February 20, 2023 • 39 mins
Get ready to feel inspired and excited! In this episode, you'll hear Lani Dickinson's life-changing story - from a troubled youth with her drug dealer mother to becoming the CEO of a Fortune 175 company. Now she helps self-made entrepreneurs create success that leads not only to greater profits but also true time freedom so they can make their impact, build generational wealth & become financially free if they choose. Tap into your personal power and get motivated by learning how YOU too can turn dreams into reality in this empowering chat!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
welcome to the seven FigureBuilder Show.
(00:01):
My name is Julie Barick,founder, seven Figure Builder,
where we help high achievingCEOs free uptime with gorgeous
systems and analytics to scaletheir business to seven figures
and beyond.
And I'm here today with myfriend Lonnie Dickinson.
Hi Lonnie.
Hey, how are you?
I am fabulous.
I'm thrilled to have you ontoday.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, absolutely.
(00:22):
So tell me, where in the worldare you?
I am in not so sunny California.
We've had more rain than I everremember in my entire 52 years.
But I am coming to you from thecenter of California.
I love it.
Yeah, I've heard you've gotten alittle bit of rain recently,
which is definitely different.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
(00:43):
So for those people that haven'thad the pleasure to meet you
yet, can you tell us just alittle bit about what you do
with your business?
I am a former Fortune 1 75 c e oand I've built a brick and
mortar gym from the ground upand have been coaching really
new entrepreneurs for the lastcouple of years.
And now I am focused really onmultiple six and seven figure
(01:04):
earners, helping them to installthe elements of what I would
say, professional management sothat they can get true exit two
versions of exit, whether it's.
Exit for freedom and time, whichis what we all say we really
want, or later down the roadexit for more multiple so that
all that work pays off andcarries you, long into
(01:26):
retirement.
So that's what I'm up to rightnow.
I love it.
And that's what everybody'safter is that more time, more
freedom.
Right?
That's why we get into business.
So you to my knowledge, have avery powerful story and I would
love to hear, a bit of whatbrought you to this point in
your life.
And then I definitely wanna diginto more of what you're doing
with your business.
(01:46):
Awesome.
The short version of the longstory is, and I think the peop
the thing that tends to intriguepeople the most.
And I have only been sharingthis part of my story literally
for three years cuz I had acorporate career where you don't
share your story.
So yeah, so it's it took me bysurprise that people were so
interested in it.
I started out, my mom was astreet drug dealer and that
(02:09):
usually is pretty interesting topeople.
So I had all of the things in mylife that go along with that,
whatever you might imagine for alittle girl growing up with
that.
And not just a little bit, likethere were piles of cocaine on
the living room table and we hada cop living with us to protect
how big the business was.
(02:30):
Imagine all that creates for alittle kid.
I then moved out when I was 15.
I was like I could do this badby myself and didn't wanna be
around the chaos that life wasall about.
And I had my son my senior yeardropped out, got a G E d, went
straight into nursing school.
I said, I gotta make a betterlife for my son.
(02:52):
I certainly don't wanna recreatewhat my life looked like.
And I became a nurse and veryquickly went into hospital
leadership.
It didn't take me very long to,to do that.
I'm passionate about patientcare and outcomes, but I love
actually more the business sideof things.
And I went and got an MBA andthen did a very steep climb to
(03:13):
the top of a Fortune 1 75healthcare company.
At one point I had all of ca,California and Arizona reporting
to me Somewhere in there in myearly thirties, maybe late
thirties, I was getting feedbackthat I was a bull in a China
shop.
I'm sure that came from the wayI grew up, right?
(03:34):
But people loved my results, butthey didn't necessarily love
that I didn't have good girlmanners.
I like to say I wasn't runningthe good girl playbook, and I
had to do something about thatbecause I was incredibly
security programmed, as youmight imagine.
So I went out on aself-development journey and
(03:54):
Discovered N L P neurolinguisticprogramming.
And got amazing results withthat and became passionate about
N L P and the results it can getfor you.
And I wanted to share that witheveryone.
So that is the thing where theentrepreneur was born and I joke
and I say, my early exposure toentrepreneuring was probably my
mom.
And that's probably real in, insome way.
(04:17):
But when I got the results Igot, cuz this when I finished
the first, year of that, I got apromotion every 18 months and my
career was easy after that.
I also discovered that it prettywell savaged the relationships I
didn't know were at risk in myown home.
My marriage and my son and so Iwas passionate on fire.
Entrepreneur on fire to bringthis message to the world.
(04:41):
So I got out there and startedteaching N L P in hotels, doing
N L P, the results of N L Ptypes of resorts.
But I was so tired of coldcalling.
Hey, Julie, do you know a friendwho could come to my thing?
This is I did not have a salesbackground.
My MBA was in marketing and inmarketing and strategy, but I
(05:03):
didn't have the salesbackground.
And so that was painful for me.
So I went on a big journey tolearn online sales through
automation, automated lead genand those kinds of things.
And an automated onboarding,because time is my highest
value.
So I learned all those thingsand Got pretty good at that.
But then I was like then I builta gym from the ground up.
(05:24):
I was like, wow, I can help withpeople that way.
Help.
And anybody who was on a weightplateau, they had an N L P
session with me.
So this went on for a while andthen fast forward five, six
years, people who had been in myearly N L P trainings were
coming back and saying, can youhelp me in my business?
Or can you help my kids?
One of the two.
Yeah.
(05:45):
And I naturally fell in lovewith the coaching people in
business side of things and sowas just minimally side hustling
and probably would've done thatforever, to be honest.
Probably would've done that tillretirement.
But covid hit and a couple ofthings happened for me
professionally.
(06:06):
One, I was exhausted.
I was working 18 hours a day, 20hour days in Covid.
There was no downtime.
We thought all the staff wasgonna die.
It was just, two years ofepinephrine.
And corporations struggled todeal with that in, in a way that
the leadership necessarily,wanted to live with it.
So that was going on.
But domestic and violent,domestic violence and child
(06:28):
abuse.
Rose like it probably wasalready happening at those
levels, but we were just moreaware cause people were locked
up.
And it was becoming moreexplosive.
And I got this, what I describedas a download, like I can help
these women not have to sufferthis.
I can help them all buildbusinesses.
So the nurse part of me tookover in my decision making was
(06:50):
like, I can reach all thesepeople, and so I did.
I did five day challenges.
And launched every six to sevenweeks.
Cuz I was like I turned 52 weeksbefore, two weeks after the
quarantine order and I hadalready came to this place of
I'm not living much, I'machieving a lot, but I'm not
living much.
(07:11):
And so I was gonna quit at 50,it was on my calendar.
But then Covid happened.
I said, ah, I can't run awaywhile this is going on.
But it was like this downloadyou have to do something.
These women are locked up, thenurse part came out.
So I started doing these lifechallenges, did that, and after
the third one, I had made$280,000.
I was like, I could live on thisif I had to.
(07:34):
I was certainly making way morethan that as a C E O, but it was
like, I think I'm just gonna,I'm gonna get through this Covid
thing.
We thought it was gonna be sixor eight weeks, right?
Get through this covid thing.
And I'm gonna do this full time.
I'm on fire for this.
So 2020, I couldn't build it.
So I started launching it in2021 in February, did the three
(07:56):
launches, made the two 80.
I was like, that's it.
I'm out.
I am out.
As soon as I, I stopped to say,what is it I need to do before I
leave?
And it was all about my son.
Which was interesting.
I thought it was gonna be mysecurity and it wasn't.
It was about his.
And so I bought some more rentalproperty.
(08:16):
I bought him a new car.
He hadn't had one in 13 or 14years.
And as soon as the car arrivedin my driveway, we buy
everything online now, postcovid, right?
The car arrived in my driveway.
I Googled how to write anexecutive resignation letter,
wrote my letter, and drove it tomy boss.
