Alison Prince is a successful entrepreneur and host of the Because I Can Life podcast. She’s joining me today to talk about how to easily create wealth. Even if you’re not a business-minded-mama, this conversation is going to inspire you. I’m so excited. Let’s jump in!
In This Episode Allie and Alison Discuss:
How to make money with what you have
How to market your product
Where to sell your product
Choosing your product
Giving your product value
Accepting wealth
Mentioned in this Episode:
Courses (Use the code PURPOSESHOW for 10% off!)
The Purpose Show Facebook Community
BUSINESS WITH EASE
This bundle includes my most-requested business training videos + a workbook to help you do the inner work along the way.
Mom life. We’re surrounded by the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. We’re supposed to get through it. Survive. Cling on by the last little thread. And at the same time, Carpe Diem—enjoy every moment because it’s going to go by so fast. The typical mom culture that sends us all kinds of mixed, typically negative messages. We shouldn’t take care of ourselves; it’s selfish. The more ragged you run yourself, the bigger your badge of honor. But also, ditch your mom bod and work out. Don’t yell. Make more money. Show up. Be better, but not at the expense of time with your kids. I am putting a hard stop to all of this. While being a mom, running a business, and whatever else you might have going on is hard, it is a lot and there’s lots of giving of yourself, the idea that motherhood means living a joyless, nonstop-hustle-with-zero-balance kind of life, where you give and give and give and never take, needs to stop.
I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime (at least most days). Stop the mom guilt and shame game. Stop cleaning up after your kids’ childhood and start being present for it. I want to help you thrive in work, home and life. I believe in John 10:10 that we are called to living an abundant life and I know moms are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, some business and life hacks, spirituality and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.
Hello, my love! Welcome to another episode of The Purpose Show podcast.
I’m so honored to have you here today and I’m honored to have my guest for today here as well. Alison Prince and I met in a mastermind last year and I really, really love her. I was drawn to her because I’ve never personally been in a mastermind where there was another successful woman with four kids.
Alison is a successful entrepreneur. She also has four kids and she’s passionate about handing down her entrepreneurship to her kids, which is another rarity. I feel that way as well and to meet someone else that feels that way was really amazing. We hit it off for all those reasons.
I have come to learn that Alison is a complete badass. She’s amazing. She has built several multi-million dollar online businesses, literally from the ground up, out of nothing. She talks about that in this episode. It’s super inspiring.
She’s been featured in Forbes. She is a chronic self-starter. She just likes to start things, grow it into massive levels of success, and then say, “Yeah, I’m done with that. I’m going to sell that. I’m going to simplify and just focus on this one because I like it better.”
She’s aligned with who she really is. She’s stepped into her purpose. She’s spreading the light that she has like wildfire to other people, to other women. Helping them start businesses that are successful with her 0-100K system that she developed and teaches online. She’s just amazing.
She’s also the host of the Because I Can Life Podcast. She’s one of those people that you just want to sink into her energy and be around her. And you’re going to pick up on that in this episode.
If you are a mom, whether you do or do not have the desire to have a business, you’re going to be inspired by this episode. So, let’s welcome my friend, Alison, and please enjoy this incredible, authentic, humble, inspiring, powerful conversation with my friend.
ALLIE: Well, hi friend! Thank you for being here.
ALISON: We have a lot to talk about today! Thanks for having me.
ALLIE: Of course! Start by telling us about you and your family. You guys live in Puerto Rico. You’re so interesting and amazing. I think you’re a brilliant entrepreneur and you’re an amazing mother. So, just tell us all about your life.
ALISON: I went to school to be a junior high teacher. My first month of teaching, they handed me my first paycheck and said I qualified for government assistance. To me that was the biggest slap in the face, because my whole life I had heard that if you went to college you would have financial security. So when that wasn’t happening, it hurt.
At the time my husband was going to school full time and we had just had a baby. I was pretty exhausted. I had this feeling like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t even buy food. I have government assistance to help me buy food. I don’t understand this concept.”
So, I started a tutoring business at night. I did that for about a month and I woke up one morning and said, “I’m not going to live this life of working two jobs.”
I was nursing my newborn, never seeing my husband. And I thought, “I don’t want this life. This isn’t what life’s about. I have to figure things out.”
So, I went through and tried a few things here and there. Fast forward a few years to when I have four kids. The toilet paper bill is insane, right? My husband graduated from college at that point as a physical therapist.
We were living the paycheck-to-paycheck life. It’s not like we were out of food. We could still put food on our table, but every time I went to the grocery store I thought, “I don’t have enough money to put food on someone else’s table.”
That really bothered me. I wanted to figure out how to create an income with four kids at home because I couldn’t go back to school. It would have cost me money to go back to school with babysitting and all the things. So I started looking everywhere to figure out what I could do.
I came across an online store and thought I could start an online store. But two things came into play. You had to have a lot of inventory and you had to have a lot of money. I didn’t have either.
