In this Hot Seat Coaching episode, Lori guides Alyson Williams through a series of coaching strategies designed to help midlife women business owners get clearer, more confident, and more visible. Alyson brings the same challenges so many entrepreneurs face – hesitation to be seen, uncertainty around messaging, and bouncing between systems – and Lori coaches her through practical, doable solutions.
During the session, Lori helps Alyson shift her website and social messaging from “all about me” to speaking directly to the symptoms her ideal clients actually feel. She also walks her through simple list-building ideas, using testimonials more strategically, and creating an easy lead magnet without tech overwhelm.
If you've ever struggled with what to say, how to say it, or how to show up consistently, this coaching session will give you clear takeaways and a behind-the-scenes look at how Lori helps business owners move forward with clarity and confidence.
In this episode, Lori coaches Alyson through:
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Shifting her messaging from “here's who I am” to speaking directly to the symptoms her audience actually feels
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Simplifying visibility and social media by focusing on clarity, not perfection
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Creating easy list-building tools like lead magnets and testimonial-driven content without tech overwhelm
Ready to get support for your own business messaging and visibility? Apply for Lori's hot seat coaching at MyCoachLori.com.
00:00 – Welcome to the Midlife Business Academy and Alyson’s intro
Lori Lyons: Hello and welcome to the Midlife Business Academy.
I'm your host, Lori Lyons, and I am so excited today because we have Allison Williams here from Power Your Life Coaching, and she is in the hot seat today.
So Allison, welcome to the show.
Alyson Williams: Thank you, Laurie.
I'm so grateful and humbled to be here being interviewed by you.
Thank you.
Lori Lyons: You're very welcome.
This is going to be fun because I think some of the things that we talked about prior to the call, I think a lot of our audience sees this.
So I think this is going to be a really good call.
I think our audience is going to learn a lot from what you do as well as some of the things holding you back from showing your true self to your clients.
So let's get started.
I want you to tell me first of all, what you do, and then we'll talk about who your ideal client is.
Alyson Williams: Sure.
So I'm primarily a mindset transformation coach.
I really believe that the only way to change our lives is to change our mindset, which is based on programming and conditioning from way back when.
So that's what I do with lots of modalities.
Lori Lyons: Very nice.
And yeah, we'll get into, because you do have quite a few modalities.
02:00 – Who Alyson serves: women over 40 and being their “champion”
Lori Lyons: So who is your ideal client?
If you close your eyes, who's your ideal client?
Alyson Williams: You know, when I first started coaching, I kind of wanted to save the world like everyone does, right?
But then I realized I really wanted to reach out to women about kind of my age, over 40, and women who would need someone to be their champion.
I was lucky I had that in my life, but I found there's so many women haven't had that.
And that's what I want to be for these ladies.
Lori Lyons: Define champion for me.
What does that mean?
Alyson Williams: A champion is someone who's there supporting you, they're helping you get your stuff together.
I kind of think of, you know, in the medieval times when you had the knights were kind of jousting and what have you, they had the ladies who were cheering them on and they were often the champion for the knights.
But then the knight also had his valet, I can't think of the word, but his valet, if you like, who was helping him with his uniform and his chain mail and his weapons and all that sort of stuff.
So for me, I kind of want to be that person or I am that person who will be there in the background for you.
I'll be there holding your hand.
And I say, I walk with you taking baby steps till you can fly by yourself.
So everything you need, I'm here for you till you can do it by yourself.
I'm about empowerment and having people to do things for themselves rather than depending on each other is absolutely what I'm all about.
Lori Lyons: Perfect.
Perfect.
So there's a big calling for you there to do that.
03:50 – Vision for the next 6 months: groups, speaking, and 1:1 work
Lori Lyons: So close your eyes again and let's look six months down the road.
Where do you see your business in six months?
Where do you want to go?
How do you want it to grow?
How do you want to expand?
Alyson Williams: This is a question that I've been asked lots of times, including of myself.
I really want to reach out to as many people as I can in a number of ways.
So I do group coaching.
I want to do that.
I'm really interested in speaking on stages.
I'd like to do that.
And now with Zoom and what have you, we can do that across the world.
