E7: Building Multiple Worldwide Businesses after a Life Changing Accident with Alison Goodwin

Imagine having spent years building your career; you are travelling the world and leading teams across the globe. You are at the very top of your game and then an accident at work causes it to stop literally overnight.

This happened to Alison and in this episode we dive into how she turned what can only be described as a life changing injury into an experience that changed her life for the better.

Alison Goodwin is a business consultant, serial entrepreneur and owner of multiple companies around the world, including The Online Business Association and Conscious Consultants . With 25+ years of experience in business strategy, Alison specialises in consulting in sales, marketing and operations.

The Online Business Association offers 1:1 business strategy support, accredited training, ready-to-download, customisable business templates, business retreats, and outsourced team solutions across areas of operations, including marketing, sales, HR and certified online business management.

Alison's Links:

https://www.facebook.com/theonlinebusinessassociation

https://theonlinebusinessassociation.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-online-business-association/

Want to connect? Find me here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamemmahine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/behappybesuccessful

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-hine

Website: https://www.emmahine.co.uk

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaHineStrategy

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to today's episode of Dream Business, Dream Life. Today, I'm joined by the lovely Alison Goodwin. Alison is a business consultant, serial entrepreneur, and owner of multiple companies around the world, including the Online Business Association and Conscious Consultants. With over 25 years experience in business strategy, Alison Alison specializes in sales, marketing, and operations.

Her values and passion to help others are so aligned with mine. And I'm super excited to have us with us today. So hello, Alison. Great to have you here. Hello.  Right. Let's dive straight into this, Alison. And let's go back to, we're going to go back in time a little bit now. And we're going to go back to when you were a high flying corporate employee, quite literally.

Tell us what life looked for, looked like for you back then.  

It was very, very different. I kind of look back at it now. Um, and I think, my God, did I really, did I really go through all of that? Did I really live that experience? Um, I was working 90  plus hours a week. Um, I had sales targets and teams around the world.

Um, I was the, you know, achievement wise, I was the top performing consultant in the company for over 15 years. And in the companies that I've worked in, um, in that period. that ilk. Um,  I traveled the world, um, with on trips, winner's trips. I won the sales competitions. I was, life was really, really good. And then probably  something happened.

Well, something definitely happened that was really, really good.  Transformation for me, I had an accident at work. Um, and my foot went through a concrete floor, which severed the tendons in my leg. Um, I had years of recovery, because I had my tendons reattached, and I found that I was not out of a job, um, but I couldn't go back to the job that I loved, because that was, it was It was high profile, it was traveling.

I was on the road all the time. Um, and very quickly, um, I had to, I had to look at an alternative. Um, but fortunately as part of what I did previously, I'd also helped thousands of companies, um, and businesses build their businesses. So.  I was quite fortunate. Um, but I found that, I mean not many people know this, but I had to learn to walk again.

Um, the period of recovery that I'd gone through, I developed something called fibromyalgia and CRPS, complex regional pain syndrome. Um, and it just made the healing journey really, really, really difficult. Um, it's something that I still live with now, but I manage.  Um, and I manage it very, very well. My tendons have repaired, um, but the signals to my brain don't work the way that everybody else's do.

So it was a complete, um, I always say that if you believe in divine, in divine, um, intervention, um, it was that period, that moment where it was kind of like you have to stop. That's what it felt like. And boy, did it, did I stop.  So during the accident, I've sort of purchased a property. So I've put all my efforts into whilst I was unable to walk, um, completely renovating the house I'm in now.

Um, and just. Put my focus on to something completely, completely different. Um, and then just built everything up again.  Um,  it was the best thing that happened to me. And I say this to people all the time when we talk about it, it was absolutely hands down the best thing that ever happened to me. Because if that hadn't have happened to me, I wouldn't have stopped.

I wouldn't have the life that I have now. You know, the, the, the partner I have now, none of that would have been possible because I would have still been in the nine to five, but not even nine to five for me. The daily grind of.  Overperforming, um, I just wouldn't have stopped. 

No, we see that a lot, don't we?

People who, who get hit with something life changing. I think it's fair to say for you, Alison, that moment was life changing. That, that makes you, I think it sends people two ways, doesn't it? Some people it will send them into, you know, my life's over and that's the way they will go. Oh God! Others, and I think this is where, yeah, and I get that, yeah.

