Episode 133 – Allyson Byrd: How To Become Unapologetically Rich

Casanova Brooks:

What’s up DreamNation. We are back again with another episode and I’m excited for this one because we have the legend is what I would say. Say ms. Allyson Byrd. And I’ll tell you, this is going to be a fun day conversation because a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to see this woman on stage.

And when I tell you she crushed it, she did nothing short of crushing it. So without further ado, please he’s helped me and welcome. And Allyson, you want to say what’s up to DreamNation.

Allyson Byrd:

Mic-check DreamNation. What’s up, I wanna tell you if you are riding in your cars, if you’re washing dishes, if you’re listening to this while you work out, you’re already gonna want to bookmark this as one of your favorites, come back to it because note takers are money makers.

So you’re going to want to come back, write the notes of what I say, because I guarantee you, if you take one principle that I share in this conversation today, it will make a difference in your bank account immediately. So let’s go!.

Casanova Brooks:

Let’s go. So I always like to make sure we give the proper introduction in a way that I do that is I compare us as entrepreneurs thought leaders and even superhero or entrepreneurs, thought leaders and Changemakers to superheroes. And why is because we’re constantly putting on capes, we’re flying around the world and we’re trying to solve the biggest. Problems.

And so we know that behind every Superman, there’s a Clark Kent and behind every lowest lane. there’s a superhero as well. So what I want to ask you is behind the superhero known as Allyson Byrd. Who is she?

Allyson Byrd:

Oh, man. that’s a great question. I would say that there’s not been a superhero that fully. Represents me, I would say it is a energy of multiple women that have shown up to be difference makers in the world. And let me tell you what that looks like to me, to me that looks like Mary McLeod Bethune, that looks like Josephine Baker. That looks like dr. Maya Angelou. Present day that looks like Oprah Winfrey present day.

That looks like Ava DuVernay. Like when I think about the shoulders of the women that I stand on, there’s no character that looks like Harriet Tubman. There’s no character that looks like Ida B Wells. There’s no character that we have invented in the world that looks like Kamala Harris. So I stand today on the shoulders of giant women, black women, Brown women, indigenous women who have fought for the rights for our voices to be amplified who have fought for the rights for us to know as young women coming up in our rise that were necessary, that were unrepeatable miracles that were powerful.

That were fortunate that there’s a privilege to being black. There’s a privilege to being a woman. There’s a privilege to knowing who you are and whose you are. So I stand on the shoulders of the historical context of being an African American black woman who Rose through the ranks. And you know, my mother, .

Linda Williams was a single mom. The first man that she married. she thought she was deeply and wonderfully in love with him and then found out later, wait a minute. He’s a pimp on the side. I thought he was going to a job, but he’s actually being a pimp. And so not only is he being a pimp, but he’s leaving me behind every single day and going and having relationships and it crushed her spirit and crushed her soul.

That was my sister’s father. Then my sister met my father and I’m sorry. Then my mother met my father. And she fell in the biggest love and she thought “I’m being redeemed. This is it. This is it. Yes”. Then the FBI called and the FBI said, we’re looking for Eugene Nelson. And my mother said, I don’t know who Eugene Nelson is.

And they said, he goes under the alias of Marcus Byrd. Now many of you are already putting the dots together. Her name’s Allyson Byrd, alias Marcus Byrd. That’s right. I’m the only person in my family with my name because my dad went to prison. They made him take his legal name back. My mother got remarried married under the name Williams.

I’m the only person, but Byrd means messenger. Allyson means truth and nobility. My middle name Octavia means royalty abundance overflow. So I am a messenger of truth, abundance and overflow. And when I look at the persona every single day that I put on as a character, like a Wonder Woman, when I look at the persona that I put on like a Superman, it really is to be that voice of guidance of light of power.

It’s to stand on the shoulders of the women that have come before me and that are standing alongside me, that are running ahead of me right now. And even the young girls that are watching me saying I can do it because she did it. So today I’m in the top 1% of our society in earning today, I run two multi seven figure companies and I dropped out of high school when I was 15 years old.

My dad was in prison. My mom worked three jobs. I’m a fictional character in itself. Like when you look at my life, how does that happen? And so for everyone listening, what I would say to you is look at your story that way and look at what goodness and Godness has. Flowed through you as a reflection of your story.

