300. Galey Alix: From Goldman Sachs to Millions of Followers, Story Selling & Building a Design Empire

Summary

Trading Secrets Podcast: Episode 300 — Gailey Alix: From Goldman Sachs to Millions of Followers, Story Selling & Building a Design Empire

Date: May 18, 2026
Host: Jason Tartick
Guest: Gailey Alix

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Episode Overview

In this milestone 300th episode, Jason Tartick sits down with Gailey Alix: former Goldman Sachs executive turned viral home designer, social media juggernaut, and TV personality. The episode dives deep into Gailey’s remarkable career pivot from high-stakes finance to building a multi-platform design empire with millions of followers, a hit HBO Max/HGTV show, and an ever-growing product line. Gailey unpacks the secrets of her success, from mastering “story selling,” navigating heartbreak, and the tactics behind her explosive social growth, to transparent discussions about money, mental health, and what it takes to double your income—and your purpose.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Finance to Design: The Career Pivot

Early Career and Breaking Into Goldman Sachs

• Gailey began in a call center at Franklin Templeton Investments making $27,000/year, “doing a lot of girl math…buy 2% milk, when it’s half empty, fill it up with water—that was how girl math worked for me." (03:00)
• Trade secret: At Goldman, every person you meet on Super Day (including security and the admin bringing coffee) must give you a double thumbs up or you’re out – “If even one of those people had a bad impression or interaction, you’re out.” (06:27)
• Gailey’s unconventional but bold approach: “I’m 23, a little blonde girl, purple eyeliner, I wasn’t going to change who I was. I was just going to be me.” (07:19)
• Standout moment: Calling out an executive during her interview for yawning, risking everything but demonstrating confidence:
  • “Excuse me George, am I boring you? Do you need me to send a Starbucks to London?” (09:00)
  • “I called him out, was funny about it. And I think what happened in that moment...I showed right there that I was strong, could hold my own, and could get a sinking ship to float again.” (11:35)

2. Mastering “Story Selling” — The Key to Sales AND Viral Growth

• Definition: Story selling is using narrative to make your message memorable, repeatable, and digestible.
  • “Stories are memorable, repeatable, digestible…My ability to sell—which is another way of saying you’re good at pattern recognition—is the greatest tool anyone can have.” (12:41)
  • “I gained 5 million followers by story selling my business model and my reveals. Any industry can translate that.” (13:41)
• Practical Start: Know—and sell—your own story first.
  • “You’ve got to nail your 2-3 minute story of who you are, why you are, and what you want to be.” (15:01)
  • “If you’re not believing what you’re saying about who you are…you cannot expect anybody else to buy into that.” (15:28)

3. Salary Trajectory: Numbers Behind a Goldman Sachs Career

• Base: $120,000; the rest is commission/bonus (approx. 95% commission).
  • “You eat what you hunt. I was closing hundreds of millions every year. That makes the basis points add up.” (16:21)
• Quickly hit seven-figures in her 20s through performance.

4. Heartbreak, Mental Health, and a Viral Rebirth

• Left Goldman to get married; confessed to fiancé about an eating disorder and was asked to leave.
  • “I checked into therapy, deleted Instagram off my phone…but I left my account running. When I logged in months later, I thought I logged into a celebrity’s account by accident…tens of thousands of messages.”
  • “I decided to say yes to a stranger, renovated their house over a weekend, filmed it, posted it…and it got 30 million views.” (22:00)
• Takeaway: Transformation and vulnerability catalyzed her next chapter.
  • “The moments you got rid of your filter are the ones that changed the rest of your life, even when it was a really, really hard thing to do.” (27:12)

5. Social Media Explosions and Trade Secrets

• Content Tips:
  • “If you can chalk your page full of value-adds, it’s much easier for people to follow/share/comment. You don’t know what will motivate someone to follow—so hit as many points as possible: emotional, educational, entertaining.” (24:46)
  • “Load your content, and it’ll be really hard for people to watch it and not hit follow.” (26:30)
• Triple E Principle: “Education, emotional, and entertainment—if you can do those, you can drive the follow.” (27:12)

6. Building the Design Business: Double Tarzan, Entrepreneurial Risk, and Personal Brand

• Double Tarzan Method: Hold onto your current (safety) job until your side business can support you.
  • “Tarzan swings through the jungle holding onto his vine…Goldman was my vine. When the TV show came, I reached for another vine. I didn’t let go until I knew the next vine could carry me.” (29:51)
• Strategy: Know whether you’re motivated with or without outside accountability—this decides if you can “double Tarzan” or need to leap.
• Self-taught Skills: “Necessity is the mother of invention…I just started going—trips to Home Depot, figuring it out myself…” (35:16)

7. The Finances of Leaving Corporate America

• Financial Strategy: Only let go of the main job when the side income is proven.
  • “I didn’t let go until I knew that next vine could keep me off the jungle floor…”
  • “At the end of the day, I was feeding my mortgage, not my soul.” (37:53)
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: “Have ruthless optimism about your capabilities. When someone says no, send them a $275 fruit basket with a note: ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’” (38:41)
• Out-earned Goldman income “by sixfold” within two years of leaving. (40:25)
• Motivation: “I’m driven by stack rankings, not money. How much money I’m making is none of my business.” (40:41)