And I think the true entrepreneur clearly came out in you there. And it was like, I'm not going to sit here and wallow. I'm going through the worst thing that could ever possibly happen to me. But what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to turn that to my advantage and I'm going to find something else to keep me busy, something else to keep me going.

Um, so where did. We're going to go on to your new businesses because you have several, um, in a second. And we're going to delve into what you created, but where did this come from? So you, you, you left the corporate, you started the house renovation to keep you busy. Uh, you said that you'd got connections.

Did, did you just start to connect with people? How did you get going? 

Um, 

it just happened. I can't, I can't say this. I, I, I don't, I was really good at building connections. So I had a really strong network, like a really strong network. I'd worked with, um, some of the biggest companies around the world. Um, so I had strong connections. I always.  In my, I call it my old job, I'd always made sure that I built relationships.

I built the connections and it was based on mutual trust. So for me, it was never about the sales. Sales has never been about the sales. It's been about how I can help that person. Um, and sometimes, and this is what we forget in the entrepreneurial world, it comes at, it doesn't, it's something you give to people.

And it's a, uh, There's no outcome. There's no, I don't attach any outcome to it. So if I can help, I will do. And I know you're the same. It's kind of like, you don't come from that place of what's in it for me. So I was really lucky when this happened that I was able to tap  into my network. I'd always, as part of my previous role, I'd always work with, you know, I mean,  I probably had about 3, 000 people working on assignment for me at one stage.

Um, so I'd always had that connection, those, those individuals. I'd always, I'd always naturally help them with the business. I'd gone down from a, from a business background anyway. Um, so I'd always had my hand in that and it was something naturally that I wanted to do. But interestingly,  about this now. Um, the first mastermind to went into in the online space, um, was with the lovely Abigail Horne.

Um, and I remember sitting down, all this was happening and I was kind of like, I really don't know what to do. And I was really, um, really against corporate at that stage. I was like, you know, my job work, weren't being particularly helpful because it had happened at work. And. It was, it was a case of, I'd sort of said to Abigail Horne, she said, well, what is it you want to do?

And we laugh about this note when we catch up. She's like, do you remember when you said to me, I said to her, I had all these business ideas and she was like, Alison, you belong.  Doing what you're doing. And I was like, I am not doing it. I'm not doing it. And I remember saying to her, I just want to,  you're going to laugh at this.

I just want to open a cake shop.  All I want to do is bake. I've had enough of corporate. I've had enough of everything. I've had enough of people. Um, I've had enough of the lot. And I remember saying, you will feel differently about this, um, very soon. Um, anyway, six months later.  Um,  we were talking and I was like, I know I need to do something.

And I was naturally being guided to this. I was getting contacted by people wanting to work with me, even clients that I'd worked with previously, contractors I'd worked with, it was just the messages were coming through. This is what you need to do. And remember, I'd be looking at me and saying, do you remember when you wanted to open that cake shop?

And I remember saying to me, you can open your cake shop, but that's your hobby. Really, really different. Um,  Interesting. One of the ideas I had, um, years ago is something that's coming.  At the moment, we're just getting the patent for, um, so it just goes to show that it might not be right in the moment. Um, but in my entrepreneurial journey, um, I've connected with like people around the world.

And one of those people, when I was talking about one of my patent ideas was like, Alison, I want in on this. Um, so, so that's, that's coming to life at the moment. So it just goes to show at any stage, it might not be right in the moment, but things sometimes play out for the better in later years. So I could have 

had a cake shot.

But now I don't. And you know what, I bet one day you have a cake shop. I'm sure that will happen at some point. Just for the hobby, but I'm sure it will. If that's one of your dreams, I'm sure that will happen. Look, I mean, all I 

wanted was just to bake. I find it relaxing and it's just like, yeah. So that's, that's your, yeah.

Abi will tell you that herself. Um. There you go. You can bake for me anytime, Alison. You know that. Absolutely. Anytime you can bake for me. So tell us a little bit about what you have created. Because what you have is basically, Probably quite different to a lot of the people who were probably going to be listening to this podcast have built in terms of their business, there's a lot of different like arms and a lot of things that fit together in terms of your business.

So share a little bit of that with us.  I realized very 

early on that, um, and I've never really, I didn't come from the online space, I came from corporate, but I realized very early on in the online space, which is daunting, by the way, I even look at it these days and I'm like, oh my God, um, I've got my own views on this.

