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What if you have a skill and expertise that could help a lot of people?
How do you scale that into a thriving business today?
We spoke to the founder of Retail Ready, Alli Ball, to find out.
Alli is a former wholesale buyer turned consultant who helps CPG brands understand how to get on the retail shelf and have high sales once they’re there.
She works with clients through her online course, Retail Ready®, and connects with emerging brands through her podcast, Food Biz Wiz™.
Alli has a lot of knowledge to offer based on her experience and great success growing her digital business.
You don’t need to be in the food space to benefit from her process for going from knowledge to digital business.
Prior to launching her business, Alli worked for the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses, sourcing product and developing grocery staff for years at Bi-Rite Market on 18th Street, and then in the position of Head of Grocery and Store Manager at Bi-Rite Divisadero, building and managing a team and operations to support over half of the products in the store.
She saw that really fantastic product – really delicious product – would make it to the shelves and just sit there. Sales just wouldn’t come. There was something that the producer didn’t know about wholesale, yet she did.
She knew that the best way that she could help the sustainable food industry was to share those secrets on how to create a brand that WORKS on the shelf.
Since Bi-Rite Market, she has spent the past five years working with producers of packaged products – CPG brands – to build, launch, and scale the wholesale side of their businesses through her one-on-one consulting, and in her online course, Retail Ready™.
Learn more about Alli and her work here: https://www.alliball.com/
You might also like to check out…
Transcription of Interview (Transcribed by Otter.ca; there may be errors.)
Adam G. Force 0:01
Seems to change.
Adam G. Force 0:11
Hey, what’s going on everybody? Welcome back to the Change Creator podcast show. This is your host, Adam force. Excited to be here today. I know there’s a lot going on around the world at the moment with this Corona virus. So let’s all just stay calm and think from a place of leadership and not fear. We are moving forward and just helping people and joining different communities and conversations and doing what we can to support each other as we adapt to what’s happening here. Right. We are problem solvers as entrepreneurs, this is what we do. We have a really great talk today. And so before we get into that, though, if you missed the last episode is with jB kromm. He is a podcasting guru business expert. He reaches about 12 million people a month. And so we talk about what it takes to scale a seven
Adam G. Force 1:00
Figure podcasts. So if you missed that, and you want to get those insights, just jump back there and make sure you listen to that episode. Today, we’re gonna be talking with Allie ball. She is an entrepreneurship Rockstar, and she’s been crushing it, she went from, you know, consulting, in the food, retail space to supporting people with group initiatives, all the way to now running an incredible evergreen business with online education. Alright, so this is a good good example. So of how to go and take your intellectual property and turn it into a thriving multi six figure business. So Allie is going to share some of her insights around how that all happened and things that you need to be aware of and organizational structures and systems and things like that. And I think you’re gonna get a lot of gold out of this conversation. Allie is actually in one of the masterminds that we’re in together. And so I’ve had a lot of good conversation with her. And I’m excited to have her on here to share her expertise and insights. So guys, just hang on for a minute.
Adam G. Force 2:00
We’re going to jump into that conversation. If you’re following us on Facebook, that’s our main social media channel at the moment. So you would probably have noticed that we put out a note to everybody about this Coronavirus, and we’re going to be having a conversation. So Amy and I are co founder here, my co founder here at Change Creator will be jumping on Facebook Live. We just did one on yesterday, which was the 18th of March. And we’ll be continuing to jump on to talk more about different things but how we’re managing the business and helping provide support for you guys running your businesses and things like that. So catch us on Facebook. If you haven’t joined our Facebook group yet. It is the profitable impact.
Adam G. Force 2:43
It is the profitable digital impact entrepreneurs you can find us there. Join us get involved in the conversation and connect with everybody. All right, guys. Last but not least, jump over to Change creator.com Don’t forget we have lots of fresh content out there and lots of good updates to
Adam G. Force 3:00
help you along your way. If you guys have ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. We appreciate all your ongoing support. And we’re going to dive into this conversation right now with Allie and see what she has to say. Okay, show me that he
Adam G. Force 3:16
Hey, Allie, welcome to the Change Creator podcast show. How’s everything going today? I’m doing great. Thank you for having me. Yeah. So you know, everybody listening. We are in the midst. This conversation is in the middle of this whole Coronavirus situation. So lots of stuff going on around the world. And we’re going to dive into a conversation here with Ali. It is not focused on the Coronavirus, but we are going to be talking about very important business insights for you.
