Nicole Smith
Welcome to Take Control with Nicole. As business owners we experience firsthand the fine line between our personal and business lives. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Take Control with Nicole. Today I am speaking with a fabulous Alex Harvey all about creating a business based on service. Alex is an intuitive money and business coach who helps ambitious professionals get paid for their gifts and talents, multiply their income by doing what they love, and growing their wealth so that they can be the creative game changing force in the world they wish to be. Alex supports her clients through online courses, her sacred money and power membership, her business alchemy mastermind and private coaching. She helps her clients get to the first 10 and 20,000 in the bank, and makes six figures doing what lights them up and being their full expression of who they truly are. That sounds amazing,w we all need an Alex in our world. Welcome. Thanks for joining me.

Alex Harvey
Thanks for having me, Nicole. I’m excited to be here.

Nicole Smith
Fabulous. I’m so excited to jump in. Let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit more about you and your business and all the fabulous things.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, absolutely. So my business, you know, you’ve said a lot of it. But it’s really around helping people and I mostly work with women, helping women really be able to share their gifts and talents, what they would love and what they love doing, creating a business out of it, and doing so in a way that they financially prosper and thrive. So it financially supports them. And it supports the life that they want to live. And what I find when people are creating a business that’s really around what they love is that there’s kind of this whole extra set of resistance that can come up, you know, when it’s something that you really care about. There’s this extra level of vulnerability, extra level of self-doubt that seems to come in. So a lot of my work is helping women work through the barriers and blocks that they might come up against in being seen, in sharing their value in their relationship to money. That’s a big one that comes up through this work and to be able to tune into what it is they love and move outside of what they think they need to do. Like that’s a that’s a really another key component of the work that I do with women.

Nicole Smith
I know that I’ve been a bit through that journey as well like, because I love what I do. I love it. But sometimes you feel like ah, but sometimes it should be, it should be harder than this, like attracting the people. And that’s when I really did start to stand into who I am, can only really be who I am right, but actually sharing that with the world. It started to feel easier and enjoyable and attracting those people that are the right people for me. But yeah, a lot of that comes down to the work that you do with your clients, I would imagine to discover that courage to actually step into that space.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, absolutely. And like you just said, sometimes we actually go about making things harder than they need to be in order to feel, you know, like you’re worthy of being paid for that right. Because often the things that come naturally to you we, well we often find that hard to charge for that we often don’t see the value in that and we’ve got all these kind of cultural beliefs around you need to work really hard or or it should be painful in order you know, to have earned the money right? So yeah, sometimes it’s it part of it is really just letting it be easy.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. I love the edge be painful. The I guess you think I’m coming from the corporate world. And you know, in some of those roles, I was the go to person and so my workload would just pile pile pile pile pile and I’d be first in the office, last to leave like doing all the busy work. And when I stepped into my business space, I’m like, that is not what I want to build. And I want to be able to help other people build their businesses so they don’t have to be doing all the busy work all the time. But you’re so right like there’s this culture or is it you know, I know a lot of that hard work, hustle stuff comes from I guess, maybe how your family have been, you’ve watched your parents do their thing, you know, you’ve gone into industries, like I was in finance, for instance. And that is just like, go go go, giving yourself that, it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s just such a powerful experience, I’d say, some of your clients would go through, well all of your clients will go through from from here to there.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, it’s a really big one. Because I would say that that’s it’s a very widely spread cultural mindset and belief, yeah, that you need to work hard, it needs to be hard. There’s a lot of, you know, the motivational stuff out there, especially the I guess, the older stuff, or a lot of stuff that that comes from men, actually, I would say is, you know, like, well go to bed later and wake up earlier, like, if you’re committed to your dream. And it’s like this mentality that if you work more, then you will generate more success and have greater impact and generate more money. When that is not the only way for that to happen and we have this belief that I must, you know, and it’s part of our mechanical view in our culture of the world, and how the universe works. Like, put in more, get out more, but that’s not the only way. And so it takes being willing to try something different and see that actually, on a simple level, doing things like working smarter, but also just tapping into your resourcefulness and your creativity, and choosing actually how, you know, can I get higher impact or greater growth or higher returns, working less, and, you know, and using my creativity, using my passion, using my love, and then actually seeing that outcome, bust the belief that I’ve got to do more in order to, you know, expand and further, creating the vision that I’m trying to create

Nicole Smith
It’s making me so happy, this conversation already. Yeah. It particularly I keep saying this, but every time I have someone on the podcast, it’s exactly at the right moment for me personally, like, I know, we’ve had this in the diary for a while. But in this last sort of two weeks, I’ve just come to this point of, oh, I don’t need to do this bit anymore. If I just maybe shift that a little bit to that side and I focus on this as my primary offer, which is my All That Jazz, which currently is my top offer. It’s just going to be so much better, more enjoyable. So it’s just you’ve come at the right time here. Yeah. Fabulous. You must be so inspired, working with your clients and doing all of this work. What is it that sort of brought you to start your business in this and work you know, focus is obviously makes you happy?

Alex Harvey
Yeah. Well, I’ll try and give you the short version. Because it’s been a long journey. But essentially, I started out my career in engineering in corporate Yep. And as soon as I started my full time engineering job, I was like, oh my God, I have to get out of here. I cannot do this for the rest of my life.

Nicole Smith
I’ve made the wrong turn, I’ve made the wrong turn.

Alex Harvey
Yeah. And so I stuck at it for a couple of years to get experience. And also because I didn’t, I didn’t know what else I would want to do. But through that time, I actually just started doing things that were out of my comfort zone. And I started quite a personal development and spiritual journey. And one of the things I started for fun to do something that seems so crazy to me was I started a raw food market stall, kind of like a raw food hobby business while I was working, but that opened my eyes to two things. Like one was passion, having a passion and doing something that you’re passionate about, and the other was business. And that there was this other way and that maybe I would actually get so much further in life if it was, it might sound so obvious as I say it, but I remember being like, whoa, maybe I’ll get so much further in whatever I’m doing if I’m passionate about it.

