BUSINESS

#005 – On Kylie Jenner, Avoiding Burn Out, Staying Motivated, And 3 Things You Can Implement This Week

“Have you ever been to a busy mall with like a million people and everyone is talking? That’s what the inside of my brain felt like.

Alex details her nitty gritty experiences this week in her business–the trials and tribulations of developing a Facebook Ad Strategy and her crazy and hectic workloads.

But in darkness there’s always a glimmer of light.

Learn how she overcomes her obstacles, declutters her path to progress and also discovers amazing insights that can help you and your business grow.

“The more that you put yourself out there, the more that your differences would stand visible to you.”

In this episode we talk about:

  • Biggest Facebook Ad lessons of the week
  • The book that’s made a big difference in my business
  • Staying motivated, working hard & avoiding burnouts
  • Why you should create content and put it online
  • 3 things that worked for my business this week and could work for yours
Be with the Beads

IG: @alexbeadon
Facebook: Alex Beadon
www.alexbeadon.com

Must Read:

Essentialism – James Latham

Loved this and want more? Check out our other episodes here.

Spark a conversation! Leave a comment below or say hello @alexbeadon on Instagram.

Transcript Available Below

Alex Beadon 0:00
In this episode, I share my thoughts on Kylie Jenner being a self made billionaire on the cover of Forbes. I share my biggest Facebook ads lesson of the week, I share a book that has made massive changes in how I approached my business. I talked about how I stay motivated, work hard and avoid burnout. I talked about why you should create content and posted online and I share three small things that I did this week that bettered my business and can better yours to 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

Unknown Speaker 1:01
Okay, guys,

Alex Beadon 1:01
let’s start the show off by talking about the one the only Kylie Jenner because everyone has been messaging me up on the Instagram being like, Hey, Alex, what do you think of Kylie Jenner’s new Forbes cover? So I felt like I was gonna make a video about it. But to be honest, guys, I am all about that simple life these days. I’m like, Hey, how can I simplify everything as much as possible? And that means covering it here on live podcast. So Kylie Jenner, for those of you who don’t know is Kim Kardashians, half sister. Yes, they share the same mother but they have different fathers. Kylie Jenner is 21 years old. She recently started I believe it was like three years ago started a makeup company first started selling lipsticks and lip liners and now sells a variety of different things from eyeshadow to blush and things of that nature. And Forbes most recently gave her the honor of being on their cover for the August issue or I guess it might be Yeah, August 2018. forms and the cover basically says America’s women billionaires, and then it says Kylie Jenner $900 million cosmetics Queen at 21. She is said to be the youngest ever self made billionaire. Welcome to the era of extreme fame. Leverage. Okay, so lots of people have messaged me, and they’re like, hey, what do you think about this? My first initial response was probably similar to everyone else’s, which was a self made billionaire. Like can we really call Kylie Jenner? A self made billionaire? I’m not sure if that is like legitimately true, like, is she self made? But the more I thought about it, the more I let it simmer in my mind, the more I realized that. Yes, she was born with privilege. Yes, she was born into a family that has a lot of business experience that has been extremely successful. They have a lot of access to money. And then I’m sure by the time she started her her company, she already had a lot of money in the bank. So yes, all of those things are definitely advantages that she had over the average Joe, but it doesn’t necessarily stop her from being 100% self made. Like when you really think about it, we are all given a hand of cards when we are born into this life, right? So no one is born the on an equal level as everyone else. Some people have certain advantages. Some people have certain disadvantages. I believe that the key in life is really looking at the cards that are the hand of cards that you’ve been dealt, and really figuring out like, how do I play with this hand and have the most fun possible and make the most positive impact possible? Like I think that’s really what it comes down to. So I don’t believe that as business owners, we should be looking at this Forbes feature of Kylie Jenner on the cover and 21 with a $900 million cosmetics company and being like, Oh, she’s not self made, She doesn’t deserve it. Instead, I think we should look at it and be like, Dude, she actually killed it with the hand with the hand of cars that she was dealt, she took all everything that was at her disposal, she really turned what she had into this amazing company. And that in and of itself is a huge accomplishment, whether you are someone who starts with a ton of money in the bank account or not, right. So like, even if you look at it, there are so many examples of this of people who are born into successful family companies, right family businesses, it is actually probably more likely that if you’re born into a successful family, that you’re not going to try as hard that you’re going to be less driven, that you’re going to really just kind of waste your life because you don’t have to be working. I think the fact that she has done what she’s done is a huge accomplishment regardless of the fact that she’s super famous or that she was born with a ton of money like to me the fact that she was able to take what she had and turn it into something bigger is worth celebrating and I celebrate it I look at her and I’m like dude, I see your success. I think it’s awesome. Carry on with your bad self like, I don’t think we should be looking at her and being like Oh, like she’s not really self made. Yeah, but, I mean, it’s not her fault that she was born into that family. You know, it’s not like she cheated her way to be born into that family. So I don’t know that’s just my two cents. I don’t really like paying too much attention to these types of stories until like the drama and like, was she self made was she not self made, but so many of you guys seemed super curious as to what my take on it was. So that’s my take guys like Kylie Jenner you are self made. And you definitely were born with privilege, but there’s nothing that you could do to help it and you’ve done the best with the cards that you were dealt. And so for that I give you mad respect. Okay, so we’re gonna dive into what’s been present for me this week. Okay, guys, have you ever felt I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, I’m sure it has, where you are on a long flight. When I say long flight, like maybe 24 hour journey flight where you are literally changing planes like two or three times, you have layovers, you have to wait hours upon hours upon hours in different cities. When you’re on the flight, the flight just literally feels never ending. How many of you have experienced this because if you have, you will know that by the end of the journey, you’re literally on your final flight, the plane is starting to land, you can feel yourself like literally falling downwards in the sky getting closer and closer to the land, you can see the lands beneath you getting bigger and bigger as you come in to land and it still feels like you are so far from home. Like, you just cannot wait to get off the plane. All you can think about is oh my gosh, I have to go through customs. I have to go through immigration, I have to get my luggage. And then I have to drive home and you’re just thinking like, oh my gosh, can I just get home? Like, is it possible for me to just get home because I feel like I’ve been on this journey forever. I just had a journey like this. It is like way too close. In my memory. I was flying from Hawaii to Port of Spain here in Trinidad and I had to fly through LA and Houston, it was just one of those neverending fights. That is what my business feels like right now. Like that’s the stage that I’m at in my business where it just feels like, we’re working so hard. And we’ve been working so hard for so long. And we have this like this goal in mind of what it is that we’re trying to accomplish. And it just is like, when are we going to get there at least with a flight you can be like, okay, you know, in five hours, I’m going to be at home, I’m going to be showered, I’m going to be in bed. In business. Sometimes you have no frickin clue when you’re actually going to hit your goal, like when is it going to happen? So that’s kind of like the stage that I’ve been in. And when you’re in this weird stage of like, just trying to wait it out until you achieve your goal. Your mind can play tricks on you, your mind can play tricks on you. So it’s really important for me that I’m super aware of the entire time of like, yes, we’re working towards this goal. Yes, it’s starting to feel more and more difficult because guys with this, so I’m launching Grand Slam for those of you who are unaware, Grand Slam is my online course. It’s all about Instagram stories. I launched it back in April, no, March, April. And it did super well like how to six figure launch. It was amazing, like nailed it seriously more than doubled my goal, it was amazing. But doing launches like the one that I did in March and April, where we are like literally opening the carts for seven days. So basically people can only buy over a seven day period. I’m so used to that I’ve done that so many times. To me that is like very what is a very familiar territory. Whereas what I’m doing right now with these Facebook ads and trying to create this evergreen funnel, that’s 100%. Working over on the land of Facebook is a totally different ballgame. And we have a goal that we want to be selling 11 grand slams a day, over like directly through Facebook and that funnel. And it is just taking us so much longer than expected. And guys, literally every single week, I’m learning something new and new and new, a new a new about Facebook ads that I had never known before. Right. So it’s just this really interesting time where it’s like, I have this level of impatience because I’m just like, oh my god, I just want to figure it out. And then at the same time reminding myself that I will figure it out and that life doesn’t happen on my timeline. And I just have to kind of trust that I’m going to get there at the time that I need to get there. And that I will figure everything out when I need to figure it out, if that makes sense. So it’s like this weird thing where it’s like, it’s testing my trust, it’s testing my faith. I’m still like, you still have to be hitting the ground running because like we don’t have time to lose. And every day is like we were losing time and we’re losing money. And it’s you know, like I said, it’s like a race like when are we going to figure this thing out is this really interesting time because we are making so much headway every single day like every single day, we are making strides forward and yet it feels never ending like it feels like we’re not really making that much progress. So that’s kind of where I’m at in the business right now. That’s like really the stage or like the feelings that are coming up for me so Do what it requires me to do is constantly remind myself like, what it is that I’m working towards, why I’m working towards it. And it’s also made meditation, stillness. And time alone matters so much more so that I can really have that time to check in with myself be present with myself. And to find the truth behind all of those different questions like you when you’re when you’re like, you know, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, sometimes you just sit back and you’re like, oh, my gosh, like, what is this all for? So it’s just like a constant reconnecting with like, Hey, this is what you’re doing this for this is what you’re working towards. This is the level of commitment it requires. And if you’re not keen on it anymore, or if it’s not worth it to any more than Cool, let’s stop.

