From Blowouts to Breakthroughs with Alli Webb

Join Kristina on the latest episode of the She's Brave Podcast as she sits down with the remarkable Alli Webb, entrepreneur and bestselling author of "The Messy Truth." In this episode, Alli shares her journey from starting her mobile hair business to founding the iconic Drybar empire, which she eventually sold for hundreds of millions. Through candid insights and personal anecdotes, Alli delves into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, embracing authenticity, and navigating the messy truths of life and business. Discover how she followed her intuition, overcame self-doubt, and learned to thrive in the face of challenges. Get ready to be inspired and empowered by Alli's wisdom and resilience. Tune in now for a dose of entrepreneurial inspiration and real talk!

About Alli:

Alli Webb is the visionary Founder of Drybar and a New York Times Bestselling Author. After 15 years as a professional hairstylist, Webb embarked on a groundbreaking journey, establishing Drybar in 2010, which has since burgeoned into a nationwide sensation with over 150 locations across the U.S. Her entrepreneurial prowess extends beyond Drybar, as seen in her co-founding roles in ventures like Squeeze, Brightside, and Becket + Quill, each symbolic of her commitment to affordable luxury.  Notably, she sold Drybar's product division for $255 million. Webb's influence has been recognized by leading publications, including Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, and Fortune, solidifying her status as one of the most innovative minds in business. Her involvement with Canopy as President further underscores her dedication to pioneering beauty solutions, while collaborations with brands like Brightside and Bumo highlight her diverse portfolio. With her second book, "The Messy Truth," in the works, Alli Webb continues to redefine industry standards, inspiring entrepreneurs worldwide from her home base in Los Angeles, CA.

Find Alli Webb:
Website: www.alliwebb.com
Instagram: @alliwebb

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Transcript

Hey everyone. It's Kristina with the She's Brave Podcast. Today's guest is nothing short of amazing. You guys, she sold her Drybar business for hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's a long story. There's a lot to this. Alli Webb is so authentic. She's so real. She lays it all out on the line. She has a new book out called The Messy Truth. She's a New York Times bestselling author, business advisor, mentor, and co-founder of several businesses, most notably Dry Bar, which grew from one simple idea to hundreds of locations and a full hair care and styling product line, which she sold in 2019. She lives in Los Angeles and is the author of her latest book, The Messy Truth, How I Sold My Business for Millions, but Almost Lost Myself, which I just read and absolutely loved. Okay. You guys, like, that title alone.Doesn't it just make you want to just know her? I feel like I know her already. I'm so excited to welcome her. Alli. Hey, how are you? 

I'm great. Thank you so much for that amazing intro. 

Oh my gosh. I have eight pages of notes, Alli. We're not going to get through them, but we are going to get so much out of this conversation.

You guys, I wish this book had been out a year ago, a year and a half ago when I started my podcast. Because I feel like she gives the best entrepreneur advice that I could have used a year and a half ago, but I'm going to be quoting a lot of stuff out of your book today, and I'm going to start with this one.

And this resonated with me when I started She's Brave and it was a big reason why I started She’s Brave. You said, “My self worth has largely been entangled with many things, romantic partners, businesses, outside validation. I've done a lot of outsourcing instead of self sourcing, and I'm coming to realize that I have relied on other people and things to make me happy for far too long. Slowly come to realize that no one else can make me happy, not my husband, not my kids, not my success, not my readers, not my friends.”

When I read that, Alli, I went, that is me 100%. Like I have just in the last year come to that same realization. Okay, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the book and then Alli's going to jump in and we're going to discuss some of her concepts and things in the book, which, it’s just, it's amazing. Okay. If you've come to her book, The Messy Truth for Fluffy Takeaways on how to reach millionaire status, this book isn't for you. Although, obviously, she did sell her company for millions and millions and millions, hundreds of millions. She says, “I am a living, breathing example of just how high one can climb and how fast one can fall.”

Okay. That statement right there makes me want to read the book right there. You also say, “Don't get me wrong. I want you to have it all, but I don't want you to do it by living someone else's story. I want you to own your shit. I want you to embrace your mess. I want you to find the magic in your chaos. I want you to be real.”