And so I looked around my makeshift office and found some trash. Do you know what vinyl lettering is? Have you ever heard of that? It is black sticky paper that you can cut out and put a quote on your wall.
But I didn’t have a cutter to cut it. My cutter was broken. So I just took these strips of basically black, sticky paper, put it online and I ended up making my first $200 – $300.
I remember uploading it. I was nursing my baby, my fourth baby, typing one handed because if you’ve ever nursed or bottle fed, you only have one hand available. I remember hitting the submit button, feeling all the hot sweats, all of the imposter syndrome, all those feelings of, “Who am I? I’m selling trash for crying out loud. Who am I to be doing this?”
But I did it anyway. Then I started hearing the “cha-chings” go off. It was at that moment that I realized, “Oh my gosh! I can create my own income. I’m still in my pajamas. My hair is out-of-control messy. I can create my own money from home.”
I think it was at that moment where I had that true belief that I could create money without a boss telling me. I stepped into this role of, “The sky’s the limit. I can figure out how to grow these online businesses and still have these kids at my feet.”
And I did it. I remember waking up at 5:00 AM. I’m not a morning person, but I did it so I could get everything set up on the site. Then when my kids woke up, I could start the breakfast routine and get my older ones to elementary school.
I did that for a long time. And I was okay with it, even with not being a morning person, because I knew I could see the dream of me putting food on other people’s tables. That was such a strong desire for me. So when we had that first win, we were literally dancing around the kitchen, up in arms screaming.
ALLIE: What you did, going through college and being a teacher to making $200 – $300 from one upload with something that was just in the corner of your house somewhere, I feel like I would have been toggling between, “This is such a slap in the face to teachers and people that go through college to do something. But also this is awesome!”
ALISON: For me, in that moment I felt like I had won the lottery, because of the potential that was there for me. But here’s the deal. The second day I posted something and I didn’t sell a thing. The third day I posted something and I didn’t sell a thing.
I remember I was in the garage with my husband and I looked at him and said, “I made $200. Hurrah. Yay! And I think I’m going to quit. I won once. And then I lost twice. I think I’m going to quit.”
And we went about doing our thing. Then I heard this strong impression. It was so loud. I thought Jared said it to me. It said, “I showed you the possibility. How dare you quit?”
I believe in God, so if you’re listening and you don’t believe in God, the higher power, the universe, whoever is lifting you to be a better person spoke to me so clearly and said, “You can’t quit. I just showed you it’s possible. Don’t quit.”
At that moment I decided my God was my business partner. He’s a really good business partner, by the way. I’ll just put it out there.
The next morning, I posted something else and I sold out. I decided at that moment, with God as my business partner, I had to get in the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship 100%. And I did it. By the first year we’d crossed the million dollar mark. By the second year we’d crossed the multi-million dollar mark.
I still to this day have never taken an official business class. Ever. My business class was actually in the doing it. In figuring out, “Oh, this works. Oh, this doesn’t work. Oh, this works.”
I really feel like a lot of women that get started, a lot of moms that get started, they feel like they have to have everything perfect. Everything set up. The branding, the tags, everything. And it just gets so complicated.
I go back to that first moment where I basically Jimmy-rigged the whole thing to see if I could get some sales coming in. My product was really good, but nothing was branded. And I was okay with that to test it, to put it out there. If I would’ve waited to have perfection, I still wouldn’t have started.
ALLIE: That’s how it was in the beginning for me too. Same thing. I just got it out there.
There are places on the website where you have to have a logo. I remember just throwing something up that I made. I don’t even know where I made it because Canva wasn’t a thing yet. There was nothing. I don’t know what it was, but it was for sure embarrassing.
You just go. You’re holding up your standards to somebody who’s 5 years in, 10 years in, and wanting to have your logo, your branding, all your stuff set up like them. But you don’t realize that we all started with total crap and it worked.
ALISON: Have you ever gone back and looked at old Google screenshots of your sites?
ALLIE: Yes, I have and it’s all the feels when I do that.
ALISON: I heard somewhere that if you look back on Google and see some of your old sites and you don’t cringe, then you waited too long. Get out there and make cringe-worthy stuff. Now it’s okay, but in six months you’ll look back and you’ll think, “Ugh!” but at least you’re doing it. At least you’re moving forward.
Then, to move forward a little bit faster, one of the next products I found was behind my shed. It was this long stick of wood. I cut it into blocks of wood and I was taking pictures of it. And my neighbor walks over and he asks, “Alison, what are you doing?”
And I said, “I’m going to sell these blocks of wood.”
He looked at me straight in the eyes and said, “You’re gonna sell trash?”
He was so dead serious. I was so glad at that moment that I didn’t listen to his words. I just brushed him off and I went forward with it because I saw a vision. I didn’t see a product. I saw what you could do with the blocks of wood.
I listed them on my website. And within the first day I sold $9,000 in blocks of wood. From the stick of wood I was able to create a couple sets. Then, when they started selling, I called my best friend and said, “Stacy, help me find more blocks of wood.”