So that's another thing I love to do.
And I love one-on-one work.
It really makes my heart full when I can see someone in front of me go through the various changes that they've been struggling with.
And I've lost count of the number of times I've been sitting here crying, either with someone as they've been going through their past and coming to terms with that, and also crying when they come out on the other side because it's tears of joy.
And just being part of that experience and their journey is such a privilege.
And it's such an honor.
And for someone to trust me with all their deep, dark secrets, which is often what comes out, it's just amazing.
I'm getting goosebumps as we even talk here.
It just, you know, that's what I was born to do.
Lori Lyons: So do you feel like you're there now or what's keeping you from being there?
05:00 – Being the “best-kept secret” and resistance to business systems
Alyson Williams: Well, you know, quite often people talk about being the best kept secret and I think that's very much where I am at the moment.
I love the soft skills of coaching and doing what I do, but the business side doesn't really turn me on as well.
I'm the little girl, or when we used to play Monopoly, I love the initial stuff.
But when we got to houses and mortgages, like, I'm out of here.
Unfortunately, that's kind of transferred into my business.
And so that's a mindset thing that I'm working on, let me tell you.
And that's also some strategies and also some guidance, which is what you very kindly offered me.
So that's really what I want to do so I can get over these things.
I have talked about self-sabotage because I think I'm going to do this and then something will happen and I'll get out of it.
So getting myself out there, I really need to start putting some structure in place, having some systems, automation.
Now, AI, there's no excuse not to do that.
So I'm really looking forward to embracing all those things that I've been running away from for one reason or another.
Lori Lyons: Okay.
Lots, lots in there.
Lots in there.
Alyson Williams: I do have a chocolate.
07:40 – Perfectionism, procrastination, and fear of visibility
Lori Lyons: So the first thing that I'm hearing is you're hesitant to put yourself out there and to be visible.
What do you think, and whether it's the processes or just the the vulnerability of doing that.
What do you think is the really the root cause?
Because you go into deep, deep stuff with your clients.
So let's go a little deep here.
When you're thinking about putting yourself out there and being visible, what comes up for you?
What are you feeling about that?
Alyson Williams: I, like many people, I'm a recovering perfectionist.
And one of my coaches says that procrastination is an elegant form of perfectionism.
And so those are two demons that I wrestle with a lot.
And so for me, that kind of wanting to put out there the best, whatever it might be, I think is often what holds me back.
And so, and given I'm someone who works with mindset, that is something that I work with myself too.
Lori Lyons: Yeah.
And it, we there's a there's the old saying that doctors can't heal themselves.
So it's very, I know myself doing my own marketing is very hard.
You should know this, this, but it's, so I totally, understand and empathize with where you're feeling about that.
What have you done in the past?
What have you done in the past to, because I know you've got some social media presence.
I'm seeing some, some fairly consistent social media postings.
How are you generating your content for your social media right now?
Alyson Williams: If I could just go to what you said earlier.
So I'm a firm believer that coaches need coaches and I have had a lot of coaches and I still am in a few coaching communities.
Now, part of the problem with that is that there's various different sort of systems out there.
And my, because I love to try everything.
I'm a lifelong learner and I love to sample whatever's out there because I kind of like the various tastes, so to speak.
Lori Lyons: Right, right.
Alyson Williams: So my problem has been that I haven't really chosen one system that I'm following.
Lori Lyons: Okay.
Alyson Williams: So that was the first part.
I'm not sure what.
So I do have a VA at the moment and that's the reason I'm consistently on social media.
You know, currently the sheep puts out all my posting and I find for whatever reason, when I try and do a video, often my technology isn't working properly.
That must be the universe that are trying to tell me something.
And on the other hand, I was trying to do like 50 million takes to do like a three minute video.
I also talk a lot, so having to kind of condense stuff is another challenge.
But you know, everything is just about, as the same in NLP, there's no such thing as failure, it's all feedback.
So those are some of the things that I really am looking to address.
Alyson Williams: Sure, And each time it gets better.
Lori Lyons: And Ali, they are very common, especially when we're in this midlife stage.
We feel like we have to look our best.
