May 14, 2024 • 20 mins
In this episode, we talk to Elona Lopari about her journey from a corporate executive at a Fortune 500 company to a mentor helping entrepreneurs and executives find their purpose and align it with profitable business practices. Elona shares insights from her move from Albania to New York as a teenager, her climb up the corporate ladder, and her transition to entrepreneurship. She emphasizes the importance of personal values, the continuous journey of self-discovery, and how these principles apply equally to individual lives and business development.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Tectastic, where we navigate theintersection of technology and business,
uncovering innovations that redefine our world.
Alona Lipari.
Welcome to it's fantastic.
It is lovely to have you here.
Hi, Grisha.
Thank you.
So I I ultimately wanna hear your story.
(00:21):
I understand that you left the Fortune 500company as an executive and then went into
helping other executives and entrepreneurs findtheir inner vision, their inner story, and
their passion.
And I'm really curious, like, how you foundthat spark in yourself to jump from what feels
like the safety of an executive role in a largecompany into going and chasing your the thing
(00:42):
that you knew was your purpose in life.
So, my origin story.
I moved to New York when I was fifteen nativelyfrom Albania.
So part of my culture, you know, I always hardfor my parents to go get the American dream.
That's why we came here.
So that's kinda what I did.
Graduated like a good student I was.
Climb a corporate ladder for 13 years.
(01:03):
I was actually in a good company for manyyears, and they were in girl help mode.
And I was able to learn and grow and climb thecorporate ladder Ali.
I did HR marketing sales.
I started as a management trainee, and then mylatest role with with them was a executive
leader in a C suite or regional director.
Until just like everything, the company wasacquired by another company, the culture
(01:25):
changed its focus changed to turn war to profitdriven, culture.
So no longer saw a good fit and good alignmentin the future with them.
So I started looking around for, obviously,what else did I wanna do when I grow up and
entrepreneurship was never in my car, so I haveno one in my family.
It was never a model that I was evenconsidering that I was gonna follow.
(01:48):
However, through a lot of personal developmentand just meeting people that were really using
their experience skills and all the things thatthey had learned in service to others somehow
always attracted me.
Cause for me, where I found the mostfulfillment was was in helping others and
creating value and contributing and doing workthat I really cared about.
(02:09):
So I'm always, curious channel, child aroundthe bigger why?
Why is it that I'm doing?
What I'm doing?
How is it, you know, connecting to my personalgoals or things that I care about?
Or even how is it, you know, in service toothers.
So that's kinda where the whole thing andpurpose came about.
And I said, okay.
I'm I'm listening to that.
In her voice that I was hearing at that time.
I'm gonna start to follow my God and intuitionand kinda just grow into this journey.
(02:34):
So starting with Zack coaching, careercoaching, and then it's the last, I guess, 3
years that now help purpose drivenentrepreneurs much like myself and corporations
that going back to serve the corporateenvironment with conscious leadership and
helping them align and scale purpose withprofits so they can jum good in the world.
And now I offer my fractional COO services andHR services, and my consulting services for
(02:58):
businesses and companies that want to scalepurpose of happened.
So the audience is a is an interesting mix ofpeople that are on an entrepreneurial journey.
They're they're starting a company or they'reat a startup.
And people that are at large corporations in aexecutive role usually around technology and
what's coming.
And one of the things that was reallyinteresting when, we connected over you being
(03:20):
on the show is if you don't know why you'redoing what you're doing and you mentioned this
on your own, it's very difficult to motivateanybody, including yourself, on it.
And if you really wanna be successful in life,it's important that you understand that.
And that's the problem is that most peopledon't actually understand what drive them what
motivates them and what they really truly careabout because it gets lost in the noise of our
(03:42):
lives.
You know, the people in your life influenceyour opinions on it, the news, and television,
else or influencing you in very specific ways.
So how do you cut through all that noise andget back to the reason I exist and the thing
that I must accomplish in my to feel fulfilled.
How do you find that?
I wish that was an easy answer, but it leads meback to say inner work, doing some clarity
(04:04):
work, doing some implementations in systems,whether it's meditation, journaling, physical
exercise, taking time to reflect, sit withyourself.
Spend time with yourself is so true.
I think this is honestly now the hardest thingfor people to do as, you know, we need to fill
space in the air with with something, right?
Cause we feel unproductive or inefficient ornot worth it if we are going to just sit and do
(04:29):
nothing because first of all, we're I don'tnormally wanna go too much in spirit, while
we're human beings, right?
