Allyson Byrd on Using Energetics to Rewrite Your Story and Find Success

Audrey Saccone: Allyson Byrd, a transformative figure in digital marketing, is renowned for her 330,000,000 in sales revenue generated through spotlight energetics for her clients. With a global reach spanning 47 countries and 20 industries, she's empowered countless entrepreneurs. Featured by MSNBC, Amazon Prime, CNN, USA Today, and NPR, Allyson inspires us to push boundaries and share our stories. Her disruptive approach fosters exponential growth, aligning personal and business success. As the founder of Influencers Impacting Injustice, she leads the charge for racial equality and digital marketing. Allyson, welcome to the show.

Allyson Byrd: What's up? I'm so excited to be with you, my sweet.

Audrey Saccone: Oh, I'm so, so excited to have you here. We finally met in person a couple of months ago, and to get to experience your energy in person was just really, really beautiful.

Allyson Byrd: Oh, thank you so much. I felt the same about you when my team hired you. Man, it's hard to believe. Almost. Was it a year ago or two years ago?

Audrey Saccone: It was over like a year and a half ago, I think at this point.

Allyson Byrd: I just was so lit up by meeting you on Instagram. I felt like your skill, your knowledge, your ambition, your drive was something that we needed to help activate my new vision in the world. I was just so grateful that our relationship has been able to continue beyond projects that we did together. So I just love and adore you.

Audrey Saccone: Well, the feeling is very mutual. And here on Tough Stuff, we talk about all the things we don't hear about on regular podcasts. Today, Allyson's here to talk about her incredible success as a business owner and how being a problem solver has always been in her DNA. So, Allyson, I talk to my guests a lot about resilience and tenacity, and that's something I know you've had from a young age. And when we were together a couple of months ago, you told a story about a time you project managed a visit to the grocery store when you were five years old, and I'd love for you to share that with our guests.

Allyson Byrd: Oh, my gosh. That is a really funny and fun story. I was five years old, and I was pretty frustrated with my single mom with her emotional dysregulation. I didn't call it that, but I could see it. And I was like, Mom, get your shit together. Like, what's going on? So she would say, I'm so tired, I can't go to the grocery store. And I basically was like, isn't there something called a plan? Can we not plan? So I decided that the next time we went to the grocery store, I would scope it out and make a map so that the next time my mother told me she was too tired, I would have a plan. So my idea was that my sister was not the best at picking out meat or veggies. She really didn't have a discerning eye at that time. And I could see because my mother would give feedback, why did you pick this meat? Or that's not a good cantaloupe? So I knew my sister wasn't the qualified person for that, but I knew she could pick out a mean box of cereal. I assigned my sister to the center of the store, and then I assigned my mother to the meat, and I assigned myself to the fruits and vegetables. And that was a moment of me really showing my leadership, showing my communication skills, showing my willingness to be a problem solver. And that was honestly me getting indoctrinated to the era of the patriarchal society that I was growing up in. So it's a pretty fun story, and I think it's a story that we'll see lives like that phase out because we see the patriarchal era actually phasing out the patriarchal society that we live within. 

Audrey Saccone: You've built some amazing businesses with no advanced degree, and I can imagine that that wasn't simple and that there were not challenges along the way as you did?

Allyson Byrd: It's really funny, Audrey. I was making a list of things, because right now I'm creating a new vision for my life, and I'm creating a new vision that includes a higher level of net worth for my own finances, a new vision that includes greater impact and influence out in society. And whenever I'm calling in clarity on what my new vision is, I notice that one of the first things that descends into the space is fear. You can't do it. You're going to fuck it up. And I've called in enough new visions to understand this rhythm and this pattern and this routine of shadow. Energetic. And so I started making a list of things that I've done over the last 15 years, and when I got to the part, which is hilarious to me, when I hosted an event, I want to say, back in 2000, maybe 17, there was a beautiful friend of mine who called me and said, hey, there's a man that I met. I met him and his wife. I think you would be phenomenal mentors for what they're growing into. Would you be open to gifting them tickets to your events? Now, for a lot of people, they would say, well, if these people are successful doing their thing, why would you gift them tickets? Why not sell them? Well, successful people pay for very little.

Audrey Saccone: That's part of how they keep their money.

