IAM284 – Radio Host and Author Helps People Breakthrough From Victim Status Into a Freedom State Life

Alison Donaghey is a Radio Host of The Alison Donaghey Show, Author of an international best-selling book Think Opposite: Using the Domino Effect to Change Your Business, Change the World, Speaker, and a Cause and Effect Strategist and will expand your mind in ways you didn’t think possible.

Her latest project is #mypart. Accepting our part in every single situation we find ourselves in which brings us to a place of true empowerment with the goal to see ourselves as part of humanity as a whole rather than dividing it into victims and victimizers, oppressed and oppressor thus moving towards understanding the inherent value of everyone.

• CEO Hack: (1) Understand your client's pain points by asking yourself a few questions (2) Put structures in place
• CEO Nugget:(1) Copy those who do what you do really well   (2) Never take advice from someone who's not what you want to be
• CEO Defined: Freedom

Website: https://www.dominothinking.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dominothinking/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlisonDonaghey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dominothinking
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisondonaghey/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_w0k7zAboz8QXmOzNGxYJQ
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/dominothinking
Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-alison-donaghey-show-466823/reviews 
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-alison-donaghey-show/id1210211610?mt=2
Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074V3J21S/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B074V3J21S&linkCode=as2&tag=dominothink05-20&linkId=8f86c828e951ccaaca5e45389c4a2aac

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:26

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Alison Donaghey of Domino Thinking.

Alison, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Alison Donaghey 0:39

So awesome to be here. Thank you so much.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on and I wanted to read a little bit more about Alison so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Alison is a Radio Host of The Alison Donaghey Show, Author of an international best-selling book Think Opposite: Using the Domino Effect to Change Your Business, Change the World, Speaker, and a Cause and Effect Strategist and will expand your mind in ways you didn’t think possible. Her latest project is #mypart.

Accepting our part in every single situation we find ourselves in which brings us to a place of true empowerment with the goal to see ourselves as part of humanity as a whole rather than dividing it into victims and victimizers, oppressed and oppressor thus moving towards understanding the inherent value of everyone. Alison, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Alison Donaghey 1:31

I'm certainly ready. Thank you so much.

Gresham Harkless 1:34

No problem. Thank you. And I wanted to kick everything off by hearing about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Alison Donaghey 1:41

Goodness? Well, you know, I love business. And so I have a company I've had for 20 years house painting company, and my son is taking it over. And so then I was like, Oh, I can do other things. I could have another company. And so because I don't believe in having a life. I just want to work all the time. It's like, people are like, what's your hobby? I'm like working? What's yours? I don't understand.

Gresham Harkless 2:04

Right.

Alison Donaghey 2:06

So I started Domino Thinking. I just kept having conversations with people asking them to think about what they think about. And so then that created Domino Thinking which led to the radio show, which led to the #mypart. It's just so fascinating how one thing leads into another one, we just get out of our way.

Gresham Harkless 2:23

Yeah, pun intended, right with a name. Because once you start stacking up those dominoes, they all start to fall. And then next thing you know, you have something completely different.

Alison Donaghey 2:30

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Gresham Harkless 2:32

Yeah. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you tell us a little bit more about domino thinking and all that it encompasses?

Alison Donaghey 2:37

Mm-hmm. So it started when I gave a speech, and a friend of mine was like, Oh, my God, that was a great speech. I never thought of it that way. And so she goes, you need a radio show, you have to start your own company. And I love business. So I wrote the business book, Think Opposite.

I really think it. I was on welfare. When I started my first company, I was a single mom, and I never would have the life that I have if I didn't have my own business. And so part of that part of getting into this better life was me questioning everything. And so Domino Thinking is really around that I think we don't spend enough time sitting and thinking about things.

And I mean, really thinking like, we think just because somebody is like, there's something is passed through our brain that we've thought about it. Or if it's come out of our mouths, it's because we thought about it, but there's so much crap that comes out of our mouths, without any forethought at all. What I ask people to do is just slow down, and consider a different perspective, we get so married to our ideas, like I am pro-choice, everybody else is wrong. Well, no, everybody else can't possibly be wrong.

And they have their own reasons for thinking differently. And I think it's our responsibility to consider an entire topic. And so I really encourage people to do that. Because no matter what you believe in, it's a double-edged sword. There's a negative and a positive. And so nobody believes in anything that is 100% pure.

Gresham Harkless 4:01

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that. And I love everything about you know, that the company represents that you're doing and building because I think a lot of times we get so caught up in our minds, we get so caught in our perspectives, that I love the idea of think different because the idea is that you're not necessarily always right. And why do you even believe what you believe in really taking time to actually explore that and see what that looks like?