I mean, we're human beings, not human beings,and all and the being is when we start to
discover those things that we really care aboutor kind of gets, you know, connect dots I
always say or like little insight around thingsthat, you know, give you joy.
(04:49):
Shine your light things that make you happy,hobbies, things that are really pulling you.
When you listen to people that you consumecontent around or whatever is that they were
getting your information.
I always noticed in my personal life that I ifturn, you know, models attracted me or certain
messages kinda spoke to me, There's somethingabout that inside of me that I haven't
(05:11):
discovered yet.
So kinda just let those clues be the clues sothat you start to discover that.
But I think as a foundation, it's of ofanything any self discovery work is really
around what are your personal values and foryou to be the person to dictate these.
For most of us, including myself, a lot ofthese values were probably values that I've
seen in my family or in my culture or peoplethat surrounded me, So I just took that and
(05:36):
kinda rinse and re repeated it, but when youtake the time to sit and figure out in the
cover these, whether it's through the help of amentor.
My first mentor absolutely transformed mebecause I started to recreate and reassign a
lot of the use that were important to me as aperson without the interference of, you know,
what other people thought I should do or how Ishould live my So, you know, clarifying your
(06:00):
personal values and that vision and mission, itdoesn't have to sound this big, maybe when
you're just at the beginning, but just kind ofwhat is what are you feeling intuitively prone
to really go after?
Like, what is the problem you wanna solve inthe world?
What pisses you off?
What makes you happy?
What are some things from your personal lifethat you can also be able to help others, with
(06:22):
what you have learned as well?
So start there, Dave steps.
And then the more you you start, the more youtake inspired action, the more you start to get
clarity around what are the next steps for youto be able to take to get that.
And it's funny how companies mirror humansbecause obviously who's behind companies,
humans, right?
We all find them, found them, we'll createthem, and then obviously we align the clients,
(06:47):
our communities, and team around, but companiesare much like the same thing as our personal
life.
You know, you want to do that in your companyas well.
Once you discover the values and the visionmission that your company has, then it's so
much easier to be able to scale that company.
So it's a lot of similarities between, youknow, Van and and, you know, business.
If you're just at the journey, the beginningjourney of solo Renewership, or all the way
(07:10):
into entrepreneurship and CEO level, but it'sall, you know, the journey of self discovery.
It's always evolving and ongoing.
That you had figured it out and you're like,okay, now I know my values for life because
you're gonna always evolve as a human, as youlearn more things and as life teaches you a few
lessons and all of that good stuff.
But being a lifelong learner and always, youknow, getting clarity on what's important to
(07:33):
you, I think it's one of the most importantthings that we can do as humans.
I I couldn't agree more.
The lifelong learner, especially in today'sworld where it's changing so fast technologies
evolving so fast, and it's impacting all partsof our lives that you have to be capable of
adapting to the change that comes.
And if that's not part of how you approachlife.
If you expect everything to be set in stone andlocked down, you're you're in trouble, really,
(07:57):
because it's going to evolve and leave youbehind that's not a good place to be.
But a couple of things that you said in therewere really important.
I thought it's also true with the company.
You you might set your mission vision andvalues right now, and that's a moment in time.
That's what they are today.
And it's not that they are gonna completelyreverse, and you're gonna think the opposite 20
years from now.
(08:18):
But they will evolve because information willhit you.
In my case, it wasn't so much evolving asrealization I didn't recognize that something
was so important to me until I was talking tosomebody, and I got very passionate about one
piece of it.
Was like, wait a second.
I need to write that down because clearly Icared a lot about it.
And when I took time to reflect on that onepiece, I realized That's one of my core
(08:41):
beliefs.
It's one of the core things that drives me.
I think that the best thing that we can do inthe world is empower human beings to be the
ultimate version of themselves they want to be,whatever that is.
It's freeing them from the shackles thatconstrain them to be who they wanna be.
And I was saying it to somebody in the contextof starting their own company.
They felt like they were held back.
They were like, I I wanna do my own thing.
(09:02):
And I was like, what is stopping you, and I gotvery passionate about it.
And it was that that stepping back and going,that's a core belief.
I didn't I didn't know that about myself.
I didn't know that was something I had.
And so I had to add to my list.
Companies do the same thing.
The Nike Maxoms, if you've watched the movieabout Nike being founded and the Jordan signing
thing that came out a couple years ago onNetflix, the maxims that they show in that, and
(09:26):
they they come up on the screen Christian.
Like, something will Hammer, and it'll put thatmaximum And that's what sorry.
That's what they call their values is themaxims.
When
I was there, those weren't the maxims.
None of them were.
They're all totally different.