So Alli, I want to go to one last quote and then we're going to dive in because, I want you to just briefly tell us a bit about how you started Drybar, but there's so much more to your story, and that's what's so incredible about this book is that you're relatable. You've made mistakes and if you can do it, anybody can do it. You say, “When we started Drybar, we reinvented something that already existed, blowouts. We just created a much better experience around getting a blowout.”

You talk about this concept in your book of, you know, I think a lot of us think about entrepreneurship and we think, Oh, well that thing, that's already invented. Like somebody has already done that. And I just love this concept of, I just have an idea of how to make it better. So tell us a little bit more about that journey. 

Well, so, I think we all know and it's no secret that, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. I mean, we live this all the time. And anything that you think about, that you love in your life, likely was started because somebody, you know, had a need for something that didn't exist. And so they created it and there's example after example, after example of successful businesses that have done this, and I think that, for me with Drybar,I wasn't, and I want to be clear about this because I wasn't opportunistic.I was not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I am very opportunistic as a human, but I just was. As the seeker I am, I was seeking out something, to fulfill me in a way that I wasn't and trying to figure out what that thing was. And, the only thing I was really good at was doing hair as a skill or so I thought back then, and so when my kids were, two and four, I started my mobile business straight at home, which would of course lead to Dry Bar, which was really a way to get out of the house for a little while and get away from the kids and do something for myself, kind of scratch that itch that I had to start doing something for myself again. Because, my whole life since I was like 15, I was working. Even before that, my parents were entrepreneurs, they had their own business, so I worked for them.

And, it was like, go, go, go, go, go for so many years, until I had my first son, Grant and then my second son, Kit and, by the way, I, which I thought I had hit the jackpot and I felt so lucky to be able to stay home and be with my kids.

I did that for five years and then, like I said, I just got this really strong desire to go and do something. For myself, for me. And that's how I dreamt up the idea to do this mobile business, which, if you know my story, you know, that I was only charging 40 bucks to go to women's homes, two twenties really easy.

And, it was so much more about getting out of the house, doing something for myself, earning a little extra cash, you know, than it was to build this big business, I just needed something that made me happy. And, I was really good at doing hair. So this idea that came from such a pure place of love and something that I really enjoy doing and that I could do on my own schedule, you know, obviously turned into what became Drybar, and what I think the insight of that idea was that I'm doing this mobile service for women at a really inexpensive price because I just wanted to be busy. I was like, if I'm charging a hundred dollars or 200 or 300, which is pretty much the norm. If you're going to someone's home, it wasn't going to necessarily work as well as it did. So, to charge 40 bucks was easy to make it happen. 

So that also would lead to the inexpensive, you know, as we coined it, affordable luxury that became Drybar, you know, that had never been done. And, to your point, we didn't invent blowouts. We just created a better experience, a better price point. Like the whole thing was re-imagined and I've been a hairstylist for almost all my life. I mean, I went to beauty school when I was in my early twenties, so I worked in many, many hair salons and there's great things and amazing things. And then there's things that I didn't like and didn't want, and I was able to kind of tailor the exact experience that I wanted as a woman to walk into a space and not feel pressured, for cut and color to not be like assaulted with the smells for it to feel really inclusive and to feel really welcomed.

And even though, you don't have the latest bag or whatever, and, the mom and pop feel, but with the high end look, and, that was my vision. I didn't know if it would work. I really didn't. I felt like surely this will work on one location, you know, Brentwood LA was the first shop.

And that was like, right in the middle was like the hub of where my clients for my mobile business, because I'd gotten so busy with that, you know, was like, if you know LA, It's like Palisades, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, you know, it's all pretty close and, I thought instead of me going to them, let me have them come to me.

I'll charge a fraction of what anybody can get for a good blowout in this town and hope for the best. I went to my brother and asked him for the money to help me get this thing off the ground. And, it was just like this little kind of crazy dream that I had to open up one shop and then, you know, leave and pick up my kids from preschool.

And of course that didn't happen. And my life got completely turned upside down. And we realized this business really resonated with women far and wide. And, I would love to tell you that I knew that that was going to happen, but I didn't.  Like I said, it was not like I was, you know, a hungry entrepreneur looking to start a really successful business.

It just didn't start like that. You know, it started out of necessity. 