We're competing against those 30-year-old influencers with the perfect AI bodies and the no wrinkles and the body parts that are in the right places and all that, the gravity haven't.
So we are kind of feel like in our own head that we're competing against that.
So we have to feel like we're perfect.
I had a client recently who she was working on a video and She sent it to me and she said, I'm gonna have to redo this.
I said, Why?
And she said, Because I have a hair out of place.
I'm like, Oh, come on, really?
Nobody noticed that.
It's like, because she didn't wanna put it out there.
It wasn't that her hair was out of places that she didn't wanna put it out there.
And I get it 'cause I'm a talker as well.
I'm a teacher as well.
So I know you wanna…
You want to go into that teaching mode all of the time.
And sometimes to go into personal node behind teaching, it's hard to make that switch sometimes.
Because we got to teach, we got to teach, we got to teach.
So excuse me for a second.
We've also got allergies.
Alyson Williams: Something else we have in common.
Lori Lyons: It is, it is.
So, all right, so visibility.
So you said that it's very been difficult to stick to a process.
For right now, are you directing your VA and what she's posting?
And do you have a plan for it?
Or is she just kind of looking at some things that you're talking about or she's kind of pulling stuff out of the air?
10:45 – How her VA supports social media and where the gaps are
Alyson Williams: Funny.
First, I just want to say, I really don't care about looking like a 30-year-old anymore.
I'm giving that weight just quite.
Lori Lyons: I didn't look like a 30-year-old at 30, so.
Alyson Williams: Well, I'm lucky that people tell me that I look younger than I am.
So age to me isn't relevant at all.
I did have a mother who was very much about standards, and that's probably what gets in my way.
But for me, it's less about how I look, and it's more about, because I talk a lot, getting it to be succinct, I also tend to stutter.
So when I'm doing something that is I'd live, I am an arm.
That's what I don't like.
That's why I then do the editing.
So for me, it's less about how I look and more about what I'm saying.
So I just wanted to address that for all you ladies out there who are over 40, we're on the right side of 40 ladies.
We have so much experience, so much wisdom.
The world needs us, right?
Yes.
So I'm unashamedly 66.
Lori Lyons: There you go.
We got a lot in common.
Alyson Williams: So getting back to my VA, it's a bit hit and miss, I must admit.
Pretty much from the first time she started posting, she knew who I was.
She was in my head and in my heart.
I could not believe it.
This is a beautiful young lady from the Philippines whose English is her second language.
The only thing she does is she uses American spelling, which kind of is not who I am.
But other than that, she has got me to a T.
So for the most part, I've given her her head.
I'm very much someone who, as I say, talking about standards, I've gone the other way and been quite a control freak, OCD quite often.
However, she just knows who I am, so I give her her head.
Every now and then when I've been doing some kind of campaign, for want of a better word, and I use the word loosely, I've said, Madeleine, this is what I want to do and this is the order I want to do as well.
So as I said, it's a bit of a mix depending on what's happening.
In my business, or my direction in my business, but for the most part, she is just a wizard who does things by herself, right?
Lori Lyons: OK, so…
We're going to kind of wrap all this.
I'm asking some questions to lead to a certain direction.
We'll wrap all this up a little bit in a nice pretty bow at the end.
But I do want to go and address something because you had mentioned in your questionnaire about your website and to do a little bit of an audit.
You also wanted to do some list building strategies.
And right now they're kind of tied together.
12:40 – Lori’s website audit: “I, me, we” vs client-focused messaging
Lori Lyons: And you had indicated earlier that, you know, you felt your website was a little bit of a mess and I agreed.
So one of the things that I will say is when I looked at your website, and I don't know if this is something that you're addressing, it was very much about you.
Everything, every other word was I, me, we.
So in today's messaging, we want to talk primarily about our future clients and their problems and the solutions that we provide.
And I didn't see a lot of that upfront.
So I think from a messaging standpoint, which again, will carry over to your social media, if you can take a look from a very, 'cause you do a lot of things, you have a lot of different modalities, but ultimately it all boils down to you were looking at, you're primarily wanting to serve the women who had imposter syndrome.
I found that buried kind of in the about, And I'm like, okay, everything that you're doing points to imposter syndrome, because imposter syndrome can be a lot of different things.