But, you know, people only tend to give you a piece of the puzzle in the online space. For me, I realized early on that, that running a business, running a successful multi six, seven, eight figure business, you need lots and lots of moving parts. So what we created was a consultancy, a true consultancy. If you think of a business consultant who would go into a business, would look at the overarching strategy, not strategy as we know it, but be able to see the pieces in the business that are missing.

Whether that's sales, marketing operations, legal compliance, HR recruitment, any of those bits. So I can look, we have the ability with the consultancy to go into a business, look at the business, see where the gaps are, and then guide that business.  Into increased profitability or whatever their idea of profit is.

Um, it's a model that works well. It's more, it's a model. I'm transparent with everybody. It's a model that's modeled on corporate, you know, when you're in corporate and you're in a corporate corporate role, and this is what the online space don't tend to realize  you, you have your own departments and all the departments work together and it works in the main.

I'm not saying it works perfectly all the time, but in the main, it. It does work. Um, so our, our model is based on that. We literally have the ability. I'll go in as a consultant. I still do that with my corporates. Now I still advise board of directors with some of the biggest companies in the UK and overseas, um, on strategy growth, all of those things, the same model I apply there is what we do in the online space and it works.

So what we found is that over the years we've been able to build successful multi six, seven and eight figure businesses. Um, even down to, um, clients. We don't just work with, with, uh, we, we don't just work with a particular type of  client, so we work with clients who've got low office and even the high ticket office of the, you know, 500,000 to a million pound products or services.

Um, and what's interesting for me is the people who are at the higher eons of the high ticket, as we say, still have the same problems that those just coming into the, into the industry have. Um, and that's, that's what we're good at, that's what we're good at as a team. So the consultancy arm is the arm of the business that has a waitlist for certain services.

Um, and then obviously we have the online side because I realized very early on that, you know, we needed to be able to give people and meet people where they are. So it's not always coming into a one to one, which is sometimes quite costly for businesses. I want them to be able to have an ROI in the early stages.

So, The online business association is the accreditation arm of the business. And that we've been doing that for years with corporates as well, but it's also where you can, if you are entry at an entry level into, um, into  business, you can get your bundles, you can get your sales, marketing, compliance, legal, HR, all of the bits you need, where you are in the moment.

So if you know where you are, and this is the problem for most entrepreneurs, they can just purchase and they've got the information to be able to move forward. So. And then obviously we've got the, um, the, the, the SAS company. We're part of a SAS company in Silicon Valley, um, and other companies around the world.

So we've been very fortunate and very lucky. 

I'm very busy keeping yourself very busy.  

Yeah, 

I love it. I don't do anything 

else as everyone knows. 

Absolutely. Absolutely not. So if somebody is listening to this and they're thinking, you know, I want a bit of that. I like the idea of some of these people that you work with and the ability to have multiple businesses around the world.

What would you say to them? Where would you say that they should be starting? I  

think it's absolutely possible. Um, one of the things that I would say is your network.  Um, you've got to look closely at your network and you've got to look past your network. I see too often,  and let's talk about the online space.

I see people who are so stuck in what I call the little clicks, the little groups of people. But what you've got to realize, and what I realize very Very early on is that I don't belong to any particular click and that suits me. I've been like that since school. So to anybody who comes in, who's, who's looking to work with the kind of clients I work with, it's all about your network and it's all about having genuine, honest conversation.

Um, you know, I've been in rooms with, you know, multimillion billion,  billion pound companies, and it all comes down to networking. Um, I.  I would say expand your network. There is life past the online space and the people that you see in your immediate sphere. And what I tend to see, um, and it's something I'm quite vocal about with clients that I work with.

When we start working together, we work on the network. We work on how they can expand the network past what they know. Um, it's that you see people being passed around in clicks. Coaches referring, coaches referring. You're in coaches and you're all fishing in the same pond. Um, and that works for some people, but it doesn't work for others.

Um, and I think the, the connection element is absolutely limitless. You can, you can, you can expand your network so, so easily. The other thing is, build your, build your list.  We don't have, um, A website for the consultancy side. We don't have social media for the consultancy side. It's all 100 percent referral.

But what we did very, very early on is we started to build our email list. So we made sure  that we have those people coming through.  

Yeah. Yeah. And that's like music to my ears when you talk about, you know, how you've grown such an amazing business or businesses using connections, using, uh, when I say using, I don't physically mean using, but I mean by building connections and just getting to know people at a, at a, at a different level beyond I'm talking to you because I want to actually sell something to you.

