IEP016: How to Build a Community of Raving Fans Through Instagram Stories with Alex Beadon

Brigit:                    Welcome to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Brigit Esselmont, intuitive business strategist and mentor. As the founder of Biddy Tarot, I turned my love for Tarot into an abundant seven figure business. The secret to my success, making intuition and strategy my entrepreneurial superpower. Now, I'm inviting you to do the same. In this weekly podcast, I'll be sharing advice tools and real life examples from some of the best intuitive entrepreneurs, to show you how you can trust your intuition, align with your purpose, and create a positive impact through your work. Let's make it happen.

Brigit:                    Hello, and welcome back to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. Today, I'm having a chat with Alex Beadon, who is an online business expert. She shows people how to turn their knowledge and expertise into something that they can monetize online. Now, she is the creator of a Gram Slam, or as she says, [Grom 00:01:08] Slam, which I love, and also the creator of Project Storyline. She's also got a fantastic podcast called On Purpose With Alex Beadon. Now, having known Alex for a couple of years now, through the mastermind of the collective, I know her to be one of the most energetic and uplifting people.

Brigit:                    She is always full of energy, and she has so much to give. She is also a very intuitive business owner, creating amazing success in her business, but also doing it in a way that is in full alignment with who she really is. You're going to hear a lot about that on today's podcast. Alex shares her story about how she started off as a photographer, and then moved into digital marketing, and now very much in the space of Instagram Stories and authentically marketing yourself online. In fact, I would call her the queen of Instagram Stories. You have to check her out.

Brigit:                    Now, also in this interview, Alex talks about how she integrates her intuition into her business, and how she has used visualization and affirmation in a really positive and grounded way, to elevate her launches and her financial success in the business. Of course, given that she's the queen of Instagram Stories, I had to ask her a few questions about how we can authentically express ourselves on Instagram Stories. Definitely check out her strategies in this podcast. All right. Well, without further ado, let's get straight into this interview. All right. Well, welcome Alex Beadon. I am so excited to have you here on the podcast. How you doing today?

Alex:                      Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on your show.

Brigit:                    We're having a bit of a giggle before, because you thought that maybe I was on your show. I know you're on my show.

Alex:                      Yeah. I've had a full day of interviewing other people for my show that I just assumed that this was another interview for my show. I prepared for a few hours, just deeply stalking you, and like, "What kinds of questions could I ask?" Then I was like, "Wait a second. This is not for my podcast. This is for Brigit's podcast."

Brigit:                    I love it. Well, at least you're well prepared.

Alex:                      Yeah, I'm well prepared for the day that you come on my show. I am excited.

Brigit:                    Beautiful. Well, I'd love to get started with understanding a little bit more about your journey. What got you to where you are right now?

Alex:                      Oh, that's such a big question. I'll start from the beginning. I've always been the kind of person who, following my passion was really important for me. I went to university, I studied management with marketing, and as university was nearing its end, I started to have many panic attacks about the thought of going into a corporate setting. I was like, "Oh my gosh, that would be absolutely miserable." Meanwhile, for the last ... I would say for the entire time that I was in university, I had an obsession with photography, and I loved photography so much.

Alex:                      I really wanted to be a photographer, but I just ... when you're first getting started in entrepreneurship, and it's hard for you to even verbalize what you want, even just saying, "I want to be a photographer," was a huge, huge step for me. I decided, at the end of university, I was like, "It's now or never. I have nothing to lose," and I just jumped into photography. I started as a wedding photographer, I hated it, and then I moved into creative portrait photography. The commonality of my journey as a photographer is that I was blogging the entire way. The first thing I did when I decided to be a professional was I started blogging.

Alex:                      What that allowed me to do was build a platform, it allowed me to grow an audience from day one. It did not happen overnight. It took a long time of me posting to no one before I started to get an audience. Then, when I finally had an audience, I remember thinking to myself one day, "I have like 80,000 people visiting my site every month. I should be selling them something because not everyone can hire me as a photographer because a photographer is such a local thing." I decided I had all of these Photoshop Actions sitting on my laptop, really just gathering dust.

Alex:                      For those of you who don't know Photoshop Actions, they're very similar to Instagram filters. You know how on Instagram you can change the color of your images and make it vintage, or make it black and white? I was making my own edits, and basically turning them into Photoshop Actions so that I could just press a button and my photos would automatically be edited to perfection. I had all of these digital files sitting there to help photographers edit their images, and I thought, "I could just put these online and see if anyone buys them."

Alex:                      I remember I asked around a few photographer friends, and I was like, "What do you think of this idea?" Everyone was like, "Don't do it. People are going to steal your editing style. Why would you give that away?" But I just decided to humor myself one day, and I think I put four Photoshop Actions up for sale at $5 a piece. I will never forget that day because it was just like, "Ding! Ding! Ding!" Sale after sale after sale, PayPal notifications on my phone, and I was like, "Oh my God."