She was trying to find local manufacturers to get us blocks of wood that could ship it to us in two days so we could fill the orders. Then we just let it open and we sold over $9,000. That paid off my minivan in full that day. I was like, “Woo-hoo!”
I love simplicity. Do the simple, because simple works. The common stuff that you have around your house. You can create this vision around it and start creating income with stuff that you already have.
When you declutter, what do you do with it? Do you take it to the secondhand store? Why don’t you just put it up on a couple of sites?
ALLIE: Yeah. I actually did that in the very beginning. Once I was really going, I’m like, “Oh, now I don’t need these containers anymore. Now I don’t need this piece of furniture that was holding crap anymore.”
We would have garage sales every weekend. There was no website, but it was awesome. I just think that there’s potential in everything that’s right in front of you. And if you’re stuck, if you say, “I really want to buy this course and invest in my business, but I don’t have the money,” Money is a resource that can be created literally out of thin air.
I always think about how we don’t even really see money anymore. It’s invisible. It’s like, “Oh, I swiped this piece of plastic and the money went from me to you.”
It doesn’t even really exist anymore. It’s magic. You can literally create it out of thin air. And now people are making new forms of money with Bitcoins. It’s all a frigging game. If you open up to how cool that is and how limitless that is and decide to just create money, opportunities will start to pop up all around you.
ALISON: They totally do. They totally do. I love how you said you did garage sales. For me, I hate garage sales. Don’t make me stand out there and haggle 5 cents off my thousand dollar furniture that I bought. I don’t like that haggling game.
You can literally sell online. You don’t even have to build these big, complicated websites. You don’t even have to have a logo. They do that for you. Super, super easy sites.
You load up your stuff. They do the bulk of the work for you. So you can get that money coming in so that you have money to invest in the thing that you eventually want to do.
When people come to me and they say, “I don’t have any money.” I say, “What’s the problem? Create it. You’ve got crap in your house.”
We have a neighbor that just moved here and she didn’t have anything in her house. Literally nothing in her house. She went to the local secondhand store here in Puerto Rico and worked out a deal and said, “I’ll come at the end of the day. I’ll give you $20 if I can take 20 items.”
The lady said, “Okay.” She goes in and gets a product for a dollar, puts it up on eBay, Mercari, Poshmark. It makes anywhere from $25 to $250. This helped to supplement her family’s income so that her husband didn’t have to get two or three jobs.
Stories like that help uncomplicate it, help take the pressure off. You looking at the site that’s been around for 10 years. That has money to have inventory. That has professional designers.
I think we try to speed up who we are. Then we let comparison get in our heads. And that’s where the overwhelm starts. You have to be okay with where you’re at and then take that next step.
God didn’t give me a full step. He only gave me a half a step. All I could handle was half a step. And He says, “Will you do it?”
I said, “Yeah, but I’m scared.” But I did it.
He said, “Okay, now here’s the rest of the step.”
And that’s what led me to building this multi-million dollar business with four kids at my feet. We had a dog. I mean, we were like the Prince parade. That’s what we called ourselves.
Everywhere we went, it was chaotic. It was loud. It was noisy. And then we had a pooper scooper for the dog. That’s just what our life was.
All right. Here’s the fun part. I thought I was a one hit wonder. And so I thought, “I’m going to start another business. Maybe I just got lucky.” So I started another business. By year two, we hit a multi-million there.
ALLIE: What was this business?
ALISON: In the first business, every single day we had a new product on. But I didn’t want to do that this time because I was constantly trying to find new products all the time and going through inventory. So with the next business I wanted to simplify it. How can I simplify this business? So I sold pillowcases.
People say, “I have to have a Shark Tank idea. I have to have this brand new invention.”
I promise you don’t. I sold blocks of wood. I sold strips of black, sticky paper. I sold pillowcases. I created two multi-million dollar businesses. You don’t have to be fancy.
Take what’s common and then go use the resources that you currently have. You’ve got them. Go put them out and make the money.
Then I thought, “Okay, that’s fun. I wonder if my daughters can do this?”
I actually taught my daughters how to do it. They sold over six figures before they stepped foot into high school. They’re 10 and 13. They’re learning how to use deodorant. All the tween, teenager things, right?
They sold over six figures by selling scarves. How many billions of scarves have ever been sold? For centuries scarves had been sold. They stepped into it and they rode it. They have money to pay for college if they decide to go.
ALLIE: OK, I want to get into the details. Where are you guys getting these things? Are you making them? Are you getting them? What is the process?
ALISON: I can’t even sew a straight line. I don’t even know how to use a bobbin and put the thread through the needle, I don’t even qualify for that type of work.
ALLIE: Okay. So where are you getting these things? How does it work? What’s the process? Where were your daughters getting the scarves? Walk us through all that.
ALISON: Okay. Can I divide it into two parts?
The first part—your own crap. The stuff that you have lying around the house. Take it and put it on Poshmark, Mercari, eBay, someplace that will allow you to sell used stuff. Then you’re not haggling as much. You can even do Craigslist. Find your local one and that can help you get the cash to do the next thing.
