How Solopreneurs Get Unstuck

Episode 107

With deep roots in business development and coaching, Cami Allen has helped local businesses grow and succeed for over 25 years as the Founder of Entrepreneur’s Secret Partner. 

Cami’s unique approach to leadership has enabled her clients to incorporate thoughtful strategies leading to successful solutions. Through her specialized onboarding approach, Cami provides support that leads to effective organization, systems design, and time management.

She’s also the creator of the More than Money Coaching Program, an abundant life coaching program for female entrepreneurs.

Cami has a life-long desire to help others and catalysts for growth. Her clients look to her to provide leadership and consulting services to help support their business needs. If you’ve been looking for some tips on how solopreneurs get unstuck, Cami provides some great insights in this episode!

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the complete episode:

1. Discover the challenges that many entrepreneurs face in business.
2. Gain some valuable insight on how solopreneurs get unstuck so that they can grow and thrive.
3. Find out how Cami can help you live an abundant life without being trapped in your business.
   
   

Episode Highlights

Who is Cami Allen

• • Cami works primarily with solopreneurs.
  • She can help them with virtual assistance, administrative support, designing systems and plans, and everything in between. 
  • Her service is customized to each client, creating a system and solution specific to their needs.

Her longevity as an entrepreneur

• • Cami has been supporting entrepreneurs and businesses for 25 years.
  • She says it takes a passion for what you do and persistence because it can be challenging.
  • One needs to keep going, even if that means pivoting at times.
  • Although it can be challenging and frustrating, she’s glad to have been able to work with so many great people over the years.

Her entrepreneurial journey

• • Cami was going through a divorce in 1993 and wasn’t happy with her job.
  • Someone asked her to help organize them, and at that point, she didn’t realize how many people needed help in this area.
  • She started helping organize people, and her business grew, taking on more tasks when people needed assistance.

Satellite secretary

• • Cami was a virtual assistant before virtual was a thing.
  • She drove around the city to all her clients and worked with them back then.
  • She referred to herself as a satellite secretary at the time.
  • With technology, she broadened her reach, helping people in different states.

Challenges that entrepreneurs face

• • Have systems for managing information and ensuring you can get your hands on things when you need them.
  • Many clients she has worked with struggle to let go of the little things that aren’t a good use of their time.
  • She says that people didn’t get into business to administer it. They want to be able to do the things they’re passionate about.
  • Relinquishing control and trusting someone else to do it is a mental challenge that many entrepreneurs need to overcome.

Why there’s resistance to letting go

• • Cami says it comes down to fear of losing control, that someone else cannot do things as well as you’d do it.
  • Entrepreneurs get into a pattern of thinking they can do it faster than teaching someone else without realizing that it compounds.
  • Taking the time to teach someone else helps to avoid needing to do these repetitive tasks in the future. 

How solopreneurs get unstuck

• • In the early stages of business, have a way to manage information and a system in place.
  • This way, when hiring someone like a VA, you have a blueprint to share with them.
  • Have a job description for everything you do to pass it on quickly.
  • Emails, scheduling, and calendaring are examples of repetitive tasks that don’t require your expertise or unique skills.

How to go about delegating emails

• • Start bcc’ing your assistant in your responses, and they’ll start to get a sense of what’s relevant and essential.
  • They’ll also start getting familiar with your thought process and your tone of voice, eventually taking over the management of emails.

All stages of business

• • Cami helps entrepreneurs in all stages of business.
  • She’s assisted people set up their companies and has written business plans.
  • She’s also helped in the business growth phase, where entrepreneurs struggle to continue to do everything themselves.

Overcoming the mental block

• • There is often a root cause to the mental block regarding controlling and resistance.
  • This limiting belief needs to be addressed to embrace change and growth.
  • It’s why Cami started her coaching program. 

Coaches need coaching too

• • Cami believes that anybody who coaches others needs to have their own coach.
  • You’ve got to walk your talk.
  • It’s good to have support and an outside perspective.
  • It can help us acknowledge things we don’t want to look at but need to grow.

