Alicia Gupta was quietly building her community and posting content regularly on Instagram when one of her posts caught the attention of somebody at Harvard. So they booked her to speak at Harvard. That one talk turned into 15 more stages, eight of them top universities plus corporate companies like Axenture. Along the way, she put on the first South Asian stage at the Chicago Fashion Week, started getting paid by brands and did all of it around a full-time job in AI. Now, here's the part that breaks my brain, and I'm sure it will probably break yours. She has 6,000 followers on Instagram. Not 6 million, not 600,000, not even 60,000. We're talking literally just 6,000 here. So, today she's handing you the real playbook. You learn how to do brand collaborations without ever

do brand collaborations without ever going viral. She tells you her exact system that she used to get that one yes from Harvard and convert that into 15 more and many more to come across various other universities. Oh, and she runs the exact exercise that she teaches at these universities on me live just for you all to see. So you can check it out yourself tonight. By the end of this episode, I promise that you'll know how to get paid for what you make without chasing a single follower.

make without chasing a single follower. Please join me in welcoming Alicia Gupta to the Ready Set to Podcast. This one's different. Alicia, welcome and thanks for letting us use your lovely apartment as the makeshift podcast studio for today. You are very welcome. Thank you for being here and having me. I know we've been planning this for a while. So really happy you were able to make this work even though it's Memorial Day. So special thanks for you to you for you know not doing the other probably dozens of cool stuff we have planned and instead doing this but I really wanted to talk to you for a few different reasons. I guess where I wanted to start with is and this is a question I get a lot. I've been personally thinking about this. Yeah.

personally thinking about this. Yeah. And I know you probably have your DMs filled with this exact question, which is that when you're starting off as a creator, especially on Instagram, you've grown a decent amount, right? You're probably in the top 90th percentile, give or take, of creators, but then you run into the wall of not having brand sponsorships to work with in terms of actual tangible money. Like sometimes I know they'll give you goodies and such, which is a great start. I don't even have that. But can you kind of map the landscape for us in terms of how does one go from, you know, just being an an established creator to then actually working with brands?

then actually working with brands? Yeah, this is a huge question. It's actually probably my second asked question. The first one is how do I balance everything and beauty and balance? So, which we will get to, we'll get to that. But this is huge, especially since today we're seeing more people wanting to become content creators, more people going into creativity as a form of expression. And obviously, if you're spending so much time, money, and investment, you want to see the returns, and that can be monetary for people. And so the way that I think about social media engagement and how to level up is less about growing your follower count and more about growing your engagement.

about growing your engagement. So if you take my stats for example on Instagram, I only have a little over 6,000 followers. Gotcha. Gotcha. And I think most people will look at that number and be like that is micro micro as comparison to, you know, the millions and hundreds of thousands of followers others have. And I think what I've done in order to make myself stand out and be unique is form a really good story for a very specific audience. And so brands right away know, okay, this is who I want to target and this creator can, you know, craft that story for that audience super easy and right away.

audience super easy and right away. Interesting. So I always think of it more as like when you are planning your content don't think about the you know videos that might get you that instant virality. virality. There's some trends there's some things that maybe look a little bit more aesthetic while those are always fun to do and engagement could help or those views could help boost engagement and maybe reach a target audience. I think of crafting three main pillars of my content, sticking to those pillars, and getting a really, really good at that type of video so that brands know exactly what they're getting into when they're partnering with you.

they're partnering with you. So, follow up to that is let's say somebody is able to drill down to their three pillars. And actually, this is something I've personally struggled with, which is that say a stranger lands on my Instagram, right? Yeah. I probably have what like five seconds if even to very clearly convey to them exactly the ideas I stand for what type of content I'm trying to make. So what are some ways in which you can signal very clearly exactly what you just said right like this is my niche these are the people I make content for these are my pets it is not like real life when you are meeting someone in real life you will introduce yourself and then the second time you meet them you're not going to reintroduce yourself again right like

reintroduce yourself again right like now that we've established a connection I'm not going to say hey my name's Alicia I run beauty and balance once again however ever. Social media is not like that. These are parasocial relationships and people are getting so much content thrown at them every second of the day. And so being repetitive and almost being annoying is the way to go. Okay? And so what I've learned is that the more that I'm able to repeat similar phrases, restate who I am and my mission and who this video is for in those five seconds, seconds, the more I'm getting the same people really understand what I have to say and will stay through the video because they're like, "Okay, yeah, I remember who I'm listening to now. I want to see what she's saying." So,

want to see what she's saying." So, every single time I'll throw in the word multi-hyphenate or balance or ambitious busy woman, things like that where I'm like, "Okay, now my audience clearly knows what they're getting themselves into and the ones who fit that profile or the brands who want to target that profile, they're going to stay on for the video." Gotcha. that. So, what comes to mind from what you just said is another guest on the show who she her moniker I think is the term she liked to use was expert authority coach. Yeah. Yeah. And she actually went outside her comfort zone and straight up trademarked that. So like really so she owns the trademark. trademark. That is so cool. Yeah. Christine Blossale. Yeah. I'll link it here for anybody wanting to

link it here for anybody wanting to watch. But basically Yeah. What you're saying is reminding me of her thing where Yeah. You have about 5 seconds to find your, for lack of better moniker and put it in your content. Put it in your website if you have one. It should be sticky enough for somebody to as soon as they see that, they're already thinking of you. Like you've you've built your like your living rent in their heads. Exactly. And a great example is that people didn't even know a lot of people didn't know what the term multi-high was. was. I actually don't even know. Can you I was that was going to be my next basically someone who is balancing multiple different passions or they feel like they're good at multiple things. So you said you had a day job as well,

you said you had a day job as well, right? What's your day job? I do AI transformation at a real estate company. company. Perfect. So you're good at speaking, you're good at AI transformation, whatever else your hobbies or passions are, you're a multi-hyphenate in those different forms. So you think of expert and then you think of multihyenate almost. Yeah. Yeah. But a lot of people didn't know what that term was and I would use it and then start to explain it through my content. And now anytime someone else uses multihyenate, I usually get DM'd that video and they're thinking like, "Oh my gosh, Alicia, there's another multihyphenel.

