A Business Journey with Fashion Stylist and Sustainability Advocate Alex Standley |EP278

Explore the transformative journey of sustainable fashion with our esteemed guest, Alex, a visionary stylist and fashion consultant who’s reshaping how we think about style and productivity. Discover how Alex transitioned from a corporate career to entrepreneurship, sharing her inspiring story of unlearning habits to combat burnout. Learn why taking breaks and setting boundaries are crucial tools for maintaining a balanced life and how Alex empowers women to make a positive impact on the planet through their wardrobe choices.

Our conversation peels back the layers on goal-setting and the challenges of staying focused amidst a myriad of business opportunities and distractions. Alex shares her experience navigating personal ambitions during a charity fashion show, emphasizing the importance of aligning one’s capacity with core objectives as a solopreneur. We shed light on why prioritizing ongoing community relationships over one-off projects is vital for sustaining a viable business while supporting local causes.

Unlock the secrets to balancing personal style with a dynamic lifestyle as we discuss audience-building strategies and the power of social media. From managing a content calendar to maintaining a consistent brand presence, Alex guides us through her process of connecting meaningfully with her audience on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. Finally, experience a transformative approach to personal style and confidence with Alex’s three-month program, designed to help women redefine how they present themselves to the world, complete with a free style consultation offer for our listeners. Join us for an episode packed with practical insights and actionable tips to elevate both your productivity and personal style.
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Chapters

• 0:00 Sustainable Fashion Stylist Productivity Tips
• 10:28 Balancing Goals and Opportunities in Business
• 17:38 Multitasking and Audience Building Strategies
• 24:13 Morning Routine Impact on Productivity
• 30:10 Personal Stylist Transformation Experience
• 39:31 Real Business Mindset and Planning

Transcript

Donna Eade: 0:30

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. There is no such thing as a way when we throw anything away, it must go somewhere. Annie Leonard, welcome back to the podcast.

Donna Eade: 0:58

Everybody, I am super excited to have a fabulous guest with me today. Welcome, alex, to the podcast. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be here as well. I am very excited especially for today's, because it is going to be slightly different to what I normally do on the show. So, generally speaking, I have experts in their field come on and talk about their expertise to help us grow and streamline our business. Well, I've decided to do something a little bit different with Alex, because I have been eager to have her on the podcast for a while and it's just something that we haven't got around to doing. And now we're here, I've thought do you know what? This would be a really interesting way to approach it. So, before we jump into all of the goodness of the episode, alex, do you want to tell people a little bit about who you are and what it is that you do?

Alex Standley: 1:51

Yes, sure. So I am a sustainable stylist and fashion consultant, so my main area is helping women to reignite their confidence through style very much centered around female empowerment, and basically creating a positive impact on people and planet is my big mission. So I do all of the generic things that you would associate with personal stylists, like colour analysis, wardrobe edits, personal shopping, all of that kind of thing. But for me it goes much deeper than just like surface level, you know, materialistic clothing, all that kind of thing. It's very much about that reconnection with yourself, and I kind of went on this journey myself on becoming a new mum and just felt really passionately about sharing that with other women and helping them to really show up in their power.

Donna Eade: 2:45

I love that, I love that and I do I. Obviously I follow you on social media and I just love all the stuff you put out. It's really, really powerful and you seem to reach quite, quite a lot of ladies with it, which is always good to see. So today, rather than talking about your expertise in specifics, we will come on to how you work with people. A bit later, we're going to talk about how the core four pillars of this podcast actually relate to your business. So when did you start your business?

Alex Standley: 3:21

I started at the end of 2019.

Donna Eade: 3:25

Okay, five years-ish. Five years-ish and you know a big chunk of that time over, that thing that we don't like to talk about anymore, which is quite difficult, and I know too, because my business started in April 2020. So it was quite a difficult time to navigate so hugely. You know, huge respect to anybody who was very new to business or brand new to business when that started and, you know, managed to come out the other side because I think what would typically worked in business didn't work at that time and we all had to kind of change the way we were working.