And it didn't mean that they were fundamentallyopposite or they're fundamentally different,
really.
It was they evolved enough they had grown as abusiness and they understood more about
(09:49):
themselves.
So they'd in a way been refined and articulatedin a tighter way.
That's all.
But I've talked to so many founders that arelike, no.
This is our this is what we believe, and thisis we're stuck here.
I'm like, really?
Is that true?
Are you really staying with that?
I love it.
Can I pick it back up a few things that yousaid?
I think it's most important what you saidaround, you know, stopping and being almost
(10:11):
like a child, like, chat like curiosity around,like, why did I just get passionate about that?
Right?
Is that something that's important to me?
And kind of just reflecting back on thatbecause as humans, We only evolve and get this
clarity in conjunction to another person,right?
That's why I always believe that, yes, AI isgonna advance and we're gonna use technology
and We should be smart about implementing it,obviously.
(10:32):
And, you know, there's always like positivesand negatives to everything that we do.
Human to human can end will never go away, andwe always learn a growth of sharing each, you
know, experiences and and stories with eachother.
And a lot of the times, something that youmight say might just spark a a new seed in me
that maybe I didn't think of something, youknow, a certain way.
(10:52):
So just having these type of conversations.
And then when you get those insights Ajamoments pay attention to them because they're
not just passing thoughts, especially ifsomething keeps showing up.
There's a reason why it keeps showing up foryou and not for me.
Because obviously, you know, it's notconnected.
I don't wanna go too spiritual on this, butit's connected to our souls path, right?
So there's a reason we're all here.
(11:14):
There's a mission and vision that we're, youknow, we all get, inspired by.
And at every stage of season of life, nothingis ever wasted.
It's always building to what the next thingthat you wanna do.
But when it comes, you know, to companies, muchlike living in life, the companies that don't
wanna evolve, you know, and get more clarity ontheir vision, values, and mission are gonna be
left behind.
It's just, you know, the way it's alwaysworked.
(11:36):
Right?
Do they they reach a certain level of maturityAnd then if they don't innovate, and if they
don't get, you know, inspired with new ways ofdoing things or adapting to what's happening in
the world, eventually they start to die.
Just like human life.
We don't evolve personally.
We'll eventually, you know, get far worse.
We can't stay in the same spot.
So I think if you just compare it to personalgrowth, company growth is much like the same.
(12:01):
So that there's a couple things that on yourprofile I wanna touch on because they were I
thought they were really good points for theaudience.
And it's difficult, I think, for most people tofind that purpose in life to start with because
I think the the people that are enlightenedenough to want to be self introspective will
seek it out But a lot of people, they theydon't interrogate self to understand better
(12:23):
what they care about.
But how do you go about aligning your purposewith profit.
This is an important one because in a lot ofcases, people's motivation seems so altruistic.
Do you line that with profit?
How do you find a way that you can exist in acapitalist society when you've got an
altruistic driving internal story?
(12:46):
Yeah.
I would like to start off with what's coming upfor me is exactly what you said, right?
I mean, the people that, if somebody is justnot feeling, you know, inner conflict and it's
really comfortable with where they are, thenthey will be where they are, right?
I think though what happens is that whensomething is pulling to you or it's calling for
you to grow, whether it's learning how to now,you know, marry the profit side to obviously,
(13:11):
what is it that you really are passionateabout, you know, doing in the world, or that
the problem that you wanna solve in the world,because that's where it all starts, right?
So figuring out that problem that you want tosolve in the world.
And at the beginning, we start solving tinyproblems.
And then eventually, as we learn and grow andevolve, and we learn how to that into a healthy
company is what I say.
(13:31):
The vehicle and choose the vehicle ofentrepreneurship to be able to do so, then you
can do both.
You can unite purpose, and you can deny theprofit.
And how are you able to do that?
It's obviously through the, aspects or pillarsto how any company grown traditionally that we
now maybe admire those bigger brands that wetalked about, you know, the Nike's.
(13:53):
It's all about the brand, the market, themarketing, the systems, and then the team,
right?
So those are the main pillars of really takingthat purpose, taking that vision, taking that
main problem that you really care about andfeel obviously also qualified to be able to
create transformations with.
Whether it's a service or a product, and nowimplementing and structuring it out like a
(14:15):
company and bringing other people on board andhaving a really healthy business model that
attracts the right market for yourself so thatyou're able to create the profit.
And then when you create the profit, learninghow to start delegating it out that you're
removing yourself and replacing yourself as theoperator or the owner on the right activities
that you care about you can add the most valuein your company with and then delegating the
(14:39):
reps.
