#007 – The 3 Golden Marketing Tips You Must Follow, Dealing With Setbacks in your Business, and How I Felt Threatened This Week.

Alex Beadon 0:00
In this solo episode, I’m going to be sharing a recent hiccup that happened in my business and how I dealt with it. I’m going to be discussing three golden marketing tips that really made a huge difference in my business this week. And I’m going to be sharing with you a story about how I felt threatened in my business this week. All in this episode. Welcome to on purpose. Do you ever feel like you’re trying to balance it all, nourishing your health while growing your business and living a life well lived. And no matter how hard you try, sometimes you slip from purpose driven into autopilot. Take a deep breath, relax, and let’s get you back to where you belong. On purpose.

Hello, friends welcome to episode number seven. You’re listening to yours truly, Alex Beadon, here on the on purpose with Alex Beadon. podcast, I’m really excited to have you. And I just wanted to give you a quick, just total moment of gratitude. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for each and every single one of you who are listening to this right now. Your response and feedback on Instagram and the emails and the messages. It’s just really truly been something that has meant so much to me. I lost my youtube channel at the end of last year. And that’s really what sparked me to start podcasting. And I’ve been working on this for months. And so for it to finally come to life and finally be out there in the world and to get to hear your real life feedback is just a beautiful experience. So really and truly, thank you. So episode number seven solo episode, you know what these solo episodes are all about me coming here sharing the nitty gritty truth of what’s actually happening in my business behind the scenes. As you guys know, I have a love hate relationship with Instagram. On the one hand, it is frickin awesome, not like, I mean, come on Instagram stories are the best. But especially the feed like I have my own secret hatred of the feed because it’s really just like this highlight reel, right? It just everyone is showing like all the good things that are happening, you don’t really get to see what’s happening behind the scenes, which is why I love these episodes. And I think lots of you guys have been relating to these episodes, too, which is super, super fun. So nitty gritty of what’s happening behind the scenes, Laura went back to New York City last week. For those of you who don’t know, Laura is my best friend. She is also the operations manager in the business. And so we get to work together. And we are also best friends, which is really fun, nice vibe we have going on, she came to visit me for almost three weeks here in Trinidad. And it was an intense three weeks, if you listen to the first few solo episodes, you will see a common theme of talking about burnout and talking about stress and hustle and like pushing forward as much as you possibly can. And so I was really looking forward to her leaving not because I don’t love her. But mainly because I was just excited to have a little bit more breathing space. I think when she was here, we both felt this pressure of like, oh, we want to make the most out of our time together, blah, blah, blah. So now that she’s gone, it’s just nice. Things have slowed down a little bit. She left on Friday, I think her future husband, Scott is super happy to have her back at home. And it’s not too sad that we’re apart because we still got to talk to each other every day. And we’re going to be seeing each other next month, very, very soon, not even next month. It’s really in just a few weeks now, because she is getting married in Colombia, and I am part of her bridesmaid crew. I’m so excited. So yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. But she’s back in New York City, things have definitely like not to say that they’ve slowed down. But I think when one person is working, like when it’s just me, I have my own way of working, she has her own way of working. So it’s just like, we can both be in our own flow, which is very nice. So I have something pretty huge to announce to you guys. And this is something that I’ve known about now for the last month. And basically I think I hinted to it in one of the previous episodes. But a month ago, Catherine, who’s been on my team now for I would say about a year and a quarter. So like, yeah, a year and a few months. She messaged me, she was like, hey, you know, I want to come over. Like I want to talk to you. And I’d like to talk to you in person. So immediately I was like, oh gosh, like, I don’t know if something’s wrong. I don’t know. Like I was just I really had no idea what to expect, but I knew it must be something important. So I was kind of like bracing myself. And she shows up and I was you know, we had some nice little small talk as you do at the beginning and then I’m like, Okay, so like what’s up? Like, what’s why you hear what’s going on? And she’s like, I want to have under my resignation, I was like, I know. It is so weird having a business like honestly, having your own business is is someone told me this was it Adrian Dorsen. Someone told me this when I went to Hawaii for my mastermind, they were basically just like, having your own business is like constant problem solving every single time you’re like, Okay, we’re getting into a good flow like we’re moving forward, something is going to pop up, that is a problem that you need to solve, which, honestly, is the reason why I love I think I love it so much, because it’s constantly pushing me to be a better person to sharpen skills that I probably wouldn’t normally want to sharpen. So yeah, she came, she quits. But all done in love and peace, like she really wants to focus on other opportunities right now, which I’m very excited for her. I’m super