But hopefully you have those sessions. And you’re like, oh, yeah, that’s why I’m doing this like, to me, keeping that high level of motivation to make sure that I can continue going, is all about connecting inwards, and like really having that time where I can be like, oh, yeah, that’s why I’m doing it. So yeah. If you’ve ever experienced any lack of motivation, I highly recommend that you meditate, spend time alone, really, like ask yourself the important questions, why am I doing this? Why does it matter that I do this? Is this something that I want to stop doing? Is this something that I’ve been doing for so long, and it’s not working? Because maybe I do need to stop doing it. Like, there are so many questions that you need to be asking yourself that you really need to be honest with yourself about. Okay, so now that I’ve kind of mentioned like, the energy around the business right now, which is really like, are we ever going to get there? Then comes the point where like I said, I spend time alone with myself like reevaluating being like, Am I moving in the right direction, you know, is this something that is worth my time, once all those things have come to fruition? You’re good to go. In this case, I want to share with you some Facebook ad lessons that I’ve learned this week. So we really sat down at the beginning of this week, and we took a look at what’s working, what’s not working, there are different stages of our marketing funnel. As every guys, when I’m talking about me, in this podcast in my business, I want you to always be translating it into your business, right? So for me, I’ve created this marketing funnel, and it’s all on Facebook. So I’m looking at each and every single like success rate of like, okay, what is our goal? For this level of the funnel? What is the successful conversion look like at this part of the funnel, right? And really just breaking down step by step? What does success look like so that we can compare where we are at and how we are currently performing with where we need to be at so that there’s no confusion of, you know, where are we going wrong? Instead, we can get super clear on where we’re going wrong, we can be very, very specific about oh, hey, this is the glaring problem here. So we did it, we sat down, we broke it down. And we realized that a big problem we’re having is that people are not watching our free pieces of content. Now it’s interesting, right? Because I’ve already done the launch for Grand Slam, I’ve already proven that the launch works, because I did it. Like I mentioned back in March. So the question is, why isn’t it working? Now what is different last time that I launched Grand Slam back in March, April, I hosted all of the lessons on a an individual website, it was a website that people got special access to when they signed up, and they can log in and watch the entire video right now I’m sending them these free videos in their Facebook newsfeed as ads, which seems all great and fine and dandy and everything because hey, they don’t have to, like opt in like you’re making it so much easier for them. Wow, that’s amazing. But what I did not factor in is the fact that these 20 minute long videos that worked really well on a separate website with no distractions are now not working. Because people are on Facebook when they’re watching them. And guys, I don’t know about you. But when I’m on Facebook, I’m distracted 100% of the time, I’ve got messages coming in. I’ve got notifications coming in, people are popping up as like coming up saying, Oh, this so and so went live, do you want to watch their video, it is very distracting Facebook is a distracting place. So it is no surprise to me when I look at the data that most people are not watching our 20 minute long free content videos, even though they are jam packed to the brim full of value. Right. So what did I have to do? I then have to decide, okay, this isn’t working. Number one, clearly, number two, what are we going to do to solve it? So the problem that we have first and foremost is time, I don’t have time to keep tinkering with this Facebook ads strategy that I’ve never done before to try and get it to work. And I don’t have the money to keep throwing out this to just cross my fingers and hopes and hope it works. Right. So number one, I have to have another strategy. Is that what I want to do? No. Do I want to divide my time and come up with a brand new strategy? No. Is that what I have to do right now? Yes. So basically what we’re doing is we’re going to be continuing on experimenting with the current Facebook ad strategy, while at the same time pretty much 100% replicating our old Facebook ad strategy, which to be honest with you, we didn’t really use Facebook ads for. But the strategy had nothing to do with keeping all the content on Facebook, like the new strategy does. The old strategy was just hey, sign up for my emails, and I’m gonna send you these emails, you’re gonna get free value of how to edit your Instagram Stories delivered straight to your email inbox. I know that works. I’ve done that before. It works, it converts. I know that’s tried true and true. Is that true? I know that’s tried, true and tested. So we’re going to basically create new Facebook ads, that’s just asking people very simply sign up for our email list, while we spend less of the budget on really tinkering with this new strategy and really trying to make it work. And I think this is a great lesson for everyone guys, people told me, like Facebook ads, strategist, people who are professionals basically said, Alex, you need three months to really get this strategy up and running to a point where you can solidly rely on it. And I was like, Nah, I can do it in a month. Like, you know, I’m smarter than the average Joe, I can figure this out. No, I’m now realizing they’re 110%, right, because every week, I’m continuously learning more and more and more and more and more about this Facebook ad strategy. So I’m going to, you know, turn up the volume on my patience levels and wait it out and simultaneously go back to what has been working for me, which is using the email marketing strategy instead of just relying on the Facebook ad strategy. So that’s my lesson for you the lesson and basically how you can convert that or translate that into how to work for you is that people aren’t spending all day every day on Facebook and watching 120 minute video, like I would be curious if anyone watching this has ever watched a 20 minute video on Facebook, because I know, I never watched long content on Facebook. So if you’re someone who’s investing time, money and energy into Facebook ads, the shorter, the better. The shorter, the better. The shorter, the better, better, shorter, the better. That was weird. That brings me quite swiftly onto lesson number two. Lesson number two. And I don’t know why I’m numbering these, these really aren’t in numbers. This is just the second thing I wanted to talk to you guys about.

Prioritizing and your business, right? So I’m the kind of person who it’s like, Okay, I’ve got my I’m like a huge content creator guys. I love creating content. If it was up to me, I would create content all day every day. I freakin love it. self expression is very important to me. So I like I like making content. I have multiple content pieces. During my week. I have Monday mantra I have work with me Wednesday, I’ve now started this podcast, I wanted to start an IG TV channel where I post once a week, there’s so much that I want to do and yet there are not enough hours in the day. And I think this is a big problem that I see a lot of entrepreneurs have is that in a legendary world, me and Laura have this joke where we talk about like this legendary day where like, basically, we’re gonna have everything figured out and we’re gonna be able to do all the things that we want to do. We’re just not quite there yet. Right? So like when I talk about in a legendary world, yes, I would be like the content creation QUEEN and i would have multiple podcast episodes coming out. I have daily emails coming out. I would be on IG TV every single day. But I don’t live in the legendary world. I live in a world in which I need focus in order to get my things done. Right. So what does that mean? That means I had to really sit down and be like, Okay, right now I’m drowning in work, drowning in work. And that’s not good. Like, that’s not healthy for my business. That’s not healthy for me. I’m going to burn out if I keep going at this level. So what can I take off my plates? How can I make my life easier? What is unnecessary? And I would highly suggest if you’re listening to this episode, right now that you make a list of every single thing that you can cut from your business that is not necessary. So for example, Monday, mantras what I like to have a Monday mantra every week. Oh my gosh, yes. What I love it to be a part of my my online platform. Yes. Is it doable right now? No. So I’ve literally just decided, You know what, Monday mantra I’m putting you on hold. Work with me Wednesday? Would it be great if I could do an amazing work of me Wednesday, every single Wednesday? Yeah, that’d be friggin awesome. But you know what, right now, I don’t have the time because I’m so busy focused on how to get all of these funnels up and running and working to a beautiful, pristine place. Right. So what does that mean? That means that instead of doing work with me, Wednesdays on my new camera, and really like going above and beyond and using my GoPro and like using all my tools and equipment that I really want to use, so where I can, like show off my creativity. No, I’m going to take it back to a much more doable level where I literally just use my iPhone and post what I’m doing throughout the day. Right. So prioritizing really means like looking at what is necessary to move the business forward. What can you get rid of work in order of priority? Because you can’t do everything. There’s this amazing book called essentialism. I absolutely love it. It is one of it’s like one of those books that legit changed my life. And the core message behind the book is basically simplify like Simplify, simplify, simplify, simplify, simplify. If you can focus on one, like doing one thing really, really well, you could do it to a 100% level, or maybe like a 95% level, if we’re being realistic. If you’re working on 10 different projects, you might only be able to get to 9% on each of those projects. So you’re still working just as hard on those 10 projects as you would be on that one project. But instead of having 10 projects, where you’re only at a 10% level, you have one project that you’re killing it at. Right and like that’s really where my head space is right now is like what can I get rid of? How can I simplify my my work life and my workload? Laura, having Laura here, and actually, I’m super sad, today’s the last day that she’s going to be here, she leaves tomorrow to go back to New York. I’m going to miss her a lot. But it’s been so beneficial to have her here. Having her here has shown me so much of like, number one, why hired her to begin with she is phenomenal. Number two, we are the most epic team that ever existed, the things that she’s so good at are not my forte at all, and vice versa. So we complement each other really, really well. And it’s just I just feel this deep sense of appreciation of having her around. In the business of having had her here physically for the last two and a half weeks. She’s had such a positive impact on the business. Like I can just see her she’s like trying to systematize things. Is that a word? systematize systematize. Yeah, it’s a word systematize things, she wants everything to be organized. She wants there to be a flow and a system and a process. And I freakin love that about her. So I’m super happy to have her on board. And just having our hair over the past few weeks has just shown me all of the ways that like I could be better, right. So for example, I’m the kind of person I have a tendency of like leaving things until the last minute that has to stop. And actually it has it has been stopping, which is something I’m really proud of. And something that I’ve spoken to Laura about. And I’m like slowly but surely I’m getting better at being less of a procrastinator because it’s now starting to hit me that when I drag my feet on things, it holds the whole team back, right. And then also something that has come to me that Laura Laura pointed out, we were having lunch the other day, and I was talking about all these things I wanted to do. And Laura was like, I’m trying to take things off your plate, and you keep adding more things to your plate. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I need to write that down. Because that’s such an aha moment like, it’s almost as if my brain is wired to believe that I have to be working at this max capacity. Just like running, running, running, running, running all the time working, working, working, working, working all the time. And now I’m starting to realize with Laura here, when I take something off my plate, when someone else takes that responsibility, it does not mean that it’s time to add a new responsibility to my plate, it means focus in more on my existing responsibilities. So that’s been really huge for me this week, as well. It’s just, you know, not adding unnecessary things to my plate. Another aha moment I want to share with you guys is I launched this podcast, and it gave me a whole next level of clarity. What do I mean by that? Okay, so I’ve been wanting to start a podcast for at least the last 12 months. And I knew that it was definitely a huge overtaking. I didn’t, I did not want to really take action on it. Because I had so many other things going on, I had my YouTube channel, I was just maxed out right when my youtube channel disappeared. Which by the way, it was very traumatic. I had been working on that YouTube channel for seven years, it had 200 videos and more than 2 million views. And one day I woke up and it was gone. But that’s a story for another day. When I lost my YouTube channel, it made me realize that this was an opportunity to focus on something new. That’s why I decided to change on over to the podcast and to try something completely different. Am I taking that action step? It has just allowed me to connect with you guys in a totally different way, like hearing from you guys on my Instagram, direct messages, hearing from you guys on the reviews, especially the reviews, it’s just been so so great to read all of your amazing reviews and to hear your reflection of the podcast and what the value is that I bring to your life through the work that I do. And that has been just, it’s just brought me so much clarity, like, the more the more I put myself out there in these different ways, the more clarity I’m able to have on my business and on my brand and on who I am in this world and on the value that I bring. So having said all of that if you are someone who’s constantly asking yourself, you know, who am I Where do I fit into this online world? What’s the value that I bring? I guess what I’m just trying to say is that you don’t need to have it all figured out. But the more that you put yourself out there, the more that your differences will stand visible to you. Like you won’t know what makes you different until you put yourself out there a lot of times getting people’s feedback of of what their experience of you is, that’s what’s going to allow yourself to see, oh, this is what makes me different. Like, I’ll never forget, I started blogging and people will really was when I started making YouTube videos, people would tell me again, and again, like the number one comment I would receive is, Wow, your energy is amazing. People would be talking about my energy again, and again and again, in the comment section. That’s when I started to realize, Oh, my energy is quite different than everyone else. Like, that’s something that’s different about me that I bring to the table. Now with the podcast, for example, a comment I’m getting again, and again, it’s like, wow, you are talking about strategy. And you’re talking about the soulful side of things and like you’re very reflective and self aware. And that just brings me to a whole next level of like, oh, wow, that’s what makes me different. So if you’re wondering what makes you different, or what makes you stand out, I can definitely tell you that putting content out there, and actually being visible in the online world is only going to help you get more clear on who you are and what makes you different. Right. Another big thing for me this week has been burnout. I have been the common theme in this podcast so far is that I work hard. And I get tired.