Nicole Smith
That’s not like I remember, you know, you’re in grade 10 and you go to the career counsellor, maybe it’s different now, like, you know, I’m coming up to my 20 year graduation anniversary this year, so it was a long time. But I remember sitting in there and you had literally your university options, like what are you going to go to university for, because that is the career that you’re going to have. You know that that’s your choice, whereas so we weren’t really given that option of thinking unless you had parents that own businesses that were entrepreneurs, that you’re exposed to that world. Many of us are not. Or we’re not, now’s a little bit different. But yeah, so I think that that would be a very common story along amongst most of us.

Alex Harvey
Yeah. So I, I then started to realise through this process that I was actually a lot more passionate about teaching and teaching why these, you know, foods are beneficial and helpful. So eventually, I decided I just couldn’t stand my job any longer. And I’d been saving since since it’s quite early on, because I knew I would want to quit at some point. And I didn’t have a clear plan although, you know, I’d already kind of had this raw food hobby business, I knew that I wanted to, I don’t sure if I really knew already, I want to get into coaching, but like helping, teaching, coaching kind of thing. And I moved, so I quit my job and I moved to Byron Bay, which, yes, as you do, where actually my sister and a good friend, were living and I just just dove into personal development, discovering myself. And I started to get into coaching actually, very quickly, and then growing a coaching business. And through this time, I spent all of my savings without really realising because I didn’t change any of my spending habits. And I reached this point where I was like, whoa, I have no money left, I do not have, you know, not making money that is going to support me full time. And it was a terrifying moment. And also a moment of realising how important the money piece is, to living a life that feels true for you, living, you know, from a heart centred place of sharing your gifts, living your purpose. And I almost felt like before, there was, you know, though, there was a bit of a collective mentality of like, well, money shouldn’t matter. And then I realised in this moment, no, actually, money is an essential component and being able to do this, otherwise, you’re not actually going to be able to share your gifts, because you haven’t broken through how you can relate to money so that that’s what you can do for a living. So that kind of set me on my money journey. And eventually, yeah, my coaching really became centred around money and helping people who were self-employed or wanted to be wanted to share their gifts with the money piece and managing an inconsistent income, and then also mindset, spiritual, psychological relationship to it. And through that journey has really evolved into the business coaching side of things as well, and helping people with like, a basic alchemy process of continuing to transcend their limited self, and operate from their genius.

Nicole Smith
I remember when I started and transitioning from corporate hourly rate to an entrepreneurial business hourly rate. And I went through this whole look, no, I can’t like that just seems crazy. Like, there is no way I’m worth that. And it was literally like I’m worth I’m now at least don’t think about that. It’s the exchange of value. So what my, where I am in my genius zone, where I love and I just get excited about diving into the system, and clicking all the buttons and pulling the stuff out and putting it all together. You know, that process that I love is going to benefit my clients so much more, as well ongoing. And so like that whole money story is is so such an important part of it as well, because, yes, they’re going to benefit but ultimately, we love what we do. So why shouldn’t we get the money for it the value for it, you can probably put it in a more articulate way than that.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, but well, and it but it’s like you you just said as well, that is of benefit to the person you’re helping. And there’s this kind of unconscious mentality sometimes that if you get paid somehow the client has lost and you’ve won, you know, like the sales mentality, or like you’ve have gained something and that person has lost something. Rather than actually seeing the exchange as something that does exchange the value and when people don’t pay, well a) you know, you couldn’t actually give the service and the energy and the time and the creativity if you weren’t getting paid for it, but also b) the person that you’re helping actually won’t get the value from it if they’re not paying. And we just know that, you know, people are not paying they’re not actually getting the value exchange. And oftentimes, the more you pay, the higher value exchange you are going to get. Because actually, the client has to come to the table to, like, they have to come to the table to get the benefit of the service or product as well. And what we don’t pay for we don’t value. So it’s kind of challenging and letting go of this mindset that, you know, people almost like people are kind of a bit powerless. And if they give you money, they’ve lost something. Rather than seeing actually this is an exchange medium that we use and when it is an ideal match, it’s a win, win.

Nicole Smith
Just interrupting this episode for one little message, if you have been listening and love what you hear and want to come in connect, we have a Take Control with Nicole Facebook community, right over there on Facebook, that I would love to invite you to come and join us. We are a supportive community, we are looking to really take action in our businesses, and change the way or evolve the way we’re working right now. So I invite you to come on over and join our community and connect with us all. Community is the essence of everything, your business, being able to really build those relationships that you can nurture, and grow and support and celebrate each other. Ah how fabulous, I hope to see you over there, pop on over to Facebook, Take Control with Nicole, see you soon.

Nicole Smith
I love what you said there, the clients come to the table. I know that, you know, there’s experiences that I’ve had with clients where I’ve finished and I felt I should have given more, I should have done this, I should have done that, then I actually stop and think about it. And I’m like, huh, was it my side? Probably not. So I’m very conscious now in in those conversations when people you know, book to see how we can work together which path, I’m like, this is a collaborative experience. Like, you could go and engage someone to do it for you fabulous. But this is your business. And the most important thing is that you understand what we’ve done here, and you’ve got the skills to actually take them away, and keep growing and developing this thing in your business. And as soon as I change that it’s such a different experience. So much more enjoyable for my side too. And I’m sure there’s as well. But yeah,

Alex Harvey
I think just to speak to that, that there is a bit of an attitude that people develop. And maybe it’s kind of trained in us through school or something. But it’s like, if I’m paying you for something, you’ve got to deliver the goods and it’s like on you and, you know, like, I’m waiting to see that you change my life. And that’s honestly, that’s just not how you’re, that’s not how you can live powerfully. Like every, anything that you engage with, like, if it’s if you do a course, if you do coaching, if you engage a service. If you go into it and choose no matter how good I perceive this person to be, I’m gonna get what I want out of it. You will. Yeah, you know, and that’s just that self responsibility piece.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, when you were talking about that, it’s like we’re not, we’re not a product. It’s not, I’m not going into the shops and buying a candle off the shelf, like that is an a direct exchange of thing. And that candle is going to smell nice, it’s going to be great. Whereas when you’re working with someone to enhance yourself or your business, you’re right, if you’re not connected to it, you’re just going to stay still, it’s not going to move. So amazing. Tell me or share with me a little bit more about how you actually work with your clients. So I know you do private coaching and you’ve got your other other things, but in your coaching space, sort of what are the things that you do with them?