8. Social vs. TV: Where the Real Leverage Is

• Critically, TV (HBO Max/HGTV) did not drive social follower growth; returning to her signature social content created instant viral gains.
  • “TV is not the goal. Social media is where you want to be investing your time…After the show, I posted my first project, and I got 100,000 new followers in seven days. No growth from the show, insane growth from my posts.” (47:04)

9. Monetization: Products, NIL Deals, Brand Activations

• Greatest income source: NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) and exclusivity deals, not the product lines or design service.
  • “Your NIL and exclusivity is your money maker…Recently did one with Behr Paint—I’m exclusive and can’t show any other paint brand.” (49:16)
• She self-negotiates her deals thanks to deal-making experience at Goldman: “Nobody can represent me the way I can represent myself.” (50:15)
• Design client process: She largely did her first 50+ projects for free, focusing on social proof and viral content… “I didn’t charge anybody. I did it for free.” (50:46)

10. Gailey’s Unique Business Model

• No consultations, no sharing plans with homeowners—everything is a surprise, and she sticks to the agreed budget (often footing overruns herself).
  • “You set the budget. I won’t tell you anything I’m doing in your home. The only thing we discuss is your budget and when you’ll move out for three days.” (51:17)
  • “None of my projects look the same. They all fit the person or family—they’re not tailored to me.” (54:03)

11. Home Design Tips, ROI, and Consumer Protection

• Invest in rooms that are hardest to live without during construction—kitchens and primary baths. Focus on one at a time and go all out rather than small updates everywhere. (56:07)
• Avoid trends that will date a home quickly, e.g., color drenching. Instead, stick to timeless features like solid wood doors and elevated baseboards—“but don’t paint it emerald green.” (58:02)
• Client payment/credit advice:
  • “A lot of designers will charge your card for $80,000 in products…who gets the points? The designer. I think there’s something morally wrong with that.”
  • “With me, I use your card so you get all the points and transparency. It protects us both.” (62:04)
• Finance background helps her add unique value for clients, “creating the clarity with communication.” (64:05)

12. Q&A and Rapid-Fire Audience Questions

• On sleep: “I don’t need a lot of sleep. I wake up so excited…When you do what fuels you, you’ll have the energy.” (66:46)
• On inspiration: “From the client, all day long. It’s what they need, who they are, and what I want for their life.” (67:30)
• On her client pipeline: “We average 10-12,000 requests every seven days.” (65:44)
• On personal life: Open to matchmaking and potential hat line! (64:38, 65:14)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On negotiating at Goldman:
  • “They offered me 87K, I said, ‘Guys, I’m not moving to Chicago. I’m sticking with my $27,000 a year job. But if anything opens up in Florida, call me.’” (04:45)
• On story selling:
  • “Your ability to sell—which is just being good at pattern recognition—is the greatest tool anybody can have in their lifetime.” (09:48)
• On vulnerability and transformation:
  • “I lost my job, my fiancé, my identity, my income, the family I thought I was starting, my health…I hit rock bottom.” (18:55)
  • “I logged into Instagram after therapy…and I thought I’d logged into a celebrity’s account by accident.” (21:12)
• On viral content:
  • “If you can hit them with emotional, education, and entertainment value in content, you go 10x on follow probability.” (26:30)
• On career change:
  • “I was feeding my mortgage, not my soul.” (37:53)
  • “Have ruthless optimism about your capabilities…If someone says no, send a $275 fruit basket and say, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’” (38:41)
• On TV vs. Social:
  • “TV is not the goal. Social media is where you want to be investing your time…After a year of no social content and nothing happening [from TV], my first post got me 100,000 followers in 7 days.” (47:04)
• Closing trading secret:
  • “Money is not a through line to happiness. Success is not a through line to happiness…If you don’t address what’s happening within you…the goalpost won’t fix you.” (67:54)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:33] — Gailey’s entry into finance; early gender dynamics and salary reality
• [06:27] — The secret to getting hired at Goldman
• [09:00] — The legendary interview yawn-calling moment
• [12:41] — Story selling explained
• [15:28] — Elevator pitch advice and self-belief
• [16:21] — Numbers behind Goldman Sachs compensation
• [17:52] — Mental health struggles and heartbreak pivot point
• [22:00] — Accidental viral moment and first reveal video
• [24:46] — The triple E value content strategy
• [29:51] — Double Tarzan method for making the leap to entrepreneurship
• [37:53] — How to know when to leave your job (financial readiness)
• [38:41] — Ruthless optimism and handling rejection
• [40:25] — Outperforming Goldman: sixfold income increase from her business
• [47:04] — Social media vs. TV: where the real growth is
• [49:16] — Monetization: NIL deals, product lines, brand partnerships
• [50:46] — Her unique, surprise-based, transformation business model
• [56:07] — Where to invest in your home for ROI
• [62:04] — Credit card points, client transparency, and industry advice
• [67:54] — Closing trading secret: Money is not a through line to happiness