Donna Eade: 4:07

So one of the core pillars of this podcast is productivity. Something I'm hugely passionate about is, you know, making sure that we're making the most of our time while we're at work and focusing on what we need to do so that we can put the computer down at a reasonable time and go and be with our families and do all of that. How do you kind of navigate the productivity? Are you somebody who is like I'm there, I've got it all down. When I'm focused, I'm focused and nothing distracts me, or do you have to put things in place to keep you on task?

Alex Standley: 4:38

Yeah, I think it's definitely something that's still a work in progress. I mean, I'm very much like I'm very, a very organized person and kind of coming from a corporate background where it was very time pressured. In the fashion industry, as a buyer, I've always had to be super organized. We were always told, you know, you have to respond to emails within well, 12 hours I was going to say 24 hours, literally 12 hours, especially because of time differences. We were dealing with, you know, in the Far East and stuff like that.

Alex Standley: 5:08

So I think I've always had that monkey on your shoulder a little bit in terms of like I need to make sure that I'm on top of things and organized and everything else.

Alex Standley: 5:16

But I think that's almost a bit of unlearning that I've had to do being a business owner, because actually I've come to realize that it's okay to not respond in 12 hours and it's okay to prioritize what you've got going on, you know, for that particular moment in time.

Alex Standley: 5:35

So I think a lot of it has actually been unlearning those bad habits and, you know, doing things like making sure that I take breaks and I go out for a walk and I take a lunch break and I'm not just sat at my desk, like I would have done, you know, when I was working in corporate. So I think, in some ways, it's actually the kind of rest time and the breaks and stuff like that that I've had to implement so that I don't burn out, because I was in a bit of a cycle of just, you know, taking on too much and doing too much and then feeling like, oh my god, what am I going to do? Um, it's all too much. So, yeah, I think it's it's learning to um, prioritize, definitely, and take those breaks is there anything that you do to to make sure that that happens?

Donna Eade: 6:25

so anything you can kind of say to people like out there, like because I'm I'm pretty good at actually taking a lunch break or have been in the past, but now I've got this job that I'm doing, so my boss always tells me very opposite to what you dealt with is that in marketing, donna, nothing is urgent so it's like you know, prioritize what you need to prioritize, but if it doesn't get done today don't worry about it, which is lovely to hear.

Donna Eade: 6:56

But also she then will turn around and send me something and say, can you put this out today? And I'm like, but yeah, it is one of those things. But then taking breaks becomes a little bit difficult for me, because I'm doing like half day of a day job and half day on my business and you would have thought that the you know natural break in the middle there would be when I would take my lunch, which I try to, but not always does it happen. So are there any things that you've put in place to kind of make sure that you actually do stop and take those breaks?

Alex Standley: 7:31

Yeah, I think the main thing for me is being kind of stricter with my time.

Alex Standley: 7:36

So like actually blocking out time, like I will block my diary in the morning so that when I go and drop my daughter at school I can go for a walk and it's, it's literally half an hour, but I would never do that before. I would come straight home, get straight into it, sit down at my desk and then that would be it, that would be me for the day. So actually making sure that I'm blocking my diary out for half an hour and sometimes I don't always do it for lunch because it's, you know, I have to be flexible as well, but I do sometimes make sure, if I've got a really busy day or a really busy week, that I'm putting in some time blocks for things like lunch, so that I actually make sure that I take a break and I'm looking after myself. And I think that's a really important lesson that I've learned being an entrepreneur like no one else is, you know, looking out for you. You've got to manage all of that yourself. Yeah, absolutely so yeah.

Donna Eade: 8:30

I love that and that's something that I do as well. I'm. I'm big on calendar blocking, like if it's not in my diary it doesn't happen. In fact, I will admit to you guys. I will admit something to you guys right now.