But it’s just it’s this is just one of those phases. This is one of those seasons, the longer you listen to the podcast, the more you’ll realize that like my business is full of seasons. This is just one of those hardworking seasons, right? It’s super important to know yourself. Every one is different. Every entrepreneur is different. You need to know when it is vital for you to stop, slow down and take a break. 100% Because I know it’s so easy to be like I have to hustle. I have to hustle. I have to hustle. I have to hustle. Gary Vee says I have to hustle. Gary Vee sleeps for hours. And I have to hustle. Like, you look at all of these people who are who are working at this extreme level of work and you compare yourself to them. And you’re like, wow, like, I don’t work as hard as she does. I don’t work as hard as he does or whatever. At the end of the day, you need to figure out what is your highest productivity level. And that might mean taking a nap for three hours every day or like whatever works for you. Right? But like really understanding listening to your body, taking note of your patterns of like, what does it feel like in your body? When you’re hitting a wall? What does it feel like in your body when you are about to burn out? How can you tell the difference between I need a break and I’m just trying to procrastinate, you need to know yourself and know your body well enough to know when to stop know when to take a break and know when to keep pushing through. For me. Like I can tell you right now I know I’m hitting a brain when my brain I know I’m hitting a wall, when my brain feels like it’s overheating. I can feel it like physically in my head. It is just like one of the biggest signals that I need to slow down and take a break. And if I don’t take a break, and if I keep pushing forward. So for example, this week, I feel a lot of pressure because Laura is here. I want to maximize the time that we have together. So I’m really pushing myself to work as much as I possibly can. Because of that when I start to feel that little, like signal in my brain that’s like, Hey, you’re reaching burnout. I’m like, Okay, I know. But I really need to work right now. So I’m just gonna push through a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. I’ll drink extra water though. And I’ll make sure that I’m getting enough sleep and I’ll cut out the alcohol but like I need to keep rolling. I need to keep going right? What ends up happening then is that I end up like my body basically experiences something that forces me to slow down. So like yesterday, migraine hit me, I will tell you what, that migraine hit me and guys, I get light sensitivity, migraine. So like the light is just the worst thing I just have to lay in bed. No sound because talking hurts. no sound, no light. I get my blindfold on and I just have to rest. And it’s so interesting because yesterday when that happened to me, I was laying in bed I had my blindfold on. And the entire it was like my mind was like how to describe it like you ever been to like a busy mall where there’s just like a million people. And everyone’s talking like that’s what the inside of my brain felt like I could not stop thinking about what had to be done and what was next on the to do list and what what I was missing out on and like so much so that I had to like keep like pausing my nap to text Laura and be like oh hey and let’s not forget this. Oh and let’s not forget that and like oh I need to write a note for myself about this.

That is super problematic like that moment of me really not being able to really press stop when I most needed to press stop was a big wake up call for me. I’m like yo, this is this is super problematic. I think oftentimes, I’m such a high. How to call me on Like, uh, hi, I’m a high achiever, I want to achieve things I want to, I’m very like focused on what it is that I want to do, right. And it’s like almost I become obsessive is like, Oh, that is my end goal, and I have to achieve it. But it’s like, it’s not the end of the world, it should not be what your entire life revolves around. And I think right now I’m at this weird place where it’s like, I know I’m in this season of work. So it’s almost like I’m excusing myself and letting myself work, work, work, work, work. But there has to be like, there has to be a time where I switch off, and there has to be like, Oh, my gosh, guys, meditation is so freakin important. Because it’s not until you stop and slow down that you realize how fast your brain is going. So for me, meditation works. For me journaling really works. But it’s hard because I like to journal on my computer. And at this point in time, I can’t even be on my computer. If I’m being honest with you, it’s just too much like when I switch off, I need to fully fully fully switch off. I feel like really and truly, that’s what this week has been focused on. And that’s what this week has been all about. It’s just like, pivoting our strategy to make sure that even if even if we have to stretch out that that Facebook ad strategy goal to three months that we’re still hitting our income goals each month, simultaneously, like trying not to kill myself by overworking myself, this welcome to entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship one on one, how to avoid death through overworking. But no guys, really and truly, this is just the season, there will be I feel like we’re at the beginning of this journey together, you’re definitely going to see a change in pace over the next few months. But right now, that’s just kind of where I’m at is like, how do I really make sure to balance out this life of mine so that I’m enjoying myself and not burning out and simultaneously getting everything done that needs to get done. So moving off of that topic and onto something that is probably a little bit more helpful for you and a little bit more solid, and something that you can take action on. Number one, curating your Instagram feed this Sunday, I completely switched off from work, and I was going through my Instagram feed, which is something I actually really enjoy doing. And I realized it had been a while since I curated my feed. My Instagram feed is like sacred space, I do not want you in my Instagram feed, if you are not adding good vibes to my emotional well being and to my energy. This is nothing to do with the way I feel about you as a person. This has nothing to do with you know me not liking you or me not liking your content, it is literally just something that I do to really make sure that I am being conscious about the content that I’m consuming. So what does that mean? That pretty much just means going through my Instagram feed and reviewing every single person I’m following. And if that person isn’t bringing or if that person is not adding something to my energetic table, they gotta go, which means I either unfollow them, or I mute them. In case you didn’t know, Instagram has a feature where you can mute people. For me, this is less of a big deal, because I have a personal Instagram account where I follow all of my friends and family. And I have a separate account, which is 100% business where I follow people who inspire me and people who I don’t necessarily know. So for me, to be honest with you, when I don’t like seeing someone’s content, I have a tendency to just unfollow them, because I don’t have a personal relationship with them, they’re not going to realize that I unfollowed them. If you’re someone like I used to be who had her personal Instagram mixed with her business, Instagram, and you don’t want to unfollow your friends, because then your friends gonna be like, Wow, I cannot believe you unfollowed me That must mean that you don’t love me. And they’re going to take it personal and blah, blah, blah, just mute them. When you’re scrolling through your feed. If you see an image and you’re like, I don’t really care about listening to this person anymore, they’re not bringing anything to the table, tap the three dots on the right hand side of their username and just press the mute button. And you can mute their posts or you can mute their posts and their story. And to me, that’s super beneficial. Another thing when you’re going through your stories on Instagram, if you just tap and hold on someone’s face, it gives you the opportunity to mute from there as well. So fun fact, for those of you who may not have known that that was an option. It is a game changer for me. And I highly recommend that you take maybe 15 minutes today or any day this week and mute or unfollow the people who are not bringing something to the table. Another thing that I did this week that I think is super beneficial for any business owner is I updated my email signature. This is one of those things that makes a huge difference. Because if you think about how many people you are emailing on a weekly basis, it adds up even if it’s just one person, it’s still an opportunity to share whatever it is it’s current in your business with that one person. So I recently changed my signature to now mention the fact that I have a podcast. I added a cute little graphic at the bottom with a picture of me. But you can use your email signature to talk about maybe a free opt in that you have. Or maybe you have like a special sale that’s coming To up or a promotion or something, I think that using your email signature is a really great and easy thing that you can do in order to communicate whatever it is that you’re currently working on. Last but not least, this tip is a game changer. Every night I go to bed, I have a tendency, and I think this is a human tendency of just like listing out all of the things that I didn’t get to today. Oh, I wanted to get to Facebook ads today, but I wasn’t able to because XYZ Oh, I wanted to email that person today. But oh my gosh, how did I forget, I can’t believe I forgot. And I still have to do that. I just spend like literally so long at the end of the night thinking to myself about all of the things that I didn’t get done. And it hit me a few nights ago, I was like, This is crap, that I’m not allowed to talk to myself, like this guy’s like, any type of negative talk any like, this is why you have to really be the bodyguard of your mental thoughts, because otherwise it just gets out of control. I do not allow myself myself to speak poorly to myself or beat myself up. So as soon as I catch that happening, I have to step in and be like, Okay, how do I turn this around? Instead of spending five minutes before I go to sleep? Basically beating myself up for all the things I didn’t do? How about I consciously decide to focus on all the things I did do? What did I do today? What did I accomplish today? Because it leaves you feeling so much different when you go to sleep. Thinking about all the things you did do and how awesome you are and how you killed it today, as opposed to all of the things that you didn’t do. You’re going to find that this is a common theme in the world about experience like rewriting all of those dots that aren’t necessarily bringing you any value at all. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. I am just so happy that this podcast is in existence. This is now the third week guys, this is the third week and I’m just I’m feeling really good about it. It’s definitely been a different way of expressing myself. And I feel like you guys are feeling that too. There’s definitely like a deeper level of connection. And it’s just it just connects you on such a personal level, which I absolutely love is totally up my alley. What I want to ask you to do is if you enjoy this, can you please take a selfie of yourself listening to this podcast and post it online? I love seeing pictures of you guys listening to the show. share with me what your biggest aha moment has been send me a DM and let me know what did you think of this episode, you have no idea how much it fuels me to hear from you. Like obviously, if you didn’t take away anything from this podcast, then don’t hit me up that is not necessary. But if you did, like literally just take two minutes and message me and be like, Hey, Alex, this part of the podcast really hit home for me. Your feedback guys makes such a big difference like someone messages message me this week on Instagram. And they basically told me how my podcast had helped them and how they had interpreted what I had said and it was in a totally different way than I had even like I didn’t even mean for them to interpret it in that way. But that’s so cool that it can bring benefit to so many different scenarios. So I just want to say thank you guys so much for you know being a part of this community with me. Thank you for being with me since day one. I really appreciate it. And I will talk to you guys again next week. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning into the on purpose podcast and I really hope that you had as much of a blast as we did. If you liked what you heard and want even more make sure you leave a review because it really helps support what I do here on the podcast. All you have to do is search the podcast app for the on purpose podcast, select it then scroll down until you see write a review and then type away at the beginning of the next episode. I will be picking one review one special review My favorite review of the week and I will be reading it out for all of you guys so you definitely don’t want to miss out on that. I hope you really enjoy your week and I will see you guys again next time stay on purpose.

#003 – 3 Facebook Ad Secrets, Identifying Business Priorities, Anxiety and Stress

In this episode Alex shares:

  • Her lessons in launching this podcast & why it took so long
  • How she is setting up Gram Slam’s new evergreen marketing funnel
  • Why she decided to do Facebook Ads herself instead of outsourcing it from the get-go
  • Her Facebook Ad Strategy
  • The 3 Facebook Ad Secrets she’s learned over the last week that you should *definitely* know about and implement
  • How she juggles multiple social media platforms
  • How she identified business priorities this week
  • How she’s managing having Laura visit as both her bestie *and* the Operations Manager
  • How stress is showing up physically in her body & how she’s handling it
  • How she pushes through stress even when she’s committed to living a stress-free life
  • How her business is currently experiencing major growing pains
  • How she has been prioritizing self-care

Episode 003 of On Purpose With Alex Beadon is a good one. Alex opens up about 3 big Facebook Ad Secrets that anyone can apply to their business. She opens up about what it’s been like personally as the business goes through a period of intense work and hustle. She also discusses entrepreneurial stress, and shares how she copes with it.