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Final Trading Secret

“We get so hyper-focused on creating these lofty metrics…But if you don’t address what’s happening within you…all that stuff is still gonna be there, because that will not fix it. The same energy you’re putting into success, don’t forget to address what’s going on inside. Otherwise you’ll get to the goalpost and realize it still didn’t fix you—and that’s going to be really depressing.”
— Gailey Alix (67:54)

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Where to Find Gailey Alix

• Website & Products: Gailey Alix Design
• Socials: Instagram, TikTok: @gaileyalix

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Summary: This episode is packed with practical trading secrets, inspiring storytelling, and brutal honesty from one of the most innovative career pivots in both finance and design. Whether you’re navigating a career transition, building a brand, or just looking for an inside scoop on money and entrepreneurship, Gailey Alix delivers triple-E: entertainment, emotion, and education—plus some laugh-out-loud moments and truly actionable advice.

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Transcript

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[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by someone who truly embodies the intersection of hustle, reinvention and creativity. Gailey Alex. And she started her career in the high pressure world of finance. We got a little in common there working on Wall street before building a massive platform in home design and eventually landing her own HBO show, Home in Heartbeat and also hgtv as we know. She, she's proof that you can succeed in one of the most intense corporate environments, literally in the world, one of the most intense companies, and still pivot into something completely different. Creative, entrepreneurial, and making impact to family and friends with, of course, her big surprises. From managing millions in finance to transforming homes and lives, Gayly has built a brand that resonates across both business and pop culture. Gayly, we are so excited to have you on Trading Secrets. Thank you for being here.

[Gailey Alex]

I am so excited to be here and I do feel like we have so much to talk about. I am ready.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

All right. I can't wait. And I love that you've done all this, by the way, in such a short period of time. But before you've done what everyone knows you for. And we'll get into some of the questions that people submitted to me because the people that follow me, they were going nuts that I was having you on. But before we get into what they know you best for, you were working at Goldman SACHS, Right. For three 13 years. And it was. You almost took this internal wholesaler position, then took an external wholesaler position before you took the job with Goldman. Was that what your career trajectory looked like? You wanted to be in finance with the biggest and best company in the world doing it?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah. So when I was in college, my boyfriend's mother pulled up and she was in a Mercedes and I was like, whatever, she's. And she was a single mom. And I was like, whatever this woman's doing, I want a part of it. And she worked at Franklin Templeton Investments. She was a portfolio manager. So. So when I graduated from college, even though I never studied finance, I was a PR major. I was like, I need to get that Mercedes. And by the way, I still have never bought a Mercedes to this day. But anyways, that was the dangling carrot at the time. And so I applied for entry level. It was in a call center making $27,000 a year at Franklin Templeton Investments in St. Pete, Florida. And I was on a floor with 72 people. Only three of us were women, which, by the way, today in finance, still only 26% of financial professionals are female. And there's an 85% paid gap between them. So it's gotten a little better than when I started, but not by much. And so I was one of the three women on the floor making 27 grand a year. And I was doing a lot of girl math. Like, I would buy 2% milk, and when it was halfway empty, I'd fill it back up with water from the sink and shake it. And Now I had 1%. That was how girl math worked for me, to make the milk last longer. But, yeah, I started out in a call center, and about a year and a half into smiling and dialing and being psychotic on the phones, I'm really competitive, and I wanted to be number one in every metric. I needed to have the most dials, the most value added contacts, the longest talk time, the most sales. And Goldman found out about me, and I turned down a job from them for 60 grand. And I stayed at my $27,000 a year job because I interviewed in Chicago for the same sales associ, kind of entry level position. And when I went to the interview, it was like negative 20 with windchill in Chicago. It was January. And I did this interview. I did my sales pitch, and when I left, they offered me the job. And I said, you know what? I'm not going to be. I'm not going to be good at my job if I'm miserable and I'm, you know, I'm a Division 1 athlete. I ran track at University of Florida. I was like, I'm a runner. I'm a Florida girl. If I'm not outside in warmth, I'm not going to do well. And so I turned down the offer. They came back four more times. They brought it up to 87K. And I said, guys, I'm not moving to Chicago. And I'm going to stick at my $27,000 a year job. However, if something ever opens up in Florida, please give me a call. And then a month and a half later, while I was sitting in St. Pete, Florida, splitting my milk with water, wondering if I made a huge mistake, I got a phone call and it was from a gentleman at Goldman in New York. And he said, we'd like to interview you for an external, in other words, a regional director like, executive position. And I don't think he knew that I was 23. Like, I think he, he found out from the Chicago office that I gave a really good sales pitch. And he was like, okay, I'll call her. And I found out later he had interviewed 72 people over six months and still didn't like anybody. And so I was the 73rd person he called. And I was like, yeah, I'll fly up to New York. And then that's where I'm pretty sure I tricked them into hiring me in my final interview on Super Day.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