Did that and was gone 30 dayslater.
Haven't really looked back.
(08:38):
So I've been gone about a yearand a half.
I do a li little bit ofhealthcare consulting on the
side, but for the most part, Iam focused on really helping
people make the impact theywanna make with their business
without losing their minds, andalso prioritizing time and doing
what it is they say they reallywanna do.
And having that impact, buthaving the team, the systems,
(09:00):
the operations, the automationtelling the money what to do,
knowing what data to monitor,how to be the c e o, put your c
e o shoes on, I like to say, andrun your business and have,
instead of having your businessrun, you.
So there's the story.
I absolutely love it.
And I don't think I mentioned toyou, I actually started my whole
journey as a registered nursealso.
(09:22):
So I was in Oh, awesome.
High risk labor and delivery andthen transitioned over into IT
marketing and made that hugeleap there.
So that's fantastic.
Yeah.
So when you look at thattransformation, that's a huge
transformation in life andbusiness and all of it.
But thinking specifically theworld of the corporate world of
(09:43):
trading your time for money andwhat business looks like there
versus the sustainability andthe automations in the systems,
like what do you see as thebiggest, we'll say catalyst?
What's the biggest change forthose people?
I think the biggest change thathas to happen when somebody
comes out of that and wants tobe something else.
(10:04):
They say, I want that.
I'm this right now.
I want that.
And I don't know how to get fromhere to there.
So they have to have a big why.
That's the big thing.
Otherwise they're not gonnaremain motivated.
So they have to get clear onthat.
But then the transfer, thebiggest transformation I think
that has to take place is peoplehave to see themselves in the
new way, believe that it'spossible, and take the actions.
(10:24):
And that's often what's in theway for the newer entrepreneur
won't get visible.
I had somebody say to me, but Idon't have any clients, and I
did one podcast.
Yeah.
Not surprised, really believingthat's who I am, that's where
I'm going.
This is what life looks like ina very clear, compelling future
that they're drawn to.
(10:46):
So they will be willing to getuncomfortable and do the
visibility and establish theauthority and all the things.
When I created my first lifechallenge.
There's people out there saying,all you need is your cell phone.
At the end of the day, I think Ihave 42 emails written in that
sequence.
(11:07):
They're, they all have a textevery go live day.
There's, I dunno.
There's hundreds and hundreds ofautomations in there.
It's not just simple stuff.
So really believing that's whereyou're truly going.
And that you can do it.
Yeah.
We're all gonna learn, we're allgonna stumble, we're all gonna
bump our knees.
That's the biggesttransformation.
(11:27):
Instead of saying, I'm stillthis, it's yeah, and I'm also
that and that's where I'm going.
I think that's the biggesttransf to me, doesn't matter
what the income level is, tragoing from.
Multi six to seven figures, thenmultiple seven figures.
We're always becoming the personwe need to be to hold that to
receive that.
(11:47):
And to me, that's the biggestwork to be done.
It's never about do I have theskill?
Do I know what I'm doing?
Can I do the thing?
It's always am I really beingwho I say I wanna be?
Yeah, and that role isconstantly evolving as you go
through business, like you said,at all those different levels.
It looks just a little bitdifferent, but we're constantly
(12:10):
evolving as to who we are, so Ilove that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know you have a hugefocus on that exit strategy,
right?
Like when people are moving intothat next level of their
business, when should peoplestart thinking about that?
Like I think for mostentrepreneurs that hasn't even
fallen into the equation, right?
We're just trying to keep movingup that ladder.
What does that look like foryou?
And you hit it on the head, theydon't think about it.
(12:32):
And so then when the business isrunning them and they have no
time, they're on the hamsterwheel, they're doing all the
things, that's not the timethey're gonna figure out what
does exit look like?
Yeah.
And for me, exit is two things.
It could be.
Build the business, do the work,and now go live your life and
let the cash flow from that fundyour impact and your fun and all
(12:57):
the things you wanna do, andstop working your ass off.
That's what we did inIncorporate.
You don't have to do thatanymore.
Or the multiple when you trulyexit, whatever time that is.
So it usually takes about threeto five years.
So I would say first you gottabegin with the end in mind and
think about, I wanna, Irecommend people do all pieces
of their business until theyunderstand that and now give it
(13:19):
to someone else to do theexpert, right?
I don't advocate, don't know howto do anything in your business,
but.
Once you understand all of thosepieces and what your business
needs and what the objectionsare, and what the copy is and
what the offer should be and howto deliver that, once you figure
that all out, hand that tosomeone else and think about.
(13:41):
When my business gets there andmy value ladder is fully built
out, what is it I say I reallywant to do?
Like we can't just be about thework, right?
What do you want life to looklike and where can you weave
that in along the way?
And at what point?
Like I'm going to Italy for thewhole month of October this
year.
That's amazing.
(14:02):
Okay.
That's me weaving it in alongthe way.
Being clear, like what is thewhole life gonna look like and
how will I know I have it?
Like what is the evidence that Ihave it?
So we don't just keep going.
So I think we should start withthe end in mind, have that
mapped out, work it in.
But when we say I want to sell,Whether that's, I wanna sell
(14:26):
because I've built up theearnings and I can sell it for
three, three and a half or moretimes earnings and that's enough
money to put in the bank and Ican just live on the 4% and I
wanna live that way.
Or whether it's, I wanna, rollthat up, sell it off, and do the
next thing.
Or whether I am, whatever age,and I just literally want to
(14:48):
retire.
We've really, if we ha,especially if we haven't done
all this along the way wherewe're learning the thing and
then installing the expert, itcan take up to five years to be
intentional about installingother people in all areas,
marketing, sales, ops, financepeople, right?
(15:09):
So three to five years, butthree years when you're gonna
sell for more multiple.
You need to show three years ofearnings without the face of the
owner in the business.
So it's something you have to bethinking about more than three
years from when you wanna bedone.
Being the doer in your businessnow, I'm sure you've been around
(15:30):
enough entrepreneurs to knowthey stay the doer in the
business for too long.
Yeah, for too long.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always say as people aregrowing their team, and I'm
curious your take on it, but tobring in people that compliment
your weaknesses and to hand offthe things that you hate to do
and the things that you strugglewith so you can really live in
your gift and then grow in yourgift and to your point, then
(15:53):
continue to take those piecesand delegate them to other
people so that you can grow yourbusiness and not be buried in
running the business and doingthat thing every single day.
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
The first people.
You gotta get the stuff.
You're not good at the stuff.
You don't like the stuff.
You're procrastinating on thestuff that every time you do it,
there's rework involved, right?
(16:14):
That's a sign.
You need a specialist or theexpert to do that.
You're gonna go faster.
Just hire the person, right?
Even if it's fractional in thebeginning.
Hire what you need, whetherthat's in some kind of a done
for you consultant relationship,whether that's somebody else's
offer, and I just bought a bigoffer in January and I bought it
(16:37):
specifically for the bonuses.
They would interview and createa podcast episode, but they
would chop it up and create likemonths and months of social
content done for you.
Wow.
So I didn't, I bought the wholeoffer to get the months and
months of social content,because social content is
something I'm not consistentwith.
I've always grown with ads.
So social content isn'tsomething I particularly love.
(17:01):
I procrastinate.
And I'm not consistent with it.
So finding ways to have somebodyelse do the doing so you can
keep staying in your zone ofgenius, but also with that end
in mind of, there are plenty ofvery internet famous
entrepreneurs who.
(17:22):
Couldn't sell their businessbecause their face was the whole
business.
Yeah.
They were still coaching, theywere still deciding.
All those things make yourbusiness very hard to sell.
Because then somebody has tothen be you, which they can
never do.
So the rate of success is verypoor there.
Yeah.
I think the really hard part,you can usually convince people
(17:44):
to hire, outsource, automate,eliminate, delegate, whatever.