Alex Harvey
Yeah, so I’ve got two foundational short courses that I run as live courses. And that’s I find, I find it really is best for someone to start with either one or both of those courses because it just gives them foundational knowledge and context so that when they come into a coaching container, I don’t have to teach, you know, like they’ve got this is the structures. This is how things work. They’ve got the basics, and we can kind of just get straight into it. So I’ve got our money course called Money Queen, which is a money transformation program that goes through the mindset side of things and also money management systems as a self-employed person how to manage your money and structure your personal money as well as your business money and structure them together, how they link.

Nicole Smith
I just had a call with Stephanie Menere, you may know her she was in one of the communities we’re in and yesterday talking all about that. And that’s my focus booked in some calls with her every month to get all of that organised. And so it’s clear and I’ve got a process. Love a process. So yes, awesome. Keep going.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, it’s yeah, game changer, just to have those structures. So there’s the foundational money course. And then I’ve got a foundational course that’s around, connecting with your gifts and genius, and then understanding your ego limiting beliefs and how you continually keep yourself operating from your power. So they’re my foundational causes. And then I’ve got my Business Mastermind, which has one to one coaching, and then that kind of high level group support element and then training specifically around business. So that’s helping people set up the structures to scale their businesses to six figures. And it’s structures in terms of mindset, what are the mindset practices, and then also, like the structure of their offerings, and their marketing, and all of that kind of thing. And then in my one to one coaching, that’s a 12 month programme for people that just want to dive, dive in and have that support to really what it’s about is living from your potential and living on that creative edge. And being able to continually I guess, see around, where you divert your focus and go back into your limitation. So that’s, that’s the structure of my offerings in my business.

Nicole Smith
I love with your private coaching, you said 12 months. Because, yeah, I think we all live in a world of I need it fixed now. I want it now. I want it yesterday. But these things, it’s, they’re just evolving. And it takes time to get them into the normal way of operating, right, something new, we can pick it off the shelf and read the book, but you’ve got to get those habits and those practices in play to just make them your every day.

Alex Harvey
Absolutely. And it’s really like training in this way of living and transcending patterns and habits, you know, as you’ve mentioned, because, by default, our ego always wants to pull us back there. That’s, you know, that’s always how it’s going to try to orientate itself. And what I find for a lot of people is like they’ve, they’ve tried a lot of courses, they’ve done a lot of programmes, you know, and sometimes people have amazing breakthrough experiences, but things just kind of always, or, you know, go back to the same thing, or maybe they do kind of level up, but then it’s somehow just in the same pattern. And so, yeah, it’s really doing doing the work to powerfully create end results that, you know, there is, there is a time for creating the momentum, and, you know, then things really start to pop. But yeah, I find that people are really going to get the benefit over a 12 month, you know, container, rather than, as you say, just, I want the fix in three months. And and I think that’s actually why so many women in business struggle is because they don’t get what they think they should have created instantaneously. And then they start to make that mean something about themselves and or everyone else is doing it. And it’s, you know, it’s just a really toxic kind of mentality that I think goes on in the space of like, it should be instant. Otherwise, there’s something wrong with you, you’ve done something wrong. It’s like no, just takes time to build something and to learn new skills and to challenge your ego and your comfort zone in a way you’ve never had before. And, you know, create the space for that and be committed to the end result.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. Allow yourself to go through those stages as well. Like I know, two and a half years it’s now been Yeah, yep. June. Yep, two and a half years for my business and from where I was to where I am now is is different, and in a good way, but I don’t ever think oh my gosh, I wish I hadn’t done you know, all those stages, because each time I did a thing, I learned something from it. I applied it and I’m like, okay, cool. I now know next time I will do this thing this way. Yeah, we’re always learning new things. And being able to find the ways that work for us as well. I’m a very firm believer, there’s not a cookie cutter approach to business. Even just in my world with systems, there are so many options out there, like tech systems, I’m talking, so many options out there. It’s not up to me to tell you what to use. We need to have a look at what’s going to be best for your business. So I’ve got the dog barking outside, if you can hear that. New puppy. Yeah, so I love it. So important.

Alex Harvey
Yeah. And I think that’s a really great point that you bring up around yeah, there’s not a cookie cutter. And that’s another thing that I find really, you know, holds a lot of people back from expanding their businesses, is because they try to follow what someone else’s formula was to success. Whereas that worked for that person, because that was in their genius, you know, and now they’re teaching everyone that they should do that. Whereas it’s really about and I’ve just seen time and time again, this in play, when you can let go of those rules that you think you need to follow the way things need to be done, and connect to what would you love, you know, what, what would light you up and you just see the actual magic unfold, where you might have been stuck for literally like two or three years, banging your head against the wall not getting the traction you want. And when you just actually let go of all those, those shoulds and the way you think things have to be and connect with what you would love, your genius and your creativity, things start to change straightaway.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, language plays a big part of that as well, for those listening, you’ve probably heard and seen listened to Kathy Rast linguisteologist, since I’ve had her in my world and learned about the power of words and how those musts and should and do, all those things have a real quite and can have a tight impact on the way that we look at things. So

Alex Harvey
Absolutely.

Nicole Smith
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about, you know, building a business, and getting those things and finding those way, as a business owner to just really playing in your space of genius and your zone of fun?