happy that she’s going to be moving on to her next chapter. And I wish her all the best of luck with it. And I feel so grateful for our time together. When I hired Katherine, she was like, my very first official full time hire ever before Katherine, I had like lots of different people working with me part time, like a part time virtual assistant. And Cath was like, the first big decision that I was like, Okay, we’re gonna have someone working in the business full time. And it’s not just going to be me anymore. It’s going to be me and Kath. So yeah, so I mean, she means so much to me, she means so much to the business. She is really, guys every single time you see any graphics of mine, like whether it’s on my website, or whether you see like a pretty opt in page. Or sometimes, Katherine will make like different story graphics, I get compliments on my graphics all the damn time. And it’s because of Katherine. She is just a boss when it comes to graphic design. But she did so many other things behind the scenes, she was also doing customer service. And she was also doing like a lot of the techie website stuff. So her role was really varied. She’s going to be so so so missed, but I’m really excited for her and her new chapter and, and whatever it is that she decides to do next, I 100% support her and have an infinite amount of love and respect for her. She is truly awesome. So yeah, so that is something that today is actually her last day, as I’m recording this today is her official last day. So tomorrow will be the first day that it is just me and Laura working full time in the business. Of course, we still have Miguel, high Miguel, who we love as well, who does all of like the audio, the creative stuff copywriting video, he is a creative genius. So there’s still me, Laura, and Miguel. And of course, my fabulous mother, who is like my bookkeeper. But that’s kind of like, way more part time. But anyway, it is really cool that we’re moving into this new chapter. And that’s kind of how I’ve decided to look at it guys is like, I could look at Kathy leaving, and it’d be this really big scary thing, like, who am I going to find to replace her, no one’s gonna fit the team as good like she was she was really just a really good fit.

But you have like, you always get to choose how you show up in the world, right? So like, every time I come to some kind of problem, or not even a problem, but like a challenge or something, I always choose to look at it in the brightest way possible. So like, for example, this whole Catherine leaving situation, I’ve just been pumping myself up for the next person who’s going to replace her. I don’t know who it is yet. I don’t know, you know, what they look like where they live, I don’t I don’t know who they are. But I know they’re going to be an even better fit for this next stage of the company and for the business. And I’m just really excited to find them, get them into the team, and really have the a team that’s like, growing excited, happy to be here flourishing, taking responsibility. I’m just yeah, I’m pumped about it, as you can tell. So that’s kind of like what has been going on with me emotionally in regards to Kathy leaving. I’m gonna miss her a lot, but I’m super excited for whoever the next person is. It’s almost like, you know, like when you’re pregnant. I’ve never been pregnant before. But I would imagine you’re really excited to meet that person because you know, that person is going to be a big part of your life. Obviously, an employee is different than a baby. I know. I know. But guys, like I’m just pumped. I’m excited. Okay, I think I’ve made that clear. What else has been happening this week, we have been shifting our focus from the Facebook ads strategy where we were 100% doing a basically like a marketing funnel through Facebook ads to now doing a little Facebook ad strategy, but the majority of the strategy is all email based, which means that guess what, this week we’ve been writing a lot of emails. So most of the emails that are a part of our marketing funnel are like can I speak are already written so we launched back in March, April. I run that time the grandslam online course, which is all about Instagram stories and how to put yourself out there using Instagram stories. So since we’ve already launched it, we’re pretty much just going to take exactly the same emails that we used to launch previously, and basically repurpose them to be used in this funnel. So most of them are already written. But I do think that there’s a different element with an evergreen funnel. By the way, for those of you who may not know, Evergreen basically just means it’s available all the time. Evergreen means anyone can join at any time. So if we have a funnel, which is like a marketing funnel, we’re basically thinking, Okay, how do we get people into our marketing funnel? How do we get people to decide, yes, I want to sign up to the freebie, whatever that is, in this case, I have like a four part free video series on how to edit your Instagram stories. So like, that’s the very top of the funnel. And then the next step of the funnel is like, Okay, how do I get them to know like, and trust me, and then the next step of the funnel is like, Okay, how do I instill a sense of authority, and then the net, etc, etc. Like, there’s a whole science behind a marketing funnel. But what’s super interesting is that now that I’m not doing this live funnel, which is normally what I do, I do like a live launch. Instead, this time I’m doing an evergreen launch. That means that it requires more of me showing up in their inbox in a different kind of way. So I’ve been writing lots of different emails, experimenting with like, taking things that I would normally include in a sales email. And instead of having it at the end of the sales funnel, I’m bringing it up a little bit into the freebie funnel, so that people are getting