It can be that perfectionism.
It can be, you know, the self-doubt.
It can be, you know, a lot of what you work with.
And let's wrap it up in that boat.
So when you look at imposter syndrome and you look at what are some of the symptoms of imposter syndrome?
16:00 – Imposter syndrome symptoms and self-sabotage at work
Alyson Williams: Every job I've had for my whole 40 years in the workforce was feeling like an imposter.
And a lot of that was feeling that either I was a fraud and I wasn't entitled to be where I was until I realized that, you know what, nobody knows a job till they go into it.
You've got to learn the job while you're in there.
Another thing is there was a time when I'd be afraid to take leave in case people found me out.
There are also aspects of where you don't want to put your hand up to do something that you know you can do in your sleep.
And then feeling resentful that someone else who's less capable is up there doing that, right?
So in a word, that's self-sabotage, you know?
Lori Lyons: Yep, yep.
Alyson Williams: Knocking myself out there because I was feeling that I wasn't good enough, yet seeing other people, and pardon me for saying this, often men who, you know, believe they can do stuff even when they can't, but ladies, think we can't even when we can, right?
So I saw that ever so often.
Lori Lyons: Okay.
Alyson Williams: So those are some of the most common aspects of imposter syndrome.
Plus, of course, as I was saying, the perfectionism and the procrastination that often go hand in hand.
You don't want to do it yet because you want to get it right.
So that is still something I have a little bit of a wrestle with, but for the most part, I'm okay.
Lori Lyons: So the bottom line for that, Allie, is you recognize it because that's you.
You recognize it because you have it.
We all have bits and pieces of it at different stages in our life.
So if you look at that from a messaging standpoint, you probably don't have clients that come to you to say, I have imposter syndrome.
Can you help me?
They probably come to you and say, I'm not confident in my job.
I feel like a fraud.
So those are the symptoms of imposter syndrome.
And when you have somebody that comes to you on your website or in your social media and you're talking about symptoms of the problem, not what the problem actually is, then people are going to see themselves in that symptom.
And then you put a name to it.
So I think from your website standpoint, if you can reverse some of that messaging and make it more symptom related instead of you related, Then when you go to your about page, that's when you can really highlight you.
And you do this in a way that still highlights and elevates your client.
Hey, you're, you know, I understand.
It's the old trite phrase.
We see it all the time now.
It's almost become a cliche.
I understand I've been there.
But it's really true, and this is how we bring our story and elevate our expertise into our clients' problems so that they know that they can help us.
Does that make sense from where I'm coming from?
Lori Lyons: It absolutely does.
Alyson Williams: And I think part of the problem is I haven't had enough input into my web design, because that's the kind of thing I do when I'm talking to people.
But it's not something that I've put into the website because I've kind of outsourced that in more ways than one.
Lori Lyons: Right, And it's very important because your website, you know, having owned a website design agency for years, I've always felt like the website is the basis of your marketing.
That can be the foundation that you build off of.
That'll hold your lead magnet.
You drive your social media to your website.
So if your website is a really functioning entity for you from a messaging standpoint, then people are going to get on there and go, oh, she gets me.
She gets me because she's talking about my symptoms of the problems that I have.
And oh, wow.
As educated and as an experienced as she is, she has it too?
Wow.
Then she's really going to be able to help me.
And that's how we can bring our messaging around to serving our clients.
So then if we take that and pull that, those symptoms, that can be the whole basis of your social media.
As you talk about the symptoms and you can actually make that into a framework that you can pull all those different pieces in.
Because what I find is most clients don't really care how you're going to help me.
They just want to know that you can.
So you bring all the different, you do hypnosis, you have, you have DISC.
I mean, you have a lot of different tools at your disposal.
I'm not looking for you as somebody who could help me with a DISC profile.
I'm looking at somebody that can help me overcome my procrastination because I'm an imposter syndrome and I procrastinate.
So if when we look at it from that standpoint, It kind of funnels everything else.
Alyson Williams: Yeah.
Lori Lyons: So any questions about that?
Does that make sense to you?
Do you see that?
Alyson Williams: Makes complete sense.