And that's how you start to create somethingthat gives you freedom because another problem
usually, you know, around up with some profitis like, you know, people are always sometimes
when you start a company or business, you know,you started with a good desire to be free and
focus on the thing that you care about andbeing meaningful work.
And, you know, you, you figure out that youreally Hammer really overly more than a full
(15:01):
time job we pretty much just slave to yourbusiness because unless you move your business
does not move.
So, you know, thinking more on the long termlengths or longevity of your business and the
vision that you have, you wanna structure yourprofit side in the ways that a business is
structured so that you're able to bring thatpurpose into play and then connect all the
(15:26):
people around you, whether it's the tiny team,1st, you're, you know, solar for newer, then
you move into entrepreneurship, and then youget to the COO level, whether your company is
more established and you're more establishedand you put you know, a good brand in place and
you build trust in the marketplace and allthose different functions are already there,
then you start to grow in scale and maybecurrent markets and new with what you have
(15:48):
going on.
And that's how you eventually expand, but it'svery smart to be able to know when to invest.
A lot of that cash flow that keeps coming inafter you pay yourself and you pay your team
and you pay all the things and knowing yournumbers, and then reinvest that back in in the
scaling of your company.
That's how you move to the three levels, whichis trade time for money.
We all begin there, then trade money for time.
(16:11):
You want to start buying back a lot of yourtime.
Otherwise, you're gonna die and just grow in abusiness you can't, anyway, because you're
gonna be the bottleneck of your company.
And then the third one, which is time for time.
Right?
So, I mean, sorry.
Money, you put money to get money, right?
So, That's the 3rd level of freedom.
And those are all phases.
And, you know, most of us have not skipped to,you know, the phases accidentally, but just
(16:37):
knowing, you know, what's out there availablefor you and making the right strategic
decisions and aligning the right people thatcan get you there is honestly the only thing
that we can do to be able to align purpose withprofit, but without that strong reason why
you're doing what you're doing, the money isjust not gonna carry you that far.
That's kinda what I've learned.
(16:57):
You just said one of the biggest pieces ofadvice that a lot of first time entrepreneurs I
think they buy into the, I'm no longer tradingmy time for money.
Like, I'm not working an hourly job or asalaried job where I'm trading my time for
money.
They buy into that, and they think that it'sinstantaneous.
It's like, ah, now I run the company and I'mtrading my knowledge or something else for
(17:18):
money, and it all magically happens.
It's like, no, man.
Like, you actually just downgraded for a while.
You're gonna spend a lot more of your time andget a lot less money than you're maybe
comfortable with, and you've gotta get throughthat phase.
And the first major milestone you have to hitis that the company, it it can sustain.
That doesn't mean it can sustain you, but thecompany doesn't die tomorrow.
(17:41):
You've got enough of revenue coming in that itsustains.
The second major milestone is it sustains you.
And then the 3rd is that you could start buyingyour time.
You could start paying for other people to dothe things that you were doing right now.
I said, notice that that's the 3rd milestoneyou gotta hit.
And those other 2 are critical to get to thisone.
If you can't do them, it never gets to the 3rd.
(18:02):
And then you can start worrying about the moneyfor money eventually.
Like, I'm buying other companies up where I'mI'm leveraging my capital to make more money.
The, the I just realized that we're getting lowon time.
I wanna make sure everybody knows to go toalonavaparicoaching.com.
It, there's 3 valuable sources on her website,a free marketing checklist, a free master class
(18:22):
to building a legacy company, and a free ebookon the 50 purpose questions towards your
aligned potential.
Alonav, do you have anything else you wanted toshare with the audience?
No.
I mean, thanks so much for having me.
And, like I you know, entrepreneurship isdefinitely a game, but I I also don't believe
in anything, you know, overnight success.
I guess that's the right time to point in it.
(18:43):
It's always the preparation that we we dobefore, you know, in the back end to even get
to that.
Even those lucky wins or timing, the vinetimings that are connecting.
Obviously there's a lot of that, but, at theend of the day, if you're going to do
something, absolutely ensure that it's it'sit's in creates value for others, and it's
adding value.
(19:03):
And it's your you have that service mindset ofof being a service and contribution towards
others.
Because most people, that's what they want.
They just wanna be, you know, significant.
They wanna look at the impact that they're ableto create with others, and that's gonna keep
you going for a long, long time.
So that's what I would love to leave youraudience here with today.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for being on the show.
(19:25):
Thank you.
And that's a wrap for this episode ofTectastic.