Adam G. Force 3:42
But I know everybody’s got a lot on their mind right now. So we’ll just kind of see where this goes. And Allie, if you can kick us off. I just like to always give people a sense of what you’re working on today what’s going on in your world and just give a little bit of background for people and where you’re at. Yeah, absolutely. So I
Alli Ball 4:00
am a former grocery buyer turned wholesale consultant. So I help producers of packaged product in the food and beverage industry understand how to get on grocery store shelves, and how to have high sales once they’re there. So I do this all through a digital course called retail ready, and I educate consumers through my podcast, food biz Wiz. And so, Adam, you can imagine that we are in a really interesting time of this week and the past few weeks with producers a packaged product, especially in grocery stores with COVID-19. We’re seeing obviously a run
Alli Ball 4:42
on grocery products, particularly pantry products. So that’s really what we’re focusing on both in my facebook group and on our group coaching calls right now. How can these entrepreneurs navigate this time of an uncertainty and how they can how they can stay focused in there.
Alli Ball 5:00
And not respond in a panicked way. Yeah, so important to just to have that kind of mindset. We make bad decisions out of anxiety and doubt and fear and those totally, totally. And I think it’s, it’s my role as the leader in retail ready to show up as someone who is level headed and calm and providing creative solutions without being like, you know, on edge and panicked myself. And so often, you know, I’m actually very proud of my retail ready students. I think that we’ve got a lot of great energy in the group. And I love seeing I love I don’t know if you see this too in your group, Adam, but like seeing students, almost self coaching and coaching each other through these challenging situations. Yeah, yeah. Those conversations tend to kind of just naturally pop up as everybody has the same thing on their mind, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And just everybody listening you know, alley is a business. Kind of
Adam G. Force 6:00
She’s a beast when it comes to entrepreneurship. So that’s why I was so excited to have her on here. She’s crushing it with her program. And, you know, she did a lot of consulting before that, and then flipped it into this digital environment to really start scaling. So, Allie, tell us a little bit just from a business standpoint about the transition of taking your intellectual property from a consulting standpoint, and converting it into an online business through coursework and things like that.
Alli Ball 6:32
Oh, yeah, I’m, I’m so happy to talk about this topic. It’s one that I get really excited about. So I have been in business for six years. And I gotta tell you, I’m like six years ago, I would have never predicted that I would be a digital course creator. Like that is not where I saw my business going at all. But I left my job as a grocery buyer and I saw this hole in the marketplace. I saw so many producers Really, really great producers not understand how to get on grocery store shelves and not understand how to connect with those buyers and not understand, you know, similar to what you work on, like not understand how to tell their story and get consumers to care about their product. Yeah. And I knew that I had this unique perspective of being on the other side of the grocery shelves. And I could offer that to package food producers. So I left like I said, I left my business or my corporate job six years ago, and I started doing all one on one consulting, and I, I loved it. I loved working so closely with producers and helping them understand how to find success with their products. But I’ll tell you like, I am not someone who takes work lightly. And I was finding that I just didn’t have the capacity to serve all of the clients who needed my help, and I would see all All of these emerging brands struggling with the same exact challenges, and I knew that if I could get them in a room together, and I could, you know, systematize my offering for them, I could impact more businesses. So about four years ago, I took my my years of one on one consulting and I bundled it up and I was like, I have this theory but like, I can offer group coaching at a lower price point and you know, help more food entrepreneurs. And so I got out of like, my first my first retail reading was eight brands. And we did everything over conference calls like not even zoom it was like everybody dialed in.
