What To Do In Difficult Times So You Can Build The Foundations of Success?

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About Amira Alvarez

Amira has made my annual income her monthly income!

It turns out it, it’s easier than you think when you consistently apply the Laws of Success.

I’m a mentor and business strategist who helps you own and execute your dreams in a way that feels delightful to your bottom line, as well as to your body, mind, and spirit.

This means helping you have permanent shifts so that you’re no longer stuck in patterns (work and life) that keep you earning less than you desire, in overwhelm, or always fearing burnout.

It also means providing you with clear business tactics and strategies to take your business to the next level… sanely.

It means gently but boldly empowering you to step forward and create an even more financially and soulfully rewarding business.

You’ll find me a straight-talking, clear-thinking, compassionate, get-shit-done, kind of gal. I’m madly in love with my life, unabashedly swear like a sailor, and believe totally in the power of thought to get things done. (Feel free to ask me more about that.)

If you’re ready to quantum leap your business, I invite you to set up a consult where we can explore what’s going on for you and discuss your options.

Here is The Full Transcript of Our Interview WIth Amira

Jonathan: Welcome back folks to the Mail-right show is episode 241. I’ve got my co-host, Robert, with me and also we’ve got a- reading and we really also got a great guest. As you know listeners and viewers, my ability to butcher our guesses his names is unlimited and I’m going to allow my guests to actually introduce her and also tell a little bit about herself before we go into the main part of the discussion. To our guest.

Amira: Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you, Robert. My name is Amira Alvarez. I am the founder and CEO of The Unstoppable Woman. We are a global coaching company. We help high achievers in all fields, really make quantum leaps in their lives, whether that’s an income breakthrough or going after other impact goals that they have personal and professional goals. What does it take to actually go from a really good life, really good results in extraordinary results and extraordinary life and achieving that in a faster period of time than you ever thought possible? So, I know that sounds like a bunch of hoopla, but it’s quite extraordinary when you understand what it takes to make what seems like the impossible possible, and then you do it. It’s phenomenal. And that’s what I love to do.

Jonathan: And Robert, would you like to quickly introduce yourself to the new listeners and viewers?

Robert: Certainly, I’m a 13 year veteran of the real estate industry. I have started a real estate technology company called Inbound Real Estate Marketing and you can learn more about me at inboundrem.com. I also haven’t had nearly enough coffee, so I massacred my own intro over to you, John.

Jonathan: Yeah, so now I’m the CEO of Mail-Right I’ve been involved in the real estate industry for about four years now. I’m a technologist, WordPress, coding all the techie stuff and we got a platform that gets you more quality leads at better value than the competition. So if that’s interesting, go over to mail-right.com and learn more and get a free demo.

Jonathan: So Amira that’s a big statement but I thought that I would start the conversation. Obviously we’re going through very strange and difficult times through the virus and the unfortunate deaths that we are witnessing here and abroad. So the real estate industry as basically just grinds a halt to some extent. And everybody’s just waiting it out to see how things pan out and the, how deep this crisis is how long it will continue.

Jonathan: Have you got any tips or any insights about how you deal with something that really got no control but only the way that you think about it? And how do you stop it from totally demotivating yourself from the work that you should be doing now that will mean that when things do pick up you’ll be one of the first to be hitting the road fully functioning than the rest?

Amira: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a really great question, Jonathan. So I think fundamentally this is one of the things that people really need to learn in life in general in terms of achieving what they want to achieve and now is a perfect opportunity to put it into play. It’s such an extreme example or situation that people are facing with. So this is what I’m talking about. Most people let external circumstances determine how they think about what they’re going to do or what’s possible for them or what they can achieve or cannot achieve. They let people outside of them tell them this is going to work or this isn’t going to work.

Amira: So let’s put it in terms of real estate. Someone has a metric that they’re going for. They want to sell a certain number of properties. They want to make a certain amount of money, something like that. And nothing selling that is an outside circumstance. Okay? That is something that is outside of them that then they start perpetuating, oh, the market’s not good. People aren’t buying right now. Nobody likes these kinds of houses. My clients aren’t willing to price their properties appropriately and they start creating a story to explain that outside circumstance.