Then the next thing I recommend is to open up your own store. I love the platform called Shopify because their customer service is phenomenal. I’ve seen businesses go from scrappy to multi-million dollar businesses because they’re the expert in shopping carts.
I know there’s a lot of other businesses that do shopping carts. But I see it like this: if my son broke his arm and he needed surgery on it, I wouldn’t go to a general doctor. I would want to go to an expert on bone growth with children because I want my son’s arm not to bother him the rest of his life. I feel like Shopify is that expert and they do shopping carts really well.
ALLIE: We are about to switch everything over to them because they’re so good. It’s beautiful and easy and familiar. So yeah, we’ll link to them. I’m glad you said that.
ALLIESON: Yep. We love Shopify.
So what the girls did to get their product, they only had a quarter in their piggy bank and a couple of stuffed animals, so they actually came to us and they borrowed $200. And don’t worry, we charged them interest because that’s what the real world does, right? It was like pennies for interest, but we wanted to show them that loans have interest.
They went over to a place called FashionGo. It’s a site in California where they’ve got all the fashion and they decided to sell scarves. I’ve created something called The Secret Trend Generator, which pulls the top selling products together. When you go and start selling a product, you don’t have to be unique. It’s really good to sell what other people are selling.
Now, when I say that I’m not saying to steal someone’s idea. I’m saying, look for the trends. If you see in the fashion world that florals are trending, put florals on a notebook. Put florals on sunglasses. Put florals on a hat. You’re using that trend to help you guide yourself when you go and choose product.
They took that $200. They bought $200 worth of scarves. I think they paid $3.99 a scarf. They put them on their Shopify store. Someone on social media who has a following—an influencer— showed the scarves and it drove traffic to the girls’ store.
Then they started making sales. Now their margins were tiny, tiny, tiny. They were testing to see if the product was selling. When they saw it was selling, then we went to China and that’s where the importing starts.
There’s all sorts of places you can buy from China—Alibaba, Aliexpress. You don’t have to go over there. And I don’t think we can right now since everything’s locked down. But you build these relationships with these manufacturers over there.
They saw that the Chevron print was trending, so they wanted a Chevron scarf to put in their store. Then they started working with these influencers to drive traffic. And that’s how they sold their first six figures.
That’s the basis of how I’ve run all of my e-commerce businesses. I honestly don’t know how to do Facebook ads. That seems a little complicated for me.
Now I have a course and I have a guy that runs my Facebook ads, but for my ecommerce stuff it’s so fun to go to an influencer who I love, adore and have been following and say, “You’ve been talking about your favorite things. What if I find a product that you can sell so you can make money? Your customer gets what they want and we can make sales.”
It creates this three-way win triangle. Then I get to write a check to this influencer and not to Mark Zuckerberg. He’s got enough money. He’s probably listening to this somehow, getting it flagged. That’s why I whispered his name.
We were selling these blankets one time and there was an influencer and I was trying to get her attention. I saw that she loved cheese sandwiches, so I bought a whole bunch of cheese sandwiches erasers, a stuffed cheese sandwich thing, and then I put my product in the middle. I shipped that to her.
She opened it up and she was like, “I don’t care what it is you’re selling. I’m going to figure out how to use it and sell it to my audience because you took the time to care for me. You sent me a whole bunch of cheese sandwich erasers. Who does that?”
I do. I went in with service first and they were super excited to promote the business. We did really well with that.
You don’t have to complicate it. Our brains automatically go to complication. Sell the crap in your house. Get some money. Have that as your first launch of product.
Then you build a simple Shopify store. You can have one product on there. They’ve got themes that make it look beautiful with one product.
People ask how many products they have to have. One. That’s it. Then you sell that. You get more money to maybe buy two products and you do it half a step by half a step.
Then you’re going to get to the point where I got. I ended up growing eight businesses at the same time. Everybody listening—Allie, you too—hold your hand up and pinky promise me that you will never, ever own eight businesses at the same time.
ALLIE: For real. Even the times that I’ve toggled between Instagram accounts, I was like, “Whoa, Whoa, this is too much for me.”
ALISON: And a lot of them, I didn’t have Instagram accounts for because I was like, “If I get the influencer to post, then I don’t have to have an Instagram account.”
I know I don’t seem like I’m an introvert, but I’m totally an introvert. I think that’s why I started e-commerce because I didn’t want my face all over. I thought, “I don’t want to be the face of my brand, so I’m just not going to do an Instagram account and let the influencers promote it.”
It became this super, super win-win. I had all my systems running. It was good. I was happy.
And then one day everything broke in every single business. I swear it was all in the same week. I had so much on me. It was such a heavy load that at that moment I said, “I will never do this again.”
I figured out how to start condensing. How to start simplifying. We ended up selling a couple of the businesses so that I could focus on the one thing.