My story probably isn’t much different than any black girl growing up in the eighties. Like that is very common, unfortunately. And the truth of the matter is, is what is uncommon is that we found our rise. So when I think about. What characters I stand on, I think about Michelle Obama. And I think about how wide her shoulders have had to become, to hold and contain a generation of women who unapologetically.

use our voices and can get on podcasts like this. And we can say, and we can declare “we’re here. And nobody is removing us from the table. We’re bringing our own chairs. We’re bringing our own microphones. We’re rewriting the narrative and we’re unapologetically standing in the space, taking up space to do good, to be the light and to transform the world”.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. I love it. Let me ask the first one. Cause that’s so powerful. You said so many nuggets there, but one of the things that really struck a chord with me was you found your rise, right? How did you find your rise? Like was this mentorship? Was this, this a epiphany moment? Yeah. Well, what did that look like for you when you started to say, Hey, I am here because I would imagine, I mean, there was some point when you were younger where it was like, who am I?

Right. We all kind of go through those stages and then it could be 12 years old. It could be 15. When you dropped out of high school, it might not be until you turn 25. What did that look like for you? When was that moment?

Allyson Byrd:

Yeah, I took this course. I want to say I was maybe 19 or 20 called “search for significance”.

And it was run in a Christian Church and it was all about why are you valuable? And I hadn’t had that dialogue with myself about myself. You mean “I’m valuable?. I’m worthy?”. I mean, it’s so interesting. If you think about it as a kid, how much did you ever hear? Did you ever hear anybody say you’re valuable, you’re worthy.

all things are available to you. We heard people tell us we’re smart. Maybe we heard people tell us we’re handsome or we’re pretty, or we can do anything or bore or be any, you know, profession, but “you’re worthy. You’re significant. You’re valuable. The world needs you, you bring something unique.

You’ve got a signature that no one else in the world has”. I didn’t have that understanding. And I don’t think a lot of us grew up with that understanding.

Casanova Brooks:

I definitely didn’t.

Allyson Byrd:

Yeah. So I took that course when I was 20 and it turns things for me and it turns me out of a. I was raised as a Christian and the type of Christianity I was raised in put a lot of burden and onus on God, where it was like, well, if God wants to bless you, you know?

So it was this very judgmental style, all of, of deity that I didn’t always have access to God that God wasn’t within me. But when I took search for significance, all of a sudden I realized, wait a minute, God is within. And when I master “going within”, I never have to live a life without. Wait a minute. I am worthy.

And there is so much that’s available to me. And I can say yes to more. I can do more, be more, create more and have more. How do I do that? So that was the impetus. So I’m a super fan of telling people, get into group sessions that inspire you to think about what you think about and then identify, do those thoughts still work for me?

Do they still serve me? Do they help me to ascend to my next iteration of myself? And if they don’t: run, run fast, you know, and from there I created a voracious appetite for curriculum. For books, YouTube wasn’t out at the time. I’m super dating myself. you know, but YouTube wasn’t out at the time at all.

So I didn’t have that at the touch of a fingertip. I had to go to a library. I had to go to a Barnes and noble and like pick up a book and physically invest in myself in order to get myself to the next level. So that was the beginning. And then I started personal development courses. After that room’s like landmark education.

Rooms like size seminar. Some people know those kinds of things, and people have different opinions on those, but I can tell you for me, They changed my life for me, they opened up my thought process. I read a book called conversations with God by dr. Neale Donald Walsch. And it showed me that I can have conversations about my own creation or about my own intention in life.

And I could have greater responsibility. And that’s what I want. It was responsibility because then I knew my power and, and that’s what I’ve spent. I would say last 25 years doing is finding ways to more deeply aligned with my power and the power that I believe is bigger than me and greater than me that has called me and chosen me and anointed me that I define as God, some people call that.

Jesus or Christ or Christ consciousness or Allah or Buddha. And I’m not the judge over what you call that deity. But what I do say is that you have a right to have a conversation to say, why am I here? Why am I necessary? Why did you assign me? That’s your gifting? That’s your purpose? And then out of that comes your contribution.