The stuff they don't like.
Or where they can see aroadblock because they're in,
it's when you get to the partwhere it's now we have to
replace you.
Yes.
That's the really hard part.
The ego suffers there.
And that goes back to having areally clear and compelling
(18:06):
vision for, what is it you sayyou really want.
Yeah.
So as people are growing theirbusinesses, when would you
encourage them to start bringingin the automations in the
systems?
What is the timing or thetrigger in your brain to say,
oh, day one, I agree with you,but question, first question,
you get an idea.
(18:26):
And then literally my techperson, I get an idea, I map it
out on my sketchpad, I click apicture and say how long would
it take you to build that?
Because I'm thinking, This isthe part that has to be me or
someone on my team.
The rest, how do we automate?
And by the time you map it outand you think of all the things
(18:49):
that you can automate, there'svery little you actually need a
human for if you, now, I alsodon't advocate there being so
much automation that it feelslike you're dealing with AI all
the time, right?
A hundred percent.
But yeah, I think right awayfrom the beginning, people need
to say, Okay, I'm gonna spend acouple hundred bucks a month on
(19:10):
a tech stack instead of tryingto use all the free resources.
Because you can automate andeliminate so much by just
thinking that way from thebeginning.
I agree.
And that's also what allows youto stay the visionary.
And not feel like you're helddown by your business is when
you can be that idea person inthe driving force.
(19:32):
Yeah.
And then have that supportaround you to then build in the
systems to continue it so youcan then continue being the
visionary.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
And where do you see data,again, maybe an obvious
question, but how does datasupport that?
For me data is everything.
It's everything.
It tells you where to spend yourenergy.
That's the most important part.
(19:53):
What's working, what's notworking.
So for me, once you buildsomething, you start right at
the beginning and you say, is itworking?
Yes or no?
Data's gonna tell you that.
And if we're doing a leadfunnel, Spread and marketing.
We're talking about the signsand symptoms that, the pain
stuff that people are exhibitingso that they know that they need
(20:15):
you.
The data on it is it working?
Are people clicking?
Are they making phone calls?
Are they opening the emails?
Like we should be checking everyevery step of the way of that.
And when we find somethingthat's not within benchmark.
Then we solve that before westart moving along.
And the proof is in the pudding.
The person who shows up on theother end of the zoom or at the
(20:38):
live event, are they the rightperson?
And the answer is yes or no.
And if they're not, we're gonnago right back to that front end.
Who are we attracting?
Is it all working?
So for me, every single thingthat we're going to do in the
business has a data pointattached to it.
Now we can't monitor.
Hundreds and hundreds of them.
(20:59):
We have to figure out what arethe critical one to two things
in each key area, but early on,we've gotta test it and make
sure it's working and get itoptimized before we move to the
next step.
Yeah.
And that also takes out theguesswork.
So much in marketing, we'reconstantly testing, right?
Like you put something outthere, see if it works.
And a lot of times I feel likepeople just go with their gut
(21:20):
okay, I got so many signups, butthey don't look at all the
breadcrumbs that are telling youalong the way if this is working
or not, and how to actually makeit better.
So I tend to be a data geek, sothat is where, for me, you can't
argue with it.
It just simplifies life so mucheasier.
Yeah.
When you have something concreteto look at.
Yeah, and we just will guideyou.
(21:40):
Everything you do oh, this,thank you, this thank you page
are not showing up in theFacebook group.
Okay, we gotta put a video andturn the whole page, turn the
button red, make it move.
It's like the next thing isn'thappening.
We go right back to the priorstep.
We know what's wrong.
Yeah.
And it's not personal.
Who cares if I don't like theword or the color?
Did you get, are you impactinglives on the other side of that?
(22:03):
A hundred percent.
So as we speak about exit,you've had an amazing way of
growing your legacy, I wouldsay, but also your financial
freedom.
So what has that looked like foryou?
How have you been able toaccomplish what you've been able
to accomplish?
I would say my corporate careeras a great salary negotiator.
In the entrepreneurial space Ithink Data use, but being
(22:28):
resilient, I have this wholevideo on hearing no is a part of
sales and it's like most peopleare giving up after the first or
second interaction, but mostsales convert after the eighth
attempt.
Yep.
So I would always tell people,like in a digital world, it used
to be six or eight, dependingupon which Research you read
used to be six to eight touchesin a physical product world.
(22:50):
Before someone would say yes,but out there in the digital
world, they say, somewherebetween 16 and 26 touches.
So you have to be really good athearing no.
Looking at your data, creatingmore relevant content, really
understanding them so that youcan get in those 26 touches.
Literally, you might be makinghash marks on, it's okay, we're
(23:11):
at, yeah, 26 we've made nowhere.
Okay, we'll put'em in Long-termnurture.
Yeah, people are giving up afterthe first or second time.
So I think certainly resilienceis how I've been able to
achieve.
I am always focused on.
What is it I say I wanna do?
What am I willing to do to getthere?
What am I not willing to do toget there?
(23:33):
So clarity about all of that.
And the big piece is, the stuffI teach, who's the team?
What systems do we need inplace?
What investments do we need tomake?
What data should we be tracking?
So I take a lot of the emotionout of the journey because the
journey has upset, has downs, ithas upset, has downs, right?
(23:56):
If follow the cookbook, followthe recipe, do the parts that
resonate, be in alignment, be agood person, all those things.
Now you're just looking at thedata, you're responding and.
I'm always very clear on doingthis gets me that and when I get
to that, doing that gets me thenext thing, right?
(24:18):
So for me I've always beenincredibly security programmed
based upon the way I grew up.
So for me, all of the thingsaround financial freedom is like
the home in a safe place, andthen financial freedom and
Living without debt createsfreedom.
So pay the debt off, right?
(24:38):
Pay the house off, makeinvestments, make your money,
make money for you, and do thatby investing, not doing more
right.
Investing in things.
So for me, I'm very clear.
I don't want any debt.
Like I just I'm gonna start apodcast and I said to the guy
that, I was interviewing to dothat.
(25:00):
He told me this is what it coststo start and here's the monthly
fee.
And I said, can you just send methe payment leave for the whole
year?
It's wow.
I said, I don't want anypayments.
Yeah, I hate the idea ofpayments, so I think a lot of my
achievement has been willing toput in the hard work.
You know when I start a newprogram, I show up, like after
(25:22):
this podcast, I'm takingsomebody to lunch.
I show up, I ask the questions,I talk to the avatar myself.
I'm.
Go in the Facebook groups, I doall the things to collect the
information, and then I go tothe live events and talk to the
people in the hallways.
And then I interview people evenif I have to pay for the
(25:42):
interviews, interview people andsay, what will you pay for?
Gotta ask that question, right?
So I do all that work myself.
I don't outsource that.
And then I do the work for freeand get somebody results and
test it out.
So I do all that myself before Igo build a big thing around it
(26:02):
so that I know what to offer,the objections, the pieces, what
else needs to be in there.
And I, not everybody's willingto do all that legwork upfront.
And I've done a lot of legworkin my life to get to the success
that I want.
So I have no problem going toItaly in October knowing I've
(26:22):
done all of that legwork.
Yeah.
And people are getting results.
I love it.
And I think you hit on such ahuge point there that so often
market research is like afrowned upon thing.
Like we, we can't stand doingit.
If we do it upfront.
But the reality is it's constantand it has to be constant to be
talking with your ideal avatar,find out what they want, what
(26:45):
they wanna pay for, what they'llthrow money at you for, and then
that's what you build ratherthan just throwing out an offer
and hope that you attract theright people.
Yeah.
And.
And with that, you've got allthose touchpoints where, you
know, like you mentioned,there's so many touchpoints with
people and we so often take itpersonally when people say no.
When in reality, like you said,it's just checking off.
(27:06):
And I think of it the same way.