to know me while they’re consuming the free content. So yeah, it has definitely been very interesting and very fun. And we’ve been writing a lot of emails. And in writing the emails, I realized that I was craving a refresher of who our ideal clients is, right? Now, whenever you are creating a marketing funnel, it is so important that you know who your ideal client is, if you don’t know who your ideal client is, then you do not know who you’re speaking to. And you cannot sell to that person because you can’t speak their language. If you want to sell something, you need to know someone’s pain points, right? In order to know someone’s pain points, you need to know who these people are. Right. And the last time that I really like went through this exercise is back in March, April. So before I started writing this week, I was like, Okay, let me do a quick refresh of who my people are an even better this time, I don’t have to guess because people have already bought Graham’s thumb. So I kept it simple. I just had the team basically go through the past 180 people who bought it, I was like, Okay, let’s find out who these people are. Let’s try and find them on Instagram. And what I did, guys is so freakin brilliant, you should do the exact same thing. What I want you to do is find your existing clients on Instagram, and basically create a collection on Instagram where you basically bookmark any anything that they may have posted, therefore making it easier for you in the future to go and check and see who are my clients? Who am I speaking to, right? Now, if you don’t have existing clients, let’s say that you’re just getting started in your business, you want to you want you to basically want to use your imagination and find people who you would consider would be your ideal clients once you have this collection. And for those of you who don’t know, a collection on Instagram is basically this thing where you can bookmark a photograph and add it to a collection. So I have a recipe collection, like a food collection where I go and look for like different ideas of healthy things to eat. I have an exercise collection where it’s like, okay, these people inspire me from an exercise perspective. I have a Oh, guys, this is great. I have a poses collection, can you believe it? Like if I ever see someone I’m like, Oh my gosh, that’s a great pose. I’m just not going to pose it. So like whenever I have a photoshoot, I can just take out my phone and go to my poses collection, and voila, there it is. But alas, I’m getting off topic, create a collection that has all of either your ideal clients or your existing clients and try to figure out what is the common thread between all of them. This was haunting me guys. Like I just could not figure out, like, what is it that really brings all of these people together? Because it’s so important that you get your messaging clear that you know exactly who it is that you’re speaking to, so that you can speak their language and sell to them. Right. So I looked at all of these people. And to be honest, at first I was I was truly stumped. And I had the conversation with Nick. And I was like, I just cannot figure out like what is it that brings all these like random industries together? And he was like, all of these people are in businesses that are in hyper competitive spaces. In other words, these are people who feel the pressure of competition because they feel like everywhere they look there is someone who is trying to do what they’re trying to do. And I was super excited by that thought. If you follow me on Instagram stories at Alex Beadon, you will see it Now that I spoke about it, I was asking you guys questions about it. I was like, Do you feel like you’re in a hyper competitive industry? How does it feel blah, blah, blah, like, we had a lot of conversations about that, which was awesome. Fast forward until I actually had all of the data. And I started to like, divide them into categories of their industry. Right. And so me and Laura started well, actually, Laura, basically did the entire breakdown. And we figured out that of the last 180 People who purchased Grand Slam, about 70% of them are coaches. 70%. That’s huge. That’s huge. Right? So for me, what does that mean? That means number one, I need to decide if I want to say, Hey, guys, this is an Instagram Story Course, just for coaches. Or I can decide not to go down that route, and pretty much go down more of a route where it’s like, Hey, you’re in a hyper competitive space, and you want to stand out, and this is the product for you. I think I have a lot of coaches who purchase Grand Slam, because a lot of coaches follow me. So I did another poll today on my Instagram story, by the way, guys, polling your audience, huge. If you’re not pulling your audience, start doing it, because you can get so much data that’s going to help you be a better marketer, through asking questions. That’s why like, if you’ve ever been in a direct message conversation with me on Instagram, you’ll notice that I’m hyper curious, I ask a lot of questions. And really, it’s just me trying to get to know you better, trying to understand my market better trying to do that market research. Right. So anyway, I did a poll today. And I was like, or was it yesterday was at some point? And I said, How many of you are coaches? And it turns out that about 50% of the people who participated in that poll are coaches, right? I think the reason why I have so many coaches following me right now is because I myself am a coach, I live that coaching life. So I think whatever it is that you are, you have a tendency of attracting that. So like we have a lot of business coaches, life coaches, health coaches, wellness coaches, we have, like personal trainers, fitness coaches. So we have, and then a lot of spiritual coaches as well. We have a variety of coaches, these are all people who want to help