Innovating Consulting: The Founder Journey of Alexandra Jeglitsch, Founder of LUA LAB

My name is Alexandra Jeglitsch. And in my day-to-day, I help entrepreneurs and startups to find their brand purpose and to infuse their brand, their brand identity with loads of personalities so that closing their most favorite clients and investors becomes easy. I’m not an author if you wondered , but if I write a book someday, it will probably be something like this because in my opinion, branding is all about purpose and personality. And my story is definitely not an overnight success story. I don’t have a unicorn startup, and I’m not a millionaire either, but I run a fully remote branding and design agency that allows me to work with super inspiring humans and to live my best life at the same time. But that was not always the case. So let’s start from scratch. 

Picture this, it’s a warm and sunny spring day. Birds are singing. The tree in front of my kitchen window begins to bloom, and I, yeah, I’m a huge mess. , crying out my eyes on the kitchen floor. What happened to you? May ask nothing. Absolutely nothing and that’s driving me nuts. I have a relatively well-paying secure corporate shop as a UX designer at a startup and a cozy rental apartment, and also a long-term relationship. And my family is probably right when they say I should stop dreaming of the impossible and instead just be grateful for what I have. But I don’t know. I can’t help it. I have these fantasies about being independent, living the nomad life, exiting the nine to five, exploring the world. And if I knew how to turn them off to leave me, I would. But here I am still on the kitchen floor, dialing my boss’s number, and in tears and out of an impulse, I resign.

When I got off the phone, I felt all shaky and maybe also a little relief, but the feeling of relief didn’t last very long because the voices around me start mixing up with the voices in my head. This is the mistake of a lifetime. How are you going to pay your bills? You just threw away everything. What are you supposed to do now? And yeah, what was I supposed to do? I had no idea and no plan B at all. So luckily my best friend reminded me the question isn’t what you’re supposed to do. The question is what you wanna do. Wow. Huge game changer. A few months later I found myself boarding a plane. And as I typed my seatbelt and looked back at the U-turn, I had taken all the things I have done so far that people have been telling me I cannot do. I had quit my job. Miranda contract had sold a few things ahead and was now the owner of a design agency. And with the agency in my backpack, I was heading straight to South America. 

Let’s be real on paper. My business was an agency. But in real life for the next, yeah, I don’t know, year and a half, two years, it was more kind of freelancing, a lower here, a flyer there, a lot of picky pushing and being micromanaged by my clients. But at least I was traveling and had my freedom, or at least that’s what I told myself. In reality, things looked a little different while all the other travelers went out exploring and partying and spent many days and nights. I stayed, many days and nights staying in client pleaing at its best, still overworked and underpaid. I didn’t meet for months and, and I had to take on shifts at hostels in exchange for accommodation and breakfast. So one night after I once again had worked for 32 hours straight. 

Frustration was perfect. That was not what I had pictured of this nomad life. And probably all my honest advisors had been right all along. Maybe it was time to quit this dream. And while I felt like a complete failure, I fellow volunteer at my hostel, handed me an empanada and said I saw your work. It’s good, but why are you trying to be someone you’re not? I don’t think you should quit your dream. Why don’t you quit the shoot since instead? And I was like, what, what does he mean by that? Quit the shoots. And anyways, what does he know? He’s not entrepreneur. Neither does he know my branch. And after all, if only we’re all that simple, you know? But somehow this night while I fell asleep with my computer on my lap, obviously the words of this guy kept spinning in my head. Why don’t you quit the shots?

So the next morning, it was time for a reality check. And I have to admit, this Argentinian colleague was totally right. That also professional and buttoned up version of my person on my website was so not in tune with the NPC Noman version of mine that fellow travelers had known. Please, whom was I kidding? I, no. So yeah, lay up by layer. I started to take apart everything that I had just in place because of what I thought I should do to look professional or because of what others did, or because of a fancy trend or because of my need to please people. So I finally did actually quit the shoots.

I changed my whole brand identity, adapted the website, the images, the copy, and even my process and the services I offered to make it all more like more me, more true to myself. And fast forward to last year, it worked. Suddenly I’m sitting on the terrace of my Airbnb, not a hostel in a small fisher town a few hours south of Bueno Aires. And after working with a whole bunch of amazing clients, I have taken a whole month off to celebrate my wins and fulfill myself. One of the things I had on my bucket list for ages was observing whales in freedom. And as I’m sitting there taking a sip of my coffee and wiping a small tier of joy out of my eyes I received a short message from my recently contracted virtual assistant about a new booking for a project.

Upon my return, the deposit had already been paid and no actual required from my side. And I have to admit, I, I don’t know. I still get goosebumps thinking about that moment, watching the whales and receiving those messages because it was the very first time that I really realized that this new authentic brand identity and quitting the shoots really did the thing for me. And the clients that reached out to me since did it because they can identify they have similar values and desires, and our collaborations now are based on mutual respect. And not only have I found some super talented contractors and my work life balance within the first three months, I think I even already tripled my previous year’s income. And all that gives me now the space to really show up for my clients. And with my brand request, I encourage and accompany them to discover their most authentic brand identity.

And with my branco, which is a one to two day design sprint, I help them get their websites, apps, pitch decks, social media and marketing collateral ready in no time so that they can launch quickly. And yeah, that’s more or less my story. I guess my most important takeaway is that if you want to please everyone, you actually please no one. And my best advice is to quit the shoot, to align your brand with your purpose and to infuse your brand with personality no matter if it’s a personal or a corporate brand. Because in the end, we all connect with people and not with brands. But I also have to admit that for quite a long time, I wrote my eyes when people told me to be just me, because Comparisonitis was real. And as an and people pleaser, I found it really hard to even phrase what it meant to be me.

So that’s why over the years I developed some tools that can help. And if you relate, then maybe my brand character quiz could be an insightful first step to discover your own brand’s real and raw personality. And you can find it at app.com/brand quiz. It’s totally free, and I promise it’s fun too. Picture it like one of those playful magazine quizzes from the nineties . And after completing the quiz, you may sign up to my newsletter, which is not yet existent, but will be , but that’s totally optional. You also get a result without signing up. So yeah I think that’s it from my side. And now I’m super excited to listen to the upcoming sound stories and I’ll be in one of the breakout rooms afterwards. So I hope to talk to some of you there. And I also love to connect beyond these participants.

So if you want to visit your lab.com/connect or scan this QR and you’ll find all my contact data and really, really feel free to reach out. You’ll also find a Frank, who I mentioned there, and my Insta, which is still pretty lonely. could need some followers, . And you could also find a link where you can book a coffee date with me in case you need to head out earlier today and won’t be around for the breakout sessions. And one last thing. If you wondered that Argentinian guy from the rooftop Terrace who told me to quit the sh in the first place, he’s now my husband, and he also quit his shoots and his job to become a web developer and videographer for Lua Lab. But that’s a story for another day.