PP 344: Christine McAlister, Business and Success Coach and Founder of Life With Passion

Website: https://www.lifewithpassion.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-mcalister-660667a/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifewpassion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifewpassion/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lifewpassion/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifewpassion/

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. I am so happy that you’re here to join us today. And I am thrilled to bring back for the first time that we have a repeat guest, Christine McAllister. 

Christine, welcome back.

Christine McAllister: Thank you so much, Kim, such an honor to be your first repeat guest.

Kim Sutton: Well, thank you for filling that spot. Now, I have that song, the welcome back song in my head that’s gonna be stuck there for the whole rest of the day. But it’s for good reason. Listeners, if you haven’t listened to it already, Christine was the guest on Episode 122, which you can find at thekimsutton.com/pp122. She is the founder of Life With Passion. Christine, I would love for you to give more of an introduction for any listeners who haven’t listened to the episode or perhaps have just forgotten.

Christine McAllister: Sure. So I’m a Business and Success Coach, like you said, my company’s name is Life With Passion. And my work is with high achievers who are looking to quit or stay out of the 9:00 to 5:00 world and replace their incomes. And so to that end, I’m also the author of The Income Replacement Formula: 7 Simple Steps to Doing What You Love and Making 6 Figures from Anywhere.

Kim Sutton: Awesome. Now, I have a question for you. As an entrepreneur, do you think it is ever possible for us to successfully re enter the workplace if we had to?

Christine McAllister: Sure. Yeah, I do. I think there are times and places for part time jobs that are really aligned. I think there are times when a short term or long term consulting gig could work out. And I think it’s important to be open to the possibility because we never want to say never. Because otherwise, that’s exactly what we’re probably going to have to do to learn the lesson. But I also think that it’s great to know that, for a lot of us, certainly I identify this way, I do much better as my own boss or with clients that I choose sort of being the people that I’m responsible to as opposed to having a traditional work environment. And so I think that that knowledge also can drive me to go after things, and maybe get outside of my comfort zone in order to continue to stay out of the 9:00 to 5:00 world.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. Actually my husband, when we’ll be driving around town, sometimes he’ll see like an office space that’s available. And he’ll be like, I think it would be great if you had an office there. And there’s just something about being out of the home and an office. I’m not saying that entrepreneurs who have this aren’t doing it right. But for me, the only thing I think about with their traditional sense of office is all the cubicles that I ever had to sit in. And the fact that I never want to sit in one.

Christine McAllister: Yes.

Kim Sutton: I love being at home within feet of my kitchen, my own bathroom. One bathroom is enough to clean. I don’t need to be cleaning, yeah, I just don’t need that. And listeners, today is just one of those days in the life of a mompreneur that I actually have a kid home to and cats fighting right behind me. So just the ability to work at home with a sick child, amazing. Can you jump into the content of your book a little bit and give a bit of background to it, what the writing journey was like, and how you maintain sanity, if you did put it in there. Through the writing process, because I know that you like me, a mom and also a business owner. So how did you juggle it all? I know that there’s a lot of questions.

Christine McAllister: Yeah. So I started this journey in December of 2016. I knew that 2017, my two big goals in my business were to, number one, book out with high level one on one clients. And number two, to write a book. And those were the two pieces that I needed to stay focused in order to grow my business to the next level. Now, I didn’t know I have any idea what this process was going to be like. But I knew those were the big goals to take action around. And so it started off with me taking a week long retreat in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I rented an Airbnb at this cute little homey cabin, took my husband along. He agreed to be my [inaudible] for the week. At the time, my daughter was three and a half months old and we went to Chattanooga, and I spent the week doing morning and afternoon sessions at a local coffee shop, or I just wrote furiously in this beautiful journal that I had just gotten for my birthday in November. So it’s just getting everything out of my head, just as it came to me. And that part of the process was really easy for me. 