Alex Harvey
Yeah, I think that I would just encourage anyone, like, if there’s any part of your business that’s feeling sticky, or heavy or like, don’t like this, is just ask yourself, well, firstly, why am I doing this? Is this something I need to be doing or did I just make that up, you know, based on what I’ve observed from other people, or what my beliefs are? And then also, the other thing to look at is what like, what do I think I need to get out of this, because sometimes, we get really stuck and I’m just going to say, you know, for a lot of people that I work with, it’s around marketing, you get really stuck, and real and hate, it’s like, oh, God, I hate my I’m not a marketer. I didn’t get into this for marketing, I just want to do like, you know, my service or my product, or whatever it is.

Nicole Smith
And those words like you must post 10 times, you must do reels, you must do news, like that is a real mic and say that,

Alex Harvey
Totally. And the thing is marketing is, you know, if you’re creating a business based on what you love, marketing is just getting to talk about what you love. Yeah, that’s it. And we make it about so many other things. So that’s the other thing to just be aware of and look out for is what am I making this about? Because often, we will start to unconsciously make it about, well, I need to get a certain result, because that’s what I think I need in order to earn enough money or to have enough approval, like I need to have a certain number of followers or likes or engagement in order to like, because somehow that’s going to give me what I want. And we start to start focusing on the wrong thing. We’re focusing on approval. So oh marketing feels sticky, because I’m not getting the approval I want, therefore I feel crappy about it, or I’m not getting the security that I think it’s going to lead to the safety I think it’s going to lead to so when we can identify those things, put that aside and go okay, what is actually the true purpose of my marketing is to share my message and it’s, you know, to help people inspire people connect people with joy. What’s something that I can share that would do that, and just, you know, just totally unlocked. So you can look at that with any area of your business. You can Look at well, am I shooting myself here? Like you said, like, am I shooting myself? Or am I making this about something else, like, you know about my validation and viability, rather than about what I’m delivering to people. And, you know, there are two kinds of powerful things that can help you see where you’re creating that stickiness. And where you can then just go, okay, I put that aside, what would I love? And just do that.

Nicole Smith
And then it becomes easy, doesn’t it?

Alex Harvey
Yeah.

Nicole Smith
You just, you just do the things because you love what you’re doing. You know why you’re doing it, not someone else forcing you to do it. It’s just, yeah, I always go back to my stories at the start. It was real sticky. I felt like I had to do it. But and I forced myself to do it. I recorded it like four or five times, you know, deleted it started again. Now I just jump on there. Because I want to jump on there. I don’t do things I don’t want to do anymore.

Alex Harvey
Yes. I love that.

Nicole Smith
Oh, thank you so much. Before we wrap it up, though, we have three questions that we always ask our beautiful guests. Are you ready?

Alex Harvey
Yes. I’m ready. Give it to me.

Nicole Smith
Okay. All right. So what is your go to app or you can have a couple if you want that creates ease in your day?

Alex Harvey
Well, it’s notion as of about two months ago. I’m all about notion. So notion.

Nicole Smith
Fabulous, fabulous. Online, paper, hybrid to do lists lover?

Alex Harvey
Hybrid?

Nicole Smith
Yep. Yep. Awesome. And finally, what would you do if you created more space in your world?

Alex Harvey
If I created more space in my world, I would read the about 30 books that I have accumulated and not read yet. And I, you know, especially now, as things have opened up more, I would travel more. There are things that I want to do more of

Nicole Smith
Awesome. Yeah, the travel and I’ve had a couple of people in my remit now say they’re going back over to London and Europe and all of that. And no, before I was like, oh, nah, but now I’m like, hmm, maybe not quite yet. But it’s now starting to feel like it could be a thing. So yeah, exciting. Even travel like, locally. It’s just as nice. Yeah.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, totally, really feels like things have opened up now that I’m seeing people in those places. You know, I’m like, okay,

Nicole Smith
I need to be there. I’m gonna go there now. Amazing. Well, where can we find you? How can our listeners connect with you? Where are you, where you’re hanging?

Alex Harvey
Yes. So social media wise, Instagram, my handle is @alexh.co. That’s the best place to find me. And the only place social media wise that I’m on regularly. And you can also check out my website if you want to check out any of my free resources or get on the waitlist for either of the courses that I mentioned. And my website is go.alexisharvey.com. And I also have a podcast. So yeah, yes, for some reason that like I always forget about that. I have a podcast. So since you’re listening to a podcast should definitely come check out my podcast. It’s called money, sex, business and awakening.

Nicole Smith
Amazing. It’s funny, isn’t it? I am the same. I forget I have the podcast. And I’m recording and it’s out every week. But I forget that I do it. But I love it. It’s one of my favourite parts, actually, of what I do is getting that to have these conversations and connect with people. I know that’s something you said right before we press record, that whole connection piece of actually even though this is still virtual, having a conversation with someone, you know, it’s so just so good.

Alex Harvey
Yes, I absolutely love it.

Nicole Smith
Well, thank you so much for coming and having our conversation today. I’ve really really enjoyed it. And there’s some topics in there if you’re sitting there feeling a little bit like oh, that sounds like me. Please reach out to Alex because she’s you go to on all that and go and find her free resources. All of those links will be in the show notes as always, as well and a link to podcasts and put that in there as well. Thank you so much for joining me.

Alex Harvey
Thanks so much for having me. And if anyone wants to get in touch, reach out, ask any questions, feel free on Instagram or shoot me through an email.

Nicole Smith
Well, for everybody who’s listening at home, have a wonderful rest of your day and enjoy creating space and time freedom bye now.