Alicia, there's another multihyphenel. You need to connect with them." So I think it's that type of like signage almost where you are so closely related to a brand that others start thinking of your brand for you even and yeah I think that's where the stickiness comes to mind where you're just associated in somebody's brain as that thing. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously then the question becomes how do I find that thing which I know we'll be getting going to get into in in just a little beauty and balance right. So you just mentioned that the most asked question that you get is actually about how do you balance stuff and we just even talked about for me I have a job I have these other interests big problem right there's only 24 hours

big problem right there's only 24 hours in the day so I can see how that is roughly a premise for something but as far as a living breathing entity goes when was the first time that you thought of beauty and balance as you know a tangible thing maybe that's where it started and then can you talk us through how it morphed into what it is today. Totally. I thought of it as an entity off the bat. I think when you are doing anything, even if you were just AB testing it and trying it, if you are not in the mindset of it being an entity and full sending it, then it's not going to go where you want it to go and you're

go where you want it to go and you're not giving 100% effort. But it doesn't have to be a business entity off the bat, right? So, how I started was I graduated from college. I had nine months between starting my full-time job and my graduation since I graduated a semester early. And I was like, I just want to go around the world and do my passions and teach dance. And I had such a blast doing that. But along the way, I realized that so many, especially creatives, are struggling with doing their creativity alongside something else. So many of us, especially dancers or who I was interacting with, were dancing, but they were like, "Oh, this is just for fun. Like, it's not that serious." But they're so talented and they've been doing it since they were

they've been doing it since they were three or four years old. So, in my head, I was like, "This is something you've probably put as much time as your schooling, schooling, if not more." Right. If not more. Right. Well, why is it that when it comes to balance, we're discarding our creativity? creativity? It's the secondary. Like it's always it's by default it's secondary. secondary. Exactly. And especially in the South Asian community for sure. So I just started Beauty and Balance as an Instagram page. I was like I have a thought that I feel like I'm on the nose of something for let's just open up this discussion and I was pretty strategic. I knew maybe

was pretty strategic. I knew maybe eventually I wanted to do something bigger with it. I had like a gut feeling that it was going to transform into something. I'm the type of person where I'm going to press play and I'm going to full send it. However, I'm going to do it in a way that allows me to grow with it and hear from the community and see which direction to take it instead of locking myself into something else.

locking myself into something else. So just user feedback was something you were thinking of from the from the start. So I started as an Instagram page still an entity and what I did was I would launch something and then listen to what the community has to say. First it was like just an Instagram highlight series. Okay. Okay. Where I was like Mondays let's talk about books for multi-hyphenets. Wednesdays let's talk about food on the go. I see. Okay. But I was like okay what are people really catching on to. Then I launched a newsletter. People loved that. I was like let's start okay newsletter. People like the community aspect of it. When I came to Chicago I literally got told to do community events. events. So it wasn't like a genius idea. I had I

So it wasn't like a genius idea. I had I was like the community wants to come together. together. Let's just craft the experience and relate it to a brand. Standoff community events turned into a national personal branding tour. We took that tour into a curriculum. We toured that curriculum. Along the way, we did a fashion showcase again from the community what they wanted to hear, what the artists wanted to hear. And from there, we've just kind of been like bouncing around. We just went through a rebrand, but same premise. The rebrand was all about what need does our community want right now and how can beauty and balance uniquely fill it. I got So, we're getting really pointed, but through every iteration, it was not really just my ideas. It was really what is out there and what's the white space that we're filling. So I want to double

that we're filling. So I want to double click on when you first moved to Chicago. Okay. Right. So you mentioned that that was kind of the first time you realized that there's a need for inerson communities and such. So I want to talk through and like just putting myself in your shoes at that point. You have this page. It's resonating with your audience. That part we know you then are exposed to this idea that this is something people want like everyone's bored and just they're just done with the bedrock.

done with the bedrock. Yeah. the, you know, doom scrolling is just it's over, it's out. Let's go out into the world, hang out with people that are like us. Yeah. Yeah. So, you hear that and then I guess Yeah. You do what? Cuz that part is that feels like something where a lot of folks would get stuck. Yes, definitely. I think people get stuck because they're trying to overengineer a path forward. And we see this in like let's even take college decisions, something people can relate to. They're like, "What is my four-year plan?" When I get on networking calls with people and they're like, "So, how did you get a job?" And they're still graduating high school. I'm like, "We don't need to overengineer what you want to do. I think you need to

what you want to do. I think you need to play to your strengths." So, it's half understanding. Okay, people are kind of wanting to come together as a community in some way, shape, and form. What is Alicia's strength to make this happen? Mhm. It doesn't have to be a community event if that is not what you're good at doing, right? You can just figure out other ways. Maybe it's a podcast and maybe your community is all the people in the comments of that podcast, right? For me, I grew up with parents that threw huge grand parties and events. When I was in high school, I ran the first teen convention for South Asian relationships and um just helping open up conversations for nonprofits.

open up conversations for nonprofits. So, I was like, "This is kind of my bread and butter. Let's just see how it goes and let's try it because I know I can at least make it succeed in the one singular shape and form." Mhm. But it wasn't like I'm going to do an event because I want to go on tour because I want to get a bunch of followers and then launch a paid newsletter. Like that was very much not the plan. So like you were not trying to be transactional and just kind of go with the flow for lack of a better word. So what were some of those first community events like? So that you know you're in a room

like? So that you know you're in a room there's people there. You know that they at least in some way or form believe in the premise. Yeah. Or ethos of beauty and balance. So then how do you interact with them? How do you, I guess, get it to a snowball where it's, you know, it starts snowballing. Yes. So what I did was make it very pointed for this first event. I really wanted to make sure it wasn't just like a beauty and balance launch, right?

a beauty and balance launch, right? Because I think what happens is that when people don't know you off the bat, I mean, we were talking maybe a couple hundred followers at that point and I'm new to Chicago. This was a month or two after I came to Chicago. So instead of that, I said, "Forget beauty and balance. Let's create an event where people are just genuinely interested in the topic." And what I was hearing from the topic was, "How do I become an influencer? influencer? How do I become a creator?" That was the noise around. And I was like, this is a perfect example of you want to have a full-time job, but you also want to be a content creator. Let's do an event just

content creator. Let's do an event just for that. Let's zoom in and just do something where where we can have a proof point of if we do a niche event for multi-hyphenets, it works. People want to come and they're interested in the topic. So, we did like a influencer creator speed dating event. Oh, cool. And that went well. And then I heard from grad students that like, oh, there's a bunch of doctors and lawyers that are also creatives.

that are also creatives. They want a community. So, I did an event just for them as well. So, I kind of started expanding in like these little pockets. But I will say again, things change, right? I soon realized I don't want to be an events company. So, that was a really great way to start the community. But now that beauty and balance is picking up traction, I wanted to be more thematic and I wanted to get all the multi-hyphenets together in the same room. So that's when I was like, what is the common thread between all of these events? And it was personal branding. It was multi-hyphenets not knowing how to introduce themselves. Yeah. Yeah. When they asked, so what do you do? And