Yeah. I think it's so important. It's so important.  So  if I, if I connect with people and I connect with them on a genuine level, I have no problem, um, referring people on, I've just referred a client into my network and there is, I can say this without break, breaching any confidentiality. Her product or service is, you know, a million pound.

And we've already got with the client that I've referred her into, eight people interested in that product. So I know that's an 8 million pound. Revenue and I have handed that and those connections and are working together because it's absolutely right for that client. There's no financial  reward for me in that it's because it's right for those individuals.

And I think it's sometimes we are so focused on revenue and how I get people in. And there's a lot of people have the spammy tactics of trying to attract sales sometimes. It's going to come and I'm a great believer in what you give will also be received. Um, and that's certainly been, I think, part of the reason we've been done, you know, we've been successful in what  we do.

So it's just, just being aware and be mindful that it doesn't have to be. There is something in it for you, but just knowing that that will come back. And I know that's something you're really good at. When you connect, you, you never look at what's in it for me. It's always like, how can I help you? But I mean, from your experience, I know it comes back tenfold with the people that you work with.

And I just wish more people like us when they're starting the business out and don't look at the gurus in the online space. The, you know, a teaching 10, 10 months, you've got to take yourself into debt. You've got to, you know, go into their networks and those five messages, 10 messages, whatever the new norm is, there is another way of doing it.

I call it, I mean, we were talking about this the other day as a team. I call it, let's get back to old school networking, networking. Before we had the internet, before we had the phones, what did we used to do? We used to actually have proper conversations. Um, and I just wish more people would do that. 

Yeah.

Yeah. And I think you said something earlier about, um, you know, your business model is, is built on the corporate business model. And I think that's part of the problem, isn't it? A lot of people who come into this online world, and I'm one of those people and I'll hold my hands up at the beginning. I was definitely one of those people when I started my e commerce business, but we've come into this world very much of a. 

I'm not going to be corporate anymore. I've done that. Didn't enjoy that. Didn't serve me well. Therefore, everything I do, I'm going to do totally the opposite of what they do in the corporate world. And I think we, we, we then get stuck. We then reach a point where we think, do you know what, what do we need to do?

So we start to do things, often things that in the online world, and I'm not, I'm not dissing this. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Are called fancy things. But actually they're just doing what you do in corporate, you know, going back to the basics, building the foundations and getting all of your, as you say, your, all your cogs working together.

That is what they do in corporate. But in this online world, it's almost like it's a taboo subject. We can't talk about, we have to say, I don't do anything like they do in the corporate world. People 

fight it all the time.  Because corporate's got the connotations that go along with it. Corporate is far more established than the online space will, will ever be.

It's been going for years. I fought it, but what you have to realize that are elements in corporate that do work, we have a corporate clientele, we have an online business clientele, and we don't treat them any differently. The delivery mechanisms might be slightly different because they're more established and they've got the processes. 

I just wish the online space was processed out a little bit better for a lot of people because it would make things easier. So I do advocate when you are a business, small business up to six figures, one of the first things you should do within your business is actually sort your operations out and your processes to make your delivery easier.

I think the other thing that I took from corporate and it was, it was a good and a bad thing is in corporate, they have so many clients coming through in the main because that's where they are. They don't always service the clients the right way. So one of the lessons we've taken from corporate is how do we nurture our clients?

How do we put our clients first and foremost? Um, because I know in corporate that many corporate clients, you know, aren't meeting the clients where they are because it's a volume thing. People are coming through, they're buying and they're quite happy to lose. So we focus. Within our business in everything we do is always client first is as in not our client is the customer first.

So I always say to people, it's not what you think the customer needs. It's what does the customer actually need and actually drilling down on that? Not customer avatar, that surface level. But, you know, the corporate principles we've just talked about are integral to our business. But the other thing we're built on is the gap that we see, which is customer delivery, customer experience, customer delivery are absolutely key to a successful and thriving business.

Yeah, and that's the same for any business, isn't it? Whether you're a product based or service based, it's exactly the same principle. People, people will recommend you. People will buy from you again if they enjoy the experience and actually it makes it easier for you as the owner too. So, you know, if you prefer to look at it from your own perspective, of course you want happy customers because your life is going to be so much easier and you're going to enjoy it more.