other people lead a better life, which is freaking awesome. However, I’m not sure that I really want to promote Grand Slam as an Instagram Stories course that is just for coaches. So I think after all of a sudden done, I think we are more specifically going to be targeting people who are in a hyper competitive space where they feel like they really want to be seen and heard online, they really want to have an online presence that where they feel like they have a relationship with their audience, I think that is who it is that we are trying to target. But I would not have known that had I not done the research. Right. So that is something that I would highly highly recommend to you guys is knowing your clients. So in this episode, I’m going to be sharing with you three golden marketing tips that I’ve used this week. So the first one is know your clients, right? Make a collection on Instagram of all of your ideal clients or existing clients, and see what the commonalities are. And don’t just rely on your own thought process. Because sometimes as business owners, our head is so deep in the sound that it’s hard to see. Which is why I bounced off of Nick and I was like, Yo, Nick, can you help me with this? Like, take a look at all these people here on Instagram? Let me know like, what is the commonality and he was the one who was like, Oh, they’re all in super competitive industries. I was like, Oh my gosh, wah, you should have seen me when he gave me that. I was like, Nick, how did I not see this? You are brilliant. Thank

you so much. Yay for having a partner who is also excellent at marketing. Okay, so that’s tip number one is know your client. Tip number two is be visible. Me and Laura had this conversation and wanted to bring this to your attention because the number of people who purchase Grand Slam so if to me, if you purchase grand slam you have your own business, you’re someone who’s trying to become more visible online, the number of people who bought Grand Slam, who are literally the least visible people who have Instagram accounts that from from just one glance, it’s very difficult to tell who you are and what you do. That’s a huge problem, right? You need to have 100% clarity in the message that you’re putting out there online. It should be clear and easy to understand who you are, what you do, how you help people, what your products and services are. So my question to you listening to this episode is when people go to your Instagram page, is it 100% obvious? And really ask yourself that question like literally tonight? What before you go to bed, take out your phone, take a look at your profile, and be critical of it. Ask yourself if I was a stranger and I did not know who I was. Would this be easy to understand like is this speaking to my ideal client? Right and so it’s easier for us Some people than others, like if you’re a photographer, that’s a very visual thing. You’re so lucky if you’re a fitness person, and you can do like before and afters, oh my gosh, again, visual, I love it. If you’re someone who’s selling a service that might be harder to like, really, visually represent the transformation or visually represent what it is that you do. What can you do to try and communicate it visually? Even if it’s not as black and white as like, Oh, I’m a photographer, here are my photos, right? So for me, I’m someone I’m all about Instagram stories. I’m all about visibility online, putting yourself out there online being seen and heard online so that you can spread your message and make more of an impact with what you’re doing. So for me, I was like, Okay, how do I visually get that across to people. And something that I’ve been trying to do is include more pictures of me with my laptop of me with my phone. So people can really associate me as someone who is going to teach them how to communicate online. Right? So ask yourself, like, what can you do visually, so that when people just look at the pictures on your feed, they can get a sense of who you are and what you do, right? Also your description, like that bio area where you get to describe who you are what you do, don’t just put I’m a chocolate lover, I have three dogs. I’m a mom, no, I want to know, like, why should I follow you? What is your account about and you can experiment with this guy’s like, I if you take a look at my Instagram bio, I change it frequently. I change it like with the wind, whatever mood I’m in, that is what my bio says. So like, don’t be afraid to switch it up. Don’t be afraid to try on new titles. You know, sometimes I think people get really afraid of owning a title. Just own it, like put it out there. See what happens? See how it makes you feel? Does it feel like you just did not feel like you you’ll never know until you try it. Right? So I’m highly encouraging you to make sure that when someone Google’s your name, or Google’s your business, when someone shows up at your Instagram page, or when someone finds you on Facebook, how easy Are you making it for them to understand who you are. And what you do? better question for you is, when your ideal client lands on your page, what percentage of likelihood are they going to have to really understand that you’re the person for them? Food for thought, right? Cool. The third golden marketing tip that I have for you is to know your competition. This is something that I think is a little controversial. I know there are so many people who are like, don’t ever look at your competition. But I think that knowing who your competitors are, and seeing the trend in your industry, so that you can avoid it, especially if you’re in a hyper competitive industry is going to be so important. Right? So like, even if I look at me, and like business coaches, I feel like business coaches have a bad rap. And it’s because there is no barrier to entry. A lot of people are just coming out and be like, I’m a business