Alex:                      I went to bed, and I woke up, and I had hundreds more dollars in my account than I had the night before. At this point in my career, I was such a beginner, it was mind blowing to me that I didn't have to show up anywhere, I didn't have to do anything extra. Photography is such a thing where it's like you're trading time for money, and the fact that I could make money by just selling something that was sitting on my computer was like the biggest aha moment for me. From that moment, I thought, honestly I was 21 years old, and I was like, "My life is made." Actually no. I was probably 22.

Alex:                      I was like, "My life is made, I have figured out my passion in life. I'm a photographer, and now I don't even have to get paid for photo shoots. I can just create whatever I want, and just sell the Photoshop Actions, and I'm set for life. I'm good." What I didn't realize is that, a year later, my passion for photography completely vanished. I'll never forget waking up one day, and just being like, "Oh my God. I don't want to pick up my camera." Just so weird for me because for years, it was how I had identified myself, it was how I had made a name for myself. Everyone knew me as Alex Beadon photography.

Alex:                      My website was Alex Beadon photography. I would get recognized on the street. People would come up to me, and be like, "Oh my gosh, Alex Beadon photography." My Dad actually got recognized once. He was paying for something, and they were like, "Oh my gosh, do you know Alex Beadon?" It was this huge association with photography, and it was very, very scary for me to face the fact that I just wasn't passionate about it anymore. One day, I realized the whole reason I got into photography in the first place is because I was passionate about it, and if I'm going to keep going with this, then I might as well just get a job, because this isn't fun for me anymore.

Alex:                      I decided to lean into my next passion, what I was really interested and curious and excited about, which at the time, of course, was online marketing. Because I had started this online business selling these digital files, it was just such a game changer. I started getting a lot of people asking me, "How did you do that within one year?" My first 12 months of selling Photoshop Actions, I had made six figures, and I didn't have any expenses.

Alex:                      For me, it was a really big deal and people were starting to get curious and asking me questions, and that's how I transitioned into doing what I do now, which has evolved a lot since I first got started as, what I'm going to call, an online business coach. Now I focus more on Instagram Stories, and helping small business owners learn how to communicate their brand message and their passion and their stories using Instagram Stories as marketing tool. I feel like that's everything in a nutshell, that you need to know.

Brigit:                    I love it. Do you know? I think what's beautiful is that photography passion that you had has really come back full circle, because I know from spending time with you in person, there's always an iPhone in your hand taking photos and videos, and so I don't think you've put that camera down completely. It's now just a lighter version of it, right?

Alex:                      Yeah. It's funny because when I first quit photography, I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted to completely break up with it, I wanted to disassociate myself with it, and now I'm actually ... Even Instagram Stories, it's documentation, it's about sharing. It's so much to do with the essence of photography, so it really has come full circle. It's very interesting.

Brigit:                    Then it's elevated because you've added it in with your love for online marketing, and so you've taken it to this whole different level where now you can feel a lot more ... I'm guessing, feel a lot more integrated and aligned with the work that you're doing. It really pays off, right? Because you've got such a thriving community on Instagram, and people taking your courses on Instagram Stories. It's exciting to see when you come into full alignment with what it is that you're doing, that you get the results that go along with that.

Alex:                      Yeah, and it took me a long time of ... I think I left photography, officially, in 2013. I would say that it wasn't until 2018 that I really hit on like, "Oh, this is what I should be focusing on. This is how I want to help people," and really just moving full steam ahead in that one direction. It can take time when you're going through a transition, and I think what's important is to give it that space and to know that that space is sacred and necessary.

Alex:                      As I was going through the transition, something that I would always tell myself is, "You can't rush a flower to bloom." You can't go up to a flower and be like, "Bloom! Bloom! Now it's your time." No matter how badly you want that flower to bloom, if it's not time to bloom, it's just not time. That is something that really I held really near and dear to me during that transition phase. It was just like, "It will be your time again soon, and I know you don't know all the details of how yet, but it's coming and just accept and be patient and have peace."

Brigit:                    Easy to say, difficult to do, for some of us, impatient people. But I've had a very similar experience to where sitting in that place of transition, this creative void, and you're like, "Come on, surely I'll know by now what it is that I'm meant to do." But no, you need to sit in that place so that it can start to evolve and emerge. I think a lot of people have this kind of, I don't know, idea that you just wake up one morning and suddenly, and it's like, "Well, why aren't I having that epiphany moment yet?"

Brigit:                    It's really good to hear that it's something that took time for you, and I think it takes time for many, many people. I'm curious with you as an entrepreneur, how you integrate things like your intuition into your business, how you do business, how you conduct yourself as an entrepreneur. Would you like to talk a little bit around that?

Alex:                      Yeah. My intuition, the way that I see it, is that it's the driver's seat behind everything in my business. It's the strongest tool that I use within my business, and it's so important for me to stay connected to my intuition, and I think it's different for everyone. I think everyone connects differently to their intuition and relates to their intuition in different ways. But for me, it's just like the driving force. Everything that I do, it has to feel right.

