Look Who it Was Random video

Reinvention And Lessons From The Entrepreneurial Journey. Joanna Penn with Alexis Grant

949 views · Published 31 October 2014 · 46:26 · Indexed 21 October 2026

Channel: The Creative Penn · 2014 · Education

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It's a big day!
This is episode 200 of the podcast. The first show went out in March 2009, so this also marks over 4.5 years of podcasting every couple of weeks. That has to be a milestone worth celebrating!

Interview with Alexis Grant - one of the first people I met online!

Alexis Grant is an entrepreneurial writer and digital strategist, helping you create the life you want to live. You might know one of her sites, The Write Life, which focuses on helping writers create, connect and earn.We discuss:

    How we first met on Twitter in 2009 when we were very new to the online world, and we were both working in corporates, doing our writing/blogging etc on the side. Alexis now runs a company that primarily runs blogs for small businesses. We both left our day jobs in 2011 within months of each other.

Why we are still here when many of the people we started alongside have fallen by the wayside?

    Persistence. Continuing to create every day, to connect with other people and persisting for the long term. Sometimes it's just about not giving up.

    Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It is perceived as riskier than a day job, although actually it can provide multiple streams of income and not just being dependent on one. But it is difficult and particularly hard when you're just starting out, even when it comes down to what you do every day. I mention in Year 1 reflection how hard it was, how defining your own life is a huge adjustment, and how I needed to get out the house for a commute and a coffee etc. We talk about wobbly moments and how we still have them. You're always going to have self doubt.

On work schedules and whether 'balance' ever happens with creative entrepreneurs

    I definitely don't have balance and I love it! I talk about my schedule and how everything in my life is related to writing and my business. Even when I am traveling or with my husband, I am finding material for my books in all of my life. Alexis talks about her schedule and how she exercises during the day, and how she does things like bike rides with her husband when other people might be work during those hours

    We have both removed email from our phones (Alexis has personal email but I have no email at all!) We talk about making time for creating and 'doing' time, and then responding at different times. We both use schedules and to do lists - I have a Filofax and use Things app; Alexis uses Google Calendar and Tasks, as well as Flow for her team, and says that daily exercise is key for her discipline and wellbeing.

On our business models and how they have changed over time

    We talk about courses and education, which is how we both started with the 'monetization' aspect. Alexis has ebooks and email courses on various topics including How to be a Twitter Power User. I am slowly cutting down on my courses, although I still offer video courses on book marketing, author entrepreneur, how to write a novel and fight scenes.

    Alexis' main income stream is from clients, as she manages a number of blogs. She mentions The Brazen Life as one of the sites she manages and produces content for.

    As content creators, we both have a small income stream around sponsorship, advertising and affiliate income, but it's not a major income stream for either of us. I have income from professional speaking and small amounts of consulting. We also talked about using webinars for growing an email list, developing loyal fans and selling affiliate products, but both of us find them too high maintenance so we don't use them much now.

On writing books and publishing options

    We talk about books and how I moved from not writing fiction at all, to now having a large chunk of my business income from fiction. When I met Alexis, she was writing a travel memoir about a solo trip in Africa. She put it aside several years ago when traditional publishing didn't work out and has just picked it back up again. She talks about how that project is progressing.

On reinvention and reframing failure

    We talk about our various 'failures' and how we both actually just consider things as experience and experiments. We both reframe what we've done in the past as just part of what we do. Everything is a lesson learned, and 'failure' is just a step on the journey.

    Your attitude and the way you frame experience will influence the way others see you. When entrepreneurs talk about the 'pivot,' it's actually working out what's not working and then shifting your direction.
You can find Alexis at AlexisGrant.com and also at TheWriteLife.com and on twitter @alexisgrant

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