Hello friends welcome back to the dream biz podcast, the business podcast that helps you automate, streamline and grow your business. I'm your host, Kristi Johnson, Online Business Manager and systems integrator dedicated to helping you build a life and a business that you love. I believe that your dream business is possible. And in the podcast, I teach you how to get there step by step. Joining me today is my guest expert. I'm super duper excited to have her we have Andrea Lee Ross, she is a business coach and mindset coach, she's also a best selling author. Andrea, thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to have you.
Thank you for inviting me.
I'm so happy. So why don't you tell the audience just a little bit about what you do. And then we'll dive into our conversation on thinking big and leveling up.
All right, so I work with female entrepreneurs, which sounds like that's who you're talking to, to? Absolutely. And I work with business owners who really are just starting their business. But my sweet spot is people who already have started who are already profitable, who are probably who are definitely making more than six figures at this point, who maybe have a few contractors or a small team, but they know that they need probably more team in order to grow and get to that next level, I've got a couple clients that are making seven figures. So my word, yeah, so really, what I help them do is get out of their own way. Get out of their own way, help them understand not just the actions that they need to take to get to that next level or continue to grow, but also what they need to be thinking about. So I like to say that, you know, there's two elements to this secret sauce, mindset and systems and mindsets, probably about 80% systems are totally important. Like, if you don't have any, it's not gonna happen. But you've really got to have that thinking to fuel the actions. So that's, that's what I do. I also have a podcast. So if you're listening to this, and you're on your podcast player, you can find time to level up podcast, I've got about 170 episodes on there thus far. So that's kind of fun. And I released my first book, in September of 23, it became a best seller, it's called she thinks big the entrepreneurs guide to moving past the messy middle and into the extraordinary. I love coaching people out of that messy middle. They
are messy middle, that is such a perfect descriptor. And I think there's so many of us hanging out there. That was not one year ago, I was really just telling you before we started recording that I'm in a place where I am growing my team I am bringing on it's my first time ever bringing on team members. And people who've listened to my podcast before will know that. Several weeks ago, I released an episode about how I 3x my business in three months and really went from a time of incredibly inconsistent money and incredibly inconsistent mindset. I really felt like my business was a big joke, honestly. Because I have been I mean, I've been in business for 14 years, Andrea, 14 years. Yeah, I started my photography business when I was 16 years old, and never made it past $5,000 a month. And I was talking about that on the podcast, and how what changed for me was hiring a coach. Because I had a come to Jesus moment where I was like, I am going to go get a job at Starbucks because it would be less of a joke than this. And that was literally me this time last year, a year ago. And what changed for me was hiring a coach to help me level up. So I was living in the messy middle for years, not thinking that leveling up was even possible, because I would see other people do it. And I would be so jealous. And I would be like, how did they do this? My systems were so good. My clients that actually bought from me, they loved me. I knew that my service was good, but I couldn't get to that next level. And so I think it's interesting that you say you work with people to bring them out of that into the next level. And that's exactly where so many of us are right now. So I'm literally so excited to have you on this podcast. I literally bought your book as we were talking even five minutes ago, I cannot wait to get it here. So let's talk about how what do you want? Like, how do we get there for those people that are where it was last year, those people that you're helping in your business to get to that level where they're, they want to work with you and have you as their coach, like, what is that missing piece? Like? Can you give us some insight there?
I can totally do that. Before I get into that, though, I just want you to imagine having 50k months,
I cannot I mean, actually, my, actually, my goal for this year is to have a 30k month at the end of 2024.