Alex:                      It has to feel like, "Yes, this is the right decision, and this feels aligned," and that doesn't mean that I'm only making ... I'm putting in air quotes, good decisions, or profitable decisions. What it really means is that I'm making decisions in alignment with how I'm feeling in that moment and in alignment with my intuition, and I'm trusting that. Also, trusting that if I'm led in a, again, air quotes, wrong direction, that I'm learning something that ... it looks like the wrong direction, but it's actually the right direction, because I'm learning something that I can then implement or that I'm going to need to know how to use and how to implement in the next phase.

Alex:                      I'm always coming back to that phrase, everything is happening for me and not to me. For those who don't know, I had a YouTube channel for, I believe it was seven years, and I had 200 videos and this was my lead generator. This is how all of my ... Literally, I used to survey my clients and be like, "How did you find me?" 90% of my customers were finding me through YouTube. One day I woke up, and my YouTube channel was gone, and it turned out that Google had accidentally deleted my YouTube channel, which had 30,000 subscribers and 200 videos.

Alex:                      Of course, I was absolutely devastated, and I went through a grieving period of about, I would say, three weeks. It really took me to let it go. But after about a week ... I let myself really grieve and be depressed for a week, and after a week I was just like, "It is what it is. There's nothing I can do. I've done everything I can possibly do to get it back, and now I'm just going to trust that I'm being led in the right direction, even if it doesn't make sense to me right in this very moment.

Alex:                      I believe that for some reason I'm being protected, or I'm being guided to something better." What's funny is that for the longest time, I'd had this idea of starting a podcast, and I'd always been putting it off because I had my YouTube channel. I'm like, "I have so many viewers on my YouTube channel, how can I not make videos anymore and just switch to podcasting?" What losing my YouTube channel forced me to do was just embrace a new beginning, start from scratch, and just start my podcast once and for all.

Alex:                      Even though a door may be closing, you always have to see it as though another door is being opened. Otherwise, you're just creating resistance. I'm such a strong believer in energy, and yeah, I think that's how I look at intuition, that's how I use my intuition, and I'm just a very trusting person.

Brigit:                    I love that.

Alex:                      With my intuition.

Brigit:                    You know what? It's such an energy shift when you look at the things that others might call a failure or a crisis point or trauma of some kind, and if you can apply that lens of, "No, this is happening for me, and there's something in this that will serve me in the long run," the energy shift around that is very different. As you say, you're much more in flow in that state. There's less clinging, gripping, striving, forcing, all of those icky things that can get in our way.

Alex:                      Yeah, and sometimes ... I don't think sometimes, all the times. That's part of the biggest beauty of having your own business, is the personal and spiritual development that you go through and really not just believing it, but embodying it. The best example that I have of that is ... Okay, I'm not very good at dates. I believe it was the beginning of 2018. What are we? In 2019? Yeah. I think it was the beginning of 2018. My business had been doing well, and then I think we had a bad launch or something happened and we didn't have enough money to last us the rest of the month.

Alex:                      I remember my mom sat me down, and my mom is my financial manager, and she was like, "This is horrible. We need to get rid of the team, we need to downsize. We need to downsize, downsize, downsize." I was just like, "Listen, I know that this is bad, and I know it's not looking good, and I know that it looks like we should scale back to try and hold onto what we have, but I feel like I just need you to trust me, and I just need you to believe that I'm going to figure this out." What I did, and this is a way that I use my intuition and a way that I connect with my intuition, is I went outside and there's this massive field outside of my parents' home.

Alex:                      It's in the countryside in England. It's gorgeous. It's just such a place to connect with the nature. I just walked up and down this field, and I spoke to myself. When I say I spoke to myself, that's what it probably looked like from the outside, but really I was speaking to life, and I was speaking to the universe. I was like, "Listen, I need you to work with me here. I need to make $30,000." Oh, and you know what else it was? It was the fact that I signed up for a mastermind, that you know about that was very expensive, and I had to make these monthly payments, and I didn't know how I was going to make it because I couldn't even afford the next month.

Alex:                      My mom was like, "You need to cancel the mastermind, you need to cut your losses." Duh, Duh, Duh. I'm outside on this field, and I actually recorded the whole thing, and I turn it into a podcast episode. You should definitely go and check it out. It's number 44 of my podcast, On Purpose With Alex Beadon. But I basically just walked up and down this field, and I am bodied everything that I wanted. I was like, "I'm about to launch Gram Slam." That was my new course that I had created.

Alex:                      I was like, "This is going to be the best launch I've ever had. Thank you so much for bringing in ..." I can't remember what my goal was, but let's just say it was 200 people. "For bringing in 200 people. I'm connecting with the energy of these 200 people, and I can feel how this is going to help support them in their businesses, and how it's going to help them feel more confident when they put themselves out there online. I know the impact that it's going to have on, not only their business but on their clients, and it's going to be this huge ripple effect of their clients and the family of their clients."

Alex:                      I just thought of all of the good vibes that were surrounding Gram Slam, and I spoke about it as though I was giving thanks for it, as though it had already happened. I think there's something to do, I'm sure you've heard this, where your brain can't tell the difference between something that's happening or not happening?

Brigit:                    Yes.

