Interview
I promised
myself that I will
never believe any
success, big or
small, entitles me
to anything
In 2015, I was in what I thought was one of the
highest peaks of my professional career. I felt
like the king of the universe and then, I “took it
easy”. I relaxed, stopped working hard because
(I thought) “I deserve it” and just as in The
Tortoise and the Hare fable (I was the hare),
I started to lose and lose and lose again. One
bad decision after another took me from the
highest peak in my career, to a very low one.
It was not rock bottom, but it was a very hard
hit. It took me two years to recover. I promised
myself that I will never believe any success, big
or small, entitles me to anything.
Does “Balance” in life exist for
you? If so, how do you achieve
it?
That’s a great question for the wrong person
(laughs). I don’t really believe in a balanced life as
many people would aspire it to be. I’ve chosen
to focus on one or two key areas I need to
develop at certain points in my life and ignoring
others. For example, if I want to achieve a very
important professional goal, I don’t take days off
for weeks or months and I work 12 to 14 hours
per day; I do it because I choose to and not
because I have to. In my opinion, a “balanced”
46
life, in the traditional sense, can sometimes
be an obstacle for achievers. I respect other
people’s opinion regarding this subject, but in
my case, I don’t aspire to ‘balance’, I aspire to
grand accomplishments, and I am willing to
pay the price. It is like when an Olympic athlete
abdicates time with family, friends, nights-out,
love life, etc. for years, because the Gold Medal
is the Nº1 priority in their life. I just try to keep
the minimums checked-out, so I don’t fall sick.
I commit to: sleep a minimum of 6 hours per
day, drink a minimum of 1lt of water per day,
eat at least one healthy meal per day, take my
vitamins every day and never forget to answer
my mum’s messages… that would be very bad
for my health (I’m joking!).
How can burnout be prevented
or overcome when working
so intensively on different
businesses?
I have found what burns me out the most is
to jump from task to task; project to project;
business to business, all on the same part of
the day. I try to focus the whole morning or the
whole afternoon on one project or business
only. I try to avoid working on anything else,
unless it is an emergency. If I can dedicate
a whole day to one thing, then I am a lot
more productive and I don’t get burned out.
Obviously, this is not always possible and
there are days where I need to dedicate my
attention to several different projects and I
find myself sometimes working on my fashion
brand from 9am to 10am, then working on my
academy from 10am to 11am and consulting
a client from 11am to 12pm. Those are my
least productive days and where I definitely get
more stressed out. It also helps me to meditate
for about 3-5 minutes between each task; I just
close my eyes and become very aware of my
breathing, the sounds of the environment,
temperature, feeling of clothes on my skin…
and don’t force myself to make my mind blank.
I just don’t let any business-related thoughts
inhabit my brain during those 3-5 minutes.
It is like a mind reboot, very similar to when
our computer is responding slow and after
rebooting, it starts working fine again.
What inspired you to start your
business?
I am the first entrepreneur in my family. I grew
up in a very traditional, working-middle class
environment. My parents wanted me to have
a ‘normal’ working life, but since I was 15, I
knew I wasn’t cut out for that. I felt, thought
and behaved differently from my parents
and other members of my family and always
had big dreams which required me to create
opportunities instead of waiting for them to
just ‘show up’ one day. Being a business owner
requires a lot of stamina, resilience and the
ability to ignore what other people ‘think’ is
‘better’ for us. At the same time, inspiration is
very important and one of the best sources of
inspiration is the accomplishments of others.
We all need role models; people we look up to;
people who already are what we would like to
become. This is especially useful when we are
feeling down and about to throw in the towel.
Paying attention to the success of other people
(without comparing - just benchmarking) and
learning about their struggles and defeats is a
huge inspiration for me. That’s what keeps me
in love with the business world!
You have specialised in High-
Ticket selling techniques. Tell us
about it.
I help consultants, coaches and authors
to make more money (charging more) via
better brand positioning and better value
propositions to their clients. Many consultants
and coaches charge a lot less than they should,
either because they don’t feel worthy of more,
or they don’t have the image and attitude in
front of their clients which will allow them to be
perceived as a high-value brand, or they don’t
create a strong enough offer that enables
them to positively transform the lives of their
clients. In order to charge higher prices as a
coach or consultant, the public can’t see the
professional as a generic drug or a commodity
and that’s exactly what most professionals get
when promoting themselves. I don’t want my
potential clients to think ‘I need to hire a brand
strategist’ when needing my services, I want
them to think ‘I need to hire Alex Kei to help
me launch big my consulting/coaching career’.
Selling high-ticket services or products requires
the professional to perceive himself or herself
as a ‘Celebrity’ and think, look, act and deliver
as one. It is important to ‘package’ the offer in
a way that potential clients immediately notice
they are in front of a strong, exclusive brand
name and not ‘one more in the bunch’.
47