Wanna thank you personally for joining us, andwe'll see you next time.
Until then, keep exploring, and stay curious.
Thank you for listening.
If you are new here and enjoyed the content,please subscribe.
It really helps us out.
(19:46):
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Welcome to Tectastic, where we navigate theintersection of technology and business,
uncovering innovations that redefine our world.
Alona Lipari.
Welcome to it's fantastic.
It is lovely to have you here.
Hi, Grisha.
Thank you.
So I I ultimately wanna hear your story.
(00:21):
I understand that you left the Fortune 500company as an executive and then went into
helping other executives and entrepreneurs findtheir inner vision, their inner story, and
their passion.
And I'm really curious, like, how you foundthat spark in yourself to jump from what feels
like the safety of an executive role in a largecompany into going and chasing your the thing
(00:42):
that you knew was your purpose in life.
So, my origin story.
I moved to New York when I was fifteen nativelyfrom Albania.
So part of my culture, you know, I always hardfor my parents to go get the American dream.
That's why we came here.
So that's kinda what I did.
Graduated like a good student I was.
Climb a corporate ladder for 13 years.
(01:03):
I was actually in a good company for manyyears, and they were in girl help mode.
And I was able to learn and grow and climb thecorporate ladder Ali.
I did HR marketing sales.
I started as a management trainee, and then mylatest role with with them was a executive
leader in a C suite or regional director.
Until just like everything, the company wasacquired by another company, the culture
(01:25):
changed its focus changed to turn war to profitdriven, culture.
So no longer saw a good fit and good alignmentin the future with them.
So I started looking around for, obviously,what else did I wanna do when I grow up and
entrepreneurship was never in my car, so I haveno one in my family.
It was never a model that I was evenconsidering that I was gonna follow.
(01:48):
However, through a lot of personal developmentand just meeting people that were really using
their experience skills and all the things thatthey had learned in service to others somehow
always attracted me.
Cause for me, where I found the mostfulfillment was was in helping others and
creating value and contributing and doing workthat I really cared about.
(02:09):
So I'm always, curious channel, child aroundthe bigger why?
Why is it that I'm doing?
What I'm doing?
How is it, you know, connecting to my personalgoals or things that I care about?
Or even how is it, you know, in service toothers.
So that's kinda where the whole thing andpurpose came about.
And I said, okay.
I'm I'm listening to that.
In her voice that I was hearing at that time.
I'm gonna start to follow my God and intuitionand kinda just grow into this journey.
(02:34):
So starting with Zack coaching, careercoaching, and then it's the last, I guess, 3
years that now help purpose drivenentrepreneurs much like myself and corporations
that going back to serve the corporateenvironment with conscious leadership and
helping them align and scale purpose withprofits so they can jum good in the world.
And now I offer my fractional COO services andHR services, and my consulting services for
(02:58):
businesses and companies that want to scalepurpose of happened.
So the audience is a is an interesting mix ofpeople that are on an entrepreneurial journey.
They're they're starting a company or they'reat a startup.
And people that are at large corporations in aexecutive role usually around technology and
what's coming.
And one of the things that was reallyinteresting when, we connected over you being
(03:20):
on the show is if you don't know why you'redoing what you're doing and you mentioned this
on your own, it's very difficult to motivateanybody, including yourself, on it.
And if you really wanna be successful in life,it's important that you understand that.
And that's the problem is that most peopledon't actually understand what drive them what
motivates them and what they really truly careabout because it gets lost in the noise of our
(03:42):
lives.
You know, the people in your life influenceyour opinions on it, the news, and television,
else or influencing you in very specific ways.
So how do you cut through all that noise andget back to the reason I exist and the thing
that I must accomplish in my to feel fulfilled.
How do you find that?
I wish that was an easy answer, but it leads meback to say inner work, doing some clarity
(04:04):
work, doing some implementations in systems,whether it's meditation, journaling, physical
exercise, taking time to reflect, sit withyourself.
Spend time with yourself is so true.
I think this is honestly now the hardest thingfor people to do as, you know, we need to fill
space in the air with with something, right?
Cause we feel unproductive or inefficient ornot worth it if we are going to just sit and do
(04:29):
nothing because first of all, we're I don'tnormally wanna go too much in spirit, while
we're human beings, right?
I mean, we're human beings, not human beings,and all and the being is when we start to
discover those things that we really care aboutor kind of gets, you know, connect dots I
always say or like little insight around thingsthat, you know, give you joy.
(04:49):
Shine your light things that make you happy,hobbies, things that are really pulling you.
When you listen to people that you consumecontent around or whatever is that they were
getting your information.
