How Saying Yes Changed My Life: The Power of Opportunity - Jennifer Alba

Summary

Join us as we explore the inspiring journey of Jen Alba, a powerhouse in marketing and personal development. Discover how she transformed challenges into opportunities, her approach to growth, and her latest ventures in publishing and coaching.


Keywords

business growth, personal development, marketing, entrepreneurship, coaching, publishing, success stories, mindset, leadership, innovation


Key  topics

Jen Alba's entrepreneurial journey
The importance of mindset and growth
Strategies for scaling and innovation


Chapters

00:00 Meet Jen Alba: A Journey of Growth
09:01 The Importance of Personal Growth in Business
15:45 Overcoming Financial Mindsets and Embracing Opportunity
19:26 The Power of Saying Yes
21:19 Learning to Say No
23:42 Living a Life of Joy
25:37 Creating a Better Business
27:00 Discovering New Passions
29:51 The Impact of Neuro-Linguistic Programming
31:12 Building Resilience in Youth
33:39 The Journey of Publishing
35:27 Scaling and Future Aspirations

 resources

Jen Alba's Website - https://larsentidswell.com/
The Science of Scaling (Book) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXYZ1234


 guest links

Website - https://larsentidswell.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to the Grind Design. This is Mandy Henriad and Michael Walters. Here with Jennifer Alba, or as I call her Jen. She has become a dear friend and a just a powerhouse of a human. In fact, I often equate her to walking into a room with sunshine because she is the most energetic woman I've ever met. I don't know if she sleeps. Maybe we'll talk about that today. Maybe she doesn't. That's totally possible. But I'm going to let her introduce herself, tell you a little bit about her journey and how she ended up starting her own PR firm marketing. She does a lot of things. I've had the privilege of sitting with her and having her take a look at my marketing and all my things. And she's the most beautiful, clear communication about where we could do better, what we could change, where we were already winning. It's she's so much fun to work with. So, Jan, I'm gonna let you take it away.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yay for strategy. By the way, this makes me so excited. Yeah. All right. So growing up, I had the most wonderful career advice. Not right. Let's start with sarcasm there. Uh I was an artist. I was really, really good at it. There, like here in Utah, you've got Sterling Scholar, right? I was one of the top 15 that seem senior year. Yeah. And so I was going places, I was doing things, right? And my career advice was you can't be an artist. Artists don't make money. Right. So what do I do? Like all good parents who squash the dreams of their children. Right. So starting with that, I'm like, okay, if I can't do what I love, then what's my next thing? And I had no career plan, no passion for what I was studying, but okay, I'm gonna go through and I'm gonna get it finished and check mark that. And I ended up living in a place that was actually a very small town. The only kind of job that I could get there was to start substitute teaching. And by the way, this was the one career that I swore I would never, ever do, right? I will never be a teacher. I remember promising myself, and what do I end up doing right after college? Because I had no plans. Let's start substitute teaching. Or it's just like oh, and I found I was actually really good at teaching. That doesn't surprise me. And that I connect with the kids and I can really like I do great things. But when it comes to the structure of current education and the politics and all of those things, just suck you dry. So I'm gonna start my own business, right? I as a teenager, I was reading like the emyth and business books and psychology books. I was just so passionate about how do people connect, how do they, how do they do this? And and so that was my own kind of a thing. So I'm gonna start my own business. Well, this is back in 2001. A friend of mine teaching, because I ended up teaching long term at a continuation high school, which weaves itself back into life. Just all these different, different little things that I discover and learn where I'm my passionate. So my coworkers, like, I'm getting married, I need somebody to photograph my wedding. Can you do it? And I'm like, I can do anything.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Which is one of the joys of you. You're like, I'm sure we can learn that. I can't even imagine a world when you're like, I don't know. I don't know anything about that. That is not Jen. Jen is like, yes, let's go. And how can we do this the best way possible, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah. Um, I have a blast doing that wedding photography. And I still use some of the pictures from that very first wedding in my portfolio. They they turned out fantastic. I'm building, then I find myself building a photography business. And this was before everybody was doing photography. Yeah. This was this was early on, so it was all word of mouth. But I still needed a website. Was it was it digital or still film at this point? Digital, brand new. Okay, okay. My my Canon Rebel started it all out, right? Yeah, I was trying to remember when that shift happened for all of us. Okay, come on. Just right at the hub. In fact, uh, my I was married at the time, husband was like, we should get a film camera just for backup. That's where it was, right? Okay. It was all so new. Yeah. Uh had fun, learned how to build websites because I needed my own website. Learned about marketing, learned about logos, psychology, all of those things, bringing it all in together and having the strong art background. I was like, okay, why don't I just do the digital side of it? Yeah. And I could create beautiful things, but I was so stuck in perfection. Oh my gosh, I was stuck in perfection. Uh, and and I would spend days on a single image making it perfect, and then they didn't even like the image, and I had made a masterpiece. It was just such a learning experience.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Not sustainable for a business, though. No, perfection is the enemy of done. My goal.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