Now, when people come to me and they’re like, I want to start a store here. I want to start an MLM here. I want to sell lipstick. I want to sell vitamins. And they have 8 or 10 businesses, I’m like, “Stop, stop, stop, stop. Go deep on one.”
If you’re drilling for oil, are you going to hit oil if you drill 10 holes or one really deep hole? Go deep on one and you’re going to strike oil. Go deep.
Don’t go so wide. If you go wide and thin, you’re going to feel like a hot mess and stretched so thin every day. When you go deep on one, sure, you’ll have some days that feel really stressful, but it reduces the amount of pressure immensely.
Then my family said, “Mom, you’re back!”
Yeah, because I was balancing way too much. At one point I had to pinky-promise my husband that I wouldn’t start another company because it was just getting crazy.
Guys, I fully and truly, truly believe that business does not need to be complicated. Like everything else that I teach, I’m all about teaching simplicity. Focusing on what really matters.
And let me tell you, if you believe that you need complicated formulas and crazy detailed strategies, that you have to do something in the exact order, with certain steps, and a certain way that somebody else told you you have to do it, it is going to be overwhelmingly difficult for you to make progress and actually move the needle forward in your business.
It does not need to be that way. There is so, so much that I can teach you to help you release all the overcomplications you’ve brought into running your business and simplify everything so you’re making money and impact with ease.
I can help you shift these limiting beliefs that are coming up for you right now, even when I say that if you’re doubtful or you have resistance coming up.
There’s this brand new, basically it’s a mini course because it’s small, affordable, and crazy packed with information and help. It’s called Business With Ease. I put it together for you because I want to help you really simplify and streamline.
Here’s what this Business With Ease mini course is going to do for you. First of all, it includes my most requested business training videos and a workbook to help you do the inner work while you go through it. This is like a weekend project, maybe even one day.
If you just feel like your mindset is off, you don’t really know where to go in your business, you don’t know what to do next. If you feel really overwhelmed and you just want to completely bring your mindset, bring your perspective, bring your whole self back to where you feel like you really need to be in running your business, get this course – Business With Ease.
You’re going to uncover and overcome self-sabotage. You’re going to specifically identify and change your limiting beliefs that are holding you back in your business. You’re going to finally say goodbye to the feast or famine cycle in your business where you have bursts of revenue and then no revenue. You’re going to make more money by working less hours. You’re going to become a content creating machine.
And you’re going to get my affirmations for business and success. I use these every morning and I have since I lived in Arkansas and started my company. These are literally the statements that I spoke out every single morning in the beginning of my business that built it to the empire that it is today. Words are powerful.
You are powerful and you do not need to follow complicated strategies that somebody else says is the only way to do something. You can do this with ease.
Business should be fun. It should be easy. It should be light. It should be empowering, not disempowering. So alliecasazza.com/bizwithease.
See you guys there! Love you so much. You got this!
ALLIE: I can hear my listeners in my head saying, “I don’t know how to pick just one thing.”
What do you say to that panic?
ALISON: This is my favorite thing ever. When you’re thinking you want to sell a product and you’re looking at everything and your brain goes into freak out mode like, “Oh my gosh. I don’t know what to sell. What if it doesn’t sell?”
We need to figure out why. The first thing is: the product you sell today will not be the product you sell in 10 years. A lot of people think, “I’ve got to choose the right earrings because I’m going to sell earrings for the rest of my life.”
Nope. You might not. You might hate earrings in six months. Or what if you’re in baking and you really hate baking? The product you choose today does not have to define who you are, even in six months or a year from now. You can choose a product that doesn’t define you.
The second thing is: don’t invest more than you would in a dinner night with your family. We went to dinner the other day here in Puerto Rico and it was $75. I could take the $75, go invest in a product, and let’s say it doesn’t sell. Great. I’ve got Christmas presents and birthday presents for the rest of the year for my family because I thought it was cool.
But what if it does sell? Then you’re going to be making $150/$300 and proving to yourself that you can do that. I think we get caught in our heads thinking, “It’s going to define me forever and it’s going to make me bankrupt.”
No, it’s not going to define you. Just skip dinner out one night a week, one night a month to get product in, to go sell it, to create money, to help you buy more dinners for the rest of your life.
I think that’s the big thing is they feel like they’re locked into that forever. And that’s not the case ever. You start and then that guides you to where you actually need to be.
If we thought, “Okay, this is where I want to be in 10 years,” God’s going to laugh at us and say, “Oh no, I need you over here.”
We need to adjust. We need to adjust. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. You don’t sprint. You walk.
ALLIE: Yeah. It’s simplifying for clarity right now and then trusting that you’re going to find your way. It’s really about following your intuition because you intuitively will know when you’re kind of done with one thing and want to move on to the next thing and what that next thing is.
But you’re still in the same business. You’re still going deep. And you’re still balancing that strategy of simplicity with the spiritual side of trusting God and trusting yourself to find your next thing.
ALISON: And you’ll know because you’re going to wake up one day and think, “I hate earrings so bad.”