It's okay, that was chtouchpoint number 5, 6, 7.
We're not there yet.
Like we're heading to a goal andwe're halfway to the goal.
It's not personal.
It's we're headed there and weknow we're on the right track.
So eventually we'll get theresults we want.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's so powerful.
So you have, I could talk to youall day.
You have, throughout the courseof your career accomplished so
(27:28):
much, right?
Like what does success look liketo you?
And obviously I'm sure it tiesin with being able to go to
Italy for a month, but what doesthat really mean to you?
For me, it is truly being ableto do what you want, when you
want, say yes to what you wantand no to what you don't want.
To me, that's success.
(27:49):
Yeah.
Which is personal empowermentand that flexibility and be able
to define your path and yourjourney.
And not have to make baddecisions because you need the
money or Yeah.
Whatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you've obviously worked withmany leaders and are obviously
one yourself, but what would yousay defines a good leader?
(28:10):
What makes a good leader?
This is really interesting.
So on my birthday two days ago Igot, I ca countless texts.
There was 75 texts at one pointin the day.
And there are so many peoplefrom my corporate career there,
and I said to a couple of'em,wow, I can't the president of
(28:31):
one of the fastest growingfortune 500 companies sent me a
happy birthday text.
Aw.
And I talked to him the next dayand I was like, wow, you have no
idea how much that means to me.
I know how I've done those jobs.
I know how busy you are.
You must have, seen it onLinkedIn and took the time to
text me and now we're talking.
(28:54):
And he said I will never forgetyou, you impacted my life and my
career and it's your birthday.
I wanna celebrate you.
Just wow.
And another guy texts me and heremembers every year, and I
said, it's so amazing that youremember every year that this is
my birthday.
He said, how could I forget?
(29:14):
I wouldn't be where I am withoutyou.
And so there were five or sixtexts like that and many more,
but several that were reallypowerful like that for me.
And I thought, This is partlybecause I'm on the back half of
life.
You start thinking about legacy,but it's wow.
(29:36):
So I started thinking about eachof those people and what was my
interaction with them that theywould be thinking that.
And so I think the thing thatmakes people.
A leader that others don'tforget and say, Hey, you've
impacted my life.
Is a couple of things.
(29:57):
One, I've never been worriedabout getting credit for
anything.
99% of the time I'm in thebackground, not in the
foreground.
And I want my people to lookgood and.
If I'm worried about me gettingcredit or me being the center of
(30:19):
attention that takes away fromthem, and I am somebody who's.
Hiring people to do the work.
They should get the credit forbeing how brilliant they are.
So I think that's a big piece ofit.
I also am, the word micro ormicromanager or whatever gets
overused.
But I'm probably so far theother direction.
(30:40):
I'm Hey, that's where we'regoing.
I'm hiring you cuz you're reallygood at the thing we need to get
there.
Tell me what your obstacles areand tell me what resources you
need and just update me alongthe way.
Are we heading there?
And I, my rule when I was in thecorporate world is I don't need
to know every time you leave attwo 15.
I just need the result.
(31:01):
And when the place is on fire,you gotta be here in the
building and.
There is something about lettingpeople p be awesome and not
trying to manage them.
I feel like I'm like the managerwho doesn't manage.
Now that's not abdicatingleadership.
It's a very different thing.
It's like this is where we'regoing.
(31:23):
The results are not optional andwe are going to do it.
I'm firm on the accountabilityto the result in the outcome,
but I don't.
Micromanage either.
And I think people really lovebeing able to be the
professional and the expert atwhat they do and to own their
(31:45):
work and then get credit for theamazing results.
So I think those are some keythings.
I'm just in the process ofreally pondering that.
Really based on this most recentbirthday, it's been really cool.
People who.
Who just out of the blue, I waslike, wow, why would you think
of me today?
LinkedIn or Facebook prompted'em, but they took the time
(32:07):
right to, to write a personaltext.
Another thing is theaccountability piece.
It doesn't have to be painfulaccountability.
I think most people think ofthat word and they think, oh,
it's like the performanceimprovement plan.
But a person that I terminatedonce stopped me.
When she saw me out in the worldand she thanked me and she said,
(32:28):
thank you so much forterminating.
This was a nurse.
Wow.
She said, that was the finalfeedback I needed to say my life
was going to fall apart if Ididn't get my act together.
Wow.
And by then she'd had hermaster's degree and had moved
into a director level positionand she said, my life was on a
path for destruction and if youhadn't fired me, I wouldn't be
(32:49):
where I am today.
And my kids would not be wherethey are today.
So that doesn't mean go fireeverybody, but holding people
accountable to who they say theywanna be and what you know, what
the goals are, is incrediblypowerful.
Absolutely.
And what I hear with theleadership is trust.
(33:11):
Yeah.
That you greatly trust yourpeople and that they trust you
in the clear leadership and theclarity.
And that's all the great leadersI've worked for.
You trust that direction andyou're able to follow them.
And when they trust you, thenyou are.
At least for me, I've alwaysbeen willing to work a thousand
times harder.
Oh, for sure.
That's how I feel about thepeople I've been willing to lay
(33:31):
it all on the line for is thereis no obstacle.
I won't move for their success.
When they trust that, yeah, mybest friend says I'm painfully
consistent and that, people wantthat if they're gonna work with
you.
It gives them the boundaries toknow, okay, I can work within
here.
But yeah, I had a Was workingfor a great leader at one point
(33:53):
in my corporate career, come tome and say, what do you need to
be successful?
And I said, I need flexibility.
And I saw his face that look onhis face, the effort.
I know.
I said, I need flexibility touse my creativity to solve
problems.
And he's oh, okay, I can dothat.
And I'm like, that's all I need.
Trust me and I will get you towhere you need to go.
Yeah.
So that's awesome.
(34:15):
So what can people expect fromyou next?
I'm definitely blazing a trailfor helping people really see
that this putting professionalmanagement is actually really
great for the company, forthemselves, for their exit, for
their life.
So really doing that in a bigway.
That's that's my next big thing.
(34:36):
I'm on fire for this.
I, when I was in the corporateworld, I took for granted.
The corporate world has allthis, too much of this
structure, right?
I took for granted that was alarge part.
It's you tend to focus on thestuff that drives you crazy.
And so I was frustrated with thebureaucracy part, but I didn't
(34:56):
realize out here in theentrepreneur, in the internet
streets, in the entrepreneurialworld, there's almost no
structure, right?
And so I I'm passionate abouthelping get just enough
structure.
So that they can, have hockeystick success.
I'm passionate about that.
I also, we didn't talk aboutthis here, but I'm passionate
(35:20):
about mental health and so Igotta figure out a way to do
something powerful in the mentalhealth arena.
I haven't quite figured that outyet, but that's on the horizon.
I love that.
And that's so needed right nowacross the board, so that's
fantastic.
Yeah.
If you had the attention of thewhole world for five minutes,
(35:40):
what would you tell them?
I would say love yourself.
You're already enough, and go dobig things.
Amazing.
And how can listeners supportyou on your work?
Where can they find you online?
Certainly on, all the socialchannels.
Just my name, Lonnie la.
(36:00):
The good news about having LAand I Dickinson as your name is
those handles aren't takenanywhere, right?
So it's just my name on all ofthe channels I'm there.
And they can just go to meetlonnie.com and they'll get an
email, but put their stuff in,they'll get an email back with
social links and whatever mycurrent lead magnet is and all
those kinds of things.
(36:20):
Awesome.
And we'll have all the linksbelow.
Awesome.
Thank you Lonnie.
I really appreciate you being ontoday.
This was amazing.
Thank you so much, Julie.
Great to meet you.
And I feel like we were justhanging out having coffee, even
though I'm in California.
And where are you?
I'm in Maryland.
So we're literally across thecountry from each other.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
(36:41):
Have a great day and thanks forhaving me on.