Amira: And then it becomes this self-perpetuating concept. Because what we think about determines how we feel and what actions we will take in this world. So let’s use the same example. No one’s buying and think, okay, well if how I think is going to change, how I feel is going to change the actions that I take. What could I think about this situation or life or my capacity or the real estate market or how things go that would change my feeling state and the actions that I would take?

Amira: So nobody’s buying it could be switched to, actually look over here. People are buying in this market and people are doing this over here and actually like searching out examples of where that’s working. Who in your office is selling right now? There is always someone who is always selling. What are they thinking? What are they doing? How do I model them? And you start putting yourself in the place of like, well this can happen and then from the perspective of it can happen you start getting ideas and motivated to act.

Amira: Now COVID-19 the current situation right now it’s real. We don’t want to be like an ostrich with our head in the sand and start pretending.

Jonathan: Yeah, that was the reason I wanted to start a discussion. Because you have some people that are kind of Pollyannaish and it can be very annoying. I’m the opposite, I’m English so I’m dire I’ll probably need more Americanized attitudes really. So what is the middle ground between being one of these Pollyannaish or being a better English person that always looks on the black side?

Amira: So here’s where I use some of the universal laws of success. And if you’re unfamiliar with this, this will be a little bit of a bringing up to speed and education. And have an open mind to it and just recognize that it’s a tool for understanding. So the law of relativity says everything just is. Everything’s just is, nothing is good or bad, better, bigger, small right or wrong until we make it so, until we give it a story. And we give it a story by comparing it, making it relative to someone else or something else.

So this market is terrible compared to what? Okay, but it’s better than what it could be. It’s all relative. Okay. Now, right now this market feels really terrible because it’s in comparison to something else. I happen to live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then market here has never been hotter. This is crazy. I don’t understand it, but supposedly this is a classic thing for North Carolina. That said in your market it’s been worse and it’s been better. What are you going to compare it to? And if you use perspective to address this, you will shift how you look at it. So if you keep saying, this is terrible, this is terrible, this is terrible.

There’s nobody buying. There’s nobody buying. There’s nobody buying, I’m making no money. I’m making no money. I’m making no money. Like you’re going to go into a little bit of a downward spiral. But if you think, okay, well this is a pause. This isn’t as bad as it could be. I’m going to use this time to put my foundations in place to build my marketing channel. This is a great thing. This is not a horrible thing. This is a great thing because everyone’s on pause. This gives me the edge to build my marketing right now. Or connect with past clients or really have deeper conversations with people. That’s a perspective change.

Jonathon: And also on the practical front, this really clearly shows that you should have at least three to six months’ money in the reserve to allow you the oxygen to be able to plan. And not be under such financial pressure that you basically you can’t motivate yourself.

Amira: Fear does one of two things for people. Fear either motivates them or paralyzes them. So for some people when they get under a huge amount of stress, they go under the covers, curl up in the fetal position. And for other people they are like, my back is up against the wall and what the equity AF am I going to do right now? And they come out fighting and the same person can have both of those reactions. I don’t mean to make it so black and white, but like right now, if you’re someone who doesn’t have the three to six months and you’re really struggling, right, and it’s really a, an an issue, I’d love to give those people a tip. Can I give them a tip?

Jonathon: We love tips.

Amira: So this is true whether you’re in this like what do I do for the next three to six months? Or just in general, if you have debt that you’re carrying in it stressing you out, and your brain keeps looping on, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? I’m underwater. What am I going to do? The first thing you need to do is come up with a plan. I know that seems very Pat, but most people just ignore that, that concept. So if you have debt, you want to figure out how much you’re going to pay to that debt. Make a decision in your own mind. Clearly communicate that to your creditors and then don’t think about it again. Put it on autopilot, okay? You, you’re paying that off. You’re paying yourself and you’re paying that off and you have a debt repayment plan, so then you don’t have to worry about it.

