Alexandra Franzen (aka Alex), a blue haired bestselling author writes articles about creativity, productivity, communication, goal-setting, entrepreneurship, and how to deal with difficult situations in your life and career. Her work has been featured in places like Time, Forbes, Newsweek, The Huffington Post, and Lifehacker. Alexandra has been mentioned in places like The New YorkTimes Small Business Blog, The Atlantic, USA Today, StyleCaster, and Inc.
She has written You’re Going to Survive, 50 Ways to Say You’re Awesome, a journal called Our Q&A a Day, and a very smutty, silly romance novel called Milk & Honey. Her most recent book called So This Is the End: A Love Story, is a read that will get you thinking about what you would do if you only had 24 hours to live.
This is one woman you want at your dinner table as well as in your boardroom meetings, she has that much insight!
What we’re talking about
- Saying ‘yes’ more
- Pushing fear aside by taking that first little step
- Personal stories of starting her own business
- Tips you can apply to your work and life today
Holding Yourself Back From Moving Forward
There are often times you see events advertised that you should go to or things you should do which would be exciting. Suddenly you have a feeling that you shouldn’t go there or shouldn’t do that, and you come up with all these reasons in order to validate these feelings.
It is in times like these that you have to listen to your hut (heart and gut), you never know where it’s going to lead and what opportunities you can come across. Don’t shut down that part of you as this could be your next big adventure!
What choice will make for a more interesting movie?
When you’re facing a decision in your life, imagine that you are the main character in a movie. Ask yourself if the audience in the movie theatre was watching you grapple with this decision right now; would they want you to take the safe choice or the exciting choice? Surely, they are not going to choose that you chill out to watch Netflix instead of going to a weekend retreat, right?!
Testing Fear in a Low Risk Situation
If you’re afraid of investing too much time and energy into something, don’t let this stop you and throw that idea to the wayside. Break it down into chunks and see how you get on with that first step. This may be all you need to push you forward a little bit and start taking things in the right direction, without having invested all in. When you take that first step, the fear starts to dissipate a little.
On Reaching Out to People She Loved and How Alex Started Her Own Business
Armed with a laptop, a DIY website and access to a coffee shop, Alex sent out a personal email to everyone she knew and loved, letting them know that she had quit her job and was now available for freelance work. She asked that they keep her in mind if they knew of someone who could use her services and she received a response from almost everyone. This was her big marketing strategy! A simple, heartfelt, genuine email which was not pushy or reeking of desperation, landed Alex her first 5 clients.
Language, Descriptions and Connecting With Strangers
If you absolutely hate a certain aspect of your business such as marketing, give it a different name. Think of sending a newsletter as sharing an announcement or how you can increase value for your client, instead of looking at it as a sale.
When reaching out to a potential new client start by being really genuine and invite them to have a cup of coffee with you, get to know them and make a meaningful connection (without coming across as a stalker).
24 Hours to Live
Alex’s new fictional book is a 24-hour, 24-chapter story about a woman named Nora who has the opportunity to come back from the dead for 24 hours….
If you were given this opportunity, what would you do with your day?
Thank you guys so much for listening, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!
xx, Kelsey
LINKS WE MENTIONED