So I know that so well. My poor family, like I was so absorbed. Yeah, working way too hard. Anyway, so I um I learned how to build business and I learned how to do those things just by figuring it out, so many of us do.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Uh, and was really lucky that everybody spread the word for me, which means I learned some things and didn't learn other things. Uh then market crash, 2008, 2009, we moved to Georgia across the country. We were in Cal Southern California.

unknown 6:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Moved to Georgia. And the the move was like, if I'm moving, you don't bring a photography business with you, really. You have to start over. A new clientele. Right. I didn't want to start over. I didn't want to do that part of it, which just sounded so exhausting to me. So I got a job at a marketing firm and started building those skills. And my sister was doing some amazing things. We were like, we should partner. So come 2012, we're like, let's do this officially. So we found this business uh where we're helping our clients with the branding, the visual aspect of it, and we're building their websites. Yeah. And then whenever a client would be like, This is where we're at, have you push your closer? There you go. There you go. Client, this is where we're at. It's like, what do you need? We would find the technology, we would help their people with their systems and and really we just love doing the partnership of it. Here's where you're at, here's what you need, let's put it all together.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

And and so you're functioning at your top level with all of your people, along with all these things. I was talking with my sister, we're doing case studies right now of our clients. And she was, she was so proud of one of the clients that she brought to the table and how she built the whole branding, the website, all those things, and then taught his like they hired somebody and taught his person how to take it from there. Literally, like trained the person to take her place and gave them the launch pad and then taught their outfit. Exactly. And he loved it so much. She ended up getting what 10 more clients from him, and he still uses all of the tools that she put in place. Right? I love that. Just proud of that. Anyway, so not a long bio, just stories, right? Here, okay, so um we ended up continuing that marketing from diving into one particular client and all of their clients, along with all the different skills from uh content and then all the deep dives into ad campaigns and email campaigns and SEO, and how do we do this and how do we do that? There's the constant exploration of and it's ever changing constantly, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Like it's not like the learning ever stops if you are doing digital.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Exactly. So what do I do? I do art digitally.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

I like it, right? Yeah, as a superpower for businesses, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

And helping the more people we can help, the better. Yeah. And we just love seeing the not just the final product, but the the engagement and seeing people get excited and and connect.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yeah. So because that I mean that's a a wild shift. I I love that your story starts with the yeah, nobody does this in real life. No, nobody can make a living, right? Because I think our generation very much came from that. I don't, I hope we're not that for our children, Michael. Are you a dream crusher in your household?

SPEAKER_00 9:22

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I was gonna say, I think I I try to be really careful to not do that, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Um, but I love that you went through that, went and did, you know, all of us have had these chapters in our lives where we do the job that we have to do to pay the bills. Of course. Right?