Advice for entrepreneurs

• • Her advice is to get help sooner rather than later.
  • You can’t create in a vacuum, nor can you grow in a vacuum.
  • Whether it’s a collaboration, a mastermind, or hiring a virtual assistant, you need other people.
  • Getting help will assist you in growing more than you thought you could and sooner than you thought possible.

Stretching the rubber band

• • Cami Allen is a huge John Maxwell fan, and one of her favorite books is “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth”.
  • She believes in constantly learning and growing, stretching the rubber band, and getting uncomfortable. 
  • If you don’t use what you know, it’s worthless, so make sure to do the work.

Changes in operational systems

• • Through the advancement of technology, there are multiple solutions and apps.
  • We need to narrow it down to what our goals are, what we want to accomplish, and what few apps are going to manage those things for us.
  • It’s pointless getting the next best thing as you end up reinventing the wheel by trying to learn and implement a new system.
  • Pick one and use it to its full ability.

Top apps she recommends

• • Calendly for appointment setting and scheduling.
  • Trello is a project management tool.
  • Slack as a messaging tool for communication and collaboration.

More Than Money Coaching Program

• • Cami believes that living an abundant life has a lot of different definitions, and it’s not the same for everyone.
  • It’s not just about how much money you make; you can be a millionaire but not be living an abundant life.
  • The program is designed to help uncover blocks, limiting beliefs, intentions that no longer serve you, unhealthy emotions, and subconscious chatter.
  • You are getting rid of it or replacing it to live your truth and experience freedom and abundance.

How does Cami Allen want to be remembered?

• • Cami wants to be remembered as someone who loved others and encouraged and inspired them to grow.
    
    

3 Powerful Quotes from this Episode

08:01 – “I think it’s a fear thing. Really, it’s fear of losing control, of somebody not doing it as well as I would do it. That’s a big one. I think that a lot of times we get into the pattern of and this is whether you’re an entrepreneur or you work in a company, and we get into this pattern of well, I can do it faster than I can teach them how to do it. So I’m just gonna do it. And we don’t realize that that compounds, and then we never get out of the pattern of doing that.”

17:13 – “And I believe anybody who coaches people also needs to have their own coach. So for me, it’s one of the requirements. You got to walk your talk. And it has shown up both in working for other people as a leader and working through some of the issues and challenges that come up when you’re in that role. And just having that support and that outside voice. A lot of times I think we don’t know what we don’t know. And it takes an outside person, another perspective to come in and help us see what we’re missing. And help us maybe acknowledge and look at the things we don’t really want to look at. So we can get past them.”

18:35 – “I would say get help sooner rather than later. You can’t create in a vacuum, you can’t grow in a vacuum. You need other people, whether it’s people to collaborate with or have a mastermind with or a coach or a virtual assistant. Get help sooner than later. You will thank yourself for it. You will grow and go on to do more than you thought you could do, sooner than you thought you could do it.”

About Cami Allen

With over 25 years of experience, Cami Allen has played an integral role in how solopreneurs get unstuck in their business. She has a unique ability to step into a new situation with a fresh perspective and recognize gaps, possibilities and patterns; while also being able to help you get to the heart of what’s in your way and create solutions to move forward.  

She has developed many different approaches to effective organization, systems design and time management. She has built a network of professional resources in all various aspects of business, giving her the ability to address virtually any issue and find a fit for resolving it.

Cami has a life-long desire to help others and a catalyst for growth. Her clients look to her to provide leadership and consulting services to help support their business needs.

Cami Allen has served as a nonprofit board member for Arts for All Colorado, the HPD Family Support Network, which she founded, and the Henderson Community Foundation. She has a passion for service and supporting her community. 

Connect with Cami

Website 

Linkedin 

Resources

E-Myth Mastery by Michael E. Gerber

The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell

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Thanks for listening,

Darrell