So that’s been the beginning of it. For me, it was pivotal at 20. the, the train got moving even more at 22, I got a mentor. Directly at 23 and, I’ve now carried multiple mentors in multiple areas of my life ever since.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. Now for you coming from the strong faith that you had, and then converting over to now, you’re very much a pro money.

Right. And what is your age and what do I mean by that? You’re unapologetic about the success that you’ve had. You’re unapologetic about, you know, the income that you’ve been able to make. The companies, everything like that, which a lot of the times, and the religion world or Christian world it’s like money is greed.

Right. And you don’t talk that. And especially in the black community as well, you don’t talk a lot about money, right. You just kind of shun it a little bit. And most of the time, that’s why we don’t have the financial literacy. At what point did you always have financial literacy from the age of 19 to 20 as you started to become an adult and you started to develop this appetite or was this something that came later on after, as you figured out that like, Hey, I have some gaps and some flaws.

Allyson Byrd:

Yeah, absolutely not. Absolutely not. I had zero of financial literacy when it came to, understanding money. One of the reasons that I dropped out of high school was because I could not afford to catch the bus. And I was so frustrated when my mother would say it costs 20 cents, by the way, to catch the bus.

And so my mother would say, get on the bus, tell the bus driver, you forgot. You’ll pay double tomorrow. And I’d say, mom, I said that yesterday. Right?

And I was so embarrassed is so ashamed of that. So I was having dialogues where I was a young teenager. I didn’t have the resources to be successful. My mother didn’t have the bandwidth to create that and, and help me with that. I had physical, like I think every 13, 14, 15 year old girl, has where I was uncomfortable with my body with myself.

So now I’m uncomfortable in my body. I don’t have any money to go to school. I’m, you know, very smart. I felt like the teachers didn’t necessarily have an agenda for me. I felt like they had an agenda to just get through the day. And my intuition did not. I like that. So as that was all happening, I thought I can do this differently.

And that’s always been my thought, Casanova, I thought “I can do this differently”. And, and I said, I’m leaving. And I dropped out of high school. And the first thing that I went to go do was I went and got a job and I got a job where I could be there at 15 years old. And I started making that money and I started like everyone else where you work an hourly job, then I recognized there are other ways to do this.

And I just kept having this burning sensation around money, but no one wanted to talk about wealth. No that word. I don’t even think I heard it until I was in my late twenties. Did I hear the word wealth? And I joined a network marketing company where they talked about community wealth. They talked about coming up and being able to leave a legacy financially.

And I thought a legacy. And I don’t think in your twenties, do you even think that I don’t think you think legacy, I think you think today, right? So that’s where I was. Yeah. So I was just like, I don’t know. So the financial wellness that I speak of today, my grandmother, my mother, my aunties, they weren’t equipped to have that with me.

And I feel like as not just women of color, black, Brown, indigenous women, but white women too. I believe that we don’t have conversations early enough about our relationship with money. And that was a big pivot for me. And when I got into entrepreneurship, everything that I heard was get your business card, get your website, understand your demographic.

It was all these things. This, this effort that you had to do that had nothing to do the creation of money. I thought, well, when do we sell. Well, when did we convert something, you know, today our clients collectively do about $33 million in revenue a year. Over the past 10 years, my private programs, events and masterclass series have led women to create $216 million in new money.

7,500 students when it comes to money. I get so fired up because what I’ve learned over time, time is that abundance is not only our birthright. What I got very clear about is that it’s gotta be our focal point, our place of obsession to allow us to really step into the service driven agents of change that we all are.

And the first time that I stepped on the stage and I made an offer. And it was $7,800. And I gave an opportunity for 10 people to say, yes, I was so nervous. I thought I was going to pee on myself standing on that stage. My JC penny dress, you know, my Sam Edelman shoes. I got on discount at, Nordstrom rack. I can remember it like it was yesterday.

I can taste the acid. That was rising up in my throat thinking, Oh dear God, I know I can do this work, but I’ve never charged anything like this. And guess what? Eight people said yes. And in 15 minutes I did over $60,000 in 15 minutes, $62,400. That’s when I knew. This thing is rigged. And I thought the way that people we’ve been conversing with the general population about money is not right.

And I’m going to be the one that changes the conversation. And that was a big inspiration for me to where I am today.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. When you, when you were first pitching the 75, the $7,800, did you have a coach? Did you have a mentor? Somebody, because obviously we were thinking about this up front and we’re like, man, I’m about to do it.