I always noticed in my personal life that I ifturn, you know, models attracted me or certain
messages kinda spoke to me, There's somethingabout that inside of me that I haven't
(05:11):
discovered yet.
So kinda just let those clues be the clues sothat you start to discover that.
But I think as a foundation, it's of ofanything any self discovery work is really
around what are your personal values and foryou to be the person to dictate these.
For most of us, including myself, a lot ofthese values were probably values that I've
seen in my family or in my culture or peoplethat surrounded me, So I just took that and
(05:36):
kinda rinse and re repeated it, but when youtake the time to sit and figure out in the
cover these, whether it's through the help of amentor.
My first mentor absolutely transformed mebecause I started to recreate and reassign a
lot of the use that were important to me as aperson without the interference of, you know,
what other people thought I should do or how Ishould live my So, you know, clarifying your
(06:00):
personal values and that vision and mission, itdoesn't have to sound this big, maybe when
you're just at the beginning, but just kind ofwhat is what are you feeling intuitively prone
to really go after?
Like, what is the problem you wanna solve inthe world?
What pisses you off?
What makes you happy?
What are some things from your personal lifethat you can also be able to help others, with
(06:22):
what you have learned as well?
So start there, Dave steps.
And then the more you you start, the more youtake inspired action, the more you start to get
clarity around what are the next steps for youto be able to take to get that.
And it's funny how companies mirror humansbecause obviously who's behind companies,
humans, right?
We all find them, found them, we'll createthem, and then obviously we align the clients,
(06:47):
our communities, and team around, but companiesare much like the same thing as our personal
life.
You know, you want to do that in your companyas well.
Once you discover the values and the visionmission that your company has, then it's so
much easier to be able to scale that company.
So it's a lot of similarities between, youknow, Van and and, you know, business.
If you're just at the journey, the beginningjourney of solo Renewership, or all the way
(07:10):
into entrepreneurship and CEO level, but it'sall, you know, the journey of self discovery.
It's always evolving and ongoing.
That you had figured it out and you're like,okay, now I know my values for life because
you're gonna always evolve as a human, as youlearn more things and as life teaches you a few
lessons and all of that good stuff.
But being a lifelong learner and always, youknow, getting clarity on what's important to
(07:33):
you, I think it's one of the most importantthings that we can do as humans.
I I couldn't agree more.
The lifelong learner, especially in today'sworld where it's changing so fast technologies
evolving so fast, and it's impacting all partsof our lives that you have to be capable of
adapting to the change that comes.
And if that's not part of how you approachlife.
If you expect everything to be set in stone andlocked down, you're you're in trouble, really,
(07:57):
because it's going to evolve and leave youbehind that's not a good place to be.
But a couple of things that you said in therewere really important.
I thought it's also true with the company.
You you might set your mission vision andvalues right now, and that's a moment in time.
That's what they are today.
And it's not that they are gonna completelyreverse, and you're gonna think the opposite 20
years from now.
(08:18):
But they will evolve because information willhit you.
In my case, it wasn't so much evolving asrealization I didn't recognize that something
was so important to me until I was talking tosomebody, and I got very passionate about one
piece of it.
Was like, wait a second.
I need to write that down because clearly Icared a lot about it.
And when I took time to reflect on that onepiece, I realized That's one of my core
(08:41):
beliefs.
It's one of the core things that drives me.
I think that the best thing that we can do inthe world is empower human beings to be the
ultimate version of themselves they want to be,whatever that is.
It's freeing them from the shackles thatconstrain them to be who they wanna be.
And I was saying it to somebody in the contextof starting their own company.
They felt like they were held back.
They were like, I I wanna do my own thing.
(09:02):
And I was like, what is stopping you, and I gotvery passionate about it.
And it was that that stepping back and going,that's a core belief.
I didn't I didn't know that about myself.
I didn't know that was something I had.
And so I had to add to my list.
Companies do the same thing.
The Nike Maxoms, if you've watched the movieabout Nike being founded and the Jordan signing
thing that came out a couple years ago onNetflix, the maxims that they show in that, and
(09:26):
they they come up on the screen Christian.
Like, something will Hammer, and it'll put thatmaximum And that's what sorry.
That's what they call their values is themaxims.
When
I was there, those weren't the maxims.
None of them were.
They're all totally different.
And it didn't mean that they were fundamentallyopposite or they're fundamentally different,
really.
It was they evolved enough they had grown as abusiness and they understood more about
(09:49):
themselves.
So they'd in a way been refined and articulatedin a tighter way.
That's all.