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, there's so many angles and I'm going to try to cram in as much as we can with your entrepreneurship. But like, I remember at one point. You were growing really fast and, investors were coming to you and they were saying things like, Oh, you know, why don't you branch out and start doing manicures and stuff?

And, you said no. So tell us more about that. 

Well, you know, like I said, first of all, I don't want to do that because I don't know that business and I don't know that world and sure I could have brought in somebody to help manage that piece of the business, but, there just felt like such a purity in that we were just doing blowouts and I wanted to be the best at blowouts and I knew because I've been in this business for so long.

I knew how hard it was going to be to deliver on that, you know, and that's where our, internal kind of tagline was like, we do one thing and we're the best at it. And I think that also having grown up in the salon world. And even as a little kid my mom used to go to a hair salon where she got her collar done, she got her manicure, she got this and that, you know, it was good enough, but , you can be good at several things.

But it's hard to be great at one thing and I didn't want to kind of water down the experience of the best fucking blowout you're going to get anywhere in this town, you know, and so that was what was driving me so I thought if we started to introduce things like manicures or Makeup or , you know, the conveniences that , of course I understood because, you know, we're busy and we want to be able to knock out as many things as we can at once.

I get that thinking, but I just felt like I wanted to be the best at this one thing. And I wanted to keep it really simple and just about hair and blowouts. , you - and again, it was just my instinct  and it was like the only thing I really knew. I mean, , if I had introduced manicures or makeup or whatever, it's like, I don't know those worlds.

So like, as the leader and founder of this company, if something goes wrong, which it will, in regards to a bad manicure or , you know, someone doesn't like their makeup or whatever, like I can't fix that. So it felt a little out of control to me. Whereas like, someone doesn't like their hair.

I can do that blow out  and fix it. And I know exactly what's wrong with that. And I know how to train on that, you know, but I wouldn't have known how to do that. In any other category, you know, I 

just absolutely love that you listened to your intuition, you know, like sometimes all these experts are telling you stuff like even me when I came up with my logo, you know, a fellow podcast classmate said to me, , I'm an advertising, you know, expert and your logo is wrong because of X, Y, Z.

And I just was like, it feels right. And here we are. 

So, you know, it's interesting though.. It's like the opposite sides of a coin because, I agree with you and obviously like, I really stuck to my guns. And this is like what I felt in my gut and all of that.

But I do think I'm going to contradict myself because I do think there's an argument, which I see entrepreneurs make this mistake all the time of like, you know, when they're building a store or they're, you know,  doing a bunch of things that they're not great at and they're not the expert at, you know, and you talk about that.

In your book. Yeah. You talk about having, you know, having to let go, like you were trying to micromanage for a while. 

Yeah. But I mean, you know, even like, as far as like, if you hire an architect to build out a space, but then you don't listen to anything he says, you know, it's like, 

Oh yeah, definitely.

Definitely. You know what I mean? It's like, Oh yeah. A hundred percent. Like going, going against that expert was hard for me, but it was very, very deep feeling. Interesting. And you talk about it. Yeah. Look, you talk about just when you have this feeling, and I love also how relatable you are as far as, you know, all my listeners out there who are thinking, well, look at her.

Like she was born that way. No. When you read the book, you were not born that way. In fact, I'm quoting you again, you may grow into being an entrepreneur and get to a point where you just have to do this. thing. And that's exactly how I feel, Ali. I feel like I'm not this born, you know, popped out of the womb entrepreneur, but I think that you can literally grow into it.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for sure. You know, and I mean, granted, I did grow up in an entrepreneurial environment. So I did have, did I. Oh, you know, I did. I did. And I, I didn't. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so I, you know,  certainly had kind of ingrained in me, , but with that said, you know when I say ingrained, I mean, I just watched how my parents operated a business.

I watched how my parents. You know, treated people and how they ran their business. , but of course I wasn't paying attention.  And even as I got out into the world, like I, you know, gosh, when I first, I mean, going way back, I wanted to be a professional tennis player and then I wanted to be a stylist, like a fashion stylist, you know, and then I worked in PR for a while.

Like I did all sorts of stuff. , I never had an entrepreneurial like drive., I was happy to work with people. I mean, one of my favorite jobs was I was an assistant. For the, this guy, his name is Paul Freundlich, he ran the music division at Rogers and Cowan, which is a really big PR firm when I lived in New York.

