison Wheeler (00:28):

Thank you so much for having me.

Christin G. Gutierrez (00:30):

Oh, I'm so excited to have you as a guest today. So wow, a total body transformation at 40 years old. I know a lot of people think that's not even possible in their twenties, but you managed to do this in your forties. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Alison Wheeler (00:47):

Of course, absolutely. And I agree with you. I think lots of people think that it's not possible at any age, but particularly at 40 and particularly a female at 40, right? There's a whole lot of other hormonal things going on. So I remember at 40 looking in the mirror and thinking, I don't like the person that I see. I don't like what I see. And I thought to myself, is this what the rest of my life's going to be like? Am I going to continue to look in the mirror and not like what I see? And I thought, I don't want that. I don't. I want to look in the mirror and be proud of who I am and be proud of who I see. I felt like I deserved that. I think everyone does. And additionally to that I have a daughter. I didn't want to pass on that thinking or that way of life.

(01:45):

I did not want to pass it on to her. And it was so important to me to break that cycle that I was more than prepared to do whatever it took to change that. So I went on a journey to figure it out. I knew that I was just me. I was missing knowledge. I was missing something. Cause there's other people out there that were in shape, and the way that I wanted to be. It wasn't that I didn't exercise or I didn't eat right, it's just the way I was doing it wasn't working for me. So then it was the internal game. I needed to work on my mindset and the way I perceived myself, but then I needed to take different actions in order to get a different result. So I found different mentors, different coaches and different knowledge and framework to work my way out from the punishment mentality, to the nurturing mentality, and that was a game changer for my whole life.

(02:48):

That probably took about 12 months to really make that full transformation across, and do what I needed to do to transform, and partly to wrestle old ways out of my own hands and let them go because I was so afraid. I was like, no, but I've got to do it this way. I've got to, to get that result. I've got to do more. I've got to. And to transition over and go, well no, you got to do things that work. It's like, okay, doing things that work are better than just doing things because you're being told that that's the right way, or you think that that's the best way to get a result. If it's not working, it's not working. So I went through that transformation and then obviously my personality is that I tend to take things to the extreme. So then I went on to compete in bodybuilding, and then on to win my pro card.

Christin G. Gutierrez (03:51):

That's amazing. That is absolutely inspiring. So many entrepreneurs find themselves exhausted and overwhelmed and they know that they're capable of so much more. They just feel so burnt out. What would you say to our listeners who are saying, you know what, that's me. I feel exhausted and overwhelmed and burnt out. What should I do?

Alison Wheeler (04:14):

Look, I think it's really common. I mean, I read a statistic, I think 70% of entrepreneurs feel burnt out. It was something along those lines that came out not that long ago. And I think there's also nothing worse than sitting there knowing you have so much potential and so much ability inside and you just can't get it out. That is frustrating, it's overwhelming and it can burn you out as well. Knowing that, cause you don't, how do you bridge that gap in terms of overwhelm? Overwhelm can feel like you are in the middle of a tornado. You're standing in the middle of a tornado. There's so many things moving around you so fast and yet you don't know what to do. The way out of overwhelm or the most simple out of over way over of overwhelm is to pick one thing.

(05:05):

Just pick one thing in that moving tornado and complete it and then pick the next thing. What that does is it stabilizes things. It also, usually when people are in overwhelm, there's loads of uncompleted tasks, which means there's lots of noise, there's lots of stuff going on, but nothing's getting finished, nothing's getting off your plate. It's just more things going on your plate and it literally doesn't matter what you pick out of the whirlwind of things that are going on, you just pick a starting point, pick a thing. It could be somewhat unrelated - whatever, - because everything then goes into that overwhelm-whirlwind. So pick one thing and then you pick the next thing and then you pick the next thing. And that's how you work out of that overwhelm. Just that one step at a time - 

Christin G. Gutierrez (05:59):

absolutely. I remember being so overwhelmed and I would sit in front of my laptop for 12 hours in a row just trying to get as much done as I could. And no matter how much I got done, I never felt like it was enough. I still had all of these things that needed to be done and I felt so overwhelmed that I wouldn't even allow myself to go to bed cause I didn't feel like I had almost earned the right to go to sleep yet. And I was working on so many different things at one time that nothing was getting done to completion. And I had to actually step back and realize I need to start doing one thing at a time. If I can work on one thing at a time and get that done, then I can move on to the next thing. So I really love your suggestion for that because that is spot on, the way that you get yourself out of overwhelm.