And part of, I think part of, because when I have had input, because I'm so much in my head all the time, thinking intellectually, rather than kind of, emotionally, that's kind of a thing has also been reflected where I haven't said, hey, you've designed this website, but it doesn't really talk to my clients.
So you have now given me so much gold in such a short time.
I just want to say thank you.
Lori Lyons: You're very welcome.
You're very welcome.
It's kind of what I do.
I mean, I love the messaging part of it and there's so much.
And as As much as I love to do it, I'm, we talked about doctor, doctors can't heal yourself.
Years ago when I was redoing my website, the first I put a website up when I started my agency and then I went back and redid it and I was going to have this really cool hip, like, you know, current.
And I had all of this really juicy, sexy content.
And, you know, I really put a lot of time into the content and my business coach, I went to him all very proud and said, look at my new website.
And he read it and he said, Lori, this is really great, but I have no idea what you do.
And I think we get caught up in that sexy, juicy content without really talking about just saying, sometimes it's just a matter, hey, I can help you.
I can help you with your self-confidence and how you present yourself to the world.
You know, that's a pretty simple way of explaining what you do.
Alyson Williams: I love that.
I think it's a Teddy Roosevelt saying that I'm going to butcher.
So please forgive me, Mr.
Roosevelt up there.
There's something like people don't really care what you know till they get till you can show them how much you care, right?
Lori Lyons: Yeah, they care about how you make them feel.
I think it's something it's a little bit of combination of all of that.
Yes.
Alyson Williams: Yeah, I would think of that with Maya Angelou, but you're right.
Lori Lyons: Yes, there you go.
I knew it was, we were, you know, we'll get between the two of us, we'll get the quote right.
Yeah, so it's, you know, your clients,
Especially in today's world, they want to feel understood.
They want to be seen.
They want to be, they want you to know that you get them.
And by recognizing, and I just, I talk about it all the time, the gold for us, the gold for our businesses, the goal for helping our clients, the goal for being successful is talking and identifying the symptoms of what we serve and how we serve, and then working on those symptoms.
Because I think we get so caught up in the, in the modalities and the names that we forget that it's just sometimes it's just the simple, the simple language that can help us.
So once you've done that, then that gives you a good framework that you can start applying that to your social media, which in a sense makes that a lot easier for you because you can do that in a number of different ways.
If you're hesitant about visibility and putting yourself out there, then you can put your clients out there.
I did notice that you have some really nice testimonials on your website.
Those would be great quotes for your social media because they're highlighting and elevating you and your expertise.
And one of the things I've talked about a lot recently is getting clients without saying a word.
It's your social proof that can really speak volumes for you.
And what I'm seeing right now on your website is it's very hidden.
It's on a page.
You have to go find them.
So I would say help elevate those, promote them in your social media, use a quote on your e-mail signature.
And then, you had talked about some lead magnets.
Let's do some list building, how to build my list.
It all flows into that lead magnet.
It all flows into that lead magnet.
20:10 – Self-love as the foundation and how it ties to imposter syndrome
Lori Lyons: So it's all, I call it digital flow.
It's all, you can see, if you're on the podcast, I'm making the infinity symbol.
So it, because it all kind of flows in together, you know, you have.
You have content flowing into your website in the form of collecting your lead magnet, your emails, addresses, your social media.
You want to send them back to your website so that you can send them to your lead magnet to collect your e-mail addresses.
So then you can talk to them one-to-one because e-mail is still the best way to talk to them one-to-one.
So it all works together.
So if you think about, if you're looking at it from a symptom standpoint, Let's talk a little bit about a lead magnet, what you can do for a lead magnet.
Because honestly, there are probably not that many people that are over 40 that haven't done a DISC assessment.
So highlighting and sending a DISC assessment is not going to be a great lead magnet.
It's great that you have that as a tool if you have to catch someone out there who has never done one.
But so if you think about the symptoms of what you serve, and you think about the clients that you've helped, what are some of the biggest problems that you see overall as a generic statement about them?
Because that's where we're going to find your lead magnet.
Alyson Williams: While I do, just as some context, while I do look at imposter syndrome very much so, I really am about self-love.