That is unbelievable. So you're 20, 23 at this point, you're getting a regional director executive position with Ed Goldman?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah, I went from, you know, 27,000 a year to seven figures. And I was probably about 10 years ahead of where my resume warranted IB but that interview in New York, I think the way I approached it, what changed everything for me. And also a little trade secret about Goldman Sachs, because it's so hard to

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

get hired, so hard to get in Ivy League only, right?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah. And I did not go. I went to a state school. Go Gators. But the trade secret is that if you're going to get a job at Goldman, they don't tell you this. But every single person you interact with on your super day, which is when they bring you to home office at 200 west in New York to do all of your interview rounds, every single person you interact with, from the security guard putting your bag through the metal detector to the sales associate bringing you your coffee, to the secretary that walks you over to a desk, to the executives interviewing you, every single person when you leave that office has to have given a double thumbs up that they would like to work with you and they think you'd be a good hire. And if even one of those people had a bad impression or interaction, you're out.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

That's a trade secret itself. That's unbelievable.

[Gailey Alex]

It is. And then, you know, I guess what happened in that interview, I knew what I had going against me. Right. I'm 23, I'm a little Blonde girl. I had purple eyeliner on. I wasn't going to change who I was. I was just, I was going to be me. And the person who had reached out was like, hey, I'm just going to give you a heads up because of your lack of experience, you don't even have your Series 7 yet. And the, the assistance they give you if you get this job are all going to have their Series seven. So they're going to have more licenses than you have and you will be their boss. So it's less than a 1% chance you're going to get this job. And I am really competitive. So I was like, I'm going to get this job just to prove you wrong. And this is how I got the job, I'm pretty sure. So in that last interview, it was like 7 o' clock at night on a Friday. I'm in their windows of the world, which is like their penthouse office surrounded by windows. There were 10 gentlemen in the most well tailored suits you've ever seen, all sitting around a U shaped table. And then there were three or four, I'd say three guys on monitors like big screens behind them who were dialing in to watch my interview from different locations. I think one was in London. And they wanted me to give them a sales pitch as if I was presenting a high yield muni fund. And I think I did an international small cap. And I'm giving the presentation and I'm feeling myself. I know I'm so good at story selling because I'm creative and I'm getting in there, which by the way, your ability to sell, which is another way of just saying you're good at pattern recognition but your ability to sell is the greatest tool anybody can have in their lifetime. I'm convinced. So I'm in there and I'm story selling my butt off. And I'm getting them laughing, I'm getting them going, I'm feeling the energy and I'm like riding off of that high. And then I'm about eight minutes into the pitch and the guy on the center monitor starts yawning. And I pause and I go, excuse me, George, I am so sorry, am I boring you? Do you need me to send a Starbucks to London? And he didn't play into it and he kept a straight face, very somber and he goes, I'm not sure what you're talking about. Please continue the presentation. And it took the wind out of my sails. I felt my heart dropped into my stomach. I suddenly went from super confident and high energy to Shaky. I could feel my voice sh. I was forgetting words. And the wheels were coming off the train and it was not good. And I was like, oh my God, I got ahead of my skis. This guy probably has an ego. And I threatened it in front of all these other gentlemen in the room. And I'm this little girl, I shouldn't have done that. And I'm like so mad at myself and I can just feel it's like the plane's going down fast. And then about two minutes later of me fumbling through the next two minutes, he yawns again. And in that moment, I had to make a decision. Am I gonna double down and lean into this or am I just gonna keep floundering through this and like, respect that. He has an ego and I need to respect it. And I was like, fuck it. Sorry, my mom is not gonna like that. I just swear away. But New York friend, you gotta talk like a New Yorker.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Got it.

[Gailey Alex]

So I was like, excuse me, can everybody direct their attention to the center monitor? And all the guys turn around, all 10 guys in the room. And he's in the middle of a yawn. And. And I go, george, do you still maintain that you didn't yawn two minutes ago? And he goes, I was like, we can send you a Starbucks. And he goes, okay, okay. And he started laughing and he goes, okay, you got me. My twins had a recital last night. I was up really, really late, but this is actually a really good presentation and I'm into it. And everybody started laughing because I called him out. I was funny about it. And I think what happened in that moment is, is the biggest concern that all those gentlemen had was how are we going to put this little 23 year old girl into a room with 50, 60 year old investment committee members at a penthouse in Miami and have her answer difficult questions about the economy, about portfolio allocation and is she going to be able to handle her own. They're going to eat her for breakfast. And I showed right there in that moment that I was strong and I could hold my own and I could get a sinking ship to float again. And I think that that was actually why they all ended up saying, I can't believe we're going to say this, but like, yeah, let's put her in. And I ended up getting the job. I was the youngest they'd ever hired by probably almost a decade at that point. And I ended up closing $5 billion for my firm.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Wow. I mean, that is. I mean, it's just the story right there. Is unbelievable. And it's amazing how fruitful things can be when others accountable to the standard they should. Even when you do it in a fun, cheeky way, which obviously you did at 23, you set the tone. I can control the room. I don't care how old you are, I don't care what your title is. This is who I am. And while I'm here, I'm the quarterback and no one else is. And I love that you doubled down on that before. We keep moving in this career track. I don't want to stop because I think you hit a really, really important point. Doesn't matter what industry anyone is in that's listening to this. You mentioned story selling. Tell people a little bit about what story selling is if they don't know what it is and how they can get started on trying to improve their story selling.