When they asked, so what do you do? And they're like, well, I do a little bit of everything. everything. So that was my common thread that we expanded to next. I see. So, what you're saying is, which I love cuz it it definitely rings true after 108 episodes of this show, which is basically, it's so interesting for me just how often this comes up where you're doing a thing, you have no idea what you're doing. You get an idea, you do the thing, you realize that you've overoptimized slash overengineered and then that it selfcorrects like the path becomes so obvious in front of you at that point but it's only obvious because you went ahead and did the thing and you tried it right. So in your case you almost niched down one layer too much than you were trying to which made you realize that okay

realize that okay this is what an events company looks like that's not what I want. So what do I want this? And you probably wouldn't have gotten here if you hadn't failed at the well I say failed but no you course corrected. Yeah. Exactly. And I think people are scared of that level of I put all this time into this but if I didn't do that step I wouldn't have gotten my like early adopters Yeah. Yeah. into the community that have come with me through everything. They're the ones advocating for me. And I also wouldn't have learned what it took to hold an event at that capacity because that learning helped me launch Chicago Fashion Week event that was 350 people. And so I think people discard the learnings along the way

the learnings along the way that are irreplaceable. So you need to just go and try and do it. Yeah. The thought comes to mind that I'm probably going to butcher, but the first thing a blind man discards after getting his eyes back is his stick. Oh, Oh, it kind of goes hard, right? Like I just Wow. Wow. I just love I just read it on Twitter randomly, but it came to mind from what from what you just said. Um the so from there I guess where I'm trying to get to now is there's a big component at least with the folks that I talk to where there's almost a social stigma slash embarrassment linked to all of this right first of all let me say that even just starting a page is certain level

level but then as you continue to do more it almost feels like the worst manifestation of the spotlight effect which I'm sure you and I know what that is but I'm sure a lot of our listeners are not. So can you talk through I guess in terms of mindset how do you deal with that right like your friends will laugh at you people that even don't even know you but there's always that element of oh man this is cringe you know spare me with that crap so how how did you is that something you faced and if so how did you overcome totally I have two responses to this first I want to start by saying I actually got on social media because I

actually got on social media because I was cyberbullied So I know this to like the max extent and it's not something to like be sorry for now. It's actually I am like only one tiny statistic in the number of people that get cyberbullied and bullied online and are harassed online. It's okay. We'll let it go. Um, and it's because because that is you're opening yourself up to this world of criticism and it's so easy for people to sit at home behind a screen and comment anything they want and so I don't take that with a grain of salt, right? Like that is a heavy weight that people are facing and so it is completely understandable for that fear and I don't want to sit here and say just get over it. Yeah. You know, I don't want to sit here

Yeah. You know, I don't want to sit here and say, right? Oh, like your mental health won't be affected. Just do it. Exactly. That it's not helpful advice. And so I think realization is the first thing you need to do. And I'm not saying you need to feel okay with it or fine with it, but you need to realize that if you are putting yourself online, it will come with this level of criticism that you need to figure out other ways to combat it with. For me, it was my support system, whether it was close friends, my parents are huge, my brother is a huge support system for me. Finding other people also online that we can just talk about this with, with, right? Maybe for you it's a physical

right? Maybe for you it's a physical release. Maybe it's getting into a good book, going on a walk, whatever it is, have a counter effect number one. And then I go back to playing with your strengths. strengths. So I think what happens is that we see all these cool creators online. We see people building their personal brand and we're like, we want to be just like them. them. But it's not always what you're good at.

But it's not always what you're good at. I give the best example. I would love to be good at get ready with me. I love watching them, okay? But the second I'm like trying to do my makeup and talk, I lose I can't multitask like that. It's just not my style. Interesting. Interesting. It's not my style. And so I've tried to do it. And the more I'm trying, and I'm not saying don't try things you're not good at, but like the more I try to do it, the more I'm embarrassed looking at that video back. So I was like, let me find what I'm good at, at, what my personal style is. and I like speaking head videos.

speaking head videos. Um, I love to dance. I like, you know, writing my newsletter and on LinkedIn. So, figure out in the world of social media, there's so many channels. True. What's your strength and double down on that and keep practicing that? Yeah. First of all, that's so real of you to to admit that. That's crazy. And, you know, I appreciate I have like two get ready with me videos. Don't look at them. Just don't.

So I think firstly, yeah, very very helpful. The two things I want to add to that just in terms of the dozens of times I've talked to people about this just cuz we're on the subject is first most people don't even like themselves. Okay. Okay. It's like, you know, kind of a maybe like a hotter take, but to expect strangers to just out of the blue. Yeah. fall in love with your content. It's just unrealistic. Purely objectively, it's unrealistic. Now, I'm not justifying that it's okay for, you know, trolls to write mean things for you. I'm not justifying that. Of course, that's messed up. Should not happen.

messed up. Should not happen. But my point is these are people that don't even like themselves. So, why are you expecting that they will like you? The tagline should be, do you need an ego to be in social? Yeah. 100%. 100,000%. So that is the one thing and then the other thing which is on a similar tactical note sure sure all comments are good even if they're hate comments if you bait them if you like engage with them for the algorithm it's just going to you know increase your reach show it to more people so in like a really messed up way there's like so there's a term for this it's called like a judo maneuver I forget the name okay it's like rage baiting why people rage bait true but it's basically so say somebody throws a jab But it's like a really it's like judo 101 apparently where you like absorb

101 apparently where you like absorb that jab and convert that into like a maneuver where they're on the ground and you just you know you just but that only happens because they jabbed it. Okay. So it's the same thing, right? You get your h comment is your jab. It's within the realm of things you can do to convert that into a slam dunk for your content to reach like thousands more. Yeah. absorb the negativity and then use it, repurpose it and just be tactical about it, right?

and just be tactical about it, right? Like it's not personal. They if you go on their profile, they probably have 50 other comments that they wrote under 30 other posts. It's what they do like you are not special in in the most no and I love that advice. I love that advice because I think we are always thinking about ourselves when it comes to personal brand. We're like hyperfocused and when we get a comment or if we don't a lack of comments as well, we're thinking why don't people like us? We're thinking why are they targeting me? And you have to realize like we're not that important in the grand scheme. We are probably a millisecond of someone else's day. Yeah, Yeah, we are literally not even a full minute, maybe like 30 seconds

maybe like 30 seconds of a scroll in someone else's day. And if they are spending more time than that on you, then they're obsessed and they're a fan. And that's also fine. True. Yeah. You're living rentree in somebody's head. Exactly. The reason doesn't matter. Yeah. The like final thing I want to just say on this because we're here is for me the the biggest shame of it all is how many people don't start their content journeys because of exactly what we talked about. Yeah. So every chance I get, I love to chip away at that that if you're like listening to this with this exact notion, you will be surprised just how little people care. Yeah. Yeah. Before and after your first piece of content, nobody cares. Just do the thing

content, nobody cares. Just do the thing that you want to do. It's the only thing that um ultimately matters. And I realize this four years too late. And it's something it's probably like top three biggest regrets cuz I just think about I'm at 108 now. I probably would have been in like 300s at this point. Yeah. Yeah. And that opportunity cost for me is just brutal. Like I just think about it all the time. just like ah I if only I get that and I would say like obviously the timing had to be right for you and like maybe the quality of what I'm I'm a very like silver lining person so you know you can't go and erase the past but if someone is listening to this and they're on the fence about starting I always say you need to start and then

I always say you need to start and then test and try it out and it's kind of going back to what we're talking about. But the biggest thing I have seen and we actually actually the reason why we started a curriculum on this, right, is because I saw so many talented creatives who were leaving opportunities on the table because they're too busy and so they're doing their nineto-five and they're like, Alicia, how are you able to get all these other opportunities? I'm not doing outreach for it at all. It's all coming inbound through a personal brand. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that is the biggest thing.