Yep, I want you to really think about what that would feel like, what that would look like, you don't actually even have to know how it's gonna happen. But part of what I help people do is access what I call the future you. Okay, so I want you to go to a place, you can even just go to like December of 2024. And that's in your case, that might be the person that's having 30k months. Okay? And I want you to ask her, Christy have the same December of 2024, I want you to ask her what to do. If we asked the past Christy, she's gonna have lots of ideas and stories that she can tell me about what has happened in the past, but the past can just be kind of a teacher, it does not have to be a fortune teller. Okay, it's not telling your fortune. You can also ask the Christie of today, we're recording this at the end of January. And you can ask her what to do. And she may have some good ideas, but she also is gonna have a lot of doubt, because she hasn't done whatever she wants to do yet. Okay, so she's gonna come up here, that little frenemy voice in the back of her head, it's gonna be really loud. And it's gonna say, Do you are you sure you know what you're doing? Is that the best next move? How should you position this? I mean, I don't know, someone might say no to you. So this is the frenemy voice, I call it the front of me voice that's like lives in the back of your head. So really, in order to figure out what to do, or even what to think, which I think is more important. You need to go to the future, you and in my book, I talk about this future you person a lot, the future you is going to do a couple things, the future you is going to not just tell you what to do. She's also going to give you what I call a belief plan. Okay, what do you need to believe is possible in order to get there? Okay, she's gonna give you an action plan. She's gonna probably give you a timeline a time plan. And she's gonna do it in a way that integrates with the what kind of life you want to lead. Right? Does this a lot? Like you just told me I'm gonna reveal something you're not in your normal spot. Right now you're in the Outer Banks. Right? So cool. Like, that's the, that's something that you wanted to do. And you said, okay, the podcast can go on, even if I'm not in my own by space, right? That title
thinking got to pack my microphone.
Right. But guess what there was and whatever else, that's fine. It's all fine. So one thing I work really hard with my clients is creating not just an action plan, but a belief plan and a time plan and a life plan and integrating them all together. So I call that that process. I call that turning your vision into action. And I do that a lot through what I call a vision to action intensive, which is you and I and maybe two or three other female entrepreneurs getting together and getting that vision out on paper, me prompting you to actually even access the vision. Okay, cuz that's hard work. Dreaming is hard. Okay, but access the vision, get it out there, and then figure out what you need to do. So that's part of your answer your question, but I want to go back to something I want to go back to the 50k months. Okay, art of getting to a 50k month we got the options of how we're going to do it. We can sell more. Okay, so you could keep the same product or offer and you could just sell the heck out of it. You could add something in. Okay, now you're gonna have like multiple services. Oh, or here's your third option. And I'm always about like, let's press the easy button. In fact, over there on my console, I have this red button that's like, press the easy button. It's an easy button. What if you just changed your thinking around? Okay, so when someone says What am I worth? Am I worth a 50k month? Okay. And we all ask that question because we're human and we have human brains, but really when you're asking that question What you're doing is combining three beliefs. Okay, so you're combining these three beliefs. And if this is if you've got drama around this, there's really just conflict between these beliefs. That's all that's going on. So you've got to believe in yourself, like you know what you're doing. Okay? And I'm gonna guess that the vast majority of your listeners believe that they know what they're doing. Because if you're a creative entrepreneur, like you probably started this, because you, like, if you're a photographer, you loved photography, you know what you're doing course you can, like, increase your knowledge base, but you know what you're doing? Okay? So check on that 99% of the time. Next, you have you have to believe next belief is you have to believe that the service you're offering is something valuable that people need it. Again, pretty much everyone, no one would have started in business if they thought that no one needed this. Okay, you can waver on that sometimes you get, you can, you can talk yourself into people need this. Okay? And but here's the third belief, you have to believe in the emotional and financial maturity of your client. I am gonna say that, again, the emotional and financial maturity of your client, meaning that they get that hiring you is worth $5,000. And they are not going to question that, they are not going to doubt that they are not going to sit and think about it for 12 months, and then get back to you. Okay, that's where we have the problem. We don't believe that our clients will get why they should pay us and why they should pay us more. Okay, so instead of offering more products, or instead of just trying to sell more, instead of having 10 clients paying you $1,000 Each, what if we just had two clients paying you $5,000 each? I mean, I don't know, but that sounds better to me. Okay, so there's something called cognitive dissonance, which is where you believe one thing, but it conflicts with another belief. So that, yes, I believe that what I'm offering is valuable, or not at all much it's work. Okay. So when I create these plans with my client, when I go from this vision into action, we really have to vision or believe that we're worth whatever it's worth. All right, I'm gonna set my list. What do you think about AI?