Donna Eade: 8:42

I have just come off the back of my launch. That happened in September, as we're recording this, and so last week I was busy doing all of that. Today I've been. You know week I was busy doing all of that. Today I've been. You know my cart closed yesterday at 9pm, so today I was just like, went and did my day job and then I thought, you know what, I'm just going to finalise a little bit of a debrief on my launch and then I think I'll take the rest of the day off because you know I deserve it. I have worked like a Trojan this last week.

Donna Eade: 9:13

And then, just as I was doing that, thankfully my calendar pings up and goes. You have a podcast recording with Alex and I went. I then realized that I hadn't emailed Alex last week and let her know what we were going to be talking about today. So this is truly off the cuff. But yeah, if that hadn't been in my diary I would not have been sat here doing this recording with you because I could have been off out anywhere. I'd have completely forgotten about it. My, I live by my diary. It's so important so I love that.

Donna Eade: 9:45

So, moving on to um planning, which is another pillar of this podcast, I think it's always really interesting to see what people do in terms of how they set their goals and how they plan to achieve those goals and how they then plan their day-to-day business. So can you talk to us a little bit about what your thoughts are on goal setting and what you do in your business?

Alex Standley: 10:12

Yeah, definitely. So I have become a bit of a fan of like vision boards and really setting out the kind of bigger vision, I guess for my business towards the end of the previous year that I'm sort of planning for. So I might do that in December time, like November, december time, and then that's kind of like the the visualization kind of process for my goals, um, because I'm such a visual kind of creative person, and then I then take it, I kind of break it down from there, like what are my big, my four big goals that I've got for the year um, and what do I then need to do to achieve those? And then I kind of map out by quarter, like what are the things that I'm going to need to put in place or that I need to go after in order to achieve this um? And then I will break it down further once I actually get into the year in terms of um, you know, by month, and looking at how I can achieve those goals, but also coming back to it on a daily basis and kind of reminding myself of what I'm going for for that quarter or what I'm going for for that year, because I think it's really easy to get sidetracked with social media and other influences, um, and to kind of lose sight of what your bigger goals are.

Alex Standley: 11:43

Um, I'm very much a bit of a magpie. I have, um found out um, so I do have to kind of rein myself in and I can go off on lots of different tangents and in lots of different areas, and I think, um I went on a, on a kind of goal setting day last January and that was something that they mentioned, like coming back to your goals on a daily basis and kind of reminding yourself of what you're focusing on. I think that's really important yeah, and how do you?

Donna Eade: 12:12

because I've seen, obviously, your social media and you do seem to be here, there and everywhere doing different things with different people, which is amazing, but it is that kind of thing where, when the opportunities come, they always seem to come in a flood and trying to work out how to balance that in terms of what your goals are. So is there anything that you've had to um in in the last sort of nine, ten months had to say do you know what? Actually, no, I'm not going to do that. It doesn't align with my goals. Yeah definitely.

Alex Standley: 12:46

I think a good example of that is I, when I did a charity fashion show in June. It was part of a bigger St Albans sustainability festival kind of expo that I was part of and I absolutely loved it. But it's a huge amount of work and it's something I'm super passionate about because it's obviously very aligned with my values. But there's only a certain number of those kind of things that I can do because it takes up so much of my time and I was asked by so many people after the event oh, can you come and do that for my business or my charity, or you know, this kind of thing and as much as that's very flattering, lovely for the ego.

Alex Standley: 13:28

I just had to start, you know, politely declining people because if I was to, you know, say yes to all of those opportunities, it's great. But often people expect you to do it unpaid and it's hours and hours and hours of work and it's, I think, there's so much more to it than people appreciate. So when they do ask you, I've kind of come to the these kind of questions that I will ask them back. Like you know, where are? Where are your models coming from? Who are your volunteers? Like, what's the venue, what's? And this whole list of questions that I will ask them in return, because I think it's really easy to get swept up in other people asking you to do things, but you do have to kind of bring it back to what's my not not just what's my goal, because obviously you know sustainability sits within my values and my overall mission but also what's my um capacity as one person, as a solopreneur, and how much can I actually physically fit into this year or this quarter or whatever it might be?