I believe self-love is the key to all our success in life, personal and business.
And as a result of that, you're dealing with imposter syndrome becomes much better.
So my focus with most of what I do is self-love.
And as I say, imposter syndrome kind of hangs off that.
So the self-love bit is really, as I say, it's women who haven't really, they kind of in their head think that they're worthy, but they don't feel it in their heart.
And even if they say it out loud, they don't kind of feel it energetically or emotionally.
And so those are the women who sort of come to me and those are the women, as I say, I champion, because together we peel back all the layers of crud that the world has put upon them and we come to the jewel in the middle.
So they basically say, I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, I don't deserve.
It's all of those, and I'm getting goosebumps to them, it's all of those messages that I hear all the time.
Lori Lyons: So would you say that imposter syndrome is a symptom of lack of self-love?
Or is lack of self-love, self-love, a symptom of imposter syndrome?
Because I see them as intertwined.
Alyson Williams: They definitely are.
It's a bit hard to sort of, it's a little bit chicken and egg, I guess, right?
Lori Lyons: Yeah.
Alyson Williams: But for me, though, my own lived experience and through my clients, I find that really self-love is the cornerstone or the foundation of everything because, and even for someone like me who had a really great sort of foundation in self-belief and all that when I was growing up, there's still that, as you say, our DNA is we're programmed to not feel good enough and I don't want to go into that, but there is some science as to why we behave like that.
So even Maya Angelou and Albert Einstein had imposter syndrome.
High achievers generally have imposter syndrome because they have that perfectionist kind of ideal.
So.
You're right, it does go hand in hand, but I do feel if you've got a really strong foundation in the self-love, it's easier to address the imposter syndrome.
Whereas if you're experiencing the imposter syndrome and you haven't really had any kind of self-love kind of…
I can't think of the word, right?
Any sort of self-love.
I don't like the word validation because I think validation comes from being.
But if you haven't had anybody outside of you tell you you're great, it's really hard for you to believe that you're great.
Does that make sense?
Lori Lyons: Yes.
And I'm thinking here, how can we quantify self-love?
Because some of your best lead magnets, quantify it in some way, either through a checklist, because people love checklists, they like little quizzes, and those are typical lead magnets that will get good responses from your ideal client and still give them something that they will learn about themselves and say, oh, I need to work with Allison because she gets me.
So if we're taking self-love and we look at, if we, Could you identify, let's say, 10 characteristics, or maybe characteristics, 10 ways that you can show self-love?
Is that something that's quantifiable?
Alyson Williams: I don't know if it's quantifiable, but it's because I've actually got some ebooks on that.
Even if it's not quantifiable, because the first step of change is awareness.
So once we start seeing that, OK, I have this or I don't have that, et cetera, then that's if you like quantifiable.
The next step is OK, I don't have that.
What can I do about it?
So I do have some strategies as to how we can fit that.
And I just want to share that here, if I may.
The easiest thing that anybody can do right here and now is mind your language.
The way we speak, we do that without thinking.
Me included, don't get me wrong, indicated where I stopped.
One of the things I used to say to myself was, oh, you idiot, when I made a mistake.
And I go, no, then I stop and go, I'm not indeed, I just made a mistake.
So those little things we do and say without realizing, Some really self-aware people, one of the ladies I was talking to the other day, she said, I've got to do all this before I go because I'm going to Melbourne and my husband's not here, la la la.
And I said, well, if you don't mind, maybe look at, instead of saying I've got to, I get to because I'm excited to go.
Or I'm choosing to do this because I can't wait to get ready to go and join my husband.
So those little things and those shame blame words is what I call them, the should, I must, I need all of those words.
Get them out of your vocabulary.
And my biggest peeb is overwhelm.
For goodness sake, people, get rid of the word overwhelm from your vocabulary.
As soon as you say overwhelm, your body feels it and you feel it.
And I'm going on my soapbox, so I'll just back off now.
27:30 – Language shifts: from “I’ve got to” to “I get to”
Lori Lyons: You know what?
You just listed five or six things that you could put on a lead magnet on how to overcome
how to overcome your self-talk that leads to self-love.
So what are the 10?