And I think that is the biggest thing. It's like, yes, obviously content creation is important because you get to shape your narrative and your story, but really it just opens doors for you without you having to work too much for it. it. 100%. And I think that's also the perfect segue for what's coming to mind is we just Yeah. This feels like such a nebulous glob of things, right? Like there's so much in here. So when you say curriculum I think the at least if I were you I would need to spend a lot of time just right sizing it in terms of where do we start where do we end totally totally you you have to make some assumptions right that people you're working with there have to be assumptions like you

there have to be assumptions like you can't treat it as like a blanket state everybody is the same so can you talk through with beauty balance when you were working on the curriculum itself what informed some of those decisions and how did you end up at least at v 1.0 to of your curriculum. Yeah, great question. So, it's our power of and curriculum. I'll give you a little bit of the backstory and you're going to start, especially our viewers, they're going to start to see a trend in how I work, which is very much AB testing. Okay, so here's here's the little backstory and I'll keep it brief, but go for it. It doesn't have to be brief.

go for it. It doesn't have to be brief. I posted a video and I I'm even forgetting what this video is on. posted a video and it got seen by someone and then referred to someone. Basically, I ended up in contact with people at Harvard that were putting together a woman's conference. Wow. Wow. And that is why I'm like, you just have to put yourself out there because again, I don't have hundreds of thousands of followers, right? That's why they just take the right person looking at something and resonating with it. it. So, I get asked to speak at this Harvard woman's um woman in business conference and I mean the speakers there are insane. They're so impactful CEOs and co-founders and people working with celebrities.

with celebrities. It was crazy to see. I think someone who came even had security guards and I was like like me I'm in this room and you're their peer. Not even just being in the room, you're that peer at this point. It was it was phenomenal to say the least. But I'm going there and I'm realizing, okay, this is a two-day conference. There's 350 plus high school and college students. So, I'm taking that demographic in mind and putting myself in their shoes. And I said, if I had two days of listening to speakers, I my time slot was the second day towards the middle. They're going to be tired. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They're done listening. They might be inspired, but there's only so much inspiration you can fit.

inspiration you can fit. Especially at these conferences. Yeah, it gets old pretty fast. Even with the best ones, it's just hard. I'm like, okay, so how and I don't have a name brand like that. These kids don't know what Beauty and Balance is. They don't know Alicia, right? So, how do I stand out? I don't want to just give and I have 45 minutes plus Q&A. That's a long time on a panel. Yeah, Yeah, it's a long time just me on stage.

it's a long time just me on stage. That's nerve-wracking. Wow. And it's your first time doing this at this scale, I'm assuming, too. No. Okay. But, uh, first time under Beauty and Balance. Balance. Okay. Gotcha. So, I've done it for nonprofits in the past. past. Gotcha. I see. I see. Um, and it's different, right? It's not your your Yeah. Yeah. You're just like there's a boss. You're checking a box. Life goes on. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So, I'm like, I need to spice it up.

So, I'm like, I need to spice it up. We're going to make it an interactive workshop. I'm going to tell them a little bit about my story. The angle I want to take is that I was in your shoes like literally a couple years ago. I just turned 24, so I'm not that much older than them, but I want to make it really interactive. I want to make it a workshop. So, that was number one, and it started off in that space. So, I'm crafting this workshop. And I know the things I want to hit on for beauty and balance are personal branding. That's super important for us. And I also want to hit on rest and what rest means when you are busy. So I started with those two principles and then I said okay how do I get them to that point

do I get them to that point and I just took myself as an example and I was like how did I get to that point right? right? And I started to craft four steps. That's the consultant in me. I was like everything needs to be it needs to be in steps. It needs to be digestible. Yep. Structured. Structured. So, I crafted four steps that walked people through how do you actually understand yourself? How do you understand what your passions are? What your strengths are? Because I can't assume that these people even know what that is. For me, I didn't understand that there was a difference between dance, which I would say is a passion and something I'm good at, and let's say modeling, which I would

and let's say modeling, which I would say for me right now is more of a hobby. I'll do it when it's fun. It's more parallel, right? But I'm not trying to become a professional model. So I want them to understand that difference first. Y Y then once you have that difference, how do you actually prioritize it? That's that balance component before you can build a personal brand. What do you actually want to focus on right now? Then we went through a personal branding formula formula of okay, how do you actually craft your personal brand? How do you stay consistent with it? How are you showing up across channels with it? And then finally we ended with the role of rest and just like some reflection on with a busy lifestyle how are you making time for yourself and that's like the little cherry on top.

that's like the little cherry on top. So that's how I started the workshop. Then after I spoke at Harvard um obviously the name brand carried but I also used it to reach out to other schools other universities. We've now taken it to over 15 places. Wow. everywhere from Girl Scouts that were 10 years old to eight top universities and then we also started doing um corporations. So I'm speaking with employees and employers in that regard and I've just altered this curriculum to work for people and meet them where they are. Interesting. So I think the biggest thing that I'm picking up which is really cool is first of all it's not a one for all type situation and secondly it's built with the audience in mind. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you're able to stick to

And I love that you're able to stick to your core premise and ethos and then just extract from that same well whatever you need to depending on who you're talking. Exactly. Exactly. Sometimes I'll build it up a little bit more, especially for the high school college demographic. I will go really hard on the prioritization because that's the phase of life that they're in. They want to understand postgrad, how do I actually fit everything into my schedule when I don't have classes. Yep.

don't have classes. Yep. Right. But if I'm going to the Girl Scouts, for example, I was like, let's figure out what you actually enjoy doing. doing. You know, what do you enjoy? What do you like? What sparks you? I have a little bit more questions around that. When I'm at a place like I spoke at Accenture, then I'm focusing more on in your personal brand. How do you make sure you're okay with your co-workers seeing it? it? Right. That is something I think about when you said about Exactly. And that's equally important.

Exactly. And that's equally important. So, it's just doubling down on different phases, but I think everyone goes through all phases. I'm not canceling out steps because even at Accenture when we did the reflection of what is your strength and what is your passion people were like oh my gosh I never sat down and actually thought about this right I just kind of went into work and then I'm figuring out everything else but it's that reflection piece people miss and so we still go through all four steps every single time. Gotcha. So I have a take on this because it's this is a question that I get asked a lot but I'm curious for your take because it obviously clearly you've done

because it obviously clearly you've done way more thinking on this than I have and that question is just that I started the thing I took the leap did it for two weeks fell back to my old habits and now it's just that really sad embarrassing dance of when a friend asks hey how's the new channel or hey how's the new page and you're like, you know, I just haven't posted on it for a while.

haven't posted on it for a while. And I just feel maybe you can please tell me if you've had a different I think that is the biggest by far challenge that people face and maybe I can tell you what I tell them and you can critique my thing and offer a you know better solution. But what I tell them is in three words um process over goals. Okay, it's really that as simple as that. So reject your goals. You don't want a,000 sub followers. You don't want 10,000.

sub followers. You don't want 10,000. Like it's just not sustainable cuz the day you go up to 10,000, what happens then? Like do you stop making content? Like are you just done? Instead, Instead, build a process. Take as much time as you need to build out your process. Every morning half an hour, I'm going to write ideas. Every Tuesday 7:30 p.m. I'm going to while walking my dog record one talking head. Whatever. It doesn't matter what it is. Once you lock it down, you're not allowed to change. That is your process. So, you take it to your grave. I don't care what you do, but and and make one video a month. That that's a valid process. You don't have to do 12. But the day you lose or you miss your

But the day you lose or you miss your process is the day you've lost, which okay, talk me through your candid take on that. that. Okay. I like the overall process over goals. I think that part where we shouldn't overindex on goals is really important because I think what people do is they set these lofty goals and manifestation manifestation and then they never work on it. Yeah. Yeah. And they never figure out how to so far it's like climbing Everest. I can barely see the top. Exactly. And so I had a saying very similar which was enjoy the experience versus the opportunity. That's it. That's exaggerating.