And that was like, I loved being an assistant, you know what I mean? , and that, by the way, it wasn't really, it turned out to be a very important job for me because I learned how to compose like professional emails. Like I'd never done that before. You know what I mean? , I really believe all of my, all of my stops.

And there were many as you know, in my twenties, we're, we're all important in different ways. And. But I didn't have, you know, I, it's interesting to me now. It's like I go and I speak at colleges all the time that have entrepreneurial programs and I didn't go to college. And  like, I may have gone to college  if there was an entrepreneurial program, maybe, but I wasn't thinking about any of that stuff.

Then, you when I see these kids who are like, you know, 18, 19, 20 years old and they want to start a business, I'm like, wow, that's amazing. Like I didn't, like, I didn't have any desire or ambition to start a business. You know, I didn't obviously start dry bar until I was 35 and  the mobile business idea came to me.

So maybe it was just, it was in me, perhaps all the time, but. You know, now it's like, now that I have , you know, like the pump has been primed and now it's like, I can't go anywhere without thinking like, how could this business be better? And why is this being done better? And all of that. But, you know, back then it wasn't like, Oh,  I've got to just figure out a business.

Like I said before, it was like, this is a thing that is missing. In the world, you know, which is, you know, it's just the same thing with like, you know, our, our concept squeeze, which is a massage concept and this other, you know, brand that we've started the same founding team as driver, you know, it was like massages are everywhere, but they're not done very well in most places, you know, so we invented an app.

Such a great example. Yeah.  It's a whole other experience with working on the app and all the bells and whistles that happen at Squeeze. And. You know, , it is another example of like,  it can exist. It probably does exist.

I mean, unless you're Steve Jobs and you invent the iPhone, there's a very good chance that something that you want to do exists, but there's an opportunity to make it better. 

Ah, I love that so, so much. , this kind of segues into another quote from your book. Because you know, you sold your business and thank God you actually sold it before COVID and now you're onto all these other things.

And I, I want to quote you and then discuss it. You say in the book, most of us know when it's time to pivot, we can feel that crackle of energy beneath the surface with our next big idea. But when you step into that new thing, you can't bring the old thing with you. And you also talk a lot about having to let go of dry bar.

Wow. Something I, never thought 

about. Yeah, I mean,  , I forgot about that line, but I love it. You know, the crackle, like it's such a good way to put it. It's been a long time now since I've, you know, I don't know if you've written a book yet, but once you write a book, you're like, I have to stop reading it.

I have to stop editing it. Like I can't do it anymore. So it's been a minute since I've looked at it. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, , there is that, you know, and for anybody who's listening, who has, you know, started their own business or is on the verge of starting a business, it's like, you know, that feeling, that excitement, the crackle of like, I just can't think about anything else.

I have, that's what happened. Yep. And then I read that and I went, oh my gosh, like there's like a million parts of the book where I just. Totally connected with you. And when I read that line, I went, that's how I felt when I started my podcast. Like it was the same concept. It was the same. And then the same thing when I started teaching podcasting, like I'm already teaching it.

Like I just felt like I have to do this. I have to. You know, yeah, 

yeah, it's pretty amazing , you know, and that's the tap on the shoulder, you know, that's the call of like, you know, I really need , to go and figure this out, you know, and listen, I mean, the cold hard facts are, you know, most businesses don't make it.

And  that is. A reality, but you will never know. Of course, you've heard this quote. You'll never know if you don't try, you know, it's like, you know, you just, you just never know.  And you just don't know what's going to hit and, and what's going to work and what's going to resonate.

And, you know, again, I would love to tell you  like, Oh, it was in the bag with dry bar. It wasn't, you know, it was such a risk. It was such a risk. And , we did not know it was going. And it was like, we were starting it at the tail end of a recession, you know? And obviously like, had I started dry bar now.

I mean, who knows, but , even like what's happened in the world and like so much has swung away from experiences, which I think it's going to swing back, but yeah, it will in a huge way, but, but, you know, it's just, , when I tell you, it felt like the stars aligned and we had captured lightning in a bottle, you know, it really, Did feel like that.