Alex:                      It's like if you pretend that it's happening and if you can really feel it, and that's the key, is you have to feel it, you have to embody it, you have to live it, and at the same time, the magic behind it, is that you also have to be detached from it. It's like you need to be pretending as though it's already here, and at the same time, know that if it doesn't happen the way that you want it to happen, that it was never meant for you in the first place, because everything is happening for you and not to you.

Alex:                      It's a really interesting balance of owning it and saying it as though it's already there, and at the same time, letting it go and being like, "It is what it is. Whatever happens, I've already done my piece, I've put it out there to the universe, and now universe, it's up to you." I went through this launch, and I think I wanted to make $30,000 and the launch ended up doing 110,000 or something like that. I was like, "Oh my God." It was just a beautiful experience for me of ... I was actually excited when the business was so low on funds, because I was like, "Oh my God, now I get to practice what I preach. Now, I get to use all of these tools again."

Alex:                      That also, actually, taught me that I shouldn't wait until zero, to be actively using these tools and to be actively connecting with the universe. It's just everything is happening divinely. As I was going through it, I was like, "I know this is happening," and that's why I recorded it. I was like, "I need to record this because I know I'm being used as an example." The amount of people who've messaged me about that podcast episode have been like, "Dude, that has changed my life. It has changed the way that I speak to the world, it has changed the way that I show up." I don't know. That's just another example of a different way to use your intuition. Yeah.

Brigit:                    I think that is fantastic. It's really interesting when you say that you learned not only to use that crisis point of when you're at zero, but to use it as an expansion of your potential. Because I think, yeah, we often get to that place of desperation and then we ask for the help from universe. But there's just ... it's not like it's a limited resource, right? It's there, it's available to you whenever you need it and whenever you can call upon it. That can be when you're at zero, but it can also be when you are absolutely thriving as a business, and you want to take it next level. I appreciate that, as a reminder to how we do that.

Brigit:                    I'm curious, this push-pull around leave it up to the universe, versus take action, because this is where I can get a little bit, I don't know, confused sometimes. There's this really fine balance between being proactive and manifesting goals, versus getting into a bit of a desperation, striving, must have, achieving place. Have you found the secret to being able to still take action but not do it in a really must get to goal? What's your secret?

Alex:                      My secret, and I don't know if this is a secret, but the way that I do it is I know what I'm aiming for, I know that oftentimes it feels like life or death. I'm like, "I have to achieve this." I hired my best friend, Laura, as my operations manager, and I had the money, but it was also kind of one of those things where it was like, "We need to see where this goes because I don't have more than a few months lined up. We're just going to go with this and cross our fingers and hope for the best." Every launch that we did, it's like we had to make a certain amount of money in order to buy ourselves time, right?

Alex:                      Every time I launched, I knew that there was a pressure of, it's not just me anymore, it's me and Laura, my operations manager. I knew that that's obviously a big responsibility. Not only is it a big responsibility because it's her livelihood, but also it's a big responsibility because I really want the business to be growing, and I really want us to keep growing. It's both of those things together. But I think going into each launch, the way that I handled it was, yes, this is like do or die, in terms of can we keep Laura or can't we?

Alex:                      But I'm also just totally in a place of trust and faith that everything is happening exactly as it should. As I'm going through the launch of here's all of your massive list of tasks to do, I'm trying to get as much done as I possibly can, and simultaneously, I'm trying to really be self aware enough, and this is a skill that took a long freaking time for me to learn. Don't think that I just was born this way. But I've really started, I would say over the last ... I first did, I think, life coaching in 2012 and that's really when I started to implement all of these self-awareness tools, but just being aware of how is my body feeling in this moment, and stopping and tuning in.

Alex:                      No matter what's going on on my to-do list, or what needs to get done, your body's always in communication with you. The problem is we don't want to listen to it. We've been taught to be robotic almost, where it's like, "Eh, you just need to power through and get things done." No, your body, especially as women ... We're not meant to be like that. We're supposed to be listening to our bodies and feeling into how we're feeling, and able to adjust according to whatever our needs and desires are within that moment.

Alex:                      If I'm working on my to-do list, and I suddenly feel super exhausted, guess what? I'm going to go and take a nap. I need to take care of myself, especially because I'm the business owner, and I'm sure everyone listening to this podcast can relate. When you are the person who's running the show, you can't afford to burn out. I've burnt out before, and we can talk about that too. It is not pretty, and it is not productive. By burning yourself out, you're literally just slowing yourself down. To this day, I constantly have to remind myself, even ... Last week, I had a high productive week.

Alex:                      This Monday, high productive Monday, and then Tuesday and Wednesday I napped, I relaxed, I took my to-do items, and I just push, push, push, push. Because in my body, I just felt super depleted. I still, to this day, have to remind myself that that is productive to do. I think it feels difficult to do because I sometimes compare myself to a nine to five worker, and I'm like, "How is it that these people work nine to five, and they push through, and I'm not able to push through?"

