We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alyce Merrilees. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alyce below.

Alyce , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I started to follow what lights up my soul and moving towards the things that made me feel good and excite me!

Now I think about it I have always been in a place of serving others and providing fun and impactful spaces for people, only now I am doing it from a place of intention with so much awareness and connection to myself and my truth. I studied Youth Work and Social Science before getting swept up in the corporate world scaling the corporate ladder. I worked in the education industry leading teams to create educational and fun spaces for children. I loved this as I LOVE children, I LOVE people, I LOVE operations and logistics and I LOVE being a leader. I would constantly get promotions and bonuses as I was good at what I did and this gave me such a rush. I was helping people in my teams grow and evolve and that made my heart happy! My job was my identity! Your job being your identity… hmmm not a good move! I worked far too much and too hard as I thought working hard meant I was successful. This is what I had learnt and what I thought was true. I barely took a breath and I never set boundaries for myself so I often found myself in pretty terrible situations where I wasn’t being treated the way I now know I deserve. It was during the pandemic that we developed online programs for kids and I was the head of this whole project. It was absolutely incredible and it went world wide, literally, but in the process I completely burn out multiple times and I hit absolute rock bottom! My work environment was becoming toxic, I wasn’t taking care of myself and yeah it was not pretty! My jaw locked shut from stress and I couldn’t get out of my bed!

But this lead to the greatest breakthrough ever!! And is the reason I am sitting here answering this question of how did you come up with this idea? It was through this break down that I hired my first Mindset Coach and made a promise to start to focus on me. I was terrified making this investment and I had no idea what to expect, I was in a huge hole and I just had this inner knowing something needed to change and this was what I would try! AND WOW!! My entire life changed forever! This coaching container expanded my mind like never before, I learnt tools to focus on me, I learnt about my limiting beliefs and I actually learnt how to stop! I started to really understand who I was and what lit me up, I started to follow my heart more, I started to do things out of my comfort zone and make changes to my life one small step at a time.

I started jumping in the freeing cold ocean, doing ice baths, meditation, breath work…. I LOVED IT!! I started to share it all on my social media and I was inspiring so many people. I had so many people joining me! It was EPIC!

It was through this I had an AHA moment where I realised this is what I was meant to be doing in this world! I am meant to be serving others, guiding others, leading them along the path to their truth! I studied life coaching and started coaching clients… I felt so ALIVE!!

I was on a holiday in Byron Bay and a friend flew in and asked if I wanted to check out a Retreat space with him. I said yes and when I arrived he said so are you in. Who me? Yes you thats why asked you to come here! I thought he just wanted my opinion not to run a retreat with him. So of course I said YES and we sold out and ran an incredible retreat in just a few months. LANDED IN MY LAP AND I JUST SAID YES DESPITE THE FEAR!

Not long after this I made the bold move to quit my corporate job and I moved interstate and started stepping further outside my comfort zone and closer to my own heart! On the drive to move to Byron Bay I had another random idea drop in.. .THE MINDSET ADVENTURE! I am going to change my instagram name to this and create a business and inspire as many people as I possibly can! I wanted people to focus on their MINDSET and embrace this ADVENTURE we call life!!!

So off I went… I launched my business – THE MINDSET ADVENTURE!!!

Then one day during my own meditation an idea dropped in… I started writing (it was like someone was writing for me it was spilling out so fast)!! It was some mix of Meditation, Breathwork, Intention Setting and Reflection! Eventually I started running this random practise that came to me during meditation on the beach for some friends. I decided to show up every week on the beach and run this and it took off. I built a community and created so much connection, love and inspiration in this space! I CREATED SPACE FOR THE MESSAGES TO COME IN AND BAM DEVELOPED MY OWN PRACTICE THAT HAS CHANGED SO MANY LIVES!

I got asked to run these for a range of other wellness communities and at music festivals… I even got asked to run the entire Wellness Space at my favourite music festival where I got everyone to connect to themselves, each other and the festival theme and set intentions to take with them all weekend. This was unbelievable!!

Which leads me to now where I have just come off the back of three back to back truly powerful and transformational retreats that I ran in Bali. I literally cant digest any of these or put them into words. These spaces blow my mind and again this just dropped in and flowed. I collaborated on these with another powerful coach and breath work facilitator and we literally created magic! Neither of us remember how we actually decided to run retreats in Bali… it just happened!! In fact the venue came to me in the middle of the night when my body woke me up and I just had this inner knowing that the venue we had chosen wasn’t the right one and BAM the most magical venue dropped in. Its breathtaking!!

I now live in Bali and I am gearing up to run my first Solo Mixed Retreat in Uluwatu at a brand new venue which also came to me! Things are dropping in daily for this and I am creating an unforgettable and truly powerful adventure. I am allowing what is meant to come to come through and trusting the process which is what I have done this entire time.

So to answer your questions… How did I come up with the idea? A huge amount of down time, focusing on me and following what excited me, saying yes even before I was ‘ready’ , stepping into the fear and allowing the messages and answers to come to me and then taking action when the time felt right. The ultimate trust and surrender process was necessary but I feel pretty dam grateful that I chose to show up for me and follow my heart even when it made no logical sense. AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR WHAT IS NEXT… WHATEVER THAT IS I DON’T TRULY KNOW!! That is the best part!

