Building Up An Empire On Momentum and Winning
Stacey Alcorn: Building Up An Empire
– LSherie Dean –
I stumbled onto an article written by Stacey Alcorn on Entrepreneur.com about building up your brand. There was so much knowledge packed into this one little article, but I hungered for more. So I searched more articles written by Stacey and begin to learn more about how neither I, nor you should ever stop improving, evolving and creating interesting and captivating ways to push our respective brand further. Naturally, I wanted to know more about Stacey and what made her so knowledgeable on being a successful entrepreneur.
Not to my surprise, but much to my delight my search on Stacey showed that she’s not just speaking text book, these ideas and opinions and overflow of wisdom is simply because she lives it daily. For those who aren’t familiar, Stacey Alcorn is a phenomenal author with about two books under her belt, start-up expert, keynote speaker, mom and owner of numerous businesses.
But as you may have guessed, it wasn’t always that way. Stacey’s success is clearly the epitome of “started from the bottom…”.
When I graduated from high school by the skin of my teeth, I could not get into any colleges. Even the state university declined me. It was eye opening to say the least. So, I knew at that time that I was meant for greater things and I decided then that I would do absolutely anything to apply myself so I could achieve all of my greatest dreams. I went to community college for two years. I aced everything. From there, I got into Bentley University, one of the most prestigious business schools in the country. I worked full time and I went to school full time. It was rewarding and fulfilling to see I could do great things on my own. My life has been a series of small wins. Every small win pushes me to go after even bigger wins. I’m passionate about forward momentum and winning.
I am thankful that I got to build my businesses and life from scratch because now I am living proof that anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can do the same.
For a woman balancing four successful businesses, maintaining her presence as a credible writer, and family life, Stacey Alcorn must have some secret recipe to making it all happen effortlessly.
Balance is a myth. From my experience, it’s not possible. Instead I find ways to make sure my home life and businesses can work in harmony. I work a lot of hours. I work a lot at home. However, when I say that I look for harmony, for example, I don’t stress about the fact that there are many days where I don’t get out of the house until 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. I make up for that by getting up super early (4:30 in the morning) and working until 8:30 am each morning. I get a lot done in those four hours so I’m totally cool with the fact that I just am not capable of leaving as early as I like. Work and home life just blend together. Of course, I always make time that’s just for family….just like I make time just for business.
Balance? No. Harmony? Definitely. Realizing that her extraordinary talents as a woman in business is no doubt her purpose, Stacey shares and empowers other entrepreneurs to go out and get what they want. She built her way up starting as a copy girl; Stacey learned every aspect of business only to become an expert. Something all entrepreneurs should be doing, including me. But that cliché of “on the job learning” really is key to building tough skin and truly learning the business.
I have four businesses that are all very distinct – a real estate company (this is my largest business – 300 agents), a law firm, a consulting/coaching/speaking business, and a fashion start-up (www.MyLittleBlackBox.com). You never know when you are going to find this little golden nugget of a business lesson. For example, I own a women’s clothing boutique in Massachusetts and recently I was working on figuring out a way to get more customers into the store since sales were down. There’s a busy pizza place right next to us and on one Friday night, I sat in the boutique window counting customers that would walk past my boutique door to go to the pizza shop. There were 68 pizza shop customers, 19 were female, and zero came to my store. I realized that I had spent all this time hiring staff to make a great impression in the boutique, but hadn’t hired someone to work the outside of the boutique, greeting possible clients, and inviting them into the store. This lesson was profound for me. As a business owner there’s nothing as important as finding a way to open the door for the client instead of relying on the client to open the door themselves. This little lesson at the boutique resulted in a shift in my thought process and, I know have instituted some changes across all the businesses so to get better at “opening the door” for potential clients.
Lesson learned. Examples like this helped form Stacey’s creative abilities and heightened her potential as a woman in business…a surefire entrepreneur. Imagine the work load and all that comes with being responsible for four businesses and family on top of speaking engagements and writing for other news blogs. It takes a lot of dedication. That’s the only word that comes to mind, but Stacey fuels her fire not just with dedication, but with motivation. Motivation from her family, the lives of people she touches by sharing her successes and failures, having the means to give freely to charitable causes and of course… the word “NO.”
The word “NO,” has always been a huge motivator. When someone says NO to me, I see it as a challenge and I turn that NO to gold. In 2005 I became an attorney after attending school at night. Everyone told me it would be impossible because I was pretty busy already, running a substantially large real estate and mortgage business. Those naysayers fueled my perseverance. I’m thankful I did because now I have an amazing law firm in the portfolio of businesses that I own.
Her family gets a piece of the pie as well when it comes to inspiration along with others like Michael Maher, Darren Hardy and Gary Vaynerchuk. And though her inspiration comes in abundance, building up an empire is in no way easy. The greatest misconception about being an entrepreneur is that it’s easy. With my one business, I know how hard it is to get everything done flawlessly and still look like a superhero all while keeping friends and other relationships intact. However, Stacey admits that there’s a bit a glory to it. “The bigger your business, the bigger your platform, which means there are more people to hear your message.” Who wouldn’t want to have a bigger platform…a bigger VOICE? This is what makes you powerful.
In order to have a powerful voice, you have to have goals. Stacey is already honing in on becoming the owner of the largest real estate firm in New England based on transactions closed by the end of 2016! Soon ink will dried for a New York Times Bestseller and like true empire builder…change the world.
For those who are curious about becoming an entrepreneur…or whatever, Stacey’s solid advice is simply, “go for it!”
REACH! Is my personal blueprint to achieving success. I would tell any new entrepreneurs that the first step to success is to build an army of advocates who are as committed to their dream as they are. There are lots of ways to build that army of people. Giving back to the community is one way. Purposeful appreciation is another. A great attitude is a must. When I see other people make small wins because of something I shared with them, I know I’m on the right track.
Success can be measured in many ways. Most people look at the dollar amount as the level of success, but Stacey believes there’s more to success than just the next buck…
Building relationships is far more important than going after money in the beginning. Building relationships through networking can result in money and all kinds of other good things for the business, like possible employees, partnerships, etc.
See! Networking really does work. Take the time to understand your craft, learn from mentors, learn on the job, be creative, walk into every door optimistic, believe in yourself, don’t take NO for an answer and keep working at it. Stacey Alcorn’s story is inspiring because she’s built her empire from the ground up taking hit after hit after hit, yet standing tall, pulling others up spreading her success like wildfire.
Much success hearts!
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CONNECT with Stacey Alcorn
Author, Blogger, Entrepreneur & Mom
Creator of the REACH! movement – www.StaceyAlcorn.com
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