And, and obviously you’re giving value. And then in the end, did you have somebody that told you like, Hey, this is going to be crazy, but here’s why you gotta go through it or was it just like now we’re going to wing it and see what

Allyson Byrd:

No, I’d taken a class. I’m a super fan of live events. I’d taken a three day class.

And in that three day class, I honestly battled so much what I know today to be anxiety, but I, and I don’t have a, a relationship with anxiety in that way today, but then I didn’t even know what it was, but I felt this energy where I was like shaking, angry. Viscerally frustrated. And I honestly didn’t know why.

And what it was was it was anxiety about what was possible. And someone was introducing a new concept that energetically was disrupting me. It was energetically saying you’ve left something behind and you’re about to put your effort above manifestation. No, it was a disruption. It was a, it was a defining line where I was getting clear.

Wait a minute. This has got to be different. Dare I say it was a break of a generational. Overlord or curse that had been over my family of struggle of self doubt of anger and resentment that life wasn’t the way we dreamed and hoped that it could be. And I was feeling the rise of all of my ancestors from the other side, saying.

“Come on baby girl, you gotta be the one that gets it. Come on, baby. Grow. You gotta be the one that changes this dialogue” because the dialogue evolves rapidly. But if we’re not in the space of where it is, it’s, it’s missing us. If we’re in a low income category, it’s missing us because we’re, we’re working two and three jobs all the time.

Even as entrepreneurial leaders, we can miss it because we’re so activated in the hustle that we’re not connected and committed to the promise. And the promise is that abundance is ours. The promises that we can, you know, I love this scripture and the Christian faith that says God will do exceeding, abundantly above all you get asked, imagine or think, and what I say to everyone that ever steps into any of my master classes or my breakthrough sessions that I host today.

It is. I say, if what you live in your life today is everything that you could asked for. Imagine or think then you have not yet stepped into the supernatural that’s available to you.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. That is, that’s crazy powerful. For you, as you look at your journey. Now, the question that I have is now, at least from the outside, looking in, it looks like you’ve made it right.

And I’m sure, you know, you’re still developing as we all are every single day. But if you could look back over these last 25 years, what would be one thing that you would have changed to accelerate your dream and your growth?

Allyson Byrd:

That’s an extraordinary question. The positioning on that is brilliant. what is the one thing that I would have changed?

Travel? What do

you mean?

I would have everything that I would have done. So whenever I got any money in my younger years, I would always buy things. Right. I wanted the car, I wanted the apartment I wanted, you know, when you’re in your twenties, you want, you don’t want assets wants stuff. Right. So you want the latest stuff.

And I think that a lot of people are. Cluttered with stuff right now. Can I get a Chanel bag? You know, can I, you know, you know, do I have, the lady luxury or even exotic vehicles are becoming super popular now it’s not enough to have a porous. You’ve got to have a rolls Royce. You got to have a Bentley.

You got to have, it’s like, goodness gracious. What? You know, where where’s the top now? There’s so much in our face. And what I would have done is I would have gotten out of the construct of my community faster, because what I know is that you have two accounts that help you thrive in life. Account. Number one is the account called, love and account. Number two is the account called success.

So, what I would have done is I would have known that my mother, my family, my church, community, people that I knew, people that call me Al instead of Allyson, those are the people that love me that believe in me, that would give their last dime for me. But there’s a whole other community that is for career goals and solopreneur goals and entrepreneurship goals and side hustle goals.

And those kinds of people are the people that have different conversations. They read “Think And Grow Rich”. They read “As A Man Thinketh”, they’re listening to Dale Carnegie and they’re listening to, you know, they listen to Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn and present day Tony Robbins and. Brendon Burchard and they’re progressive.

So I would have gotten out of my tight community that was rooted in love. I would have expanded it. And I think that we get so fearful. I don’t think, I know. I know that people are so fearful, but wait, I don’t want to be that successful person that leaves my family behind. Nobody told you to leave your family behind.

What I’m telling you to do is understand the distinction. There are people that can fuel you with love. And there are people that can fuel you with principles that shift your trajectory around success and around your greatness in ways that you never could have imagined. I would have disrupted my narrative sooner.

