Lisa Bray was a skinny, scraggly-haired girl from a trailer park in the coal mining towns of Colorado who ended up a multi-millionaire and successfully published author. She doesn’t have a college degree, nor has she been the recipient of any special favors. She didn’t have a strong network and she never knew somebody who knew somebody.
Yet she overcame the odds, dreamt big, and took even bigger action. Now, she’s sharing her story and tips with the world to help inspire others and pave the road to more purposeful entrepreneurship – regardless of your background or current position in life.
Lisa learned how to self-publish her business book with the support of the selfpublishing.com Author Accelerator Elite program – and is sharing a behind-the-scenes look of her process, as well as an exclusive excerpt. If you’re looking for inspiration on how to start a business, keep reading.
Book Title: Guarding The American Dream: Your Guide to Purposeful and Extraordinary Entrepreneurship
Genre: Business, Entrepreneurship, Personal Growth, Finance
Website: lisalbray.com
Facebook: Personal Profile
Who should read your book?
There are three distinct types of people that I wrote this book for:
- Aspiring and existing entrepreneurs
- People seeking a more sustainable and fulfilling business model
- People who stand for American Values and want to find more meaning and purpose in their work
What inspired you to write about this topic – and why now?
I believe in the power of businesses to do good. I also believe that entrepreneurship can be a path of salvation – not just a career choice. My own journey, from a challenging upbringing to single parenthood and ultimate success, shaped my perspective.
As a daughter of a Marine, I understand freedom’s cost. My unwavering commitment to America and its aspirations fuels my desire to see the failure rate of small businesses decline. I believe in the power of good people to build great businesses to strengthen our nation.
This book is my contribution: helping others build sustainable, impactful businesses and share the roadmap that led me to unexpected success.
The book argues for a new model – one that prioritizes purpose, integrity, and humanity over the “build fast, chase profit” approach. This traditional model burns out entrepreneurs, fails businesses, and leaves societal scars.
We can do better!
This is the perfect time for a book and message like this because we have a historic opportunity in front of us. We can change things in a way that few ever get the chance. Our ideas, thoughts, actions, the way we conduct business, and the way we intentionally create something bigger than ourselves can shape the future.
It’s time to use our lives and businesses as examples of greatness. Doing good as entrepreneurs has a ripple effect that goes beyond our own lives and bank accounts!
What are the top things someone will learn from reading your book?
1. How to launch and grow a high-impact business that is deeply aligned with your core values.
2. How to become an inspiring leader who drives sustainable growth.
3. How to build a profitable business model while making a positive impact on the world.
4. How to achieve personal and professional fulfillment alongside financial freedom.
(Interest piqued? If you want an excerpt of her book, just keep reading!)
Tell us a little bit about your process:
In April of 2023, I decided I’d go all in. I temporarily set aside my active real estate and consulting businesses to give the book 100% of my attention. I spent the next 5 months researching, writing, and refining.
As someone who already has experience teaching and consulting, creating the content itself was not so challenging for me.
What was challenging were the ongoing iterations to simplify the book. The goal was to do so in a way that anyone – any entrepreneur at any stage – could pick up this book and find something valuable and extremely actionable within the pages.
I loved the process of doing something I’d never done.
Getting up each day with a specific mission to write this book kept me motivated and excited from start to finish. Some people who write a book say they would never do it again. That won’t be me.
I have several more books in me!
What are your plans for the future with this book?
First off, my prayer is that this book reaches every hand it’s intended for.
Beyond that, I know it provides credibility to the last 20 years I’ve spent building businesses. I’ll continue to use that expertise on my mission to help reverse the small business failure rate in America by teaching, speaking and writing.
An excerpt of Guarding the American Dream
I discovered that real, authentic advice is hard-won. Not many people are willing to share what it genuinely takes to establish a durable, predictable, profitable company that aligns with your life calling. With a background as challenging as mine, I had to retrace my steps out of the chaos in order to share with you a story of unexpected life and business success. It’s what you’re holding now. See it as if I’m handing over a treasure map, decoding how to build and grow a business destined for millions.
Frustrated by the lack of genuine advice, I made a promise to myself: my life’s journey and business insights would roll out the red carpet for anyone willing to walk this path. So, are you ready to uncover what it takes?
If you are inspired toward a business that serves and supports all you want to be, you must first understand what is required.
Climbing the Wrong Ladder
A faded high school diploma and years of hustling as a waitress had etched lines on my face, not my resume. Yet, armed with only that diploma, I dove headfirst into corporate America, convinced its ladder was my path to success. For twelve ambitious years, I immersed myself in the complexities of business, sharpened my sales skills to a razor’s edge, and carefully observed the rituals of those deemed “successful.” Little did I know that the corporate ladder was built for a different kind of climber, one adorned with Ivy League vines, not the calloused hands of a hustler.
