Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alexa Shea Johns. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Alexa Shea thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
“One of my favorite quotes of all time is “Life favors the risk taker.” I don’t remember when I first heard it, or who said it, but It’s a touchstone phrase for me that I often come back to when I feel like I’m on a cliff looking over the edge about to attempt another flight into the unknown. I now see clearly that invisible wings are real things.
Pre covid, I had a brilliant idea for a TV show (I’ll save the TV back story for another time.) Anyways… I had no experience in television, and because of that my idea stayed “just an idea” for a while. It stuck with me though, and I kept getting an intuitive nudge that this was something I was meant to do. So, as crazy as it seemed to me at the time, I began to lean into it. Soon my TV show turned from an idea, into far-off dream, and then quickly into a vision I could see, and feel. It started becoming real. Just As I began connecting and collaborating with others who believed in my vision, and making tangible strides forward my momentum came to halting screech. Covid hit, & I lost everything. During that time I also gave birth to my first child -Gracie Marie on January 2nd of 2021. I was desperate, and I was willing to do whatever it took to give her the life she was worthy of.
Looking back that was probably not the best time for me to start my own production company, but I couldn’t not start it. I began daily marching towards a seemingly impossible goal… but with my daughter Gracie as my purpose power, I moved forward ferociously. I was fearful, I was truthfully pretty terrified most of the time, but I didn’t wait until I felt confident… I just did things really scared. I leaned into my spirit, I journaled, meditated, I prayed a lot, and then I took action in whatever direction I felt led to. I did my best to take 3 small steps in the directions of my dreams -everyday no matter what, and I made sure that at least one of those actions was something bold, and something I was afraid of doing. Regardless of whether each effort I made was successful or not, what was truly becoming an obvious success was the inner confidence I could feel growing within me. It grew each time I dared to NIKE that shit, and “Just Do it”
It’s been 4 years since the journey of creating production company to support my TV show “Soul Sound.” I’m now happy to announce that Viibe Hii Productions will soon proudly announce “Soul Sound” as having been picked up by a major television network. Due to us currently being in the process of negotiations – I’m not at liberty to discuss the show concept, or list the names of who’s involved yet… but I can tell you it’s a reality docu-series about the alchemy of our universal language … music. We show audiences how to turn pain, into power with purpose to do good in the world. I’m so proud of myself, my team, my partners, and companies like Global Citizen and Killer Bunny Productions that have joined forces with us. I truly believe in my vision of “Soul Sound” as more than a TV show, but the beginning of a “music movement.” The purpose of it is to help, heal, and empower. Although I cannot give it’s concept away, I can proudly say that my team and I have now signed on over 28 (and counting) grammy award winning songwriters and producers, as well as 14 (and counting) charities and A-list celebrity artist’s who are all aligned with our mission to do, and spread goodness in the world through the power of music. Especially right now.
It all started with little things I could begin doing right then in my day to day life. I just prayed, journaled, visualized, meditated, took action (baby step after baby step) I cold-called, I set meetings, I put myself out there, I asked for what I wanted, I showed up, I followed through… and don’t get me wrong – I did a lot of crying and clearing of doubts and fears along the way… but ultimately I leaned into my faith and also did a lot of celebrating! I feel deeply there is so much more celebrating to come! I’m excited!
Looking back, I realize that every time I bet on myself, I somehow won. I learned early on in my life that fear couldn’t have a grasp on me if I dared to walk up to the thing I was afraid of. Sometimes I had to baby step my way there, but the amazing thing I found was that the fear itself was the actual issue, not the thing I usually lent it to. By deciding to face a fear, the cloud of emotional agony surrounding it always subsided, and through that process I found my inner resilience. My grit.
So when it comes to risk… give it your all,“Faith it till you make it” -and trust that life will favor you.
Alexa Shea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
ALEXA SHEA
Hey there!
My name is Alexa Shea Falk-Johns,
but for performance, and public I usually go by Alexa Shea.
I’m first and foremost a singer/songwriter based in
Nashville, but I’m from Farmington Utah originally.
I have been writing songs most of my life…
in fact, I wrote my first song at age 8, tying with
Michael Jackson as the youngest writer to be
signed with a major publishing company. By the
time I was 10, I had 5 multi platinum hits…and at
Age 12, I had two #1’s. You can say that I literally grew up
in the music industry.
Over the years, I have had
the opportunity to work with some of the best
songwriters, producers and artists in the world.
The incredible relationships I have fostered
along the way have become the foundation
for my production company Viibe Hii productions
in the creation of the “up and coming” Hit TV docuseries
called “Soul Sound.”
When the idea for SOUL SOUND came
to me, I knew that my past would lend itself
beautifully to this important project,
and I’m excited for the world watch, and be apart of it very soon!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
While I was songwriting at an early age, my sister and I were also a performing country music duo and we had a lot of early success. I was homeschooled ever since the 6th grade because we were constantly flying to Nashville, New York and LA for our careers. We practically grew up in the music industry. We were first known as “Two Steppin’ the sister country music duo, then “Girl Talk” a dancing pop sister duo during the Disney days, then we morphed into a band called “Faces Without Names” when we were managed by the Erving Azoff company. At that time We were groomed to be the new Fleetwood Mac -with my sister and I as the front singers/guitarists, and we were accompanied by 3 male band members. We recored albums in Europe, and toured.
By 18 I had had enough of the rollercoaster and so had my sister. We decided to basically fire everyone, including our mom who was our manager at the time, and we started over. We took a music career hiatus when we went to college, and I got a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in Boston, so I packed up my life and moved across the country by myself. It was at Berklee where I felt free enough to find myself again. I would write my sister letters weekly of my dreams of how things would be one day be when we were the ones in control of our own sound. Our music career together was a constant reinvention, and often a total pivot of direction. I was sick of it, and just wanted to create a firm foundation in something real. I just wanted to share the music I wrote from my heart, that I loved, and that helped me… I knew that by doing that it would open a space for others to connect with my/our music in a more real way.