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

And then along the way, you start learning like, actually, I have a sweet spot here, I have a sweet spot here.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Like this lights me up. Yes. What gave you guys the courage to go, let's just go do our own?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

We were working with many businesses, and we could see we could do the structure better. That we had.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

So you're at this marketing firm and you're like, we would change this, we would change that, we would so many times.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

So, as business owners, we are the ceiling for what's happening and how well our business is doing. Our weaknesses can become the business's weaknesses. That's one thing I'm constantly aware of that the more I improve myself, the more capacity my business will have. So as we're working with these wonderful businesses and ones that were struggling, ones that got bought out, all sorts of things that you experience in the corporate world. Yeah, you're you're seeing where people could do better if they were only open to it. If they were only willing.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

If they were willing to grow.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Oh my gosh. It's it's just like heartrending to be like, if you swallow the pride just a little. Yeah. Just and and be open to learning from people you might not be willing to learn from in general. You think you the more open you are, the better you're going to do, the more successful your business is gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah. We talk about this all the time that your business will never exceed your individual growth. Like I'm finding that true. We are, I think you're absolutely right. We as owners are absolutely the ceiling. We are the one that's capping it, right? So if we want our business to grow and be better or be different, we have to be better or different.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

And open and bringing people onto the team that are good in their own ways. Here's another thing about business, starting with the emeth back way back when I was a teenager, was that if we're not preparing for our replacement, then we are a slave to the business.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Oh, that's so good.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

We have to prepare for our freedom.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Money, I'm bringing in finances and money. Um, it is the I I think of it like water and and food. You can't just eat a bunch at the beginning of the month and be set. It's a daily, it's a it's a flow kind of a thing. Um, money is an amplifier, and who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, the more money you have, the more amplified those strengths and weaknesses become. So there's there's all sorts of learning, but as you're oh my gosh, I do this with tangents. I get off on like 10 tangents, and I I could say it, I inherited it. We call them side quests, yeah. Side quests.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Side quests sometimes. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I'm 100%. Side quests can be really valuable. Twirl. Yeah. Oh, yes. Oh, it's so bad. Yeah. Side quests can be valuable. What were we talking about just before I was like, oh wait, finances and money.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

And you're talking about the the the fact that the owner's growth is the limiting factor.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Okay. Um there was a a thought that I was going for. Oh, where, okay. I grew up in a home where uh a couple generations looked at people who had money as being um here's here's a religious term, evil. Where rich people were uh uh uh associated with snobbiness and I call it reverse snobbery. Oh hey, okay, yes, exactly the whole private prejudice thing. Yes, exactly. Yes, that's what I grew up with. And so I saw my ancestors, my parents make choices or choices with money just to live that out. And money in the hands of good people makes wonderful things. Yeah, it can do the more people we help, the better off the world is gonna be, the more successful all the people are around us. Like it what is your intention? What are you gonna do with it?

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I was I was just gonna say that you know, you talked about um, you know, you're in the business to um, if well, if you're not looking to improve, I look at it as if you're not looking to leave a legacy or to sell it, like you become stagnant and the people underneath you or in your organization do the same. The other thought I just had was this whole idea of you know the generations before us. And and I generally speaking, I would agree that there was this view on money and uh it wasn't always good. And if you had it, um, shame on you.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

And I sometimes wonder I'd be interesting to hear your perspective. I wonder sometimes if people limited themselves back then because they didn't want the taboo or the the view that came with having money.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

And maybe not consciously, right? Maybe subconsciously, because the story we tell ourselves about money does matter. Yes. Right? And especially as business owners. So even if they didn't make a conscious choice, Mike, I think that's very likely.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

So no matter where you self-sabotage, yes, you're gonna face a new frontier and a challenge. And I think the difference we're so so many of us are comfortable with little, yeah, that facing the new frontier of something unknown of how do I deal with a lot. It is another challenge. Are you gonna be prepared for it?