Absolutely.
And if you found value in thisepisode, please definitely share
it.
Check out Lonnie's links and youcan find
me@sevenfigurebuilder.com.
And I look forward to seeing youon the next episode.
welcome to the seven FigureBuilder Show.
(00:01):
My name is Julie Barick,founder, seven Figure Builder,
where we help high achievingCEOs free uptime with gorgeous
systems and analytics to scaletheir business to seven figures
and beyond.
And I'm here today with myfriend Lonnie Dickinson.
Hi Lonnie.
Hey, how are you?
I am fabulous.
I'm thrilled to have you ontoday.
I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, absolutely.
(00:22):
So tell me, where in the worldare you?
I am in not so sunny California.
We've had more rain than I everremember in my entire 52 years.
But I am coming to you from thecenter of California.
I love it.
Yeah, I've heard you've gotten alittle bit of rain recently,
which is definitely different.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
(00:43):
So for those people that haven'thad the pleasure to meet you
yet, can you tell us just alittle bit about what you do
with your business?
I am a former Fortune 1 75 c e oand I've built a brick and
mortar gym from the ground upand have been coaching really
new entrepreneurs for the lastcouple of years.
And now I am focused really onmultiple six and seven figure
(01:04):
earners, helping them to installthe elements of what I would
say, professional management sothat they can get true exit two
versions of exit, whether it's.
Exit for freedom and time, whichis what we all say we really
want, or later down the roadexit for more multiple so that
all that work pays off andcarries you, long into
(01:26):
retirement.
So that's what I'm up to rightnow.
I love it.
And that's what everybody'safter is that more time, more
freedom.
Right?
That's why we get into business.
So you to my knowledge, have avery powerful story and I would
love to hear, a bit of whatbrought you to this point in
your life.
And then I definitely wanna diginto more of what you're doing
with your business.
(01:46):
Awesome.
The short version of the longstory is, and I think the peop
the thing that tends to intriguepeople the most.
And I have only been sharingthis part of my story literally
for three years cuz I had acorporate career where you don't
share your story.
So yeah, so it's it took me bysurprise that people were so
interested in it.
I started out, my mom was astreet drug dealer and that
(02:09):
usually is pretty interesting topeople.
So I had all of the things in mylife that go along with that,
whatever you might imagine for alittle girl growing up with
that.
And not just a little bit, likethere were piles of cocaine on
the living room table and we hada cop living with us to protect
how big the business was.
(02:30):
Imagine all that creates for alittle kid.
I then moved out when I was 15.
I was like I could do this badby myself and didn't wanna be
around the chaos that life wasall about.
And I had my son my senior yeardropped out, got a G E d, went
straight into nursing school.
I said, I gotta make a betterlife for my son.
(02:52):
I certainly don't wanna recreatewhat my life looked like.
And I became a nurse and veryquickly went into hospital
leadership.
It didn't take me very long to,to do that.
I'm passionate about patientcare and outcomes, but I love
actually more the business sideof things.
And I went and got an MBA andthen did a very steep climb to
(03:13):
the top of a Fortune 1 75healthcare company.
At one point I had all of ca,California and Arizona reporting
to me Somewhere in there in myearly thirties, maybe late
thirties, I was getting feedbackthat I was a bull in a China
shop.
I'm sure that came from the wayI grew up, right?
(03:34):
But people loved my results, butthey didn't necessarily love
that I didn't have good girlmanners.
I like to say I wasn't runningthe good girl playbook, and I
had to do something about thatbecause I was incredibly
security programmed, as youmight imagine.
So I went out on aself-development journey and
(03:54):
Discovered N L P neurolinguisticprogramming.
And got amazing results withthat and became passionate about
N L P and the results it can getfor you.
And I wanted to share that witheveryone.
So that is the thing where theentrepreneur was born and I joke
and I say, my early exposure toentrepreneuring was probably my
mom.
And that's probably real in, insome way.
(04:17):
But when I got the results Igot, cuz this when I finished
the first, year of that, I got apromotion every 18 months and my
career was easy after that.
I also discovered that it prettywell savaged the relationships I
didn't know were at risk in myown home.
My marriage and my son and so Iwas passionate on fire.
Entrepreneur on fire to bringthis message to the world.
(04:41):
So I got out there and startedteaching N L P in hotels, doing
N L P, the results of N L Ptypes of resorts.
But I was so tired of coldcalling.
Hey, Julie, do you know a friendwho could come to my thing?
This is I did not have a salesbackground.
My MBA was in marketing and inmarketing and strategy, but I
(05:03):
didn't have the salesbackground.
And so that was painful for me.
So I went on a big journey tolearn online sales through
automation, automated lead genand those kinds of things.
And an automated onboarding,because time is my highest
value.
So I learned all those thingsand Got pretty good at that.
But then I was like then I builta gym from the ground up.
(05:24):
I was like, wow, I can help withpeople that way.
Help.
And anybody who was on a weightplateau, they had an N L P
session with me.
So this went on for a while andthen fast forward five, six
years, people who had been in myearly N L P trainings were
coming back and saying, can youhelp me in my business?
Or can you help my kids?
One of the two.
Yeah.
(05:45):
And I naturally fell in lovewith the coaching people in
business side of things and sowas just minimally side hustling
and probably would've done thatforever, to be honest.
Probably would've done that tillretirement.
But covid hit and a couple ofthings happened for me
professionally.
(06:06):
One, I was exhausted.
I was working 18 hours a day, 20hour days in Covid.
There was no downtime.
We thought all the staff wasgonna die.
It was just, two years ofepinephrine.
And corporations struggled todeal with that in, in a way that
the leadership necessarily,wanted to live with it.
So that was going on.
But domestic and violent,domestic violence and child
(06:28):
abuse.
Rose like it probably wasalready happening at those
levels, but we were just moreaware cause people were locked
up.
And it was becoming moreexplosive.
And I got this, what I describedas a download, like I can help
these women not have to sufferthis.
I can help them all buildbusinesses.
So the nurse part of me tookover in my decision making was
(06:50):
like, I can reach all thesepeople, and so I did.
I did five day challenges.
And launched every six to sevenweeks.
Cuz I was like I turned 52 weeksbefore, two weeks after the
quarantine order and I hadalready came to this place of
I'm not living much, I'machieving a lot, but I'm not
living much.
(07:11):
And so I was gonna quit at 50,it was on my calendar.
But then Covid happened.
I said, ah, I can't run awaywhile this is going on.
But it was like this downloadyou have to do something.
These women are locked up, thenurse part came out.
So I started doing these lifechallenges, did that, and after
the third one, I had made$280,000.
I was like, I could live on thisif I had to.
(07:34):
I was certainly making way morethan that as a C E O, but it was
like, I think I'm just gonna,I'm gonna get through this Covid
thing.
We thought it was gonna be sixor eight weeks, right?
Get through this covid thing.
And I'm gonna do this full time.
I'm on fire for this.
So 2020, I couldn't build it.
So I started launching it in2021 in February, did the three
(07:56):
launches, made the two 80.
I was like, that's it.
I'm out.
I am out.
As soon as I, I stopped to say,what is it I need to do before I
leave?
And it was all about my son.
Which was interesting.
I thought it was gonna be mysecurity and it wasn't.
It was about his.
And so I bought some more rentalproperty.
(08:16):
I bought him a new car.
He hadn't had one in 13 or 14years.
And as soon as the car arrivedin my driveway, we buy
everything online now, postcovid, right?
The car arrived in my driveway.
I Googled how to write anexecutive resignation letter,
wrote my letter, and drove it tomy boss.
Did that and was gone 30 dayslater.
Haven't really looked back.
(08:38):
So I've been gone about a yearand a half.
I do a li little bit ofhealthcare consulting on the
side, but for the most part, Iam focused on really helping
people make the impact theywanna make with their business
without losing their minds, andalso prioritizing time and doing
what it is they say they reallywanna do.