Alison Wheeler (06:59):

Absolutely. And another thing you can do too is you can set a 10 minute timer - this helps with burnout and exhaustion. Set a 10 minute timer and get as much as you can done in 10 minutes and then take a micro break and then do another 10 minutes. If you break it down, it doesn't seem so big. And then you have a completion because you are working in 10 minute blocks, there's a start and then there's a finish. Then you walk away and come back, you can come back so much more refreshed. And that's one thing that also works when you've felt burnt out, is to work in much smaller task blocks because you can still get a lot done, but you just have to change the time frames that you work within. And from a perspective of burnout and exhaustion, I often see that for entrepreneurs, they've dropped the basics.

(07:54):

Not enough sleep, for example. You just spoke about that. Not drinking enough water, not nourishing your body with decent nutrients. Some entrepreneurs don't eat all day and they just have dinner. How are you going to perform at a high level if you are not taking care of the basics? Eventually -  you live in a body, it has requirements to function. You don't drive your car with no petrol in it? Yet we drive the body and ourselves with no fuel, thinking, “oh well, if I just drink another cup of coffee and I just drink another cup of coffee and I just drink… I'll get through my day, I'll be fine. I don't have time to eat.” Well, no. Well maybe you don't have time to eat, but you need to make time because otherwise you absolutely won't have time, right? Because your body will stop functioning the way you want it. It's not going to perform at a high level. It's not going to give you what you want. It will start pulling back and your body will start going, I don't think so.

Christin G. Gutierrez (08:58):

Yeah, you shut yourself down. I experienced that. I think that as women, we get so overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities that we have as far as - especially if we have children and we have our businesses that we're running and we have employees that we're taking care of, and we have clients that need our attention and all of these things that are always going on - I would find myself at the end of the day and I hadn't eaten, and my blood sugar was crashing, I was shaking, and at that point, there's no nothing else that you can do. You have to stop and get something to eat. And I wound up packing my lunch so that I could bring it with me each day because I always intended to leave and go and grab something to eat. It never happened. But once I was able to start packing my lunch and make sure that I had snacks and made sure that I had several meals throughout the day, man, that was a game changer for me because I didn't have to worry about stopping whatever I was working on and leaving and getting something to eat.

(10:02):

I could just open up my lunchbox and have something to eat.

Alison Wheeler (10:05):

Yeah, preparation's key. And that nutrition is an important part of staying out of burnout. You've got to feel your body, you've got to look after your body. And then the other part of that as well that you touched on, is that things don't have to be perfect. And in fact, more action is better than perfect action. I was listening to something recently. McDonald's does not make the best burgers, but they certainly go as a business. So it doesn't have to be perfect to put it out there. Your customers are going to make that decision anyway. Your customers will decide whether it's right for them, and then you get feedback so you can tweak it. You'll never ever get it right enough for the marketplace before you've put it out there. So working through being okay with imperfect action as well is another part of burnout.

(11:10):

And something else I think, too, that entrepreneurs need to be aware of to prevent burnout is every week take the time to review, step back and review your financials, review how you've spent your time, review. Count your wins, count what you are grateful for. Every single week you need, as a minimum, each week, you need to be going through those things because you need to know if you need to make changes. 

And if you are not watching, then you are not paying attention, things can go -  like the world moves fast. Even if you are not right, the world's going to move fast and things can change quite quickly. So you keep an eye on things - that's super important.

(12:08):

Work on yourself, keep gaining the knowledge, fill in the gaps that you don't know about - if it's how to read a profit and loss statement, if you don't know how to do that, get education on how to do it or get a really good accountant who can help you read the thing. There is so much for us to continue to gain knowledge and continue to fill in those gaps. So that's going to mean that your armory, your tool belt is full of knowledge but that journey never ends. That's not a one step, oh, I've learned everything! Because things happen in the world. Knowledge is a continual process.

Christin G. Gutierrez (13:01):

Yeah, absolutely. I often say that the second that you stop learning, you might as well die because life is all about learning new things and adapting and every experience teaches us something new. And once we stop learning from those experiences, really we're just existing.

Alison Wheeler (13:20):

Absolutely. I agree. I say you're either learning or dying and even if you think you are wanting to hold and stay the same, that's a non-existing thing because there is change going on outside of you in the environment, in the world all of the time. You might think you are staying still. But I can tell you now, if you think you're staying still, you're going downhill.