After doing it all the “right way” only to be blocked at the gate, I knew I needed a new map.
The journey truly began in 2003, when I traded my job at Yamaha Motor Corporation in Georgia for a move back to Middle Tennessee. The relocation was brutal. Job opportunities in the small town were scarce, my resume met with polite indifference. Yet, one opening kept circling back: Credit & Collection Manager at a mid-sized automotive company.
On paper, I was far from the ideal candidate. No college degree. No three to five years of experience as a credit manager. But I saw shades of my past role in sales at Yamaha within this new opportunity. I’m a gambler, you see, always willing to bet on myself. So, I talked the skeptical staffing agency into arranging an interview. The position had been vacant for months; what harm could meeting me do? I just needed a foot in the door.
As I entered the interview room, the atmosphere was a mix of anticipation and uncertainty. My unconventional path was on a collision course with their traditional norms. But there I was, a testament that belief in yourself and a bit of persistence can break barriers. It wasn’t just my resume that spoke that day.
To my surprise, I landed the job. I explained that the sales skills from my previous job and the overall context in moving from a multi-billion-dollar company to an organization their size, which was much smaller, more than made up for the few things in which I had no experience. They saw the logic and welcomed me aboard!
Fast forward to 2007. The company turned out to be a gilded cage. Stringent rules choked out creativity, stifling my desire for innovation. I knew I could get them better results, break records even, but my ideas were treated like unwanted guests – ushered out the door before they could even get a foot in the conversation.
Frustration gnawed at me, fatigue became my constant companion. This wasn’t just a job; it was a slow death, sucking the life out of my weekends, of my dreams. I could feel a creeping change come over me, a desire for true freedom.
If we’re called, a certain switch gets flipped. It happened to me amid the routine phone calls, mundane meetings, and endless reports. I’ll say that I felt pretty pissed at myself for tolerating this bad relationship with a paycheck. It felt heavy, like the deep-down kind of heavy that fatigues the soul, and I asked myself, “Do you want to be in the same place a year from now? Ten years from now?”
The answer was a hell no! No, I don’t want to have my ideas shot down again. No, I don’t want to be a prisoner to the way “things have always been done.” No, I don’t want someone else telling me how far I can go! And while we’re at it, middle finger in the sky to the jackasses who told me that “women don’t make it very far in this type of industry.”
A wave of liberation washed over me, erasing their imposed limitations. The thrill of carving my own path, defining my destiny, building something remarkable – it was undeniable. I would embrace autonomy, shed the shackles of negativity, and live by my own “No Richards” rule. Life was too precious to waste on soul-crushing cages.
My choice then and forevermore is freedom. And it’s time to take the plunge.
The Birth of a Mission: Nurturing American Dreamers
Driven by the global spirit of solving problems, I was determined to discover my unique contribution. Years of diverse experiences, from boardrooms to boatyards, became my laboratory, revealing a glaring need: empowering small businesses to overcome financial vulnerabilities.
Selling outboard boat motors at Yamaha Motor Corporation opened a gateway into the vast and complex world of a multi-billion-dollar industry. I navigated the world of B2B sales, collaborating with boat manufacturers and dealers. This business was a rich learning ground, shedding light on the multifaceted challenges companies grapple with, ranging from sales dynamics to the complexities of production and forecasting.
The experiences underscored a vital realization: smaller businesses, often devoid of the structured frameworks of larger firms, faced distinct financial fragility.
My days as a Credit Manager in a small town in Tennessee deepened my understanding of the financial challenges faced by small businesses.
This recurring theme crystallized my mission: to alleviate financial distress and add stability to companies.
So, I founded a B2B debt collection service. It was an avenue I had not envisioned; yet there I was, unraveling more than just the collection of overdue payments.
I hold a strong conviction that no business is born to fail. My mission, then (and still today) is to ensure the survival and prosperity for small businesses. I could help debtors, particularly sole proprietors, and struggling small businesses on the brink, establish a financial system that ensures timely bill payments, stable supply chains, and enhanced credibility among vendors and clients.
In my eyes, I was a Guardian of the American Dream. Nurturing these businesses felt like a worthy mission, one that strengthened the American Dream by supporting its builders.
My mission became unearthing solutions and empowering small businesses to overcome financial challenges. I felt galvanized by a patriotic commitment to strengthening the pillars of the American economy and contributing to a landscape rich with dreams and aspirations, including yours, reader.
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