You're going to enjoy what you do a lot, lot more if you're not constantly battling with, with processes that aren't working or with. Clients that aren't happy or so. Yeah, I absolutely love that you come from that, that perspective. So if,  if people are listening and, um, you know, they, they'd like to get sort of a top tip from you.

What would you say would be your top tip for them?  

Interesting one, it's definitely the customer, um, always focus on your customer, make sure you're completely aligned with the customer. One of the other things I'd say people don't do enough in the online space is look at your metrics. People think, oh God, looking at the metrics, what do I do?

I don't just talk about your surface level metrics, I talk about what is, if you have a website, what is your website telling you. Um, top tip, I say this all the time, if you don't have this, try and look at something like post hoc. What that will do is it will, and we use it within our business. We use it within our corporate clients, our multi million pound  clients, all the way through, it's really, really good.

That will help you to track what your customer is doing. So when they land on your website visually, it will show you where they click, where they wait, where they're hanging around and where they drop off. That will tell you if your copy, your voice. Your messaging, um, your visuals, it'll tell you what's working and what isn't working.

So don't be afraid to make changes in your business as you go. Um, if you're not making changes in the business, then I would question, I would, I'd have serious concerns. And it's one of the things I say to clients all the time, when is the last time you check your business? Check your socials. What's happening on your socials?

You, you, we get so used to, we've gotta put things out on socials. But are you actually looking at the, the, your metrics, your stats? What are your stats saying? What are your audience resonating with? You could be posting for a year and it not resonate with your audience at all. Same with your social, same with your website.

Um, other metrics. SEO make sure that you are, um, bringing organic leads in from SEO. Um.  And so don't just have your web, got your keywords, your meta tags, and all the other bits in the background working for you, have you registered with Google search console? I know this sounds quite tech, but those would be the things I'd start with, with clients.

It's, it's looking at your metrics, what's happening, making those corrections, um, and then. Pivoting, um, if you need to, um, so that you can start to get more organic leads through before you even go down the page route. So I'm, I'm big on organic, um, lead generation. We do that a lot with multi, multi million pound, um, clients.

Um, yeah, a lot of people will do the outreach on social, but don't realize that you've got something that will bring those leads to you sitting there waiting. You've just not optimized it the right way. So make sure you KPIs, make sure that your systems. Or all operating the way they should, because it will bring you the leads through and obviously provide content to your audience that resonates with them.

There's no point having a freebie if no one's downloading it. 

Yeah, exactly. And you wouldn't know that if you didn't look at your metrics. You just said that summarizes back to something you said earlier that, that whatever stage of business people are at, they tend to have the same problems. And this is a key example of that, isn't it? 

We wing business. A lot of people start a business and they wing it. If we start to make money, we might make six figures. We might make multi six if it goes by winging it, but at some point you're going to get stuck. And this is when you need to come right back to these things. You've just spoken about these foundations within your business to make sure that you've got a stable, you know, a stable plateau before you start building.

Um, so yeah, amazing. 

It's where you take your customer. So once you've, once you've, you've say, say someone comes into your mastermind, where are they going after that? People forget that they're so focused on the short term. I'm getting them in the mastermind. I've got the revenue in, I've got to deliver on that. 

The amount of customers that we deal with, even the million pound product or service that we do. So, you know, the conversation is the same. Where do they go after that? You know, where'd you go after you've signed somebody for a million pound? You've got to be thinking about it. I know it might seem like a far reach, they've just spent a million, but there is a, there is a customer journey.

Always, always make sure that customer has somewhere to go when, when they complete your product or service.  

Completely amazing. So finally, Alison, to end our podcast for today, if any of our listeners want to learn more about you, where's the best place for them to connect with you? 

The best place is www.

theonlinebusinessassociation. com. If you go to that website, there's lots and lots of free resources, more regularly updating, um, bundles for people to have a look at. There's plenty of information to get you started, both free and paid. Um, We've got probably 83 items that are still being uploaded into that, that we're just trying to get up quickly.

So just keep checking. There's plenty of information to get you started. Um, and if anyone has any questions, then please feel free to reach out. 

Brilliant. So thank you so much for joining me today, Alison. It's been amazing chatting with you and exploring how you turned your life around in what was probably the worst moment in your life becoming the best moment of your life ultimately.

And I absolutely love the fact that you are so passionate about your clients. So thank you.  And thank you to everybody else for listening. I will see you next time.