 

QUOTABLES:

“No one is going to spend your money as carefully as you will spend your money” – Alex Beadon

“The one thing I really like about a podcast is that it really unites people who are like-minded.” – Alex Beadon

“Take a look at your competition, not so you can copy them but so you can possibly create something super different that gets the attention of your prospect.” – Alex Beadon

“As business owners it’s good for us to know the experience that our ideal client is having.” – Alex Beadon

“I hired my best friend! It’s such a dream come true.” – Alex Beadon

“I wake up first thing in the morning, and I can feel the anxiety in my body.” – Alex Beadon

“I can’t count the number of times this week I’ve told Laura, ‘OMG, I love my job!’ I love doing this, this is so exciting to me. It fuels me – the unknown, the uncertainty. I’m just excited by it. Even though there’s so much risk and I can’t promise I know exactly what the end result will be, I love it. I just think all of this is so much fun.” – Alex Beadon

“I know this busy period isn’t forever, I know I’m putting in all of this work for an end goal.” – Alex Beadon

“I know and have deep trust that this is me getting to the next level” – Alex Beadon

“If Alex from 8 years ago could see Alex today, she would be so proud.” – Alex Beadon

“I’m encouraging you to celebrate whatever you have to celebrate and how far it is that you have come” – Alex Beadon

“As much as I would like to say “I’m superwoman” I won’t burn out – I’m only human…. So prioritizing self-care is a priority in the next week.” – Alex Beadon

When you’re done listening, make sure to head on over to our Podcast Page and LEAVE A REVIEW! We have a goal to get 100 reviews within the first 7 days and I NEED YOUR HELP in order to make it happen, so be sure to subscribe, leave a review and then tell your friends?

Transcript Available Below

Alex Beadon 0:02
Do you ever feel like you’re trying to balance it all? nourishing your health while growing your business and living a life well lift 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

Hey guys, welcome to episode number three of on purpose with Alex Beadon. I’m so excited for today’s episode, I feel like it’s going to be a really good and valuable one. So definitely stay tuned. But before we dive in, I wanted to share one of my favorite reviews that has been left guys, this is the third episode, right? But really, and truly the podcast just launched yesterday. So this, it’s just like such a special day. For me. It’s the very first time that I’m actually getting reviews on the podcast. And it’s just so much fun to read every single thing that you guys are saying. So for everyone who has left a review, thank you so much. And if you haven’t left a review yet, what is holding you back, I have a goal of reaching 100 reviews in the first seven days and I really need your help to accomplish it. So please take two minutes to go to the podcast app. Search for on purpose with Alex Beadon and select the podcast on purpose of Alex Beadon. Scroll down press write a review and leave me a heartfelt review. I really truly love to hear from you. But okay, let me read this one. This one is from the mermaid with mussels. She says I’ve been a faithful follower of Alex since her YouTube days and now to Instagram. Her energy is contagious. She’s raw and real. And she provides actionable tips and tricks to grow your social business and make more money literally every day to not follow her or subscribe to this podcast is like passing up the most valuable free content out there. Thank you so much for that Epic Review. I really, really appreciate it. And let’s dive in to today’s episode. Okay, so in today’s episode, there’s a lot that I want to talk to you guys about right? I want to talk to you guys about everything that I’ve been working on this week. So that really gets divided into three main categories. We’re going to talk about my podcast launch, we’re going to talk about Facebook ads, and what’s been working, what hasn’t been working. And I’m also going to talk to you guys about the big picture strategy behind my business. Then I’m going to move into more of the personal side of things, what I’ve been experiencing behind the scenes what it’s been like during such a busy, hectic time in my business. So that’s what you can really expect from this podcast. Let’s dive in. So as I mentioned, the podcast went live yesterday, which has been really exciting for me, it’s so much fun to hear from people that they’re listening to the episodes, I’ve got text messages from friends saying that they’re loving it. I’ve been hearing from so many of you guys online just talking to me about how you’re really appreciating the format and how it’s been laid out and what it’s been like so far, we launched with two episodes. And we actually thought it was going to launch like two weeks ago. Seriously, we were pretty blown away by how long the iTunes approval system was. So if for anyone who’s considering coming out with a podcast in the future, I would definitely say like, give it a good two weeks, do not expect that things are going to just be published immediately. To be honest with you, I did my research, I did hear that it could take you know, between five to 14 days. But I also heard from a lot of people that it took them like 24 hours. So I was like you know what they probably just say two weeks, it’s probably only going to be a couple of days. So like we factored in four days, it took way longer than four days. So of course, you know, I’ve been building up this excitement about the podcast that’s going to be launched and On which date it was going to be launched. And of course it ended up. So I told everyone it was going to be on a Monday. And then it ended up being not the following Monday, but the following Friday. So it ended up taking almost two full weeks, right. Yesterday was the first day that the podcast was actually fully live in the iTunes app. And it was, like I said, really a journey because it was live. But it wasn’t fully live. People were messaging me and being like, hey, I can listen to it. But I can’t subscribe. I can’t leave a review of the podcast art isn’t showing up. So we kind of made an executive decision to really not mention the fact that it was live until it was something that we can feel really proud of. In other words, we didn’t want to say that it was live until it was actually 100% live like I don’t want to be like Hey, everyone, go check out my podcast. And then they go and there’s no cover arts and there’s no way to subscribe or leave a review. So that’s really what we were waiting on this entire time because I know a few of you guys were like, You keep saying it’s not live but it is live. And I’m like no, it’s half live like you can listen to the episodes but the entire experience is definitely not there. So that was definitely a struggle for us like really is playing the waiting game not knowing you know, when is when is it actually going to go live a big part of these Monday episodes, guys, because you know, we release new episodes every Monday and Thursday. And a big part of this Monday episode is that I want it to feel fresh. I want it to be very recent and new and I want it to be 100% relatable to what actually happened to me over the past week. Right? So I couldn’t actually record episode number three until I knew when episode number three was going to be going live. So yesterday the podcast went live. So I knew that I’d have to sit down and record this episode today. So this is me, this is like the first time I’m ever recording. Live like because the last episode, I think I must have recorded it like three weeks ago now. So this is like now my new routine where you know, every hopefully I’m thinking every Friday, I will do the recording for Monday, so that it’s still recent and new and relevant. So yeah, so we went through all of those kind of hiccups of not knowing when it was going to be live. And then yesterday it went live, which was just so exciting. I literally have zero shame. I messaged almost everyone I know. I was like, hey, my podcasts just went live. And I really need reviews. So if you wouldn’t mind like take a quick listen to the podcast and just leave a review, I’d really appreciate it even if it’s just a few words. A big part of coming out with a podcast guys, for those of you who don’t know, is just the process of trying to get as many reviews and as many downloads and as many people subscribing to your podcasts as possible, which is why the reviews part is such a big deal to me because I want it to signal to iTunes that this is a podcast that is worth possibly being mentioned in their new and noteworthy section. So I’m not just like asking you to leave reviews for no apparent reason it really does help catch the attention of iTunes, when it comes to actually getting into that new and noteworthy section, which we’ve got our fingers crossed for. But to be honest with you like it’s really not a big obsession, or it’s not like a really big goal of ours. We would like to get into the new and noteworthy section. Of course, that would be fantastic. But if it doesn’t end up happening, it doesn’t add up happening. And I’m just happy that the podcast is live feels good. But yeah, I think that was a really big realization for me over the past 24 hours since it’s been live. It’s like I’ve had zero shame in messaging everyone and being like, hey, like guys, I even created a video that walks people through how to leave a review, I sent it to my entire family. And I was like every single person who is related to me, I’m now calling on you to please leave a review and just go and you know, leave show me some love. Show me some support. This is exactly how to do it shouldn’t take you more than two minutes. Go go go. I think of course you kind of have to like know your crowd and know your audience. So if you don’t have a particularly close relationship with your friends and family, that might not be the best idea. Like I’m definitely not reaching out to strangers or people who I feel like they’d be like, No, I’m reaching out to people who I feel would enjoy supporting me and who I know I would enjoy supporting them in the same way. So that’s been fun and interesting for me yesterday was actually my cousin, Amy’s birthday party. She just turned 27. And she had a birthday party at my aunt’s house up on her roof. And so it was like nice rooftop vibes. And everyone was listening to music dancing, there were some beer pong going on. Really good, good energy happening, then all of a sudden the music cuts. So like I walk. I mean, it’s my family, right. So like, if Amy’s having a party, I feel like I’m also half responsible for the outcome of the party. So I go over to the speaker and I’m like, What’s going on there? Like, for some reason, the music from the phone isn’t hooking up to the speaker. It’s not working, and so they’re trying to figure it out. Meanwhile, everyone is just kind of like standing in silence. So I grabbed this microphone, and guys don’t know where this came from. But I decided this is the perfect time to let everyone know at the party that I have a brand new podcast that went live today because it was yesterday. So I get on the pod. I get on the microphone. I’m like, Hey everyone, we are having some slight technical difficulties. My name is Alex Beadon. And I just want all of you to know that today. I released a podcast called on purpose with Alex Beadon. If you are into business and life and living your best life, and you should definitely go and check it out.

I’m also trying to get 100 reviews in the first seven days. So definitely don’t be scared to go and leave a review. Everyone’s like dying laughing. And I’m just kind of standing there thinking to myself, Wow, who is this girl who is literally speaking to a party of strangers while the music is down, to tell all of them to go and check out her podcast because when I first started my business, honestly speaking about my business was like a stressful thing for me. I remember being so ashamed of even telling people that I had my own business, let alone like promoting what I was doing. And you know, here I was yesterday, just on this microphone, announcing to the entire party to go and leave me a review But yeah, the podcast has been amazing, really happy to see it go live. We checked the stats today. And it has been listened to in over 36 countries in less than 24 hours. To me. That’s just so mind blowing that there are people all over the world listening to my voice, it like it’s just so cool. The internet is so cool. It feels like such an honor to be alive at this point in time. And to be able to get to use these tools. We’re like the first people to use these tools people like it’s so exciting to me the fact that you know, I can speak into this microphone, and you wherever you are in the world can hear it. And by the way, if you’re listening to this, I would absolutely love for you to just send me a selfie of you listening to the podcast tagged me at Alex Beadon. post it to your story on Instagram and just like let me know which country you’re in. Because it’s mind blowing, I think it’d be cool to like maybe create, like some kind of graphic with pictures of people all over the world just to like, celebrate the fact that we are all connected. That’s another thing I love about podcasts is that it really unites people who are like minded. So yeah, it’s been, it’s been really fun. I’m super pumped to see how the podcast goes. I’m also excited for the growing pains and the lessons and I know this podcast is just gonna get better and better and better and better. So for those of you who are listening from day one, and for those of you who are really implementing this into your weekly routine, I just want to say thank you for being on this journey with me and I do not take your time for granted. And I always want to make sure that I’m showing up and giving you my absolute best. And that’s really what this entire episode today is going to be about. I really looked at what what has happened to me over the past week. And I’m going to be sharing with you what I would share with my best friend that I think every single entrepreneur should know, based on what it is that I’ve learned this week. So let’s dive in. I think we’re done talking about the podcast, we definitely had some some launch struggles. If you’re going to launch podcast in the future, keep that in mind, for some reason on many of the other platforms. So like, for example, Spotify, when we submitted the podcast, Spotify picked it up immediately. So Spotify, you are awesome, keep doing what you’re doing iTunes, you got a long way to go like iTunes, really. I mean, even the fact that you know, it’s not just like, it took a long time for them to post it. They were posting it like one day there was one episode The next day, there was a next episode, the next day, the cover art was up two days later, you could subscribe two days later, you could leave a review, like it was just such a step by step process. Like I feel like they should just publish it. And it should just all be live ready to go all at once. Anyway. Okay, we’re gonna move on to the next part. This is something I’m really excited to talk to you guys about Facebook ads. So to kind of give any of you the backstory, you may not really know what’s going on. I have an online course it is right now the core of my business, it’s called Grand Slam. This online course basically teaches people how to use Instagram stories to help build their online brand, whether they are a personal brand, whether they sell a product, whether they have a physical store, whether they sell courses like I do, or maybe you are a service provider, it’s really for anyone who wants to use Instagram stories to create a connection with their people and with their audience that will hopefully result in more trust, which will hopefully result in more sales, right. So I’ve been really focusing on creating this course to be 100% evergreen, which means that people can buy it at any particular time. This is new to me, I’ve never done this before. Normally, I launch something and I give people a week to buy it. And then I close the cart and I don’t let them buy for another year. Right. So this is very differently just leaving the car doors open. You can literally buy Grand Slam whenever you want. And the main focus that I’ve been that I’ve been focusing on for the last