[Gailey Alex]

So story selling is a way to sell a product or a concept and to do it through telling a story. And the reason stories are so important, even Paramount, is because stories are memorable, they're repeatable, they're digestible. So the way I closed the 5 billion at Goldman is every product that I was selling to a financial advisor. I built a story around it because I wanted them to remember the meeting, I wanted them to remember and recall the points. I wanted it to be digestible and not overwhelming. And then I wanted to be repeatable so that they could repeat the story I told them to their clients. That would then allow the client to say, yes, let's buy that Goldman fund in my portfolio. And so story selling became my superpower and I translated that into social media. And I think in any industry, no matter what you're doing, you can translate that into your business. Because I gained 5 million followers by story selling. My business model and how it's unique and what I'm doing and how happy people are on their reveal days and my design style and all of that. And at the end of the day, sales and story selling, it's all really important. But I feel like that's a dumbed down way of saying pattern recognition. Because recognizing patterns is what makes you capable of being a strong salesperson. Right? You recognize the energy in the room. And if I'm getting this energy, I need to talk slower or I'm losing people, I need to talk faster or, or. Oh, that one little joke worked. Well, let me repeat that pattern and do more because it brings the energy up. Oh, they like it. When I ask the audience questions, people wake up, whatever it is. Same thing with algorithm. Oh, When I post a story about this, I'm not doing well on the algorithm. But when I post a story about this or I use this type of music, I tend to get more engagement. And then you just keep following the patterns. And every time you get that positive ding. Okay, there's a pattern here. This is working. Let me double, triple down on it. And so I think patterns. Pattern recognition comes back to story selling, which is that I recognize that when I sold a product with a story attached to it, it sold better. And so, yeah, I've taken that throughout my career.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

It's brilliant. It's brilliant. And I think a good place. Tell me if you agree with this, someone who's mastered story selling. Obviously you have. I think a good place for people to start with that is your own story.

[UPS Store Narrator]

Right.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Like you were selling very sophisticated, high end products to very sophisticated buyers. And I think in General 101. Like if you can't sell your story, if you don't know your story from start to finish, where you've gone, why you've gone there and where you want to go, that's a place to start. You could do it in the shower, in the car, at home, but you got to nail your, your two to three minute story of who you are, why you are and what you want to be. Do you agree that that's a good way to practice?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah, it's your elevator pitch. And if you're not good at that elevator pitch, it kind of is gonna look like you maybe don't believe in yourself or your own story. So if you're not believing in what you're saying about who you are and how you got here or why you're doing something or why you're passionate about it, you cannot expect anybody else to buy into that. If you don't eat, sleep, breathe, believe what you're saying. Right, exactly. It's really important to get that down, but to also be authentic about it.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

You're dropping trading secrets galore here and we're only 15 minutes in. Let's talk about this before we move to your entertainment journey of your care mentioned seven figures, but that's a 13 year progression. So someone who's unfamiliar with any type of external wholesaling or working at Goldman in this capacity. What did the salary trajectory look like? Is it mostly based, mostly bonus? How did it move throughout the years? Give us some numbers behind that career in your 13 year track there.

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah, I had a base of 120k and then everything off of that was commission and or bonus. But I would say 95% of my payout, it felt like, was commission. And so you were eating what you hunted and I was closing hundreds of millions of dollars every year. And so that makes some basis points start to add up really quickly. And yeah, I was at seven figures really quickly in that job.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Let's go absolutely crushing it. Now there comes the predicament. Right? So you're at seven figures quickly, in your 20s, making all kinds of money. And then interestingly enough, it's heartbreak that leads to healing, which creates this, this massive pop for you. And we're not talking about a pop at Goldman Sachs. We're talking about millions and millions and millions of impressions. Now talk me through that story a little bit. You're still working at Goldman. You're going through a very unexpected heartbreak. And my understanding it was right before very, very closely to your wedding day. You're telling your fiance at the time some of the. And this is Mental Health Awareness Month, good time to bring attention to it. Some of the mental health struggles that you're going with both within your body and within your brain and wasn't very receptive to it. And my understanding, from what I read is this is how the relationship ended. Talk to me about what that was like and how you pivoted from there. And anyone that's kind of going through that dark place in their personal life, how they can try and manifest that into some type of change in their professional life.