Alex:                      But I also have to remind myself that what we do, the stress that we carry, and a lot of times you don't even know that you're carrying it, of I have to pay the bills, I have to bring in enough money for me and my team, I have to organize all of these things, I have to show up online. All of the aspects of running a business are very depleting, way more so than ... Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of ... like my sister, my brother-in-law, they work very hard, nine to five jobs, and I have mad respect for them, but they know they're getting paid every month. It's just different tolls on the body. I think if you don't take care of your body, you're not taking care of your business.

Brigit:                    I think that is, personally, a very good reminder, and it's interesting because I think most of the intuitive entrepreneurs I've spoken with already on this podcast, have had that experience of total burnout, total exhaustion. I think for many too, it was their turning point to say, "You know what? I can't do this anymore. I'm going to need to operate from a place that is in connection with my intuition, that is in connection with my natural cycles, that is listening to my inner voice."

Brigit:                    Because that pushing through, striving, forcing and yeah, even just trying to conform with the nine to five, Monday to Friday, is a disservice to what is coming up for us. I'm coming up to about a 45 hour week this week, which is weird for me. 30 hours is too much work. I'm glad because this message has come at a very timely time. Thank you.

Alex:                      You're welcome.

Brigit:                    You clearly come from a very intuitive place when you're running your business. But has there been a time when you have ignored your intuition, and then what happened as a result?

Alex:                      I think it was 2012 or 2013, I had just made the transition into business coaching, and I felt like I had a lot to prove. I was working nonstop. I was working from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep, and I felt like if I wasn't working 24/7 that I wasn't worthy of success, because that's what I've been taught, is you work hard and you succeed. I was really just killing myself, essentially, and missing out on ... I remember, it was someone's bachelorette party, and I was like, "Nope, I can't go. I'm going to stay at home and work."

Alex:                      I look back now and I'm like, "Those moments of your youth, where you connect with your friends and you go to their bachelorette parties, those are moments not to miss." I was just in the stage of work, work, work, work, and my income had just flat lined. I was making the same amount every single month. I was making exactly what I needed to get by. I wasn't uncomfortable, but it was uncomfortable because in my mind I was like, "If I'm working this hard, why is my income not going up?" It was at that point that I worked with a life coach and she completely changed my life.

Alex:                      She started asking me questions like, "What did you do today that was pleasurable?" I was like, "What do you mean? What do you mean pleasurable? I'm not about pleasure, I'm about hustle." She introduced me to masculine energy and feminine energy, and she was like, "If you're not taking time to connect with yourself, and if you're not taking time to play, then how can you expect to bring in any fresh energy into your business? How can you expect to feel excited when you show up to work?"

Alex:                      For a while there I really thought she was crazy, but then I started to embody it and actually make time to play, and make time to do things that technically had no financial reward or benefits, and were just for fun, and everything shifted. I'll never forget the first time that I launched, and I was just fed up of pushing and pushing. It was almost to the point where it was like, "You know what? If I can't launch and not push, push, push, push, push, push, push, then I'd rather just go and get a nine to five job. I'm just not built for this. It's not worth it. I'd rather just clock in, clock out, and get paid a nice healthy, regular monthly salary.

Alex:                      I did a launch and it was my most successful launch up until that time. It was my first six figure launch, and I just remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, I didn't do all the ..." Normally when I launch, I have a list of things to do and I do not stop until everything on that list is done, because I want to know that I've done everything that needs to be done. What I realized through this launch, where in this launch I prioritize my energy and I prioritize how I was feeling and I was always checking in with myself and being like, "What do I need right now? How can I support myself right now?"

Alex:                      When I started doing that, my business just blew up, and suddenly all these opportunities were coming to me and I had my first six figure launch and everything started to change when I started to prioritize how I feel in every given moment, above whatever stats or tasks need to get done or showing up live. Statistically, if you show up live every single day of your launch, you're going to make more sales, and I'm like, "Well, that means nothing if I'm showing up exhausted, and if I'm not nourished and feeling full." Yeah.

Brigit:                    I love it. It's something that may not make logical sense, right? You think, "Oh well, to make more money, surely I've got to work more." Right? We've been indoctrinated with this old way of thinking and it seems counterintuitive that work less make more money. What? But this is beautiful evidence of that, and I'm sure you can see it in all of our businesses.

Brigit:                    I know that oftentimes when I take a break, I go on holiday for a few weeks and I'm offline, everything works way more smoothly in the team, we make more money, and then I start freaking out thinking, "Oh my gosh, what value do I offer if everything's going well when I'm not there? What's going on?" Right? There's a bit of that self-worth and identity that comes up in it as well.

Alex:                      Yeah. Big, big, big time, yeah.

Brigit:                    Now, I'd like to-

Alex:                      Can I share one other story?

Brigit:                    Yeah, please do. I love stories.

Alex:                      Project Storyline, I just created this new membership site. It was brand new, and we're launching it, and really the whole point that we launched it was because I wanted to have more stable monthly income, because it's a membership site. As I was launching it, obviously, I've had all of these experiences that I've shared with you of actively manifesting and doing the visualization and talking and connecting to my people and duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.