coach. And they they just don’t know what they’re doing, which is fine. I mean, I don’t I really hate judging people, guys, I hate judging people. So I do my best to not judge. But what I’m trying to say is that a lot of business coaches have a tendency to all look the same sound the same be doing the same things be posting the same things. It’s like they’re all clone copies of each other. So your job as a marketer. And my job as someone who’s trying to make you think about marketing is how can you stand out? So how can you look at everyone in your industry? How can you look at the people who your ideal clients is trying to decide between? And how do you make sure that you stand out? How do you make sure that they are like, Oh, Alex speed, and I remember her? How do we make sure that that happens? Right? So I’m just gonna kind of brain spew is that a word brain? I’m gonna make it a word. I’m gonna bring in spiel on you. Here are some ideas, okay? Firstly, if you are trying to build an audience, and you’re trying to build an online presence, and you are not creating content on a regular basis that your audience can hold on to, then you’re doing something wrong. And that doesn’t mean that you need to start putting out bad quality content tomorrow just for the sake of putting out content, but it does mean that you should start thinking about your legacy online. So for example, when people speak about Alex Beadon, people in the past would always be like, Oh my gosh, if you watched her YouTube videos, she’s amazing. Chatty Tuesdays. I love it. I live for that every single week. Now, my YouTube channel has completely disappeared. The next day. I didn’t come out with a podcast. It took me seven months. Is that correct? Yes, seven months from losing my youtube channel to like get prepared to release this podcast. But here we are seven months later and it is released. So what I’m trying to say is like you don’t have to rush content out. But I think creating content for your ideal clients is what is, is it’s just such a fantastic way to stand out because most people aren’t doing it. Most people aren’t putting in that much effort. So for you to say, Oh, I have a podcast or like, oh, I put out, it doesn’t even have to be weekly, it could be like a monthly something. It could be a blog post, it could be just anything. Write something that people can hold on to something that people can remember something that people can get excited about. When you think about the people who follow you online, you want to think of them as a community. A community feels like a community when together, they know that they stand for something. For example, I love this woman, her name is Elizabeth D alto. Back in the day, I would say like maybe two years ago, I had a straight up obsession with her, I would listen to every single podcast she came out with, I would read every single Instagram post, I absolutely adored her. And I really wanted to go to one of her in person retreats. So I flew all the way from Trinidad to California for one of her in person retreats. And I will tell you the most beautiful thing about arriving there and meeting the other women there because there were I think there was like maybe 10 of us, I felt instantly connected to them. Because I knew that if we were all drawn to the same person, that we all shared a huge commonality. To me, it’s like that’s what being a part of a community feels like. Right. So like, it’s kind of like the same with sports. If you look at sports, people who know the game of football, or as Americans call it soccer, they have something to talk about, they have something to connect them, even if they’re complete strangers, they all can talk about this one topic. So we want you and your brand and business to be that one topic that connects people and brings them together, right, because then you’re not just adding value in the form of your content, you’re also adding value in the form of your community. So if I look at my community, I’m really bringing together people who are hustlers like y’all are. So as bad as it is insane. Like I look at you guys, and how hard you work, and how high your goals are, and how high achieving you are. And to me that is so inspiring. So that’s one side of us. And I say us because I’m a part of this community too. But then at the same time, we are also people who value the experience of life, we know that we are only alive once, we want to make the most of it. We want to live our happiest, most fulfilled lives. So we’re not just obsessed with work, work, work, work work. We’re also obsessed with like being right. That’s why I call this whole podcast on purpose. I wanted people to know, this is what makes us a community. This is what brings us together. So I guess what I’m trying to say is like, just start to think, you know, what are the things that can bring your community together? Simultaneously bringing it back to marketing, tip number three, which is all about knowing your competition, know what your competition is doing? So that you can Zig when everyone else is zagging. Right, zig when everyone else is zagging. I feel like I stole that quote from someone. I don’t know why it’s lodged in my brain. I don’t know where it came from. If it’s someone else’s, I really apologize. But that’s what we’re trying to do here as marketers, we want to zig when everyone else is zagging. So in order to do that you need to have a really good understanding of your industry and of your competition. That’s all I’m gonna say. Okay,