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Which we see this with you all the time. Anyone who spends time in Jen's space, you see, like as she's in the process of doing the thing, and the moment the the the aha happens in her brain, her reaction to that is never fear, it's never I can't. It's always like, oh, what could we do with this? We could, you know, she's she's just everything in her world, like you just watch her. It's like she looks around, just sees opportunity everywhere she goes. And it's really fun to watch. Um, because she she does. She like I've never seen you shy away from something. I've only seen you go, oh, we better build this to support this, right? Right. And I've watched you in the time that I've known you, just like everything just keeps building and building. And inevitably, it's because you're on one road, you see a lack or a hole that needs to be filled, and you're like, Well, I better create this to take care of that. And it's very funny. Like, not everybody knows how to dream that big.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Didn't always feel this way, or definitely times of life, huh? Where'd that come from? Um, where I first heard it as a teenager, it was someone who looked at me and said, You have a lot of capacity, you have a lot of potential in all these different things that you're doing. And they said this and and I'd forgotten it for a while. And then uh when life gets hard, you go, okay, where's the core? What am I gonna claim? What what am I gonna do with this when you're down at zero, when you're at the bottom, when you're laying, like I spent there was a time in my life where I was literally on the floor for several days while I had an awesome friend who was supporting me through the the darkest days. Um she was just like, hey, I got your back, it's gonna be okay. Are you ready to stand up yet? Right. Um, so grateful. Uh so what I heard as a teenager and then came back again and again and again, is there will be few things in your life that you will ever fail at. So, what would you do if you couldn't fail? Yeah, and have I failed? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Haven't all of us? Yes. I'm pretty sure you don't get to call yourself a business owner if you cannot come up with at least one failure. Yeah. It's just learning. You have not paid your dues until you've messed something up royally. Right?

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah. So I really claimed that. What would I do if I could not fail? And when an opportunity comes up and it sits right with me, I'm like, yes, this lights me up. You've said that before. I love that phrase.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

This lights me up. Yeah. It's it is funny because I have I watch you, and I have not seen you back down from anything yet. Everything just is like one more. I really do think you must just walk through the world being like, what opportunity is coming next? Because and everything's I'm like, do you know what you actually sometimes remind me of Yes Man, the movie? I haven't seen that one. Oh my gosh, you have to watch that movie.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

But Jim, the one with Jim Carrey?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. I'm actually amazing. Our our friend Craig is living it right now, and it's been super funny. But I feel like you already learned the lesson, right? Oh, okay. And basically the the movie, the premise is like this guy is just super negative and everything's wrong, and and he gets challenged to just say yes to every single thing. Oh. And all of the opportunities that that brings him, all the people that that brings into this world, right? And I have watched you and thought of that movie a bazillion times because I'm like, do you say no to anything? Which is why I have a a theory that she maybe doesn't sleep, because I've not seen her say no to anything yet. But um there is like there's power in that just general belief of like, what have I got to lose?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Right? Well, so part of the balance of being a business owner is saying no to the things that are not right for you. How do you determine what those are, Jen? When my joy disappears, when I feel this just I describe it as like it just sucks everything from me and it makes me tired.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So do you usually are you in it when you realize that? Or do you have enough of a like an internal recognition in that be that you don't even get that deep in where you just like even the thought of that just makes like I have an internal like oh to that?

SPEAKER_01 20:35

So that's been my learning. That those have been my failures. Does that make sense? Yeah. When you attract the wrong clients, because you're not right, and you'll attract all kinds of people, but when they stick with you too long, then uh yeah. So that's to answer your question, it's been a learning journey where before no, saying no was really, really hard for me. I used to, okay, grow naive, uh inexperienced, young, right? So much I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

And no, I didn't know how to say no.

unknown 21:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

I wouldn't say I knew how to say no until I was 35 and I had a major wake up, wake up call. Like it was what if you lost everything? What if you um didn't have everything that you thought was important in life? What would you do if you had to start over? And I mean, uh just facing again, one of those darkest of times. And um I realized that I was doing everything I felt I was supposed to rather than what I knew was right for me. And so I remember saying, Enough. Enough. What do I want? I honestly, there were very few times I had asked me. What I wanted. And how old were you when that aha moment happened?

SPEAKER_02 22:05

You're killing it. I don't think I hit it till 42.

unknown 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I know. I look at my kids and see what they're doing and they already know. Yeah. Which they're standing on our shoulders, hopefully, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Hopefully. I was gonna say my 17-year-old has called me out a few times and been like, why are you putting up with that? And I'm like, I don't know. So yeah, maybe, maybe our kids are, you know, we've done at least a good job of passing it forward. I hope so.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Okay. So it was a journey. Yeah. And these past about 10 years, I've gotten a really, really good at saying enough. And when people come in and I'm like, hmm, not right. I wish you the best. Here's where I stand. And there's no like hard feelings. Sometimes I'm like, ooh, you are not good for me.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

