Take a Breath: How Slowing Down Can Accelerate Your Success in 2025

Curt Anderson  00:02

Damon. Damon, Damon, what is up, dude? Curt, we

Damon Pistulka  00:06

are starting the year off right with our good friend, Allison. I’m excited, my

Curt Anderson  00:10

goodness, Grace. I wouldn’t expect I’m I just wouldn’t want to kick off the new year any other way than with the one, the only our sister from another mister, as we’d like to say, Allison DeFord, co founder and extraordinaire at Felt Marketing. Allison, how are you?

Allison DeFord  00:28

I am on fire. I’m on fire. Whoo,

Curt Anderson  00:36

it’s well, you know, you know that song, baby, it’s cold outside. Well, it’s cold where I’m at, man, so we could use some heat. So Allison, let’s just kick it off. So first off, little background on you. So 30 year marketer, you are a fierce, fierce advocate for US manufacturers, just doing wonderful work. We’ve done tons of your branding guru done tons of marketing. You and I have done tons of webinars together. We’ve worked at the MEPs together, and so just give a little bit on your background. Who is Allison  DeFord, how are you making the world a better place?

Allison DeFord  01:12

Whoo, that’s a loaded question. Uh, well, I truly love manufacturers, and I love their stories, and that’s what compels me to do this, is there’s always a rich history and a story, whether or not the person’s been in business for five years or 50 or 100, and I see the Good that they’re doing in the world by supporting a team, a community, people in the US and globally, and that matters to me and and that’s something I can get behind. So, yeah, we’re in the business of helping manufacturers connect with their ideal customer and with heart. So that’s the difference with the kind of marketing that we do. It’s marketing with heart and and really helping them strengthen their their foundation. Because I think that’s what’s happening, is a lot of times manufacturers are you know, they want to go out and market. Those are all tactics. So whenever I work with somebody, we come back and say, before we rush out and jump into the tactics, let’s take a look at the foundation. And nine and a half times out of 10, it needs some shoring up some strengthening so that’s our real gift, is helping them do that so they can tell their story in a better, more compelling way and and give them the language to to really clue people in on why they would want to choose them. Why should they trust them? Why would they want to get to know them ahead of time? It makes sales easier, which is the whole point of everything, right?

Curt Anderson  03:09

Absolutely. Okay, so now, Damon, I don’t know if you know this, there’s like, there’s a number of us that are vying, I want to say fighting, because I don’t like to use that word fighting, but we’re vying to be president of the Allison DeFord fan club, if you will. There is a whole list of us, you know. So first off is our dear How about raise a guy? He’s here,

Allison DeFord  03:29

mustache and manufacture,

Curt Anderson  03:31

right there. So we got raise a guy on the house and how? Hey, how about this person is very close to our heart. Val is in the house. Start a New Year. So Val, Happy New Year to you. And hey, Damon, we got our different trees here today. Sri, what a pleasant surprise to see. She says it’s cold here in Houston, and we’ve got some Hey, drop a note. Let us know who you’re expecting. Many mic drop moments. So Allison, let’s not disappoint, because this person says three of my favorite peeps. And right back at you. Happy New Year to everybody. We’re kicking off the new year with the one, the only Allison DeFord, Felt Marketing and Allison what we’re gonna we’ve got a great topic we’re gonna dive into. But again, I love what you’re saying is, and when you just and share this story, I know we hear it when you come on, when you leave, when you named your company, felt right, really, because, like, when you think manufacturers, it’s like, down, it’s dirty, it’s greasy, you know? But the thing is, it’s, it’s people do business with. People talk a little bit about, why is it so important to have to be felt, and why you’ve like, you eat, drink, breathe and sleep this, this is your war cry. Why Felt Marketing is so important.

Allison DeFord  04:37

Well, thank you for asking, um, when we came up with the name, the idea was, you know, everybody wants their brand to be seen and heard, right? We all want attention. We all want to be noticed and liked and purchased from. We want to be everybody, you know, our RP. Favorite company, and we were in the process of renaming, and we said, but you know what, the most beloved and successful brands are felt they’re they’re connected to the heart of the customer. And my old creative partner at the time, and I looked at each other when we it was like, holy shit. Like, that’s, that’s the name. So that’s the whole point. Is that there’s more to it than just being seen, just being heard, but if you’re felt, you are connected on an emotional level. And that is how people make decisions, buying decisions, I think it’s 90% of the time. So what we realized is that so many manufacturers, for years had been focusing on rational features and benefits left brain, the side of the brain that is not making the buying decision. So we thought, This doesn’t make sense, like everybody’s working really hard and they’re tapping into the wrong side of the brain. So we really started doing a lot of research on science and chemistry and psychology, and I talked a lot in the beginning about leading with heart, and I got poo pooed. It’s like, no one’s going to no one’s going to like that. That’s dumb, that’s too soft. And I said that may be, but I don’t think so. I think it’s a real strength, and it’s also who I am, and as the leader of the company, I just kept having this intuition that that was right, and so that’s why with wt, MFG, which is the newsletter that I put out every two weeks, it’s the only marketing newsletter with heart, and that felt really scary to put that word and to put that out there. And what I’ve learned is that if something scares me, that’s the right way to go.