Allyson Byrd: It really is. Successful people pay for very little. Every NBA game where I sat in the owner's box or right on the sideline, that was gifted, every flight to a Caribbean country, et cetera, et cetera, like, all of those things were gifted to me. So she says, will you gift this to them? I say, sure. I'm at the event, and I'm teaching a point, and I open up the mic, and I see this human walk to the microphone. Audrey. And I instantly knew it was him. I had never met them, but I just knew that must be the person that they referred as he's speaking. My psychic knowing pops on hot. And at the time, I wasn't really deep into any of my clara-sensations. I wasn't deep into my psychic knowing. I've always known that I had psychic insight and wisdom from a child, but I did not call it that. As a child, my mother would call my friends, which I called the people. She would call them imaginary, and I would say, stop disrespecting them, because I knew they were angelic. I've just always had these knowings back to my strength in leading business. So he's standing at the mic, and my psychic knowing says, he's an investor. He's going to invest in your business. He's going to fund your business. And I had never heard about funding for a business, ever. Remember, I don't have post-education, so I didn't grow up learning economics. I didn't go to college, and so I didn't know what funding was. So I'm hearing these nuances come through me, and I'm like, okay. So I answer his question. I challenge him a little bit. I poke at the bear. He's all in. And then I send him a note at our break, inviting him to come up to my suite for a meeting. At that meeting, I not only signed his wife up for one-on-one work with me, which was a significant five-figure investment, I also asked for a five-figure investment into our business for an idea that I had. And then a few months after that, when the idea wasn't going well, I asked for another five-figure investment to bolster that. That really is the story of my life. I feel these sensations come through. They tell me something is possible. I follow it through, and I do it as a reflection of that. I ended up going to acquire someone's business who introduced me to the teachings of Abraham, which, if anyone, follows quantum success. The teachings of Abraham, Abraham Hicks, Esther and Jerry Hicks. I'd never heard them before. Had I not responded to the woman, my friend, who said, I think this person should come, listened to my psychic, knowing as he's standing there as my guest, invited him to my suite, which, by the way, I had bought out the highest level hotel in San Antonio, Texas. So the only diamond level hotel in San Antonio, I bought it out. Confederate flags and all. Because in Texas, they still have fucking confederate flags in places and spaces. So here I am, a black female high school dropout, no post-education, leading and running a seven-figure business. It wasn't a multi-seven-figure business yet. And asking, unapologetically, a white male to give me his resources to bolster my own vision. Then I take those resources to go acquire another business. That business owner introduces me to a psychology and a consciousness that unlocks my entire reality. And the rest is quickly becoming so much of my expansive future. You just can't make this shit up. It's so potent and powerful and supernatural and fun and magical. It's why I teach what I teach today.

Audrey Saccone: I always think it's so beautiful to go back in that way and see, okay, what led to this or something else, and to really watch how all the dominoes fell into place, that you were in the right location with the right person, who introduced you to somebody else. You just never know which opportunity is going to unlock the right next door for you.

Allyson Byrd: You never know. And in yoga, I'm newly practicing yoga, and I'm officially like a goat. Like, I'm the best ever. I try it. Everything I touch turns to gold. No, I'm newly learning yoga and reading the yoga sutras and really supporting my nervous system to have an overhaul with Yoga Nidra. And one of the things in yoga nidra is when you do a pose, it can be painful and they call that discomfort sensations. The yoga teacher will say something like, you may be experiencing a sensation, and what would it look like for you to melt into that sensation? Is there any part of your body that you can invite to soften as you feel this sensation? So I bring that up, because when you say to me, it can't have been easy. It actually has been. It actually has been. If I take the yogic terminology and pull it through to my reality, have I experienced some hell of sensations? Yes. Racism? Absolutely. Sexism? Absolutely. Classism? Absolutely. There was a season of my career where I was 345 pounds. So my physical reflection, I remember someone saying to me, are you really going to teach people that they can live a good life and you're fat? Fuck you. Yes, I am going to teach people that because my body has nothing to do with their possibility. And I get what they were trying to say. However, it was without class, it was without compassion. It was distasteful, and it put a seed inside of me that was meant to make me hate myself. But what it did was it gave me a middle finger to anyone who thought that about me, and it changed my frequency to where I no longer attracted humans that would say that bullshit to me and think it was okay.

Audrey Saccone: I have nothing else to add.

Allyson Byrd: That's it. We can be done.

Audrey Saccone: One thing I so admire about you, anytime I speak with you, is your approach and mindset when it comes to life, and how have you cultivated that? And your outlook is so refreshing to me.

