Alix Earle on The Power Of Saying No | GREAT MOMENTS

0:00Taking care of your eyes shouldn't be a hassle. That's why Warby Parker is a one-stop shop for all your vision needs. Our prescription glasses and sunglasses are expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable. Stop by a nearby store or use our app to virtually try on frames and get personalized recommendations. Did we mention we offer eye exams and take vision insurance too? For everything you need to see, head to your nearest Warby Parker store or visit warbyparker.com today. That's warbyparker.com. Save on tropical flavors at Whole Foods Market during the Savor the Tropics event with yellow sales signs highlighting seasonal finds throughout the store.

0:38The produce section is bursting with pineapples, mangoes, and kiwis at their juiciest. Grill up fresh seafood paired with tropical fruit marinades or grab and enjoy the spicy Hawaiian pizza, huli huli chicken, and more. Finish with a sweet slice of mango yuzu chantilly cake. Savor the tropics and save at Whole Foods Market. Security program on spreadsheets, new regulations piling up, and audit dread? It's time for Vanta. Vanta automates security and compliance, brings evidence into one place, and cuts audit prep by 82%. Less manual work, clearer visibility, faster deals. Zero chaos. Call it compliance or call it compliance.

1:19Get it? Join the 15 ,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to vanta.com slash com. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with Stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90 % with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust Stamps.com. Go to Stamps.com and use code PODCAST to try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days.

2:03Hello everyone, I'm Jamie Lang and this is Great Moments.

2:10Guys, welcome back to another Great Moments. Hope you're having a great day. Today's episode is a good one for loads of different reasons. I recorded this, I think, a year and a half ago when I was in LA with Sophie and we managed to get time with Alex Al. Alex L is probably one of the biggest female influencers on the entire planet. She kind of blew up on TikTok. She's everywhere. She's kind of circulating the internet at the moment because she's having a little bit of a feud with Alex Cooper, who is supposedly the queen of podcasting. This is a great conversation. And we learned so much about the world of Alex L in this.

2:45Now, if you like this little great moments, remember, go into the show description, click on the link, it'll take you to the full episode. And there's also so many other episodes of Great Company with amazing guests. Okay, here it is. Enjoy this insane great moments with Alexelle.

3:04I think it's when I really started to post about my acne and then how I covered my acne with makeup. It's when I started to see like girls in my comment section and, you know, actual people, not just like bots with like little hearts. And I was like, oh, wow, like this is really like connecting with people. So I started to do it more and more. And I then kind of had these get ready with me videos that I made for probably like a year or so before this. And then I was going into my senior year of college and it was just like, here we go going into college. And I think University of Miami is such a crazy experience.

3:46In what way? It's just it's not real life. like being in the city of Miami and, you know, we're going to these like pool parties and then to a club and then it's on a boat. And then it's like just everything we're doing just seems so surreal. So I really started just storytelling of like my senior year of college, what I was doing, continuing to post about like my acne, bringing in my friends. And it was really like through the fall, I started to grow an audience and grow followers. And then I think it was when I went home for the holidays November December it like just hit a spike and I just like couldn't believe what was or it was Thanksgiving I had a million followers on Thanksgiving and I was sitting around with my family on the couch and we were watching like the numbers go up and then it was like it was nice because my whole family was there and my family was like what are you doing on there like why are people following you I was like I don't know but I'm gonna keep going with it what did your family say um in the beginning they didn't understand and it was actually a there was a on espn on christmas i had just broken up with a boyfriend then and espn was like the only person that's being talked about this week more than santa is alex earl and my dad that's when my it caught my dad's attention he was like what's going on he was like what are you doing and people were sending it to my parents and they were like i really don't understand like what's she doing on there like what's what's happening um but now my parents are very invested in tiktok and they're they're on it probably more than they should be i see them on it now they're on it which is great i love it i'm here watching it they're watching it like my dad is up with all the tiktok drama before i know he's sending me like the gossip pages of things and i was like dad you've got to get off tiktok but i think but if you yeah get off tiktok but if you dive deeper into it right you you you because that fame and that like attention and that you get attention from brands you're getting attention from men women from everything from media that's that's a lot to handle and it's exciting and it's fun and that's great but there's also a downside to all of it which is not like it's there's a dark side right yeah there's a dark side and i think for me I never I mean I this is like the biggest blessing ever so I would never like see it and be like all the downside but there is you know stuff that you don't consider and you get thrown into a lot very fast and it's like I'm just living my life my senior year of college like going out sharing my life and now it's all of a sudden it's like you have these followers and you have this platform and now it's like you're held to such a high position and you're supposed to know the right and wrong things to do and I'm like I'm just a girl I don't know all the time like I don't know all the answers like I'm still figuring out who I am um so I think that's a part of it but I've always been pretty good at like like chatter and stuff just letting it go there's this thing which is now called the Alex Isle effect have you heard this when brands work with you apparently you know this yes this is insane where if some brands can work with you and some brands have seen a hundred percent in terms of their uh search engines and things happen where the brands just go wild as soon as you start talking about things that is crazy the power that you have it is um i'd say like my audience is their ride or dies and i think for me it's really about like what we talked about in the beginning of just keeping that authenticity.