But I've talked to so many founders that arelike, no.
This is our this is what we believe, and thisis we're stuck here.
I'm like, really?
Is that true?
Are you really staying with that?
I love it.
Can I pick it back up a few things that yousaid?
I think it's most important what you saidaround, you know, stopping and being almost
(10:11):
like a child, like, chat like curiosity around,like, why did I just get passionate about that?
Right?
Is that something that's important to me?
And kind of just reflecting back on thatbecause as humans, We only evolve and get this
clarity in conjunction to another person,right?
That's why I always believe that, yes, AI isgonna advance and we're gonna use technology
and We should be smart about implementing it,obviously.
(10:32):
And, you know, there's always like positivesand negatives to everything that we do.
Human to human can end will never go away, andwe always learn a growth of sharing each, you
know, experiences and and stories with eachother.
And a lot of the times, something that youmight say might just spark a a new seed in me
that maybe I didn't think of something, youknow, a certain way.
(10:52):
So just having these type of conversations.
And then when you get those insights Ajamoments pay attention to them because they're
not just passing thoughts, especially ifsomething keeps showing up.
There's a reason why it keeps showing up foryou and not for me.
Because obviously, you know, it's notconnected.
I don't wanna go too spiritual on this, butit's connected to our souls path, right?
So there's a reason we're all here.
(11:14):
There's a mission and vision that we're, youknow, we all get, inspired by.
And at every stage of season of life, nothingis ever wasted.
It's always building to what the next thingthat you wanna do.
But when it comes, you know, to companies, muchlike living in life, the companies that don't
wanna evolve, you know, and get more clarity ontheir vision, values, and mission are gonna be
left behind.
It's just, you know, the way it's alwaysworked.
(11:36):
Right?
Do they they reach a certain level of maturityAnd then if they don't innovate, and if they
don't get, you know, inspired with new ways ofdoing things or adapting to what's happening in
the world, eventually they start to die.
Just like human life.
We don't evolve personally.
We'll eventually, you know, get far worse.
We can't stay in the same spot.
So I think if you just compare it to personalgrowth, company growth is much like the same.
(12:01):
So that there's a couple things that on yourprofile I wanna touch on because they were I
thought they were really good points for theaudience.
And it's difficult, I think, for most people tofind that purpose in life to start with because
I think the the people that are enlightenedenough to want to be self introspective will
seek it out But a lot of people, they theydon't interrogate self to understand better
(12:23):
what they care about.
But how do you go about aligning your purposewith profit.
This is an important one because in a lot ofcases, people's motivation seems so altruistic.
Do you line that with profit?
How do you find a way that you can exist in acapitalist society when you've got an
altruistic driving internal story?
(12:46):
Yeah.
I would like to start off with what's coming upfor me is exactly what you said, right?
I mean, the people that, if somebody is justnot feeling, you know, inner conflict and it's
really comfortable with where they are, thenthey will be where they are, right?
I think though what happens is that whensomething is pulling to you or it's calling for
you to grow, whether it's learning how to now,you know, marry the profit side to obviously,
(13:11):
what is it that you really are passionateabout, you know, doing in the world, or that
the problem that you wanna solve in the world,because that's where it all starts, right?
So figuring out that problem that you want tosolve in the world.
And at the beginning, we start solving tinyproblems.
And then eventually, as we learn and grow andevolve, and we learn how to that into a healthy
company is what I say.
(13:31):
The vehicle and choose the vehicle ofentrepreneurship to be able to do so, then you
can do both.
You can unite purpose, and you can deny theprofit.
And how are you able to do that?
It's obviously through the, aspects or pillarsto how any company grown traditionally that we
now maybe admire those bigger brands that wetalked about, you know, the Nike's.
(13:53):
It's all about the brand, the market, themarketing, the systems, and then the team,
right?
So those are the main pillars of really takingthat purpose, taking that vision, taking that
main problem that you really care about andfeel obviously also qualified to be able to
create transformations with.
Whether it's a service or a product, and nowimplementing and structuring it out like a
(14:15):
company and bringing other people on board andhaving a really healthy business model that
attracts the right market for yourself so thatyou're able to create the profit.
And then when you create the profit, learninghow to start delegating it out that you're
removing yourself and replacing yourself as theoperator or the owner on the right activities
that you care about you can add the most valuein your company with and then delegating the
(14:39):
reps.
And that's how you start to create somethingthat gives you freedom because another problem
usually, you know, around up with some profitis like, you know, people are always sometimes
when you start a company or business, you know,you started with a good desire to be free and
focus on the thing that you care about andbeing meaningful work.
