Zoe Alexander is a Law of Attraction expert and spiritual life coach. In 2018, she became certified as an Inspired Spirit Life Coach from the Inspired Spirit Coaching Academy and completed over 30 hours of coaching training.
She has studied the principles of the Law of Attraction for 5 years and uses her skills as an empath, coach, and writer to teach about the Law of Attraction in practical, easily-applicable ways.
What is Simply Lovely Energy all about?
Simply Lovely Energy is a Law of Attraction-based life coaching practice that I run. Using the framework “like attracts like” (what you believe is what you see), I help people get clear on their goals and help them get rid of the limiting beliefs they have around achieving their dreams.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your business?
It is actually thanks to the pandemic that I started my business at all. I graduated college just as the lockdown started and found my job opportunities extremely limited. On top of that, I found out early in 2020 that my partner was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for two years in his dream career in Belgium, which meant that we were going to be moving out of the United States. After several months of job-searching, I decided to turn my struggle into an opportunity and took it as a sign to open my coaching business.
How has the pandemic affected you or your new business?
Business-wise, the pandemic was helpful because it cemented the fact that I was going to be working remotely full-time. In regards to my field, a lot of people are starting to turn towards life coaching and personal development. Being forced to stay inside all day without any external distractions has made people to have to sit with themselves in a way they never have – and have to learn how to face themselves in the process! The pandemic has given rise to more people looking for coaches to help guide them. I am in a growing field.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I think the biggest mistake I made was setting my expectations of myself too high at the start. A lot of influencers and blogs will market how you can instantly make money in a small amount of time right off the bat, but this is pretty rare. Growing a business, especially a sustainable one, takes time. It takes time to fine-tune your Instagram marketing or SEO keywords, and that is okay. Once I let go of the “need” to be a 6-figure company in 6 months, working on my business became easier because I was letting go of the perfectionistic need to get it right from the start.
The second big mistake I made was trying to force myself to make a digital e-course because I thought that I “should.” I spent a long time trying to work on it while nothing was coming together, and I finally had to admit to myself that I did not want to make an e-course and wanted to focus on 1-on-1 coaching instead. When I made that decision, I felt a huge wave of relief, and everything else in my business again became easier because I was not trying to shame myself into creating something I did not want to create and, frankly, was not ready to make anyways.
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I exercise every day. Taking the time to work out and go for a walk, even just for 10 minutes, helps me feel clearer and make better business decisions.
How do you manage running a business while traveling?
Fortunately, running an online business while traveling or living abroad is not too difficult. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind, the most important of which is time zones.
Since I am living in Europe but plan to move back to Colorado for the long-term, I have to set my available hours in a way that works well in both Central European Time and Mountain Time. This means I work in the evenings to be free in the mornings in the US. I also offer my services on weekends to give clients who have a 9-5 job the opportunity to more easily work with me. I view Mondays and Tuesdays as my vacation days and do my “weekend traveling” then.
In general, getting used to proper time zone conversion is essential; otherwise, you will miss meetings or schedule social media posts at the wrong time! I use a free website called worldtimebuddy that makes it super simple to convert time zones.
It is also always a good idea to state or list the currency of your prices straight away. I learned the hard way with a freelance project once when I did not specify that I worked in USD and only found out later that my client was Canadian and expecting to pay in CAD.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Pinterest marketing, by far. My target demographic spends a large amount of time on that social media channel, and I have gotten great responses from it so far. I use a Pinterest automation scheduler called Tailwind that makes it incredibly easy to automatically post my content and, most importantly, post consistently.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Starting a business can be stressful because there is not a clear, set “path” to take. My advice is to do your research on business strategy, but make sure to take the time to implement them and experiment on your own. It is easy to get stuck forever in the “research” phase and never start.
Doing it imperfectly is better than not doing it at all!
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Know yourself. Some people work better with a structured schedule, others work better with a little bit of wiggle room. Both ways of working are fine, and instead of trying to force yourself to do something one way because it is what others do, honor yourself and create a schedule that works around you. If you are a night owl, for instance, do not try to make yourself get up at 6:00 am to go work! You are setting yourself up to fail if you do that.
As a personal example, I know that if I block something out to be completed at a specific time (like 11:00 am on Tuesday), I just won’t do it. So instead I write out everything I would like to get done, and the end time it needs to be completed, and then work in whatever order I feel inspired to in the moment. I get everything I need done without stress. Building a business does not have to be stressful if you make it okay for it to be easy.
What is your favorite quote?
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right”
– Henry Ford
I love this quote because it shows our perceptions create our reality.
What is your definition of success?
I ask myself, “am I living an intentional life?” I read a great article recently about how entrepreneurs will start a business to create for themselves more free time and a better life, but then get swept away in what they “should” do and often end up more stressed out and with less free time than they had in their 9-to-5! So I like to write down at least once a week what I want my day-to-day life to look like, and if I am not living that way now, ask myself what I need to do to get there.
How do you personally overcome fear?
Fortunately, my whole business is about helping people overcome their fears to achieve their goals so I have a variety of useful techniques.
The best technique to start with, however, is somewhat counterintuitive: you just sit with your fear for at least 2 minutes and let yourself feel the fear fully. Fear is scary because we are running away from the negative belief we think is true. When you allow yourself to face your fear, however, you will find that it is generally unfounded and, most importantly, you are no longer afraid of it. So that is what I do; I sit with the fear.
Another great technique is to start working on what you are afraid of for just one minute. Oftentimes just starting will make the fear go away and you will be able to keep working. If that doesn’t work, ask yourself, “do I really need to do this right now?” and usually the answer is no. In that case, just come back to it a little later and you will find that it is easier to work then. If you really do not want to do the task, honor that, and see if you can hire or automate it out!
How is running a company different than what you thought it would be?
This may be an unusual answer, but I have a lot more free time than I thought I would. I assumed that I would have to work 16 hours every day, but because of the way I have structured my company and my use automation tools, I find that I have a lot more time to myself than expected. I think that if you have a clear structure for how you want to run your company, you can run it rather time-efficiently.
How can readers get in touch with you?
The best way to get in touch with me is to visit my website, simplylovelyenergy.com. You can also reach me through Instagram @simplylovelyenergy.
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