Alex:                      This launch of Project Storyline, I felt so tired and burnt out because, over the past year, I had launched four or five times, that by the time the project storyline launch came around, I was just like, "I'm going to show up and do my best." But I didn't have time for any visualizations, I didn't have time for any affirmations. All the stuff I normally do, I didn't do. Now, I had a little bit of worry and doubt. Sometimes I'd be showering in the middle of the launch, and I'd be like, "You haven't done this yet. This is a key part of how to succeed, is you energetically need to be aligned." I just want to remind the listeners that, oftentimes, we can over-masculinize ... That's not a word.

Brigit:                    It is now.

Alex:                      We over-masculinize the process of allowing and receiving and we overthink what it has to look like. So every time I had this thought of, "You haven't done this yet," I would just be like, "everything is happening as it should. It's already taken care of. The universe already knows. It doesn't need to look like that in order to make it happen." When we shame ourselves for not doing the visualizations and for not doing the affirmations, essentially what we're doing is creating the same resistance that we have when we have the doubt and the fear and the anxiety.

Alex:                      It's counterproductive. Don't waste your time doing that. Let it be. Just be like, "I haven't had the time to do it, but the universe knows what I'm going for, and we're working together as a team, and leave it at that." Leave all of your self-doubts at the door, and it was just so interesting because Project Storyline was my most profitable idea. It's such an epic launch and such a successful launch, and really set up my business to, hopefully fingers crossed, make my first half a million year by the end of this year, which is super exciting.

Brigit:                    I am super excited for you, Alex. It's awesome.

Alex:                      Yeah, and from a place of ease, and just by telling myself, "It can be easy." I don't have to jump through hoops in order for the universe to my intention and my desire. I know that I did that whole speech about episode 44 and talking it out, and yes, that's very, very helpful. But also don't kick yourself if you haven't done that. That's just a polite reminder.

Brigit:                    Yes, it's very important. Again, it is something that we often fall into the trap of doing, right?

Alex:                      Oh, I haven't meditated for the last six months. I'm a bad person, and how can I be spiritual if I'm not doing these things? Then we create stress and anxiety around that, and then we're like, "Hang on a second, I'm completely at the opposite end of where I wanted to be, in terms of state of mind."

Brigit:                    Yeah, that's a good reminder. I would love to talk just a little bit about Instagram Stories, because you are by far the queen of Instagram Stories. I don't think a day goes by where there's not a whole little sequence of beautifully edited and created stories that flow from one to the other, that you're like, "Oh, I wonder what's next, or what's next," and so on. I'd love to hear a bit about ...

Brigit:                    Maybe it's about advice for others who are thinking about Instagram Stories, and particularly for the intuitive entrepreneur who wants to show up authentically, who's not necessarily doing it because they want to get all the likes and the followers and so on, but wants to be able to perhaps share a part of themselves in a really authentic way that is also in alignment with their business, but also represents who they really are. There you go, Alex. Try that one on.

Alex:                      Okay. The first thing I will say is I love that you said they're not necessarily chasing the follows or the likes. That's the most beautiful place to be in. Don't chase the followers or the likes. You have to come from a place of self-expression. When you sit down, when anyone sits down to create something, it's so much better for both the person who's receiving the art and the person who's creating the art, if it comes from an authentic place, and if it comes from a place of play and a place of fun and a place of just joy.

Alex:                      I think the problem that we're having with any kind of platform or content creation, is that so many entrepreneurs are overthinking every step of the way, and overthinking what's the right thing to say and what's the wrong thing to say and what are people going to like and this or that. Yes, a small dose of that is healthy. It's good to know your audience and to know the vibe that you want to create for your audience and to have a vision for the type of community that you want to build. Yes, I'm all for that, because that's going to help you create content specifically for those people. However, obsessing over, are they responding, are they liking, are they thising, are they thating?

Alex:                      It took me years, years of writing daily blog posts to crickets before anyone started to pay attention to the fact that I was bogging. I'll never forget my best friend at the time. He pulled me aside, and he was like, "Dude, you're blogging, no one's reading, no one's commenting, nothing is happening here. You need to quit your photography thing and moved to the big city," because I was living at home with my parents at the time, because I was trying to get my business off the ground, and all of my friends were in London, in England, just having the time of their lives.

Alex:                      He was like, "You got to let this go." Now, I look back and I'm like, "Thank God I didn't give up." Building an audience does not happen overnight. I spoke to this man today, Tiago Forte. He was on my podcast, that's why I spoke to him, and I was interviewing him about how long it took him to build his community. He has a die hard super fans, they're just ... He has the best kind of community that you could want because they absolutely adore him. The best kinds of communities come from slow growth.

Alex:                      It comes from you putting yourself out there day in, day out, constantly sharing from your heart, always thinking, "How can I show up for my people today? What would be inspiring for them? What would be a value for them? How can I make them feel like we're in this together?" That's what builds a beautiful community, and it does not happen overnight. The people who do get followers overnight, no offense to them, but you're either buying your followers, which is like the worst kind of following, or you're going viral with something, which again is like the second worst kind of following.