Curt Anderson  07:16

If something scares you, say, alright, so that hey, that that quote came from our buddy Ron Hickman. Ron, Happy New Year to you. It’s great to have you guys here. Hey, everybody out there, drop us a note. Let us know you’re here. We’ve got Allison afford if you have questions, she has answers, drop em in the chat box. I couldn’t love that more. And as a matter of fact, you stole the you stole the words right out of my mouth I was going to say, if you are looking for the best, and I’m not just saying this the best newsletter in the business, please. I beg you, I implore you, I welcome you, invite you. Sign up for Allison’s newsletter. Go to her LinkedIn. Go to her website. Sign up for her newsletter. Comes out every two Sunday, every other Sunday. I look forward to it. Is fun. Now here’s the only caveat, do not have a drink in Don’t be drinking while you’re reading her newsletter. If you’re drinking coffee, soda, water, whatever you’re drinking may end up on your keyboard, because it’s the funniest newsletter you’re going to read. And I and I so I make sure that I never have my drink nearby when I’m reading your newsletter. Allison, it is brilliant. It is funny. I’m not just saying it because you’re here. It is I’m telling you, please sign up for her newsletter. You will thank us later. Okay, yeah, I got so much to talk to you about, and we got a big topic. Mike Jack, number one, it’s, if it’s scary, it’s the right thing to do. Ray, I agree with you, brother.

Allison DeFord  08:39

I know we’ve done scary things together. So you definitely done

Curt Anderson  08:42

some scary things together, starting a podcast in the middle of not even COVID, you know, first month of COVID, and all sorts of wild, crazy things that that you’ve done, all right, our hot topic today is like, Hey, how can you just, you know, I know we did a little different topic. I did G rate it a little bit. How do you slow the heck down? Or, aka, how do we take a pause? How do we take a breath to, like, speed up and fast forward any let’s, let’s go there. And I want to say this, what’s fascinating, it’s beginning of January right now. So whatever, whatever time you’re catching this, if it’s like June 1, we don’t feel like a sense of urgency, like, hey, I need to reinvent myself. If it’s August 1, it’s not like we’re reinventing it. But when it’s January 1, it’s a new year. It can be a new me. It’s a new us. We can start new talk to us about, how can we take a pause to really go out and crush 2025

Allison DeFord  09:36

Well, I’ll tell you, in December, I spoke with several clients and people and friends, and every person was saying the same thing, how can it be December? Where did this year go? Wasn’t it just January like and one of my clients said, I. Swear to God, it was just march. He recounted what he was doing and the thing he was meeting about, and he said, I feel like I looked up and it was December, and he goes, I don’t know how this is possible. And I said, I do. And he got really quiet, and I said, You never stop. I said, you are always running around with your hair on fire, and you don’t stop to take a breath, do you? And he got really quiet, and he’s like, No, you’re exactly right. And it made me think. And I thought, Okay, this is a hot topic. This is an important topic, not hotter trendy. I don’t want to say that. It’s very important. I have experienced this myself. And I used to be running with my hair on fire, running with scissors, you know, especially back when my girls were young, and I looked back and I I made lots of mistakes with my business, with clients, with my kids, because I was not in control of my time, because I didn’t understand the value of slowing down to speed up. I thought, Oh, my God. You know, if I take time off, my business is going to go to hell in a hand basket. If I go on vacation, I gotta take my laptop, and I gotta be, you know, tuned in. I gotta be looking at social media. I gotta be I felt like I always had to be on and I have learned some massive life lessons by doing the opposite. So I thought this is too many people are saying the same thing. So what I wanted to share today are four things that you can do this year, and I’m going to give you very specific examples and tools that you can use to slow the F down. I didn’t say that, yeah, speed up your results in 2025 and again, if you’re listening to this and it’s June, this applies to you as well, because you probably didn’t slow down in January. And you you and I want to know too. If anybody on the live today can relate, like, leave a thumbs up. If this is something that you have felt or were feeling in December, like, God, where did this year go? And you know how it is, the older we get, the faster it goes, which is true. Yeah. I’m not sure we can change that, but I know we can change our results by doing these things that we’re going to talk about today. I’m living proof. You’re living