You're a hot mouth. So that's funny, because that means that all of my time around you, you have been surrounded by things that do light you up because I've not seen that version.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Oh, so I have been in the last couple of years where I've been like, I'm living the life I want to live. Is it finished? No. Do I there are there other things I'm going for and growing and what what do I? Yes, there are other things I want in my life, of course. But I wake up in the morning, yeah, something I'm looking forward to. When I'm like, I think I'm gonna do this. Something's on my I get to. I love it. And and so I'm putting more and more of that in my life now. Because I've actually already done all the options. Did all this all the supposed to's. Yeah. Right. And I'm happy with what I've done and where I was. There were there are a lot of good things that I'm I'm grateful for, those learning experiences. But oh, if I could have like I look at one of our friends who's doing all these things, I'm like, oh, if I could have done what I'm doing now in my 20s, yeah, where would I have been, you know, these couple decades later? It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

We probably all have a little bit of that.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Right? We all probably have a little bit of that. But I guess you know, I joke all the time, we never learn anything the easy way, let's be honest. I think most of us who are independent enough to go build something like we all do, you have to be a little defiant in how and so I think people couldn't tell you that lesson. You have to go through it and learn the lesson.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

True. Uh often we find the systems that we're in, they're they're not built in ways that support us very well. So part of the the passion for business is we're creating something better. We're creating something that helps people in different ways to make life easier or more enjoyable, um, solve their problems. So as we do that, we're we're I think we're making the world a better place. There's the humanitarian in me coming out.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

I am positive you are making the world a better place. Knowing you, I'm no question. So right now, your business does websites, does consulting on full-blown marketing branding strategy. You've added okay that I'm not super well versed on. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Oh, well, so so I'm doing lots of different things. Yeah. Larson is like all things. Like, so we started out with the the branding, the social uh the websites, the SEO basics. There's so many levels of SEO, right? Right. So we'll we'll get everything set up so you've got the solid foundation, your online presence, which includes your Google Business profile, and and and with there in many places. You've got all looks under Larson Tidwell.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Okay. Yes. Um opportunities just come to me, and I'm like, okay, what can we do here, right? So uh last, oh no, it started a whole lot earlier. Uh ha ha ha. Okay. Sometimes spirituality, all those, sometimes we get a major wake-up call as to, okay, here's where you need to go, here's where you need to focus. And I was with a friend at a conference. She kind of dragged me to it. I adore her. Okay, I'll keep you company, right? But I didn't really want to be there. But it was kind of one of those lift you up. It was actually one of those singles things. Oh, I just joke.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

And I hated it.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

I thought it was gonna be more painful than it actually ended up kind of cool. Okay. Went into one of these sessions, one of these workshops, and I'm sitting there, and and the lady was a phenomenal speaker, and she was like, Okay, I want everybody close your eyes. I want you to picture your future, and just okay. So I'm like, okay, whatever. And I closed my eyes, and it was like a download from heaven, from the universe, just like, hey, and I saw pictures of future me, and I was on stage talking to people, and there was a massive audience, and I have never had that aspiration, that goal. This was like out of the blue, like what? And the message was I need you to prepare for this. Okay. Okay, I don't how do I do how do it me speak? Like, so uncomfortable. Okay, so I guess I need to do this. What do I do? So I looked for um speaking opportunities, not opportunities, training. Speaking training opportunities. How I need to have some kind of certifications, I need to know what's involved. And I found a training that I like that synced with me, and it was uh Maxwell leadership. Okay. And so I learned speaking coaching and was certified in all of those things. I'm like, okay, I guess I'm supposed to do this, just exploration. But really, like my gut is like giving me this inspiration of here's where you start, you're gonna meet people, and they're gonna give you the next step, and they're gonna lead you to next people and the next and the next. And and so I'm out and I'm meeting people and I'm talking with them, and I'm learning these skills, and I'm doing really well. Uh, and and like, oh, I'm I'm good at this back. The teaching is coming back. Sort of like the teaching, yeah. Yeah, it's coming back. And I'm I'm I'm really good. I can connect with people, I understand how to with your presence and influence and just how to impact it and and help people see things that really change their life. Like walk out of the room thinking about the world differently, and that just oh inspires me. How can I do that? I do that with with the business and the vision and and those things, but I I'll do it well if I was teaching in uh community setting or whatever opportunity I had. But something else that I found that started to light me up with something called neurolinguistic programming. Um and like the hypnosis and the there these fields that are just on the periphery of what's commonly understood and accepted, and it was fascinating to me. And and I started to see all the links, like uh, you're familiar with Tony Robbins, it's more of our generation stuff. Uh and I I listened to him speaking and all of the things that he was doing. I'm like, that's neurolinguistic programming. And I was then able to understand the influence and how he's able to reach people and how he's able to help them move their own energy, their own thought processes, their own systems, and how he does it. And I was just like, I know how to do this. So I got a master's certification in that. And and then I'm taking this and I'm pulling it in, and opportunities are coming to me, and I have my kids bringing their friends saying, Mom, can you help my friend? They're really struggling. Uh when I was teaching way back when I ended up my favorite spot, continuation high school, kids who are struggling, yeah, kids who are dealing with all sorts of things, and I could just connect. And I realized how much I loved it when when you have somebody who has just such the worst cards of the deck that they've been given. How do you help? Yeah, absolutely. And so I might here, my my daughter brought this for the case. So now we're back to teaching.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Yes. Even though that wasn't the plan for teaching. Uh-huh. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