But you’ve learned the foundation. You’ve learned how to do customer service. You’ve learned how to build a website. You’ve learned how to do all the things that you do.
And so when switching to a new product, you don’t have to start at ground zero. You will never start at ground zero ever again in your life because you’re taking that step, and those steps create that clarity of where you’re supposed to go.
Oh my gosh, Allie, are you ready for this story? When I tell this story, I get the chills, sometimes the tears flow. I had one gal come in and she waited nine years to start her business because she was just so scared.
She had a lot of self doubt. She had started MLMs before. She’d done craft shows before. They didn’t go well. And so she waited nine years to start her business.
She finally did. She ended up selling necklaces, which that’s nothing new, right? She ended up selling necklaces. She invested a little bit of money and she ended up making just under $500. That was her first win.
Then she goes on to write about her husband coming into the room and he just starts celebrating her—“You did it! You did it! You did it!”
And of course we’re supposed to look for the internal self-worth but when your husband tells you that you did a good job, that feels really good. I’m not going to lie.
Two weeks later she gets an email from her customer that says, “Hey, just so you know, I bought your product. I sent it to my wife who lives on the other side of the country because we have been separated. But the second she got that necklace she called me and we’re going to work on our marriage again.”
That is the power of ecommerce. That is the power of this woman standing up and saying, “I can do this!”
For nine years Satan was pushing her back because he knew the power of this necklace, what this necklace could do. It could potentially save a marriage and family for generations.
When I see these women standing up, even through being scared. Even through self doubt. Through questioning “Am I good enough? Is this good enough?”
It is! I’ve seen people sell candles and pencils and hair scrunchies. I think about my hair scrunchie right now. I am so grateful for the person that created hair scrunchies, because when I go out on a windy day, I don’t have to have hair stuck on my lipstick.
I will be praising that inventor forever and ever. And then whenever I have to buy them, I love telling that entrepreneur, “Thank you so much for making my life easier.” And it’s just a stupid, hair scrunchie.
ALLIE: For me and my business, it’s very message-centric. There’s a big message there and there’s a big mission behind it. And I hear from a lot of women that that’s not where their ideas come from.
It’s products. It’s other things. And they tell me that they feel like there’s this lack of worthiness there and this lack of purpose behind it.
I’m so glad that you’re here, Alison. I’m so glad that you told that story and that you’re saying this because it’s not about the thing you’re selling. It’s about the fact that everybody needs something and that when you get that something and that need is met, there’s a connection there.
It’s not just about the message. It’s not about the product. Business is an exchange of energy with who’s buying it. There’s power in that. Whether it’s a scrunchie or a course about how to live a new lifestyle. It doesn’t matter. There’s no tears of purpose or worthiness.
Business is purpose. Business is exchanging energy with your customer, no matter what it is that they actually paid you for. It’s so beautiful that we can all be connected through ecommerce, connected through the internet. Sending gifts, sending love, and exchanging positive energy through what we’re doing online, whether it’s scrunchies or courses or coaching or whatever, it doesn’t matter.
ALISON: I love that you brought up about the money because when we start putting our products up for sell, whether it’s digital or physical, it just kind of goes weird. And I think it’s because, as human beings, we are so good at adding drama to every little thing.
A piece of paper with a guy’s face on it adds so much drama, right? We have to know that selling is not sales. It is putting value out into the world.
Let’s look at it this way. Allie, if you gave all your stuff away for free, people would not even log in. It’s like when you go to the parade and they’re throwing free t-shirts. It’s too big, it’s too small, it doesn’t fit, it’s the wrong color. You just throw it away.
If they were to charge, people would value that. So as you charge for your products, you’re giving the value. It has to be balanced. If not, it throws it way off and it doesn’t work.
So when people say, “I’m so scared to charge for my necklace.” I say, “Why?”
This gal just saved a marriage. I don’t know if it actually did; I’m waiting to find out. How valuable is that, though? If she was just giving this away for free, she wouldn’t be in business and that necklace wouldn’t have ever gone to that man’s wife. It has to be equal.
You have to charge money because people put value on it. And for people to use it, they need to feel like it’s a valuable product. Quit giving your stuff away for free. Quit discounting it. Quit trying to be the low price leader.
Walmart has already claimed the low price leader. You can’t take on Wally World. No way. You need to be paid.
ALLIE: Yes, you need to be paid.
Last year I learned a lesson in the amount of money that you’re charging for something. I have a course called Unburdened and I continuously was charging in the $100ish range. It was between $100 – $200.
And I just felt sick and gross every time somebody would enroll. I was resentful. The energy in the program, you could feel it was very passive. I wasn’t really giving as much as I wanted to. I wanted to do all these things and show up live and do these calls and really coach but I’m not doing it for that amount.
I was afraid to raise the price. Afraid that people would think I’m greedy. Afraid that they wouldn’t see the value.
I went on this way for years and finally I bumped it. And we gave it a live aspect. I added the things that were bursting at the seams to come out of me and into that program. The energy in that group was so massively better.