Curt Anderson  13:08

proof. Damon, thoughts so far, what do you do? I’m on the edge of my seat, but what do you I’ve I’ve

Damon Pistulka  13:14

always and I think it’s because of age more than anything. The years go by faster, you know, and that’s just a normal thing. But yeah, the thing that I really learned in 2024 is that you have to take these times to pause. And sometimes it’s sometimes it is a vacation. But the other thing that I found so so so valuable in 2024 is just shutting off for a few hours, shutting off for an hour and completely letting yourself just something else, whether it’s a hobby, whether it’s nature, whether it’s kids doing something, watching sports, you know, but these pauses just let our mind go, because our minds aren’t made to be in this high rev situation All day long, and we will just wake up and wonder, you know, because you go off. The other thing that happens too, if you’re doing that, is you go off course and don’t even realize it. And you can course correct when you take the time to reflect, but good stuff. Alright, so

Curt Anderson  14:15

let’s dive in. We everybody get your get your typing fingers, your pens, however you get your phones out, however you’re documenting this, because I pure gold. More mic drops are on the way. Allison, let’s go.

Allison DeFord  14:29

Alright, ready?

Curt Anderson  14:31

Everybody take a deep breath. You stretch every stretch out real quick. Right? Hit the hamstrings, right. Stretch out.

Allison DeFord  14:38

Okay. So what Damon said is perfect segue, of course, is mind? Your mind paying attention to mindfulness? And I want to say this as a caveat. I know people mindfulness is a more hot topic today than it was. I don’t 20 years ago. Maybe. Mm. Hmm. And I think some people hear that word and they think, mindfulness, right? Like, woo, woo. I That’s not me. That’s not going to work for me. And they tune out, okay? I want you to think about this in a different way, like Damon said, it’s, it’s simply about resetting your mind, that’s all it is. So flip the script, as I always say, if mindfulness that word feels uneasy for you or doesn’t work for you, change the word the point is taking even 60 seconds, I have found is incredibly powerful to and there’s an app that I love. It’s called Headspace. If you don’t already use it, do yourself a favor and download. And I’ve been using it for years, and it just keeps getting better and better and better, and every single day, sometimes in the middle of the day, it can be in between a meeting, I turn on the app, and at the top it’s five meaningful breaths. And you think, what’s that going to do? Right? I tell you what it takes 60 seconds, because you take the deep breath, hold it, and then release. And you don’t just go. You go, and I swear to you, after five of these, this simple thing, five breaths, you feel different, you feel recharged, you feel in control of your day and your time. So that’s the first thing is, I want to encourage you to to do that, even if it’s one minute, right? The second thing I’m going to suggest is meditation. So this, this whole there’s a lot more coming, so don’t tune out and think she’s already talking about meditation. Again, I can’t calm my monkey brain down. I have so many people to say that I can’t do it. I’m here to tell you. I used to think all these same things. Again, I would try to do it by myself, and I struggled because I thought I had to be thinking about something. And the whole point of meditation is to stop thinking. So I struggled, because I was thinking about how my jeans felt tight around my waist at that moment. And I I really, I’ve been wanting to lose weight, and then I was thinking about a grocery list, and then I was thinking about a client meeting, and then I was thinking about that thing that I was talking to my kids about yesterday, and I would go, Oh, my God, I’m thinking, why can’t I not stop thinking? So I got this headspace app, and I can tell you my goal was to put in 1000 minutes of time. And I did it. I meditated every single day. I think it was two or three years, and I’m still not great at it. That’s, that’s the thing to understand, is that it’s a practice, and it takes your whole life. But the point, the benefit, is to slow down. And what helped me with headspace is that I just needed that little voice, and he’s just reminding you, you know what to do, little cues. And at the end, he goes, Okay, just let your mind wander. Think whatever you want to think. And it is the craziest thing at that moment during the meditation, whether it’s five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, that’s the moment that he gives you permission, and I actually stopped thinking. So I just want to encourage you guys to consider giving this a try, and even if the meditation seems weird to you or you, you know you’re like, I don’t know. I don’t I don’t think I’m ready for that try. The 60 seconds of breathing, five deep breaths. That’s it. And I will give you a super relevant example. And I want to see if any of you can relate to this, who are, who are on today, who are listening. I used to when my my kids were young, I would get them to school. Yeah, and you know, you’re wrangling, they’re seven years apart. I did that on purpose, so I had, you know, one that’s it’s in, let’s say, junior high, and one that’s in lower elementary huge difference, different things going on. I would drive 10 miles to work, to my office, and I felt like my hair was on fire, and I would turn off the car, grab my briefcase, my purse, my coffee, because I can’t live without the coffee, and run inside. And it was like, I’m telling him about my morning. And I’m like, you know, I can’t even breathe, and I, I’m, I’m preparing for the first meeting, and it was not a way to run a business. It was not a way to start my day. It was not a way to be a leader. It was not a way to guide manufacturers to their hero state. So once I learned all this stuff, and I at this point, I pretty much have a self appointed PhD in self help, I would get to work, I would sit in the parking lot and give myself 60 seconds turn the car off. No radio, don’t check social media. Take five deep breaths, and I would set an intention for the day. I am going to go in this building. I am going to be a great listener. I am going to show up and be present, and I am going to serve my ass off to be of great service to my team and to my clients, and I’m going to really pay attention to the person sitting across from me, whether it’s in a zoom or a desk, and then I would take some deep breaths, and then I would go inside. What a difference. What a difference to take control of my day, of my company, of how I showed up. So that’s the power of mindfulness in and of really just slowing down, is you’ll change your entire day, which ends up affecting your entire life. So that’s number one.