Alison Donaghey 4:25

And it's not to say you have to change your mind. So I am pro-choice. I have no problem listening to somebody who's pro-life and adjusting what I think, like, I can hear somebody else's perspective and go, Ooh, maybe they have a point there. And it's going to shift my thinking.

And I get to be in a place where I am not just talking out of my backside about something because I've actually ruminated I've thought how does this apply to me? What's the domino effect? How is that going to impact the world? If I switch and become pro-life and somebody has an abortion, should they go to prison, or should they have the death penalty?

Like, let's take that through to the nth degree and figure out where our thinking is going to take us. But we can't do that if we're not contemplating all sides of something.

Gresham Harkless 5:11

Yeah. And I feel like that's something that's very rare that people were doing it. I always, always feel like sometimes when you get in discussions, you can usually find out really quickly. If somebody is like really kind of entrenched in their beliefs, and they don't want to hear anything outside of it. But I kind of feel like it's rare that people actually want to listen and take into account and, and really understand the other person's perspective and why they think what they think.

Alison Donaghey 5:33

But good God, the world is so much better if we can get to that place. Yeah, because we get back to conversing instead of trying to convert, and nobody wins with conversion. That just doesn't that's not a win-win situation. But if I can understand what I'm thinking, because I've thought it through, and I can hear what you're thinking and respect that.

Now you and I can have a mutually respectful relationship doesn't mean we have to agree. And just because I consider your perspective doesn't mean I don't get to have my own. It just means that I want to exist in this space of respect.

Gresham Harkless 6:09

Exactly, exactly. And understand what other people and kind of live in look outside of yourself, which I think is definitely something that's powerful, and definitely something that's needed. And you might have already touched on this. But I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or for your organization. But what do you feel kind of makes you unique?

Alison Donaghey 6:26

Oh, that I asked the tough questions. Yeah, I do. And it's I don't even always even know they're tough questions. Until somebody looks at me like what was that? A tough question. But I think it's so important that we have that space that if we feel a question bubbling up, ask it.

And I think so often, we're like, oh, I shouldn't ask that question. That's disrespectful. It's a set of the other thing, but there is a reason that you're wanting to ask something. And I think if we can trust that a bit more, we would have more interesting conversations. And so I, I believe I asked the questions I might maybe always ask.

Gresham Harkless 7:11

No, you need that. Because a lot of times it gets to the heart of the matter. And sometimes when you don't have people asking those questions, you kind of kind of dance around everything, you don't really get to the essence of what the questions and what you're trying to have a conversation about, for that matter.

Alison Donaghey 7:25

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Gresham Harkless 7:27

Nice. So what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit. And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be like an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Alison Donaghey 7:39

Oh, so when I work with business clients, I always ask them to do a What's the worst exercise? And because that is what is going to define you. And it's so important when we're in business, that we understand what that is. So imagine you're sitting in a restaurant, and you overhear somebody talking about you and your business. What is the worst thing you could hear them say?

So for example, with my house painting company, if they said, She's not the best painter in town, I might go Ouch, that didn't feel very good. But I wouldn't be devastated. If they said you don't provide value, I would have to stop what I was doing go over and say, How do I fix this? That would be devastating for me. And that doesn't hold true for everybody, somebody maybe wants to be the best painter in the world. And that would be what would stop them dead in their tracks.

So when we take, that idea of what's the worst, we can start actually implementing it in our business, for two reasons, one, to offset our pain point. So I never have to look at a customer and go, Oh, God, I totally ripped them off. Because my entire structure is set up to support them. Right. And so sometimes it's about just even stepping into something like I've had a client and she was, oh people, I'm scared people are gonna think I'm too much. So I dumbed down all the time.

And I said, Well, what if you stepped into that you became too much and you were unapologetic about it? She was like, I can do that. And like of course you can do that. So now her whole brand is about being out loud. And it's working really well for her. So I think that is the secret sauce of any business understand first, what your pain point is not your clients.

Gresham Harkless 9:24

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that exercise. Because a lot of times and correct me if I'm wrong. When you work with clients that you fear, you can sometimes feel fearful about being what you kind of want to be and sometimes you need quote-unquote permission to be able to do that. It sounds like you did that with your client.

Alison Donaghey 9:41

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, and if you are doing it already in your business, you are going to attract the people who are drawn to that, as opposed to keeping yourself dancing on one leg, trying to be everything for everyone.

Gresham Harkless 9:54

Yeah, I really love the fact that kind of that's one of those introspective questions that you ask yourself So as you mentioned, you know, two people can have our three, four people can have painting companies, but what are their kind of core values? What's most important to them? And the question that you asked is, we should ask ourselves is huge.