Alli Ball 8:47
I like presented information, you know, over the phone. They got a Google Drive link with you know, a shareable workbook like, not very secure. Back then, but like, you know, that’s how it That’s how I tested it out. And I validated that this was a good idea. And so for the first few years of teaching retail ready, I taught it as a live course. And I would teach it about four times a year. And I would have about 15 brands at a time who would come in and we would go fast and furious, like six weeks of hard, hardcore, like heads down working on their food businesses, and then I would send them on their way. And I saw Adam, you probably know where I’m going with this. Like I saw a few holes in this logic. Yeah, first off, I when brands would come to me, and they would say, like, Ollie, like, I’m ready to work with you. I’ve got XYZ problems like no, you’re my solution. So often, I would say like, oh, sorry, I’m sorry. Like I’m in week two of teaching retail ready, you know, like you can’t join at this. At this point. Like get on the waitlist. I think I’m going to run it again in the spring like you don’t Hang in there. Which is like the worst advice that you want to give or like a worst message you want to give to someone who is coming to you with an open wallet, right? So it wasn’t good for me. It wasn’t good for these businesses who needed my help. And I knew that I had to somehow change the system. But again, like, I didn’t really consider myself a digital course creator and I didn’t. This was this was four years ago. I mean, this I first ran retail ready in 2015. So Gosh, like over four years ago now, and like the whole digital learning economy was not as robust as it is now. And so I didn’t know what an evergreen course was. I didn’t know that there was this thing that I could do to make it a not live course. And I feel very fortunate. I don’t know if you know this story, Adam, that Courtney foster Donahue of FB, everything and the course course Yeah. was a friend of mine. And and I was essentially complaining to her about this struggle with my live courses. And she said, you know, Allie, you just got to turn it evergreen, like, I know just the lady to help you. And so sure enough, she she introduced me to the world of evergreen. Yeah, yeah, that changed my business model entirely. So that was in 2018. And I changed retail ready into an evergreen course. Which you know, I’m sure most of your listeners know but that essentially means that the course content lives on my course platform and my students go self paced through that core course content while they still get live coaching month in and month out on on coaching calls and then in our Facebook community and things like that. But I turned that evergreen in 2018 and now we are enrolling about 30 brands a month into retail ready. We’ve grown to a team of two Five here at food biz whiz. And we’re really cranking it’s cool. That’s exciting. Yeah,
Adam G. Force 12:06
yeah, you guys are doing really great work. And it’s, it’s great to see. And I want to emphasize for everybody listening that the steps Allie took what she naturally did, which was, I’m a consultant, I’m helping people. But I need to scale more. How do I make this digital, going through the process that you went through to teach over conference calls, keep it low cost, just really simple with Google Docs and PowerPoint, whatever it is, they get in at a better price, potentially, you learn a ton from their feedback, you see where the holes are, and then you turn that into your course once it gets buttoned up. Don’t miss out on those steps like so. I think so many people want to get an idea come up with like, oh, here’s my four part course or five part course whatever it is, but they miss that part of like, Oh, you never were consultant for this, this information, and you never did a beta.
Alli Ball 12:57
Exactly. Adam I’m sure you, you’re the same, same. Same as me. Yeah, I get emails every single week from other entrepreneurs who want to start an online course. And they see me and they see my success. And I’m so grateful that they think I can help them. But then once we get on the phone, I realized that they don’t have a product. They’ve never served people through a consulting model. Like they, they just think that it’s an easy industry to get into. Which as we both know, is is really, really far from the truth.
Alli Ball 13:35
Yeah, it is. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 13:36
it sounds like
Alli Ball 13:38
yeah, and you know this to that. Just because you’re an expert in something, doesn’t mean you’re a great teacher. And doesn’t mean that you’re a great online teacher. And I think that that is so important to think about as well like I know a woman who wants to start an online course she is truly an expert in what she does. But she doesn’t want to show up on video. She doesn’t use social media and she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to she doesn’t want to have an online presence. And you know, I I know that what she has to offer is really valuable. But I also know it’s going to be really hard for her to build a market and sell a course if she doesn’t want to use those those basic tools.