And having that impact, buthaving the team, the systems,
(09:00):
the operations, the automationtelling the money what to do,
knowing what data to monitor,how to be the c e o, put your c
e o shoes on, I like to say, andrun your business and have,
instead of having your businessrun, you.
So there's the story.
I absolutely love it.
And I don't think I mentioned toyou, I actually started my whole
journey as a registered nursealso.
(09:22):
So I was in Oh, awesome.
High risk labor and delivery andthen transitioned over into IT
marketing and made that hugeleap there.
So that's fantastic.
Yeah.
So when you look at thattransformation, that's a huge
transformation in life andbusiness and all of it.
But thinking specifically theworld of the corporate world of
(09:43):
trading your time for money andwhat business looks like there
versus the sustainability andthe automations in the systems,
like what do you see as thebiggest, we'll say catalyst?
What's the biggest change forthose people?
I think the biggest change thathas to happen when somebody
comes out of that and wants tobe something else.
(10:04):
They say, I want that.
I'm this right now.
I want that.
And I don't know how to get fromhere to there.
So they have to have a big why.
That's the big thing.
Otherwise they're not gonnaremain motivated.
So they have to get clear onthat.
But then the transfer, thebiggest transformation I think
that has to take place is peoplehave to see themselves in the
new way, believe that it'spossible, and take the actions.
(10:24):
And that's often what's in theway for the newer entrepreneur
won't get visible.
I had somebody say to me, but Idon't have any clients, and I
did one podcast.
Yeah.
Not surprised, really believingthat's who I am, that's where
I'm going.
This is what life looks like ina very clear, compelling future
that they're drawn to.
(10:46):
So they will be willing to getuncomfortable and do the
visibility and establish theauthority and all the things.
When I created my first lifechallenge.
There's people out there saying,all you need is your cell phone.
At the end of the day, I think Ihave 42 emails written in that
sequence.
(11:07):
They're, they all have a textevery go live day.
There's, I dunno.
There's hundreds and hundreds ofautomations in there.
It's not just simple stuff.
So really believing that's whereyou're truly going.
And that you can do it.
Yeah.
We're all gonna learn, we're allgonna stumble, we're all gonna
bump our knees.
That's the biggesttransformation.
(11:27):
Instead of saying, I'm stillthis, it's yeah, and I'm also
that and that's where I'm going.
I think that's the biggesttransf to me, doesn't matter
what the income level is, tragoing from.
Multi six to seven figures, thenmultiple seven figures.
We're always becoming the personwe need to be to hold that to
receive that.
(11:47):
And to me, that's the biggestwork to be done.
It's never about do I have theskill?
Do I know what I'm doing?
Can I do the thing?
It's always am I really beingwho I say I wanna be?
Yeah, and that role isconstantly evolving as you go
through business, like you said,at all those different levels.
It looks just a little bitdifferent, but we're constantly
(12:10):
evolving as to who we are, so Ilove that.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know you have a hugefocus on that exit strategy,
right?
Like when people are moving intothat next level of their
business, when should peoplestart thinking about that?
Like I think for mostentrepreneurs that hasn't even
fallen into the equation, right?
We're just trying to keep movingup that ladder.
What does that look like foryou?
And you hit it on the head, theydon't think about it.
(12:32):
And so then when the business isrunning them and they have no
time, they're on the hamsterwheel, they're doing all the
things, that's not the timethey're gonna figure out what
does exit look like?
Yeah.
And for me, exit is two things.
It could be.
Build the business, do the work,and now go live your life and
let the cash flow from that fundyour impact and your fun and all
(12:57):
the things you wanna do, andstop working your ass off.
That's what we did inIncorporate.
You don't have to do thatanymore.
Or the multiple when you trulyexit, whatever time that is.
So it usually takes about threeto five years.
So I would say first you gottabegin with the end in mind and
think about, I wanna, Irecommend people do all pieces
of their business until theyunderstand that and now give it
(13:19):
to someone else to do theexpert, right?
I don't advocate, don't know howto do anything in your business,
but.
Once you understand all of thosepieces and what your business
needs and what the objectionsare, and what the copy is and
what the offer should be and howto deliver that, once you figure
that all out, hand that tosomeone else and think about.
(13:41):
When my business gets there andmy value ladder is fully built
out, what is it I say I reallywant to do?
Like we can't just be about thework, right?
What do you want life to looklike and where can you weave
that in along the way?
And at what point?
Like I'm going to Italy for thewhole month of October this
year.
That's amazing.
(14:02):
Okay.
That's me weaving it in alongthe way.
Being clear, like what is thewhole life gonna look like and
how will I know I have it?
Like what is the evidence that Ihave it?
So we don't just keep going.
So I think we should start withthe end in mind, have that
mapped out, work it in.
But when we say I want to sell,Whether that's, I wanna sell
(14:26):
because I've built up theearnings and I can sell it for
three, three and a half or moretimes earnings and that's enough
money to put in the bank and Ican just live on the 4% and I
wanna live that way.
Or whether it's, I wanna, rollthat up, sell it off, and do the
next thing.
Or whether I am, whatever age,and I just literally want to
(14:48):
retire.
We've really, if we ha,especially if we haven't done
all this along the way wherewe're learning the thing and
then installing the expert, itcan take up to five years to be
intentional about installingother people in all areas,
marketing, sales, ops, financepeople, right?
(15:09):
So three to five years, butthree years when you're gonna
sell for more multiple.
You need to show three years ofearnings without the face of the
owner in the business.
So it's something you have to bethinking about more than three
years from when you wanna bedone.
Being the doer in your businessnow, I'm sure you've been around
(15:30):
enough entrepreneurs to knowthey stay the doer in the
business for too long.
Yeah, for too long.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always say as people aregrowing their team, and I'm
curious your take on it, but tobring in people that compliment
your weaknesses and to hand offthe things that you hate to do
and the things that you strugglewith so you can really live in
your gift and then grow in yourgift and to your point, then
(15:53):
continue to take those piecesand delegate them to other
people so that you can grow yourbusiness and not be buried in
running the business and doingthat thing every single day.
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
The first people.
You gotta get the stuff.
You're not good at the stuff.
You don't like the stuff.
You're procrastinating on thestuff that every time you do it,
there's rework involved, right?
(16:14):
That's a sign.
You need a specialist or theexpert to do that.
You're gonna go faster.
Just hire the person, right?
Even if it's fractional in thebeginning.
Hire what you need, whetherthat's in some kind of a done
for you consultant relationship,whether that's somebody else's
offer, and I just bought a bigoffer in January and I bought it
(16:37):
specifically for the bonuses.
They would interview and createa podcast episode, but they
would chop it up and create likemonths and months of social
content done for you.
Wow.
So I didn't, I bought the wholeoffer to get the months and
months of social content,because social content is
something I'm not consistentwith.
I've always grown with ads.
So social content isn'tsomething I particularly love.
(17:01):
I procrastinate.
And I'm not consistent with it.
So finding ways to have somebodyelse do the doing so you can
keep staying in your zone ofgenius, but also with that end
in mind of, there are plenty ofvery internet famous
entrepreneurs who.
(17:22):
Couldn't sell their businessbecause their face was the whole
business.
Yeah.
They were still coaching, theywere still deciding.
All those things make yourbusiness very hard to sell.
Because then somebody has tothen be you, which they can
never do.
So the rate of success is verypoor there.
Yeah.
I think the really hard part,you can usually convince people
(17:44):
to hire, outsource, automate,eliminate, delegate, whatever.
The stuff they don't like.
Or where they can see aroadblock because they're in,
it's when you get to the partwhere it's now we have to
replace you.
Yes.
That's the really hard part.
The ego suffers there.
And that goes back to having areally clear and compelling
(18:06):
vision for, what is it you sayyou really want.