Donna Eade: 14:36

Yeah, and I think it's really important for people to hear that and understand that, because it is hard to say no.

Donna Eade: 14:43

It is definitely a stroke of the ego when you get offered those things and when it's charities and things like that, you want to say yes because you know we're helpful people, we want to do those things.

Donna Eade: 14:54

But we are in business, which requires the making of money, and if you are doing something that is free or you know you get in advertising or whatever it is that, it's a quid pro quo type thing that is taking away from the hours that you could work with a paying client and that is a balancing act to be had for sure.

Donna Eade: 15:20

And it is important to know what your time is worth, because I can imagine the amount of work that you know I was a photographer for 10 years, so I did a lot of photo shoots and things like that that were just like one person with three outfits. So the idea of a whole fashion show where there's like 10 or more models or something like that is just like mind blowing the amount of work that you would actually have to sit down and do. So it's not just showing up to the event and being there. It's all of the preparation work that you've got to do as well, and you have to take that into account. And that comes back to the productivity as well is if you are focused on doing all of that stuff for other people when are?

Donna Eade: 16:02

you getting your own stuff done, are focused on doing all of that stuff for other people.

Alex Standley: 16:05

When are you getting your own stuff done? Yeah, and I think the other thing that um comes into my decision making is um relationships. So, you know, if it's somebody that I don't necessarily have like an ongoing relationship with and they're just asking me off the back of seeing the success of another event that I've had, I it's really important to me to kind of support my local community and to support local businesses and local charities. But I want it to be like an ongoing relationship and not just like a one-off thing. You know one and done and that's it. So that also has kind of helped me with what I say yes and no to as well.

Donna Eade: 16:44

Yeah, yeah, that's really good, really good point. And yeah, and some people just aren't aligned as well.

Donna Eade: 16:52

You know, some people will just it will be an easy no for you because you're like well, actually that doesn't, that doesn't fit with my values, but it is one of those things that it is hard to kind of balance. But again, going back to what you were saying about planning your day and planning in your walks, you have to take into account that you're one person and your capacity is limited and you don't want to end up burning out, you don't want to end up letting people down. So it's just really important to be fierce about those boundaries, I think, which is great. So what does a typical day in Alex's world look like? So what does a normal work day look like for you?

Alex Standley: 17:34

oh, good question. Normal, yeah, it can be so varied.

Alex Standley: 17:38

Um, I was talking about this last night actually, because I was doing a workshop in a membership about like knowing your style and what your style vision is and your lifestyle being a really important part of that and really unpicking what happens in your, in your day-to-day life.

Alex Standley: 17:54

And I was kind of saying, for me, on an average day, I could, you know, be exercising in the morning, going to do the school run on foot, then then going to a networking meeting, then doing personal shopping with a client, and then back on the school run and then in the evening going to present at an event or something like that. And so I'm quite often on the go, but quite often, you know, I need to be comfortable when I'm doing things like personal shopping, but then I also need to be showing up representing, you know, my personal brand and stuff like that when I'm doing events or networking and that kind of thing. So I was kind of making the point that we will wear so many different hats. Within one day you could have six different scenarios or things that you've got going on yeah, yeah, that's quite a challenge quite a challenge.

Donna Eade: 18:44

Footwear is my always my biggest challenge. When I think of what you were just saying, I was just like I want to be comfortable. If I'm going to be walking to school and then walking off to a networking event and then doing shopping and then going to an event where I've got to stand on my feet for any particular, yeah, you've definitely got to have the footwear for that kind of thing and and I'm a girl I like my heels and that just wouldn't be appropriate for that I mean no, yeah, heels definitely don't factor very often in my day-to-day reality.

Donna Eade: 19:16

I have. Uh, obviously, the the new role that I've um taken on is a bit of a blast from the past for me in terms of the head office is actually in London, and so I used to do the London thing quite often and I don't have to go in very often, but when I do, I'm back to like my heels are in a bag in my bag and my shoes are my sketches to walk through London, because you do not walk through London in here no way, you wouldn't last very long.