speaking of competition, competition has been a pretty big theme for me this week. So I don’t really know how to talk about this. I’ve never like this is one of those weird things where it’s like, I want to, I want to share what happened without sharing all the details. But this week, I felt threatened in my business. And I’ve not felt that way in a really long time. And I felt like it was worth sharing. And it was valuable to share. Because I know that this is something that business owners go through all the time. So I will kind of give you the history of of like my experience with feeling threatened in the past. And then I’m going to share with you what happened to me recently. So my experience with feeling threatened in the past has been that people have come to me and been like, hey, so and so is doing this. It’s just like what you’re doing. Like, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. And I’m like, Dude, I do not feel threatened by that person. Like that person is just doing her own thing. Like, let her be like everything’s fine. Like normally these things can just like slide off my back. Someone can literally, I mean, copy my style, copy my message, copy my posts. I mean, I’ve had all of that none of it bothers me. To me. It’s just like cool. Like, whatever. I mean, there’s only one I like speed and so if you want to try and be like speed in good luck, because you ain’t never going to be me. This is a little bit different. So basically, I had a friend reach out to me, and she was like, hey, I want to do something. And it’s very similar to what you’re doing. And I don’t want you to be offended. And I’ve, I don’t even know how to talk about this without giving everything like I don’t really want to mention her name. I don’t really want to mention that the specific situation, because to be honest with you, it’s not a problem. The important part of the story is that in the moments that she told me, I, I mean, I did not take it well. And I’m someone who’s really easygoing. And now I think this is a mixture of things. Number one, I think, because it was my friend, I felt a little bit betrayed. I felt like she, even though she was bringing it to my attention, there are certain details that I feel like could have been done differently. It was just like, to me, it just felt like a betrayal. Right? That was my immediate feeling. At the same time, as you guys know, last week was a super stressful week for me, there was just so much going on, I was working so hard I was, I was coming to this point of burnout, I don’t think I was emotionally in a very good space. Let’s put it that way. So I immediately woke up and I was I read her message. And I was like, Dude, I need to clear my head. So I went for a run. And then I’m just kind of let my eye it was weird. It was like, I felt so threatened by what she was doing. Because basically, she was coming out with a competitive product, right. And to me, I was like, she’s really close in my space, she’s coming out with this competitive product. I feel like it just felt like a huge betrayal. And it’s like, I was feeling all of these feelings of anger and betrayal and hurt and confusion, and just all of these emotions. And at the same time having this this really compassionate, forgiving, like, Higher Self feeling of, hey, you just need to like, let yourself go through all of the emotions. And then you can come to like the clear space of actually moving forward and letting this go. Sometimes you just have to, like feel all the feelings, right? So I had to give myself the space to feel all of the feelings. And while I was feeling all the feelings, I had to know and trust that I was going to get to a position where I could see this clearly, I knew that in that moment, I was only seeing things with ego, I was seeing things with competition with lack of abundance, like I knew that the way I was looking at it was not correct or ideal, but it’s like I had to give myself that space to feel all of it without reacting. And I think this is a really important part of being a business owner, or like anything in life is like if something happens, and you have a really strong, emotional or out of character reaction. It’s really, or at least for me, it’s really about not reacting. It’s about letting the feelings pass through your body doing whatever it is that you need to do to digest those feelings. And then coming to a place of clarity where you can step back and be like, oh, you know, how do I like? Who is the person that I’m choosing to be? How do I want to react to the situation. And so it really took me a few days to get to a silence space, where I had felt through all the feelings gone through all of the emotions, to then come to a more healed place, and finally able to sit down and be like, Okay, how do I want to respond to this situation? Who’s the person that I want to be? And I decided, once a few days had passed, and once my ego had settled down a little bit, I could see it for what it was. And what it was, is that in when you are in business, number one, like you can’t be mad at competitors. If you’re mad at competitors, you’ve already lost the game, right? So number one is like healing my relationship with competition. And being like if someone is coming out with a competitive product or service, it does not take anything away from me. In fact, it only encourages me and inspires me to up my game. So that kind of solves the whole problem of like, oh, like what if she’s coming out with a competitive product? Like it’s all good, I welcome it with open arms, I can see that there’s enough for everyone to go around. Secondly, community over competition. This is something that is like one of my highest values is like I don’t like the feeling of like I’m competing against this person. Right To me, it’s like I want to compete against myself. I want to be better than I was this time last year. I think it’s so easy, especially now with the internet guys to look around and be like oh so and so is killing it. So and so is doing so well. So and So accomplish this, that and the other blah blah blah. Like if you want the number one way to be unhappy. Compare yourself and your business to people On Instagram, because I’ll tell you what it works like a charm.