I love that I'm getting a mini mindset session from you right now. And everyone who's listening to this is getting that as well, because I, that I, my brain is I want action plans. I got step by step, I wouldn't do that. We can do that. I need to know. Well, I need to know the steps. You know, I've started multiple businesses throughout my life. Because I I'd figured out the steps to do that. For me, like a 50k month, like even even last year, I thought a $10,000 month was impossible for me. And this type of like vision pastine and then turning it into action. I just I feel like you're giving me exactly what my brain needs to know. I need to know. Okay, but how do I get how do I get there? And I think that for so much of my life. I knew I needed to believe in myself and I would try to do that
for you. And and I'm sure if I asked you that, like do you believe in yourself? You'd say yes. Yeah. Okay. Right. Everybody gives that a yes. Usually.
Uh huh. I mean, and I remember but I remember the moment of like, tapping the very first time I ever tapped into my future self. i What, and acted like, Okay, what would she do? That was such a new concept for me because it was like I was stuck at but this is who I am like, What are you talking about? Like, future me that makes literally no sense. But I remember that moment. And I'm gonna tell you the story. This is like crazy. I this this is not related to business. This is a tangent. So I just we're just gonna we're just gonna go on the tangent. I was sitting there listening to Amy Porterfield give a talk for digital course Academy. You know, she's a genius at selling DCA. And she's that's where she said the first time I got it, that I needed to act as if what I wanted has already happened. So she said, Imagine you've launched your course, and you have made a million dollars on your course. What you need to do today is act like that has already happened. And that was the first time that I was like, oh, I need to believe in myself that much that what I want is possible, and that I can actually have it. And so that day, I went back to my email list. I wrote an email where I was talking about this, and I told an illustration about how you know, if you'd like to say that you wanted to make it to the Olympics, or you wanted to perform at Carnegie Hall, or you wanted to, you know, be in the NBA or whatever. If that's your dream, what are you going to do today? You're not going to sit on your butt and not go to your track practice. Like, you're gonna go to your track practice. What you got something you want to say, yeah,
so I want to say, Yes, Amy Porterfield is amazing. But what I really want to say is get you're not gonna sit on your butt. I think though, here's the thing. I think that a lot of us are sitting on our butts. I kind of like that. Okay, I've you're right, that a lot of us are sitting there doing what I call passive action. Right? I don't know if this is a concept you're familiar with telling me. Okay, so passive versus massive action. So passive action is listening to a podcast, which clearly I'm all into podcasts. I'm not there's nothing wrong with this passive action, right? This isn't a judgment of passive versus massive. But passive action is listening to a podcast, reading a book, watching Amy Porterfield course. Okay, so you'd save yourself? Well, not not doing anything. I mean, I'm doing something. But what's not happening a lot of times is we're not turning that into massive action. So you by writing those emails, that was turning it into massive action. So so many times, we're just consumers of content as an entrepreneur, because honestly, like, we've never done this before. So we think we need to know something. Okay, we need to know what, and yes, Amy Porterfield. She's got amazing ideas. I listen to her ideas all day long. Okay, but unless you're going to turn that into something, it's just not worth it. Right. So I have my clients that come to me, prospective clients, and a lot of them will say, you know, I'm the one that's getting in my own way. I'm kind of treating this business as what I call a jabi. I rephrase it. For them. It's a job. It's like a jungle, but it's kind of a hobby, but they're dabbling in it. They're watching the courses, they're listening to the podcast, they're doing all the things. But they're not taking the massive action. And that's where they're, that's the mess. That's a stuck place, too. So really, what I want to tell your listeners is, all you have to know, is just the next step. Best step, the next best step. So getting to a 50k month, how is that going to happen? I mean, we could plot it all out and do all the math like, well, I need 10 clients each paying me this or whatever. Sure. Like I like math. It really is just math, but math is gonna not get you to the next best step. So the next so then, okay, you're like, Great, yeah, but how do I find those 10 clients? Thanks, Andrea. That my friend is just deciding what the next best step is to get you the result you want. So I had a client yesterday to client story. And you and I, before we started recording, you kind of alluded to this. So she kind of newish business owner. Okay. I don't know what our months are. But they're certainly not 10k. They probably not even 5k. She said to me, is it worth me? Is it worth me spending time creating this downloadable thing? Okay, should I should I create it spend lots of time on Canva making it look pretty, uploading