What followed over the next year were a lot of starts and stops, and I would be super productive. And then I would take a month off, I would make some edits and type some things up for my journal. And then I would get overwhelmed and go do something else. Or I would be super busy doing something else in my business. And so the process itself took a year to finally get to the point in January of 2018 where I said, I need to just wrap this thing up. And what’s going to help me do that? We all know this, it’s one of your pillars support. So I reached out to some friends of mine who were much farther along in business than me and had books and I said, who do you recommend for an editor? And I plunked down a big chunk of change to work with an editor. I felt really connected to who also understood online marketing and would understand how to help me use this business or use this book to grow my business, because I had decided to self publish. And because I wanted someone who wasn’t just going to edit and make it a nice book, but someone who was going to help me to monetize it too. So once I paid her, I had the rest of the book done in two weeks, because I had to get it for her. And that’s the overview of how I got here.

Kim Sutton: Your book writing process sounds a little bit, what I’ve experienced in the podcast, actually, because I got really into it. And it’s not that you were, I didn’t want to charge full steam ahead, do the work and get it done. But what I experienced was pod feed, because I got so much into it that actually burnt myself out. I guess it is sort of similar, but not exactly. But I got in for a couple months, and then backed off for a month. Listeners, there’s reasons why there were a couple months, or more than a couple months scattered within the first year where there were no episodes. And so I love that you brought up support. Because since I got support, supporting me in the podcast, I haven’t had that. That’s not to say I don’t fall day behind sometimes. However, it’s not because I’m trying to do it all anymore. I want to back up what you said about having two goals. We’ve already covered the book, but can you explain more about how you are using the book to secure, or how you are planning to use your book to secure high end clients, because that’s something that has been new to me. In the last couple years, I didn’t really understand how that could work together, and I’m sure that there’s listeners who don’t really understand either.

Christine McAllister: Sure. So the book serves several different purposes in my business, and probably a lot like podcasting does for your guests who come on the show and also for you. The book is a way of me providing the value that the structure, the system, if you will, of how I work with my high end clients for a low dollar cost. Because one of my passions since I started Life With Passion has always been to make this work and the steps available to everyone. When I was back in my 9:00 to 5:00 in my 20’s, what I did on my 90 minute commute and heavy traffic was listen to things and I would get books from the audio books, from the library and listen to things like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and just starting to get into this world and starting to develop [inaudible], I went to the library. And so it’s really important to me to be able to reach people exactly where they are even if they don’t know anything about mentors or coaches. It’s not even on their radar. So that’s one one way. Another way is that there will be a series of products or offers that I have at different price points. The value ladder all the way up to working with me one on one. 

So again, my goal is to give people options based on their budgets, based on their needs, based on their goals. And what I have found, even without any of these things in place, at least not doing a ton of promotion on my lower end offers, that appearing on podcasts in 2017, I did about two dozen. Some really big ones, and some really small ones, and everything in between. Using that strategy helped me to book one on one clients just from people spending the 20 minutes or whatever on the episode. They came to me because they felt like they knew me. So how much more is a book? It’s going to take them longer than 20 minutes to read. And that obviously includes a lot more of my clients stories, and a lot more of my stories that really helps them get to know how I work with my clients, and a feel for my wacky, crazy, weird self. How much more is that going to help them make a decision whether or not I’m the person to get them where they want to be, to replace their income, to quit their job. Or if they’re already out, like to never have to go back. That’s an overview of–

Kim Sutton: I love that. And I think that’s something that a lot of people forget about very often is the power of not just having your own podcast, but appearing on other people’s podcasts. Christine, just last week, as of the time of this recording, I was sitting at my computer one night and I have it down right now. Okay, I need to timestamp. Actually, I’m not going to timestamp. I have Facebook Messenger bot set up on my website. However, Facebook is going through a little change right now, and it’s not working at this very moment. 