I want to live a life where it’s like, I look at my competition, I look at the people next to me. And it’s like, cool. How do we create that, that feeling of community over competition, of being helpful towards each other, and of uplifting each other, and of encouraging each other to stand out in our own unique ways. So that really, and truly, we’re never competing, because the person who buys from me is going to be a totally different person than the person who buys from you. And maybe I know a lot of people probably look at that and think you’re crazy, like competition is the devil, cool, if that’s what you want to live your life and run your business that is totally 100% Fine, because it is your prerogative to do so. I just choose to live my life in a different way. Right. So that was the second thing. The third thing is that she’s technically like, when I actually sat down and looked and compare the two products, she’s technically not even competing with me. And this is the tricky part of the ego. And this is why I don’t respond. When I’m in the midst of my ego. It’s really and truly because I can’t trust my ego, it fuels your ego to be bitching and complaining about what so and so did it fuels your ego to be like, Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe that happened. I can’t believe she did that, or whatever the case may be right. But at the end of the day, like that brings you nothing. I look at every single instance that I have acted upon, whatever my ego is feeding me and it has never ended up well trust me. So every time I feel that little ego, feeling rise in my body, I know it’s time for me to take a deep breath, be silent, sit back, take no action, and just let the feelings be and just let the feelings course through my body and do what they need to do and pass. And once the ego had settled, that’s when I realized that we are in fact, not competition at all. Her product is completely different to mine. And I started to, instead of in my mind be like, Well, like I just had so many questions. Like I said, I don’t want to go too far deep into it. But I had so many questions. And so instead of questioning her and being like, why didn’t she do this? Why didn’t she do that, I decided to just approach the entire thing with love, because I want to be the kind of person who approaches every situation in my life with love. So I’m like, Cool, she made her decisions like she decided to do XYZ like that is done and dusted. There’s nothing I can do about that. But I can control how I react to it. So I can either react to this in a way where I’m like, Oh, like this is going to take something away from me. This is competition, blah, blah, blah. Or I can try and find the opportunity within the middle of all of this. What is the opportunity that’s here for me? What is it that I’m not seeing? And just spending some time meditating on that and being like, Okay, I’m open to any opportunity that can come my way from this. I’m open to seeing things differently than I’m currently seeing things. And that’s the first step is like wanting to not feel all of the ego feelings. Like just wanting it wanting to feel differently, asking yourself, Who do I choose to be in this moment? How would I like to respond to this, what would be like the best way for me like what would feel best for me? Well, it would come from a place of love. And so immediately, like a few things came to mind number one happiness for her that she has found this new product that I think is going to be hugely successful for her. And knowing that the way she’s presenting it is going to be completely different than the way I’m presenting it and trusting that she’s going to do it in her own unique way that really stays in her zone of genius. Awesome. The second thing that comes to mind is that she is one of my friends. That’s why she texted me to give me a heads up. That’s why she brought up the come up. That’s why she brought up the conversation. And knowing that since we’re friends, this actually brings more opportunities for the both of us, because we now have very complementary, complementary, complementary. How do you say that word, I think it’s complementary, complementary products. So in other words, there’s more opportunity for me here because her having this product is going to give her the opportunity to shout out my product and vice versa. So even just like planting the faraway seed in my mind that there might be a way for collaboration, or there might be a way for us to really support each other with the products that we’ve created. Cool. The next thing that comes to mind is from that question that I told you, I like to ask myself is like, what’s the opportunity here? What is it that I’m not seeing? And for me, the opportunity is getting even more clear on who I am and who I serve. When someone comes out with a similar product or a product that’s, you know, in line with yours. It really helps you to see that differences to see the contrast, you’re going to notice I speak about contrast a lot. In the last solo episode, I spoke about the importance of creating content and putting stuff out there online so that people can get a better idea of who you are what you do, because it’s going to give you a better idea of who you are, what you do, and what makes you different. That’s also contrast, right? So I’m grateful for this experience. Because she came out, she was like, Hey, I’m going to do this in this way. And it made me realize that I was doing it in my own unique way that I can now capitalize on communicating better to my audience about who I am and what I do. Right. So that to me was like the golden opportunity there. Anyway, I was a little bit hesitant about sharing this entire story with you guys, mainly because I didn’t want to bring any drama onto the podcast. Like, I