How to Grow Your Business with Retreats, Seminars & Mastermind Groups – In Just 7 Minutes with Michelle Villalobos

Resources/Links:

• Wanting to Know How to Turn Your Business into a Lifestyle-Friendly, Impact-Driven, and Retreat-Driven Passion Project? Learn more about the powerful effects of incorporating retreats into your business: www.retreatstorichesroadmap.com

Summary

Have you often been feeling stressed and have constant burnout because of your business?

Are you trying to find ways how you can make your job less stressful and more fulfilling?

Do you want to know how you can align yourself to your business through the promising effects of retreats and seminars?

Michelle Villalobos is the host of the Awaken Your Inner Superstar Podcast, creator of the Superstar Business Breakthrough Weekend & Retreats to Riches Course.

In this episode, Michelle talks about how you can ditch the burnout and stress in exchange for more money and lesser business hours. She also shares the powerful impact of investing in retreats, seminars, and events on your business and how it can help you start your self-alignment journey as well.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:25 – Michelle’s ideal client: “I work with thought leaders and industry leaders. So, into specific industries, and each industry is people who are looking to evolve and lead the evolution of their industry. So, we’re working with people who want to lead others, essentially.”
• 01:53 – Problem Michelle helps solve: “Really it comes down to an alignment. Essentially, the problem is that these people, these thought leaders, often get themselves into business models where they’re exchanging time for money. And they’re selling their expertise.”
• 02:54 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Michelle: “Well when there’s a lack of alignment, there’s a lack of joy. And that’s one of the biggest, sort of, common threads, it’s like people thinking- and I went through this. This is how I came up with this.”
• 04:02 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Michelle’s solution: “I would say the mistakes they’re making are the same mistakes I made, which is the following- really optimizing for money, optimizing for significance versus optimizing for alignment. And what that means is it’s like working from the outside in.”
• 06:10 – Michelle’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “Well, one of my favorite things, it’s not exactly what we’ve been talking about, but it’s “sell it, first figure it out later”. I find that so many people get caught up with trying to have an idea. And then they go create the thing and they put it all together.”
• 06:52 – Michelle’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Michelle’s Roadmap: www.retreatstorichesroadmap.com
• 07:25 – Q: How did you figure all this out? A: And essentially, I had a massive breakdown in my business, my life, my health about seven, eight years ago. And it was like the dark night of the soul, everything fell apart

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Energy precedes outcome.” -Michelle Villalobos Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from little Castaways Beach in Queensland, Australia, joined today by Michelle Villalobos. Michelle, good day. A very warm welcome! Where are you hanging out?

Michelle Villalobos 00:25
Right now? Just about 30 minutes south of Austin, Texas.

Tom Poland 00:28
Oh, keep Austin weird, right? That’s what we want to do. I remember the t-shirt in the lobby of a hotel, and the conference I went to there was “Keep Austin weird.” I quite like that.

Michelle Villalobos 00:38
Thank you.

Tom Poland 00:39
So, for those of you who don’t know Michelle, she’s the host of Awaken Your Inner Superstar Podcast, which I reckon the world needs because so many people are solopreneurs. We get beaten up. We beat ourselves up. And the reason you’re a superstar, is we do have a gift that we can bring to the world. And Michelle’s special gift is to awaken your special gift and help you to realize you’re a superstar. She’s the creator of the “Superstar Business Breakthrough Weekend & Retreats to Riches Course”, which brings us quite nicely to this beautiful alignment, Michelle, between what you teach and what you do. I love that! The title is- to demonstrate that alignment, “How to Grow Your Business with Retreats, Seminars, and Webinar Groups”- mastermind groups, I should say. Webinar is on my brain. So, Michelle, our seven minutes is going to start now. Please, let us know, who’s your ideal client?

Michelle Villalobos 01:25
I work with thought leaders and industry leaders. So, into specific industries, and each industry is people who are looking to evolve and lead the evolution of their industry. So, we’re working with people who want to lead others, essentially. So, consultants, speakers, authors– people like that are my ideal clients and my favorite people to hang out with also.

Tom Poland 01:47
Fantastic! Thank you for that. Question number two, tell us about the problem you solve. Six and a half minutes left.

Michelle Villalobos 01:53
Really it comes down to an alignment. Essentially, the problem is that these people, these thought leaders, often get themselves into business models where they’re exchanging time for money. And they’re selling their expertise. So that’s a very obvious easy way to get started and make money. And it kind of has an upper limit where you can’t make more hours in the day, or you start to work yourself into the ground. So, the problem is usually that there’s a lack of alignment between their business model and the vision for their life and for their health and for their happiness and for their, you know, to fulfill their purpose, even.

Tom Poland 02:30
Right, so it’s like that time constraint is the bottleneck or it’s the break that stops them from going faster. Thank you for that. Question three, five and a half minutes left. One of the symptoms you’ve just described is people are running out of time, but they’re nowhere near fulfilling their potential, and their gift to the world is constrained by the calendar. What would you say are some of the other typical symptoms that people are experiencing with this problem that you help them with?

