2348 - Staying Connected and Inspired in Challenging Times with Allie Jones

0:04Well, hey, Thoughtful Leader. Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. On this show, I interview purpose-driven founders, experts, and change makers who are making a real impact in the world. Want to be a guest? Simple. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click podcast. I'd love to promote your story to our audience of over 100 ,000 and across over 2 ,300 daily episodes and counting. Want to get booked on other great shows like this? Simple. Go to podverified.com and get your free guest authority score. Thousands of hosts are looking for high quality guests and Podverified connects you the right way. Now let's dive into today's episode.

0:58With us right now, it's Allie Jones. Ali, you are the founder of Illuminated Marketing and Ali Jones Consulting. Your website is alijonesconsulting.com. Ali, it's great to have you. Thanks for having me, Josh. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, so you're in Iowa. I'm down in Florida. It's great to connect. And Ali, before we start talking about your superpowers, the work that you do, who you serve, that sort of thing, I always love just finding out what high-level leaders do for fun. And I don't know if there's anything that you've been into lately that, that, uh, you know, that you could share, uh, that you've been geeking out on.

1:38So I'm a little bit behind the game, but lately my husband and I have been binge watching Severance and I'm obsessed. I can't stop thinking about it. I have, we have one episode left of season two and now I'm going to have to wait for season three, but it's so fascinating just all the different layers and complexity have you watched the show josh i have yeah so i won't tell you i won't spoil if you've got one episode left to go i won't spoil it um but yeah i've adam scott like i love i love all of the brit lauer or whatever her name is like i like i love the cast john jacoburro christopher walken Patricia Arquette.

2:26It's a really great cast. So I love the acting. And yeah, it's a weird journey. Yeah. But it definitely talks about, just has relevance in our work lives and how we approach that. It's really a fascinating, but bizarre story that I can't stop thinking about. So it's pretty fresh in your mind. What are some of the commentaries on work life that you'd be like, mm-hmm, yeah. And I'm kind of giving a spoiler here for what I love talking about. If someone's not seeing the show and you're going to see the show, skip ahead 30 seconds. Spoiler for what I'm going to talk about later in this episode. Not spoiler for Severance, so you don't need to plug your ears.

3:12But it's definitely an interesting commentary on how we relate to work. And the thought that work doesn't have to be a grind, but we often have this disconnected relationship to how we work. And it's so almost comical in how bizarre and meaningless their work is. They don't know why they're doing what they do. and that can often feel the case when we're not more connected into our career so I think that's really fascinating and just the need for human connection that rises above all the things that are happening within the layers and now I won't say anything else because I don't want to okay good good good good well Ali share a bit about your work with both illuminated marketing and of course.

4:06Now, of course, you do also individual coaching and consulting. That's right. Yeah. So and it starts, Josh, from a story, my own story of burnout. And so I used to be a third grade teacher, loved it, but got really burnt out in the first five years of my career. And it just felt like, man, this shouldn't be this way. I shouldn't be feeling so drained and feeling like I'm so depleted, even though it feels so purposeful, so meaningful. I just felt like I was a shell of a human outside of my work days and felt like I couldn't do enough. And so I, that job is way too important to do as a burned out professional.

4:51And so I stepped back and ended up kind of imagining what would I do if I could create a career that actually felt more life-giving to me. And so I started freelance writing and that turned into building a marketing, a boutique marketing agency. And we help our clients thrive and connect to their clients. We do a lot of service-based businesses, nonprofit organizations that are really trying to help get a message out. That's something they feel passionate about and want to help the world be a better place. And so as I was doing that, I stepped even more fully into something that was more life-giving to me.

5:37As business owners were working on their websites, we ended up having conversations about their business strategy and how their teams were growing and how to bring that external message into the internal workplace culture. And so I naturally was stepping into this role of consulting and business coaching and found that that was really life-giving to me and being able to help business owners, help entrepreneurs be able to live more aligned and help some other people make that same transition away from something that was feeling like it was causing burnout into something that's more fulfilling and joyful.

6:20And so I now am still running my marketing agency, have a team of amazing people doing that. And I'm stepping more into consulting and helping people thrive in work and life as a business and leader coach. I'm really excited to talk about alignment. Before we do, just simply because you do have a background in marketing, I'm wondering what you see working well in marketing today or asked another way. What do you see maybe a lot of founders, entrepreneurs doing? And you're like, yeah, that's no wonder it's hard. I really recommend you do X, Y, Z. And that usually can help clear the logjam. Anything that you've seen in the marketing and obviously the business attraction side of thing, which of course is tied to sales and revenue.

7:16Yeah. Thanks for setting up my soapbox so well, Josh. So I'll just step right up on that and say in the world. And I know several of the more recent episodes that you have out right now have been on AI. And in this changing landscape of AI, it's never been more important to be human in your marketing and your communication and personal connection. Actually, going to networking events is still the bread and butter of how I grow my business. and talking through podcasts is this human connection that we're really craving because we are starting to see content that feels very, you know, copy paste from chat GPT or, you know, piecemeal of this is we're doing the right things, but there's not the human connection behind it.

8:08And I think we want that in our brands. We want that in, in marketing as consumers and we can tell when it's not there. And so I would say that human first connection as, as the foundation for everything you do. And, and then I'm, I'm a huge believer in strategy first as business owners, we are so busy and it can feel like marketing is just one more thing. And so you kind of throw the spaghetti at the wall and then keep doing the other things and putting out the fires. But if you're not really thinking through, what is my goal? Who am I trying to connect with? How can I be thoughtful? You know, how can I be more thoughtful?