It was like the right place at the right time. The right people, you know, it was like my, my ex husband was, you know, this creative genius. My brother was this business genius. I knew hair. We were all able to like work for free for years. Like, you know, it was just so like a confluence of so many things lining up and that.

That it's hard to come by its magic in a lot of ways, you know, and of course it's tons of hard work. Yes. But I want 

to give you some credit, Alli. I'm going to read off a bunch of quotes from your book. You have a tremendous amount of grit and I don't know if you've seen that Ted talk where this expert says that that is the number one predictor of success is having grit, you know, being an entrepreneur.

I'm going to, I'm going to read off some of these. You said in your book. Learning from failing. There's a lot of failure, but you learned. You said fear stands in the way of most things in our lives. My advice, just start anyway. Another one. No one has all the answers. Just keep going. Here's another one.

We're all imposters when we start. That's how experts are created. And I went, yeah, we all start from nothing. And you say that in the book too. We all start from nothing, 

you know? Yeah. I mean, Yeah, it's amazing how many of us  can look at somebody else who's done X, Y, and Z and be like, Oh man, I want to be like that.

And like, I wish, and I do it too. I'm totally guilty of this, but - , they also had to start. Somewhere and at some point you do have to take a leap and jump into a role or a position or a business or being a mom or like whatever it is that you have absolutely no real business being there or training and  you get thrown in and and you you learn as you know, as you go, I mean, you know, of course, I believe in preparation and you know, in getting as much Transcribed Information that you can about a thing before you started and all of that is, is obviously wise and valuable, but , there is a certain intangible in all of that where you just, at some point you're going to start and you're like, well, shit, I don't really know exactly what I'm doing, but I'm going to.

Try my best to learn it as I go to figure it out, to ask people, you know, all the things that, you know, you have to do. And, yes, to your point, we all start there. You know, we all start with like, I'm not really sure. And I think the difference between an entrepreneur and somebody who doesn't want to be an entrepreneur is that entrepreneur has that mindset of like , I'm going to put it all on the line and it might not work, but.

They have to have a high, you know, degree of pain  which is where I'm like, not resistance, but, you know, knowing that there's a very good chance that they're going to fail, you know, but you have to be able to have that like threshold of like, yeah, , that's a possibility, but I have thick enough skin.

I'm going to try it anyway , and see what happens. 

Yeah, or even if you don't have thick skin like me, I don't think I had thick skin when I started, but I slowly, slowly developed it over time. And I also, love this line in your book. If you feel like an imposter, embrace it. And I learned how to do that too.

Yeah. I mean, me too, and I think especially.  I wasn't a very good student in school. I didn't go to college. , you know, and I remember even like in the early days of Drybar, once we raised our first, like an initial big tranche of money. And now we had this big private equity these really smart people.

And , we had a board meeting and I remember our first board meeting, like I did not know what a board meeting was. I mean, the amount of things I didn't know, is pretty staggering. Just, you know, especially the fact that like. Drybar as successful as it was because I knew so little, but I remember sitting in a  board meeting and being like, I don't like, I don't know what's going on.

Like, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to be saying. I don't know how I'm supposed to show up, like so confused and so intimidated because, you know. These were really, really smart people who'd gone to like Harvard and Stanford and Yale and they knew all this shit.

And I was like, Oh my God, I was so intimidated by them. And I remember, you know,  I think I put this in the book, you know, I remember like texting my brother questions I had as we were, you know, diving into the business and whatever, because  I was embarrassed to ask them because I was afraid it was going to sound stupid, you know, and my brother, God bless him, was like, No, that's a good question. You should ask. And he said that enough times that I finally was like, okay, I'm going to put this at this crazy insecurity I have and just be who I am. And if they see that, I don't know things that I think I should know, who cares? This is my idea. Like we're all sitting in this room because of me. And , even like Steve Berg, who I mentioned in the book, who was our.

You know, kind of our lead with, with Castaneda, you know, I mean, , he also, I was really lucky in this regard that he was also like, no Alli, you know, be you like,  you be you and we're here to support you and support this business. Like there was a lot of people in my corner that were kind of giving me that advice which is exactly why I feel so compelled.