it optimizing it for SEO, I do all that. And I said, Okay, what is the result that you want by the end of February? Like tell you what the bottom line is? Well, by the end of February, I want three paying clients. Okay, what do we need to do to get three paying clients? What actions are the action? What do we need to do? Wow, she's like coming up with 50 gazillion ideas. And I said, Alright, really what this boils down to is that you have to make offers to help people. That is the action. Okay? However, we have to find the people to make the offers to Okay, so honestly, what do you really want you want to find enough people to make offers to so that you have three yeses. Alright, so let's go back to that the result is really people I want to make offers to, okay, now what do you have to do in order to figure out or in order to get the result of the people? Well, you You've got to find the people. And one way to find them is to offer them something in exchange for their email address so that you can keep talking to them. So you could bypass that and just stand out on the corner and talk to people. You could get in front of people be a podcast guest, you could go do speaking engagements, those are all good things, too. But if we're trying to tap people that maybe aren't going to be literally right in front of you. Yeah, like, we got to give them something. So they're gonna give us something so that we can keep talking to them. So I kind of just backed into the answer of whether or not she should create the downloadable, right? Because to her getting on the call, it was like, Oh, my God, what should I do? Should I do this? Is it worth it? Should I spend time creating my PowerPoint for this speaking engagement that I'm doing? Yes, yes. And yes, I said, but listen, like, if I just told you right now that you in 10 minutes, I'm swooping? Like, you're gonna jump in the car with me. And we're gonna go and you're gonna speak to 10 people and, you know, half 30 minutes, could you do it? She's like, Yeah, I have things I could say, okay. So that PowerPoint, yes. But like, you're gonna get that done, we need to capture more and more people. So that next best step thing is super Dee duper important. But in order to get even to get to that place, she has to believe that she can create the three clients. All right. And in order to that, in order to do that, she has to think bigger, which is where this book kind of comes into play. She thinks big, you know, what is thinking big it is accessing the future, you it's also trusting that you can do that you will do that. Not Can you will do it. And I created an acronym TR U S, T for trust. And that the letter stands for T is thought options. Okay, you've got lots of ways you could think about something like this, you could think this is impossible. Or you could think this is inevitable. Those are two thought options. Okay, what are big thinkers going to think? They're going to think this is inevitable. Alright, so T stands for thought options. R stands for what's the real problem here? Why aren't we Why did we have three clients last month? The real problem is nothing external. It honestly isn't necessarily your offer. It is not the weather. It is not any of those things. The real problem is that you don't want to experience a negative feeling. negative feelings are really the real problem. That is it. That's it, my friends, it's good news. Good news is that the real problem is just that you don't want to experience rejection. You don't want to experience doubt. You don't want to experience frustration. And so guess what you don't make 100 offers to find the three people, you do lots of paths of action instead, like you're learning, you're figuring it all out. Okay? So real RS real problem stands. And it's the real problem is nothing external. It's all in your brain. And if you want, you're supposed to feel those things, but that kind of brings me to the you part, which is embrace uncertainty, you got to get good. You've got to get really good at being uncomfortable. And that's totally overused. But it's true, you've got to get good at not knowing what they're gonna say, you've got to get good at just put being intentional with what you're putting out there. Like, it's not throwing spaghetti against the wall. But you've got to get good and not exactly knowing what is going to happen. Sometimes they talk about wild goals. That's another whole podcast too. And, and the W stands for willing to suck at it, you've got to be willing to suck at it. Okay, so that's a little bit the U and trust is embrace uncertainty. The s part this is what big thinkers do this is if you're going to create a 50k man, you gotta be doing this. You've got to secure support, which is kind of what you said you did this year. Okay, you cannot do it alone, my friend. I'm here to tell you that even though those family members, maybe a partner is very supportive, okay, everybody tells me Oh, my husband or my partner or my sister, they're very supportive, okay. They're supportive and their way they're supposed to be loving you. They're supposed to be kind of like cheerleaders, but they are not, they did not sign up to tell you the hard stuff. kind of tell it like it is they did not sign up for that. So they're offering you their kind of support, you need support and doing the hard things. So a coach or an expert, not even a mentor because here's the thing about mentors, which I love mentors.