But last week, I was sitting here at my computer and I started getting messages. Hey, I’m listening to your podcast. I really love it. Wow, that was really great. And I’m thinking, what podcast, you know what? I release them every day so I was wondering, but I asked them, what podcasts are you talking about? I said it was nice for them, that sounded really rude. And they threw the name out there, they said it was my friend and actually client, Jay Rooke, and his podcast hasn’t even launched yet, which is crazy. However, he is doing radio syndication to 10 major markets. And I didn’t even know that. I’m sort of relieved that I didn’t know that getting onto the chat with him, but it was broadcast in Sonoma, California. And people were listening, and they were getting in touch. And it was amazing having the reach out. And they were signing up for the list, and they were buying my upsells. And it just blew my mind. I mean, I should have known this stuff. Let’s be real, I should know this stuff. I’m the host, I get guests on all the time, I go to events where we talk about this, but it just never occurred to me, from me, myself, getting on podcast. So you’re so right. I want to touch back to where you were talking about, your different level offers though. And I apologize for bringing up a couple other books. But what I realized is that a lot of authors forget that they can promote whatever they want in their book.

Christine McAllister: Especially when you’re self published.

Kim Sutton: I just finished reading High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. He has a toolkit or tools that accompany the content of the book, and he mentions it more than a few times, telling you where to go to get them. And once you get there, he asks for your email address. So after you give it, you’re on his list, and he starts promoting his stuff to you. I don’t mind that at all. I like Brendon. But I’ve read a couple other books. I remember the first time I experienced that. At first, I was a little bit like, huh. But then I realized that I was so smart. Because when we’re selling books through Amazon, we don’t get the list of who those people are. So by getting them into our funnel, by giving them the added content, I feel most bad for fiction writers. How are they going to do it? I just can’t imagine how they would do it. But for nonfiction, listeners, don’t forget to give resources and ways for people to connect with you as a result of reading your book.

Christine McAllister: Yes, exactly.

Kim Sutton: So would you mind going over a couple of the 7 simple tips?

Christine McAllister: Sure. Yeah. So I think that I can go over all 7 of them if you want.

Kim Sutton: Oh, that would be fabulous. But I also want people to buy the book.

Christine McAllister: Well, I will tell you, I’ll give you the 7 steps. And then obviously, we go into a lot more detail and give you a lot of examples, and give you exercises to work through each one inside the book. So the first step is decision. You have to decide, you have to let go of FOMO, you have to make a decision on what you’re going to focus on, or you’re never going to get the momentum and the productivity that you want. And most of us, as entrepreneurs, are multi-passionate people. You’re not the only one in the world who has a lot of interests. If you feel that way, you have to decide. I’ll tell you my first business was a successful digital marketing agency, and I didn’t know anything about mindset. It was the job, or it was the business that got me out of my 9:00 to 5:00, and so I was so grateful and will always be grateful for that. But I pretty quickly plateaued and wasn’t able to move beyond that, because I didn’t know anything about mindset. And it’s crucial that you get your mindset in check if you want to be able to succeed and grow to the level that you desire. 

Number three is niche. You’ve got to niche, you got to know who you’re talking to. And again, you have to let go of feeling like, well, this could help everyone. Because as we know, if you try to help everyone, you actually help no one. Number four is offered. I want you to create magnetic offers for your niche now that you know who you’re talking to. And we talk about how to figure out what those are, and price those and do that. And then it’s time to market in a really strategic and simple way. So everything that I do in my business is based around the pillars of simple strategies and self belief because I have seen that those are the two things that are needed for the people I work with to grow a successful business. So I want you to market in a very simple way, then I want you to get visible in a little bit of a broader way. And as you’re doing those things, then it’s time to bring in sales. And sales in a way that feels good for you. So giving yourself permission to do sales in a way that feels good without having to be icky, pushy, salesy, gross car sales, mini, weird. So those are the seven steps

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, I love that you talk about non icky sales. Can you dive into that a little bit more, though, just in case listeners are wondering, what is she talking about icky sales?

Christine McAllister: Yes. So I think that a lot of times as business owners when we first go into business, I know this is true for myself and my clients, we feel really uncomfortable selling. And I think that’s because either the examples that we’ve had, either from what we’ve been, from what we’ve caught watching other people try to sell to us, or from what we’ve actually been taught in a course about how, whatever we’re doing, however coaches quote unquote supposed to sell, or however you’re supposed to get the yes on the phone, take the credit card right away, whatever. I know that those are the kinds of things that I heard a lot when I was in my first suit. I think that’s the common, pervasive teaching.

Kim Sutton: Yes. It’s no different to me than collectors calling. So how are you going to be making that payment today?