Christin G. Gutierrez (13:49):

Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree. So. Why is the environment around an entrepreneur so important?

Alison Wheeler (14:00):

Well, I think that we've probably all heard something about the five people you hang around. I think that applies. Environment is really interesting. There's a few things because it's the people, but it's also your physical environment as well. And from a physical environment perspective, we can feel like you literally have no space. No space in your life. If everything's cluttered and you've got no literal, no room or none of your own space, it's very difficult to operate in that. Create space. Create room. You want these huge big results to come in, create space, declutter, get rid of stuff that you don't need that's just cluttering, right? Clutter: get rid of it, you don't need it. It's noise in your mind. It's noise in your space. So that's from an environmental perspective. And then in terms of people as well, you need a team around you that are supporting, that are championing you, that are on your side because being an entrepreneur is not an easy journey.

(15:12):

You will be confronted by so many more things. You will be confronted by your perception of who you are and your own self-esteem and your own self-confidence and you will be addressing that every day. You're confronted every day by things that you have no idea how to overcome. And so having that, setting yourself up with that right environment. And a big part of that is communication. Are you communicating to the people around you what your goals are? And are you actually asking for what you need? I work with a lot of people who think they're communicating their needs and asking for assistance and support and all of those things. But they're not actually communicating it clearly. They'll say I'm going to be late coming home. But the expectation of that one communication is that the other person on the receiving end of that knows that what that means is they need the washing taken out, kids picked up, they need the meal, the dinner meal cooked, etc.

(16:20):

How is that other person supposed to read your mind to know that you saying “I'm going to be late”, means all these other things? And so then you come home and you're annoyed because none of it’s done. So as an entrepreneur as well, you've got to really up your level of communication because there's more. There's more moving parts in your life as an entrepreneur than there is at any other moment. So you write your communication needs up to that same level: clear communication. Communication is not just speaking communication is that you communicate, you tell someone something, you make sure that they understood it -

Christin G. Gutierrez (17:08):

Right? Because that's a huge thing. There are people who are indirect speakers and direct speakers and there are people who when you speak to them, they're trying to figure out what exactly it is that you mean? They're reading between the lines. Even if you haven't put anything between the lines, they're trying to figure it out. And that can tend to have negative effects whenever they think that maybe you are angry at them or disappointed in them or whatever. But how are they listening to you? If you ask somebody, if you say, “man, the trash is really getting full,” are they going to go and take that trash out because they know that you're really saying take the trash out or are they just going to say, “yeah, it is” because they think that you made a statement. So I think that a lot of arguments happen and disappointments and disagreements happen because the people we’re speaking to also don't understand exactly what it is that we're saying.

Alison Wheeler (18:14):

Absolutely. And also in addition to that, if the communication's not clear, we're thinking about the trash, the other person can also take that as a criticism and now you're in a whole ‘nother world. Correct? Right. Then it really goes down a very slippery slope really quick. And also to be clear, when you are actually communicating clearly, so let's say we are talking about the trash, “can you take the trash out?” The other person may hear that and say yes. Now you might mean can you take the trash out right now, right? You think it's an urgent “Now”, but that other person might very well be in the middle of something else. You still have not communicated clearly your needs because you don't know. Can that other person fulfill that need in the way that you need it right then and there? Or does there need to be a negotiation right around the time of taking out the trash?

(19:19):

And so it would be, can you take the trash out now because I can see it's urgent. The other person then has the ability to go,” yes or no, I can't, but I can do it in half an hour. I'm in the middle of something else.” Right? Better communication. No gray lines or murky waters or anything like that. And everyone also has clear expectations of each other. And it might seem, I think sometimes we think these things are ridiculous or a waste of time, but it just builds better relationships ,with clearer communication. And then you have another part of staying out of overwhelm, because then there's more clarity.

Christin G. Gutierrez (20:09):

Yeah, absolutely. So how do people develop that environment that's going to support their growth, especially entrepreneurs.

Alison Wheeler (20:18):

A big part is communication. A huge part of that is communicating and sharing a vision. Having people be one, be clear on what your vision is. Be clear on your goals. Be clear on your vision and your purpose. Have them written down and communicated with the people around you. Ask for support, ask for support how you need it. It might be, sometimes I'll say to my husband, look, I'm just going to have a little bit of a vent right now and all I need you to actually say to me is everything's going to be okay. I don't even care if it's not going to be. Just tell me that at the end. Because, I don't want him to solve it. I just need him to tell me it's going to be okay. I know what I need at that moment. So building those environments in the way you want is important.