Mentors are more like cheerleaders or or coming alongside you. They're not necessarily even going to They tell it like it is, in a sense, like they're in the peanut butter jar, I call it like you're stuck in your own peanut butter jar. And it's sticky in there and you can't like dig yourself out. It's like Jiffy peanut butter, you can't get out. But they're kind of in there with you. Because a lot of times also, they're in the same field you're in. So they can come isn't rate. Okay? But we're not here about commiserating. We're here about, like making clients making money, feeling successful. That's what we're here about. So you need to secure support to get that done. And then the last thing t for t does stand for take action. Okay, you do have to do something. But it's the massive action, not just the paths of action. So when I wrote my book, actually, I kind of went back and forth on this, whether I should include this or not. But at the end of each chapter, I give questions to kind of like, help you process what the chapter was about. And I debated if I should include a little paragraph about how my first coach had me read a book, a different book, obviously. And she told me kind of had little come to Jesus and was like, Listen, this book has questions at the end of every chapter. And people usually nine out because other people say, oh, yeah, that'll be nice to do. I'm gonna just gonna think about doing my head. But she said, You are gonna get way more out of this and make way more progress if you take a pencil and write down the answers or type out the answers. So I put that in there. And I told that story because it was totally 1,000% True. And I created a workbook too, just for that thing, just for that whole purpose, too, because I think there is something to answering questions with a pencil. So okay, so what's the big thinker, accessing your future self, and trusting? Trusting is thought options, real problem, which is really feeling embracing uncertainty, securing support and taking action. All right, again, I just grabbed on what do you think, I
love that. And this is the value of hiring a coach, that's going to be my call to action for this episode is hire a coach, because I love that that real client story that you shared, because that is where that is what our brains are doing. Because there's so much, you know, resting on us so many ideas and things. And when you're doing it alone, it's like a big ol ball of spaghetti. And then the coach can come in and take the singular noodle and pull it out and tell you, alright, let's look at this. And here's what we're going to do. And my business was at a standstill until I hired a coach, I was stuck. I will go on to the Facebook groups. And people will say, I have this problem. And it's terrible and blahdy blahdy blahdy, blah, I don't want to hire a coach because I don't have money. Literally every time I go on this and I'm like, hire the coach.
And there's tons of coaches out there. Okay, how do you decide which one is right for you? Here's a little tip. They all can help you there. They all can help you. Do not torture yourself and overthink the hiring process. Do not do not interview five coaches you are you will end up more confused. I mean, I'm not saying only talk to one person. But if you even talk to one person, and you feel like that person gets you and can help you like friggin go for it enough waiting around. Like just just trust yourself. Ask your future you would you work with this person? If that's a yes then like, got it like endless and the torture. Okay. Yes. The torture and the torture. So I love it when I get on a console call milk? Well, I just want to tell you at the beginning here. I set up appointments with seven coaches. So at the end of this call, I'm not going to be making any decisions. Okay. I asked them why they're talking to seven coaches. I'm just the kind of person that really just needs a lot of information before I make a decision. Okay, what exactly what infer but besides that, well, sometimes I'm like, Okay, well, let's just I'm gonna ask you right now, what kind of information are you looking for? Let me just cut to the chase. What are you looking for? They don't know. There is no well, how much does it cost? How much? I can tell you all the things but you're not buying sessions with me. You're buying the fact that I believe in you more than you believe in yourself. You're buying results. You're buying where I can get you. You're not buying minutes. Whoa, yeah. So I don't know how I throw that in there. But that's where I've read one. That is perfect. That's like that's the thing and you know, some coaches only work with a very, very specific person and I Good, right? I work with female entrepreneurs, a lady of men calling me. My doula. Just always interesting. I work with female entrepreneurs, and really, you know, from their first 10k to seven figures, and I have different programs to serve each of their needs. But you just have to find someone that like gets you. That's it.