I felt so compelled to write this book and I feel so compelled to give that back to other entrepreneurs because I had so many people in my ear saying, yeah, go be you. No, don't add manicures. Like. Do that, do this, like that feels right to you. Even like when we were launching in Sephora, which I don't think I put this in the book, but we were launching our product line in Sephora, you know, the, the powers that be, and the people that were really running the show over there also , you know, would pull me aside and say, Don't, you know, don't listen to anybody else.

Follow your vision, follow your heart. Follow what you feel is right. You know, because - there was a lot of cooks in the kitchen when we were developing the product line. And I wanted, I mean, there's kind of a story which I don't think I put in the book about like one of our investors,  Janer, which she was amazing.

And it really introduced us to Sephora. And she was the founder of Laura and CEO of Laura. Mercier cosmetics and she's amazing. And anyways, we had this, like, as I was developing products and she was really helping me, we had this kind of, you know, disagreement, if you will, on the fragrance of the product.

And  I had gotten it down to like two, like. Strong directions for scent. And she wanted this one and I wanted that one. And I was like, you know what, Janet, I just got to go with what I feel is right. And that really, you know, that decision was hard because Janet was obviously really smart and like she built a massive product line.

She ran Neiman Marcus for years. Like she was very smart, very accomplished. And it was hard for me to find it within myself to say, no, I don't agree. And I'm going to do, this is my name. This is my product. This is my company. Like I have to do what I feel is right. And I think that confidence, you know, came from lots of things, but it certainly did help me to have people around me.

Who were like, you be you and you go do what you feel is right. You know, and, and, and so I went with my gut on that, which, you know, turned out to be a pretty good decision. 

I just, I just want to interject like, I don't think what the audience doesn't know if they haven't read the book yet is you write about being conflict avoidant, hated conflict.

Okay. That was me too. And then when you become an entrepreneur. You slowly overcome that, right? Like, cause you can't sweep stuff under the rug. You can't do that anymore. Your business will never take off if you do. So that story that you just told like that just shows how much growth you went through.

Like. How much you changed. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and, and it,  really did happen like before my very own eyes too. Like, I saw myself emerging and, and you know, I, I, I was a, I was a kid who, you know, my, my brother for better or worse, you know, my brother was like always getting all the attention as a kid, you know, he was the one who was either always in trouble or always being praised.

And, you know, believe it or not, it's hard to believe now, but I was like a wallflower and I was like always in the background, you know,  and my parents were more surprised than anybody of like this whole idea being mine and like what my life has become and all of that, because my brother was always kind of in the spotlight.

You know, either in trouble or being praised and you know, , for me  I really came out of my shell and found my voice and my agency in the early on in the dry bar years, because I realized like, , the buck stop with me. Like , this is, my name was all over this thing.

This was my idea , you know, I was out front. And it was like, you've got to really step into this role, Alli, and you have to really own this. And I, you know, I stumbled around a lot in the beginning, but - I finally did. And it was really quite transformative and amazing for me to step into that and like my own who I was, you know?

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Love it so much. Okay. - , here's another couple of really powerful lines and totally different direction. You said as my business blew up, ha, ha, ha, right? Like blow, blow, blow, I just have to say that. Okay.  As my business blew up, so did my personal life. Like really. Blow up. And then in another part of the book, you say the best parts of life are the most messy parts.

Wow. So tell us more about those things. 

Well, I mean, you know, I think in the moment they don't feel right, you know, in the moment they don't feel that way at all. I mean, of course, you know, and it's like you know, we don't learn. And grow, you know, out of things being, you know, happy and rosy all the time.

We, you know, we, we're, we're, we're in a happy state and like, we're kind of just going along when things are good and when things fall apart. And, you know, I mean, I've read every book under the sun about this and I'm. And I, again, I'm, I'm, I'm more of a seeker in this area of my life now than anywhere else, because,  I'm finally dealing with a lot of things that I swept under the rug and that I didn't want to talk about and didn't want to, you know, talk about conflict, you know, avoid it for so many years, but you know, , the real growth , and , you know, us transforming and becoming better humans and living in a different, like.

Vibration happens only I believe when  we've really, you know, been through the shit. I mean,  one of my favorite. Things that I learned about him when I was really going through it, you know, it's like the Lotus flower, like grows literally out of mud into this like beautiful flower that emerges from mud, you know?