Curt Anderson  22:36

Okay, let’s take a moment of silence, right there. Yeah, yeah. Lots of digest. So, alright, hey, couple comments here. Allison, so Dana, Nat goosey is in the house. Yeah, mom’s like being a sports official. Lol, my three Ps, patience prevents pain, and then own your pain and then find something to get you back on track when overwhelmed, like having a root beer in your car. Soon to be in my new book. Matt, love it, man. Happy New Year, dude. Thank you for dropping a comment. Keep them coming. And Damon John baglino is in the house today. On John was here. So hey, Happy New Year to you, John. You’re a wonderful, beautiful family. So thank you for joining us. We’ve got Allison Deford here we are diving into how do you take a pause just it’s such that wild rat race hair on fire that, look what happened to me. I’m like, a perfect example, when your hair’s on fire, Allison, look what happens. Nobody wants to look like this. So just, if nothing else, just, you know, just keep that in mind. Don’t look like Curt, right? Allison, let’s dive into what’s the next. What is next? The

Allison DeFord  23:38

second thing that I want to encourage everybody to try. Is something that my super friends and I created 13 years ago now. We worked with the same business coach, and we did a number of things with this man, retreats, mastermind groups, one on one, coaching and four of us at the time decided that we wanted to keep this going on our own. So now there are three of us. I still we still have one extended super friend, which I’m going to reference here in a little bit. But the three of us have been meeting every week, every single week, barring illness or tragedy, for 13 years, and the one thing that we’ve implemented that I used to resist, and I thought, How am I going to find time for this? Like, really self doubter poo pooed it weekly check ins and you’re going to go, Okay, well, what does that mean? So every Sunday, sometimes Mondays, I. We each take time to record, and we do this in a I do it in a Google Doc. So then I have this like archive, wins, losses, ahas and fixes, and I’ll say that again, wins, losses, ahas and fixes. And what we record is we think about the week that just passed. This is a way that I have now learned, because I have been practicing this for a very long time, even after resisting it in the beginning, I thought, I don’t have 30 minutes on Sunday because I’m a busy mom and business owner and at the time wife, I don’t have time to take 30 minutes and think about The week before and plan my week coming up. Guess what? This is the first thing I look forward to every Sunday morning. It’s always it’s almost like become my church right this time of self reflection, of gratitude, of just thinking about all the stuff that just happened this last week. It’s a way for you to slow down your year, by slowing down your week, to just sit and think about all the great stuff that happened last week, or what was a loss, you know. And really sit with that, like this really shitty thing happened, you know, and not like Boo hoo, but really take a look at it. It happened for a reason. It happened for your benefit. What are you going to do with that? And then the fixes are directly related to the losses. So if you had a loss, what could be a fix? This has become paramount for the three of us. Like, I can’t tell you, I literally could write a book, and I’m actually going to start. I started one book on the marketing side, which I’m excited about. I’m also going to be starting my Confessions of a professional mom book. After 10 years of people prodding me, why aren’t you doing this? I was afraid. I’ll just be honest. So now I’m not afraid anymore, and I’m going to I’m going to do it, and I literally am taking cues from all these updates, from these ahas that I’ve learned over 13 years. The cool thing about archiving it is that you can go back and you can take a look, where was I at this time last year? What was great, what sucked? What was I wanting to learn and get better at? And it’s really cool. I looked back at 2023, this month, and I thought, huh, there were a couple things I wanted to learn to do, and I still haven’t done that. Why not? And so it’s really just a way. Or, wow, look what I was struggling with, and look how far I’ve come. Holy cow, or, as Curt would say, holy cows are like, it’s it’s incredible. So I want to encourage you to do this weekly check in and and also to have your goals at the bottom. And then the other little thing that I want to teach you is to pick a word for the year. The Super Friends and I used to pick four words, right? Because one just wasn’t enough. We we picked four and last year we did our annual retreat planning in December, and I said, You know what, guys, I need one word force too much. I need to pare this down. I need one so last year, my year with my word was vibrant. So every single weekly update, the very first thing at the top, it’s week one update. Week two. Plan 2024 that’s what I had. And then I would put vibrant. And then I would finish that, how am I going to show up this week? How am I going to be vibrant? My word for this year is strong. It came to me in a vision, literally, and there’s a lot to it and around it. So this week, I did my plan yesterday, and it was strong in my intentions and in how I show up daily. So it’s it’s this really great reminder, because if you don’t look at the. Every week, it will fall by the wayside. It’ll be June before you literally blink, and you’re going to feel like, where did the last six months go? And I can tell you by doing this practice every week and by putting it on your calendar, a monthly check in with yourself at the end of every month, on that Sunday or Monday, whatever works for you. Maybe Saturday is better. That’s fine, but put it in your calendar, because what gets measured gets done. So if you have a little date with yourself in your calendar, because again, I used to not do this, and then it’s like, well, you don’t have it in your calendar, how are you going to remember? Going to remember to do it? Good point this was, this was brought up by a super friend, well, it’s not in your calendar. Well, it’s up here. And she’s like, Yeah, that’s dumb. Put it in your calendar. So put the calendar date with yourself, monthly check in. What does that look like? Just do it during your ahas, wins, wins, losses, ahas and fixes moment and say, What? What was this whole month like? You know, I had a lot of wins like. What you’ll find is that your wins are like this, your losses are like this. Your fixes will be equivalent to your losses, because you’re going to write those go together, and your ahas are going to blow your mind. Some weeks there’s one Aha, some weeks there’s 20. And it so I just, I can’t recommend that enough to take that time that is a way to slow down and really savor. That’s one of my favorite words now, is savor these moments. I will take a breath and stop talking for