Nicole Smith
Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on socials yet? If not, please come on over say hi, I’m on all the platforms @theartisanssolutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I’d love it if you could leave a review. And of course, share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, then everyone have a fabulous rest of the week. And until next time, see you then

Nicole Smith
Welcome to Take Control with Nicole. As business owners we experience firsthand the fine line between our personal and business lives. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Take Control with Nicole. Today I am speaking with a fabulous Alex Harvey all about creating a business based on service. Alex is an intuitive money and business coach who helps ambitious professionals get paid for their gifts and talents, multiply their income by doing what they love, and growing their wealth so that they can be the creative game changing force in the world they wish to be. Alex supports her clients through online courses, her sacred money and power membership, her business alchemy mastermind and private coaching. She helps her clients get to the first 10 and 20,000 in the bank, and makes six figures doing what lights them up and being their full expression of who they truly are. That sounds amazing,w we all need an Alex in our world. Welcome. Thanks for joining me.

Alex Harvey
Thanks for having me, Nicole. I’m excited to be here.

Nicole Smith
Fabulous. I’m so excited to jump in. Let’s start with you. Tell us a little bit more about you and your business and all the fabulous things.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, absolutely. So my business, you know, you’ve said a lot of it. But it’s really around helping people and I mostly work with women, helping women really be able to share their gifts and talents, what they would love and what they love doing, creating a business out of it, and doing so in a way that they financially prosper and thrive. So it financially supports them. And it supports the life that they want to live. And what I find when people are creating a business that’s really around what they love is that there’s kind of this whole extra set of resistance that can come up, you know, when it’s something that you really care about. There’s this extra level of vulnerability, extra level of self-doubt that seems to come in. So a lot of my work is helping women work through the barriers and blocks that they might come up against in being seen, in sharing their value in their relationship to money. That’s a big one that comes up through this work and to be able to tune into what it is they love and move outside of what they think they need to do. Like that’s a that’s a really another key component of the work that I do with women.

Nicole Smith
I know that I’ve been a bit through that journey as well like, because I love what I do. I love it. But sometimes you feel like ah, but sometimes it should be, it should be harder than this, like attracting the people. And that’s when I really did start to stand into who I am, can only really be who I am right, but actually sharing that with the world. It started to feel easier and enjoyable and attracting those people that are the right people for me. But yeah, a lot of that comes down to the work that you do with your clients, I would imagine to discover that courage to actually step into that space.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, absolutely. And like you just said, sometimes we actually go about making things harder than they need to be in order to feel, you know, like you’re worthy of being paid for that right. Because often the things that come naturally to you we, well we often find that hard to charge for that we often don’t see the value in that and we’ve got all these kind of cultural beliefs around you need to work really hard or or it should be painful in order you know, to have earned the money right? So yeah, sometimes it’s it part of it is really just letting it be easy.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. I love the edge be painful. The I guess you think I’m coming from the corporate world. And you know, in some of those roles, I was the go to person and so my workload would just pile pile pile pile pile and I’d be first in the office, last to leave like doing all the busy work. And when I stepped into my business space, I’m like, that is not what I want to build. And I want to be able to help other people build their businesses so they don’t have to be doing all the busy work all the time. But you’re so right like there’s this culture or is it you know, I know a lot of that hard work, hustle stuff comes from I guess, maybe how your family have been, you’ve watched your parents do their thing, you know, you’ve gone into industries, like I was in finance, for instance. And that is just like, go go go, giving yourself that, it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s just such a powerful experience, I’d say, some of your clients would go through, well all of your clients will go through from from here to there.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, it’s a really big one. Because I would say that that’s it’s a very widely spread cultural mindset and belief, yeah, that you need to work hard, it needs to be hard. There’s a lot of, you know, the motivational stuff out there, especially the I guess, the older stuff, or a lot of stuff that that comes from men, actually, I would say is, you know, like, well go to bed later and wake up earlier, like, if you’re committed to your dream. And it’s like this mentality that if you work more, then you will generate more success and have greater impact and generate more money. When that is not the only way for that to happen and we have this belief that I must, you know, and it’s part of our mechanical view in our culture of the world, and how the universe works. Like, put in more, get out more, but that’s not the only way. And so it takes being willing to try something different and see that actually, on a simple level, doing things like working smarter, but also just tapping into your resourcefulness and your creativity, and choosing actually how, you know, can I get higher impact or greater growth or higher returns, working less, and, you know, and using my creativity, using my passion, using my love, and then actually seeing that outcome, bust the belief that I’ve got to do more in order to, you know, expand and further, creating the vision that I’m trying to create

Nicole Smith
It’s making me so happy, this conversation already. Yeah. It particularly I keep saying this, but every time I have someone on the podcast, it’s exactly at the right moment for me personally, like, I know, we’ve had this in the diary for a while. But in this last sort of two weeks, I’ve just come to this point of, oh, I don’t need to do this bit anymore. If I just maybe shift that a little bit to that side and I focus on this as my primary offer, which is my All That Jazz, which currently is my top offer. It’s just going to be so much better, more enjoyable. So it’s just you’ve come at the right time here. Yeah. Fabulous. You must be so inspired, working with your clients and doing all of this work. What is it that sort of brought you to start your business in this and work you know, focus is obviously makes you happy?

Alex Harvey
Yeah. Well, I’ll try and give you the short version. Because it’s been a long journey. But essentially, I started out my career in engineering in corporate Yep. And as soon as I started my full time engineering job, I was like, oh my God, I have to get out of here. I cannot do this for the rest of my life.

Nicole Smith
I’ve made the wrong turn, I’ve made the wrong turn.

Alex Harvey
Yeah. And so I stuck at it for a couple of years to get experience. And also because I didn’t, I didn’t know what else I would want to do. But through that time, I actually just started doing things that were out of my comfort zone. And I started quite a personal development and spiritual journey. And one of the things I started for fun to do something that seems so crazy to me was I started a raw food market stall, kind of like a raw food hobby business while I was working, but that opened my eyes to two things. Like one was passion, having a passion and doing something that you’re passionate about, and the other was business. And that there was this other way and that maybe I would actually get so much further in life if it was, it might sound so obvious as I say it, but I remember being like, whoa, maybe I’ll get so much further in whatever I’m doing if I’m passionate about it.