That's it. That's exaggerating. Which I was like, okay, people are chasing like I want to be Forbes 30 under blah blah blah, but like what are you actually going to do to get there? So that part I'm all on board for. Now, when it when it comes to like when it comes to doing something and sticking to it, I have a slightly hot take. take. And I think it's because of how I operate too. And the seasons of my life are so vastly different that if I got disappointed every time my schedule changed, I would just constantly be disappointed in myself. So, makes sense. I think you need to figure out first what type of worker are you? Are you someone that needs that motivation?

someone that needs that motivation? Are you someone that needs everything to be charted into a tea? Otherwise, you're not going to do it. You need to meal prep on Sundays. you need to do this. If that's you, I think that's great advice. A lot of the people I've worked with and a lot of multi-hyphenets I've seen, we have gigs pop up last minute.

have gigs pop up last minute. We have, you know, travel pop up last minute. And so it gets really hard, and I tried this out, which is why I'm saying it. Gets really hard to say, okay, if I miss one thing, then that's it. I like life is over, goal is over. I will get booked on a gig like the day before, right? And now let's say if I had a whole schedule planned, if I can't do that schedule, if I'm stressing about that schedule, schedule, then mentally I'm setting myself back.

then mentally I'm setting myself back. So instead, what I do is similar process. I still think you need a process and I still think you need like micro goals within that process. So let's say your goal is to post more day in the life videos. I had a similar goal. I wanted once a month, twice a month to have a day in the life videos. Let's say I don't meet that goal. Then I'm going to start thinking, okay, why did I not like meet that goal?

did I not like meet that goal? Do I not like day in the life videos anymore? Okay, alternatively, which video do I like? Don't just stop there and say, okay, bye. Like then you need to come up with an alternative to meet your end point. Gotcha. Gotcha. Is it was it time? Okay, I don't have time, but I want to make time. Let's figure out other sources of time.

figure out other sources of time. For me, the way that I do it is I don't love putting on makeup. Okay, I don't want to be doing this every day, but the days I do put on makeup, let's content batch. batch. Right. Of course, let me write down all of my ideas before and then second I have makeup on and not this not every time. Right. So, I think it's just like reflecting on why you didn't get to the point you wanted and then constantly figuring out new ways to do it. So, it's less about like sticking to one thing and more about sticking to the idea of constantly refreshing your schedule and your priorities to meet your goals. Yeah. And I think I the thing I like

Yeah. And I think I the thing I like most about your system is that there's room in there for introspection. which is a far cry from mine, which I do I will admit it does. So, here's the thing. It does sound way more draconian, right? Like it's the highway or no way, whatever whatever you have to figure out if that's what works for you because some people stay a little bit more routine. If I over routine, I get stressed and I don't want to get to a point where you're so stressed you don't work, right? Yeah. No, it's very true. So yeah, this is so interesting. So in my case, right, when I first started my show, the only success criteria for me was new episode every Wednesday. Okay. Okay. And similar to what I told you, if I don't do that, I die.

don't do that, I die. Like straight up in my head, the it's I don't care where I'm traveling, what I'm doing. doing. Makes sense. Every Wednesday, I will upload a new episode. So I did that for one and a half years. Yeah. And then I guess what I'm trying to say by that story is rules rules slashp processes sl routines whatever I feel like they only matter like every person needs to know them really well so that then they can know when to break.

that then they can know when to break. I agree. I actually agree with you. I had something similar my newsletter. We were just willy-nilly posting and I was like we're never going to grow if it's just whenever we have an idea. Right. Exactly. So I was like bi-weekly on Mondays I am going to release a newsletter. There you go. go. Now one Monday came around and like gigs came up my team was busy whatever.

came up my team was busy whatever. We left room for error. We were like okay okay today this week it can go on on Thursday but it's going out this week. Right. Right. Right. That is non-negotiable. Yeah. So, I think giving yourself kind of that room for error without being laxed on yourself. yourself. That really sounds like Yeah. the perfect middle ground almost. There we go. We came up with we came up There we go. We came up with an in between.

with an in between. Except I didn't obviously know this when I first started my thing cuz I was literally You should have seen me like my friends were concerned for me. They were they were like, "Dude, like it's okay. okay. You have 28 views on your last Wednesday's episode. Is it's not that deep." And I I used to agree with them. I'll just be like, "Yeah, it's not that deep." But it's a really dumb promise I made to myself. I love the promise and I owe myself and just it's just like I took it personally, twisted it into like a weirdly egocentric way that I am a type of person that follows through with promises I make myself which as I say that and having so I no longer do this

this because I no longer have to. I know I'm going to publish episodes for the rest of my life. Yes. Straight up. I don't know why I would ever stop. Future Namat, if you're watching this, please, if you've stopped putting out episodes, I'm really disappointed in you and you failed me. But random sidebar aside, yeah. So, but I wouldn't get to this point if I hadn't done one and a half years because I would have stopped like why would I continue to especially podcasts, especially virtual.

especially podcasts, especially virtual. It's the hard it's like playing the content game on the hardest. You're asking for an hour for from people for with two people most of the time that they don't know talking about a topic that they barely somewhat isish are interested about. It's so hard and the only reason I stuck through was because of this. But yeah, but again to your point not everybody is don't like that stream.

don't like that stream. Okay, just just relax. I think a mindset that can help and I like what you said with 28 viewers because I think we should not be putting out content or even putting out any craft. Forget it doesn't have to be only social media. We should not be doing anything with the constraint of who and how many are watching. I post and I've posted like this from day one and I continue to post like I am the most famous person in this world. Okay? Like I have this huge auditorium filled every single time. I will give the same energy if I'm talking to a group of 10 to a group of like thousand. And I think that's the mentality we need when we are

that's the mentality we need when we are creating because that mentality will make sure we don't fail because for some reason we've made it okay if there's only five people to disappoint those five people versus disappointing the a thousand. And I get it rationally but I don't think that's the mindset we should have. I think we should say it is not okay to disappoint even five or even one for that matter. Or even one. Exactly. Exactly. Or even yourself. True. And Yeah. And one is again I guess zero is yourself right cuz even before you get to one you already you're listening to what you're saying um something that one of the past guests said that really it's you know it's one of those things that people say in passing they don't even remember but it

passing they don't even remember but it sticks with you and this guest he's he's a YouTuber as well he said that social media has broken our brains to such an extent now that 500 views on a YouTube video mean nothing like It's nothing. But now imagine 500 people in a room like those are actual Sure. There sometimes people will watch twice but fine 300 people sure sure in one room is not nothing like you deserve to give yourself a pat on the back. Yeah. Despite having 300 views and don't get blown away that oh Mr. Beast has 300. Great. Great. He started somewhere right. Yeah. Yeah. You're not. So yeah basically what you said don't worry about it. Just do it for yourself. Do it because you like it.