Michelle Villalobos 02:54
Well, when there’s a lack of alignment, there’s a lack of joy. And that’s one of the biggest, sort of, common threads, it’s like people thinking- and I went through this. This is how I came up with this. It was because I thought I’d be happy. You know, if I did all the things and I got all the degrees, and I made all the money. And I became known and wrote books, and this is supposed to make me happy. And what they find is that they’re not happy. And so, there are deeper layers of alignment to bring the business into- not just the business model, but the purpose, the mission, the clients they’re working with– all these different pieces bringing them into alignment, really to start from joy, so that joy gets infused into the thing they’re creating and the things that they’re saying and the speeches they’re giving, and the books they’re writing. And so, the joy gets infused into that and gets disseminated and spread out into the world rather than this kind of belief that, “Well, if I do these things, then I’ll find joy.”

Tom Poland 03:45
Right. So, approaching it from joy being the source of it. That’s very interesting! Four and a half minutes left. I almost hate to move this along because it’s so interesting, but we need to. Question four is what are some of the common mistakes that your clients are making before they find your solution?

Michelle Villalobos 04:02
I would say the mistakes they’re making are the same mistakes I made, which is the following- really optimizing for money, optimizing for significance versus optimizing for alignment. And what that means is it’s like working from the outside in. For example, “I want to change my business” or “I want a new”, you know, “I want to start something new” and starting from “Oh, I wonder what the market wants? What’s the market opportunity? What are my clients asking for?” Those are all really important questions, but beginning from the outside in is kind of a recipe for misalignment because you end up getting pulled in the direction of these forces that are not necessarily coming from your deepest innermost desires and destiny.

Tom Poland 04:45
Right. So, would you say that you’re looking, therefore, with your clients to find that sweet spot between what they’re passionate about, what they’re on Earth to give to the world, and what’s going to work well in the marketplace, as opposed to starting from the marketplace and trying to put a square peg in a round hole?

Michelle Villalobos 05:02
Exactly! And my belief, and what I’ve seen happen again and again is when you start with that alignment piece, what brings you joy? What are you great at? What do you love doing? Why are you here? Who do you want to serve? Who do you want to play with? When we do all that first, what ends up happening is that joy and that alignment creates the energy, for lack of a better word, that gets infused into all the things. In fact, this is my phrase, which is that energy precedes outcome. And when we start from the energy of joy, excitement, contribution, generosity, abundance, all of that, and we cultivate that energy, what we create, just works better. Like if people are attracted to it, people do want it. Even if they didn’t know why they wanted it, or they didn’t think they wanted it before, they’re like, “I want some of that energy.” You know, they’re drawn to it.

Tom Poland 05:52
Would you say your work is quite intuitive?

Michelle Villalobos 05:54
Yeah, I would. And I think that eight years ago, I probably wouldn’t have said that. But yes.

Tom Poland 05:59
But you have learned to trust yourself? And yeah, interesting! Thank you for that. Two minutes left. Question number five, what’s one valuable free action, like a top tip, that you could leave folks with?

Michelle Villalobos 06:10
Well, one of my favorite things, it’s not exactly what we’ve been talking about, but it’s “sell it, first figure it out later”. I find that so many people get caught up with trying to have an idea. And then they go create the thing and they put it all together. They spend all the money on it. And then they go out, once they’re bored of it at this point and try to go sell it, I say, you know, get the idea, create it. Create all the marketing materials for it. And then go out and sell it with a date attached to it. And then put that deadline so that you, then you create it, and deliver to the people who already bought it.

Tom Poland 06:39
I suspect people do that because it feels a lot safer to tinker away in the back room where they could take it to the market. So that’s a great top tip. Thank you! 75 seconds left. One valuable free resource. We got a website we could direct people to so they can find out more about your work?

Michelle Villalobos 06:52
Yeah, so one of the things that I do a lot with my clients is to help them with the business model. And that particular model that I found that works really well for me and for a lot of my clients is the retreats into a big end, into a like a monthly recurring mastermind model. So I lay out that whole model in “Retreats to Riches Roadmap” which you can get at retreattorichesroadmap.com.

Tom Poland 07:12
Www.retreatstorichesroadmap.com. Go get it, folks! It could be your pathway to your destiny, and also a very fulfilling and profitable future. 35 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, Michelle?

Michelle Villalobos 07:25
Well, the one that you should have asked me but it would have taken way too long to answer is how did you figure all this out? And essentially, I had a massive breakdown in my business, my life, my health about seven, eight years ago. And it was like the dark night of the soul, everything fell apart– my business, my health, my relationship. And it was a spiritual awakening that is what put me on this path. And I think that’s probably a story I could tell another day.

Tom Poland 07:52
Perfect! Michelle, thank you so much for your time and your wisdom and insights.

Tom Poland 07:56
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.