And I use 10 because it's a good, it's a good number.
It feels like people are getting something with 10.
If you only did five, it'd be like, oh, I just got five.
It's like, whoa, I'm overwhelmed.
Yeah, that's way too much.
But 10 is, I can do 10.
So the top 10 ways that you can empower your
top 10 ways to highlight your best self to your mind.
I mean, we can play with some language around that, but I'm seeing like a list of 10 things.
And some of them you just gave me, it's all in one place.
And I can look at it and go, oh, that will help me feel better.
I never really thought about saying I get to versus I've got to.
I say that all the time.
I never realized that was sabotaging some of the way I was feeling or really, or you could also put it into, I know you do some meditation.
There's some, you know, you could do a guided meditation as a lead magnet that you can do a video or an audio
that works, you know, talks with people around their self-love.
Let me do a guided, a three to four minute guided meditation, for lack of a better word.
You're going to walk me through some of the things that I do that I can listen to every morning for 10 days.
And how do I, how much better that's going to make me feel?
Because you've got a great accent.
I'd listen to you every morning.
So that's, you know, that's another thing.
What would people find valuable that they can get a sense of who you are and how you can serve them that will give them they'll say, Hey, I'll give you my e-mail address for this because I find it valuable and I want to know more about you because the way I look at e-mail, it's a way for for me to get to know more about you.
as a coach, as a person, as I want to learn more from you.
I want to maybe work with you at some point.
So there's, it's a way to get to know you a little bit in a very non-threatening way.
And at some point, you're going to hit upon something with them that's going to resonate with them.
You know, this is, oh, I need that today.
How did she know that I was struggling with this today?
Let me call her.
So is that kind of clearing some things up, helping, making sense for you?
29:40 – Lead magnet ideas: self-love checklist and guided meditation
Alyson Williams: That's beautiful.
It's just made me realize I really love collaborating with people because when we do this kind of, you know, helping each other and the brainstorming, it's amazing the magnificent results we get.
So that is beautiful and brilliant.
Thank you.
Lori Lyons: Yeah, you're very welcome.
It's sometimes we think that these lead magnets have to be these extravagant, you know, 400 page e-books, which nobody will read.
It's just too much.
especially in today's fast-paced world.
But if you give me a three-minute guided meditation that I can download and listen to on my phone, gold.
And that's easy for you to do.
That's something that doesn't take a lot of technology or process or system or anything like that.
And you can put it right there.
You know, you've got the, it looked like you had an e-mail system set up so you can deliver it that way.
What I saw on your resources, I clicked on the resources and it asked for my name and my e-mail address.
So I'm assuming you have that system set up.
Alyson Williams: I must look into it again because that was what I've been thinking.
I've actually been thinking that for a long time how I would love to put up some meditations or even my newer eBooks rather than my old stuff.
And I must admit, that's probably as far as I've got because, oh my goodness, what do I do with my next steps?
And I really must engage with my website designer.
33:10 – Using simple tech, Zoom, and ChatGPT without overwhelm
Lori Lyons: Yeah, yeah.
And let's go a little bit in the direction of AI.
Are you using ChatGPT or Gemini or any of that at all?
Alyson Williams: ChatGPT is my friend.
Lori Lyons: Okay, your friend.
I know, I know.
Isn't it wonderful?
So how are you currently using ChatGPT?
Alyson Williams: Well, I love Chativity because it gives me images that I don't have to worry about, you know, whether there's a license or not.
So that's one thing.
I also, as I love writing, writing is one of my superpowers, but I find that white, that blank page can be a real, you know, can stop me in my tracks.
So what I do is I do a very bit of a brain dump on paper and sometimes it's all jumbled and in the old days without chat to manage it.
But now I then put that into chat to you, and I say, you know, make this a scene.
Give it to me in like 10 points, or whatever it might be.
So I use it as an editing, and not so much a proofing, but maybe an energy, and also a brainstorming.
Lori Lyons: Yes, yes.
We're very similar, Ali, because I'm the same way.
I love to collaborate with it.
My ADHD brain goes in 75 different directions, and I have all of these ideas, but I don't know how to begin them.
But once I get a beginning and then I can go in and make it my own.