(21:16):

Now sometimes that can mean that some relationships have to end in that way. Think about it, you've got your people who you keep really close. You want them to be your champions. And then if there are people who are not willing to be your champions, they might need to move out into a slightly, sometimes those can't necessarily exit them right out of your life. So if's not possible, you move them to a different sphere. And then just what you communicate with those people will change. You won't necessarily share with those people your entrepreneurial dreams and goals because all you're going to hear is negativity. You don't need that in your world. So stop communicating on that particular subject. Talk about the weather, talk about something else. You can still have a relationship with someone who's a family member or significant. If they're not a champion for you, you just talk about things that they're interested in as opposed to those things because you are opening up a door to be attacked. Don't do that.

Christin G. Gutierrez (22:27):

There's nothing worse than telling somebody like something that you're super excited about and all of your plans and goals and dreams and they just have this glazed look in their eyes and they're thinking about something else and they change the subject and you're just like, wow. I mean I just shared something really important with you and, it means nothing to you. So you realize after a while the people who are there to be your cheerleaders and to support you and lift you up and the people who you really can't share your dreams with because they're either going to talk crap about 'em or they're going to try to talk you out of it, which is more a reflection on the fact that they don't think that they could achieve your goals than whether you could or not, or they're just not going to care.

Alison Wheeler (23:17):

Absolutely. And I think too when you can, and this is something that I had needed to learn and probably understand more than learn, is: if you are really going for it in life, you will make other people uncomfortable. But that's okay. That's not on you. That's on them to choose to feel uncomfortable, being okay with the fact that it will be uncomfortable. And as you go for it in life and go after your goals as well, you are going to also attract negativity. You can't avoid it. You will not avoid that negativity. You will not avoid someone not liking what you are doing. And we can try and avoid rejection so much, but it's hindering your growth. It's hindering your growth of yourself and your business. Y have to understand that rejection is part of growing your business. And I really dislike the saying “you’ve got to grow a thicker skin”.

(24:28):

That's a ridiculous saying because you are not, and some of those things just do hurt. It's more to acknowledge and to move on as opposed to growing thick and you're not a robot. And so it's understanding that rejection is part of the process. Naysayers are part of growth, but you're going to get that whether you take your entrepreneurial journey or you don't. There's always going to be someone judging you negatively for some reason. We think when we hear it in our entrepreneurial journey, that means more, no, that was going to say that about you. Someone was going to say that about you anyway.

Christin G. Gutierrez (25:13):

Yeah, I mean it really is just part of the process. I mean, as an entrepreneur, there are going to be people that can't stand you and they're going to talk bad about you and there's going to be people who absolutely love you and they're going to be your biggest champions. And that is just part of the process. Rejection is hard and I think that rejection shows up in other places too, like an inability to ask for the sale because they're afraid of being rejected in that sales process. Why is it so hard for people to ask for the sale?

Alison Wheeler (25:47):

Yeah, that’s such an interesting one. One because you haven't practiced it. You haven't done it before. So when you want to be successful and you're going into new ground, we want to be the expert before we've been the beginner. You are going to suck at asking for the sale initially because you haven't done it. If you haven't done it, it's uncomfortable, it's fearful, it's horrendous. In fact, particularly when it's your thing. If you went to your job and you get told you have to ask for the sale, it's uncomfortable, but you do it well. Think of yourself. You are the CEO of your business. You are employing yourself as the salesperson. And part of that sales process is to ask for the sale. And it gets more comfortable the more you do it. Now, for some people that may be one time and they're more comfortable. For some people that might be 1000 times and they feel more comfortable. And notice, I say, “more” comfortable. It doesn't necessarily mean you love it or feel fully comfortable, but the more you do that process the better you get because you actually have a win out of it. I think we have a misconception of what sales is. If you are not selling, you cannot get your value into someone else's hands.

(27:13):

What sales is: it's the exchange of your value to the other person. You, you're giving them a gift. If they're talking to you -  they expect you to ask. And when you don't, they're like, what? Now what do I do? Because they don't know it. People don't know. You've got to lead them on the process. You're going to help them walk the process with you to exchange your value for what they are looking for.