You’ve done your due diligence. You put the plan in place and now you shift your focus and you focus entirely on sales and making money, revenue generation. Because you don’t have to keep pulling your energy to the fear, the doubt, the worry, the anxiousness. You’ve put a plan in place. So now with the three to six months that you have in front of you or less. If you don’t have the time horizon, which is what we’re talking about, you want to look at what your bills are and how much time horizon you do have. And then you want to start calling people and getting things situated.

Call your landlord, call the people that you regularly pay money to, and say can we put this on hold for two months? You know this. And if you go to every single credit card website, talk to your landlord. They’re all having conversations like this. Most people will understand this is not of your making. Yes, we’ll put things on hold for two months. If you actually put that plan in place, stop worrying, and then focus on what you can do, which may be making sales right now. Or it may be building relationships or it might be putting new marketing things in place. Then you’re using your energy productively. Does that make sense?

Jonathon: Oh, totally. Absolutely. So I think to recap what you’re saying is in inactivity around marketing or approaching creditors is the real problem.

Amira: Yes, but the core problem is allowing fear to stop you. It’s allowing the doubt. Doubt is like the gateway drug. It hooks you. And then you go into worry and then you get into fear. And then when fear moves into your body, you get into anxiety. And then you get paralyzed and you shut down. Sometimes paralysis looks like spinning out and trying to do tons of work, but not getting anywhere fast. And sometimes paralysis can look like actually, curling up in the fetal position. But the core issue is not knowing how to think about the situation and then not taking, making good decisions and, and as a result of that, the worry, doubt and fear take over.

Jonathon: That’s great. Have you got a question, Robert?

Robert: Well, yes, and no. I mean I have what I think it’s more like a statement, which is cool. It seems like your influences are like Napoleon Hill and neuro-linguistic programming. I’m seeing a lot of stuff that I would see if, if I was like diving down those particular rabbit holes. I’m kind of curious, which makes me ask the following question and it just means into an actual question. Which is so what was the motivation behind starting the unstoppable woman? What was the aha moment that made you strike out on your own and do your own saying in this particular realm?

Amira: Absolutely. So there’s a long story short and then there’s the critical switch flipping moment.

Jonathon: This is critical because we’re coming up for our break.

Amira: Okay. So the critical flip switching moment was I had already started a coaching business. I was doing fairly well. I was a high achiever. I was doing well. I had a good solid business. I was making one 38 a year. I’m very transparent about the income side of things, which was a solid six figure income. Nope, not chump change, not complaining about i., But I was working my patootie off like I just was like 12 1416 hour days. I couldn’t get ahead. I was banging my head up against the wall. I was throwing spaghetti-like, what’s going to stick? Like what’s going to work, what’s going to work? And I was like a little hamster on the wheel. I have a great attitude in a good life. But I had this aha moment of like, I can not 10 times my work hours to 10 times my income.

Like it’s impossible. Okay, I’m already working crazy hours. This is not scalable. This is not sustainable. This is not scalable. So there’s got to be a better way. And I looked out there and I saw there are people making a lot more money. And seemingly doing it with a lot more ease than I’m doing it. And what are the big names doing, what do they do differently? And I went on a path to a journey to study that I hired someone to help me get over my own blocks. And in that year I went from one 38 to 700 K. So I have five times my income. I didn’t get five extra days a week more than anyone else. I wasn’t about having more time. It wasn’t about my circumstances changing, it wasn’t about becoming you know, entering a different industry, any of that.

And Robert, it blew my mind. Like how does that happen in one year? And then I had to really back engineer it and figure out what are all the things that I did. And my influences are Napoleon Hill and the universal laws. And in all of that, and what I did differently than most people is I studied that in depth. So that then I could teach it to other people and watch them have the same results. And I’ve continued to grow seven-figure businesses, whatever it keeps going. The money is great. Love it all, that’s great. But the impact, seeing how other people can use this material and get out of feeling trapped and step into their true potential and have that personal freedom. That is personal freedom, quite frankly, yes, there’s financial freedom.