Donna Eade: 19:47

I see some people doing it. I'm like how far have you walked? Because I would be dead on my feet if that was me.

Alex Standley: 19:54

I know yeah, definitely yeah, crazy brilliant.

Donna Eade: 19:58

I love all of that. So the next thing that I'd love to touch on is audience building. So for me it's one of the big ones. If you want people in your business paying you, you've got to be consistently bringing new people into your world and kind of connecting with them in some way. So, within your business, what is? Have you got like a main pillar that you use for your audience building? Have you got several things that you do to build your audience? What does that you use for your audience building? Have you got several things that you do to build your audience? What does that look like in your business?

Alex Standley: 20:29

definitely several things. Um, I think I think the thing with what I do is it's very personal. It's a very personal choice. That's one of the reasons why I have various different methods of connecting with my audience, because one isn't necessarily enough. So, like social media, for example, is a really important part of how I've built my audience, and Instagram within that, you know, works as a bit of a portfolio for me, but it needs a level of kind of deeper connection with people as well.

Alex Standley: 21:03

So I created a Facebook community like a private group, but I also do a lot of in-person things because I think that's a really great way to build relationships with people, which is often what you need. You know, if you're going to be vulnerable with someone and invest your time and money with them on your journey with not only style but confidence as well, you really want to get to know them and make sure that they're the right fit for you. So I have found that doing in-person events whether that's my own events or going to other networking events or speaking or whatever it is that's a really important pillar for me in terms of audience building yeah, yeah, I, I completely agree and I it's interesting as well, because I'm pretty sure I follow you on Instagram, but I don't really see you on Instagram.

Donna Eade: 21:59

I see you all the time on LinkedIn, and so that's kind of where I kind of focus on always seeing your stuff and you always pop up in my feed and I know we're connected in another group with regard to LinkedIn, but it's something that I will often see your posts organically because I comment all the time on your post.

Donna Eade: 22:22

So the algorithm goes she wants to see this, show her it, um. So I see it all the time. So I feel like you are always on LinkedIn, like it's like your home away from home sort of thing. But that's just the way the algorithms work and I think it's important that people realize that that it's. It's not necessarily that you have to be there all the time. It's what people are consuming. So how does your social media plan break up? How much time do you reckon that you actually spend on the platforms?

Alex Standley: 22:56

it's a really tough one for me. I think it does take up, and I think it takes up more of my time than I would like it to, and I'm sure a lot of people say the same I. So I'm I'm quite organized in terms of I don't use it so much as I used to, but I I used to have, or I still have, a 12 month content calendar, um in excel, um, which sounds really nerdy, but um school old school excel spreadsheets I love it, I love a good spreadsheet and I use it for my content plan as well.

Alex Standley: 23:29

Actually, I use google sheets yeah, it's so helpful to just be able to visually like plan it all out, and I'm not quite as um on top of that as I have always been, but that helps me to sort of, because I tend to post, you know, four times a week minimum across all I say all platforms LinkedIn, instagram, facebook and then I dabble with reposting stuff on TikTok, but I'm not really I could completely go down a rabbit hole there, so I try and avoid that.

Alex Standley: 24:01

But, yeah, I I schedule a lot of my posts, um, you know, at least a couple of days in advance, normally, um, because I've got a plan of you know what I'm focusing on and what I'm talking about for that week. Yeah, and then I will go on and, you know, obviously, engage with other people, and one thing that I love about LinkedIn is it's always been an amazing platform for me in terms of educating myself on sustainable fashion and you know what's happening within the industry and there's some really interesting conversations that happen over there with that. So I think I get different things from different platforms. Yeah, different things from different platforms, yeah, and you know there's a great sustainable fashion community on Instagram as well, but it's very different to, you know the space on LinkedIn and then Facebook. Obviously there's lots of amazing communities over there, but it's very, a very different audience to those that are over on LinkedIn.