8:51And I know your listeners definitely lean into that already as thoughtful entrepreneurs. So bringing that into your marketing and not just kind of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Yeah. Yeah. So, Ali, your work in working with leaders and helping them find alignment, do you think that, I mean, is this kind of part of that same thing? Is it that we are missing human connection? I'm curious about this. You know, we now have access to so many tremendous AI tools and that fulfills a bit of need. But at the end of the day, I agree with you. I think we're wired for human connection. And if that's missing, I would just posit a guess that that might be a bit of a drag emotionally if we're not connecting and we're thinking just so much more transactionally about how we do what we do.

9:55Yeah, I think a lot of leaders, I just did a survey from my own audience and a lot of similar audience to yours of people that are more experienced in their business. And what are your top pain points? What is keeping you up at night? And the number one commonality was feeling stretched thin and overwhelmed. And I think that comes from just the nature of being an entrepreneur and being in leadership and the nature of change happening and coming at us. But for a lot of us is we want to move forward with intention. We want to be effective and figure out the right things to say yes to, which requires saying no to other things and figuring out really who am I and what am I here to do and what brings me joy and aligning our days and our priorities around that is what I think really is the conversations that, and the questions we need to be asking ourselves as leaders.

10:56Well, Ali, what is your work then? Like, how do you structure your engagement with your clients and what are those most common pain points that you hear and how do you help them overcome that? Yeah. So I really go into three concentric circles of leading yourself well, leading others well and then leading the work well. But one of my biggest services that I offer to my clients is I'm a certified working genius facilitator. And if you're not familiar with this framework, it's a newer one. It's developed by Patrick Lencioni and it's 20 % personality test, 80 % productivity tool, and I like to say 100 % game changer.

11:39It's a personality test that helps you lead yourself well first and understanding what areas of work bring me joy and fulfillment. There's naturally some areas, whether it's the brainstorming stage or the checking things off your to-do list stage, some of those are going to be naturally more bring you into that state of flow or that enjoyment. I would do this even if I didn't get paid. This is how I am wired and I love doing these aspects. And then there's other aspects that you'll find naturally draining or frustrating. And so understanding that about yourself is super helpful and brings so many insights into where you might have your own log jams and where you naturally gravitate towards in your work.

12:24But then to zoom out a bit, it has a huge impact in how you think about your teams because each of your employees, every person you're collaborating with has their own areas of genius and their own frustrations. And so understanding that can then bring small tweaks of alignment to be able to make joy feel a little less like the basement level of severance and something that's much more joy and to contrast it with another Adam Scott show, Parks and Rec, where he's doing what he loves and he's passionate about it and he's geeking out about it. And so I really want to help people move out of the basement of Severance and up into Pawnee, Indiana, whatever Indiana, wherever that means for you, if that metaphor makes sense.

13:16Your website is Allie Jones Consulting. You have some resources here that folks may appreciate, including just a bit about Working Genius, which is kind of cool. um yeah i i i i'm i'm very curious about this you actually have like a free working genius toolkit do you mind sharing a little bit about the gifts that you have to give yes so definitely check out allyjonesconsulting.com or you can go to workinggeniustoolkit.com it'll take you to the same um place of my website and so the working genius is an assessment you can take it that is created by the table group, Patrick Lincone's company who certified me.

14:01That test is just 25 bucks. You can go take that right now, but there's so much to unpack with that. And as a certified guide, I love, and a former third grade teacher, I love me a worksheet. I love me a reflective resource guide. So I put a ton of templates, reflective guides, ways to help you think through if these are my areas of genius, how can I maximize that? What ways am I causing guilt or judgment in my own work that I can let go of? How could I be utilizing AI better to help me work harder, not work smarter, not harder around my areas of frustration? So that is a free gift to anyone who wants to just utilize that working genius to the max and be able to implement that into their work and find more joy and fulfillment.

14:54I know for me, Allie, if I am working outside of my zone of genius, I'm miserable. I really am. Like I can do it short term if it needs to be done. And I think all entrepreneurs and founders can align with that. Like, yeah, I mean, that's just, you know, we put our big boy, big girl pants on and, you know, we do what we need to do. But I know that if I spend too much time doing what I'm not wired to do, I start to resent my work. And then I start thinking, wait a minute, why don't I just get a job then? You know, I didn't start a business, so I would do stuff that I hate. You know, I know for us, you know, we end up working with a lot of people that don't like sales development, you know, just trying to like attract clients because that feels yucky because they don't want to be hitting up people in the DMs and like selling at them.

15:44So it's like, Yes, I mean, the good news is you can always find values aligned ways to get that work done. So either it's delegated or you try a different approach that is values aligned. And it looks as though that's kind of a bit of your work as well in helping folks just stay in that place so that they can truly thrive with their impact. Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself. That's exactly, it's just a mindset shift in some ways or this lens that helps you decide, do I need to hire someone that has complementary geniuses? Do I need to delegate this? Am I in a completely different position?

16:29How could I pivot slightly and utilize those areas of genius so I don't resent my work, so I'm not feeling burnt out at the end of the day? Yeah. Your website, AllieJonesConsulting.com and IlluminateYourMarketing.com. All right. So calls to action. Where do people go from here if they want to connect with you? And you already mentioned some of the resources that they can grab. Yeah. So I offer, you know, specifically if the working genius is piquing your interest, definitely take a look at, you can find it on my resources page of AllieJonesConsulting.com. And then I'm so excited to unpack that with people, whether that's individuals or team context.

17:14I can come in, lead a workshop and then help a team really align around their geniuses in ways that are going to make them be able to feel that joy and fulfillment and actually get the work done better and faster. And so it's a win-win. Check that out. I love working with individuals and teams in that context and would be so excited to explore that with you. I love it. All right. Again, the website, AllieJonesConsulting.com and IlluminateYourMarketing.com. Allie, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much, Josh.

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