Christin G. Gutierrez (27:48):

And sales is service too. If you look at it that way. It's much less resistance to ask for the sale when you realize that if you truly believe in what it is that you're selling, that they need what it is you have to offer. If you don't offer them, you're doing them a disservice. You have to offer them the sale so that they can get the result that you offer. Without offering the sale, their lives are never going to change. And I think it makes it a little bit easier when you look at it that way as sales as a service rather than it being sleazy or used car salesman.

Alison Wheeler (28:25):

Oh, absolutely. And then I think there's the follow up as well. The people, not only do they not ask for the sale, then often people won't follow up either. And you will have a percentage of people that will say yes straight away, but then you have more percentage that will say yes later with the follow up, you're leaving such a substantial part of your business off the table. One, if you don't ask for the sale, you're leaving it all on the table, but then a substantial percentage will be from following up. And that's just as important as asking for the sale in the first place.

Christin G. Gutierrez (29:09):

Absolutely. Absolutely. So what would be your greatest tip, technique or strategy for achieving success?

Alison Wheeler (29:19):

For me, I think it's the structure. What has certainly worked for me with working with people is: what do you actually want? Step one gets super clear on what do you want, what's the ideal for you? Not for everyone else or anything, but for you? And then look out there: has that been done before? Has someone done that before? Look for where maybe. And set the bar as high as you can because then at least you're going to get off the ground. You're going to be motivated to move. And then from there, find mentors or coaches or whoever, or listen to podcasts, listen to and read books, whatever you can to get the knowledge to bridge the gaps and put in a game plan, break that vision, that goal, all the way down to as small as you need to so you can start stepping forward towards it and listen to your intuition, listen to your gut. There's so much wisdom in my book. I've got it. I talk about following the breadcrumbs. So I mean, I don’t know about you, Christin, but for me, my mind doesn't stop very often -

Christin G. Gutierrez (30:49):

All the time..

Alison Wheeler (30:49):

Maybe when I’m sleeping. But I don't think it even does then, right? 

Christin G. Gutierrez (30:53):

It's like a computer with a million browser tabs open at all times.

Alison Wheeler (30:58):

At all times, right? Welcome to being an entrepreneur! But you have that big audacious goal that you want to go after. Your mind is starting to work on that all the time. And then you'll get these ideas into your mind that just seem like they come out of nowhere. No they haven't. Your brain's been working and your mind's been paying attention to that goal the whole time. Follow those things. Just follow through on those ideas as fast as you can, immediately, because if you don’t put time in, then you will back out of it. You'll find all the reasons. So fast action also is something that is such a key to success that everyone wants to procrastinate but procrastinate on procrastination. Thank you very much procrastination for wanting to take me out of the game. I understand you're trying to protect, literally you can talk to procrastination. I'll come back to you later. I don't have time right now, but I will come back to you later. Literally, you can procrastinate on procrastination. It's how to get in control of it.

Christin G. Gutierrez (32:09):

I love that. And I, I've actually utilized that in my own life because I used to procrastinate through perfectionism. I wanted to be, everything needed to be, so perfect, and I was never satisfied with anything that I did. And because of that, I would procrastinate. Oh, I don't have time to get it perfect right now, so I'll do that later. And once I realized that that was not bringing me to where I wanted to be in life, where I knew that I could be in life, I decided to start procrastinating on procrastination. So I would tell myself, well, I'll procrastinate later right now I'm going to act. And it's life changing once you reframe your life that way where you're like, you know what? That's not the way I'm going to do things anymore. I'll procrastinate some other time.

Alison Wheeler (33:09):

Yeah, it's a game changer. It is an absolute game changer. And as a performance athlete, I used to use that all of the time because you cannot have nonsense in your mind going on when you need to be performing at a higher level. So I would do it, it's such a game changer, that particular skill.

Christin G. Gutierrez (33:32):

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I really appreciated you coming on the show today, and I know our listeners received a ton of value from you. Before you go, I have one last question for you. Would you rather launch a product before it's a hundred percent ready or wait until it's fully developed?

Alison Wheeler (33:54):

Oh, I would launch it before it's a hundred percent right. Absolutely.

Christin G. Gutierrez (33:58):

I figured you'd say that after our conversation.

Alison Wheeler (34:01):

Yeah, hundred percent.

Christin G. Gutierrez (34:04):

Well, that's all for this episode of Model the Master, where we've been speaking with Alison Wheeler. Remember to subscribe and leave us a review if you've received value. Until next time, keep modeling excellence. You've been listening to Model the Master Podcast, brought to you by Increpreneur. If you've found value, please remember to subscribe and leave us a review and until next time, remember, to take the next step.