for yourself. Do it because you like it. Talk to the one person in your brain that you're making your content for. It only takes one person to change your life. Right. All my speaking gigs, it wasn't Yes. There's a proof point that comes with multiple views and multiple followers. That is just one tick in your overall resume. resume. It can be a vanity metric also, right? But you, it literally only takes one person resonating for them to have a door that opens for you.

door that opens for you. Yeah. Which in your case that Harvard, right? You you could not have planned for that. Exactly. Or even when we held Chicago Fashion Week's first South Asian Runway, it was just, you know, one person on a nonprofit here in Chicago, like a fashion nonprofit that reached out to me. Wow. And then you put your heads together and then you create something bigger than you. But it truly like it only takes a couple people to kickstart something you wouldn't have even expected.

wouldn't have even expected. Yeah. And I you mentioned this a little bit, but with those other schools that you toured, you said 15 already. You I'm sure you have a few in the bag like coming up as well. Um what does that outreach system look like roughly for these schools? Yeah, and I I kind of mentioned this before, but it's all around personal branding. Your personal brand speaks when you are not speaking. And so what I did was when I was at Harvard, I milked it. it. Yeah. Oh, as you should.

Yeah. Oh, as you should. Okay. Like I'm sure again it's being repetitive and it's being embarrassing. I posted almost every like not even every day. It was like two or three times a day being like, "I'm at Harvard. I'm at Harvard." like I'm at Harvard. I'm at Harvard." like screamed it from the rooftop because I really wanted that to be a signal to other universities and to other corporations that like my material can be taken seriously. I'm a 23-year-old girl, but like I've been on some stages and I know what I'm talking about in this regard. And so I kind of just let put it out there in the world and let that run for me. I would say around half of the speaking engagements we got, a little bit more were universities

little bit more were universities reaching out to me. That's awesome. We're inbound saying like, "Hey, I saw what you did at Harvard. We would love to bring it to our university." Incredible. Incredible. The other half was like, "Okay, now I have what I did at Harvard. I know I really want to speak at UC Berkeley Hos. I know I really want to speak at Stern. So, let me just find the right people to reach out to and with proof and and credentials.

with proof and and credentials. Exactly. And the proof can be anything. In my case, it was Harvard, but even to get to Harvard, I had to have some proof. proof. Which if we go all the way back to the beginning of our conversation, if I never held those first three events, Exactly. Exactly. I wouldn't have any proof. And so, every everything compounds on one another. So, yeah. Yeah. Steve Jobs said, right, the circle that the dots only connect backwards. There is no way to tell.

backwards. There is no way to tell. Yeah. The only thing we're entitled to do is what we want to or slash what we can slash what's possible today. And it's good enough. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay to just do that and call it. Um when we were thinking offline, you mentioned that you have a digital curriculum coming up. Yeah. Yeah. For beauty and balance. I would be remiss to not ask you for at least like a sneak peek into what that might look like and I would be even happy to volunteer myself as a lab rat if you want to like run it on me because honestly a lot of things that you mentioned is are things I think about.

mentioned is are things I think about. Sure I have a podcast but trust me I'm not too far away from those kids at Harvard or these uh accenture folks. In a weird way I'm both. Yeah. as I'm sure most people right most people are and again you can take this at any stage I actually do this curriculum every quarter because I'm re-evaluating what's in my life every season and so this is not like a one time and then you have it in your back pocket this is a framework that really guides you in every season of your life to understand what are you good at what do you like doing right now what is the prioritization prioritization How is your personal brand showing up and what's in that brand? And then how are you taking time for yourself? Interesting. Interesting. Yeah,

Yeah, it's it's so good to have this be a coach thing because again all of these words I know their meanings except I would not get anywhere. Even if you gave me infinite time, I would still be like h you know, I I would just be like stuck. I'm it's too too broad. Like I don't know how to narrow it down without like a map. Exactly. So in this digital curriculum and we'll maybe do like the first exhibit. Sure. Yeah. We have a white. Okay. Perfect. Ready for that? Yeah. Yeah. In this curriculum, I lead you through it's what I have been presenting. presenting. But I lead you through like my personal examples as well and everything like that. So there's four steps. Let's just do step one. Yep. And so people can get a good sense

Yep. And so people can get a good sense of like honestly what I think is the most important step when finding your balance. balance. Let's do it. All right. So what I prompt people to do first is step one. Perfect. You're going to take a second. I love it. Yeah. You're going to take a second and in a vertical column I want you to write down around three to six strengths of yourself.

three to six strengths of yourself. Okay? 3 to six strengths. Strengths. And when you're thinking about strengths, I want you to think about, let's say you're in a group setting, what comes naturally to you? These are not things you think you should be good at. Okay? This is like nan if you are put in a group what roles and tasks are you picking up first? Gotcha. And can they be like at a meta level or are we talking super niche or what's the you can have a mix of the two? I would say anything from like again my example is I think a professional strength for me is public speaking communication. I'm also really good at marketing because I got a degree in it.

marketing because I got a degree in it. So like it can be a scatter of that. Think about what you did in college. Think about what are the tasks that make you produce this podcast maybe. Yeah. Yeah. That you've had to get good at. Okay. No, that's helpful. I can definitely definitely get started. Um, didn't think I would be doing this today, but I guess here we are. Um, and maybe I can just talk through my things because I'm okay with Yeah, because I think that might be helpful as other people or listeners do this for themselves.

do this for themselves. Um, first thing that comes to mind is just being able to help people for whatever reason. I've been doing like a lot of bite coding, you know, events of late where I That's how we met. That's true. Where I do Yeah. mentorship and such. That's just really And there's a reason why I do that cuz it's just something I like to do. So, I'll just say guide people. Let's take it one step further. I like guide as like the premise. What is the actual strength that allows you to guide? understanding where they're stuck. stuck. There we go. You're gonna understanding problems and identifying it in other people. Exactly. Understanding and iding problems. Great. So, that's one. Wow. It's like a sentence.

It's like a sentence. That's like four things. Um I would say I can communicate pretty well. Perfect. Perfect. But I've Isn't that cheating? because didn't we cover that on one and and it doesn't have to be me like I think again don't over routine it literally already doing that this is just to really get your thoughts on paper and then once we get to the second part of this exercise you'll see how it all ties together yeah the communication maybe like storytelling that communication things like that yeah I can add that the third thing that comes to mind weirdly is like making fe people feel comfortable. So like if I'm in a group where there's six people that are mostly just being people, I would feel like a random urge to like get Yeah.

