Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success.
I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you
insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts who will share not just their expertise
but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements.
So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place. Subscribe now and discover the
milestones that mark the path to success. Welcome to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business
and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick, your host, and today my special guest is Alison Vowen. Alison is
a positive intelligence coach who helps people unlock their potential by mastering the mental
habits that lead to greater clarity, focus, and success. Welcome to the show, Alison.
Thanks so much for having me again, Sheila. I know we were just talking about this synergy
that we're feeling which shows living the example of what life brings when you meet other people,
you find like-minded people, you join community groups, that power of networking because you
never know how you're going to connect and grow with someone else. Absolutely. Absolutely. Meeting
you has been so exciting, and I'm telling you, when you find people who are like-minded, the
things that you can do together far exceed anything that we can do independently. We can reach more
people, we can help more people, we can solve more problems. So I'm really excited to be here with
you today. I'm excited too, and I wanted to make this a continuation. When we were talking in one
of our other episodes, we were talking about you call it a vision plan. I was calling it my next
steps or my milestone moments plan that helps us to build a vision that lasts not just for today,
but through time. Envisioning our future self is so powerful. We can actually go and consult our
future self, and it will help us to do the things today that are going to get us there. But in order
to even have that conversation with our future self, we have to have some idea of who she is
and what she's up to and what her dreams are and what she has accomplished. So that's my personal
vision. I write that down, and I read it every day. Well, we were both in synergy when we used
the word compass, right? Because I like to think of that long-term vision as an internal compass,
right? It helps you keep on track. So when challenges arise or you think you're going off
track and you can look back and say, well, I had it written down somewhere, but I do keep it in a
place where I can see it and be revising it. And that also allows me to make better decisions,
because if I've already set that vision, then it can work as a filter when I'm trying to make
a decision and then analyze it and say, well, is this decision based on track? Is it going to get
me to where I want to be based on this plan? It doesn't mean it can't change. It just provides
like that internal filter that makes decision making easier for me. Absolutely. I love what
you just said, because what I do is I, when I'm in the process of making a decision and I
didn't come up with this myself, one of my coaches has taught me how to do this,
ask myself, is this in alignment with my vision? If I have a vision of financial prosperity,
but I am and ease and flow in my life and building wealth, but I decide to embark on an activity that
really doesn't fit with that, not thinking of a very good example at the moment. Maybe I'll come
up with that in our conversation, but asking myself, does this decision align or this opportunity
align with my vision? Because not all opportunities that come to us are things that we should get on
board with. And I also liken the personal vision to when we buy a vehicle. I don't know about you,
I don't know about you, but when I buy a vehicle, all of a sudden I see my vehicle so much more on
the road. Like I see all the same models and I just, you know, it just cracks me up. But it is
an example of how what we're focusing on is what we recognize more of in the world. So if we're
reading our vision, what happens is we recognize more opportunities that may have been there all
along that we didn't see because we weren't intentional about keeping that alive in our mind,
in our thoughts, in our dream. I agree. And sometimes life will just have different plans
for you and that's okay. But I think it wasn't in my earlier years that I was able to appreciate
what you just said. But as a joke when my daughter, so I have three kids, two boys, my middle child
is my daughter and we were living overseas even though, and we always meant to come back,
move back to Florida, but it was when she was getting ready to graduate that I just kept
telling her, well, I'm going to go with you in your suitcase. I'm going with you back to college.
I had always wanted that master's degree. You're a hyper achiever. Yes, hyper achiever. And it was
a joke. I wasn't planning on packing my bags and moving back to the States to go to college with
my daughter. And 2018 came around and within 48 hours, my life just changed. We ended up living
like we were living in, you know, COVID. Schools got canceled and we all had to just jump online
and figure out how to finish out that school year. That's what that situation was like. So yeah,
that vision plan was beautiful. And it certainly didn't have Sheila moving back to the States
in March. And in June, I found myself living here. And you know what? I went back to college.
Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So what you just described, I call a pivot. Your life took a pivot,
right? And sometimes we choose to pivot. Sometimes circumstances require us to pivot,
but it does have an impact on our vision, right? And look at you. You stepped into something. You
were almost prophetic in your joking with your daughter and talking about going back to college
with her. And here you were going back to get your master's degree. So tell us more about that.