Allyson Byrd: Thank you for that. I started to listen to the feedback that people gave me that stung, and I started going deep into it. I was dating a man who said to me that I was critical, and I thought to myself, well, I don't experience myself to be critical, but let's unpack it. And so every time I would notice, his body would do this thing when he experienced me as critical, and I would go, oh, there it is. You just felt like I was critical, and he'd be like I did, and I'd say, let's unpack it. And that was really beautiful, that I had a partner that was willing, a great lover that was willing to go, I got you. Let's do it. I'm not going to make you wrong. I'm not going to shame you, but I'm also not going to keep receiving it from you. And so that was really helpful. So when he would say that was critical, I would say, actually, I'm playing curious. And this is where we recognized that my Gemini mind, I'm a Gemini sun leo, moon, Scorpio rising. For anyone that loves astrology, which means I love to think, I love to unpack a thought. If you tell me the sky is blue, I want to unpack how many versions and layers of blue you see. How do they inspire you to feel? What would you like to now journal about that? And can we write a song and beat a drum to it? Like, that's me. I'm so deep in that. And I was able to see, Audrey. Oh. When I play curious, he experiences it as questioning that because he dated someone in his past, that emasculated him through questioning, he's now playing a relay of she's asking questions. Now I should feel emasculated. And all of these ripples and domino effects, why is that important for anyone listening? If you go to where feedback stings, you'll actually see where you may have habits of style of communication, habits of ways of being that while you're busy defending it, your source energies, which people call God or Allah or Buddha, I like to say the collective Christ consciousness, a non-religious way of saying goodness, your highest goodness, is always trying to bring to you these gorgeous up levels. But if we're defending and shirking like, I'm not critical, I'm not judgmental, I'm not angry. Well, to that person, you were. And so what would happen if you gave yourself permission to listen and then flip the script? So how did I flip questioning? I started saying to him, I would love to play curious around this. Do you have capacity for that? And then he would tell me, I do, or he would tell me, no, I'm actually protecting this idea. And if you play with questions, it's going to make me feel insecure.

Audrey Saccone: That's fair.

Allyson Byrd: That's fair communication. So that's what's really made me a benevolent communicator and a benevolent listener. I care what people think, not from. It's going to adjust me. It's going to edify me, esteem me, uplift me and inspire me to be a higher caliber of Allyson. And I like that. I can rock with that hard. And that's what's really changed things for me.

Audrey Saccone: I love that. Do you talk a lot about your weight loss journey and how you've really grown? Just truly love you. And I'd love for you to share a little bit more about what that's been like for you and how that's helped you step into the new Allyson.

Allyson Byrd: Today's Allyson. Right. Well, you know, I was born in 1977, and so in the totally centered on whiteness and it was centered on the white body. And the white body that they were focusing on at that time was very much like a Suzanne Summers from Three’s Company. So if anyone remembers that she was probably maybe 115 pounds and no hips, no butt, no curve, none of that, very flat bodied, but a curvaceous top and then blonde and a little bit of ditz inside of that, that was the character that she played. However, in real life, Suzanne Summers appeared to me to be a very strong, deliberate, connected human. And I loved watching her career unfold. So my mother was witnessing that and then judging her own body in accordance to that. And then we, as children, were watching her judge herself. So at that time, the thigh master came out the cabbage soup diet. So you do the thigh master three times a day. You eat cabbage all day long. So many things that were coming out in the world, and that seeded me with this notion that I should always be fixing my physical body. I did not learn to love my physical body. I did not learn to express gratitude to my physical body. I was over 40 years old before I held my feet and said, thank you for helping me walk every day, for ensuring that I can. I was over 40 years old before I held my lungs and said, thank you for giving me the capacity to breathe. I had no nurture of self love and physical love for my body and for who I was physically. So I decided to just go on that roller coaster. Just by contagion of self-hatred, body dysmorphia, I learned that I could build a body and hide myself in my body. Then I freaked out when I realized that other people could see it. I was like, oh, you can see it. I didn't realize people could see the weight. I thought I was still looking like what I was projecting and that I was just safely securing myself after being physically harmed and touched in a way that I did not give permission to touch my body, and I began to hide inside. I think that humanity is changing the way that we view curvy bodies, fuller bodies. Everyone gets to decide what is healthy for them. And I remember going to a personal development training, and this is very controversial, but I went to a personal development training, and he said, you can eat a big Mac, fries, and a soda all day, every day if you don't believe it's bad for you, and if you don't shame yourself, and if you don't hate yourself, it will not harm you. A lot of people would argue that, because it's hard for us to perceive that when there's so much shame around. We've got way too much shame in our psychology to even try to have an unbiased opinion to his opinion. But what I recognized is that every time I was eating, I was telling myself it was wrong. I was telling myself it was bad. The core of that, Audrey, is that I had never learned how to nurture Allyson. I hadn't learned it. And so today, I nurture myself. I love myself. Before I got on, I was talking to myself, you're going to be with Audrey. You all are going to have so much fun. You're going to share so much loving truth. I kissed myself, high fived myself. I'm like, all right, girl, let's go. And I have no thought about being black. No thought about being 225 pounds. I have no thought about being cisgender. There's no thoughts about how I identify. The only thing that is in my psychology right now is, am I expressing through pure love? And if I am, if I say a cuss word, there it is. If I say Jesus, there it is. It's all Alison, and it's all know.