Yeah.
So as people are growing theirbusinesses, when would you
encourage them to start bringingin the automations in the
systems?
What is the timing or thetrigger in your brain to say,
oh, day one, I agree with you,but question, first question,
you get an idea.
(18:26):
And then literally my techperson, I get an idea, I map it
out on my sketchpad, I click apicture and say how long would
it take you to build that?
Because I'm thinking, This isthe part that has to be me or
someone on my team.
The rest, how do we automate?
And by the time you map it outand you think of all the things
(18:49):
that you can automate, there'svery little you actually need a
human for if you, now, I alsodon't advocate there being so
much automation that it feelslike you're dealing with AI all
the time, right?
A hundred percent.
But yeah, I think right awayfrom the beginning, people need
to say, Okay, I'm gonna spend acouple hundred bucks a month on
(19:10):
a tech stack instead of tryingto use all the free resources.
Because you can automate andeliminate so much by just
thinking that way from thebeginning.
I agree.
And that's also what allows youto stay the visionary.
And not feel like you're helddown by your business is when
you can be that idea person inthe driving force.
(19:32):
Yeah.
And then have that supportaround you to then build in the
systems to continue it so youcan then continue being the
visionary.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Yeah.
And where do you see data,again, maybe an obvious
question, but how does datasupport that?
For me data is everything.
It's everything.
It tells you where to spend yourenergy.
That's the most important part.
(19:53):
What's working, what's notworking.
So for me, once you buildsomething, you start right at
the beginning and you say, is itworking?
Yes or no?
Data's gonna tell you that.
And if we're doing a leadfunnel, Spread and marketing.
We're talking about the signsand symptoms that, the pain
stuff that people are exhibitingso that they know that they need
(20:15):
you.
The data on it is it working?
Are people clicking?
Are they making phone calls?
Are they opening the emails?
Like we should be checking everyevery step of the way of that.
And when we find somethingthat's not within benchmark.
Then we solve that before westart moving along.
And the proof is in the pudding.
The person who shows up on theother end of the zoom or at the
(20:38):
live event, are they the rightperson?
And the answer is yes or no.
And if they're not, we're gonnago right back to that front end.
Who are we attracting?
Is it all working?
So for me, every single thingthat we're going to do in the
business has a data pointattached to it.
Now we can't monitor.
Hundreds and hundreds of them.
(20:59):
We have to figure out what arethe critical one to two things
in each key area, but early on,we've gotta test it and make
sure it's working and get itoptimized before we move to the
next step.
Yeah.
And that also takes out theguesswork.
So much in marketing, we'reconstantly testing, right?
Like you put something outthere, see if it works.
And a lot of times I feel likepeople just go with their gut
(21:20):
okay, I got so many signups, butthey don't look at all the
breadcrumbs that are telling youalong the way if this is working
or not, and how to actually makeit better.
So I tend to be a data geek, sothat is where, for me, you can't
argue with it.
It just simplifies life so mucheasier.
Yeah.
When you have something concreteto look at.
Yeah, and we just will guideyou.
(21:40):
Everything you do oh, this,thank you, this thank you page
are not showing up in theFacebook group.
Okay, we gotta put a video andturn the whole page, turn the
button red, make it move.
It's like the next thing isn'thappening.
We go right back to the priorstep.
We know what's wrong.
Yeah.
And it's not personal.
Who cares if I don't like theword or the color?
Did you get, are you impactinglives on the other side of that?
(22:03):
A hundred percent.
So as we speak about exit,you've had an amazing way of
growing your legacy, I wouldsay, but also your financial
freedom.
So what has that looked like foryou?
How have you been able toaccomplish what you've been able
to accomplish?
I would say my corporate careeras a great salary negotiator.
In the entrepreneurial space Ithink Data use, but being
(22:28):
resilient, I have this wholevideo on hearing no is a part of
sales and it's like most peopleare giving up after the first or
second interaction, but mostsales convert after the eighth
attempt.
Yep.
So I would always tell people,like in a digital world, it used
to be six or eight, dependingupon which Research you read
used to be six to eight touchesin a physical product world.
(22:50):
Before someone would say yes,but out there in the digital
world, they say, somewherebetween 16 and 26 touches.
So you have to be really good athearing no.
Looking at your data, creatingmore relevant content, really
understanding them so that youcan get in those 26 touches.
Literally, you might be makinghash marks on, it's okay, we're
(23:11):
at, yeah, 26 we've made nowhere.
Okay, we'll put'em in Long-termnurture.
Yeah, people are giving up afterthe first or second time.
So I think certainly resilienceis how I've been able to
achieve.
I am always focused on.
What is it I say I wanna do?
What am I willing to do to getthere?
What am I not willing to do toget there?
(23:33):
So clarity about all of that.
And the big piece is, the stuffI teach, who's the team?
What systems do we need inplace?
What investments do we need tomake?
What data should we be tracking?
So I take a lot of the emotionout of the journey because the
journey has upset, has downs, ithas upset, has downs, right?
(23:56):
If follow the cookbook, followthe recipe, do the parts that
resonate, be in alignment, be agood person, all those things.
Now you're just looking at thedata, you're responding and.
I'm always very clear on doingthis gets me that and when I get
to that, doing that gets me thenext thing, right?
(24:18):
So for me I've always beenincredibly security programmed
based upon the way I grew up.
So for me, all of the thingsaround financial freedom is like
the home in a safe place, andthen financial freedom and
Living without debt createsfreedom.
So pay the debt off, right?
(24:38):
Pay the house off, makeinvestments, make your money,
make money for you, and do thatby investing, not doing more
right.
Investing in things.
So for me, I'm very clear.
I don't want any debt.
Like I just I'm gonna start apodcast and I said to the guy
that, I was interviewing to dothat.
(25:00):
He told me this is what it coststo start and here's the monthly
fee.
And I said, can you just send methe payment leave for the whole
year?
It's wow.
I said, I don't want anypayments.
Yeah, I hate the idea ofpayments, so I think a lot of my
achievement has been willing toput in the hard work.
You know when I start a newprogram, I show up, like after
(25:22):
this podcast, I'm takingsomebody to lunch.
I show up, I ask the questions,I talk to the avatar myself.
I'm.
Go in the Facebook groups, I doall the things to collect the
information, and then I go tothe live events and talk to the
people in the hallways.
And then I interview people evenif I have to pay for the
(25:42):
interviews, interview people andsay, what will you pay for?
Gotta ask that question, right?
So I do all that work myself.
I don't outsource that.
And then I do the work for freeand get somebody results and
test it out.
So I do all that myself before Igo build a big thing around it
(26:02):
so that I know what to offer,the objections, the pieces, what
else needs to be in there.
And I, not everybody's willingto do all that legwork upfront.
And I've done a lot of legworkin my life to get to the success
that I want.
So I have no problem going toItaly in October knowing I've
(26:22):
done all of that legwork.
Yeah.
And people are getting results.
I love it.
And I think you hit on such ahuge point there that so often
market research is like afrowned upon thing.
Like we, we can't stand doingit.
If we do it upfront.
But the reality is it's constantand it has to be constant to be
talking with your ideal avatar,find out what they want, what
(26:45):
they wanna pay for, what they'llthrow money at you for, and then
that's what you build ratherthan just throwing out an offer
and hope that you attract theright people.
Yeah.
And.
And with that, you've got allthose touchpoints where, you
know, like you mentioned,there's so many touchpoints with
people and we so often take itpersonally when people say no.
When in reality, like you said,it's just checking off.
(27:06):
And I think of it the same way.
It's okay, that was chtouchpoint number 5, 6, 7.
We're not there yet.
Like we're heading to a goal andwe're halfway to the goal.
It's not personal.
It's we're headed there and weknow we're on the right track.
So eventually we'll get theresults we want.