I'm assuming you finished, right? I was so motivated. It was going to be an MBA
because there's two skills I think everyone needs, no matter what you do in life. One is communication,
the power of communication. It's not what you do. It's not who you are. It's how you say it,
how you treat people. And communication is key to be able to express yourself.
The second one is finances. Because you could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer,
you could be a janitor, you could be an admin, and you need to learn how to manage that salary
or that profit if you're a business owner. And so those are two skills that I think are essential,
no matter who you are and what you do in life. Totally agree. So Robert Kiyosaki talks about
it as our financial IQ, that we always have to be improving that and understanding money
and understanding how to manage money, how to invest money, understanding our money mindset.
There's even a term now that they call money trauma, because we might have experienced times
of great loss around money or our parents may have had lots of fear about money. So I love that you
just brought up this knowing what your relationship to money is and how to manage it.
I was pulling my hairs out because even though I was budgeting and doing cash flow statements,
I felt that they didn't teach me everything I needed to know at the undergrad level, right?
Like how to interpret these ratios and how to make smarter decisions. And sometimes I found myself
like scratching my head and looking for those mentors to help answer questions. So that
opportunity here was going to be an MBA with a focus on finance, because that's where I felt
I had to get to that next step. But I ended up choosing a leadership elective and it began
with critical thinking. And so none of that was in that vision plan necessarily. And what perhaps was
all along was that internal need or want to get that master's degree. So it did get fulfilled.
And I still question myself, did I plant that seed in my head when I kept joking with my daughter,
right? With college with you, because we did end up at college during the same time frame, right?
I was still getting the master's when she started college. So be careful what you wish for. And to
me, that's what this vision represents, whatever you're envisioning can happen. And you can take
those steps to also get there. And if life gets in the way or a change comes, you just need to
adapt and continue with that long-term vision.
Absolutely. I love what you just said about adapting and going into those pivots, because
circumstances can sometimes call us to have to do that. And how amazing that you and your daughter
were in college at the same time. And it all started with this joke. And who knows whether
that was something that you were birthing in yourself, or maybe it was there all along and
all of a sudden, you were just, your joke was the way of it coming forth into your life. And
the way of it coming forth into your consciousness and your awareness. And you just followed that
call to learn more, be more, and break that glass ceiling for yourself.
So it was, but it wasn't on purpose. And I, you know, we were there, I still have a younger
child who's about to graduate this year. But at that moment, I was not contemplating. Like I said,
I was happy with my company. I was happy with my life, everything. I felt I was like at the top of
the game. So it was a joke. I figured maybe once the youngest, which was six years ago, graduates,
that's when we'll start to plan and put in that vision moving back to Florida. But it happened a
lot sooner than you thought. And that's a great point. So sometimes when we create a picture of
our future self, we have to be careful that we don't try to put into place all the ways that it
could come to be and could come to pass. Because there may be things that are coming that you don't
realize it could accelerate your progress in that direction. So be careful that we stay focused on
where we're headed and become intentional about just continuing to keep that in our awareness
and be open to showing, seeing the opportunities that show up in our lives. And have the courage
to take steps. And if you're listening to this and you're in business or you have that seed in
your head that in your future vision, you want to be self-employed or start your own company.
I can't underestimate the importance of taking the time to do a business plan. And it could be
a simple one pager, which we call a Kiva business plan that'll help you validate, you know, that idea.
Or then it can become an eight, nine pager. And unless you're looking for loans, which is why
financials are always important, it can at least help you visualize and make sure you know how
you're going to get from that vision to the end of the plan and what that looks like two years on
the road and three years on the road. In a previous episode, you talked about building that home or
that house and the in the case of building a business that plan it to me is that foundation.
And so if you don't have a strong foundation, it's your structure is not going to be stable
and sustainable over time. So it is so important. And if you have a business, and maybe this wasn't
a step that someone advised you to create, it's not too late, you can go back and you can create
it because it will still support your business and its growth and in your own development as a
business owner. It's like building a house without a blueprint. That's a good way to
that's a good way to reframe that I'm going to build that house or building something without
a set of instructions, right? Where you're like, I'm going to just wait, I can figure this out.