And that would have brought me into an intentional space of broader belief, and relationship with money quicker, sooner, and faster. And that’s okay. I would have done. So I would have traveled. I would have gone to places and pockets where those people, where I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. And I remember just going to Dallas or Houston, which is only hours away was considered a big trip.

And I know statistics today show that majority of people still don’t leave the radius of their home. Well, you’ve got to think about that. That means your thinking is confined. to the radius of the type of people and the quality of living that is around you. So if that’s all you’re seeing, that’s all you’re knowing it.

That’s all you’re knowing. That’s all you’re curating. If that’s all you’re curating, that’s all you’re living. And now you’ve not only reduced yourself to that, but you’ve also reduced your belief, your faith in God to that container and that box, and that keeps you safe. Small and sane and beige when you were made to be distinctive unique and red, hot and seen by the world, I would have changed my position in the world and it would have changed my position in life.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. So looking at that, like the crazy thing is. For you, it feels like you’ve come so far, but at what point did you know, like I got this I’m here because I feel like for a lot of people right now, especially with YouTube and podcasts and things like that, it’s easy for us to be like, Oh yeah. Like, I feel like I got it.

I can listen to Allyson what she’s saying. Okay. I hear it. But there’s gotta be a moment to where you get that one client or you get on stage. Like at what point did you know you arrived? Was there ever a moment?

Allyson Byrd:

You had multiple moments, multiple moments of arrival. I’ll tell you one. When I stood on a stage in Minnesota and every one, I think I could count on one hand.

I think I could count on one hand how many people of color I saw in that, in that theater, it was probably about 500 women. And I looked out and all of them didn’t look like me and the arrival wasn’t arrival of not I’ve arrived because I’m in front of an audience of white people. I’ve arrived because I’ve come to a place where I understand, I don’t understand.

Hmm. I don’t understand. JZ says it. A Dale Carnegie said at first, Jay Z said it I’m in a rhyme in the nineties where he says, “don’t ask me about my successes, asked me about my failures. And then you really know my life. You really know who I am”. Right. So the bright light. People think is when I signed my first million dollar contract.

People think the bright lights is when I sat across from Coca Cola or Proctor and gamble or bright lights was, you know, being featured on CNN or an interview with Forbes. Oh no, honey. It’s when I stood on that stage in Minnesota and I thought, Oh, Oh shit. I don’t know what I don’t know. And I started recognizing I’ve got to be more diverse.

In my approach, the bright lights for me was standing in Texas in front of a manufacturing organization of all men, white men, Hispanic men, primarily. And I was there to teach and they were looking at me like, there’s nothing you can teach me, black girl. Hmm, there is nothing that I’m going to say yes to you.

That was a bright light moment because I realized not to become better for environments like that. I realized don’t subject yourself to places where you’re tolerated and not celebrated. And so the bright lights for me was when I stood in front of a company, I’m still partners with them. So I won’t say who they are, but they put me in front of their legal division.

And the legal division, wanting to ask me about all of my academia. Well, I dropped out when I was 15. I went back to high school when I was 19. I graduated when I was 20. I went into college when I was 21 and recognize this is not for me. And so those people in that space of academia were not interested.

In learning from me and they did not feel like that the knowledge would flow through me to be benefit for them. And so they judged to me through the entire time, so I had a three day contract where every day I went home with the bubble guts in my stomach, I went home second guessing itself, down in rewriting my content, trying to prove myself.

And that was a lesson where I realized, Allyson, you have nothing to defend. And, nothing to protect and nothing to prove. That was a bright light moment. So for anyone listening, if you’re waiting for your bright lights to be, when someone esteemed you, I can think about when Lisa Nichols put me on her stage and there were, you know, 5,000 people looking at me and you could call that a bright light.

You could call that the first time that I stood on stage and hundreds of people went to the back of the room and bought, and you know, we did seven figures in less than. 24 hours, you could call that bright lights, but those weren’t the big teaching moments, the teaching moments are never the ones that elevate you.

The teaching moments are the ones that bring you to your knees, that humble you, and that ask you to your own self “have you been true? Do you know who you really are? What is it that you stand for?” The bright light moments are when tears are running down your face and it’s mingled with snot and salt and you are pressed to understand.