Christine McAllister: Exactly. But I know that that was not how I naturally did sales and online marketing. But at the same time, I was getting coaching to learn how to be a coach. Of course, I was responsible, it was my business. But at the same time, I was like, oh, this is how coaches do it. Even though it felt weird, I was like, what’s the alternative? So I think learning to do sales in a way that builds the relationship that doesn’t even ask for the yes, or expect the yes on the phone that creates the yes through follow up that is full of value, that is how I and my clients sign our own premium price clients who work with us time, and time, and time again at every level of their business as they rise up. Because they know that they’re cared about as people, and they’re not just a number. And also this style of sales distinguishes you from the 99% of people who are doing it the other way. So it’s an incredibly empowering, no pressure approach both for you and your potential client.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I just want to give you a huge hug.

Christine McAllister: Thanks.

Kim Sutton: I have coaching clients myself, and I can tell you that the three of them got started after opting in for a free giveaway that I had. And follow up had exactly zero sales promotional emails, but they reached out because they wanted to know how they could do more and work more with me. And I’d say that that’s always how I do it. I’ve been evolving a little bit, because I do believe that somewhere in between the no promotion and the super pushy promotion, we have to get confidence in ourselves to know that we can promote what we’re doing. I mean, it took 250 episodes on my podcast for me to start talking about what I do when I’m not podcasting. Because it occurred to me, it’s not just allowed, and it’s not entitled. But how are we going to let other people know what we do if we don’t talk about it?

Christine McAllister: Exactly, exactly. Yep.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. How do you feel about the expression? You may not have heard this before, give in public, sell in private. It’s something along that line.

Christine McAllister: I’ve never heard that before. I wouldn’t say that, I think it’s both. I think there are some people who are like, oh, you should never talk about your programs or whatever you have for sale on Facebook. Let’s say you should only sell to people on your email list. The only thing you promote, let’s say, is an opt-in on Facebook, or in your group, or on your page, or whatever. But I also find that a lot of my clients and people who become clients find safety and being able to ask questions when it’s like a group forum setting long before they’re ready to get on the phone with me, or send me a personal email, or whatever. And my goal is always to help people feel comfortable, and help them figure out if this is the right thing for them. So while I think there are a lot of different approaches to this, for me, personally, I’m pretty open about what I provide. Or if I have a special going on, I’m not going to hide that and only share it with my email list. At the same time, most of what I do publicly is provide value, because that’s how people get to know you and then buy from you.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah, but it does still seem pretty congruent, though. I mean, you’re providing value so you’re giving in public. But you’re not out there saying, buy my $20,000 coaching package right on your Facebook page.

Christine McAllister: Right. I do put my packages on my website, and I don’t list my prices there. Because want there to be any surprises. And people didn’t know exactly what it was and did not have to get on the phone with me to find out the secret answer. But I think that also being open about how I work with my clients, this is how you can find out if you want to become one, like this is what I’m offering, or an intensive, or a book, or whatever. Here’s how you can buy it. In a way as a coach, that’s also modeling for my other clients, that it’s okay to talk about your products and services, and promote them. And I think that’s important to help us get over that weirdness with sales.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. I want to mash our brains together in your background in digital marketing with bringing in the high end clients. What do you see as being one of the most overlooked means of marketing for people who are trying to get high end clients? And what mistakes are they making instead?

Christine McAllister: Oh, interesting. I have a question, are we talking about people who are just getting started, or don’t have much of an audience, or a platformer list? Or are we talking about people who already have established–

Kim Sutton: Already established.

Christine McAllister: Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I think that one of the things that I would go back and change, and I would imagine that there are a lot of people who would agree with me is that, when I got started, I went pretty big into using Facebook ads as my main driver for leads. And while that quickly built my list and my page, and I was always having people move through my automation, and certainly book calls and become clients, the ROI was not what it could have been if I had done things differently. And so even now at a 6-figure level in my business, and even being booked out with a waiting list, I have instead spending any money on ads in the last year and a half, so since 2016, I’ve made a decision to organically connect instead. So it’s meant to really reaching out. And even if I didn’t feel like I had time connecting one on one with people, giving them free calls and pitching at the end. 