Yep. That's all. Don't make it complicated. Yep. Don't overcomplicate it. Wow, I just love this conversation so much. I could go for like three more hours for the week.
I think we should probably cut it off though. Because, you know, our brains can only listen to so much.
Exactly. I want to finish telling you this story really quickly about the day that I went home and sent all those emails.
Yes. Tell me that
night. I was at choir practice, because I go to I'm involved in inquire. And I had just written this thing that said, you know, if you want to make it to the NBA, you want to make it to the Olympics or you want to make it to Carnegie Hall. The mind you got to believe that it's that it's happened act as if it's already happened. And I didn't know what I was saying, because I still hadn't gone through all those steps. I hadn't hired the coach yet. I just I had just had this feeling like I need to step into something else that I have not been doing before. So that night, I went to the choir practice. And our director said that we were going to be going to Carnegie Hall that summer. Yeah, that same day, I sent the email. And I that was not even on my radar. It was just something that came out to me. And he was like, hey, guess what we've been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. And I just had this like, mind blown action. And I wish you all could see Andrews face. She's like, got her jaw dropped. But literally, and that was like something that I needed. It was like a little breadcrumb that God or the universe or whatever was like telling me like, yes, Christie, you're on the right track. And that was just amazing. So I just wanted to share that. I love that story. Yeah,
that's just like, you just had to plant the idea in your head that that was possible. Mm hmm. Yep.
It happened to me. Yeah.
I love it. Such a good. Oh, my
goodness. Well, Andrea, thank you so much. So I'm gonna put a link in the show notes for your book, because I really want people to buy your book. It is called she's big, big. Yep. Right. So check it out. It comes up right there on Amazon. She thinks big. And can you tell people where they can find you online and hang out with you and follow along?
Sure. I think online, the best place is Instagram. I mean, I'm on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on YouTube, but let's just go to Instagram. And you can see me there, let's just do that. The other great place that you should check out is Andrea's with an S links with an s.com Andrea's links.com. You're gonna find links there to Instagram, to my website, to the book, to my podcast time to level up as the name of the podcast to a quiz, I've created a quiz that will kind of help you figure out maybe what is going on and why you're not getting to 5k or 10k or 50k months. That's all at Andrea's with an asset links with an s.com. So go take the quiz. Listen to a couple of podcast episodes, read the book. But I think if you were to that's all kind of passive action. If you are going to take some massive action, then set up a call. I mean, I do complimentary calls, like let's talk like that's massive action. It costs you nothing except your time. So that's it and that you can find the link to do that on my website.
Perfect. Thank you, Andrea. I really enjoyed this. I can't wait for our next five episodes. Okay, we're gonna be reaching out again. You enjoy your day. And thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me loved it.
Wow, wasn't that such a phenomenal episode with Andrea I am super pumped that this is my first episode releasing in 2024. What a perfect way to start the year and this the season of the dream biz podcast, please go visit her again at Andrea's links.com. I just got her book in the mail. And I'm so pumped to start reading it and also comes with a workbook which is so exciting. So yeah, I encourage you all to put the things that she's suggested into action. Grab her book, she thinks big. And let's make 2020 for the best year yet. Who's with me? All right. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time on The Dream biz podcast.
