We recently connected with Alexa Colyer and have shared our conversation below.

Alexa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

What I originally thought would be the “easy” tasks of launching, hosting, and running a podcast turned out to be some of the hardest – and vice versa.

When I first started Virtual Coffee, I figured it’d be fairly easy to keep up with posting on Instagram, Facebook, and other social medias. Since I already did that for my personal accounts, how difficult could it be to do for a second account?

It turns out, marketing is definitely its own full-time job, even for a newer podcast brand. Posting, interacting, tagging, commenting, liking… the list goes on and on. Now, times that list by the number of social media platforms there are. It turns into quite a long to-do list each day!

How I best resolved my issue of not having enough time in the day to always prioritize marketing Virtual Coffee is by constantly re-aligning to my goals. I want to create a brand that supports small businesses from around the world. How I currently achieve that is by chatting with and interviewing small business owners on my podcast. I then publish those episodes and promote the businesses on Virtual Coffee’s social media platforms. If I can achieve those goals, I have succeeded.

Like anything, there are plenty of improvements I can make to how I approach marketing Virtual Coffee, and I plan on continuing to evolve my marketing efforts. In this moment, I must accept the time I have and my current priorities. I currently work a full-time corporate job and am completing a virtual UI/UX bootcamp that takes up ~20 hours of my week post-5pm. Add Virtual Coffee on top of that, and my days are quickly filled.

I’ve learned to accept that not everything can get done. I prioritize having time to connect with my husband and to walk my dogs. I prioritize my corporate job and continuing my education, And I prioritize Virtual Coffee. At one given time, however, I can only have one priority – sometimes that priority is the podcast, at other times it’s my job, and at even other times it’s my husband and dogs. Accepting the fact that my priority can change hour-by-hour is what helps me take everything one step at a time and one task at a time.

Going back to my goals: am I supporting small businesses? Yes. Then I’m still succeeding.

To quickly comment on what I thought would be some of the most difficult tasks that turned out to be some of the simplest… I originally thought it’d be hard to learn how to edit and publish podcast episodes. Turns out, it’s quite easy to launch a podcast!

I truly believe everyone can launch a podcast, if they so desire. The tricky part comes in maintaining, branding, marketing, and up-keeping the podcast. However, the initial launch is simple.

If you’ve been thinking about launching a podcast – do it!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I host and run Virtual Coffee, a podcast and brand that supports small businesses.

Through Virtual Coffee, I chat with and interview small business owners from around the world. We discuss their passions, journeys, advice for others, lessons learned, and everything else related to running your own business. From time-to-time, I’ll create solo episodes where I share my advice for others and what has been on my mind related to business and careers.

Overall, supporting others in achieving their personal goals and ambitions is why I jump out of bed in the morning!

A little background on how the podcast came to be…

When the majority of us started working from home during the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, I found myself with a lot more time on my hands. I was saving up to 2 hours a day by not commuting to the office. With all this extra time, I was reminded of an idea I always had: to start a podcast. Up until this point, I never had a topic in mind that felt right to launch this project.

Around this time, I saw many others pursuing their passions and starting small businesses. Those observations are what gave me the inspiration to start a podcast for the small business community.

My goal is to bring awareness to the small businesses I showcase and to highlight the people behind them. It’s extremely rewarding when a stranger tells me they discovered their newest favorite product created by a small business owner who I had on the podcast. Being able to chat with people who I otherwise wouldn’t have crossed paths with is inspiring and motivating. Every business owner I have interviewed has taught me something new!

External to Virtual Coffee, I also work a full-time corporate job as a consultant.

I label myself as a Designer of Experiences, People Accelerator, and Business Strategist.

Designer of Experiences: I aim to create the most valuable and impactful experiences that alleviate people’s pain points and make their lives happier and easier. An empathy-first mindset leads me in the creation of all experiences.

People Accelerator: I pass on my knowledge and expertise to others in order to provide long-lasting value. I aim to teach, not just show.

Business Strategist: I leverage my trifecta of expertise to remove silos and accelerate product, technology, and business teams alike. I lead leaders and their teams through strategic frameworks to execute on their goals and innovations.

In every project I take on, in every task I achieve, I aim to accelerate others and create beautiful experiences. Through Virtual Coffee, I focus on doing just that for small businesses.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my audience on social media by staying true to my brand and by not looking too deeply at the numbers (followers, likes, shares, etc.).

Through Virtual Coffee’s social media platforms, I stay true to my goal of supporting small businesses. I also sprinkle in personal aspects of my life, as it’s important for your audience to know the person behind the brand you are building and putting out into the world.

I encourage others to build an experience through their social media platforms. What do you what your audience to think, feel, say, and do when they scroll through your account? What do you want them to walk away with? Think deeply about these questions whenever you post and interact on social media.

I have also discovered my unique posting style. Besides photos captured on my iPhone, I sketch and post drawings. My sketches are a large part of the Virtual Coffee brand. I discovered my passion for drawing on my iPad via Procreate and have really dove into it. For every podcast episode I release, I craft a sketch related to the business and use my drawing as the marketing image for the podcast episode.

Combing what makes you stand out in the digital space AND what you’re passionate about is a nice recipe to follow when it comes to building an audience on social media.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I really enjoyed reading and learned a lot from Greg McKeown’s book, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.” I liked it so much, I did a podcast episode on it! Episode 75 of Virtual Coffee.

“Essentialism” taught me the importance and value of prioritizing one thing. It’s imperative to know why you wake up in the morning and to know your true goal. It is simply impossible to do everything; it’s impossible to complete every task assigned to us at once; it’s impossible to have more than one priority at a time.

Our culture is very focused on “the hustle.” It feels as if everyone must have a side business, a full-time job, a family, friends, a daily workout routine, AND a hobby. But do you really want to do all of that? Are those things truly bringing you value and happiness?

I encourage you to read “Essentialism” if you find yourself overwhelmed, and if you feel like you’re doing everything but also nothing at the same time. Finding your true ‘Why’ and focusing on it will ensure you are on a path to happiness and success – most importantly, it’ll be how YOU define happiness and success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/virtualcoffeepodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virtualcoffeepodcast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/virtualcoffeepodcast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexacolyer/
• Other: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/virtual-coffee/id1507630485 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/62OzuNi5ove5bCfRgE8etH?si=jJ1YgbRDQvKPiictR13LrA