And  it's always been such a, I'm such a visual person in general, but it's like, it's that visual Asian of, of thinking about that, of like, that's where the beauty comes from is where the pain and the heart and the heartache that we have for different things in our life is really.

Where we take a step back and we look deeper at ourselves and  we just grow and learn, you know, I mean, there's like, you know, one of the things  that I think about all the time is like how grateful I am for all the pain that I've endured in the last five years, because , it's grown me and it's made me a better person and a better mom and a better human and a better friend and just all the things and you just don't get to that kind of like humility and that kind of like introspective self awareness unless you've been through , some really hard times, you know, and  by the way, nobody's getting out of that.

Like everybody, you know, is going to deal with that at some point in their life, you know, and it knocks you down pretty hard when you first go through it. . And then, you know, you go through it, you feel the pain , and then , you emerge really beautiful on the other end. You know, and that's really what's happened to me, you know, and it's like,  learning is never ending as well, which is, yeah, 

I love that so much.

, and you also say in your book, I can assure you it all works out the way it's supposed to in the end, instead of regrets, focus on learning and moving forward. And I loved every , every square inch of this book right down to the very last sentence. It's like, it was just so. Juicy the whole thing.

Yeah. And it was just so amazing. And then I also like you wrote when you find your limits, experiment and ask for help and take a good hard look in the mirror and understand that you're capable of more than you're currently willing to believe. And there's a lot in that sentence right there. But you talk a lot in your book about Reaching out for help and asking for help and getting help.

And I think , you're a very humble person. And I love that about you because you just put it all out on the line, like , you've had a lot of really hard things that we don't have time to go into today, but just know , you know, listeners, , when you listen to this episode, right.

And when you read the book, . Like you learned so much that went on and is still going on in Ali's life like it hasn't been a bed of roses Like you may be thinking to yourself. Oh, well, you know, she's kind of had that perfect life. No, that is Not the case at all. I even like at one point you ended up working with your brother's ex wife, Sarah.

And I love the title that , you ended up giving her in your company spirit director. That is so cool. I love that. So awesome. Yeah. 

Yeah. I mean, she came up with that title and we all loved it so much because it really was her , you know, getting out into the stores and, you know, connecting with people and she's just has a very like fun, infectious personality and she's a DJ.

And so, you know, it was like, - not a title anybody had ever thought about, but it was so brilliant because , it was an important, like, you know, thing to introduce. And then I think that's, you know, kind of always, you know, part of , what, you know, we're trying to do is like be inventive , and think , you know, out of the box and how do we do things like to get people excited and motivated and all that.

So you know. That was so great. And people, you know, really loved and they would tell her things that they wouldn't tell their manager and certainly wouldn't tell me. So yeah, it really worked on a lot of levels. 

Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Well, Ali, this conversation has been nothing short of amazing.

I feel like we packed a lot of punch in for the amount of time and how can my listeners get ahold of you? And. Where can they find your book? 

Well, my book is sold, you know, on Amazon or , anywhere you really get books.  There's also an audio version of it, which I read. So that's fun. So you can get that on Audible.

And then, you know, right now my kind of hub for everything I do is on my Instagram, which is just Ali Webb. And you know, I have so many projects. Coming out. I have a mastermind that I lead. If you're, you know, an entrepreneur that's interested in learning directly from me alongside Jacqueline Johnson, who started Create and Cultivate, which I don't know if you're familiar, but that was a big company for a while and which she sold.

And Marina Middleton said the three of us do this mastermind. That's great for entrepreneurs. I do a lot of like one on one through intro, as you know coaching and mentoring and, I do feel very strongly about giving back. So I'm kind of always doing that about 

you. You are.

Yeah. Yep. All the things helping elevate. And you - I love to acknowledge people and how they're being either. And, or, you know, they're a great example and they're sharing their knowledge and wisdom with the world.  

I was so lucky to have people do that for me.

So that's also part of why, you know, I feel so compelled to. So, 

yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this book, I love how transparent you are about, you know, , your growth, your personal growth. It's really, really beautiful. Thank you so much for your time today, Alli. Thank you so much. 

This was so fun.

Yeah. Thanks for having me.