Yeah.
But yeah, that's so powerful.
So you have, I could talk to youall day.
You have, throughout the courseof your career accomplished so
(27:28):
much, right?
Like what does success look liketo you?
And obviously I'm sure it tiesin with being able to go to
Italy for a month, but what doesthat really mean to you?
For me, it is truly being ableto do what you want, when you
want, say yes to what you wantand no to what you don't want.
To me, that's success.
(27:49):
Yeah.
Which is personal empowermentand that flexibility and be able
to define your path and yourjourney.
And not have to make baddecisions because you need the
money or Yeah.
Whatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you've obviously worked withmany leaders and are obviously
one yourself, but what would yousay defines a good leader?
(28:10):
What makes a good leader?
This is really interesting.
So on my birthday two days ago Igot, I ca countless texts.
There was 75 texts at one pointin the day.
And there are so many peoplefrom my corporate career there,
and I said to a couple of'em,wow, I can't the president of
(28:31):
one of the fastest growingfortune 500 companies sent me a
happy birthday text.
Aw.
And I talked to him the next dayand I was like, wow, you have no
idea how much that means to me.
I know how I've done those jobs.
I know how busy you are.
You must have, seen it onLinkedIn and took the time to
text me and now we're talking.
(28:54):
And he said I will never forgetyou, you impacted my life and my
career and it's your birthday.
I wanna celebrate you.
Just wow.
And another guy texts me and heremembers every year, and I
said, it's so amazing that youremember every year that this is
my birthday.
He said, how could I forget?
(29:14):
I wouldn't be where I am withoutyou.
And so there were five or sixtexts like that and many more,
but several that were reallypowerful like that for me.
And I thought, This is partlybecause I'm on the back half of
life.
You start thinking about legacy,but it's wow.
(29:36):
So I started thinking about eachof those people and what was my
interaction with them that theywould be thinking that.
And so I think the thing thatmakes people.
A leader that others don'tforget and say, Hey, you've
impacted my life.
Is a couple of things.
(29:57):
One, I've never been worriedabout getting credit for
anything.
99% of the time I'm in thebackground, not in the
foreground.
And I want my people to lookgood and.
If I'm worried about me gettingcredit or me being the center of
(30:19):
attention that takes away fromthem, and I am somebody who's.
Hiring people to do the work.
They should get the credit forbeing how brilliant they are.
So I think that's a big piece ofit.
I also am, the word micro ormicromanager or whatever gets
overused.
But I'm probably so far theother direction.
(30:40):
I'm Hey, that's where we'regoing.
I'm hiring you cuz you're reallygood at the thing we need to get
there.
Tell me what your obstacles areand tell me what resources you
need and just update me alongthe way.
Are we heading there?
And I, my rule when I was in thecorporate world is I don't need
to know every time you leave attwo 15.
I just need the result.
(31:01):
And when the place is on fire,you gotta be here in the
building and.
There is something about lettingpeople p be awesome and not
trying to manage them.
I feel like I'm like the managerwho doesn't manage.
Now that's not abdicatingleadership.
It's a very different thing.
It's like this is where we'regoing.
(31:23):
The results are not optional andwe are going to do it.
I'm firm on the accountabilityto the result in the outcome,
but I don't.
Micromanage either.
And I think people really lovebeing able to be the
professional and the expert atwhat they do and to own their
(31:45):
work and then get credit for theamazing results.
So I think those are some keythings.
I'm just in the process ofreally pondering that.
Really based on this most recentbirthday, it's been really cool.
People who.
Who just out of the blue, I waslike, wow, why would you think
of me today?
LinkedIn or Facebook prompted'em, but they took the time
(32:07):
right to, to write a personaltext.
Another thing is theaccountability piece.
It doesn't have to be painfulaccountability.
I think most people think ofthat word and they think, oh,
it's like the performanceimprovement plan.
But a person that I terminatedonce stopped me.
When she saw me out in the worldand she thanked me and she said,
(32:28):
thank you so much forterminating.
This was a nurse.
Wow.
She said, that was the finalfeedback I needed to say my life
was going to fall apart if Ididn't get my act together.
Wow.
And by then she'd had hermaster's degree and had moved
into a director level positionand she said, my life was on a
path for destruction and if youhadn't fired me, I wouldn't be
(32:49):
where I am today.
And my kids would not be wherethey are today.
So that doesn't mean go fireeverybody, but holding people
accountable to who they say theywanna be and what you know, what
the goals are, is incrediblypowerful.
Absolutely.
And what I hear with theleadership is trust.
(33:11):
Yeah.
That you greatly trust yourpeople and that they trust you
in the clear leadership and theclarity.
And that's all the great leadersI've worked for.
You trust that direction andyou're able to follow them.
And when they trust you, thenyou are.
At least for me, I've alwaysbeen willing to work a thousand
times harder.
Oh, for sure.
That's how I feel about thepeople I've been willing to lay
(33:31):
it all on the line for is thereis no obstacle.
I won't move for their success.
When they trust that, yeah, mybest friend says I'm painfully
consistent and that, people wantthat if they're gonna work with
you.
It gives them the boundaries toknow, okay, I can work within
here.
But yeah, I had a Was workingfor a great leader at one point
(33:53):
in my corporate career, come tome and say, what do you need to
be successful?
And I said, I need flexibility.
And I saw his face that look onhis face, the effort.
I know.
I said, I need flexibility touse my creativity to solve
problems.
And he's oh, okay, I can dothat.
And I'm like, that's all I need.
Trust me and I will get you towhere you need to go.
Yeah.
So that's awesome.
(34:15):
So what can people expect fromyou next?
I'm definitely blazing a trailfor helping people really see
that this putting professionalmanagement is actually really
great for the company, forthemselves, for their exit, for
their life.
So really doing that in a bigway.
That's that's my next big thing.
(34:36):
I'm on fire for this.
I, when I was in the corporateworld, I took for granted.
The corporate world has allthis, too much of this
structure, right?
I took for granted that was alarge part.
It's you tend to focus on thestuff that drives you crazy.
And so I was frustrated with thebureaucracy part, but I didn't
(34:56):
realize out here in theentrepreneur, in the internet
streets, in the entrepreneurialworld, there's almost no
structure, right?
And so I I'm passionate abouthelping get just enough
structure.
So that they can, have hockeystick success.
I'm passionate about that.
I also, we didn't talk aboutthis here, but I'm passionate
(35:20):
about mental health and so Igotta figure out a way to do
something powerful in the mentalhealth arena.
I haven't quite figured that outyet, but that's on the horizon.
I love that.
And that's so needed right nowacross the board, so that's
fantastic.
Yeah.
If you had the attention of thewhole world for five minutes,
(35:40):
what would you tell them?
I would say love yourself.
You're already enough, and go dobig things.
Amazing.
And how can listeners supportyou on your work?
Where can they find you online?
Certainly on, all the socialchannels.
Just my name, Lonnie la.
(36:00):
The good news about having LAand I Dickinson as your name is
those handles aren't takenanywhere, right?
So it's just my name on all ofthe channels I'm there.
And they can just go to meetlonnie.com and they'll get an
email, but put their stuff in,they'll get an email back with
social links and whatever mycurrent lead magnet is and all
those kinds of things.
(36:20):
Awesome.
And we'll have all the linksbelow.
Awesome.
Thank you Lonnie.
I really appreciate you being ontoday.
This was amazing.
Thank you so much, Julie.
Great to meet you.
And I feel like we were justhanging out having coffee, even
though I'm in California.
And where are you?
I'm in Maryland.
So we're literally across thecountry from each other.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
(36:41):
Have a great day and thanks forhaving me on.
Absolutely.
And if you found value in thisepisode, please definitely share
it.
Check out Lonnie's links and youcan find
me@sevenfigurebuilder.com.
And I look forward to seeing youon the next episode.
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