Damon Pistulka  31:53

anything you’ve said in these and anything I just absolutely want to kick myself for the last three decades of my life is not savoring the time. Yeah, because I don’t care what, what the hell you’re looking at. Look at raising your kids. Look at your time in college. Look at your time in your first jobs. Look at any of this savoring this time and finding, finding in by taking the time. You know, they never talked to us much about in college, saying, Listen, if you don’t take your take the time to appreciate everything around you, it’ll be gone in an instant, and you’ll wish you had and that just everything is coming together on this. And intentionality, too is I started a few years ago. I put on my on my daily to do list. I have some of these things that you’re talking about, and if you don’t put them on your list of things to do, you will not do them, and then you’re going to do wake up on the other side again. Cool.

Curt Anderson  33:03

What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done. So Ray says, Hey, Super Friends, accountability buddies, you know? So that’s, you know? What a great Alright, let’s unpack right here. So again, Allison Deford felt marketing. I don’t even know what time it is. I lost track of time. So we’re over. Yeah, it’s early, so we’re trying to, like, how do we come together and just really just smash this new year? And like I said, you know, like, why don’t we speak for myself? Like, why don’t I have this sense of urgency every month? Why is it always just in a new year, however, just kind of how we’re we’re wired, and so as we’re coming into a new year, Allison just really empowering us with incredible tools. What a gift, Allison. So you know, weekly check ins. Get that accountability buddy, get a friend, a relative, your dog, get somebody that’s going to because if you just keep it to yourself, nope, like nobody knows if you won or if you if you failed, right? Nobody knows what great advice, the wins, the losses, the ahas, the fixes, doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done. This is just some phenomenal advice. Allison, let’s let’s keep it rolling. All right.