She brought a friend in and she's been trying to quit vaping for a year. She's been trying to quit. So she'd been actively trying all sorts of things. Her mind was there. She was, but she was at her end. Like she didn't know what else to do next. And so she's like, come talk with my mom. So the two of them, they came in and they were sitting, and I walked her through these steps, these things that I learned from teaching, from leadership, and from the neurolinguistic programming, and helped her move some things, some of her blocks, some of her re-ralign the pathways as they some of the terminology. And it was through her own stories and she got to choose how she did it. And it wasn't like this deep talk therapy, it uh where you you there's a potential of of uh all sorts of other things, but we won't dive in. But um, you don't go deep. It's uh a visualization exercise. It's uh that actually bypasses everything else and it actually goes deeper, but um it's not uh there isn't the shame, the embarrassment, the rehashing, reliving.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

How does this tie in though to the piece of you that I know?

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Uh where does that friend of mine? So I was coaching, I was doing all this coaching. The friend heard about how I was helping all these kids quit vaping. I didn't know this. She was a dean of students at a local school here. Okay, asked me to build a program for them so that they could learn the skill resilient skills. Which I'll bet is interesting.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Because if you take somebody who already knows how to build systems and use technology and graphics and all those things, and you say build a program, the program probably looks pretty spectacular, not like my PowerPoint, I'm gonna guess.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

I built it in a week. Okay. And it is, I I'm just it's so cool, right? Yeah. The kids lit up. They came in like, I don't need this, I don't need you, like I'm fine, I'm doing fantastic. Yeah. And they had so much fun. They were the ones begging the administration to have me come back. And it was so fun to do that. So that leads me to I wrote a book. The book was part of the program. Okay. I've got a friend who publishes books, and she's like, if you do it this way, here's how you do it. You may as well start your own company.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

So I'm starting a publishing company. If you're gonna write a book, you might as well have a publishing company to write the book. Yeah. This is and this is the part of you that makes me laugh all the time because I'm like, of course you did. Of course. But here's the thing And this is the newer piece that has popped up in my world recently. I'm like, what's this? What's this publishing company that suddenly I'm seeing on the fringe of the marketing company? So that explains where that because I'm like, I don't know where that came from.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

So okay, as an author, you could publish with major brand names, with Amazon, you could self-publish. No matter what, you are doing your own marketing. Yeah. You need your own website, you need to know what you there's so much that you need to know. And we had been helping all these authors, my sister and I, with all of their book covers, their publishing, getting them up on Amazon, all these things. So we had all this experience.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

So we have Larson Tidwell and the publishing company is Pentology Press and media. Pentology Press, which I started seeing in her world, and I was like, I don't know what she's up to.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

But which means I'm writing books as well. So I've got two more in the works this year. Okay. I've actually got several others that I've been writing for a long time. I never thought I would ever publish a book that wasn't in my in my room until I was asked to build this program. They're like, by the way, build a book. Here's the money for it. And so they paid me before I'd even written it. And so I'm like, I cannot believe your life. My life is freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Like, I'm literally living my best life.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

What else can we do? And how can I replace myself as quick as possible so that I can do more? Yeah. Do the next thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

But also how do I have myself not building a website? We can have people do that. Oh, yeah. How do I be the vision behind the things?