Alex:                      If you go viral and you get a ton of followers, they don't really like you for you. They like you for maybe one piece of content. You want the kind of followers who are longterm followers, who in five years time ... and this is what most people don't think about. The people watching you now who are quiet, in five years time, will be your biggest cheerleaders, because they'll be like, "Oh my God, I've been watching you since day one." I think my biggest piece of advice, when it comes to stories, is just share from your heart, get very good at understanding the culture of Instagram Stories, and the only way you can do that is by watching other people's Instagram Stories.

Alex:                      When you watch a story and you don't enjoy it, mute that person. You don't understand, I mute almost everyone because I only want to see stories from people who I feel I really connect with. If you're consuming story content that's boring or that you don't really connect to, you're going to create content that's boring that you don't really connect to. Get comfortable with the culture of Instagram Stories, and remember, this is really important, it's an Instagram Story, and a good story has a beginning, a middle and an end. It flows, it has a sense of connection and follow through with each post. It's not just like, "Oh, here's my dinner, here's where I went to go swimming today, here's a picture of my kids." It should flow.

Brigit:                    Yes, yes. I definitely recommend checking out your Instagram Stories, Alex, because they're amazing. Well, I'm not recommending it to you, but for our listeners to check it out because Alex's stuff is-

Alex:                      Well, thank you.

Brigit:                    ... amazing. Are there any other accounts, that will be much less awesome than yours, that who are also doing a great job in terms of Instagram Stories?

Alex:                      Right now, I'm loving Gala Darling. I think she does a great job. I'm also loving Elizabeth DiAlto. She has really leaned into Instagram Stories and she's been doing a great job of just sharing things that are relevant for her in the moment, sharing what's exciting to her, and she's a very intuitive entrepreneur, so I'd recommend her as well. Yeah, those are the two people that have come up at the top of my head right now.

Brigit:                    Oh, awesome. Elizabeth has been part of this podcast as well. She's an absolute gem, so that's good. Beautiful.

Alex:                      I have to listen to that episode. I've been listening to some of your episodes bit by bit, because I'm getting ready to create an epic Instagram story about your podcast. I was like, "I need to listen to it before." So I had been listening bit by bit, so that's what I need to listen to.

Brigit:                    Yeah. Yeah. It's a really good episode, as all of the episodes, I just thoroughly enjoyed. Okay. This is perhaps a little bit for me personally, but I'm sure others will get value and benefit out of this. One thing I really struggle with is finding a consistent theme or topic or storyline, even for Instagram Stories. Do you recommend say days of the week have different themes, go with the flow? How do you help ... How should we be thinking about our Instagram Stories day by day, and what to do?

Alex:                      I think that when you give yourself a topic or some kind of constriction, it actually allows you to be more creative. For example, for me on a Wednesday, I try, but I haven't been very religious about it, but I try that every Wednesday, I have what I call a work-with-me-Wednesday, where I bring people behind the scenes, and I let them see what I'm working on on that particular day. That just allows me to have that sense of consistency. You can try to do something like that. I also, shameless plug, have my membership site, which is called Project Storyline, where every single day you get a prompt for your Instagram Stories. You don't even have to think about what's posted. It's just there.

Alex:                      But I would say if you want to do it on your own, a brilliant way of doing it, and oh, this aligns very well with this, it's just tapping into your intuition and being like, "What is present for me today, and how ..." Even if you just took ... I bet, if you just timed yourself for five minutes and you said, "Okay, I'm going to spend the next five minutes coming up with a topic for today's Instagram Story," and you just sat down for five minutes, set your timer on, and just think to yourself, "How am I feeling today? What's present for me today? What lesson can I share with my audience that would be relevant to them today? What did I find recently that inspired me? What have I found recently that excited me?"

Alex:                      Because it doesn't all have to be about business. I say it should be on brand, but it doesn't have to be 100% related to your niche or to your topic, in order for it to be valuable for your audience. As long as you're showing up and you are letting people get to know, like, and trust you, and you are sharing content that's entertaining or inspiring or motivating, I think it's hard to get it wrong. I think where people get it wrong is that they overthink it, which is why I created Project Storyline, because with Project Storyline, it's like you log in, there's your prompt, you don't have to think about it, you just have your thing and you're good to go.

Brigit:                    No wonder it did so very well in the launch, because I think that is absolute brilliance. Because, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to think about it every day, like, "What am I going to do?" I mean, my brain starts thinking Tarot, and even to pull a Tarot card each day and go, "Okay, maybe this is going to guide my story for the day." I love the work-with-me-Wednesday idea. I always think though like, "I'm sure everyone's going to get sick of just seeing me typing in my laptop, because that's what I do."

Alex:                      This is the big misconception that people have. My most boring stories ... Literally, I did a story once where I was just showing people me making my coffee. That was it. It was like, "Hey guys, what's up this morning? I'm just making my coffee." Duh, duh, duh. So many people messaged me back and they were like, "Oh my gosh, you need to try this kind of coffee. You need to do that." It was my most responded to story of all time. I didn't even ask for people's advice on coffee. Just to give some clarity, I was using instant coffee, which apparently is a sin to most people.