Allison DeFord  34:10

I want to encourage each of you to take a timeout and tune out. I don’t know about you guys, but I I’ve I catch myself daily. I watch my kids do this daily, and I watch people I travel a lot, and I watch people in airports, and I watch people, we’re zombies, right? We spend our day, half our life, staring at a screen, and what I’ve learned is that that makes us feel busy. Oh, I’m standing in line. Look how productive I am. Mm. It because you’re ingesting other people’s lives, other social media, social media, right? Tiktok videos. There’s nothing wrong with these things. Mind you. I think that they have a place. But what I have learned personally is the more that I pay attention to what I consume and how much of it I consume and when I consume it matters and has massively. It changes my day. It changes my life, it changes my mood. It changes how I feel about myself, right? And I don’t know about you guys, but I have struggled my whole life with I didn’t realize it. I always thought I was super confident and and I am in general. But I have always struggled with body image. I have always struggled with comparison itis and imposter syndrome, right? Am I good enough? Is anyone going to care? Is anyone going to show up? Who am I? What do I know to be saying these things, to be showing up, to be making a proclamation, or write a book or start a blog or a podcast, right? Ray, and I think so. I’m speaking from experience, paying attention to what’s the first thing you do when you wake up? I want to encourage you, do not grab your phone if you do anything, okay, before you grab that phone, because it’s it’s nothing more than a habit. That’s all it is. Right? We all plenty of habits. I have them, good, bad and indifferent. That phone is a habit. Before you grab your phone, I want to encourage you to just simply say thank you. That’s it. Whether it’s to God, Buddha, the universe, the air in the room, you know, if you’re not religious in any way, that’s fine too. Say thank you by doing that, what you’re doing is recognizing you’re just grateful to have woken up today. I don’t even know it was woken a word have awakened. I don’t know, but you’re just grateful for that, right? You opened your eyes, you’re breathing, you can swallow, you can move. That in itself, is a gift. So to just recognize that will change the trajectory of your entire day. I used to I had a friend a long time ago when she came to one of my retreats. I did a retreat for women, and we were sitting in our group, and we were sharing, what’s what do you like? What is your How does your day start? And she had three young kids at the time and a business, and she said, I wake up, and the first thing I say, and I will not say this out loud, but she’s like and we all looked at her, and I said, that’s the first thing you Say to yourself in the morning. And she said, yeah, she goes, I got some work to do. We all just looked at her and we supported her. We said, this is a no judgment zone, yeah, so don’t feel bad. But what that made me realize is how often during the day I uttered that word, at that time when I had young kids busy and running with my hair on fire, and that was a wake up call for me, because What we say and what we think thoughts become things. Right, how we speak to ourself determines our self worth and value. So I just wanted to share that to give yourself a time out from social media, from news. I know people that consume news channels all day long, and I am sorry I don’t care what news channel it is that is not healthy for you. And I can tell you from personal experience. And again, you may be watching this, listening to this and think she doesn’t know she doesn’t know anything. That’s fine. But I can tell you from personal experience, the more I have tuned out and the three of us here have talked about this a lot. Are we any less aware of what’s going on in the world? Not really. We consume enough. Have to be knowledgeable people citizens right to find out what other people think, even if it’s different than what we think. And that’s cool, but if you’re constantly consuming something, you never have time to not have a thought. You never have time to think about what you know, what is your intention? You’re just consuming. And I used to be with someone who felt like if he was productive all the time, that made him worthy. And what I want to encourage you, what I have learned is that the Slowing down makes you just as worthy as the productivity. That’s a very productive thing to do,

Damon Pistulka  40:53

right? Yeah,

Allison DeFord  40:55

sounds counterintuitive, but it’s really true. Oh,

Damon Pistulka  40:58

it’s amazing when you do it. It’s amazing when you do it and taking the time to do it, intentionally doing it, you have to intentionally do it. It’s not just like, Oh, I’ll do it when I get to it, because you’ll never get to it. And,

Allison DeFord  41:13

yeah, and if you’re busy consuming, you guys all know, we all know everybody tuned in right now knows how much time suck if you’re just scrolling through social media, right? And then you kind of look up and think, oh my gosh, I just wasted a half an hour of my day, yeah, half an hour on what. I spent more time on social media than I did learning a new language, learning a new skill, talking to my kids, saying thank you to a customer, that’s scary, like I pay attention to that as well, and it’s really scary.

Curt Anderson  41:56

Yeah? Ray drops a comment here, and I love this. Starting from a place of gratitude every day is so powerful. And that’s, I think, you know, so many golden nuggets, so many takeaways today. But I tell you, the big thing is, if you know, just getting into this a constant state of gratitude, yeah, Nelson, for like, little everything you know, thankful that I have gas in my car to go somewhere thankful that there’s, you know, we’re so blessed with, like, supply chain of food where, like, I’m always amazed by, I mean, just think of, like, like, how accessible food is, you know, like, how we take that for granted, you know, for water, like, basic, you know, so anyway, not to go to a tangent, but, yeah, alright. Allison, I know. Alright. What else do we have on your list. Okay?