Audrey Saccone:

Every time I'm on the phone with you I feel like my cheeks hurt, because I'm just always, like, everything just resonates with me so much, and I'm just grateful you say it all.

Allyson Byrd:

Thank you for that.

Audrey Saccone:

So talk to us about spotlight energetics. What is it?

Allyson Byrd:

Girl, listen, this is such a fun jam for me, Audrey, because I recognize, and by the way, if anyone notices me saying Audrey's name a lot, I always say everybody's name. It helps me be present. It helps me be grounded. And if you've never read How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, go grab it. Or listen to a summary on YouTube. It's worth it. Okay. Spotlight Energetics. After I sold my tech company in 2021, I was like, what am I going to do? I wasn't a new aspiring coach anymore, where it feels like you can flub anything when you're a new aspiring coach. No one knows who you are. So you're like, let me try this graphic. Let me try this font. Let me try this thing. But by the time I'd sold my tech company, I had not only traveled all over the world with Lisa Nichols. For those of you who don't know who she is, she's the second woman in history to garner a seven-figure book deal for a nonfiction work. Hillary Clinton was the first. And I had the opportunity to travel with her, grow her business, be in the c suite of her companies. And it was one of the most remarkable things. But when you leave that, now, the world knows you as that. She had an audience of 35 million at the time. It's probably grown to over 100 million by. So she had a massive audience. She had been on Oprah, all the things. And so I was like, oh, I got that pressure from that on my resume. Then I built my own seven figure company. Oh, there's pressure. Then I built a tech company that became a seven-figure company. Oh, now I felt like day one, I needed to have multimillion dollars in sales. I didn't feel like I could just breathe. As I started to look around at what I wanted to do, I just started noticing things that I had never noticed before. And that's what happens when we start to channel in a new vision. All of a sudden, the common sense that has been working for us all of our life begins to transmute, and we start to have new access to common sense that we otherwise didn't have without the lived experiences that we walk through. So I started looking around, Audrey, and I started paying attention to, there were people teaching you how to build a course, a program, get it out in the world, people teaching you how to show up on camera, be your best self, people vocal coaching, how to get your right tone of voice, get yourself out there. Storytelling ability, how to tell a potent story and build a brand story, whatever that may be. Speaking on stages, platforms. Get out there. Get your name out there. All the things TED talks. Do your TED talk. I was like, and I started looking around going, this is a lot of invitation to be seen. This is a lot of invitation to be heard. This is a lot of invitation to be seen and heard and to leverage that into something monetizable. And everybody is positioning this into society. Like it's easy. Like one of the greatest fears, aside from death, is speaking on stages. To tell your story is one of the biggest fears. And yet, all of this publication was out. All of this press, Forbes and Forbes council and Forbes Women and Boss Babe, and every article you could think of, entrepreneur.com, you name it. And I was going, these people gonna say yes to doing this? I don't think they're going to say yes. But then something else happened. So I started to look at post pandemic. I started to think, the great resignation is here, which means people are not only looking at how do I resign from my career in corporate, how do I resign from pressure as an entrepreneur? So I started putting all these pieces together, and I said, this is interesting. As I look at this Will Smith had come out with his book and memoir. I thought, that's interesting. He's telling his story. John legend produced a new psalm. He said, oh, I wrote this for my wife. I said, that's his story. I started listening to politicians. I won't name who they are because it can become too frustrating when you mention politicians. I could already be in trouble for mentioning Will Smith. Never.

Audrey Saccone: You can never be in trouble with me.