I would say since I was in Hawaii, is Facebook ads and really creating a funnel a marketing funnel that is bringing people in from Facebook ads into the funnel, giving them value and then converting them at the end into Grand Slam customers. Right. So we’ve set up our Facebook ads system, which has been amazing. I’ve learned so much. I’ve spoken to so many people about Facebook ads and it seems to be one of those things that many business owners I speak to have the biggest problems with because it’s hard to find someone you can really trust when when you hire someone to do your Facebook ads, like no one is going to spend your money as carefully as you will spend your money. So when I had to decide, am I going to pay you know 1000s of dollars to someone a month in order for them to take control of my Facebook ads or am I going to do it myself. I decided I wanted to have a really good grasp of Facebook ads before I bring anyone else in like I really wanted to know the ins and outs and I think you need to know your strengths. Like I’m super technical, going into the Facebook ad system and like figuring it out is actually quite fun for me. So this was not something that was super difficult or going to take up like a ridiculous amount of time trying to learn but the Learning has the learning curve has been steep, there has been a lot that has changed since the last time that I was really playing around with Facebook ads. So we basically set up this funnel. And the way that the funnel works is that on day one, they get sent an invite video. And the invite video is really simple. It’s like 30 seconds long. It’s like, Hey, are you interested in learning more about how to edit your Instagram stories, because I have a free course, that’s going to teach you everything you need to know about putting yourself out there on Instagram stories. If you’re interested in getting access to that free course, literally, all you have to do is finish watching this video until the very end. Once they watch that video until the very end, like I said, it’s only a 32nd long video, they basically get put into an audience of people who have watched that video up to I think it’s like 75%. So if you watch that video 75% of the way through, you will get access to lesson one, right, and this is what’s really cool about Facebook ads is that you can target people. So specifically, you can target people who visit a certain page. So like, for example, right now, we target people who come to the Grand Slam sales page, like if you visit the Grand Slam sales page, and then go on Facebook, the next day, you’re gonna see Grand Slam sale, sorry, you’re gonna see grandslam Facebook ads that are basically going to be leading you down a sales funnel, right? So Facebook ads is just really, really cool in that way. So day one, they get the invite video, some people watch it all the way through till the end, they then get sent day two, which is less than one, then they get sent day three, which is less than two, day four, which is less than three, and so on, right, they basically get sent down a marketing funnel and a sales funnel that ultimately the goal at the end is that they will end up buying. Now we’ve set this up in such a way that it obviously takes time, like you don’t know if it’s working or not on day one, because people aren’t getting sales messages maybe until like day nine, right, or like day 11 Or something like that. So it requires this patience of you spending a lot of money on Facebook ads, and you don’t have to spend a lot of money on Facebook ads. To be honest, I just really didn’t have time to lose or waste. I really just wanted to like dive headfirst in. So I was like, Cool. Let’s let’s, let’s hit the ground running. Right? So we’re testing it, we’ve put it out. And we’ve been I think we just hit day 11 sales are finally starting to come in. But guys, I will tell you those first 10 days, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so it’s so weird to like be pouring so much money into Facebook ads and not seeing anything come back. I’m not used to that at all right? And it’s just one of those things where like, we’re learning how to measure different things we are. It’s just an entire learning curve. But anyway, it’s been going well, let me kind of explain to you the lessons that I’ve learned because like I said, I want these podcasts to be super valuable for you. Okay, so two main lessons that I learned this week. Number one, sequencing on Facebook ads, I had no idea that you could do that. I did not know that you could do. Okay, someone watched this invite video a day after they watched the invite video, I want them to get this two days after they watched my video, I want them to get this three days after the invite video, I want them to get this like I didn’t really know that that was a possibility. Right. So what I was doing, I was doing like, okay, 75 If you watched in video 170 5% of the way through, you get less than one, if you watch less than 170 5% the way through, you get less than two, if you watch less than two, etc, etc. Right? So I was kind of doing it more based on if you watch the previous video, you’ll get sent the next video. Now I realized that I don’t need to do it that way I can literally sequences. So day one, you get this day two, you get that day three, you get this, right. So that was a really fun thing for me to learn. The next thing that I learned is that there is a new thing on Facebook, where you can actually go to a Facebook page, like a business Facebook page, and you can find out like you can see which ads that page is sending out. Mind blown. That means you can go to all of your kumkum competition competitors, I’m getting this, I’m getting squared mix up, you can go to all of your competitors pages, and basically see which ads they are currently putting out there. You can see what they’re testing, you can if you keep an eye on it, which I know is like almost a full time job. But if you do keep an eye on it, you’ll be able to see what’s working and what’s not working based on the ads that they switch on and turn off. Right. So that has been really fun as well as just going around to lots of different people who are in my industry and being like okay, you know, are they using Facebook ads? I’ve been shocked by how many people are not using Facebook ads who I could have sworn would be using Facebook but Facebook ads so that’s an interesting and then also just looking at businesses that I know have really good evergreen funnels set up and just seeing like what are they doing what’s what’s the behind the scenes like guys, that’s something that I would definitely recommend you do go to your competition’s Facebook pages and just see like what are they doing and it’s not necessary. so that you can copy it, it might actually, in fact be so that you can create something super different so that it catches the attention of your prospects, right? But it’s it’s information. I think, as business owners, it’s good for us to know, what is the experience that our ideal client is having. Now the one thing that you can’t see on your like, when you’re looking at your competitors, Facebook ads, you can’t see who they’re targeting, you can only see the actual ad itself, right. So just keep that in mind. So if you’re wondering how to do this, basically, you’re just going to go to their Facebook page on the left hand side all the way at the very bottom of their Facebook page. Underneath their profile picture, it says info and ads, if you click on info and ads, you’ll be able to see all of the ads that they have running in which different countries, it’s really, really cool. So definitely check that out. So those are really like the two big lessons that I’ve learned this week when it comes to Facebook ads. Another thing when it comes to Facebook ads is really being clear about your conversions. Right. So for example, we have people who are buying Grand Slam, just because they found it on my Instagram, they go in the background, some technically, that does not count as a Facebook ads conversion. Right? So there’s something called Custom conversions within Facebook that I’ve been experimenting with and going into and basically trying to figure out like, how do we make sure that when someone buys, we know that they came from Facebook ads, I would definitely recommend if you’re someone who wants to learn more about Facebook ads, looking into custom conversions is definitely something that you that you’re gonna want to do. Another thing that has been super fun is Google Analytics. This is kind of like a common theme in my business where I think I have something set up and then I go and check it out. And it’s not set up. So this whole time, I really believed I had Google Analytics hooked up for the Grand Slam website, because I know I have it on my Alex Beadon website. I have it on the work with me dot Alex beadon.com. Like I have it on my website. So I just assumed I also had it on Grand Slam. So when I actually went to check it out, I do have it but I have it more as like a plugin on my website and not actually on the Google Analytics website, which means that I’m missing out on so many of the Google analytics tools. So I had to fix that this week, you know, I had to go in and be like, oh, gosh, I can’t even tell when like I can’t even tell where they’re coming from how long they’re staying on the site. Like there’s so many things that I want to know, through Google Analytics that I thought I was collecting, and I haven’t been collecting it. So that was another thing I worked on this week, which is making sure that the Google Analytics was properly picking up all of the statistics from the Grand Slam website. Because guys, I want to know, like, where are people coming from? How long are they staying? I think all of those things are really important to know, if you’re trying to track you know how many sales you’re getting. So that’s been another thing for me as well is just making sure that I have my Google Analytics properly set up. Another thing that has been kind of a running theme this week is I really been wanting to put so much time love and energy into my content creation. I just got a new camera guys, Laura brought me a new camera. It’s a Canon M 50. And it is like my baby. And at any point in time that I can use it, I want to be using it. But the truth is right now, there are so many other things that need to get done in the business like this is such a stage phase cycle season of the business where we’re like building, once we have this evergreen model up and running, it’s going to require a lot less work to keep it up and running. But because we’re now in the building phase of putting out the Facebook ads and trying to test it and seeing what’s working, what’s not working, it’s requiring a lot of our attention, like a lot of our time is spent just looking at the stats and being like, you know, is this converting properly? What do we want it to be converting at? What can we do to get it to be converting at that if we spend x amount of Facebook ads, how much money should we be making by the end of the funnel? So like, let’s say the funnel is like three weeks long, you know. And at the three week mark, in order to make sure that this is actually working, how much money should we have made. Once I get up and running, I will have more time to work on other things, I can probably get to a point where I can bring in a Facebook Ads Manager to actually focus on just like keeping an eye on the Facebook ads and making sure that it’s going well. But for now, like I said, it’s really important to me that I know how my money’s being spent. Right. So it’s taking a lot of time and energy away from the content creation, which is what I really love. Like it’s such a pain for me because I want to be making like the best, most epic Instagram stories and putting myself out there all the time. And I just feel like I’ve been super distracted by like what’s been going on with Ground slam and the fact that we’re trying to get these Facebook ads to a really good point. So that’s been a little bit of a struggle for me this week. Last in the business that I kind of want to talk to you guys and share with you about is Laura, who’s my best friend and also the operations manager in the business she and I sat down this week and basically it was so brilliant guys like I’m so glad we did this. We basically sat down and we wrote down every single person in the business. So right now that’s fine. If, and we wrote down who they are, what they do, what their roles are, what their responsibilities are, I feel like this is such a no brainer. And maybe you’re way better at this than I am. But I’ve always been the kind of person who is just like, oh, like I’m hiring you to do this school. But there’s no like, specific act like I’ve just required so much flexibility from everyone. And it’s never really been super clear and specific about like, this is your full responsibility. So sitting down and writing those out and being like, okay, this person has a lot on their plate, like, let’s move things around. Let’s be honest, it’s pretty much me, I have a lot on my plate.