7:23And I think the power of saying no has been something that I've had to learn and not working or not taking deals just because of the paycheck, but taking it because it's something that you like and a brand you want to associate yourself with. I remember in the beginning, I had this. I think this was the first big offer I got. It was with like my old management because when I had 100 ,000 followers, I had this manager all the way in Australia. She was great. Love her. You love a long distance. Love long distance. You love long distance. It's the commitment issues. And I, she got this offer for, it was a head wrap that would help with migraines, but it was like a helmet, like a big helmet with like all these little stickers is on it like looked crazy but i saw the number and i was like i was like oh i'm i was like i might consider taking this and then i was like okay but like what i have this loyal audience who trust me trust my opinion and then i'm gonna go post and be like this is the best head cap that helps with my migraines like i just know that i would lose the respect of my audience and that trust that we have and in turn say no is the best thing looking back two years later yeah um but in What were they offering you?

8:41Come on. Was it a lot? It was a lot. And I think it, it was a lot. And I just was, I wanted to take it and I didn't take it. And it's in return, you know. Do you know what I love about you so much? Like there are so many things that you do, but you're so, and we spoke about this with Madeline, who's a friend of ours. You're so authentically you. Thank you. You really are. Like even meeting you here for the first time straight away, you're just like straight in. Yeah, I have anxiety. I just drank coffee. I'm going to be all over the place a little bit dirty, like things like that. That's, I think, what the world needs is that authenticity.

9:15And you fall into that so easily. You just like to be authentic. Yeah, I guess it's a blessing and a curse at times. But I always try to keep it real, especially on social media. I feel like that's another thing is it gets content to get a little fake on there. So trying to take down that barrier, I think, has been a big thing for me and just saying what I think. Did you ever try and be someone else? did I ever try and be someone else? Like when you first started out, because I remember when I found the things I've tried to be, honestly, going up, it's crazy to like know who we are. Yeah, it is.

9:52And I feel like that's a big thing for me. I feel like in college, I've really, and even after college, every year I change. I look back at last year and I'm like, I'm not the same person as I was last year. And I definitely went through a phase though of on social media trying to be not myself and it wasn't it was just not working for me I was like I really want to grow on social media like I have a lot of fun on there especially on TikTok I got on there and I don't know what I was doing I was trying like I was trying to be anything but myself and then when I got to like a really weird place mentally honestly it was like when I was really insecure about like my acne is when I was just like like I can't even pretend to just be this like perfect perfect like all buttoned up all the time and then that's kind of when I like took down that barrier and it's when I started to see growth and I was like oh okay like there's really nothing to be afraid of here but I was so afraid of not being like the perfect social media curated whatever I thought that was in my head you're so conscious about your community and you want to help your community you want to help people and build that if someone's listening right now and they want to following your footsteps, which is very hard.

11:01It's impossible to do that. But they want to be on social media. They want to create brand. They want to build a profile in that space. What advice would you give them? I mean, there's a lot of different advice and it is harder now to grow just because there's so much oversaturation on there, which is why I think the most important thing is to be yourself. And I think that's the one thing is you can put in the work and put in the effort and I think the one thing the crazy part about it is that it's just people find you and like you and want to lift you up and want to follow you so it's like do what you like and whatever that is it's going to be easier to do a lot of you know what I mean like a lot of people are like oh how do you post so much or does it get tiring and I like no I love doing this so I think find whatever your niche is and find your voice and because you and your personality and your stories that's going to be the only thing really that can really differentiate yourself and find what you're passionate about on there and then just keep going with it like i was posting on there for three and a half years every day it was not going well and then all of a sudden it just like takes a turn so i think if it's something you're really passionate about you got to stick to it and don't give up on yourself if videos not getting views or anything you know I was posting the same videos I was my senior year of college my junior year but like just no one found me then so I think just really you got to be patient with it and stick to it and it's hard on social media especially because then you feel like embarrassed like for me I always was like I'm posting all this stuff and people would be like she's like pretending she's an influencer and I was and people would make fun of me for it but then it worked out.

12:52It worked out.

12:56Do-da-da, do-da-da, do-da-da, do-da-da-da Do-da-da, do-da-da, do-da-da-da Do-da-da, do-da-da, do-da-da-da

13:36We'll be right back. and search XERO for your free trial. Conditions apply. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

14:36Join the 15 ,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to Vanta.com slash com. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with Stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90 % with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust Stamps.com. Go to Stamps.com and use code PODCAST to try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days.