Alex Standley: 24:59

So it can be quite challenging because I would love to spend loads of time on all three yeah and that is something that I do tend to struggle with in terms of time management, because you know I can see the benefit in all three platforms. But I have been spending more time on LinkedIn over the last 18 months or so because I just think I enjoy it, but also I think that's where my ideal client is probably hanging out as well.

Donna Eade: 25:26

Yeah, I have to say I've been doing exactly the same in terms of spending more time on LinkedIn in the last sort of 12 to 18 months and I just, I just find it quieter.

Donna Eade: 25:39

You know, there's still loads of posts this you know.

Donna Eade: 25:41

Know, my feed refreshes every sort of couple of minutes or whatever there's a new post for me to look at and I've got notifications, but I don't know why it just feels quieter.

Donna Eade: 25:51

Instagram feels so busy and and Facebook even more so, and LinkedIn just has a more quiet feel to it. Just, it appeals to me, but I get what you're saying about that from terms of you learning things and you wanting to gain that knowledge, that actually it's good to be on the social media platforms, but also that, with your role especially think, yeah, there's definitely like the argument for photographers that actually Instagram is the place to be because it's a visual platform and you want to show your work, blah, blah, blah, and I think you could argue for all different medias. But with what you do, you know it's it's fashion, it's style, it's it's you know, confidence, and I think there are people on all of the platforms looking for that. So I don't think that it would kind of sit with any particular thing. It's just more of the types of people that spend the most time on the platforms and who it is that you want to work with. Um, it kind of dictates to where you kind of gravitate towards.

Donna Eade: 27:04

But I can see how it would be beneficial for you to be on all three of those. So it can be very difficult. Social media is a hard one. So if there is anybody out there that is listening to this today and they're thinking do you know what I need to get myself sorted with? You know my productivity, my planning, you know it's all over the place. What would be the number one thing that you do as a constant, like it's a non-negotiable for you, that you think? Do you know what?

Alex Standley: 27:36

I think this would help a lot of people if they were to actually implement this that's such a good question, I think for me and it's it's not necessarily business related as such, but it's helped me the most is setting up my day in the right way from the offset.

Alex Standley: 27:58

Um, so I've definitely been guilty in the past of waking up and going straight on my phone and scrolling and you know, doom scrolling, as they call it. But a couple of years ago I started to have a bit more of a hate to say it morning routine and it's not, like you know, I have to do X, y, z within a certain time frame and have a green juice and all this kind of stuff. But I have to set aside some time. So I'll wake up an hour before my daughter needs to get up for school, and non-negotiable for me is exercise and I will vary everything else. I'll quite often journal and just spend some time just enjoying some peace and quiet with a coffee in the morning so I can get my headspace in the right, the right frame of mind for the day. Um, and that has made such a huge difference to me and I'm not perfect, so I do sometimes have those days where I do pick up my phone and end up down a rabbit hole of something or other, but yeah, none of us are perfect.

Donna Eade: 29:05

None of us are perfect, but that's great, and I think that's a really important one, because your work day does start before you start work, like you know if you get out the bed the wrong side in the morning and you know I don't know, your daughter's decided that she doesn't want to go to school.

Donna Eade: 29:23

today. It's not a day I'm not getting dressed and all of that is really going to not put you in the great frame of mind for when you sit down at your desk to work. But if you have that hour beforehand where you can actually just be with yourself for a little while, do your exercise, do a bit of journaling, you whatever that might be setting yourself up for the day that if your daughter does wake up the wrong side of the bed herself, you're in a much calmer place to kind of deal with that in a more, you know, productive way um than you might if you were getting up a bit later and didn't have a chance to do that was rushing around yourself.

Donna Eade: 29:59

So I think it's a really important one for making sure that we actually are able to be our best selves once we sit at our desk. So thank you for sharing that. Share with us a little bit more about the ways that you work with people and how they can actually connect with you. So my.