Allison DeFord  42:41

The last thing that I want to share and and get everybody thinking about is manifesting again. This is not Woo. Woo. I want you to hear me not woo, woo. Manifesting works, and I wanted to give you a really, really powerful example the clients I have today, aren’t by accident, they’re by design. And I want to see if you tuning into this, could say that the customers or clients that I have today are not by accident. They’re by design. And if you’re scratching your head like, Okay, I’m listening. But what does that? What does that mean you can’t design your customers. Oh, my friend, yes, you can. I’ll give you a great example of what I mean, how it works and how you can do it. Several years ago, the super friends and I decided to do a 30 day big, hairy, audacious goal, and we each picked something that seemed absolutely absurd, like there’s no way we can achieve this in 30 days. That’s the goal. That’s what we picked. So one of the Super Friends, she wanted to find her perfect mate. She was late 40s. This, oh, this has been several years ago. She was because she’s just a little younger than me. Um, yeah, probably, oh God, probably eight years ago, she’s in her late 40s, and so she said, I am going to find my perfect man. I really do want to get married someday. I’ve just never found the right person. So we said, Okay, awesome. So she made a list, and she wrote this by hand. I want to encourage people to do that. It’s very powerful when you write by hand instead of typing. And she wrote out, my ideal mate will be, this will look like this will be these things, okay? And two years later, so it didn’t happen that month, but that’s okay, yeah, it was the Act of. Setting the intention and manifesting the person. Two years later, she meets Jeff online. Online dating scares the hell out of me. I’ve never done it. Don’t want to do it, but it worked for her. So I’m never going to say never. So she and and so after the fourth day, she knew, she knew he was the one, like he was the Forever guy. It worked out to be true. He’s incredible and amazing, and she’s blissfully happy. She shared with him. She goes, I made this list, and I wanted to read it to you. And he’s like, okay, so she reads this list. I mean, it had like 30 things on it, and he starts laughing. And he’s like, Well, you obviously wrote that after you met me, because, like, that’s me. She goes, No, I wrote this two years ago. I got I wrote this two years ago. And he was, like, dumbfounded. He’s like, how’s that possible? So I took a cue from her, and I made a list of my ideal client. You know, my ideal client will trust us completely. My ideal client will be fun to work with. My ideal client will pay us handsomely for the value that we bring and and so on. So I made this list, I can tell you, and it I’d say about two to three years later. So it’s not always. It doesn’t always take two to three years, but in my case and hers, it did. I just want to say that, because I want you to know it’s not something that death, you know has to happen in a month or a day. Don’t give up on it, because it it happens when it’s supposed to and it happens when you’re ready. Yeah, I wasn’t ready when I made the list, but several years later, I can tell you, every single client that we have at felt was by design. They meet all those criteria. And I literally, like, I looked at this list and I thought, son of a gun. This really, really works. This is amazing. I got what I wanted and something better. I learned that from Gabby Bernstein, the universe always has your back. She wrote that book and many other books that have changed my life. But she says, Ask for this or something better, and when it’s the timing is right, it will happen. So I want to encourage you to sit down and take, I don’t care if you take 15 minutes, tiny bit of time, everybody has 15 minutes. We’ve all got 24 hours in a day, and write down my ideal customer is this looks like this, sounds like this, buys this much per year, whatever you’re whatever you want. And then I want you to do that with my ideal employee or team member is this, I always say, right? Good marketing and a brand that has heart, it starts from the inside out, so it starts inside you, and it starts inside the walls of your business, and goes outward and people feel it. So if you know, you know, design your team. Don’t just put out want ads and hope for the best. Design it. Design your ideal customer. And then after you do this, I want you to do the Toyota five. Whys? Why? Would this be my ideal customer? Why would that be important to me? Well, because I want to make money, and I think this would be a lot of fun. Okay, why? Well, because I want you know, and we all know, we’ve all done this right, at least in our life. We just did this. The super friends and I, we set an intention, and we said we wanted these things for 2025 and then this is the second part of this exercise, or the third part. So you make a list of your ideal customer and your ideal team member or employee, and then ask yourself, why, why do I want this? Why is this important? Then the third thing I want you to do is, who do I need to become to attract these people? Yep, that’s a biggie. Mm, hmm. Yeah, because I think just like with dating, if you’re looking for someone who’s fit and funny and successful and thoughtful, and you are, you eat like crap, you never go to the gym, right? You’re you’re you. You don’t have those same things that you’re looking for? Yeah, um, if you’re the opposite, how are you going to attract the thing that you want? So I think one of the things for me that I realized with clients is relatable. I used to think that I was smarter than them from the marketing side of things, and after I realized, you know what, no, you’re not that’s not relatable. Nobody is looking to be made to feel bad about themselves or to feel less than they want to feel equal. They want to feel like you get them and you understand them. And I’m telling you, as soon as I flip that switch, and this was, this was a good eight to 10 years ago, my business and my life changed. So the more that you are relatable, I’m going to attract that kind of person or customer that I want.