Allyson Byrd: So I started looking. Musicians, artists, politicians, entrepreneurs, liquor makers, you name it. I started going, all these people, if you read the core of why they started, what they started, it was to change their own story and what they had to navigate. I have watched probably, I don't know, maybe 400 hours of documentaries, over 200 hours of comedians looking at the pieces of the energetics of what happens when you start to live in the spotlight. What is the spotlight? It's a worldview. You allow your world to see you. A lot of people live a very small spotlight. What is their day-to-day? Their coworkers see them, their grocery store people see them, their bank tellers see them. The gas station attendant sees them. And maybe if you have children, you go to your children's schools and they see you. Your friend group sees you. A very small, narrow spotlight. But what I started to notice, Audrey, is that there was a trend happening that more people were being activated to be seen and to be heard. But I recognized, do they know how to navigate the energetics of that? And that's when I began to see that the three things that stop humanity from really being willing to be seen is, will they live the experience? Will they grow from the experience, and will they contribute? Will you live it? Will you grow from it? Will you contribute and talk about it? I was significantly overweight in my body, significantly insecure. I began to tap into the insecurity, resolve the weight. Now I grow from it. Now I contribute, and I can say something about it. Would I be willing? And that is spotlight energetics. It's will you allow your light to be seen in the world? And when you do that, will you navigate those energetics, and will you learn how to do that? And so often we feel the pressure that once we step into the spotlight, learning is gone, that everything must be perfect, that we must dot all our I's and cross all our t's. I am now on a mission to teach leaders that a, you can make a living with your story. Doesn't matter how you're trying to do it. You can make widgets, you can make gadgets, you can make art. You can make music. However you make meaning in the world, you can do it with your story. The second thing I'm teaching leaders is that the only qualification that you need is that you lived it. That's it. That you lived it. It's not yet medicine to offer into our world until you learn how to receive the alchemy around it. That's my job. That's my career now and then. The third thing in that is recognizing that if you can make a living with your story, if you are automatically qualified, then what is the identity that you get to step into that allows you to trust that? And that's the bridge that a lot of people start walking over and go, I'm out. And they turn around and that's okay. I just exist now to help you keep walking across the bridge and keep going. Come on, you can do it. You can do it. And it's not your mindset. It's actually your willingness. But energetics can feel so scary. The energetics of jealousy, the energetics of envy, the energetics of comparison. The energetics. No one unpacks fear. They go feel the fear and do it anyway. Fear is scary. At one moment, I'm jealous and envious. That's one fear. At another moment, I'm critical and comparing myself. That's another fear. At another moment, I'm feeling challenged on my integrity as I watch someone else in my industry do it with a different texture of integrity than me. Another moment, fear is judgment and overwhelm. And another moment, fear might be scarcity and lack. Those are all unique fears. And you want to tell me to feel the fear and do it anyway. I need training. I need tools. I need spiritual technology that helps me navigate that rickety, rockety bridge that feels so scary and so shaky so that I can actually experience it as a yellow brick road.

Audrey Saccone: Well, Allyson, people want to stay connected with you or work with you, or just be in your circle forever, like I am. How can they?

Allyson Byrd: You are forever in my circle. I will say this for anyone who's listening. Number one, don't make me aspirational. Put me far away from where you are. If you are listening to this interview, it is because I have an opportunity to be in your world. Bring me close. The second thing that I would say is download anything free or no cost that I offer and activate it in your reality right away. I'm pretty sure in the show notes we're going to give them access to the magnetism codes. Probably, yeah. So, with the Magnetism Codes I wrote that to bolster your energetics, your strength, your fortitude, your clarity. And they're called codes. And what they really are is prayers. I recognize that as an entrepreneur, I knew how to pray to God if somebody was sick in my family. Like, oh, please help my aunt. She's dying. But I didn't know how to be like, listen, I need the bag, and I want a good bag. And I want to touch, move, inspire and impact society. And I want to be profitable and prosperous while I do it. Show me the way. I didn't know how to speak like that. And so my angels, my guides, have mentored me. And now I create tools and spiritual technologies that helps you regardless of your religious background or your non religious background. I am an ecumenical teacher, which means I am inclusive of all. If you're gay, if you're trans, if you're black, if you're white, if you're asian, if you are a soul, I love you, I respect you. I see you, and I want you in my world. So come on, hang out with me on Instagram, YouTube, get on my mailing list. Because as long as I have this life assignment as Allyson Octavia Berg, I'm going to be serving you some soul food. And it's going to be so good. So eat up, Allyson.

Audrey Saccone: Well, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your so invaluable insights here on Tough Stuff. Listeners, don't forget to share your thoughts on this episode on our latest posts at @toughstuffpod, and hit that subscribe button to always get the latest episodes in your favorite podcast app. I'll see you next time. Tough Stuff is powered by iced vanilla lattes and the team at Fast Forward Productions. Thank you to our guest for joining us for today's episode. Everything we talked about today can be found in our show notes and on toughstuffpod.com. And a very special thanks to you for tuning in. See you next time.