Alex Standley: 30:18

My favourite way to work with people is on a kind of ongoing basis. So I have a three month. Well, I say three month it can be shorter than that if people are working to a timeline, but it's a complete transformation and I just love seeing that and working with women on their confidence and seeing how it impacts every area of of their life, not just you know how they're showing up. So we work through like five different styling sessions, um. So we start with style personality, so we kind of align on what's your vision for how you want to show up in the world and you know, take it from a very high um perspective, and then we create what that's going to look like. And then we do color analysis and you get your own bespoke color palette, unique to you.

Alex Standley: 31:09

And then the third session is a wardrobe edit. So we work through your existing wardrobe, make the most of what you've already got and create lots of new outfits and get rid of those pieces that are no longer serving you. And then we create a wish list of what's missing so that you can create your own capsule wardrobe and then we shop for it in the fourth session or I do it on your behalf. And then the final session is just bringing it all together and really nailing what your style formula is, so that you've got this whole catalogue of outfits, so you never have that moment where you're like, opening the wardrobe in the morning, I have nothing to wear, even though your wardrobe is absolutely bulging full of pieces. Then you get a 30 day follow up afterwards as well.

Donna Eade: 31:53

Oh, fabulous, that sounds amazing. That really does. I'm just like, yeah, where do I sign up? There's not a lot left in my wardrobe. I did a few wardrobe edits of my own through lockdown. It's like, well, I'm not doing the office job anymore, the office clothes can go. I'm not doing this anymore, that can go. That doesn't fit anymore, so that can go. I'm not doing this anymore, that can go. And that doesn't fit anymore, so that can go. And uh, yeah, I wasn't really left with much and I was like, oh, I actually do need to wear clothes it's funny.

Alex Standley: 32:22

I've spoken to a lot of people recently who have said the same. Like they, they're very good at culling their wardrobe, but then they actually really struggle to go out and fill those pieces with new items yeah, well, you've seen me in your comments.

Donna Eade: 32:38

You know me and shopping don't mix so that's a hard one for me, oh dear. So, um, you have a, you have something to share with my audience that they can go and get hold of. What is it that you would like to share with them?

Alex Standley: 32:54

yes, I offer free style consultations, which you can book over on my website and it's just half an hour to talk about, you know, what you might be struggling with with your style, and for me to give you some tips and advice and, and, yeah, to find out how I might be able to help you with what you're struggling with with your style, and also like, from an exciting point of view, to talk about what your goals are and you know, not just your style goals, but your life goals and how that all comes together.

Donna Eade: 33:22

Yeah, I think it is. It's so much bigger than the clothes that you're putting on it. You know, if you get the right consultant, they you can really go into a lot of detail about and it affects everything. You know, if you get up in the morning and I mean I'm going to take myself for an example like just looking at, you can't see, obviously, if you're listening to this, but if you could see, what you would see is exactly exactly what I would have expected from this call which is I'm sat here in jogging bottoms and a hoodie because I'm freezing cold, but Alex is sitting there looking nice and cozy but looking put together and on point, because she's got a jumper and a quilted jacket on.

Donna Eade: 34:04

I'm like I need this quilted jacket my duvet but you know it's the difference between and you've said this before to me in comments on um LinkedIn that you know I'm always like, oh, I get too cold in my office, so I just always go to the hoodie and stuff and I don't think about layering up my jumper with a thicker cardigan or something over the top.

Alex Standley: 34:29

It just doesn't even come to mind, which is why we need people like you in our life well, it's kind of going back to what you were saying as well about, uh, productivity and planning, like, what do you do to set yourself up? Clothing is a huge part of that as well. For me and for my clients, like, it is almost like a kind of act of self-care and it really can make or break your day. If you wear something that you don't feel confident in and you don't feel comfortable in, you can, like, make yourself much smaller and and an impact you know, psychologically, how you're feeling throughout your day, whereas if you wear something that you feel amazing in and it's the colors that light you up and it's, you know, something that you feel super confident in, it changes how you interact with other people and you know, and therefore has a knock-on impact on how your day goes. So I do. I am obviously very biased, but I do think it's a hack in itself.