Those women were like, “Balls to the wall, we’re changing our lives.” They were so invested. Even my team was commenting that, “The energy in this group is unbelievable. It’s so much better, happier, and more all-in than anything you’ve ever done before. We love admining this group. They’re so positive.”
You can’t just say, “OK. I’m charging $100 – $200, so I’m good.”
If you know that it is more valuable, don’t say, “I’m selling this course for this price, but it’s really worth this price.”
Charge what it’s worth and the energy will match what the consumer puts into taking that course, using that product, wearing that outfit, or whatever it is. That was a huge lesson for me last year that I was preaching, but not actually living. And I’m never going back.
ALISON: Let’s take it one step further. When you charge what it’s worth then you can hire more people. With mine, I can hire coaches. In my program I’ve got coaches, I’ve got a community, and we give stuff away when people hit certain milestones.
We send them a free t-shirt. It’s like a trophy. You can’t buy the t-shirt. You have to earn the trophy when you make your first dollar. And there’s no way I can send them a t-shirt when they make their first dollar if I didn’t charge what I charge.
It’s a t-shirt, but to them they have just put on this cape. Superman puts on a cape. Why can’t we as business owners put on our capes, go out there, and serve the world?
Sales is not sales. It’s 100% service. Those blocks of woods that I sold, I didn’t go out there and say, “It’s a 1½ X 1½ block of wood. It’s brown. It’s sanded.”
Nobody would have bought that. But I said, “What you’re gonna do is you’re gonna take these blocks of wood and you’re going to glue your child’s face on a set of nine. Then you’re going to put a big bow around it and let your kids present it to grandma for Mother’s Day. And you’re gonna watch those tears flow.”
“Or imagine doing a countdown (I showed a picture of what the countdown looks like), imagine your chubby little toddler’s fingers counting down in anticipation for Santa Claus.”
That’s what sells. I was serving my audience by giving them memories, by giving them chills, by giving them what grandma really wants, which is more pictures of her grandkids that she can display on her mantle. That’s what I was serving them with. And then, yeah, I sent them blocks of wood.
ALLIE: You were sharing so much more than blocks of wood. You were sharing vision with them and helping them see potential. Message-based businesses don’t have more purpose behind them than product based businesses. There is purpose, heart, vision, and that exchange of energy behind every single thing you sell.
ALISON: Everything. And that’s how it needs to be.
We have so many people that are like, “Oh, I just thought I was selling sunglasses.”
I’m like, “No, you’re not. You are selling something that’s going to prevent eye disease and wrinkles in the future. That’s what you’re selling.”
And they’re like, “Oh, I didn’t think about that.”
We have to go back to the service of the product, not the product. Because, Allie, if you just sold your product as what it is, no one would buy it. My favorite quote from you is that your home serves you. I’m looking at the plants behind you right now and I’m like, “Oh, that feels so peaceful to me.” Those things serve you.
I love that we can have these conversations and be able to talk about how the value is all about service. Find the service and you will sell. Then you can get rid of the slimy feeling of trying to sell or ask for money. It just disappears because you’re like, “Hey, I’m going to buy these plants. They’re going to help you breathe cleaner air. They’re going to make you feel fresh.”
ALLIE: There’s a verse in Proverbs that I always reference, I think it’s in Proverbs 27 or somewhere around there, and it’s “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
And I’m sure that the context of that is different than how I use it, but that is so meaningful to me. If you don’t share vision behind what you’re selling, if you don’t have vision with where you’re going in your motherhood, your business, your life, each product, that energy you’re exchanging with the world, your followers, with your customers, your consumers, there is no vision.
It won’t go. It won’t sell. It won’t last. You will poop out because you’re not sure what you’re aiming at.
And I think if we can take that verse and apply it to every exchange, everything we sell, every week we’re planning, every vacation we’re planning with our family, every night out with our spouse. Put vision behind it and that is where purpose comes from.
ALISON: Yes. Because we’re human beings and we’re meant to serve. That never goes away. Ever.
But if we put our focus on, “I want to make $100,000,” that goes away. Put that purpose behind it of service as human beings. If we saw a grandma walking across the road who was struggling, what would we do?
We’d sprint over there to help her. Why? Because we’re human beings and we help other people. That’s what we were meant to do.
Sales is the exact same way. You’re just making someone’s life easier. No matter what it is you sell or offer to the world, you’re making their life so much better.
One more thing. If you think about it it’s really our obligation to figure out how to make money so that we can get money to pay for our neighbor’s food or to donate. Here in Puerto Rico last year, a hurricane came through and bulldozed down The Bahamas. A month later, my husband walks in the room and says, “Hey, Alison, you’re gonna see some mattresses on the credit card.”
I said, “We don’t need mattresses. What?”
And he says, “Oh I sent six mattresses over to The Bahamas because I heard a family was sleeping on their concrete slab.”