And I’m trying to get to a point where it’s like, there’s less and less and less on my plate so that I can really show up in my zone of genius and be the best that I can be. So that was really helpful to sit down with her and just like lay out what are everyone’s everyone’s rules. Now, guys, this can work. You know, maybe you don’t have a big team, maybe you don’t have a team at all. So I’m just going to kind of translate this for you of how you could do this for yourself, is sitting down and just writing out what are all of your tasks. When I had to list it was like the list of what all of the tasks are like everything that needs to get done. And then it was kind of like the bare minimal list of what needs to get done in order for the business to survive and thrive. Right. So for me, that was like my email list. Super important. My Instagram Stories, super important. Grand Slam super important. Facebook ads, super important. Less important might be like my Facebook page don’t like really am not bending over backwards to have a perfect Facebook page right now not bending over backwards to have a perfect Pinterest page right now. Like I think it’s so important to focus and focus in on like, what are the profit generating activities? What are the like, literally, what are the priorities of activities? Like what comes first, what comes second, what comes third? And then sitting down and writing, writing out? What are the different tasks that need to get done in order for this to actually work? Getting super crystal clear on that? Right? And then from there, if you’re if you’re a solopreneur, bringing it in to your calendar, I mean, like cool. Every Monday, I’m going to focus on this task every Tuesday, I’m gonna focus on this task and really just dividing it and trying to create as much of a routine and as much schedule as you possibly can. I did this for myself meant like I said, me and Laura sat down. We divided up all the roles, and then we were like, Okay, how do we make my life easier? And for me, that’s like, really dividing things. I mean, like, Okay, I only want to take calls on a Thursday. I don’t want to take a call on a Monday, call on a Wednesday, call on a Thursday. No, let’s put all of my calls in on a Thursday. podcast interviews super important right now guys like podcast, this podcast is my baby. Like, I want it to really thrive. I want this to be one of my main content focuses, right. It’s not V main content focus. So you know, in order to do that, I need to do podcast interviews, where I’m interviewing these epic individuals about their lives and about their businesses. But I don’t want to be taking podcast interviews all throughout the month, like if I could squeeze those podcast interviews into like, one or two days during the month, oh my gosh, that that works so much better for me, I realized that I, I am someone who works with momentum, if I’m sitting down and interviewing someone, and then I have to stop and like, do my hair and makeup and film a video and then I have to stop. And then I have to deal with taxes and like finances, and then I have to stop and then have to have a team meeting. It’s too much for me. Like if I can just focus on one thing for as long a period of possible of time as possible. That works way better. So that’s what we did. We got clear on everyone’s roles, we got clear on our vision. Another really big thing guys is like, Do you have a clear vision of where you want your business to be? In three months? Do you have a clearer vision of where you want the business to be in six months? I don’t really work much past that. I’m not at that stage yet where I can work on like, even a yearly basis because like, the business is so dependent on the current status of the business, if that makes sense. So really just depends on what’s happening in the business. And like, where my mindset is that how I’m feeling. So I really worked like three to six months out. And that’s it. So we did that we had a really good strategic session of like big picture stuff, getting clear on everyone’s individual roles and how we can make each other’s lives easier. So that was super productive. Highly recommend that you do that in your business if you haven’t already. So that’s pretty much everything from the business side of things. Like that’s what I’ve been focusing on this week, podcast, launch Facebook ads, and then doing like the big picture strat strategy session with Laura super, super helpful. Now I want to move on to the more personal side of things. So Laura is visiting me from New York City. As I mentioned in Podcast Episode Number one, I hire my best friend full time and it’s amazing and it’s fun and we’re it’s it’s it’s so it’s such a dream come true because we work together. You know, I don’t know how many years ago now. And it was very brief. Like it really just kind of brought her in on like a project by project basis. And it was always my dream to be able to hire her full time and the fact that like we’re now doing it is amazing. We just I wanted to fly her down to Trinidad for three weeks to basically just make sure that we are on the same page, we wanted to get aligned, we wanted to make sure that we were sharing the same vision that we were that that just we couldn’t really flow together in person. So that’s why I brought her down here. We’re now two weeks into her trip. She’s now in her last and final week here. And it has been like, it’s been really interesting, because we’ve been working super hard. And at the same time, it’s this weird mixture of like, she’s here to work, but she’s also my best friend. So I do want to show her around and like, I want her to have a good idea of like, what my life is like here. So I want her to see the places I go and meet my friends. I mean, my family and like, all of that stuff matters to me as well. But at the same time, it’s like work is the priority. But it’s like, you don’t want her to travel all this way and like never see the beach, you know, so I’ve really just been trying to find a balance of how can we get as much work in as we possibly can? And how can we have fun together as well. It’s been interesting, like, even just now she was telling me she’s like, you know, it’s so cool that like we’re here working. But really, it just feels like we have a project together as besties. You know. So it’s been it’s been really, really fun. But it’s been super intense. Like, I feel like we have been working nonstop. And then in our break sessions, it’s like event after event after event socializing after socializing after socializing. And I think when you are always in that output mode, where it’s like you’re working, working, working, and then you’re going out and you’re like having dinners and you’re doing karaoke, and you’re going to your cousin’s birthday party, because it’s her birthday, and you want you want Laura to meet your cousin, it’s just a lot, right? There’s like a lot of like intensity right now. So I can feel that energy. She can feel that energy. So we’re working on like bringing in a little bit more balanced, where it’s like, okay, let’s, let’s be super focused for like the entire work day. And then let’s, you know, let’s find out like one events every day, because when she first got here, we were doing like lunch, and then we’ll do dinner. And then it was just like too much, I think. So we’ve really been working on on bringing in that focus. Also, though, I think we both know that like, we’re in the month of July, Laura gets married in August, I’m going to Colombia for the wedding in August. And then she’s having kind of like a friend’s moon. I think that’s what she’s calling it. So it’s basically like after the wedding, she invited a few of her friends. And Scott’s friend Scott is her husband to be we’re very excited for the wedding. And basically, they invited a few of their friends to go to another part of Colombia and basically like, stay there for a week and just like have a vacation together. So we’re she’s about to take almost the whole month of August off for the wedding. I think it’s like three weeks, I’m taking I believe two weeks off. And then as soon as I get back from Columbia, I’m actually flying out to England, because my sister’s getting married next year, she wants me to come with her to Italy, where the wedding is going to be held. And she wants me to go and see the location with her. And we’re going to do wedding dress shopping together. Because I am the maid of honor. My sister’s getting married, and I’m so freaking excited about it. But anyway, I’m the maid of honor. So I have the Columbia trip. And then I have the English trip. And actually before the Columbia trip, at the end of this month, I’m actually flying to Tampa because one of my best friends is having her baby shower, and she’s doing like a whole weekend of it. So there’s like there’s gonna be a lot of distraction in August. So I think both Laura and I know that now is such a valuable time for us in the business. Because we’re together, we want to work as much as we can and get the most out of it. And then also because we know that next month is not going to be as productive, there’s going to be way more distractions, we’re definitely not going to be working as much as we are right now. So we’re just trying to get the most out of it. This is just an intense season and cycle. But what it has resulted in for me personally is a lot of stress, right? And I think it’s one of those things where it’s like the team is growing. So I think there’s that that factor of like Oh, I’m not just responsible for me. And I’m not just responsible for me and calf which I’ve been used to for the past year. Now there’s like all of these other people on the team who I’m also responsible for. And then it’s like, you know, I’m seeing the stress show up in my body and like so my eye has been twitching guys for like the last five days. It is the most bizarre and annoying experience like it just twitches all day. And it pretty much twitches when I work I’m pretty sure that when I’m not working it’s not twitching. So it’s I definitely think it’s stress related. I’ve also been having like light sensitivity, where I just like really want to keep the curtains closed because my eyes are sometimes sensitive to the light and then I can start getting migraines for a long time this week. I know I wasn’t drinking enough water. We had like water filter problems and I for the longest time needed to go out and buy water so I was like avoiding drinking water. I’ve also been intermittent fasting because I I took remember, I don’t know if you guys know this or if I shared this in the last episode, but I basically got my hair tested. And where they basically they cut off your hair from the roots and they tested and they tested for like heavy metals and they test your,