don’t want you to think that me bringing this up has anything to do with me having sour feelings about a certain situation, the importance of me bringing this up, is really just being real with you about what I struggled with this week, which is what this entire podcast is supposed to be all about. showing you what I’m struggling with showing you what I’m winning with sharing my lessons with you, highlighting anything that I’ve seen you guys struggle with, that I have knowledge about, like, to me, that’s what this, these solo episodes are really for. So I wanted, I thought it was really important for me this week to share this story with you. Especially because I found it so interesting that I had this struggle with competition and with someone who I thought was making me feel threatened and my business. And in the same week, I had such an exploration of my own competition and of my own ideal clients and my own product, what makes me different, I’ve been trying to craft this sales message through these emails that I’m sending out to all of my grand slam people. And this experience happening in the same week that I’m focusing on knowing my industry, knowing what’s out there, so that I can better stand apart, it was like, I don’t know, to me just serendipitous. I love that all of these topics came together so beautifully. And I hope that the takeaway for you is that many times you are going to get a sour spoonful of medicine and you’re not going to like it and your ego is going to act up. But it’s just a reminder that the ego does not know what it’s talking about. And just because you have very strong emotions about something doesn’t mean that they are true or that they are right. Or that that is the way to behave. Or that those are the feelings you should take action on. So it’s just an invitation to really try and see the opportunity in every situation, to allow your ego to feel the feelings and to let it pass through your body without taking action. And to also find that silent space where you can be reflective of whatever that situation may be. And really ask yourself like, how do I move forward? Like, who is the person I want to be in this situation? How do I want to feel about this situation, because guys, it is your choice, it is always your choice. You cannot control the events in your life, but you can control how you feel about them and how you react to them. Other than that, this week, I’m just feeling particularly grateful for all of the people who support me, in my life. I feel so blessed. When I look around at everyone who’s working with me. I look at the people who are in my actual life. I love the fact that, you know, I was having this problem earlier this week trying to figure out like, who are my people? What makes them different? What do they all have in common? And my lovely boyfriend, Nick being able to step in and be like, oh, like, here’s the obvious answer, right? So I’m really just appreciating the fact that I have someone who is my partner, who can help me in that way, who’s really good at marketing, who really understands business has a successful business of his own. Like that’s something that makes me feel super supported and heard and seen and understood, simultaneously. If you’re listening to this, and you’re like, I don’t have a partner like that, know that every individual person has unique things in their life that supports them, and become obsessed with figuring out what those things are in your life so that you can be super grateful for them. Focus on what you do have focus on what it is that you’re trying to create. For me that is one of those things that is pretty much non negotiable. I mean, never say never. But I think for me it is a non negotiable that I do want to have a partner who is an entrepreneur, but know that just because it’s a non negotiable for me does not mean it’s a non negotiable for you. I actually have plenty of entrepreneurial friends who have chosen partners who are not entrepreneurial at all, and that’s the way they like it because they like to be the person who’s entrepreneurial and working on all these different projects and they like to have someone at home who they can totally disconnect with right So, always look at what you’re grateful for in your situation.

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. If you enjoyed it, I would love for you to give me a shout out on your Instagram story or anywhere, just letting me know what your biggest takeaway was. You guys have no idea how helpful and useful it is for me, when you message me telling me what your aha moments were telling me what it is that you took away from the podcast, it helps me understand what is most valuable to you, and it helps me understand how I can be of the highest service to you. So if you could take two minutes to do that, I would really appreciate it. Also, I’m giving away three one on one coaching sessions for free. That’s right guys, I’m giving away three one on one coaching sessions. And it’s super easy to apply. If you go to podcast dot Alex beadon.com scroll all the way down to the bottom you will see a footer that says win a one hour long coaching call with Alex Beadon details here, click on the details here section and you will find all of the details of how to enter to win this amazing giveaway where you can pick my brain for an entire hour does not sound like fun because I can tell you it’s going to be pretty life changing for three special people. So definitely make sure you head on over to podcast dot Alex beadon.com Scroll down to the bottom to get the latest details on our giveaway. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope to hear from you over on Instagram you can find me at Alex Beadon and I will talk to you again very soon bye

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