My sister and I got our 6th record deal while I was at Berklee, and we both ended up putting a pause on college and moved to NYC to pursue music AGAIN. When our deal fell apart we said the final “fuck it! It’s time to do this our way!”
We moved back to Utah, (our home state) and enrolled in Utah State University because it was close to my family, and we especially wanted to be near my little brother and the bonus was that USU had a fantastic guitar program. My sister Nat and I took the fear of being rejected by the music industry out of the equation, and began just writing and performing music that mattered to us. We scrapped all of the past band titles, and decided to go by “FALK” -because it was our last name.
Soon we grew a rapid following, and had major traction instantly. We were opening acts for nearly every major artist that came through and we quickly caught attention of Alist producers, TV execs and major record labels. We began flying out to Nashville every few weeks to record our album. It was amazing because we were in full creative control. Unfortunately we began to creatively clash right around the time I met my then boyfriend, turned now husband Ty.
We had also gotten a TV opportunity and we were in the middle of filming a reality series for VeVo called “Meet The Real Falkers.” My whole family was involved in the process, and it was about Nat and I making it in the music business, and it featured our manager parents and our brother Luke who was the starting QB at WSU at the time (He later went on to play for the Tennessee Titans, The Miami Dolphins, and The NY Jets.) Anyways, it never aired because the plug was pulled as the chaos exacerbated. I tell people not to do a reality TV show, because for us all it did was heighten very real drama.
I won’t go into the whole story, but basically My sister and I split, and so did my parents after 30 years of marriage. They announced their divorce two weeks before my wedding. It was supposed to be one of the happiest times of my life, but it was the hardest. And to top it off, my husband Ty is Canadian so for the first 8 months of us being married he couldn’t work. It was beyond a struggle, because my previous income streams had been totally halted due to the spit, and everything my sister and I had worked on musically totally fell apart.
I found myself pulling a lot of all-nighter, and working 3 jobs, -one of which was scrubbing toilets and taking VIN numbers at an automotive shop. I really didn’t have any skills outside of being a musician, and in Nashville the market is oversaturated for people here trying to “make it!” So… I did what I had to do to survive. My life was in crisis mode, and I felt like I was in a hurricane swimming as hard as I could with no certainty of going in the direction of oxygen. I ended up getting hospitalized -agaisnt my will ( which is another traumatic story for another day!) And in a way I’m still recovering from that experience, but ultimately it made me better… not bitter. (Shout out to forgiveness! Hahah)
Ultimately pivoting wasn’t a choice, it was kind of my only option. I felt like everything I had worked for, and all of the stability I had known was burnt to the ground. My only option was to try my best to rise from the ashes. My strength grew from that time, and so did my intuition and inner resilience. I can’t say I enjoyed any of that experience, but I can say I learned from it, and for that I’m grateful.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn, and still am unlearning (one layer at a time) was an old belief of not being “good enough.” Or the belief of things being “too good to be true.” Also what I looked like – having to look/act/be “marketable, and likable/“ but truly It’s not for other people to decide, it’s for me to decide and for me to be okay with. I had an eating disorder for almost a decade… that nearly took my voice and my life. I was trying to live up to an impossible industry ideal that was honestly just airbrushed. I over came that (long story) and I’ve just decided to be myself and look the way I want to look… so far its working out pretty great!
Overall, I I think the biggest “unlearning” for me was in my beliefs about my purpose, and who I was told I should be vs. who I was. It was lesson after lesson in understanding what was true for me, and letting my heart lead my path in life. I had to learn to stop doubting the desires of my heart. I now know that they are my inner guidance, and they are placed there for a reason.
Since I was a kid when I had success I had many adults around me making the decisions. The problem was that soon they wanted to make all the creative decisions -even down to what kind of songs I wrote. I was severely depressed and music was my medicine. I wanted to be happy, but for me the process to get there was in writing a lot of honest songs. This wasn’t considered marketable, nor was what I apparently looked like at time. For years I blamed myself, my looks, and my weight for not making it in the music industry in the way I was supposed to have. It never quite worked out and I realize now it’s because it was never meant to. It wasn’t what my heart truly wanted. There were elements of the music business that I resonated with, but a lot of the bullshit I could live without.
Now I’ve relearned the process of desires. I write out everything I want out of life (with no reservations) and I go big, and bold in this process. Then next to each one – I write out why my logical mind says it can’t be done, or why I can’t have it… then I disprove the disproval. I do some digging, and usually find that those thoughts didn’t originally belong to me. Those negative thoughts might have been things I was told, or heard on the radio, or saw in a movie, or even saw in my own life as a child. They are merely other peoples options of their own limitations. Once I take the time to examine those limitations, I realize that I don’t have to subscribe to the same limited belief systems.
I can create my own beliefs that totally support me. Because the one thing I DO have control over NO MATTER WHAT is what I choose to THINK, and so I do my best to make damn sure I’m thinking thoughts that are loving, and supportive to myself and to my dreams. I know now without a shadow of a doubt that my dreams are Divine desires that are placed in my heart for a reason. They are mine, they are meant for me and my work is to do whatever it takes to believe in myself, and make my dreams a reality. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.viibehiientertainment.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/alexasheamusic
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/alexasheamusic
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/alexasheamusic
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@alexasheamusic
- Other: www.alexashea.com
Image Credits
Main Photo- Jennelle Swan Mleziva