like metabolism. And so anyway, I got the results back. And it basically says like, my body digests food very slowly. So what ends up happening when I’m eating all day, because that’s normally how I am, like I eat all day, I will eat breakfast, and I’ll have a little snack, and then I’ll eat lunch, and then a little snack. And then I think, and I always thought that was good, right. And now that I’ve taken this test, and, you know, she told me, she explained it to me, she was like, it’s like your body’s just focused on digesting all day long. She’s like, so try doing something like intermittent fasting, where you eat the same amount, but you’re eating it within an eight hour window. So I would say probably like, five or six days of the week, I’m intermittent fasting, so I will only eat between the hours of 12 and at 8pm. So it’s like my body’s going through this change of like, Oh, I’m now doing like this new way of eating. Laura’s here, we’re trying to get the absolute most out of our time together. But at the same time, I want to be social and like show her around. And it’s just like, I think just a lot of stress. And it’s funny how sometimes you may not feel stressed, but your body feels stressed and I can feel in my body like even, you know, I will wake up first thing in the morning. And I can feel the anxiety in my body. I don’t know if anyone’s struggles with anxiety. But if you do you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s like this wired feeling. And I will get it first thing in the morning. And I know it’s stress related. I know that even though like energetically and my mind knows, there’s nothing to stress about. And we’re doing everything properly, and we’re doing everything correctly. And we’re on the right path. And we’re making a lot of headway. It’s like, my body is just experiencing a lot of stress. Because we’re in this intense work season, where there’s so much that needs to get done. Like I was speaking to Nick and he was like, Dude, you’re working a lot, you need to slow down, like you’re gonna burn out. And I’m like, I know, but there’s just so much that needs to get done. And the thing is, it’s like I’m enjoying it. Like, I can’t count the number of times this week that I’ve told Laura, oh my god, I love my job. Like I love doing this. This is so exciting to me. Like it fuels me the unknown, the uncertainty, it’s like, I’m just excited by it. Even though there’s such there’s so much risk. And I can’t promise that I know exactly what the end result will be. I love it. Like I just think all of this is so much fun. So it’s this weird mixture of like, it like so much fun, a lot of hard work, my body’s feeling the stress. And a lot of times like it can also sometimes feel counter counterintuitive, because like I know that this is a stressful season. I know that I’m working really hard. But I also know that this is not my ideal lifestyle. And I think this is important for entrepreneurs to to wrap their mind around is like, you’re going to have periods where you really have to focus and be super productive, and super efficient. And just be like hit the ground running every single day when it comes to your work. I don’t want to live my life like that. Like, I do not want this to be my normal, right. But I also understand the fact that like, this is like I’m working towards something right now. So I can I can deal with it. I can be in this stressful moment. And also know that I don’t have to subscribe to this as a lifestyle. This is just what’s happening right now. So it’s like I know a lot of people are like, how do you find the motivation? It’s because I know that this isn’t forever, I know that I’m putting in all of this work for an end goal, I know that I’m putting in all this work. And that this is just a growing pain. You know, when you’re like in puberty and you have growing pains, because your your your body is growing faster, then how does that work? I don’t even know your body’s going faster than your skin Anyway, whatever. You’re experiencing growing pains, right? And that’s that legit when I see this is Is this the most comfortable time in my business? No. Is it a lot of hard work? Yes. Is it a lot of figuring out and puzzle pieces. And like we just had another expected change happened in the business, which I’ll keep you updated with for sure now isn’t the right time to share. But there’s a lot going on. But I know and have deep trust that like this is just me getting to the next level. This is what getting to the next level looks like. So it’s important to recognize growing pains and appreciate them even if they’re hurting you even if it’s like not the most comfortable position because it means you’re growing. So like a great example is the other day. I had Catherine over Laura was over there both working out are so I pretty much use the dining table as like an office when I have multiple people working over because like I don’t have a big desk space for them. So everyone’s like around the dining table working and I’m cooking. And it was this weird moment where it was like whoa, like my business has reached a point where I am cooking and other people are working. And like I’m kind of taking a break and relaxing other people are working. And yes, there’s a lot of uncertainty right now. Yes. Working towards some really big goals. Yes. Like I don’t, I don’t know what like how this evergreen funnel is gonna go. And yes, there’s a lot of stress. And yes, there’s a lot of hard work. But like, if Alex when she first started eight years ago could see Alex today, she would be so proud she’d be like, Oh my God, you freakin did it. And like that’s important is like always stopping and appreciating it and being like, you know, I like this May, this this is this is I’m here now I have a team now, I’m not sure if in like six months, I’m still gonna be able to afford to have this team. But right now I have this team. And I’m going to relish this moment because this is my new normal. This is becoming my new normal. Right. So like, I guess what I’m just trying to say is like encouraging you to celebrate whatever it is that you have to celebrate however far it is that you’ve come always connect with that person. Like me eight years ago, fresh out of college, starting a photography business, I had no idea what I was doing. I felt a lot of shame and self consciousness about the fact that I had my own business. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, I didn’t even have the courage to tell people that I had my own business people would be like, what do you do? And I’d be like, right, so like getting to this point where it’s like, I have hired people, people are working with me on my projects. And it’s just this really fun time of like, it’s challenging. Yeah. But like, I get to show up as a leader, you know, I get to create this team to be whatever I want it to be like, I want to have an awesome team, who all feel proud to be a part of the team who all feel proud of the change that we’re making in the world. And like it feels really good moving towards that. Right. So that’s just another thing that has been like a theme this week is like growing pains to is this the most comfortable? No, but like, do I know that it’s leading me on to bigger and better things? 100%? Absolutely. Okay, last but not least want to talk about like prioritizing self care. Especially because of the stress, especially because we’ve been working so hard. So like, right now, like as soon it actually took me a while to realize that I was experiencing so much stress, because we were working so much. I just kept ignoring it, ignoring it, ignoring it, ignoring it. And then when Lauren I sat down to have that whole business strategy session, that’s when she was like, dude, like, I think you’re, you’re more stressed than you think you are. She’s like it’s showing up in your body like you’ve had it switches for the last few days. Like that’s definitely not good. So for me, moving forward into the next week, prioritizing self care is huge. I do not want to burn out. And as much as I’d love to say, Oh, I’m Superwoman. I won’t burn out. Everything’s good. I’m great. Like, I’m only human. We’re all only human. So drinking tons of water, making sure I have food, making sure that I’m moving the importance of moving your body, right, I would definitely say like, right now, I’m not too focused on going for runs. And that has always been such a great activity. For me, I’ve really cut it out. Because I don’t want to go on a run in the morning when I’m hungry, because I’m doing intermittent fasting. So I want to go for a run after I’ve eaten or like right before I eat. But right before I eat, it’s noon, it’s really hot outside. So I think I might just have to join a gym and start going running like right before I eat and at least having a gym where I’m not in the heat. But yeah, anyway, the importance of moving going on walks like Lauren, I went on a walk this week. And that really helps like just moving your body in simple ways really helps. But it’s such an easy thing to just be like, No, I’m fine. It’s all good. Like, I don’t need to do that. Right? Like I’m working. I’m working. I’m working. I’m focused, I’m focused on focus, take a break, take a breather, relax. Anyway, I feel like this podcast was a lot. I feel like I just shared so much information with you guys. I would absolutely love it. If you could just send me a message on Instagram. Let me know what you thought of this. Like, how are you experiencing this podcast? This podcast is a creative process for me. And for you like I want this to be something that you’re getting value from. So anything that you can give me constructive kind of let it how can I speak constructive criticism. And also just letting me know like, what you liked what you didn’t like, anything like that would be very, very helpful and very warmly welcome. And I just want you guys to know how much I appreciate you being a part of this with me. I think this is really fun. This has been fun for me to to also reflect and be like this is what’s working. This isn’t what’s working. Here are the top tips that I would give you that I learned this week. So yeah, I hope that you enjoyed this. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate each and every single one of you. And like I said, take a picture of you listening to the podcast, it could be a selfie, it could be a picture. I don’t really mind, post it on your Instagram story tag me. And I would love love, love to hear from you. Okay, guys, that is it for me this week. I really look forward to like implementing this into my weekly schedule and doing this again next week and really being able to continue to build this relationship with you. This is so much fun for me like YouTube was always super fun for me. But I think that this is going to just take it to a whole nother deeper level. So I just want to say thank you. I love you guys. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye bye Hey

thank you so much for tuning into the on purpose podcast and I really hope that you had as much of a blast as we did. If you liked what you heard and want even more, make sure you leave a review because it really helps support what I do here on the podcast. All you have to do is search the podcast app for the on purpose podcast, select it then scroll down until you see write a review and then type away at the beginning of the next episode I will be picking one review one special review My favorite review of the week and I will be reading it out for all of you guys so you definitely don’t want to miss out on that. I hope you really enjoy your week and I will see you guys again next time stay on purpose.

A NEW TOOL I LOVE …

Hey friends! 

As you know … I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to connect with my audience, and what I’m going to share in this post is one of them.

A few weeks ago I got an email from a company asking if I’d be interested in collaborating with them. Let’s be real: I get emails like this *all the time* and I have literally *never* said yes because I’ve never actually been interested in any of the softwares, products or services.

But when I looked into this tool I was blown away and immediately knew I would love it.

What is it, you ask?

It’s called Interact.

Interact is a website that allows you to create quizzes, embed them onto your website, and prompt people to sign up for your newsletter list at the end (if you want).

I’ve *always* loved quizzes but have never found a tool that I thought would work for me. Interact seemed perfect because not only do they have lots of options for the quiz and how the answers work, but it also has the function to make your quiz *really pretty*.

My FAVORITE thing about Interact, though, has to be the impact that I *know* this is going to have on my list-building.

I only just started using it yesterday, and I was BLOWN AWAY by the fact that more than 300 people completed our quiz in less than 24 hours!

PEOPLE CLEARLY LOVE QUIZZES hahaha. And if used properly, you could even create a detailed PDF with their results which they could get access to only upon signing up to your email list.

For the quiz I created, my goal was to build buzz around my new online course, Gram Slam. So I created a quiz to help them find their Ideal Story-Telling Type. At the end of the quiz, when they received their results, instead of prompting them to sign up to my email list, I prompted them to learn more about their Ideal Story-Telling Type by signing up for Gram Slam and sent them directly to the sales page.

I can see this being used in so many creative ways as part of my marketing strategy moving forward, I’ll keep you updated and let you know how it goes!

With love,
xoxo
Alex

P.S. Because I love Interact so much, I’m now an affiliate! So if you’re going to join Interact, make sure you join here!

 

 

 

2 questions every soulful entrepreneur should ask themselves

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There are certain rules I live by when it comes to my business.

The one I want to talk to you about today is this:

I must continue to actively and consciously create a business that supports me not only financially, but creatively, emotionally, AND spiritually. It’s about creating a job that doesn’t feel like “a job”, but more like a way of life.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I came up with a method that I’ve been using to brainstorm new ideas to help implement this. Here it is:

2 Questions Every Soulful Entrepreneur Should Ask Themselves:

1) What’s something within your business that’s working really well and lights you up inside?
What is something you can pinpoint you LOVE doing within your business, that simultaneously is building your brand or adding to your bottom line? Be as specific as possible about WHY it lights you up, and the particular characteristic of it that really matters to you.

2) How can you create similar experiences within your business, in a way that would also help support your business?
What is it about your answer to Question #1 that lights you up? What is it about your answer that you can replicate in a way that would simultaneously excite you AND help grow your business?

I know it can be helpful to see someone else’s answers so …

Here are my answers:

1) What’s something within your business that’s working really well and lights you up?
I *love* the interactions that I have with the amazing people in The Spark Lounge. If I had to be super specific about it , I would say it’s the *intimacy* of the community that I love and that inspires me the most.

2) How can you create similar experiences within your business, in a way that would also help support your business in a legitimate way?
For me, the word that stands out in my answer is the word intimacy.
(note … this word will be different for you. make sure you find what it is that lights YOU up, and brainstorm on THAT.)

So my question then becomes:

How can I create more INTIMACY within my business in a way that will also help support my business in a substantial way?

This question sparked a LIGHTBULB MOMENT for me.

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The brainstorm & thought-process that led up to the Lightbulb moment:

1) How can I create more INTIMACY within my business in a way that will also help SUPPORT my business?

2) Send out more heart-to-heart emails (more writing + more connection are both good things)

3) 25,000 emails is A LOT and will be costly. WARNING!

4) What if I only sent out these emails to super fans? To the people who really care to keep up to speed with me and my business?

5) Well… how do you separate those people from the rest?

6) What if I created a V.V.I.P. segment of my email list?

7) People would only receive the exclusive V.V.I.P. emails if they opened my previous email – eradicating those who aren’t truly interested! 

8) YES!!! LIGHT BULB MOMENT! This would not only add more intimacy into my business by allowing me to share my heart and soul with a select few, but it would ALSO reward those who open my emails more frequently! 

See what happened there?

Thanks to two simple questions and a simple brainstorming sesh, I was able to come up with a brand new idea for my business that REALLY excites me in both a PERSONAL, CREATIVE way and a PROFIT-BASED way.

Sit down. Ask yourself the two questions. Brainstorm. See what comes of it. I bet it’s all good.

Always by your entrepreneurial side,
Alex
xoxo

 

Be Brave. Leave a Comment.

1) What’s something within your business that’s working really well, and lights you up and excites you inside that you could create MORE of? For me it was intimacy, what is it for you?

2) What do you think of my idea of having a secret V.V.I.P. section of my list that you can *only* be on if you opened my previous email. Thoughts?

3) Did you get my email yesterday? If so – you were on yesterday’s V.V.I.P. list! *throws confetti* … did you like the Goody Bag at the end? 😀

 

WHAT I LEARNED IN 2014: PART 2

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Have you ever had to make a *major*, transformative change in your business or life?

According to my fabulous Facebook audience, the answer to that question would be a resounding YES! 