Nicole Smith
That’s not like I remember, you know, you’re in grade 10 and you go to the career counsellor, maybe it’s different now, like, you know, I’m coming up to my 20 year graduation anniversary this year, so it was a long time. But I remember sitting in there and you had literally your university options, like what are you going to go to university for, because that is the career that you’re going to have. You know that that’s your choice, whereas so we weren’t really given that option of thinking unless you had parents that own businesses that were entrepreneurs, that you’re exposed to that world. Many of us are not. Or we’re not, now’s a little bit different. But yeah, so I think that that would be a very common story along amongst most of us.

Alex Harvey
Yeah. So I, I then started to realise through this process that I was actually a lot more passionate about teaching and teaching why these, you know, foods are beneficial and helpful. So eventually, I decided I just couldn’t stand my job any longer. And I’d been saving since since it’s quite early on, because I knew I would want to quit at some point. And I didn’t have a clear plan although, you know, I’d already kind of had this raw food hobby business, I knew that I wanted to, I don’t sure if I really knew already, I want to get into coaching, but like helping, teaching, coaching kind of thing. And I moved, so I quit my job and I moved to Byron Bay, which, yes, as you do, where actually my sister and a good friend, were living and I just just dove into personal development, discovering myself. And I started to get into coaching actually, very quickly, and then growing a coaching business. And through this time, I spent all of my savings without really realising because I didn’t change any of my spending habits. And I reached this point where I was like, whoa, I have no money left, I do not have, you know, not making money that is going to support me full time. And it was a terrifying moment. And also a moment of realising how important the money piece is, to living a life that feels true for you, living, you know, from a heart centred place of sharing your gifts, living your purpose. And I almost felt like before, there was, you know, though, there was a bit of a collective mentality of like, well, money shouldn’t matter. And then I realised in this moment, no, actually, money is an essential component and being able to do this, otherwise, you’re not actually going to be able to share your gifts, because you haven’t broken through how you can relate to money so that that’s what you can do for a living. So that kind of set me on my money journey. And eventually, yeah, my coaching really became centred around money and helping people who were self-employed or wanted to be wanted to share their gifts with the money piece and managing an inconsistent income, and then also mindset, spiritual, psychological relationship to it. And through that journey has really evolved into the business coaching side of things as well, and helping people with like, a basic alchemy process of continuing to transcend their limited self, and operate from their genius.

Nicole Smith
I remember when I started and transitioning from corporate hourly rate to an entrepreneurial business hourly rate. And I went through this whole look, no, I can’t like that just seems crazy. Like, there is no way I’m worth that. And it was literally like I’m worth I’m now at least don’t think about that. It’s the exchange of value. So what my, where I am in my genius zone, where I love and I just get excited about diving into the system, and clicking all the buttons and pulling the stuff out and putting it all together. You know, that process that I love is going to benefit my clients so much more, as well ongoing. And so like that whole money story is is so such an important part of it as well, because, yes, they’re going to benefit but ultimately, we love what we do. So why shouldn’t we get the money for it the value for it, you can probably put it in a more articulate way than that.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, but well, and it but it’s like you you just said as well, that is of benefit to the person you’re helping. And there’s this kind of unconscious mentality sometimes that if you get paid somehow the client has lost and you’ve won, you know, like the sales mentality, or like you’ve have gained something and that person has lost something. Rather than actually seeing the exchange as something that does exchange the value and when people don’t pay, well a) you know, you couldn’t actually give the service and the energy and the time and the creativity if you weren’t getting paid for it, but also b) the person that you’re helping actually won’t get the value from it if they’re not paying. And we just know that, you know, people are not paying they’re not actually getting the value exchange. And oftentimes, the more you pay, the higher value exchange you are going to get. Because actually, the client has to come to the table to, like, they have to come to the table to get the benefit of the service or product as well. And what we don’t pay for we don’t value. So it’s kind of challenging and letting go of this mindset that, you know, people almost like people are kind of a bit powerless. And if they give you money, they’ve lost something. Rather than seeing actually this is an exchange medium that we use and when it is an ideal match, it’s a win, win.

Nicole Smith
Just interrupting this episode for one little message, if you have been listening and love what you hear and want to come in connect, we have a Take Control with Nicole Facebook community, right over there on Facebook, that I would love to invite you to come and join us. We are a supportive community, we are looking to really take action in our businesses, and change the way or evolve the way we’re working right now. So I invite you to come on over and join our community and connect with us all. Community is the essence of everything, your business, being able to really build those relationships that you can nurture, and grow and support and celebrate each other. Ah how fabulous, I hope to see you over there, pop on over to Facebook, Take Control with Nicole, see you soon.

Nicole Smith
I love what you said there, the clients come to the table. I know that, you know, there’s experiences that I’ve had with clients where I’ve finished and I felt I should have given more, I should have done this, I should have done that, then I actually stop and think about it. And I’m like, huh, was it my side? Probably not. So I’m very conscious now in in those conversations when people you know, book to see how we can work together which path, I’m like, this is a collaborative experience. Like, you could go and engage someone to do it for you fabulous. But this is your business. And the most important thing is that you understand what we’ve done here, and you’ve got the skills to actually take them away, and keep growing and developing this thing in your business. And as soon as I change that it’s such a different experience. So much more enjoyable for my side too. And I’m sure there’s as well. But yeah,

Alex Harvey
I think just to speak to that, that there is a bit of an attitude that people develop. And maybe it’s kind of trained in us through school or something. But it’s like, if I’m paying you for something, you’ve got to deliver the goods and it’s like on you and, you know, like, I’m waiting to see that you change my life. And that’s honestly, that’s just not how you’re, that’s not how you can live powerfully. Like every, anything that you engage with, like, if it’s if you do a course, if you do coaching, if you engage a service. If you go into it and choose no matter how good I perceive this person to be, I’m gonna get what I want out of it. You will. Yeah, you know, and that’s just that self responsibility piece.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, when you were talking about that, it’s like we’re not, we’re not a product. It’s not, I’m not going into the shops and buying a candle off the shelf, like that is an a direct exchange of thing. And that candle is going to smell nice, it’s going to be great. Whereas when you’re working with someone to enhance yourself or your business, you’re right, if you’re not connected to it, you’re just going to stay still, it’s not going to move. So amazing. Tell me or share with me a little bit more about how you actually work with your clients. So I know you do private coaching and you’ve got your other other things, but in your coaching space, sort of what are the things that you do with them?

