Start South

The follow up episode of my story of starting my business. Here I talk about the challenges an entrepreneur will face when starting a business (anytime) but I also with the added twist of some things it was like with COVID-19.  

 I reflect on the death of George Floyd and how I tried to use that time to reflect on the state of the country and grow as a person to help bring change. I explain why I chose to pause the show briefly. It was a call as a reminder to the core values of this show and how we need leaders EVERYWHERE. If we have a world where leaders leave places that need their leadership most we as society can not move forward as a whole. This episode does highlight the path less traveled in regards to leadership & business. It isn't the easy way, but it is a path more of us need to take.  

Just as the title suggests I turned my years long side hustle into a real business. (finally)

This business started as me buying and reselling items as a teenager to make some extra side flow which grew into a college job and an overall passion that I just enjoyed doing. In this episode I break down that journey that lead me to finally start a business, and how the struggles of COVID-19 effected that as well as the ripples it had on this Podcast show! 

A bit more of a personal turn for the show, but a big update all the same!

Continuing on with the "Local Entrepreneurs" series I connected with Emma Freeze, a young local entrepreneur who started her Birmingham, AL based business "The Chic Next Door" in fall of 2019. 

The services that Emma provides include: personal shopping, event styling, 'closet closure', online consignment sales, consulting, and much more (you can check out her blog at www.thechicnextdoor.com to get all the details). What is unique about her story is she is one of the few people in the Greater Birmingham Area who is offering these services in entirety. She learned the industry from working retail for many years and also took that to the next level with her degree from Alabama; Emma knew the services could be combined into a very strong business model and did just that. She took concepts that worked other places and put them into a market she could pave the way into. Her story is the essence of what 'Start South' is all about and was very excited to hear all about it! 

Check out her awesome story in this episode! 

This episode dives into the history of both "shopping Holidays". It covers how they were started and how they evolved into what we know them as today. These holidays have also impacted other industries and sparked the creation of other "Shopping Holidays".

In this episode I got to interview Darcy Walker, the artist behind Darcy Walker Art. This is a special episode because she is the first guest that is a family member. This goes right into the message of inspiration being all around us...even on our own family trees.

Darcy not only paints the art herself but for a number of years she has been teaching as well as participating in community art shows. The folks she teaches range from all age groups; she does group classes and also private lessons too. Her home is her studio and I got to see all the behind the scenes action that goes into her art work, and the business behind it as well.

It was exciting to learn everything that she was doing and how she is growing her business; she takes us back to how it all started coming out of college and evolved with raising a family.  

This series of Episodes will be highlighting local entrepreneurs in my community and featuring their stories on the show. This was something that I wanted to do to show that inspiration is all around us. Friends, family, and folks in our local communities are out there doing some awesome things....we don't need to look far to find inspiration. 

This Mini Series kicks off with Birmingham Pedal Tours!

I sat down and spoke with a long friend Derek Nuwer. His cousin's founded the company and he moved from Buffalo, New York shortly after the company opened in Birmingham to help get it started. This episode goes over his story of moving to a new city and also the journey of Birmingham Pedal Tours has taken to becoming a premier activity in the city. 

On this Episode we have our guest Eloise Pascal join us all way the from Australia! 

She is a mindset coach and blogger and helps coach people all around the world battling with mental unwellness ( depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self image, etc). She herself had struggled with her own battles throughout her life. Despite hitting the lowest of lows Eloise was able to overcome her battles and shares just how that journey looked for her. 

Through her experiences one way she was able to turn that around was to start helping coach other who shared similar situations she did and help coach them to a life of wellness once again. Through this she realized her passion was to help others and shares shares and advice for those who are out there struggling with mental wellness. 

Co-host Eric Michael Savage joins to help break down the infamous phrase "Keeping Up With The Joneses"

This was mentioned by out previous guest Karen Ford in regards to finance, but this episode looks deeper into the meaning and how it effects us on more levels than just money.

Felicity Dales is the Founder of Body Torque, a biking/triathlon apparel & lifestyle brand based out of Ocean Grove Australia (not far outside of Melbourne). She founded the company in 1986 and today in 2019 the company is still growing!

She shares her story of founding the company and the journey that has brought her on through the year. She also shares her advice and wisdom as a business founder who has seen the business world evolve and shares plans for the company to grow into a global brand in the future. 

This episode was a blast to do and Felicity is not only a great person to speak with her story is very inspirational as well. It shows that it doesn't matter where you are the entrepreneurial principles are the same. Taking the Podcast title literally she does (and likely will) hold the record for starting the FURTHEST South. 

Author, Speaker, and Financial Coach Karen Ford joins this episode so share her insight and wisdom on a subject matter that nearly everyone must deal with...DEBT!

Karen & Alex break down how people get caught in the debt trap through various stages in life and some tricks to get out of the trap. Karen shares examples of clients she has worked with and how they used what she taught her to break the cycle of living under the shadow of debt.

Debt is a huge obstacle holding anyone it has in its grasps back from taken any positive steps forward in life....This is such and important message for the overall message of Start South because this is a big contributing factor that keeps people from their own starting lines. Once debt is tackled the outlook is much brighter and we hope this message can aid in winning that battle for anyone who is struggling with it.  

Karen has written 4 books on personal finance as well as coaches individuals on ways to get out of debt and start living life not chained down by financial problems. 
Her website, blog and store: www.Karenford.org