Why, why am I even doing this? It goes beyond the money. It goes beyond the staff. It goes beyond the book deal. It goes beyond the podcast numbers. It goes beyond the Instagram likes. It goes beyond the Twitter retweets. It goes beyond, you know, the Facebook reshared. It goes into the recesses of your soul.

Hmm, do I know who I be? And am I willing to contribute her or him beyond the discomfort that it’s taken me to get to that? Am I willing 15% of our success is based on skill, knowledge, talent education. 85% is based on our own personal permission slip that we write to ourselves. So Casanova for me. The awareness and those arrival moments come all the time and they come.

And when I trip, stumble, fall flat on my face, and there are many days that I wish that the brownness that I fell into was mud, but often it was a pile of poop that I put there myself.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. That might be one of my favorite segments out of 150 episodes. Like I’m a, just be honest like that. And I’ve asked that question to me, many different forms and nobody has articulated that way.

So kudos to you. And I love everything that you said there. I can’t wait for someone to hear this and to respond and say how that segment changed their life, because that’s the exact truth. Right. And a lot of the times we often look at the successes of someone and we understand that, yes, they could’ve got lucky, but a lot of the times it was the failures.

It was all of those failures that told you every single day that like, yo “joy wouldn’t feel so good if it was not for pain”. Right. And I know that I just gotta be able to weather the storm. Right. Because eventually it will shine again and it will shine in my favor. And I think that’s exactly what you said, and I love the way that you articulated it.

So yeah, just like you said, at the beginning, make sure that someone is rewinding this and taking notes, which I will be that someone, cause I gotta be able to articulate that. Not to someone else. But articulate that to myself because every single day, just like you said, I mean, there’s going to be wins and there’s going to be losses.

Right. But how can you at the time where you’re in your deepest, darkest moments, this is when you just tell yourself, listen, this is just my arrival. This is just my arrival. And so I love it for you. There’s someone out there that I know continues to inspire you. Right? You’ve you’ve heard Jim Rohn. You’ve heard Tony Robbins, all these people modern day or past present.

Who right now, if you are in that deep, dark, deep, dark moment, who do you go to for inspiration?

Allyson Byrd:

Huh? Let me see. well my playlist, people ask me all the time. Have you heard the new song? This, have you heard the new that? And I’m always so behind because. I’m forever listening to something that feeds me. I’m a gemini.

And so we have a voracious appetite for information, and it depends on what my inspiration needs to be. I will tell you that I love Les Brown. I love the way he tells a story. Yeah. And sometimes I want to hear that sometimes I want to be reminded of grit and hunger. Cause that’s him, you got to be HUNGRY.

Like the way that he says that is so guttural, like it’s just in the gut. Like, ah, and sometimes I want that because. You know, I live a, an incredibly privileged life, but the thing that I have an overstanding of is that two thirds of our world still lives on less than $2 a day. And so I I’m in a vacation house right now while we’re recording in sunny, San Diego I’m minutes from the beach.

there’s, you know, there housekeepers cleaning my house right now. You know, I own a luxury vehicle. I pay for my nephew’s college tuition. I, you know, I there’s nothing that I could physically want. If I could physically jump on a plane to go, go to the Maldives today, I would dare God. I would, I would, I would.

there’s not much that I could want for, but that’s what I, they call a gardener mentality. Which means you tend only to the territory that you have. Hmm. There’s the farmer mentality. And the farmer mentality says I’m going to tend to my territory in such a way that it grows and can feed others. That was Dr.

Martin Luther King. Like, I’m not going to be so much about myself and my own incubator of feeling, goodness that I’m going to be aloof to the fact of what’s going on in the South side of Chicago, aloof to what’s going on in the inner city of Baltimore, aloof to what’s going on in Lebanon, aloof to what’s going on in South Africa.

I’m not going to be unaware and I’m also not going to not do anything about it. So for me, I am always looking for inspiration that inspires me to move out of conformity and complacency that can really grab us, especially in this social media world, we start to want to claim again, physical things. And a friend of mine just told me, she said, Oh my God, you know, I just got this great.

Bag on sale. And I’m so excited and this, that, and the other. And she said, I think you should get it. She goes, you know, I always see you. I carry like this little flat wallet. I just, it’s the only thing that I carry. And she said, I think you need to start carrying bags. And she’s talking to me about success symbols.