Adam G. Force 14:25
Yeah, exactly. You mentioned not everybody’s a great teacher and right in my mind, I go off forget that not everybody’s great at selling and marketing and they all like we mentioned this is a common mistake that entrepreneurs make which is you think that you can just delegate the sales and marketing for your business and that’s like the biggest misconception because you need to be the number one sales rep especially in the first year or two of getting that thing off the ground.
Alli Ball 14:52
Yeah, Adam, I’ll tell you the the reason why I’ve had so much success with retail ready is because I love The sales and marketing side. I absolutely adore it. And I think one of the things that we talk about a lot in retail ready is that like, that classic phrase, like, if you build it, they will come is the worst business advice that I’ve ever heard that as a whole does not work. So often I see people, you know, either creating products, whether they’re physical products or digital products, they’re trying even to get into consulting, like whatever it is, whatever they’re selling, they build it and it’s a good thing. But if they aren’t out there, marketing their product and showing the world that they have a solution to people’s problems. No one’s going to buy it. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, I like to. I I like to remind myself that it took me a while to realize this as well. You know, the first, the first two years of my business when I was doing consulting only I have my my income really abdun flowed. And you know, there were some months where I was making 1000 bucks. And there were other months where I was making 10,000 bucks. And you know, it was when I look back at it, you know, because everything’s hindsight here. Like, when I look back on it, I realize it’s because I didn’t, I didn’t have a strong marketing plan. And I wasn’t I wasn’t promoting my my services.
Adam G. Force 16:29
Yeah, and there’s just so many variables and decisions to be made that I see a lot of our students especially ones that sometimes earlier, they go off on tangents and they have so many ideas that it’s hard for them to keep their focus even even going through the program and stuff. It’s like, yeah, I’m like, will like go through and like, you just see like, weeks later this especially when we were running our beta and stuff, they’d come to each next call and I’d be like, no, like, we’re supposed
Alli Ball 16:58
to focus on this next two weeks. Adam, I couldn’t agree with you more. And I’ll give this example. So when I, when I first left my buyer role, I, you know, like I said, I was doing consulting and I was consulting for two different audiences. I did a lot of consulting with retail stores with grocery stores, helping them dial in their grocery operations. So understanding ordering and receiving an inventory management, understanding merchandising, you know, all of all of that, like how to run a successful grocery store, which was exactly what I was doing in my corporate role. I also then started doing that producer consulting, but I was so fired up about that I was so you know, that’s really where my passion was. But the retail consultant was really paying the bills at the beginning, of course, yeah, of course, right. Like, a grocery store has more money than a granola maker. So but I realized and You know, I’m embarrassed to admit this, but like, it probably took me a good 18 months to realize this, that the reason why my marketing was failing was because I was trying to speak to both audiences. At the same time, I was trying to speak to that grocery store manager, that grocery store owner, and that granola producer. And because my messaging was, you know, really focused on I can do this, or I could do this, or I could do this for you or like, I can also solve this problem. I wasn’t narrowed enough. I wasn’t, I wasn’t clear enough in what value I was providing for my clients. And therefore, people didn’t know if I was the solution to their problems.
Adam G. Force 18:42
Right, they’re not sure then you leave a little uncertainty because you’re like there’s not one group of people that is speaks very, very clearly, specifically. And I think a lot of people have Nish phobia because we don’t want to miss out
Alli Ball 19:00
Did Yeah, I totally did. I was like, my leash is producers of packaged product in the specialty food industry like that is so narrow. And you know, we even beyond that, like we focus on people who want to improve and increase their wholesale accounts. So like, not even talking about e commerce which is so trendy nowadays, like not even talking about direct to consumer, like we are solely focused on wholesale. And I was really nervous about that. And I gotta say, Adam, like, once I leaned into that, and once I put those nerves aside, everything clicked in place, all of my marketing became so much more focused. And I’ll tell you, like, I’ve shared my numbers with you, Adam, like when people find me, they know beyond a doubt that I can help them with such a particular problem. And that’s why they that’s why they convert to, you know, to, to a sale so easy. Yeah, because they they know, I think can help them
Adam G. Force 20:01
that’s the key, that is the key. And then all of a sudden, it’s easier for you to write because all of a sudden now your your messaging for yourself is more clear because you’re like, I’m just talking to this one group so all of a sudden you’re going deeper and deeper with more clarity on a very specific area, that’s easier for the marketer as well.