[Gailey Alex]

First off, kudos to you, Jason, because you do your research. I am so impressed with you right now. You are like, you are the real deal, my friend. And I see through that stuff really quickly. So thank you. I really respect what you do. Appreciate it. So, yeah, I was a couple weeks out from marrying who I thought was the love of my life and my best friend. And I had been hiding my own secret from him for about a year that I was really struggling with, which is I had developed an eating disorder because I had agreed to resign from this high powered job. That was my complete identity. I mean, I was a career girl. That was my identity. Going to resign to move up to Westport, Connecticut and marry him and stay at home and, you know, start a family. And I was terrified of losing my identity and I started to feel out of control. And as a result, I started to control food in a really unhealthy way. But unfortunately, I'm also a perfectionist. And so I wanted to continue looking perfect in his eyes and I wanted to be desired and wanted. And I didn't think being Sick or mentally ill would be attractive. And so I. I was very secretive about it. And I real. You know, as we got closer to our wedding day, and right after I resigned from Goldman and left this dream job that I did really love, I was like, hey, I think I need help, and I need your help finding a therapist, because I've been really struggling with food, and I have an eating disorder, and I didn't want to marry you and not tell you that I was struggling with this. And I was asked to leave and not come back, and that was the last time I saw him and the home. And I just. Literally, you could have given me a million scenarios of how that conversation was going to turn out, and that wouldn't have been one. And so what ended up happening is I moved back to Florida with my two dogs and who were kind of the reason that I continued to get out of bed every morning is because I needed to walk them. But I lost my job, I lost my fiance. I lost my identity as a career, my income to pay my mortgage, the family I thought I was starting, and I lost my health. And I kind of hit a rock bottom that was like. It was so dark. And I checked into therapy, and I turned my Instagram off. Like, I deleted the app from my phone, but I still left my account running. And an important detail here is that while I was trying to be so perfect and we had this very, like, 10,000 square foot new home in Connecticut together, I had spent the last year commuting every weekend decorating and renovating that home and surprising him, you know, when he'd wake up Sunday morning. I will have stayed up all night Saturday to create a gym in one of our garages or to make a theater room in the basement. And then I would do a surprise reveal and show him the room and then post his reaction in the room to my Instagram. And I'd edit a little video. I had 900 followers. And so when I checked into therapy, after everything went down, I logged out of Instagram and my 900 followers because I didn't want to face the noise. Like, where are the wedding photos? How was the honeymoon? What's going on? Where are you? And then, wait, why did the wedding not happen? Did you guys break up? What happened? And I didn't want to tell anybody what happened, that I was sick. I felt like a failure, and I wasn't used to that. I'm used to winning. And I felt like I failed in every capacity of my life. And. And a couple months into therapy, I Got home, I pulled into my garage one day, and I was like, you know what? Like, I feel like I'm healthy enough to log back into Instagram. And what happened next kind of changed my life forever. I logged in, and I swear to God, I thought I logged into a celebrity's account by accident because I had 900 followers, I thought. And when I logged in, I had tens of thousands of messages from strangers from Australia to Canada to Singapore. Like, I. All over the world, people are messaging me, asking if they can fly me out to do in their house what I did in one of the videos that they saw. So these decorating videos I had posted, I guess went viral while I was out of commission. And I logged back in, I could not find a single message from a name that I recognized that was like, hey, what happened with the wedding? I couldn't even find one because it was thousands of names. And so I was like, you know what? I feel like this is a sign. I'm just going to say yes to a total stranger. So I went to a house in Boynton Beach, Florida, because it was local to me, and I said, look, I'm not a designer, I'm not a contractor, but I know how to surprise people. And I kind of taught myself how to renovate homes so I can do this. But you guys have to take the kids to Disney for the weekend and let me move in. So I moved in with my two dogs. I renovated their kitchen, their living room, their foyer. I got my Goldman job back, by the way, so I only could do this on the weekend. So I stayed up 72 hours straight. I did not sleep. Friday to Sunday, they got home, I did the reveal for them, and it got 30 million views on Instagram. And that was my first video. Like, that was just my first video.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

All right, guys, quick break from trading secrets, because what the UPS Store just in Nashville is unbelievable. They had the UPS Store Small Biz challenge.

[UPS Store Narrator]

And what stood out to me is

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

that it's not just a competition, it

[UPS Store Narrator]

is a launch pad.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

You got real entrepreneurs in the room,

[UPS Store Narrator]

people building from the ground up, and they're getting access to mentorship, resources, and visibility that can genuinely change the trajectory of their business. And that's what I think a lot of people miss. Small businesses don't just need the hustle. I can speak from experience. They need support like this from the UPS Store. They need to be seen. They need the right partners. And that's where the UPS Store comes in. Most people think shipping, but it's way bigger than that they're talking printing, mailbox services, marketing support. Real tools that help you run and grow your business day to day. And with over 5,500 locations across the country, they're not just some distant brand. They are embedded in your local communities, helping entrepreneurs where they are. So whether you are starting something, scaling something, or just even thinking about taking that first step, this is the kind of support system that matters.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Big takeaway for me.

[UPS Store Narrator]

Betting on yourself is important, but having the right partner around you, that's what accelerates everything. Shout out to the UPS store for putting something on like this. So important for actually backing small business owners in a real way.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

And what year was this?

[Gailey Alex]

2018.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

2018. What was it about? Do you think at this time that the videos when you, you're going to therapy, you're off the grid. Why was it that while you're off the grid, these videos just pop? Any learning lessons from that?