Alyce , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

So where do I begin… OHH YAYYY! Talking about yourself is always the hardest part but to be honest I know that this mission is bigger than me so this is getting easier. I am Alyce Merrilees and I am on a mission to help as many people as I can to return to their heart and their true essence. To return to the soul they were when they first came into this world before they were programmed and influenced by the rest of this crazy (and beautiful) world!!

I am here to guide people and teach them tools to connect back to themselves, to reflect on their life often, to be intentional with their time and to get as many people to start to really treating their short time on this earth like the PRECIOUS pearl that it truly is.

I was the person running through life so fast, so unaware and so unconsciously. I was anxious, sick, tired, lost and in unaligned workplaces and relationships! I have been to the depths of darkness and built myself and my life up. I now live in Bali and run my own successful wellness business and every single day I am so grateful for my life. I am so passionate about ensuring that as many people as possible start to live a life that feels good to them!! This life is for LIVING FULLY and I am here to show you how!

You can live a life that aligns to your values and your beliefs, a life that makes you want to bounce out of bed. One that excites you and that makes you feel ALIVE!! You just need to connect to the parts of you that you are avoiding, start to believe in yourself more, take consistent action to build subconscious evidence that you can do the things you don’t think you can do! You can literally do anything you put your mind to, you really can! I have proved that!

I now guide people along the path that I took to get here through my One on One and Group Coaching spaces. It’s here I teach all my tools, share all my wisdom and hold a safe space for you to just be YOU. I am an operational wizard so I also help you set up systems and process to support your life. I help you find balance and direction and harness your true power within!!

I also run wellness events both online and in person where I help people stop, connect back to their hearts and be more mindful and intentional with their time and life. These spaces are full of beautiful humans showing up for themselves and each other and this is powerful! There is work you can do in solitude but there is also work you need to do together!! Connection and Community is so important and something we are losing every day in this current society. I have a true gift of bringing people together and I am harnessing that with all my might as it POWERFUL!!

Lastly I run RETREATS!! And WOW these spaces are like nothing else. When you are immersed in this work for five full days and you can completely disconnected from the world and all your responsibilities and connect to you and other like minded souls… absolute magic occurs. So much so that I still don’t really know how to put it into words. These retreats are full of transformational experiences and joy!! Because I believe that healing can be deep but it can also be fun!! The stories coming out of these spaces are incredible and I am so excited to keep bringing this magic to life all over the world! Currently these retreats are in the unmatched energy of Bali and that in itself is life changing!

I am now being approached my corporates to run retreats for their staff, people are booking private wellness events for their team, friends and family and who knows what else will come from this but I am here of service to whoever wants to be a part of this amazing adventure! Because we all deserve to be happy, fulfilled and to be living a life that makes us feel ALIVE! A life lead from our hearts not our heads because that is how you create a life that is right for you and that is how you do what you were put on this earth to do.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I truly believe in leading by example and being authentic. Show up in all your forms, all your layers and be REAL!! There is way too many ‘highlights’ all over the internet so by showing up as the real version of you builds a strong connection to your audience and creates trust and safety for them. This sounds simple but let me tell you it is not. There are so many layers to this and you actually have to keep learning more about yourself and show up to do the work consistently and build your own trust in order to build trust in others.

You also need to do this so you can call in aligned clients because by showing up as the truest version of you the right people will find you. And this is an important piece of the puzzle as the last thing you want is to put in all this time and take all these risks to work with unaligned people… may as well go back to my corporate jobs if thats the case!

So connect to deeper parts of yourself, learn to love yourself, learn to trust yourself and show up as YOU!! Speak from your heart and put content out that feels good for you (not just because you feel you have to). If the messages come from your heart you cant go wrong. You will grow an organic audience, an aligned audience and your business will blow your mind!! Your fulfilment and happiness will go through the roof!!

Also investing in yourself consistency because in order to lead others you need to be constantly learning and evolving. They see and feel your evolution and this builds their trust in you and inspires them to expand and grow also.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Honestly I am constantly proving to myself how resilient I am. If you choose to quit your high paying corporate job to run your own business and live interstate and overseas you realise how courageous and resilient you are.

But what comes to mind is the art of letting go! Your ability to let go of attachments, expectations, past versions of yourself, past versions of friendships, relationships and partnerships is the ultimate foundation that builds resilience.

It is quite easy to stay in an uncomfortable situation because it’s comfortable but stepping away form that into the unknown is truly scary. A client said to me today ‘ Alyce freedom is scary’, and that really hit me. It is so scary but it is so empowering and so worth it. What scares me is to think that I could be back in a job that was burning me out, being in unaligned relationships and partnerships, not wanting to get out of bed to live this beautiful life we have in front of us and partying to escape reality… THAT SCARES ME! Just living so unintentionally and unconsciously… that scares me way more than this quest for freedom and fulfilment.

So every step of the way I have had to listen to those inner callings, let go before I was ready, change my path, slow down, speed up and harness my inner power and resilience to get to this moment where I feel so incredibly lit up by life!!

Without my coaches, mentors, tools, inner belief, self love and all the beautiful things I now teach my clients I would not be here!

We are all so resilient and we can keep harnessing that resilience more and more with the right support, guidance and wisdom! Everything is within you, you just need to learn how to access it!!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @themindsetadventure

Image Credits
@sicfebvisuals @maxysmoments