And, you know, you, you figure out that youreally Hammer really overly more than a full
(15:01):
time job we pretty much just slave to yourbusiness because unless you move your business
does not move.
So, you know, thinking more on the long termlengths or longevity of your business and the
vision that you have, you wanna structure yourprofit side in the ways that a business is
structured so that you're able to bring thatpurpose into play and then connect all the
(15:26):
people around you, whether it's the tiny team,1st, you're, you know, solar for newer, then
you move into entrepreneurship, and then youget to the COO level, whether your company is
more established and you're more establishedand you put you know, a good brand in place and
you build trust in the marketplace and allthose different functions are already there,
then you start to grow in scale and maybecurrent markets and new with what you have
(15:48):
going on.
And that's how you eventually expand, but it'svery smart to be able to know when to invest.
A lot of that cash flow that keeps coming inafter you pay yourself and you pay your team
and you pay all the things and knowing yournumbers, and then reinvest that back in in the
scaling of your company.
That's how you move to the three levels, whichis trade time for money.
We all begin there, then trade money for time.
(16:11):
You want to start buying back a lot of yourtime.
Otherwise, you're gonna die and just grow in abusiness you can't, anyway, because you're
gonna be the bottleneck of your company.
And then the third one, which is time for time.
Right?
So, I mean, sorry.
Money, you put money to get money, right?
So, That's the 3rd level of freedom.
And those are all phases.
And, you know, most of us have not skipped to,you know, the phases accidentally, but just
(16:37):
knowing, you know, what's out there availablefor you and making the right strategic
decisions and aligning the right people thatcan get you there is honestly the only thing
that we can do to be able to align purpose withprofit, but without that strong reason why
you're doing what you're doing, the money isjust not gonna carry you that far.
That's kinda what I've learned.
(16:57):
You just said one of the biggest pieces ofadvice that a lot of first time entrepreneurs I
think they buy into the, I'm no longer tradingmy time for money.
Like, I'm not working an hourly job or asalaried job where I'm trading my time for
money.
They buy into that, and they think that it'sinstantaneous.
It's like, ah, now I run the company and I'mtrading my knowledge or something else for
(17:18):
money, and it all magically happens.
It's like, no, man.
Like, you actually just downgraded for a while.
You're gonna spend a lot more of your time andget a lot less money than you're maybe
comfortable with, and you've gotta get throughthat phase.
And the first major milestone you have to hitis that the company, it it can sustain.
That doesn't mean it can sustain you, but thecompany doesn't die tomorrow.
(17:41):
You've got enough of revenue coming in that itsustains.
The second major milestone is it sustains you.
And then the 3rd is that you could start buyingyour time.
You could start paying for other people to dothe things that you were doing right now.
I said, notice that that's the 3rd milestoneyou gotta hit.
And those other 2 are critical to get to thisone.
If you can't do them, it never gets to the 3rd.
(18:02):
And then you can start worrying about the moneyfor money eventually.
Like, I'm buying other companies up where I'mI'm leveraging my capital to make more money.
The, the I just realized that we're getting lowon time.
I wanna make sure everybody knows to go toalonavaparicoaching.com.
It, there's 3 valuable sources on her website,a free marketing checklist, a free master class
(18:22):
to building a legacy company, and a free ebookon the 50 purpose questions towards your
aligned potential.
Alonav, do you have anything else you wanted toshare with the audience?
No.
I mean, thanks so much for having me.
And, like I you know, entrepreneurship isdefinitely a game, but I I also don't believe
in anything, you know, overnight success.
I guess that's the right time to point in it.
(18:43):
It's always the preparation that we we dobefore, you know, in the back end to even get
to that.
Even those lucky wins or timing, the vinetimings that are connecting.
Obviously there's a lot of that, but, at theend of the day, if you're going to do
something, absolutely ensure that it's it'sit's in creates value for others, and it's
adding value.
(19:03):
And it's your you have that service mindset ofof being a service and contribution towards
others.
Because most people, that's what they want.
They just wanna be, you know, significant.
They wanna look at the impact that they're ableto create with others, and that's gonna keep
you going for a long, long time.
So that's what I would love to leave youraudience here with today.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for being on the show.
(19:25):
Thank you.
And that's a wrap for this episode ofTectastic.
Wanna thank you personally for joining us, andwe'll see you next time.
Until then, keep exploring, and stay curious.
Thank you for listening.
If you are new here and enjoyed the content,please subscribe.
It really helps us out.
(19:46):
And if you are a regular listener, thanks somuch for your continued support.
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