[Gailey Alex]

I think if you make good content, if you're good at editing, which is also another phenomenal skill to have in today's environment, but if you're good at editing, which comes back to what story selling, right. If you're good at selling a story, which the story here was like, the family moved out, I moved in. This is what I did. This is their reaction. Everybody feels good and it's pretty. Have a great day. There's a whole experience wrapped in that 90 seconds, which at the time I think I was posting three minute long videos. But it was an experience and it was entertaining, it was motivational, it was educational. They were learning things, they were getting motivated to do their house. There were all these kind of value adds. Right. Dripping. I was doing the worm in it. So like there's a little bit of comedy. So there's all these different things that I think are really important. And this is like a little social media. Probably not so secretive, trade secret because I think this should be obvious. But if you can chalk your page and your posts full of value ads, it's going to be much easier for people to click follow or to hit the share button or to comment. For example, if you see a post and it's just really sweet and you see two dogs reuniting who are best friends as puppies, great, but you're not going to follow that account. Then if you see a post and it's somebody decorating or designing a room and you're like, oh, this was fun to watch, but I don't really love the design. I didn't learn anything, but it was entertaining to Watch. You might heart it and go to the next one. But if you watch something and you go, whoa, that was like, so much was happening. That was really interesting. I want to watch it again. Oh, there's like, something funny happened in here. Oh, I'm feeling really emotional watching their reveal. Now you're pulling at my heartstrings. Oh, and I like that design. Like, I feel like I can learn from that. Oh, I want to do that to my fireplace. Now you've just hit on so many points that your probability of getting them to hit a follow just went up 10x. Right? Because you don't know what's going to motivate somebody to follow you. Is it that they're entertained? Is it that they got emotional? Is it that they got inspired or motivated to DIY something themselves? Is it that they like the design and they want to learn from you? You don't know what's going to get somebody to follow. So if you can just load up, like, value add, load your content, I think it's going to be really hard for people to watch it and not hit follow.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I mean, I think I'm about to make a macronym right up just from the trading secret you got, but you got. It's like the eee. It's the triple E. It's education, emotional and entertainment. Like, if you can do those, you can drive the follow. And obviously that following has changed your life. Let's talk about that. Before we do, I just want to put a bow on that chapter of your life. To me, it feels like such a blessing. Like, you were vulnerable in a moment. It was so hard to be vulnerable and you were so honest with someone that you expected to spend the entirety of your life with. And to be met with that is just such bullshit. But honestly, looking back on it, like, what a blessing, though, right? Like, that would have been your life partner. And to me, like, I learned from that. What just in you speaking is like, the faster you're vulnerable and the quicker you lose. Like, your filter with friends, with family, with colleagues within your professional world, even with your story at Goldman Sach, like, filter out the door. This is who I am. You go on again, I'm sending you that coffee. I'm calling you out. It changes your perspective on the information that you gather, right? So it seems like there's this trend with you that, like, in moments where, you know, most people have filters, blinders, or walls up, the moments that you lost your wall, the moments you got rid of your filter are the ones that gave you the. That changed the rest of your life, even when it was a really, really hard thing to do.

[Gailey Alex]

So that's a brilliant observation. And I will be, you know, to be completely fair, you know, if I put myself in his shoes, it would be difficult to want to marry somebody if you feel like they had just been hiding something from you. Right. As much as I want to be like f him for not embracing me and instead just walking right past me when I needed him, at the same time, I was not honest because I was hiding that I was struggling with something. And so my lesson there is that to your point, be honest, be yourself. And at the end of the day, if you're honest with somebody, it also makes. Creates a space for them to be more honest and vulnerable with you too. So I think you just move your relationship, whether it's a friendship, whether it's romantic, whether it's a business partnership, you move the relationship so many more paces down the field more efficiently once one of you opens up, because it kind of creates that space for honesty.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Makes perfect sense. Makes perfect sense. Speaking about moving relationship, let's talk about moving this business. So this is 2018. You're starting to catch some virality. You're still working full time at Goldman Sachs. You go through this heartbreak. You're the new version of you. Like, what was take like walk us through like story. Sell me in 2018. Till then, you fast forward to 2023. You have a show premiering on HBO Max with HGTV. All these amazing partnerships killing it in the public spotlight. What did that progression look like?

[Gailey Alex]