Right. I think you should start carrying bags. I think, you know, there are certain things that show people who you are. I think you should consider this kind of watch and do this and that. And, and so I sent her a message maybe two weeks later and I said, I bought a bag and she said, you did. And I said, yeah, do you want to see a picture?

And she said, yeah. And I sent her a picture of the framework for school in Togo Africa. I said, this is my bag. Right? For the same amount of your Chanel bag. Now kids can go to school and a teacher can be employed. I bought a bag. I said, do you want to see another bag that I bought? She’s like, okay. Like I can feel, look through the text.

And I sent a picture of a clean water well, Hmm, like, let’s just talk about this. Like, let’s just talk about partnerships, put shoes on the feet of kids in Cambodia. Like it’s bigger than us. So I enjoy listening to Les because he works minds me, stay hungry. Allyson, stay hungry for the transformation you became.

A worker of light to bring light. And if majority of the world is still in darkness, you ain’t really bring in it girl. So don’t fool yourself just because, you know, people are excited about you and because you just did an NPR interview and, you know, because you’ve just got a fat deal that just came through, that’s not the end of your work.

So less is big for me. I definitely love listening to, Iyanla Vanzant when it comes to work of my soul work of my heart. I enjoy listening to Marissa pier. I think she’s so good. just with, again, just to thine own self being true. I love the work that she, that she has. I love Brendon Burchard. For that conversation around productivity, you know, getting things going.

I really love Brendan. I’ve known Brendan for many, many years since when Brendan first started sold his first thousand dollar product. you know, so I diversify. And I’m always listening. I just bought a new book from a woman named Octavia Raheem, and I’m always looking for people that are coming with the new voices that continue to get me to a new level and they keep me.

Focused the main thing I would say to anyone listening, diversify, what you listen to. If you’re listening to TD Jakes all the time, love TD Jakes, but you’re also going to be in a mindset of a spiritual war all that time. If you listen to a Joel Osteen. All the time. You’re always going to be, you know, in this happy go.

Lucky. Not that that state. Isn’t good, but where’s your awareness. Listen to Peter Diamandis who wrote the book Bold, right. Listened to his consciousness around. What does that look like for you to bring a. Bold way of, of showing up to the world differently and uniquely, like you’ve got to transform, who you listen to Carey Nieuwhof.

I just started Carey Nieuwhof book. that’s all about the character of you. How will you show up in your ethics? In your integrity and in your morals and baby listen, the more money you start making, the more opportunities come to you, that challenge your character, your ethics, and your morals. So who inspires me, depends on what it is I’m seeking in that moment.

And I diversify those teachers so that I can diversify my results.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. The last question that I have for you. Is there somebody out there that’s right now besides myself, which I am, that’s super inspired, right? The super high, ready to run through a wall right now because of the wisdom that you’ve given off, but they have that little voice in their head.

That little voice says that they’re not strong enough. They’re not smart enough. Or maybe they just don’t have enough resources. What’s the one thing that you would say to that person to get them to just take action.

Allyson Byrd:

The only thing that’s going to change someone who’s having that kind of thought. It’s actually going to take three things, actually. So it’s not going to take one. It’s going to take three. The first thing is get in a therapy group. If you don’t have the money to have a private therapist get in a therapy group where you can take all of those thoughts that you’re having and stop suppressing them and start expressing them.

Because otherwise they’re taking up space and until you get them out until you feel heard, the number one human need is to have a sense of belonging. And in that belonging, we want to know, do you see me? Do you hear me? And does what I say matter? Okay. So you got to get in a place in space where you’re, where, you know, you’re seeing your heard.

And what you’re saying is mattering. And our best friends just can’t do that. Our cousins or family, they just can’t do it that, and the way that we need it. So get in a therapy circle at therapy group. They’re free therapy circles everywhere all over the world. If you cannot get in it locally, then get in it virtually and allow yourself to be heard.

That’s number one. Number two, I would say, say, do what I did. I found meetup.com had just launched it wasn’t and even acquired yet actually meetup.com had just launched. And I would go to this breakfast circle of coaches, where I would just hear different coaches talk about what they were doing, what they were up for and what happens is when we change our environment.