Donna Eade: 35:27

Yeah yeah, yeah, brilliant, right, I will leave all of Alex's details in the show notes, guys, and the link to that free style consultation. You would be crazy not to take her up on that offer. But before we jump off, I do have my quick fire round to go through with you, alex. So if you are up for it, I have a few questions, okay. So the first one is what is your favorite podcast to listen to?

Alex Standley: 35:53

I'm gonna sound like so cliche on this because I'm sure this is a very often mentioned one, but it was the first one that came to my head. Um, diary of a CEO is one of my favorites. I do have to kind of carve out time or listen to it broken up because the episodes tend to be quite long.

Donna Eade: 36:12

Yeah, yeah yeah, that's the only sort of downside I do. I like to watch Diary of a CEO because of the production value they do put into it. It makes it worth a watch, so that's one that I prefer to watch and then listen to, and I will then do it on one and a half speed, 1.75 speed if I can get away with it, depending on who's on and how fast they talk.

Donna Eade: 36:34

Naturally, yeah, um. So yes, I'm with you on that one um. And then what's the book that's made the biggest impact on your life so far?

Alex Standley: 36:42

this is really hard, I think. I think there's a lot of books and I and the one that, again, the one that just springs to mind is how to break up with fast fashion, which is by a journalist called um Lauren Bravo, and it was one that I read when I was at the start of my journey and, you know, creating a more conscious lifestyle and building out the values for my personal brand, and it made such a significant impact on how I thought about clothing and I really related to her journey and she was very non-preachy, which you didn't really get at the time in the sustainability space because it was often very black and white, um, so I really appreciated her influence yeah, that sounds like a great book.

Donna Eade: 37:32

Um, and don't forget, guys, I do put all of my guest books on a link in the show notes on the guest bookshelf in my kit. So go ahead and check that out and I will make sure there's a link for that one. Um, and then, what's your go-to snack if you're in a hurry?

Alex Standley: 37:48

um, I have these. I can't remember what they're called I think they're called kind or something like that but they're basically like nut bars, but very tasty because they normally have like dark chocolate or something like that on them as well. But I'm I've become a fan of trying to get more protein into my diet, so that's a good way to go for me, because I'm veggie as well.

Donna Eade: 38:09

So yeah, yeah that I don't know how vegetarians do it. I'm not a vegetarian and my protein is like it's just not enough of it for a woman of my age. I do not have enough protein in my body and uh, and I do eat meat and I'm like, well, I had no idea how the vegetarian some vegans do it? I really don't. Yeah, definitely a challenge. And then, finally, what is your favorite me time thing to do?

Alex Standley: 38:39

oh, um. It's a toss-up between my kind of like strength training or yoga that I do in the morning and going for a walk in nature like I just absolutely love it. It's just so grounding and just it. It can change my mood, like really lift my mood to even on a rubbish day. I was out with my brolly and my big raincoat the other day when it was raining because I was like I refuse to stay indoors and I've got to get my fresher oh, you're good.

Donna Eade: 39:10

I I'm pretty much a fair weather walker, but I was actually contemplating last night. Do you know what I've got? A new brolly.

Donna Eade: 39:18

It's a nice brolly and I've got a raincoat and for a 10 minute quick walk around the block. You could do it. You could do it and I'm like trying to convince myself that I just might do that brilliant. Thank you so much for that, alex. I hope you guys have enjoyed this slightly different type of episode. If you have, please let me know, because I'm thinking that I will make it more of a thing, because I like the idea of actually speaking to real people with real businesses and seeing actually how they implement their planning, productivity, mindset and audience building. So if you didn't listen to Monday's episode with Alex, go back and have a listen to our mini Mindset Monday episode. All of her links will be in the show notes and we'll see you in the next one. Bye for now.