Curt Anderson  51:33

Speaking of saver, yes, yes. Ray says need to run. Thank you for sharing such a solid foundation to create a year of rewarding abundance. What a great that could be a good word for the year lucky. Raymond. So if you have not created a word of the year, man, there was a whole laundry list of words today that could be used as your word of the year. We had vibrant. Was Allison’s for last year we have strong for 2025 feel free to shamelessly take it, borrow it, steal it, yours. We talk about manifest being in a constant state of gratitude. How to create inspired motivation by taking that step back and pausing. And I want to recap, if anybody missed it, anything that you missed, please, please, please, do your favor. Go back. I’m going to just be replaying this. I’m going to be my family members, you know, having that weekly cadence of digesting your wins, your losses, your ahas and your fixes. What a powerful, powerful piece of advice. Damon, thoughts of today. No,

Damon Pistulka  52:39

just thanks for being here today, Allison, I mean, it’s what, what you said, will change people. It’ll change your life. And if, if you take the time really to understand and appreciate it’s just, it’s a different life.

Allison DeFord  52:57

It’s true. And I want, I want to leave you guys with one word. And I give all trademarking. I always say, TM this, this all goes to the fourth Super friend, Cheryl savilla. She created this, and she said, your fate. I want you to write F, A, T, E, and I want you to put a heart around it. Your fate is your focused attention, time and energy. Focused attention, time and energy. Notice it’s not date. Distracted attention, time and energy. It’s focused. And I know the three of us have spent many, many hours talking about all these things. We all three have experienced all of these things and can attest that that these all work. They’ve changed our lives. We all are living an abundant, amazing life, even though bad things can happen. That’s just part of life, yep, but we’ve all learned to slow down and savor and and really celebrate. You know those micro moments of happiness, those micro moments of struggle, savor it.

Curt Anderson  54:32

We’re just we’re alright. Val says, My word of the year will be brave. Thank you. Val, that is a phenomenal word. Damon, do you have a word of the

Damon Pistulka  54:41

year? I don’t, don’t. But you know, if I had one, if I had one word that always comes to mind, it’s appreciation. You know, there’s, there’s two, really, love and appreciation. I mean, because there’s very few things that aren’t cured by coming from an approach. To love. And there’s very few days that are bad days if you live with appreciation. And it’s it just those things are so powerful for me that I don’t know what I would choose.

Curt Anderson  55:12

Good. Hey, words of wisdom, right there. Thank you, brother. So I know we’re coming to the bottom of the hour. Jonathan, a heartfelt heart. Yes, huge, massive, massive, thank you. We appreciate you. We love you, we admire you, respect you, adore you. This, this, if I don’t know about I’m going to speak for anybody else, this changed lives, because I know this just changed my life. I got tons of notes here. I have a lot of work to do to get things kicked off. And, you know, in a in a great thing is a lot of thing that you just shared, like, I’m on a quest. I want to be a better husband. I’m striving to be a better father. You know, like in those things, I think, help me pause to be better in my career, or with business or or, you know, so be it. So, you know, these things that you’re applying are, you know, you can apply to yourself personally. You can apply professionally. So this was just brilliant, brilliant advice. And guys, you got this for this is all for free. Thanks for our dear friend, Allison afford. So hey, how about a huge round of applause here for Allison afford. So

Allison DeFord  56:15

Allison, you show up every week, and you guys bring authenticity and vulnerability and wisdom, and you know your energy is is amazing. So thank you for being in my life and making my life better, and for making all everyone’s life better, just for showing up

Curt Anderson  56:38

right back at you. So what a great way i and i I’m gonna have to check I do think this is our fourth, uh, annual kickoff of the new year with Allison afford and man, I tell you, when you think it couldn’t get any better, it just keeps getting better. Please do me a favor. Connect with Allison on LinkedIn. Follow her on her go to her website. Go to felt marketing com. And please, please, please, please sign up for her newsletter. It is hands on best newsletter in the biz. You will absolutely love it. And just you’re going to get what you got here. You just get to have that with Allison every other week. So Allison, hang out with us for one second. Thank you. We appreciate you. Love you, to you and your family and so everybody out there. Man, what a great way to start the new year. Damon, yes, I gotta go run through a wall. I’ll be right back. But anyway, alright, guys, have a great rest of your week. We’ll be back here Friday with another wonderful, amazing guest. And God bless you. You.