That’s great. I am not negating that. That is something that most everyone wants. If they tell me they’re not interested in having financial freedom, they’re probably not a good client of mine. But that’s not the only reason people are going for it. They want to feel secure in this world. They to live their life. They don’t want to feel trapped all the time and feeling small. They want to understand how to get what they want, not just, and not have it just be a random universe that like what, what happened? So the real thing understands the causes that put the effects in place that you want. And when you understand that and you actually live it, so it’s not just esoteric knowledge or oh yeah, I know that, but you actually live it. Your life changes dramatically. Okay. You’re never afraid again. You never have that doubt, fear and worry.

Jonathon: Oh, that’s great. We’re going to go for our break. We’ll be back with this insightful discussion at the right moment I think. We’ll be back in a few moments’ folks.

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Jonathon: We are coming back. It’s Jonathan, the diary Englishman. Oh, I guess I was just coming back. Robert, he seems to be witness protection because we can hardly see him. As we were discussing before we went live on the show. Both me and Robert have these marketing companies and they are both based on online marketing. And 75% of real estate agents are ladies. But for me and Robert, we would say about 30% of our clients are ladies. See if you could put some rationale or perspective on your own perspective here. Do you think when it comes to selling and marketing yourself that women have a different style or different perspective about how they do and who they hire?

Amira: Absolutely. So if the answer is yes and no because there is no one type of woman. We can’t pigeon hole women in the same way. We can’t pigeonhole men. There’s a spectrum of styles and energies and ways of being and what’s important to people. But generally speaking, I think women are much more relational based and won’t create a relationship before they go forward with someone or with a system. And they need to have a higher know like, and trust factor. I think men tend to also need that to some extent. You know, like it’s not black and white here, but they tend to just want the facts or the bottom line a little bit more. These are gross generalizations.

But for instance, my, my business is called the unstoppable woman. The majority of my clientele are women. And yet behind the scenes, I have a few men who liked my message and they reach out to me or they’re the partners. Of the women I work with, there are a lot of women entrepreneurs, small business owners, real estate agents who are in partnership. And so I ended up working with the men and the women. And they both need the mindset and the strategies stuff that I work on with them in the same way that they also need the marketing’s side.

The tactical marketing pieces. And it’s just a question of, I think if I were to dive into your business, you know, I would have to know more about how you, yourself market. And the language that you’re using and the phrasing and the outcomes that you’re giving people. Because it might be much more of a male oriented language or male-oriented outcome. And it could be just a few little tweaks that might help match it to a female audience. But again, it’s a gross generalization because there are a lot of really quick deciding bottom lining women out there. It’s not just now

Jonathon: I’m going to ask you hope that you’re going to find this interesting question. Now in British history, there’s been some great female leaders, you know, Queen Elizabeth the first is probably seen in Britain as one of the greatest Queens and Kings of England. Like queen Boadicea, a legendary figure, Margaret Facture, who I had the pleasure of meeting once. Politically I was on the opposition to her, but I did admire her leadership skills now.

You know, obviously the type of people you know, you like working with is, I get the impression you like people that want success but want to become leaders. But it’s really tricky for a woman, I feel because I don’t normally do this. How can a woman be an effective leader without being seen as a bit?

Amira: Oh, great question. You are yourself and really honestly, you be yourself. You don’t have to show up more than yourself or less than yourself. So don’t make yourself small. Don’t reduce your impact in this world, but also don’t try and be someone you’re not, which might be behaving in a way that you think is required for a situation. You’re seeing that, but it’s not how you would really do things. It’s not who you really are. I think true confidence, true leadership. True influence comes from owning yourself. Self-ownership. And not making you smaller or trying like that kind of bitchy thing. It can be. It can come from, not always. Sometimes it’s just other people. You’re, you’re triggering other people. But it can come from thinking that you need to show up in a different way than is your natural nature.

Jonathon: Is there a difference between assertiveness and bitchiness? The question I’m just giving you very sexist because if a man was very assertive he wouldn’t be classified as a bitch would he? Its only you if you’re a woman that you feel extremely assertive that you would even be given that title.