And also, I would say getting on podcasts. When you’re listening to a podcast, like if you listen to podcasts, your people are listening to podcasts, right? So I learned how to create really good pitches and took the time to get to know the podcast or what their values were, and create a pitch that made it very, very clear that it was going to be a win-win. And that made all the difference in terms of getting visible in an organic way that felt free that I can repurpose over and over that people still find me once I’m on, once to evergreen. And also making it clear that I was available for the one on one connections and still am to this day. Because there might come a point when that strategy looks different, but I really don’t think that even if you don’t have what you want, here’s like a more succinct way to say this. All the automations, all the funnels and all the online strategies, if you’re looking for high ticket clients, they’re all just to warm up traffic to get on the phone with you to find out if you’re the right fit for the money that they want to spend on a high end program. So if you can cut out all that middle stuff and just get on the phone with someone, why wouldn’t you just do that instead of over complicating. If all roads lead to the high end package, then reach out to people individually. Offer to help them for 30 minutes and pitch them for five at the end. There’s a much higher ROI on that than any paid traffic you could be doing at this point.

Kim Sutton: I love that because I have gone through the same transition. And now, I’m about quality marketing versus quantity marketing. My growth has significantly slowed down, but the people who I’m connecting with now and who are following me because they want to, and not because I’m flashing ads in front of them constantly. And I’m not saying that ads are a bad way, and I’m not saying that I won’t be doing ads anymore because there’s a time and a place for them.

Christine McAllister: Absolutely. Oh, my gosh, for sure. Yes. But just knowing that it maybe not in the way that you thought, or the way that you taught, or the way that you used to do it, I think way too many of us are just like turning on some funnel and going like this gives me the clients this month, as opposed to during the work of connecting one on one and kind of cutting out all that up.

Kim Sutton: I don’t even remember how we met way back when, because I know it was a while before you were on the podcast. But I know that since we met, originally, I have really changed who I was following on social media, rather than just following the people who said they had the strategies for how to do everything. It’s really the people that I resonated with and have communicated with directly not just by signing up for their list and getting their personalized on personal emails. Is that the preferred way of putting it?

Christine McAllister: Yes.

Kim Sutton: But who are you actually connected with. And it feels so much better to go on social media now.

Christine McAllister: Yeah, relationships, actually social.

Kim Sutton: I want to talk just for a minute about the systems of self care. And well, the systems of systems that don’t really sound right, but I know what I’m trying to say. And hopefully, you understand that you had in place while you were going through this whole process of writing your book and growing your business, what do you have in place now that is working really well for you? And what do you wish you had implemented earlier? We’ve already covered support through your editor, but I’d love to hear your feedback for that as well.

Christine McAllister: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say support in other areas, as well as support to set up more systems and support to get self care. Obviously, they all three go together. I would say like having my own high level coach to help me deal with what systems or the right things to put in place at the right times. Kind of being coached on mindset within an inch of my life has been really, really helpful. Because every time I do something new, those old self doubts, those old money beliefs or whatever, they pop up at every new level for me. And so being held accountable to that and also just being able to know I have somebody who’s farther along gets it, who I can always go, hey, what do you think about this? Like, that’s huge for me. Because then, I’m not in my own head. I’m like processing, and like it’s much easier for me to take action when I know I’m supported at every level. Making a decision to expand the amount of childcare that I was getting–

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh. When did you start your business? Like when did you quit the 9:00 to 5:00 and start your business full time?

Christine McAllister: I started my digital marketing business in 2010. I had my rainbow baby at the end of August 2016, so she’s 19 months old now.

Kim Sutton: I started in 2012, and then I had [inaudible] in 2013, and then the twins in 2015. And I thought that I could do it with them all at home. I don’t know what I was on besides sleep deprivation drugs, lack of drugs, but just sleep deprivation was putting me through the wringer. I thought I could be a superwoman and do it all, I was wrong. So amen to that. Yes.

Christine McAllister: Yes. I think there’s a way. We all want to be superwoman, but also figuring out what being a mom looks like for you versus what it looks like for your mom, or what you thought it was gonna look like, that’s been a huge growth process for me. As well as kind of negotiating, of course,  how much I want to work, how much I’m able to work, and how do I step away from work that I really love when work is my default. 