Alex Harvey
Yeah, so I’ve got two foundational short courses that I run as live courses. And that’s I find, I find it really is best for someone to start with either one or both of those courses because it just gives them foundational knowledge and context so that when they come into a coaching container, I don’t have to teach, you know, like they’ve got this is the structures. This is how things work. They’ve got the basics, and we can kind of just get straight into it. So I’ve got our money course called Money Queen, which is a money transformation program that goes through the mindset side of things and also money management systems as a self-employed person how to manage your money and structure your personal money as well as your business money and structure them together, how they link.

Nicole Smith
I just had a call with Stephanie Menere, you may know her she was in one of the communities we’re in and yesterday talking all about that. And that’s my focus booked in some calls with her every month to get all of that organised. And so it’s clear and I’ve got a process. Love a process. So yes, awesome. Keep going.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, it’s yeah, game changer, just to have those structures. So there’s the foundational money course. And then I’ve got a foundational course that’s around, connecting with your gifts and genius, and then understanding your ego limiting beliefs and how you continually keep yourself operating from your power. So they’re my foundational causes. And then I’ve got my Business Mastermind, which has one to one coaching, and then that kind of high level group support element and then training specifically around business. So that’s helping people set up the structures to scale their businesses to six figures. And it’s structures in terms of mindset, what are the mindset practices, and then also, like the structure of their offerings, and their marketing, and all of that kind of thing. And then in my one to one coaching, that’s a 12 month programme for people that just want to dive, dive in and have that support to really what it’s about is living from your potential and living on that creative edge. And being able to continually I guess, see around, where you divert your focus and go back into your limitation. So that’s, that’s the structure of my offerings in my business.

Nicole Smith
I love with your private coaching, you said 12 months. Because, yeah, I think we all live in a world of I need it fixed now. I want it now. I want it yesterday. But these things, it’s, they’re just evolving. And it takes time to get them into the normal way of operating, right, something new, we can pick it off the shelf and read the book, but you’ve got to get those habits and those practices in play to just make them your every day.

Alex Harvey
Absolutely. And it’s really like training in this way of living and transcending patterns and habits, you know, as you’ve mentioned, because, by default, our ego always wants to pull us back there. That’s, you know, that’s always how it’s going to try to orientate itself. And what I find for a lot of people is like they’ve, they’ve tried a lot of courses, they’ve done a lot of programmes, you know, and sometimes people have amazing breakthrough experiences, but things just kind of always, or, you know, go back to the same thing, or maybe they do kind of level up, but then it’s somehow just in the same pattern. And so, yeah, it’s really doing doing the work to powerfully create end results that, you know, there is, there is a time for creating the momentum, and, you know, then things really start to pop. But yeah, I find that people are really going to get the benefit over a 12 month, you know, container, rather than, as you say, just, I want the fix in three months. And and I think that’s actually why so many women in business struggle is because they don’t get what they think they should have created instantaneously. And then they start to make that mean something about themselves and or everyone else is doing it. And it’s, you know, it’s just a really toxic kind of mentality that I think goes on in the space of like, it should be instant. Otherwise, there’s something wrong with you, you’ve done something wrong. It’s like no, just takes time to build something and to learn new skills and to challenge your ego and your comfort zone in a way you’ve never had before. And, you know, create the space for that and be committed to the end result.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. Allow yourself to go through those stages as well. Like I know, two and a half years it’s now been Yeah, yep. June. Yep, two and a half years for my business and from where I was to where I am now is is different, and in a good way, but I don’t ever think oh my gosh, I wish I hadn’t done you know, all those stages, because each time I did a thing, I learned something from it. I applied it and I’m like, okay, cool. I now know next time I will do this thing this way. Yeah, we’re always learning new things. And being able to find the ways that work for us as well. I’m a very firm believer, there’s not a cookie cutter approach to business. Even just in my world with systems, there are so many options out there, like tech systems, I’m talking, so many options out there. It’s not up to me to tell you what to use. We need to have a look at what’s going to be best for your business. So I’ve got the dog barking outside, if you can hear that. New puppy. Yeah, so I love it. So important.

Alex Harvey
Yeah. And I think that’s a really great point that you bring up around yeah, there’s not a cookie cutter. And that’s another thing that I find really, you know, holds a lot of people back from expanding their businesses, is because they try to follow what someone else’s formula was to success. Whereas that worked for that person, because that was in their genius, you know, and now they’re teaching everyone that they should do that. Whereas it’s really about and I’ve just seen time and time again, this in play, when you can let go of those rules that you think you need to follow the way things need to be done, and connect to what would you love, you know, what, what would light you up and you just see the actual magic unfold, where you might have been stuck for literally like two or three years, banging your head against the wall not getting the traction you want. And when you just actually let go of all those, those shoulds and the way you think things have to be and connect with what you would love, your genius and your creativity, things start to change straightaway.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, language plays a big part of that as well, for those listening, you’ve probably heard and seen listened to Kathy Rast linguisteologist, since I’ve had her in my world and learned about the power of words and how those musts and should and do, all those things have a real quite and can have a tight impact on the way that we look at things. So

Alex Harvey
Absolutely.

Nicole Smith
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about, you know, building a business, and getting those things and finding those way, as a business owner to just really playing in your space of genius and your zone of fun?