All of the sudden, our mind against to go and grow around what we’re doing, seeing and experiencing. So find ways to change your environment, even if you’re ultra successful right now, change your environment. Find a place that either gets you. Find one of two places, a place that inspires you to Uplevel and a place that inspires you to see the level that you are not that put that pivots you into deeper gratitude for where you are.

So I think culture change environment change is just so important. So find a way to get around other people that are thinking and curating success like you. And, and then the last thing that I would say that I think is real, is beyond him. Is start a gratitude postcard. And so you literally just start a postcard every single day, morning, and nights.

You should have two postcards a day for seven days, and that’s going to give you 14 postcards. And what you want to do is you just want to write I’m so happy and grateful that. And then you fill in the blank. What are you so happy and grateful? Nothing can shift your energy more than a place of gratitude.

So if I can say, so I’m on a journey right now to release 50 pounds off of my body. I’m eight pounds away and I’ve been really frustrated Casanova because I’ve been going to the gym every day. I’m going to ride my Peloton when you and I get done recording. And, and I started noticing that I wanted. I don’t love sweets, but I love like a chip or Cheez-It or something salty, crunchy.

And I was craving all these different things that were taking me off my track. And I thought, why am I not focused? And then I recognize, wait, you haven’t written that you’re so happy and grateful that the eight pounds is released off of your body. You’re so happy and grateful that you no longer have to battle the inflammation in your ankles.

You’re so happy and grateful that you feel good to be able to jump on a plane. Anytime to be able to spread the message of empowerment and truth that you’re assigned in this lifetime for you haven’t cast the vision. So that third one is a true anchor, but yeah, you cannot be so happy and grateful if you don’t feel that you belong.

If you don’t feel seen, heard and acknowledged, you cannot be so happy and grateful if you haven’t shifted your culture and your environment and expanded, because then you’ll look at your circumstances, the circumference of what’s around you, and you will think that that’s all that exists. So understand why I put those in priority, the way that I did one, two, and three, and then you will find yourself shifting.

Those micro shifts, those micro wins BJ Fogg has a great book out called tiny habits. Those tiny habits that invite you into creating something big for yourself. We all think that we’re going to take a big quantum leap, but many of us start with putting on like the skydiving gear and, you know, getting ready and we walk out to the curb of life and we jump like it’s one little.

You know, it’s one little job, but yeah, what I want to say is don’t become a master of jumping off the curb because you’re only going to get arthritis in the knees of your destiny. Like jump off the curb and then find higher platforms every time, stretch yourself and grow yourself. And if you’re in a place where you feel like you belong, if you’re in a place where you feel seen, heard, acknowledged, if you’re in a place where people are continuing.

Continually expanding your mind, taking that 15% skill, knowledge, talent education, growing that, that 85% permission of who you be. You’ll be in a place of perpetual gratitude. And before you know it, you will be at the top of a mountain and you will find yourself energetically soaring with the career.

The business, the physical assets that you desire, the joy, the fulfillment in your relationships, the spiritual fortitude, and even the altruism. And filanthropy then you desire to bring into the world for the changes that you want to see happen. You’ll see that you will manifest that you will create that and you will be unstoppable.

Casanova Brooks:

Got it. Wow. This has been a phenomenal conversation and I want to be the first one to kick off the thank you train for coming and just sharing so much wisdom. For anyone who wants to stay in touch with you, where can they find you at.

Allyson Byrd:

Yeah. So, you know, my team supports me with a lot. I spend 85% of my time in my tech company, 15% of my time in my own personal brand and different things that I like to play in, but where I don’t let anyone do my takeover is on Instagram.

I love Instagram. So I live on my Instagram feed and my stories and in my DMs. And so if you have something to say, if you have a question, if you want to know what we’ve got going on, how you can, you know, play with us or anything that I may be doing. You know, Instagram is the place @IamAllysonByrd.

Just make sure you spell my name. Right. But that’s where I give value. Every single day. I love showing up there. It’s so much fun for me and it allows me to express myself and stay connected. So come hang out with me on the ground.

Casanova Brooks:

Definitely. Well, we’ll definitely put all of those links in the show notes, but again, thank you.

This has been such an honor and a pleasure. And remember DreamNation, just as she said, the dream is great, but you have to take action. Otherwise it will only merely be a fantasy. That’s all for this one. We’ll catch you on the next one.