And I can just picture that mom, who has four babies, sleeping on a concrete slab. She literally has nothing, and my heart, oh my gosh. I can’t sleep on the floor one day. Sleeping on concrete should never happen.
ALLIE: This is why we can’t be afraid of getting wealthy. Wealth creates jobs. It provides clothing.
Money will only amplify what you already are. If you are generous and you get really effing rich, you are going to be a woman in power with wealth that changes the world.
I love creating jobs. I pray every time I go to the store that God will put in my path a mom or somebody that can’t check out or their food stamps aren’t working or whatever it is, and it happens every freaking time. It’s amazing. And to be able to say, “Keep scanning. I got it.” There’s so much power in that.
I’m so tired of everybody acting like martyrs when it comes to money, and just victims, and saying, “Oh, it’s not about the money. I don’t really want to charge that much because I want to help people.”
You help people by charging what you’re worth, raising that vibration, getting them to commit, and creating jobs, creating wealth. Money is a resource. It is energy. It is a tool and we have to stop being afraid of making it.
ALISON: Yeah, totally. The other day we went to this cute little crepe place here in Puerto Rico and the bill came to $51 and I said, “All right, boys, watch this.”
The lady handed me the checkout thing, and I put the tip as $50 and I handed it back to her and she said, “Oh, you messed up,” and cleared it, handed it back to me. And I said, “No, that was right. $50.”
She started to cry. I looked over at my boys straight faced like, “Oh my gosh, what is going on?” We walk out of the restaurant and they said, “Mom, that was the coolest feeling ever! You just blessed her so much.”
Let’s keep doing this. Let’s keep shocking people. Our waitresses who are working for pennies, who can only get 25% of their seats filled now because restaurants can’t even open up to capacity. Let’s make money so that we can go bless the waitresses that are struggling.
ALLIE: Let’s work to get ourselves to the point where it’s nothing, it’s a drop in the bucket. Tipping 100% is standard. That’s the goal. That’s abundance.
We serve the God of abundance. Why are we pretending that we don’t want that in our bank accounts? Why are we pretending it’s a bad thing? Why are we villainizing a resource?
ALISON: God needs you to make money because he knows you’re going to do good things with it. If you’re evil, don’t make it. I have a 100% feeling that the people that are listening right now are good people.
Get out there, make that money, and then go serve people. Leave the 100% tip for your waitress, for your hairdresser, for mattresses in the Bahamas, whatever.
ALLIE: Check out at Target and check out the person behind you too. This is what wealth can do. I’m so glad you brought that up.
ALISON: Yeah, I like to talk a lot about money.
ALLIE: I love talking about money. Absolutely.
This is incredible, friend. I feel like you’re such a server and you gave us so much, and I can’t thank you enough. I feel like this episode is going to get screenshotted and shared like crazy because people are going to love you and all the value you gave. You’re living the example that you taught us today in giving and in serving. Thank you for doing that.
Can you tell everybody where to connect with you and how to continue to learn from you? Do you have courses about ecommerce? Tell us all the things.
ALISON: I’m on Instagram @alisonjprince.
I’ve got a podcast. It’s ranking in the top 50’s! Two weeks ago it was number 26. Last week it was 36. I’m freaking out.
ALLIE: Of course it is. Every time you rise to the next level, take a deep breath, and say, “of course it is.” Of course it is because you’re amazing, you’re generous, and that energy will always come back to you.
ALISON: It’s called Because I Can Life. I believe in living “because I can.” Why can we make money? Because we can. Why can we create our own income? Because we can. Why can we go to Target and pay for someone’s groceries? Because we can. And so it’s living that “because I can life.”
We live in a place of abundance. We have a cell phone. We can make money. We have stuff around our house. We can make money. We have everything that we need to step into it.
Then you can go to my website, Alison J Prince. I have my signature program called The 0-100K System. We just closed it, but we’re going to open it up probably in the summer. It’s a 5-day sprint.
I’m figuratively holding your hand online. I wish I could hold your hand, but that’s illegal now, touching people, right? But it’s the 5-day sprint to finding your perfect product online.
If you want to go sign up for that and get first dibs into it, it’s becauseIcanlife.com/sprint. It’s going to go to a classed close page right now, but as soon as we open that up again, you’ll get first dibs into it. That is an absolute life-changing five days. It’s pretty cool.
ALLIE: This is so helpful. Thank you so much, my friend! I appreciate you so much.
ALISON: Thank you!
Thanks so much for hanging out with me! In case you didn’t know, there’s actually an exclusive community that’s been created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions around The Purpose Show episodes. It’s designed to get you to actually take action and make the positive changes that we talk about here. I want you to go and be a part of it. To do that, go to alliecasazza.com/facebookgroup.
Thank you so much for tuning in! If you’d like to learn more about me, how I can help you, how you can implement all these things and more into your life to make it simpler, better, and more abundant, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, online courses, programs, and other resources to help you create the life you really want.
I am always rooting for you, friend! See you next time! I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.
Hey mama! Just a quick note, this post may contain affiliate links.
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