Brigit:                    Yes.

Alex:                      I got so many responses. You can share the simplest thing in your life. I think it's just about letting people in. Everyone just wants to connect. That's it. Everyone just wants to find something to connect with you on, and you're going to think it's boring. I think all my stories are boring, but that's because I live with myself. I look myself in the mirror every day, I brush my teeth with myself every day, I am bored by myself. But other people will watch you do certain things and they'll be like ... they're not bored of you because they never see you. You see yourself all day, every day, and they don't.

Alex:                      I feel like we need more of you in the world, and so I'm going to dare you and all of your listeners for the next week, or even if the next week is too much, for the next 24 hours, to just document. If you have a thought and you're like, "Huh, that's interesting," just share it. Just put it out there online and stop thinking, "If so and so are going to like it, what are people going to think?" Duh, duh, duh. Just detach from whatever outcome it is that you want, and just look at it as you were sharing and connecting with your audience.

Brigit:                    I love that. I love that, because I look at your stories and think, "Oh my goodness, I have to get all my colors right. I have to get the fun side," because your stuff looks amazing, but you are so right because it all starts from just starting to express yourself freely and creatively, and that's ... your stories have evolved over time. Right?

Alex:                      Also, I always tell people this, my stories have to look a certain way because I'm the Instagram Story queen, so I put more effort into them. If I was just a regular business owner, all I really recommend is record your video. If you could just put a little caption underneath, even if it's just a summary of what you said in that 15 seconds, because a lot of people listen to it on silence. That's really all I recommend, is post it, put a little caption, and that's it. If you want another really great trick, when you're recording it, if you're busy, you don't need to post it in that second.

Alex:                      Just save it to your phone, and post it when you go to sleep at night or when you have a moment to actually post it. Then if you want, you can add some emojis or whatever. Don't overthink what it looks like, it really doesn't matter. If you're going to stop yourself because of what it looks like, I'd rather you just post a video with no caption and with nothing, because it's better to put yourself out there than not to put yourself out there at all.

Brigit:                    Yeah, very good advice. Thank you. Alex. Now, what's coming up for you over the next 12 months? If we're chatting in July 2020, what are you going to tell me that you've done and achieved and experienced?

Alex:                      I love this question. I feel like I'm going to have to steal this question for my own podcast. Okay, in July of 2020, I will look back and I will say that we've added a new team member because that's what we're currently working on, which I'm so excited about, and I think over the next month, everything will be finalized and we'll have a new person and that's super exciting. That's thing number one. We will also we'll have relaunched Project Storyline because it's not an evergreen product. That will happen again in, probably, September and January. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it.

Alex:                      By July, we might have launched ... I also want to start doing more one-on-one work, because right now my one-on-one work is very sporadic, but it's one of my favorite things that I do. I want to make a little bit of space to allow that to happen, and yeah, I think I'm just open to whatever life has in store for me. I want to step into more service. That's really big for me right now, and just finding organizations that I can donate to and that I can help support. That's really, really coming up for me this year. What else? What else do I want by the next year? I can't believe we're in July already. I think less travel.

Brigit:                    Not really, because I think you like traveling.

Alex:                      Most people want ... Yeah, I do. I like traveling, but boy, I love being at home, and I would say, like the last year and a half, I've just been like at home, away, at home, away. My cousins joke with me, they're like, "You pretty much don't even live here." I really just want to stay grounded, stay rooted, be at home. Yeah, that will make me happy over the next year.

Brigit:                    Fantastic. Awesome. Where can people find out more about you and all of the awesome services and programs you offer?

Alex:                      People can find me at Alex Beadon on Instagram, and that's B-E-A-D-O-N. They can also find me at alexbeadon.com, and they should all come and check on my podcast, On Purpose With Alex Beadon, because that's actually my biggest creative project right now. I just celebrated my one year anniversary, which was awesome. I feel like now that I've hit the one year, I just had this burst of inspiration of like, "Okay, how are we going to make this better? How are we going to show up for our people more? How are we going to build more community?" That's a very exciting creative project for me as well. Yeah.

Brigit:                    Beautiful. Awesome. Well, it's been so good chatting with you, Alex, and I have just loved all of the different topics that we have covered today. It's been an absolute joy. Thanks so much for being on the podcast.

Alex:                      I have to say one thing before we end. I'm so grateful for you and for all of the work that you are doing. I think the conversations that you're having on your podcasts are so, so, so important. I just want to thank you for holding this space for entrepreneurs, and for giving it a voice, and I'm so excited to see how your podcast is going to continue to grow and reach more people and reach new heights. Yeah, so thank you so much.

Brigit:                    Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. All right, have an awesome day. Thank you for joining me for today's episode of the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. If you loved this episode, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. It really helps to get the word out, and of course, I read every single comment. If you want weekly inspiration to help you trust your intuition, align with your purpose, and create huge business success, then head on over to brigit.me, and sign up for my free weekly E-mails. That's B-R-I-G-I-T.me. See you there.