Yeah. you know, conversations going. Making feel making people feel comfortable. That's perfect. Yeah, I love that. Making Is there anything in your day job you think you're you have as a strength? These are a little bit more meta. I would add like maybe AI more tangible. Gotcha. That's helpful. Yeah, cuz I I was thinking more just like traits traits and and you can have that too. Makes sense. But it's good to have a balance. balance. A balance of both. No pun intended. Uh yeah, of course. That is the bread and butter. So, we'll just say AI expertise. expertise. Perfect. Perfect. Cuz I feel like that's a big enough umbrella. umbrella. Um maybe just to balance things off.

Um maybe just to balance things off. Let's get to five. Um, professionally, I would also say I'm really good at um figuring out where there's going to be fires down the road before there's a fire. Okay. Like almost like road mapping or risk assessment. Okay, there we go. Is that That's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So, I would say I feel good about that. that. Okay. I almost wish we had another whiteboard. whiteboard. That's fine. We can like just I'll just flash that. Okay. Did I use too much space a little bit, but it's okay. That's fine. We'll make it work. Yeah. I'll do the rest. Okay. So, once you have those list of strengths, strengths, disregard it for now. Okay. Okay. In another vertical column, you're going to be writing down what are your passions. Okay. Now, when I say passions, I want you to

Now, when I say passions, I want you to think very expansively. We're not on the prioritization section yet. Gotcha. So think super broad. I have a passion for like exploring coffee shops for example. I also have a passion for modeling and I think that goes to more of the I like to craft art with a team. Those are all passions. Passions for dance, passion for you know putting on events where people can come together.

events where people can come together. So when you think passions, I want to start with education because I feel like basically that's like my life mission at this point. Um I just want to in and for all definitions of the word it still stands. So that's that would be my first um um what are some causes that you're you feel move you? Um I feel like education would be the biggest. Okay. Like in my rendition of the ideal world, everybody is educated. I like I would actually do that even before quote unquote solving, you know, like world poverty. Yeah, maybe not. I don't know. That's that's I think one leads to another. But we digress. digress. You get what I mean. I guess yeah, that but yeah, I guess the thing is there's no one passion that can leave you to solve world poverty, right? But

you to solve world poverty, right? But that's maybe the closest you can get. So I would say education and then um like media like I love making films. Yeah, videos. Yeah, we will say videos. You could put media/filmmaking. Yeah, let's cuz that's literally what we do. Um third would be sports. I'm like very athletic. I think sports are just a blessing for humanity. Perfect. Should I keep going? Let's maybe get to five again. Yeah. Um I am a bit proponent of um I feel like technology is the highest leverage thing we've ever had in the history of humanity. Okay. And it at no other point has it been possible where one person is able to leverage one thing and reach literally entire world do things for the world whatever like right takes many forms. So can I just put I think that works. technology utilizing techn you know you know what

utilizing techn you know you know what it means to you right okay which is the important part um um I would say the fifth one yeah on a Saturday and I mean we can also take today for example obviously media is on that list but like other than that what is something that just grounds you where do you spend your time when you're not quote unquote working yeah in so in like a really messed up way and I've been told that this is a non-answer But but what grounds me is actually my um constant like very hard harsh need to not know but understand everything that is understood by humanity. So I don't need to know how many penguins are alive in Antarctica right now but I want to understand

right now but I want to understand everything that goes into a penguin population existing. Okay. Okay. Does that make sense? So we put like fun fact wisdom fun facts I would say like learning and exploring the unknown. Okay. Yep. That I like that. Learning things I don't know. Yeah. Perfect. Things I DK. [snorts] Okay. Okay. Great. I'll flash that one more time and point it where it is. These are my five passions and that's the rest of the step one stuff. Great. Wow. This is I feel like we made so much progress.

like we made so much progress. We're like scratching the surface. No way. Yeah. Okay. cuz I'm like but like I feel like no not a lot of people take time just to do this. True. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm telling you. Yeah. Just to understand what's in your basket. What do you What makes Numa Nan? Right. Right. So that is part one of step one. We'll go through part two and then I think that'll be a good teaser.

think that'll be a good teaser. Yeah. Make some space here. Why? No. No. You don't need to, you know. Oh, are you sure of it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, you can as we're as you're rewriting, I can tell kind of what part two looks like. So, part two is now drawing the intersections intersections between your strengths and your passions. passions. One strength can lead to multiple passions and vice versa. And what I mean by lead to is how can you see one enhancing the other or vice versa. So for me and again think really expansively. expansively. Oh boy. For me one of the most simplest examples is my one of my professional strengths is storytelling. I love crafting narratives whether that is through media through dance through my actual like consulting work.

through my actual like consulting work. Yeah. And so I if that's a strength on the strength column I will draw a line to media to dance to whatever else I am able to craft stories in in my passion and it can go the other way around right right so I basically want you to think where are we finding the intersections between the two interesting so I mean right off the bat the easiest one feels like um AI into education perfect because that feels like a match made in I mean AI into technology as well.

I mean AI into technology as well. True. But that maybe would be like lower down the risk cuz I'm just saying that because there's so many interesting combinations possible that and again your brain is already going into the prioritization. Exactly. Yeah. Which is fair which is fine. It's not not good or bad. I think that is one way to do it here. It's really I just want you to understand that your passion is not a side thing. Doing your strength and doing your profession profession is actually enhancing your passion and vice versa. Doing your passion is likeing your strength. And so when people say, "Oh, I'm a strategy consultant, but I'm also a dancer, but like I just dance for fun. I just dance on the side." I want them to reframe

on the side." I want them to reframe their mind and saying your dance is the reason you are a good consultant. Wow. Wow. That is what we're getting at in this. And so when your employer asks you, oh, what are you doing after after work? I can say I'm actually enhancing my skills to be better at my job. That is the end goal we want to get at here. Huh. Wow. That's so cool. I love that. That is really, really cool. Wow.

is really, really cool. Wow. And I think the other good thing about that is when you start with a more expansive list, you don't um there's no risk for you to be your own worst enemy. Yeah. Yeah. And keep yourself locked in the same bad thought patterns that you have been doing for the rest of your life, which is literally what I have been doing. doing. No, no, no worries. So, way to Yeah. call me on my There we can keep we I usually just make them draw lines. Ah okay. So it's not like a list necessary. It's just a visual representation of like how everything in your life is connecting.

everything in your life is connecting. Right. Right. So we I will connect that. It would have really helped to have two different color markers. But yeah, I'm sure folks at home have all the stuff that we need. Um yeah, I'm trying to think other stuff. Maybe Maybe I feel like yeah, communication, storytelling maps really well with media film, film, right? So, I'll match those.