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Bring in the team members. Yeah. And find the people who connect with us, not just as clients, but your own teammates that resonate with you. Absolutely. Compound the work so that, or the the whole one plus one isn't two, it's you've got the exponential stuff going on.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

So, okay, so this actually ties in with a prior conversation that Michael and I've had about the fact that as business owners, to some extent, it's sort of like you're crossing a river and you have to cross the stones. And you are constantly just reaching out for that next stable piece, right? You put out the feelers and you're like, okay, that is that next rock that I'm gonna jump to is that stable? Okay, now I'm gonna jump to this rock. You literally are living a life of this where you have like had, okay, well, now I'm here, and these are the three rocks I could step to, and you are just testing and moving across the river.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

And sometimes it's dark and it's foggy, and you don't even know that there's a step out there, and you've got to move. You're like, sometimes I leap and hope I don't land in water. Sometimes I do land in water and it's cold, but we'll figure it out, okay?

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So, I mean, because you you have, I'm sure, because you've had quite a journey. This has kind of been a work in motion for a long time. Are there any like books, podcasts, things like that that you have listened to that have been like game changers for you? Anything that you would tell listeners to listen to.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

So the most recent comes to mind uh hired a light uh coach, a business coach. So it was her recommendation. Um, it is the science of scaling. Oh, I think it's on your list, but you haven't read it yet. Have not read it yet. Okay. Yeah. It will blow your mind. A couple things in that book. Well, one of them at the very end is it's almost like something that was not that it was just thrown in, but you're just like, wait, what? Is it it literally explains how time is irrelevant and doesn't exist? Interesting. And and why you need to use that as a business and how to use it. Okay. The other part, well, one of the first things is impossible goals and why you need to use them because otherwise it and it just explains all the different things. It so it's not just set big goals, it's you need to have this here or you can't use scaling.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

We're gonna be reading that very soon.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Mind that's what we do.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Yeah. Because we are constantly trying to figure out that path of scaling. Yes. And because we have to wrap up so that we can keep this quick and concise enough that people will stay with us. Tell us, like if anybody out there is looking for you for coaching, for mentorship, because they are lit up by what you're doing and they want to be part of it, yeah, they need a publisher, apparently. That's a thing.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Where do they find you? First place to look for me is Larsontidswell.com. And that let it's S-E-N. Yes, L-A-R-S-E-N-T-I-D-S, W E L L. Perfect. Yeah. Uh Larson Tidswell, and then uh you can find me websites, Facebook, Instagram, we're constantly expanding. Um and then for the publishing company, it's Pantology Press and Media. Panthology is a study of everything human. Yep. So we're just bringing that all in. I love that. Helping bored more. It's so fun.

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Yeah, love that. If you are as fascinated by this human as I am and you want to find her, like look her up, Larsontidwell.com or Pentology Press and Media. Okay. We'll put links in our show notes, but yeah, go check her out because who knows what she's building next. There's bound to be a hole that she decides she's filling, also. I feel like that's a thing. Life is good. Life is good. Life is good, and you are dreaming big, and I love it. Um, thanks for taking time out to join us and be with us. So much fun always to be with you. Same. Thanks for bringing the energy, Aldi. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

So good. So good.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Yeah, we can't wait to see what you do next. Cool. Talk to you next week and I suspect we'll be back with Jen at some point, and there will be yet another arm of the train that's being built. So uh yeah, a nonprofit foundation is actually in the works. Oh, yeah. See, there is already another thing in motion. Several, actually. Oh Lord. See, it's just living proof she doesn't sleep. She doesn't sleep. You heard it here at the Grind Design. Jen Alba runs 24 7. Um, thanks for dropping by. If you found something useful in this podcast, you know, please like, share, follow. Uh, we appreciate you spending time with us.