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In 2013 I made 6 figures doing what I loved – photography:

  • I was at the peak of my photography career
  • My website was reaching ~75,000 unique hits per month
  • I was making more money than I had ever made in my life (6 figures, baby!)

The only problem was: by the end of 2013, I had fallen out of love with photography.

Spoiler Alert: When you create a career for yourself out of nothing … and suddenly realize it’s just not for you? Well … it’s not a fun realization. Because it means everything has to change, and change can be hard

This unavoidable change meant that I had to do two very difficult things:

1) Reinvent myself online.

Amongst other equally painful things, this meant I’d have to get a brand new website, and wave goodbye to my current site which was getting around 75,000 unique hits a month. Ouch. It meant I’d have to reinvent myself online. No longer would I be “Alex Beadon the photographer” …

2) Create brand new income streams in my business.

Why? Because my current income streams at the time had everything to do with photography, the one thing I wanted to avoid.

Effectively, it felt like I was starting from scratch. Because hey … I pretty much was.

I had to step up, bite the bullet, and follow my heart. And 2014 was game time.

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Wanna know what carried me through this transition?

If you’re struggling with making any kind of change in your life or business, here are the three major shifts in perspective that I learned and embraced in 2014 that ended up supporting me through this massive transformation and transition.

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It all comes down to identifying Negative Initial Thoughts, and replacing them with Enhanced Thoughts.

Negative Initial Thought #1: Change is scary.
Enhanced Thought: Change is exciting.

Because when you’re trying to reinvent yourself online and create income for your business from scratch? Fear shows up. It’s all, “who do you think you are?” “no one cares about you without your photography!” “you have NOTHING to sell … prepare to FAIL!”

When these initial thoughts appear, my only job was to REPLACE them with my enhanced thought: Change isn’t scary. Change is exciting. Edge of your seat EXCITING. From the time you wake up, to the time you go to sleep EXCITING.

It’s like … when you watch a new movie that your best friend says is *really* good – do you go into it afraid? Of course not. You go into it trusting that this movie is gonna blow your socks off. 2014 taught me how to eliminate the habit of assuming the worst. It taught me how to expect the best from life, to know the blessings are on their way, even if I can’t see them yet.

Initial Thought #2: The desire to change is there for no reason.
Enhanced Thought: The desire to change is there for a reason.

Do you know how you get pulled towards discovering your life’s purpose and doing your best work? Through desire. What you want most in life is life’s secret way of telling you that that’s what you’re meant to be doing. I used to believe that my desires were as random as the direction the wind blows. Now I know that whenever desire tugs at my sleeve, it’s time to pay attention and feel blessed by its very presence. It’s life’s guidance in disguise.

Initial Thought #3: I’M SO STRESSED *PULL YOUR HAIR AND CRY*
Enhanced Thought: – Adventures without stress are not worth it!

Sometimes stress will creep in. Instead of FIGHTING it, take it as a sign that you’re doing something worthwhile. My cousin, Tracy, texted this to me in the middle of a stressful week in my business, and she couldn’t be closer to the truth. Why do we look at stress as a negative thing? Can we SHIFT our thoughts around stress? In 2014 I learned to look at stress as a sign for infinite AWESOMENESS on its way. Stress shows up? Cool man! AWESOMENESS IS ON ITS WAY! I realised that the less I associated with the negative connotations of stress, the less stress affected me.

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Looking back, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was all worth it: the uncertainty, the fear, the unknown.

It taught me to be strong in the belief that I would find a way, that I would somehow make it happen.

Yes, there will be tough times when your initial thought is telling you to GIVE UP!

But when desire tugs at your sleeve and points you to your hearts true calling, trust that the change is good, and that the blessings are on their way.

And in the meantime – rely on your enhanced thoughts. They will carry you through. You’ve got this.

With love,
Alex
xoxo

P.S. In case you missed it the first time … you’ve got this 

Before you go, leave a comment:

  1. Be honest: when a negative initial thought enters your mind, how do you react? 
  2. Do you easily get frustrated by the apparent “lack” of what you want? 
  3. How do you deal with stress and fear? 

3 of My Favorite Business Tools (day 5 of 7)

FAVORITE-BUSINESS-TOOLS

I just got back from a beautiful trip to the beach, and I’m sitting here on my peaceful balcony with my 7th grade best friend, Laura, who’s visiting me from NYC. Life is SO GOOD!

We are now on the 5th day of The Feel Good Blogging Challenge. I seriously can’t believe how quickly this week has flown by! The response to The Feel Good Blogging Challenge has been PHENOMENAL, and I’m just so grateful and excited for everyone who has taken part. It’s been too much fun 🙂

Today I’m going to be sharing 3 of my favorite business tools, along with WHY I love them so much. Let’s dive in:

1) Dropbox
I LOVE using Dropbox because it allows me to store all of my important business files, notes and folders. The best part is that I know I never have to worry about a hard drive failure, since it’s all in the cloud. I also love using Dropbox to move images from my computer to my phone so that I can upload them to Instagram! Win/win!

2) TimeTrade
All of my clients schedule their appointments with me via TimeTrade. I LOVE TimeTrade because it automatically syncs with my calendar, so it knows when i am free, and when I’m not, and automatically updates any appointments directly into my calendar! AMAZING!

3) Snapchat
This is my latest business obsession. I LOVE being able to ask questions to my followers in such a real way, and be able to get feedback from them immediately! Plus, it’s a crazy amount of fun 🙂 You can follow my adventures by adding me: thealexbeadon

CALL TO ACTION:

  • Leave a comment below.
  • What is one of your favorite business tools?
  • Don’t forget to follow me on Snapchat: thealexbeadon

With love,
Alex
xoxo

 

 

 

IT’S HERE: My new website!

I am SO EXCITED to share this with you today! Welcome to my brand new website! If you’ve been wondering where I’ve disappeared to over the last 2 weeks, you now know!

Here’s the before:

before

 and after: 

after

Before I dive in and explain the “behind-the-scenes” goodness of this post, I want to give you a chance to sift through it and explore it for yourself!

So for now, go explore! And if you have any questions, just leave it in a comment! I’d love to hear from you 😀

Big hugs
xoxo

 

 

5 Tips For Dealing with Haters And Public Failure

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Having done a lot of work with entrepreneurs on their businesses and brands, there are certain patterns that I have started to see come up again and again. It’s funny how the same issues can appear in a variety of ways for different people and different businesses, BUT what it all comes down to is fear.

Today I want to talk to you about the fear of what everyone else thinks because I KNOW it concerns you. For many of you, like me, it’s YOUR NAME that’s on your business. And the fear of public failure can be paralyzing – because what will everyone think?

Here are five reminders to help get over fear of failure, and what others think of you:

1) You Are Not Your Achievements Or Failures

I refuse to judge myself based on my achievements or failures because they do not define me. And so, if I fail, it’s okay – because I WILL get up and keep going no matter what and I will not allow myself to feel “less than” or “not good enough” for experiencing failure.

2) Failure Is Not Bad

Listen to the life stories of the most interesting people on the planet and each story is full of failures – big failures, small failures, it really doesn’t matter. Ironically, the failure is, many times, what makes their stories so beautiful. Because what matters is how the individual deals with failure. Instead of looking at failure as this huge personal embarrassment, we need to look at failure as what it is:  a blessing in disguise, one of your greatest teachers, and quite simply, a part of life. Failure happens to every single one of us – no exceptions. So don’t let failure slow you down, use it as an awesome compass, a tool, a friend, a teacher, and a blessing in disguise.

3) Being Liked By Everyone Is Impossible

When I was in high school, I wanted to be liked by everyone, and no matter how hard I tried – it never happened. Although I was loved and appreciated by many for being so happy-go-lucky, many saw me as fake and contrived. I was viewed by many as “too nice”. At the time, this was crushing, but I now see what a great blessing in disguise this was for me because it taught me that it’s impossible to be liked by everyone. And so, I let go of the impossible desire to be liked – and I was free to just be me, no matter who liked it or not. It’s the same in business – you will create things that some people LOVE and other people HATE, and it’s all good!

4) Fitting In Is An Awful Business Strategy

Guess what? When you fit in, and you try to be liked by everyone – you may avoid haters, but you’re simultaneously avoiding super fans. So don’t be afraid to do something different. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Don’t be afraid to AUTHENTICALLY STAND OUT because THAT’S how you’ll get A LOT of positive attention.

5) Celebrate And Love Your Fans AND Your Haters

I’ve always said that if you’ve got haters, you must be doing something worth talking about – and that’s something to celebrate! Every time I send out an email to my VIP List, 50 people unsubscribe. FIFTY. But I don’t think twice about it – I KNOW that by them leaving, they are making space energetically for new, better-suited people to join my VIP List, and because of that – I celebrate. When people feel STRONGLY ENOUGH to email you hate mail, unsubscribe from your news feed, or take any other similar actions, remember that when you strongly repel people, it must simultaneously mean that you are strongly attracting people! CELEBRATE IT!

We all experience judgement from others, but all that matters is the truth. And YOU know the truth, it comes from within – you don’t need to find it elsewhere or in anyone else’s opinion of you.

Just to bring this point home, in the past 24 hours I’ve received 5 pieces of hate mail. And guess what? I’M STILL GOING, BABY, AND YOU ARE, TOO 😀

With love and hugs, bright wishes and energy,
Alex
xoxo

P.S. Here’s a little bit of encouragement for you from Oprah herself – never let the haters get you down, never give up, believe in yourself, and know that we are all in this together! (Skip to minute 5 if you want to get to the good part)

Witness an incredible sales page

witness-an-incredible-best-sales-page

Hey Dream-Chaser,

This week has been a crazy one – I’ve had some HUGE WINS within my business, which I’ll be sharing with you at the end of the month on the blog :). But I’ve also had some craziness (like Blue getting into a whole bunch of chocolate). I’ve started to realize that the deeper I get into dedication and devotion to my business, the happier I feel – and lately? I’m on cloud 9! 🙂

Hey – do you ever wish you knew what a great sales page looked like? 

Today we’re taking an inside look at someone who’s doing it RIGHT on this week’s episode of Thursday Throwdown! Trust me, the tips you’ll learn in this video are going to inspire you to get your sales page on the right track!

I hope you LOVED today’s video! If you did, share it with a friend!

Leave a comment now:

What does your sales page look like?

I really want to hear from you!

Rock on, my friend, rock on!

With love and hugs,
xoxo
Alex

P.S. I need your help! Please fill out this 7-question survey. Here’s why: I’m creating a FREE 14-day blogging challenge, but for me to make it as INCREDIBLE as possible, I need to know what YOU need the most help with! So do this now – take 5 minutes to fill this out, I’d really appreciate it!

 

 

Dare to do the Biz-Love Challenge

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I was laying in bed last night wondering .. “What should tomorrow’s Chatty Tuesday be about?” When suddenly it hit me!

It’s time for a Biz-Love Challenge!

What’s that all about?

Well, you’re just gonna have to watch this week’s Chatty Tuesday episode to find out:

So – are you going to be joining me for this week’s Biz-Love Challenge? If so – LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know all about it! I always love hearing from you 🙂

With love and hugs,
Alex