right? So, I'll match those. I would even argue it maps really well to sports. Really? Huh? Well, are you not communicating on a team? team? I guess that's true. It's fair. It's a good point. I will map that here as well. So, we have three um guiding and understanding people's problems. I think it's maps both with education and media and probably even technology right because that's what I'm using. We are using technology to do that right now. Perfect. Perfect. So I will do one two two and you can also map it the other way. Ah okay interesting. So it's not a linear two ways. Okay. Okay. Wow. Okay. That it's meant to be messy. It is meant again just to get your headsp space in the these aren't two separate worlds for you. Everything you're doing is connecting to something else. When I am

connecting to something else. When I am modeling, I'm enhancing my brain in some way. way. And we actually have stats in our curriculum to prove this. So it's not just like a theoretical we should have made this up. I did not. It feels really believable. But it obviously helps that. Yeah. But it was proved by research. So there's a lot of research that shows that people that have creative hobbies have overall higher well-being. They have higher IQs. They perform better in standardized tests. They there's so much. They're more likely to become Noble laureates. Like there's crazy amount of statistics out there that your creativity isn't meant to be pushed aside. Yeah. I mean, I can keep going. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I can keep going. Yeah. For sports, I feel like sports funnally like maps well with risk assessment cuz as a consequence of playing soccer my entire life, both my ankles are just like bad. They're just Yeah, they're unlike a grandpa. grandpa. Well, you probably have to predict like, okay, this person is going to make this move, move, right? So, just don't go in. Yeah, I want to walk still. So, you win the ball, man. You know, go for it. Um and then learning things that I don't know. Yeah. Maps really basically basically the above. Yeah. Starting with Yeah.

the above. Yeah. Starting with Yeah. expertise. Yeah. So I think yeah I get the premise of this step and then not to jump the gun but classical naman. Are you then like trying to Yeah. I guess what is the next step? Are you doing elimination or what's up? So our next step and we have this in our curriculum in our digital packet that people can purchase but it's different levels of prioritization starting yearly. Yes. Yes. Going quarterly. Love it. Then monthly then weekly then daily. I love it. And so what we're doing is we're figuring out okay realistically I am not advocating that you are doing all of this all the time. Yeah. Cuz I would need like so if someone asked me balance real like yes and no, right? like in the sense of you're balancing whatever you

you're balancing whatever you intentionally put into your bucket for a season. Yes. Are you balancing all of this all the time though? And so the next step is taking all of those kind of templates that we've laid out for you and figuring out for nan right now on May 25th, 2026 like what do you want to actually So it's not meant to be like this is me forever. No season. Wow. Cuz I promise you this would look maybe at least actually I don't I'm now curious to do this six months later. Your strengths might stay the same. They might increase. So your passions might change based off of what's important to you in a specific time.

you in a specific time. Yeah. And six months is still too less, right? What about six years? They are 100% will change. Yeah. Yeah. So you Gotcha. So then there is a way essentially for people to get to that mapping of do this yearly. Exactly. do this quarterly. Yep. Interesting. Interesting. And then that leads to your brand. How are you showing up? What are the pillars that are important for that season? Wow. I'm loving because I've never gotten this close of a reaction. I'm usually telling it to a whole Right. Right. Yeah. So, this is great. I'm I'm really glad that you're valuable.

that you're valuable. I guess what is craziest and like maybe this is designed to be this way, maybe not. you can like slap me on the wrist. But what I'm thinking of literally doing as soon as I get home today is even with just this, right? Even if you remove all of the other insane benefits that come with the actual like digital curriculum, curriculum, this even just gives me enough just while I'm in the shower or I'm on a run or I'm like walking somewhere to just just understand, introspect, get to know myself better. And I almost feel like in a weirdly meta way, that is the biggest victory of it all. We had someone come up to us afterwards and this was that the Accenture one being like I love gardening.

being like I love gardening. I don't know why I haven't done it more like forget it connecting to strengths. Forget it to anything else. They were like the first passion I thought of was gardening. Yeah. Which is why have I not spent time doing it? Cuz at the end of the day, this is just for your wellbeing. This is just so you can feel satisfied in the work that you're doing on a daily basis. Incredible. Incredible. Final question here before I let you go.

Final question here before I let you go. If you had, and this is just a question I love asking, if you had the platform to magically force everybody in the world to listen to one piece of advice that you have for them, gosh, gosh, what would that be? It it literally can be completely unrelated to everything we've talked about today, but and it's heavy or slash loaded, so feel free to take your time, but it's just a question I love asking. Just talking to my mom about something really similar. She I asked her like why did you never tell us we had to do a certain thing or feel like growing up I had the opportunity to explore and figure out what I really enjoy doing and what I wanted to do when I talked to people I feel like a lot of

I talked to people I feel like a lot of the questions are so how did you get into consulting I don't know like I kind of just one day was like this seems like something I could be good at like please no I wasn't like in high school being like, "Okay, I need to take this marketing class to do D." I think my biggest piece of advice is to test and try and see how you react to it. And truly, truly, it's so cliche, but take life one experience at a time. Stop trying to overengineer what your future and what success looks like for other people because it's not going to feel right to you unless you are truly good at it and you are also simultaneously enjoying what you're doing doing and that's where the passion passions

and that's where the passion passions and strengths come together. Fits in perfectly. You need to be good at it and you need to enjoy it. Mhm. And so funny, I guess throughout this conversation, the one interesting theme, and this just is my podcast host brain working over. I don't know. I can't stop it. full disclosure, but I love to do this thing where um I'm I'm always just drawing contrasts in in ideas that are being discussed, which a lot of times of of course they're they're in sync because this is a conversation. But a lot of times I where my brain goes is where do we differ?

is where do we differ? Mhm. And one of the patterns that has emerged for us is that even though the compass that we follow is the same a lot of the times, the way that compass drives actions has been very different. Okay. Okay. So what I'm getting to is with what you just said, I love it. It I resonate so hard with that. But in true other side of the wall sense where I take that and with the way I and words are important, right? Everything that we do is built around words. But the way I share a similar thing is that you need to be seeking rejection. I like that. So your goal literally doesn't matter

So your goal literally doesn't matter what you're doing has to be what can I do to get rejected or fake because and rejection therapy. The more is that a thing? I don't know what. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's a thing that very similar. The more you put yourself in places to get rejected, the more used to it you are to getting nosed and failing and the more likely you are in result to try more things. Yeah. Wow. I didn't know that was a thing. That's crazy. What the heck?

thing. That's crazy. What the heck? I thought I was on to something here. But But we were. That's you exactly on to something. something. Yeah. I guess that's fair. Yeah. And I guess the final thought that I would like to leave our viewers here with is um if you knew that you were going to succeed in the 32nd attempt, how quickly would you fail the first 31 times? Isn't that isn't that so good? No notes after that. That's beautiful. I read it and I was like, man, I need to sit down here. Somebody cooked. But Alicia, this has been so incredible.

Alicia, this has been so incredible. Thank you for everything that you do. Thank you for showing so many hundreds of people the past that they keep simmering in their heads. They don't know what to do next. You're doing a true true service. You've already done me a service. I can tell you that much. And then yeah, truly thank you so much for taking the time today for our listeners. And for those that want to contact you, your Instagram will be linked in the show notes. Is there anywhere else that you prefer to be contacted or do you want to plug plug in the beauty and balance website or what's the best way for somebody to check out the program? Yeah, honestly Instagram is great. Both my personal and beauty and balances and

my personal and beauty and balances and then our newsletter is really where we deep dive on okay you know take the short form of content and let's do interviews let's tell you guys where events are going to be release all of our products. our newsletter as kind of homepage for that. Sounds great.