Alli Ball 20:21
Oh 100% You know, when I when So, you said like speaking to a narrow group and yes, of course, it is a group but I go so far as to have my ideal target audience that is a singular person, so I speak to every single time and so whenever I’m thinking about a marketing strategy or making business decisions, I can say to myself, like would Sylvie like this course Yeah, bonus would Sylvia be able to come to an 11am group coaching call, you know, everything is run through this altar of my ideal target audience, and I gotta say, like, it makes, it makes everything easier.
Adam G. Force 21:07
Yeah, it’s true. I mean, even for our own program at the captivate method, we are thinking about taking it even further. Like we go to social entrepreneurs, we, we focus on supercharging marketing with storytelling. And it could be for anybody ecommerce, it could be for, you know, coaches, agencies, and I’ve been with Amy and I have been discussing, like, maybe we do need to just narrow down to just working with coaches, you know, yeah. Because, I mean, just I’m saying this to people now on who are listening because you can, you can always go deeper on your focus, and it will only help you more, especially in earlier years. If you have a new offer that usually is way better to go very specific rock and roll and then you can always expand later.
Alli Ball 21:57
Yeah, absolutely. I think about that too. And like when I first started Doing my course. So I had two courses, I had retail ready. And I also had one that was called staff stuff. And that was all about hiring, motivating and retaining staff in the food industry. And I, you know, when I first launched it, I was like, why am I narrow? Why am I keeping this to the food industry like these, like, team building fundamentals and best like these hiring and like leadership skills are are essential in any business like why am I Why am I narrowing it to the food industry? And I, again, like I’m so grateful that I did because when that restaurant owner or when that retail store manager found me, they knew that I was specifically speaking to their industry, even if I know deep down that it can apply to any industry.
Adam G. Force 22:55
That’s that’s the that’s the part that tears at people is you know, deep down It can apply anywhere. But yeah, yeah, you just gotta buckle down sometimes and go after that very narrow focus, you know, and listen, like you could focus on that. And then after two years, if you’re making seven figures on that funnel, you then can expand the product to be for the next group of people.
Alli Ball 23:16
Right? Totally, like what we’re experimenting here with retail ready is thinking about, as the cannabis industry is getting larger and larger and the United States, they, they need these brand foundations and the wholesale strategy that we have put in place for, you know, non infused products. And so we could very easily replicate, you know, 90% of retail ready course content and market it to the cannabis industry. And, you know, I think that that is a really smart way to do it, or like a very, I don’t wanna say it’s an easy way to do it, but that that, to me is so much more thoughtful and strategic than just saying, I’m going to open this course up to anyone who you know who is an entrepreneur. Who wants to like think about business? Like that is so broad.
Adam G. Force 24:04
It’s so broad makes a big difference. It makes a big difference. And I’m wondering if you have remembered anything that like when you were doing your beta course. And you went from consulting to beta? Did the process you use for your consulting? Right? Yeah. Did that apply directly to the course? Or were there changes to the flow based on the fact that it’s now of course?
Alli Ball 24:33
Oh, that’s a great question. So what I did is when I started consulting, I, so I’m a systems person, I will tell you that like I love Yeah, organization systems. And one of the things that I did with my consulting clients pretty early on, is I developed a 12 step outline on how we were going to take them from, you know, business idea to getting there. wholesale account. And I would go through the same exact process, tweaking it slightly for my one on one clients. And you know that it took a little while to develop that process. But, you know, once I had, I mean, gosh, it was probably as fast as like, three or four clients, realizing that they, they all had similar challenges. So once I was able to have that, you know, that rough like 12 step process, I knew that that was something that I could replicate with, with my one on one clients. You know, at the end of the day, Adam, like, I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel with every single client. And I would find that I would write No, I would write these custom proposals, and I would, you know, a client would convince me that they didn’t need a foundational aspect. And then we would get into meeting two or meeting three and I was like, Oh, God, like you really just, you know, you really needed homework assignment number two that I get to almost everybody, right? Yeah. And so once I, once I started, like documenting that system of how I, how I achieved a transformation in my one on one clients that so clearly created the curriculum for retail ready, you know, I was like, I’m already following these steps. So. So I would say like, as much as you can, if you find yourself replicating the same thing over and over with clients, that’s a really great indicator that it potentially could turn it into a course. Yeah,
Adam G. Force 26:33
yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So let’s dive into some of your organizational obsessions. Yeah, and the reason I bring that up is because I think so many people, especially early on, you know, things can get out of hand and you think you’re organized but you’re really not you’re not creating the systems you need because you’re busy working on your, you know, your business and in your business, whatever. And so tell me, I guess a little bit about has maybe some organizational ideas that you’ve had along the way.