Alison Donaghey 10:12

Another company, their whole thing could be, I need to be the cheapest, great, they are going to attract those clients who only worried about the cost, I am going to attract the client's editors worried about the journey. But the person worried about the cost doesn't care about the journey.

They don't want to hold the client's hand. I don't have a problem holding a client's hand. So it's, I get to avoid having those conversations. Will you do it? $50 cheaper? Yeah, I don't want to have those conversations. And no, I won't do it for $2 cheaper.

Gresham Harkless 10:41

Exactly, exactly. That makes perfect sense. So now I wanted to ask you, for a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Alison Donaghey 10:56

Oh, goodness, um, find somebody who does what you do really well. And copy them, follow them around, be their little puppy dog, learn from the people you want to be like, and never take advice from somebody. That's, that's not who you want to be.

Gresham Harkless 11:17

I love that. And it's so funny, because I'm especially I find, you know when I started my business, and I find a lot of people, you have to be very aware of what your environment is like because sometimes you can take advice from people that maybe are coming from it from more of a fear base mindset, and they maybe have never even started a company. So you kind of have to understand why people were doing what they're doing.

Alison Donaghey 11:39

Mm-hmm. Yes. Like what you learned to speak English from somebody who didn't speak English? Exactly. Not. It wouldn't make any sense. Yet. We take advice for parenting and business and all sorts of things from people who don't know what they're talking about.

Gresham Harkless 11:51

Absolutely, absolutely. So I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So I want to ask you, Alison, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Alison Donaghey 12:05

Freedom, is really what I value most about owning my own company and running my own company, I get to turn that ship, anytime I want. I get to adjust, I get to modify, I get to breathe life into my company that allows me to have the freedom to do what I want, I get to travel, I get to hire who I want to get to work with who I want to get to fire who I want. So it's freedom is the thing for me, I don't think I'd get that in another position.

Gresham Harkless 12:40

Absolutely kind of like an artist, so to speak, painting, no pun intended with painting, you get to kind your business exactly how you want it to be, and then direct that path. And you have the freedom in order to do that. So I love that definition.

Alison Donaghey 12:52

And you can change the world with your business. If you are doing it in a conscious, aware way. You can you're impacting your client's experience, which they take home, and it spills out if somebody's having a good day because of their interaction with you.

They're going to pass on that good day, your staff, you can give them an environment where they feel proud of what they're doing, and have flexibility in their life, if that's an important part, and your community how you give back. Like, what else can you do with your life making money and changing the world like that?

Gresham Harkless 13:26

Exactly, exactly. Definitely. You know, being a CEO, you have the options and the ability and the freedom, like you said to be able to do that. So I love that definition. And what I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know and then how best they can get a hold of you.

Alison Donaghey 13:43

Super, thank you. I'm working on this movement called My Part, #mypart. And I believe that when we accept full responsibility for the fact that we have co-created our life because our life is an accumulation of the choices that we make. And when we can start owning that? It builds our worthiness. And it stops us from falling victim to other things. It allows us to live in a Freedom State.

And we are born miracles. We are born inherently worthy. And when you think about it, and this little tiny sperm finds this little tiny egg and it made you it didn't make the 1000 other possibilities it made you which makes you like a freaking miracle. And by that definition, you're worthy and then we come into the world. And we're told that we're not worthy, we're not good enough.

We have to be more this more that less this or less that and we forget that we have worth when we start owning the choices that we make, it builds our worth and when our worthiness is intact, it's really hard to be victimized.

Gresham Harkless 14:47

Absolutely, absolutely. No, that's definitely a great reminder because we all have value. We all are worthy, just like you said because there was a high probability of us not being here to be able to take part in this world but the fact is that things happen. And we have been able to do that.

Alison Donaghey 15:01

Yeah, yeah. And it's tough. And it's an ongoing process. As I work on it all the time I talk about it, I teach it, I'm offering courses on it. And it's just it. But I still have to practice it. I still have to remind myself like, oh, yeah, I'm not that person that wasn't worthy.

I do have self-worth. And I don't need to get it from you. This means I don't have to try to convert you to my point of view, because we're both Okay, the way we are and we both have worthiness in our beliefs.

Gresham Harkless 15:31

Awesome, awesome. Awesome. So we'll make sure to have all those links in the show notes and that information in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you. Alison, you are awesome. Thank you so much for changing the way people think and opening up these airways for having really valuable conversations that everyone needs to have and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Alison Donaghey 15:49

Thank you so much, Gresham!

Outro 15:50

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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