Alex Harvey
Yeah, I think that I would just encourage anyone, like, if there’s any part of your business that’s feeling sticky, or heavy or like, don’t like this, is just ask yourself, well, firstly, why am I doing this? Is this something I need to be doing or did I just make that up, you know, based on what I’ve observed from other people, or what my beliefs are? And then also, the other thing to look at is what like, what do I think I need to get out of this, because sometimes, we get really stuck and I’m just going to say, you know, for a lot of people that I work with, it’s around marketing, you get really stuck, and real and hate, it’s like, oh, God, I hate my I’m not a marketer. I didn’t get into this for marketing, I just want to do like, you know, my service or my product, or whatever it is.

Nicole Smith
And those words like you must post 10 times, you must do reels, you must do news, like that is a real mic and say that,

Alex Harvey
Totally. And the thing is marketing is, you know, if you’re creating a business based on what you love, marketing is just getting to talk about what you love. Yeah, that’s it. And we make it about so many other things. So that’s the other thing to just be aware of and look out for is what am I making this about? Because often, we will start to unconsciously make it about, well, I need to get a certain result, because that’s what I think I need in order to earn enough money or to have enough approval, like I need to have a certain number of followers or likes or engagement in order to like, because somehow that’s going to give me what I want. And we start to start focusing on the wrong thing. We’re focusing on approval. So oh marketing feels sticky, because I’m not getting the approval I want, therefore I feel crappy about it, or I’m not getting the security that I think it’s going to lead to the safety I think it’s going to lead to so when we can identify those things, put that aside and go okay, what is actually the true purpose of my marketing is to share my message and it’s, you know, to help people inspire people connect people with joy. What’s something that I can share that would do that, and just, you know, just totally unlocked. So you can look at that with any area of your business. You can Look at well, am I shooting myself here? Like you said, like, am I shooting myself? Or am I making this about something else, like, you know about my validation and viability, rather than about what I’m delivering to people. And, you know, there are two kinds of powerful things that can help you see where you’re creating that stickiness. And where you can then just go, okay, I put that aside, what would I love? And just do that.

Nicole Smith
And then it becomes easy, doesn’t it?

Alex Harvey
Yeah.

Nicole Smith
You just, you just do the things because you love what you’re doing. You know why you’re doing it, not someone else forcing you to do it. It’s just, yeah, I always go back to my stories at the start. It was real sticky. I felt like I had to do it. But and I forced myself to do it. I recorded it like four or five times, you know, deleted it started again. Now I just jump on there. Because I want to jump on there. I don’t do things I don’t want to do anymore.

Alex Harvey
Yes. I love that.

Nicole Smith
Oh, thank you so much. Before we wrap it up, though, we have three questions that we always ask our beautiful guests. Are you ready?

Alex Harvey
Yes. I’m ready. Give it to me.

Nicole Smith
Okay. All right. So what is your go to app or you can have a couple if you want that creates ease in your day?

Alex Harvey
Well, it’s notion as of about two months ago. I’m all about notion. So notion.

Nicole Smith
Fabulous, fabulous. Online, paper, hybrid to do lists lover?

Alex Harvey
Hybrid?

Nicole Smith
Yep. Yep. Awesome. And finally, what would you do if you created more space in your world?

Alex Harvey
If I created more space in my world, I would read the about 30 books that I have accumulated and not read yet. And I, you know, especially now, as things have opened up more, I would travel more. There are things that I want to do more of

Nicole Smith
Awesome. Yeah, the travel and I’ve had a couple of people in my remit now say they’re going back over to London and Europe and all of that. And no, before I was like, oh, nah, but now I’m like, hmm, maybe not quite yet. But it’s now starting to feel like it could be a thing. So yeah, exciting. Even travel like, locally. It’s just as nice. Yeah.

Alex Harvey
Yeah, totally, really feels like things have opened up now that I’m seeing people in those places. You know, I’m like, okay,

Nicole Smith
I need to be there. I’m gonna go there now. Amazing. Well, where can we find you? How can our listeners connect with you? Where are you, where you’re hanging?

Alex Harvey
Yes. So social media wise, Instagram, my handle is @alexh.co. That’s the best place to find me. And the only place social media wise that I’m on regularly. And you can also check out my website if you want to check out any of my free resources or get on the waitlist for either of the courses that I mentioned. And my website is go.alexisharvey.com. And I also have a podcast. So yeah, yes, for some reason that like I always forget about that. I have a podcast. So since you’re listening to a podcast should definitely come check out my podcast. It’s called money, sex, business and awakening.

Nicole Smith
Amazing. It’s funny, isn’t it? I am the same. I forget I have the podcast. And I’m recording and it’s out every week. But I forget that I do it. But I love it. It’s one of my favourite parts, actually, of what I do is getting that to have these conversations and connect with people. I know that’s something you said right before we press record, that whole connection piece of actually even though this is still virtual, having a conversation with someone, you know, it’s so just so good.

Alex Harvey
Yes, I absolutely love it.

Nicole Smith
Well, thank you so much for coming and having our conversation today. I’ve really really enjoyed it. And there’s some topics in there if you’re sitting there feeling a little bit like oh, that sounds like me. Please reach out to Alex because she’s you go to on all that and go and find her free resources. All of those links will be in the show notes as always, as well and a link to podcasts and put that in there as well. Thank you so much for joining me.

Alex Harvey
Thanks so much for having me. And if anyone wants to get in touch, reach out, ask any questions, feel free on Instagram or shoot me through an email.

Nicole Smith
Well, for everybody who’s listening at home, have a wonderful rest of your day and enjoy creating space and time freedom bye now.

Nicole Smith
Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on socials yet? If not, please come on over say hi, I’m on all the platforms @theartisanssolutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I’d love it if you could leave a review. And of course, share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, then everyone have a fabulous rest of the week. And until next time, see you then.