Alli Ball 27:10
Yeah, so I can talk about a couple things. And I’ve got like two to like very tangible or not not tangible, but to like very concrete things that people can put in place. And then I just have like a general philosophy that I’d love to share with your listeners. So first off, I will say that I am a huge planner user, like a huge physical planner user. My high school actually required us to use a physical planner and they gave it to every student when you know, I don’t know first day of school or something. And we had to use this physical planner. And you know, when I was 14, I thought it was a drag like I I you know, I was like, why is my school requiring me to do this but I will tell you, it has like, laid the foundation for My time management and my organizational skills. So I have been using a physical planner for about two decades now. I actually add him I don’t know if you know this, I have a physical planner called the food biz Wiz planner that we give to retail ready students and we sell on my website. And it’s specifically again, I say it’s specifically made for the food industry. But like, as we were just discussing, you know, these are organizational skills that like anybody. Exactly, yeah, so let me talk, let me talk about like my two favorite parts of the food biz was planner that anybody can put into place, and they’re like, really my foundations for achieving all that I do in my business. The first one is realizing that I can achieve three big things every week, and that’s it. And so, what I do is, I’ll either do it on Friday afternoons or on Sunday evenings, kind of depending on How my week ends. But what I will do is I will sit down for about 10 minutes before before Monday morning. And I will plan out three things that I’m going to accomplish in the week that are going to hit move me closer to my quarterly goals. Yeah. And that, to me is so fundamental. Because no matter how, no matter how a week goes, I know that daily, I can turn back to those three things and know exactly what I need to be making progress on that’s aligned with where I want my business to go. And so, you know, it takes me 10 minutes every week. At the end of the week. I’ll then like sit down and review how far along I got with those three things. And that like that simple thing, like it sounds almost too simple, Adam, but that that like practice alone has has really influenced how much you I can get done in my business, and how quickly my business moves forward.
Unknown Speaker 30:06
Absolutely.
Alli Ball 30:07
So I love that. Yeah, that’s a, that’s a really big one for me. And then the second one is that I have a morning routine, and an evening routine that takes about half hour at the start of each day and the end of each day. And I do the same exact routine in the same exact order every day. Okay, and so now this is I mean, I’m gonna let you in on the secret I it seems a little bit like obsessive compulsive to do this. But it allows me as someone who primarily works from home, to have bookends to my day, and that’s really important because I don’t know if you’re like me, Adam, but like, I could work until 10pm every night like, I love what I do. I love working, like so easy for me to just work into the evening, however, like for my own like mental health For the health of my relationships for like, frankly, my physical health to like, I wouldn’t go to the gym if I worked all night long. I’ve got to have a way to end the day. So what I do is every single day, you know, Monday through Friday, I get up, you know, I have my coffee, I like to hang out with my husband for a bed and walk the dog, whatever. You know, that’s not part of my morning routine. But once once I sit down to work, I skim my email and just see you know, what’s on on deck for the day. I check in in my retail ready student group. I check my slack channels. And I check Instagram. Yeah, and that’s it. I do those four things in that order every day. And then this is the key Adam. I don’t do them again throughout the day. You know, like okay, I’m not in my inbox 15 times a day. I’m not On Instagram, every time I have a five minute break, like I’m not checking slack all day long and that to me has made all the difference because I am able to then you know do the opposite of multitasking. I focus on one task at hand at at a time and it really allows me to like almost like autopilot start and end my day.