Amira: So here’s the thing, I don’t take offense about it because it’s the reality of the situation. You’re talking about an experience that women have and an experience, a conversation that’s out there. So you know, let’s not pretend that this doesn’t exist and you know, whitewash it or whatever. But also the reason I was pausing is you know, there was something I learned years ago, like don’t change the symbols. Change what the symbols mean. You call me a bitch. Okay, I’ll own that because I love myself. Like I am not going to be made small by what you tell me I am more thinking about me. Like you can put that label on me, but I’m going to make that label work for me. If you want to throw that label on me, you know, I don’t actually care what you think.

I care what I think about myself. I like myself, I love myself and I’m confident in who I am in this world. So nothing you can say you cannot touch me. Does this make sense? And so, but I do think that there is. You know, the equivalent is he’s a dick or he’s an asshole. Okay. And men get it too. And there are men that are Dixon assholes in there. Women who are bitches. Like there’s the whole gamut. And sometimes when you’re being, you’re stepping into your strength. I see this lot of times with my clients. They’re stepping into their strengths and they’re trying things out and they behave in a way that they’re testing out and it doesn’t come off well and they get some feedback. And they don’t like being that person either. So then they have to course correct in there.

Jonathon: Thank you for saying that. Because that’s the reason why I asked you the question because I thought you were up for it. And secondly, I think you’ve just pushed it because I think there was some context for asking the question is that it’s more diff. I think it’s slightly more difficult for a woman isn’t it? To find her own. We’ll try and find the right word here. The natural way of doing business and getting that success. Isn’t it?

Amira: You know, here’s the thing, I don’t know how hard it is for a guy cause I’ve never experienced that. I’ve heard many men be interviewed talking about being, you know, football players. The most masculine of the masculine talking about, you know, having to put on a tough exterior, but being really sensitive inside and like, it’s tough being a guy because you have to do this. Everyone has their own journey and path. So I don’t actually like to make it like one way is better or worse or I have a harder than you. Here’s the thing, you can make it as hard as you want or as easy as you want. And it was a hard life for me for many, many years. Okay. I struggled up here and in my life. And I could choose to go down that path or I could choose to take a different path.

And make different choices. And I think whether you’re a man or a woman, you have to choose. Our greatest power is our power of choice. And you have to constantly choose who you, you want to be. Oh, you’re being in this world. And you can either be someone who has a chip on their shoulder and saying, the worlds do this to me. It’s so tough being a woman. And so tough being a man, all this stuff. Or you can say here’s my situation. I rise to every challenge. That’s who I am. And I know that sounds kind of like inspirational flip, flip, flip, you know. But the truth is you have a choice about how you show up every single day and you can either show up as a victim, the world’s doing this to me. Or you can show up as someone who takes personal responsibility and as a creative agent in their lives.

Jonathon: That`s great. Hopefully, you’re going to stay on for some bonus content. I’m going to be asking you. You said it’s a powerful thing that you stay on your website that from one year, sorry you made that Sarah in one month. I’m just going to ask you some insights about that particular personal journey. So we are going to end the podcast part of the show. How’s the best way for people to find out more about you and your faults and ideas?

Amira: That’s great. Thank you for asking that. So the best way to find out about what we do is go to the unstoppablewoman.com/freestuff. And we have a ton of resources for people there on how to make an income breakthrough, how to create a mindset for success. Lots of things there. So the www.unstoppablewoman/free stuff. And then I’m everywhere on all the social media channels under the unstoppable woman and Amira Alvarez.

Jonathon: I am a bit worried because Robert’s been a bit quiet. He’s allowing me to dig my own grave. So Robert, the best way for people, for people to get hold of you, teach more about your company yourself, Robert?

Robert: Just go to inboundrem.com.

Jonathon: Okay folks, if you would like to learn more about Mail Right go to the mail-right.com. And we’ve got all the podcasts on there. It’s an education in its own right. We’ll be back next week with an internal discussion between me and Rob or another great guest we see you next week, folks. Bye.