So right now, I work about 25 hours a week, and have a 6-Figure business and wrote a book in that time. So obviously, there are a lot of systems and self care behind the scenes that allow that to happen. I have an amazing virtual assistant, just added a second to support her so my first VA who knows my business inside and out can really work on some of this strategy as we scale. 

And then, yeah, having great childcare who I really, really trust, having someone who helps out around the house, and having some of those systems to opt-ins and funnels, and a great scheduling system that works really well for me and my clients. And a lot of those things are just running on autopilot that we don’t have to think about anymore. That in the beginning, was so overwhelming. And now, it’s like, well, they’re just running all the time. Repurposing my content like crazy so that it shows up in a bunch of different places and having my VA helped me with that. Those are some of the types of things that I’ve done. First systems self care, ongoing evolution. I think that support and systems are forms of self care. And I think that self care looks really different based on the stage. 

Sometimes, it’s just like a long shower, and I make it feel like a spa shower by putting a couple of drops of peppermint oil in there. And sometimes, it’s just having a few minutes to myself, or going out to the coffee shop, or getting a massage, getting my hair done, some of those typical things. But sometimes, it’s just like reading a chapter in a great fiction book before I go to bed that feels super luxurious. Or going out to dinner instead of cooking that night. I think it just really kind of varies and comes from actually asking yourself what you want, rather than what you feel you should do, or it’s practical to do, or what you’re expected to do. Because hello, you’re right. Writing a book, taking care of a baby, managing a household, doing most of all of the cooking, let’s be honest, doing the grocery shopping, having guests, family, whatever, like it’s–

Kim Sutton: From my side, I do as little cooking as I possibly can. Number one, because I have my husband and my oldest son who would prefer to cook themselves to know that they’re getting something edible. Number two, just because I don’t enjoy cooking. But that would be like my little time of self care. It might be a little bit insane doing it with the littles, but that would be a break from work. Do you do all the grocery shopping? I know we’re getting a little topic or a little off topic here, but I do have a point to this.

Christine McAllister: Yeah, but I do it online.

Kim Sutton: Okay. I need to get better at actually scheduling that into my calendar to do it online. Because usually, I’ll think about it on Friday, and then the whole weekend is all booked, and it’s no good. But in my house, if I don’t do the shopping, then my husband will go and buy a whole ton of extra stuff.

Christine McAllister: Impulse shopping.

Kim Sutton: Yes. And only one day worth of stuff. I was shocked. He went to the store yesterday and actually brought home dinner for today too.

Christine McAllister: That’s awesome.

Kim Sutton: It was very awesome because today’s not one of those days. I didn’t know yesterday, but today is not one of those days that I want to go to the grocery. Actually not the day that I wanted to go to the grocery, let’s just be totally honest. Yeah, I’ll give him a list, and I’ll have to write on the top stick to the list. And the same thing though, I had to do that for myself. With all the tools that I see constantly, well, I’ve gotten better at this because I’ve unsubscribed from a lot of email newsletters. But I’ve had to tell myself the same, because where I fall off the list is when I see a shiny object pop into my inbox. That can easily get us off track of having a 6-Figure business because we’re spending the money on things that we don’t need. And all of a sudden, our income looks a lot smaller, and we’re not even getting what we need out of it.

Christine McAllister: And not only income, but time. I mean, seriously, if you want to get traction, you’ve got to be focused with your time. Especially if you’re working in a limited number of hours. And because of a family, or a job, or whatever, or another company, you don’t have 800 hours a week, or the desire to spend that much time just building a business, throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. So on that, I have one final question. Actually two, but I’ll just start with one. Let’s just suppose that you heard about some really great new marketing technique that you really wanted to implement. I’m not going to name any techniques, or just a strategy, maybe it’s not marketing and you wanted to implement it but it’s already 10:00 o’clock at night. What do you do?

Christine McAllister: Oh, I’m already in bed at 10:00.

Kim Sutton: You’re amazing, I need to learn that.