Adam G. Force 32:23
Yep, I mean so important to have boundaries for yourself in a sense, right? Because little distractions can really interrupt the day quite a bit. So you know only looking at your phone in the morning at lunch and an evening like that kind of thing makes a huge difference. Your morning routines a little different than mine, especially your evening routine. My evening routine is have a bourbon by 334 o’clock so I’m late for my verb. In my morning is more along the lines have run a mile go to the gym for like 20 minutes and then I do a shower. And then a meditation and I’m like ready to rock and roll.
Alli Ball 33:03
Yeah. And that’s, I love that you bring that up, Adam because everyone’s routine can be different, right? Like, just because that’s my routine doesn’t need it. mean it has to be your listeners routine. It’s whatever works for you. And so for me, like, I usually do that from about 830 to nine o’clock, and then I do a gym class at 930 Oh, okay, there you go. Yeah. So like, it works best for me if I start my day by just checking in on my systems and you know, checking in with my team. And then I go do something for myself.
Adam G. Force 33:34
Yeah. So that when I come back at 11, I know exactly what I’m working on. And I can be heads down for like my most productive hours of the day, which are like 11 to two. And that’s a key statement, your most productive hours because some people are morning people, some people are night owls and all whatever it is, you know, so we have to work during our best hours and do the things that are best for us. And I think you know, it’s important to just be To follow that, right kind of follow what’s best for you, but I don’t want to rationalize and say, Oh, well then I better just get up at noon. It is so funny because my husband and I both work from home. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, we’ll like do our morning routines are dog is walked like, we, we come back from the gym at like 11 shower, whatever and then I’m like, oh like it’s noon. I’m just getting to work. Yeah, it feels so luxurious and so silly to have that be our schedule. You know, not every day but like often, but then I will tell you I will sit down and I am one of the most productive people you will ever meet. So I am sitting down and cranking it out until 4pm. And like achieving so much stuff, because I’m so focused again on like, my ultimate priorities every week and every day. I mean, it totally makes sense. I love it because tracking what you need to do and staying on top of it, giving yourself the time like going to the gym exercising, like I will say, as entrepreneurs that work out of the house, if we don’t make time for that one, we won’t be as focused. We won’t be as sharp but to your body will start to physically like fall apart. And you’re gonna be at the doctor saying I have neck pain. I have shoulder pain. Yeah, I have been there and I was like, holy crap, I stopped like exercising for I think, I don’t know, nine to 12 months, I was just like in the zone working every day from like, 5am till freakin seven at night. And I ran into real physical health issues.
Alli Ball 35:39
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s astonishing, right? Like, we I feel like we don’t recognize that Intel it becomes a problem. But I and this goes back to like, my general philosophy that I wanted to touch on is that Adam, I say no to most things that come across my plate. I swear to you that I have been able to have the business success that I have, because I do because I’m very picky about what I say yes to. And I have I’ve really narrowed and limited the amount of things on my plate. So I say yes to going to the gym like I say yes to having a healthy lunch every day. Like I say yes to making time to, you know, read at night and things like that so that I can become and stay that healthy entrepreneur that I that I strive to be
Adam G. Force 36:35
100% Yeah, I love that. It’s good. Ask it. This is good insights. Folks. Pay Thank
Unknown Speaker 36:41
you.
Alli Ball 36:43
Gosh, I could talk about this all day long. I
Unknown Speaker 36:44
know. I know. We’re good.
Adam G. Force 36:46
They’re good. They’re good. conversations that have to resurface regularly to remind us remind people listening about these key points because once you start having success as an entrepreneur, you’ll realize that The more you do take care of yourself that inner world, whether it’s meditation, running, whatever, that will help develop your outer world more in line with what you want. Right? So like, this is huge, and I think people neglect it.
