This episode will help anyone who struggles with their identity as a creative entrepreneur. We talked about school, growing up with a single mom, lifelong learning, starting your own business, building an app, marketing, and how to build a value ladder. If anyone speaks to the just keep learning mindset, it’s Ali Jones. She is an expert in all things brand building, parenting and productivity. She started out in nursing, followed by Hollywood, and then became a coach, entrepreneur, and fitness expert. With so much life experience that provided equal struggle to success, she has a lot to share about how to stay healthy while being a multi-passionate business owner.
Our guest in this episode, Ali Jones, lives by the belief that we only get one life, so we might as well give it a shot to do what we truly love. Ali is one of those multi-passionate leaders who has tried many things but never failed because she always learned.
When you get to know Ali you will get a sense that continually finding out what you really love is the definition of success. A career isn’t only about money, it can be about connecting with a new audience, helping others succeed and finding what really brings your passion to life.
In episode 6 of The Just Keep Learning Podcast, we discussed the path she took to get to where she is, which included pursuing her first dream to be an actress, working as a nurse, time spent working on Hollywood films, starting her own business and much more.
Ali talked about why she wasn’t overly keen on pursuing acting when she saw The Rock and other celebrities endure the popular life and how it helped steer her in the right direction. As she made this decision she cemented a belief that it’s more important to do things in line with our true values than chase things like prestige, or fame.
Once she decided to go into business as an entrepreneur for herself she knew that the number one thing she could focus on was networking. She was willing to give up some personal revenue, and a paycheque to be mentored by those who have built businesses already. And that led to her building the confidence to launch her own app-based business.
Like any intelligent person starting a business, Ali knew to focus on community, customer journey and solving a pain point. Ali built a web based app to create digital business cards as a means of making networking more efficient. Ali made it clear that accomplishing something like this is never an end game. As entrepreneurs we often pursue multiple ventures and ideas. Some will work, some won’t but we will always learn.
Since learning is such an important topic for this show, Ali shared her own struggles with school. As she struggled through math she didn’t realize she had dyscalculia and built coping strategies to make it through. She was one of those students who knew how to play the game to succeed within the institution, but mentioned that we should not let grades determine our worth. It’s a trap where we think grades actually matter in the real world when they in fact don’t at all.
We got into discussing topics of vulnerability, growth mindset and lifelong learning. We talked about her previous passions and the importance of high quality marketing, instead of gimmicks, or fads that come and go. Ali also told us which resources and people inspire and teach her about success in life and business.
Example Value Ladder
A value ladder is made up of the possible touch points a customer, or community member could have with your business. They range from free to expensive and can be only a couple of things, or many. Here is an example mentioned by Ali in our interview.
- Free download (course, e-book, podcast) that brings real value on the topic that your possible customers, or audience will really appreciate
- Free 30 minute call where you don't do any research ahead of time. Just focus on whatever the client could need most and discuss possible solutions to social media, brand building, goal setting and productivity. Give some possible action steps to go and apply.
- 60 minutes paid coaching where there was some research beforehand about areas of improvement, possible ideas and themes to discuss. A power hour where you can discuss the current pros and cons of the business, or life goals. As well as a prescription for next action steps. Could include a courteous follow up call for 15 minutes or so in the future.
- Paid course or membership with ongoing learning and support for a set price, or monthly recurring revenue where over time you are able to contextually support a group with their goals. Ideally it creates a community to support each other and gives support over an extended period of time.
- One on one coaching experience, where the topics from the course, or membership can be tackled in depth and very specific to the individual. Ideally regular follow up and a contract that extends over a few months will have the greatest impact.
Memorable Quotes
“Nobody can help you get to that next level in your business unless you're honest about where it is you need to get and what you need to get there. Nobody can help. They will help you, if you tell them how and if you're honest. But if you're pretending like you're already there and you've already quote-unquote made it, then obviously no one's going to lift a finger.”
“I would say that I wish I had quit trying to blame somebody else for it, regardless of if there is somebody to blame. At the end of the day, you're the only person that can really fix it.”
“I was with Dwayne Johnson, The Rock. I was assigned to give him his cues for the scene. And it was probably like a three hour process. It was a really long shoot that day. And he is the kindest person in the entire universe. And he was constantly stopping to go and manage "celebrity-ness" of signing autographs.”
“When it comes to collaboration with similar business owners, instead of them being competition, I really respect them and love what they're doing, and I wouldn't want to do exactly what it is that they're doing. So it's a great way for me to be able to bring that other missing piece that my course doesn't provide and gives them an opportunity to plug their business too.”
“Grades always try to determine your worth. But I think it's really your perseverance to get over whatever systemic system is set up, you can have the worst grades in school or not even finish, but if you can still find value in learning, as long as you can still do something that you feel proud of, that's going to give you all the confidence you need that grades can never do because grades aren't real life.”
Guest Bio
Ali Jones is a highly experienced customer service and marketing professional with a broad range of skills and expertise in multiple disciplines. When it comes to business she is excellent in sales, research, promotions, customer management, copywriting and speaking.
To say she has a lot of life and career experience would be a huge understatement. She has worked as a personal assistant for Hollywood filmmaking, built an app as a CEO of her own company, and worked in nursing. She uses the valuable and varied insights she’s gained from her background to help people understand and stay consistent with their personal brand. She also helps businesses grow their potential customer awareness, increase conversion rates and develop practical marketing solutions.
Ali's experience developing and launching new products gives customers confidence in her ability to quickly understand, assess, and recommend solutions to a variety of hurdles inherent in the brand development and customer retention process. She is also a very effective coach when it comes to life, productivity, social media and business goals.
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