So if you're already using ChatGPT, one of the things I would suggest to continue and to take it to that next level is you had mentioned that you're having trouble, you know, you system jump.
You can, one of the things you can do is ask ChatGPT, I don't know if you know this, what is the best system to produce this or to deliver this to my clients?
And it will give you some ideas of different ways.
Because I think that's one of the things that we see, that I see a lot with my clients of our age, is we're impatient.
And we, this didn't work the first time, so I'm going to jump to this one.
So I'm going to jump to this one.
So I'm going to jump to this one.
And sometimes we just got to let it work.
So if you're doing a lot of system jumping, you're not doing yourself any favors by not staying with something and at least giving it a good six months to work.
And it also gets really overwhelming if you're, if you're trying, and I'm not trying to say that in a negative, but it is a negative because it does get overwhelming when you're changing, when you're changing systems.
So that might be something helpful for you is to ask it.
Take it the next step and ask it what's…
Alyson Williams: I have done that in the past, I must admit.
There was something silly like, you know, voice, like a voice app or something.
And I actually was hoping chat, I think that she was, I wanted it to give me the meditation in audio.
And it then gave me 17 different apps I could go to.
And then I thought, this is just too hard.
And so I left that rather than follow it through, like let me find the best voice app that could, that I could put my meditation on and then put that up as a lead magnet.
So that was a really good time.
Lori Lyons: And you know, and I like Zoom.
I mean, you and I had, we had a little back and forth because I was gonna do my,
started doing my podcast interviews on StreamYard.
And I didn't like the way it was looking.
I've just, you know, the purist will tell you Zoom isn't the best place, but I like that I can get an audio feed and I can get a video feed and I don't have to touch it.
It's pretty true.
And, you know, I'm not filming War and Peace.
I'm not too worried if the resolution is not, you know, 500,000 or, you know, whatever they call it.
So, so I just make it simple.
And if that will make it, you know, how can you simplify it?
Because if it gets too complicated, then we don't want to do it.
So if we can simplify it and get our voice out there, because in talking with you today, there's so much to you and you're so personable.
And that too, you're doing us a disservice by not putting yourself out there.
Alyson Williams: I don't know that because my clients do tell me that.
So I am well aware of that.
And it is just getting out of my own way.
Because funnily enough, I realized that a penny dropped the other day when I was, I had recorded a Zoom meeting or something.
And then I saw the audio and I thought, gee, girl, you could use that audio without needing to, use the video if you don't want it.
So I am a bit of a slow learner sometimes, but I'm still open to learning.
And so you have now, and repetition, I love repetition.
So you have now just repeated, you know, the kind of aha moment I had the other day.
So thank you for that yet again.
37:30 – Alyson’s biggest ahas and next steps
Lori Lyons: Good.
that was going to be my next question.
What is the biggest aha that came out of our session?
So I think you've already answered that unless you want to expound on it a little bit.
Alyson Williams: Well, there are so many.
I'm so, normally I'd be taking notes seriously, but I'm so glad you told me ahead of time you'd be giving me the notes so I could be fully present just talking to you.
So there are so many to be honest, Laurie.
You know, just to say one wouldn't do justice and service to the value I've got from you this morning.
Lori Lyons: Good.
Alyson Williams: So this is the last one that will stick in my mind, of course, but there are so many others.
I can't wait to get the notes and go back and go, yes, and now I'm going to make a to-do list.
I used to be the queen of lists and I've kind of left that behind.
So that's something to do.
39:30 – Wrap-up and how to apply for a hot seat with Lori
Lori Lyons: Good.
Well, this was a fun one and I very much appreciate you coming on and stepping into the hot seat.
It really was not that much of a hot seat because you were just like so open to it that we didn't get too hot, but.
Alyson Williams: Bring it on.
Lori Lyons: There you go.
There you go.
So I want to thank you for joining us today on the Midlife Business Academy.
Our guest has been Allison Williams and all of her information and her contact information will be on the show notes.
And yes, we will still put her website address on the show notes so you can watch the progress of that.
But I want to thank you for being here.
And remember, it's never too late to build the business of your dreams.
We'll see you next time on the Midlife.