Alli Ball 37:16
Well, yeah. And you know, it sounds so cheesy, but like, there’s a reason why we say like, put on your own oxygen mask first, right? You have to
Alli Ball 37:24
take care of yourself first, so that you can show up for others. And I think that is, you know, that’s our ultimate responsibility as course creators and entrepreneurs. Like if we are truly meant to be the leader that we want to be, we have to take care of ourselves first. Exactly.
Adam G. Force 37:42
I love it. Now. That’s a good note to end on here. We hit our 34 minutes, so I’m asked to wrap up. So let’s just um, there’s, I know there’s people in the food space and our audience, and I want to give a shout out how do they find you learn more about what you’re doing for Retail ready to see if maybe it’s something that could help them where do they go?
Alli Ball 38:03
Great. Thank you for asking. I’ve got two really great resources for them. The first one is my own podcast. Again, it’s called food biz Wiz. And that can be found at food biz whiz.com. And actually, Adam, I’ve got a couple episodes on how to get organized as a food entrepreneur. Why saying no is the most important thing you can do in your business, lots of topics like that. So if your listeners have enjoyed this style of conversation today, I think that they’ll enjoy some of those episodes. And then also I’ve got a really awesome nine step roadmap on how to get your products on the retail shelf. So if you are a food producer, beverage producer like wellness or supplement producer that is going to be great for you. So that’s at Alibaba comm slash roadmap
Unknown Speaker 38:55
how they bought calm
Adam G. Force 38:57
yeah slash roadmap. Okay, just writing it down. Alright, great awesome So guys, you could check out Ali’s podcast check out her roadmap and other information she has available at those resources. You know, I made a note to myself here Allie. I was like, Huh when to say no and I for potential Facebook Live video.
Alli Ball 39:21
Yeah, yeah. You know what? Adam all sent you that? That podcast episode. I feel so wholeheartedly that it is applicable to anyone, not even you know, not just food but just life in general.
Adam G. Force 39:36
It’s not Oh, yeah. Isn’t this like focused? Honestly, it’s just applies everywhere. It’s such a great kind of philosophy to dig into and think about. Yeah, you know, like you. You’ve been doing your your quarterly planner and things. Yeah. And we have been doing journaling, with different insights but more about nurturing the inside. Psychology. And I got to tell you, man, like we’re starting to apply this as a strategy for all of our new students. Because as you go through it, what I’ve learned in doing it myself for a while now is you get into these thoughts about your own journey. And they become great talking points for your live videos and everything else that you’re doing in the business because you’re actually digging into how you feel who you need to become challenges, what kind of conversations you have with your customers and all these types of things. It’s pretty powerful, just this process of writing things down.
Unknown Speaker 40:33
So yeah, I am.
Alli Ball 40:35
I know and I know that like we’ve, and I think it’s ironic because you and I are digital course creators, right? So like, obviously, we love all things digital, but I will tell you that experience of pen to paper is so so powerful. Yeah, yeah,
Adam G. Force 40:51
yeah. And there’s a number of ways that people do it. And so, you know, it just depends, I guess what’s best for you or what you’re trying to accomplish, but I love what you mentioned about the planner. I kind of want to combine that where I have two notebooks one is for like to dues thoughts and all that stuff. The other one is more for like journaling, you know, I keep them very separate.
Alli Ball 41:09
Same exact same. I’ve got like, I’ve got three
Alli Ball 41:16
high, you know, we didn’t really get into this But yeah, I, I have a daily journal, practice as well. That is so, so valuable to me.
Adam G. Force 41:25
Good. Good stuff, man. Really appreciate your time today, Allie, great as always talking with you. And I appreciate you sharing all your insights. And I love the success that you’ve had. So guys, check out Ali’s information, you got the podcasts, got the roadmap, all that good stuff, and maybe she can help you get on those retail shelves.
Alli Ball 41:44
Awesome. Thanks for having me, Adam. That’s all for this episode. Your next step is to join the Change Creator revolution by downloading our interactive digital magazine app for premium content, exclusive interviews, and more ways to stay on top of your game available now on iTunes and Google Play. or visit Change Creator mag comm we’ll see you next time where money and meaning intersect right here at the Change Creator podcast.