Christine McAllister: I usually go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00. Unless I’m watching something particularly compelling with my husband or we have friends over, a fabulous date night out, like my normal mo is to go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00. In [inaudible], I’ll be honest right now, I have not been sleeping that well. And so it’s one of the ways that I just create a lot of space for myself, because I’m tired at 8:00. But then if I don’t sleep well, then I might stay in bed until 7:00. Some mornings, I’m up at 5:00 or 6:00. So it’s just speaking of self care, right? That’s one thing. And I’m actively addressing that and working on it in several different ways. Because obviously, it’s an issue. That’s one way that I just go, look, if I’m going to be worth anything the next day for myself, for my business, for my clients, for my family, I go to bed when I’m tired. And that’s usually between 8:00 and 9:00.

Kim Sutton: Wow, I admire that. But I also know that in my house, that would just be so hard.

Christine McAllister: I mean, my child is in bed by that point. That’s a very different thing when we have older kids.

Kim Sutton: It’s actually my littles. We put them in bed between 8:00 and 8:30, but they are up for the next two hours fighting with each other.

Christine McAllister: Oh, my gosh.

Kim Sutton: Or yelling to each other, got wrapped around their finger that they need three more cups of water, they need to go pee.

Christine McAllister: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. But to your original question, I would say that, I find that what works, I’m always going to be looking to learn new marketing channels and learn how to win at that, because that’s my background. That’s what I geek out on. That’s what I love. So there’s always going to be something in the background that I’m playing with. You pick any tool, but it’s not going to be my main lead driver. It’s probably something that I’ve been using myself for a while that I’m like, oh, I like this. Now, I want to learn how to win at it for my site. Now, I want to learn how to repurpose something I’ve already done and post it, and get views, and whatever on this platform. And so the way that I would handle it is to give myself some time to geek out on it when I’m not in the middle of something major or big, or when I’m like burned out on the major big thing and I just need to go do something that is fun for me and feels like nerdy and cool. And like I’m making new pathways in my brain.

Kim Sutton: For me, it was actually Facebook Messenger bots.

Christine McAllister: Cool.

Kim Sutton: But that is not something to tackle when you’re in the middle of a book launch.

Christine McAllister: Exactly. And it’s also not something to go, oh, now all my efforts need to be here because you’ve already got traction on your other platforms. But it’s just like, oh, I want to see if I can play with this and implement it somehow. And like, just see if it works.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, absolutely. I am doing marketing automation for clients, this is just another example, listeners, even though we can be in the same space, and I know you’re not doing it anymore, but there’s no such thing as competition. I mean, there’s just no competition. But I realized that I really needed to try it out on my own page before I dared set it up for a client. So glad I did. Oh, my gosh, it’s been a fun example of positive productivity where it’s not always perfect. And sometimes, people get spammed with the same message a thousand times. But you live, you learn.

Christine McAllister: That’s right.

Kim Sutton: Well, speaking of your book launch, I would love for you to share where listeners can find it, what types of versions they can get it in, and how to learn more about you and everything that you do.

Christine McAllister: Sure. You can go to lifewithpassion.com/book to get a free gift around from the book, as well as get all the information on how to buy, either the Kindle version, or the Paperback version. There will also be an audible version launch date for that, TBD. Just keeping it real, positive productivity. But we know that the Paperback version and the Kindle back version are available for you at lifewithpassion.com/book.

Kim Sutton: Fabulous. Listeners, those links will be in the show notes for you at thekimsutton.com/pp344. Christine, it has been so wonderful catching up with you again and having you back on the podcast, thank you for being the first repeat. Yes, it’s been an absolute pleasure.

Christine McAllister: Such an honor. Thank you so much.

Kim Sutton: Oh, you’re welcome. Do you have a parting piece of advice or a golden nugget that you can offer to listeners?

Christine McAllister: Sure. I would say that whatever your big goal right now in your business, take heart from this conversation that it’s okay to pick it back up if you’ve been procrastinating on it, to realize that there are going to be ups and downs with any big goal that you have. And to just give yourself a lot of permission there, and know that it’s eventually gonna get done as long as you keep showing up for it as you can.