That's exactly what life is without some kind of long term vision. Well, I want to share how
you get through that vision, right? Because we're talking long term vision, even if at this point,
one year is long term, which to me is medium term, right? Long term, what, three to five years,
it's really important to be able to balance the short term wings with that long vision,
those long term goals. And I do that by three ways. I break it down in a step. So if my personal
vision, if I'm starting where I'm at, and let's just say, I don't know how to put this into an
example. Okay, let's put it in the architectural home. Okay, my first step would be to get a plan.
And then that would be a celebration. That would be the first step, I would break it down. I know I
can't build the house if I don't have the plan. So the moment I do the plan, that's a baby stepper.
That's a step. And you celebrate that. Even that step has very a lot of micro steps in it, because
you have to decide how many bedrooms, how many stories, how many bathrooms, where are the bedrooms
going to be? What's the square footage? It's, you've got to look at where you're building the house.
And does the topography of the ground support the home that you want to build? And so on and so forth.
So yeah, I love having the plan. And that plan has many, many steps within it as well.
That's a great point. Because I was about to just jump into the permits, right? Like the second part
is going and get the permits and the builder. Oh, goodness, I've had my conversations, you know,
with builders and customers about those decisions. And those are interesting decisions when you're
building a home. And sometimes they have to be tweaked. Because if you find out the topography
doesn't support it, or you're going to talk about going to the permitting stage, sometimes you go
and you request permits, you don't get the permits you requested. So you have to go back to the
drawing board. And it's all part of the journey, that it's okay. So we have to, as we're creating
plans for our life, our businesses or for a home, it's best for us to anticipate that we're going
to have to pivot. It's part of the process. Nothing's gone wrong here. And to stay committed to
the journey of whatever you're building. I love that because you mentioned point number three,
which is refine as you go. So even if you export it from Word to PDF, just make sure you have that
Word document available that's editable, because more than likely, it's going to change. And you
just have to adapt and move forward. So I love that. The only thing in life that's guaranteed
is that things will change. Also, by breaking it down and making sure to celebrate each step,
if you see it as that building blocks, as we were talking about homes, you're also keeping yourself
motivated. And that leads to momentum. In the end, that's what's gonna generate success, right?
Sustainable, rather than just a temporary thing where I said, okay, that's what I want to be,
but then not break it down and not acknowledge where you're at along the way.
Absolutely. And I am a voracious reader. And there's a book that I like to recommend that
the listeners consider getting an audible or buying, and it's called The Gap and the Gain.
And what you learn there is it's important for us to look at the gain, which is what you just
described in celebrating these small successes that are all part of the building blocks of where
we're headed, right? Celebrate every time we get to the gym, celebrate every time we add more reps
or we increase our weight if we're lifting, just to use physical fitness as an example.
What our brain has a tendency to do is look at the gap. So the gap is that's where I want to go,
this is where I am. And wow, look at that huge gap that I have to fill. And that's not where the
motivation is going to come from, because that's negative. It's kind of discouraging because
sometimes it's a long way, you know, if we're looking at getting our PhD, let's say, and we're
still in undergrad, that's another what, five, six years before we're going to get to that point.
So looking at the gain and all the progress that we've made from where we started to where we are
now. Gap and the gain, trying to remember that I think the author's name is Silverman, but I'm not
sure. Well, when you remember it, I can find it and put that link down below in the description.
And do you have a plan or you have an assessment in case some someone wants to contact you or say,
help me with my vision plan? Is that part of your program? That's not the work that I typically do
with clients. So that's not something I offer at this point. Something that I would like to offer
in the future. Well, there you go. So I need a name for mine and we can start by sharing mine
as we continue to explore all the different ways that we have that synergy. Maybe we can
continue sharing resources. I'll name mine either next steps or it's going to tie in a
milestone because I'm all about celebrating the milestones. Anyone have any suggestions,
feel free to reach out on social media or leave me your comment with your name suggestions. And
as soon as I have it, that I will wrap it up and leave a link in the comments for you so that you
can start on your next steps plan. Yeah. And the author of the book I recommended is Dan Silverman
and he writes it with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. And Dr. Benjamin Hardy also wrote another book,
which ties into our conversation today called Be Your Future Self Now. And it's a beautiful
example for people to start stepping into who is your future self. Thank you so much for joining
me today, Allison. And to all of you listening in today, if I can leave you with a thought,
it's that the future isn't built in one day, but every day you do have the opportunity to take a
step towards that life that you envision. So until next time, bye now.