It looked like no sleep. I was team no sleep because I was what I call double Tarzaning. Right. Like I. Yeah, we'll get, we'll get into that. It's another train secret. But basically I was carrying a full time executive position and I was trying to raise 500 million plus a year for my firm while simultaneously designing all of these homes for the TV show. Because, you know, I got asked to do the show in 2020, so it took a while before we even, it even came out in 2023. So pretty green in the design business when I started that show. And I still to this day, I'm the only designer on my team. I don't have a contractor. I do the install, I do tile, I do drywall. I have an amazing team around me. But for that first two years, it was really just me and my best friend, handyman Jay, and we were just figuring it out. And then when we got the show, I was basically Designing, I was ordering everything, I was installing it. And then I was an executive producer for the show and I was editing it because I'm obsessed with editing. And that is my actual true passion. And so I was not sleeping because I could only do that at night and on weekends. And this is where the whole Double Tarzan premise comes in, which might be helpful for all your business minded friends and followers here. So everybody has that point where if they're in the corporate world and they want to become an entrepreneur, how do you make that jump, right? How do you take that leap of faith? And I did it with as little amount of risk as possible because I double Tarzan. What I mean by that is that Tarzan swings through the jungle holding onto his vine, which is his lifeline, right? It's keeping him off of the scary jungle floor where he has his mortgage, he has his car insurance, he has his utility bill, he has all of the things that he needs to be protected from, also lions, tigers and bears. So he's holding onto that vine and that's his safety net, right? And he's got a tight grip on it. And that was Goldman for me, right? They paid for my health care and they were making my mortgage possible and I was holding onto that vine. And then when the TV show, when Design came along, I reached out and I grabbed another vine, but I didn't feel that vine could fully support the weight of my life and keep me off that floor. And so I double Tarzan and I held both. And what that ended up meaning is that I'm waking up at 5am, I'm working out, I'm getting dressed, going into my meetings all over the state. And then by 6:00 clock at night, maybe 7, I'm home. I'm doing all my Salesforce meeting notes, doing all my follow up emails and then by 10pm, I now have about four hours where I can design. I can place orders on Pottery Barn and Home Depot and get all my stuff and like get ready to film that weekend. And I was not sleeping. And I think it's really important to note that I think that's not meant for everybody. That worked for me because I'm really driven and I'm motivated and I don't need a lot of sleep. But at the end of the day, like the Double Tarzan allowed me to keep holding on to both jobs until I knew that this other vine could fully support me. And then I let go of Goldman and I swung on with design. But I think the best way for somebody to know if they should leave Their job or if they should try and do both simultaneously, has to do with if they need a trainer to go to the gym. So what I mean by that is if you know that for you to go do a workout at the gym at five o' clock in the morning, the only way you're going to go is if you know you have a trainer there with a set time, with a set plan and they're gonna hold your feet to the fire and hold you accountable like that, and you know you're paying them, you will go to the gym. If you are like me and you say, I don't need a trainer, I don't need anybody to motivate me, I'm gonna wake up at 5am, I'm gonna go do my 10 mile run and I'm gonna figure it out and make it work. If you're like that means you don't need somebody to hold your feet to the fire for you to execute because you're just gonna keep going no matter what. But if you need somebody to hold your feet to the fire in order for you to get things done and execute, then you need to if you want to start being an entrepreneur because that's the only way you're actually going to follow through. Because if you've left your job, guess what? Your feet are to the fire now and you're holding yourself accountable because you have no other option but to make that income. Just like you have no way to want to skip the gym because you have somebody sitting there waiting for you holding your feet to the fire. So I'm a no trainer girlie. And that's why I was able to double Tarzan and do both because I was really self motivated.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Double Tarzan. Hold your feet to the fire. But how do you hold your feet to the fire? As you're talking about the trainer analogy, I'm just thinking about some people need the trainer also not only to hold them accountable, but because they don't know exactly what they're doing so the trainer can help them. And it then made me think about your work. Your background is in finance, you're working at Franklin Templeton. So your entire career and education is in the world of finance. Right? Right. How the heck did you go from that to then teaching yourself, holding your own feet to the fire to actually teach yourself design? I can start a business tomorrow and it could be profitable. Every business I've literally had and kept with has cash flow to been profitable. If you tell me to do it myself and start a project in this house, it's going to look like trash. How you teach yourself this, how you hold yourself to the fire.

[Gailey Alex]

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. And when I was with my fiance, trying really hard to impress him and be the perfect girlfriend and fiance, I was working my day job for Goldman Monday to Friday. And then I only had the weekends to make that house, like, bring it up to be custom and perfect for us to live in forever. And every contractor, every designer I met with, I was like, hey, I'm obsessive compulsive. I am a control freak. I need to be here to see all of the work getting done. So would you work with me, but just only work on weekends? And everybody looked at me like I had five heads, like, absolutely not. We do not even work any weekends. And I was like, okay, if I cannot get a single person in Westport, Connecticut to work on the weekends and do, you know, tiling or drywalling or designing, then I guess I'm just gonna have to figure it myself. Like. And I. So I diyed it and I just started going. And it started with like trips to Home Depot where I'd spend 19.99 a day to rent one of their vans and then I'd drive it to home goods and back it up and I got a little dolly and I would just move all the stuff. I'd bring it into our house and it was a really nice house, so I'd put it in the elevator and bring it up to our bedroom floor and decorate it all. But I was still very frugal while I was doing it because again, I wanted to impress him. And this is all part of why I got so I was doing too much and I was pushing myself too hard and my brain kind of imploded on me, honestly. So, yeah, so that was necessity. I just had to figure it out.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I like it sometimes when you put yourself in the position to having to figure it out, you'll figure it out. So for anyone that's trying to get better at those DIY projects, find ways to create that necessity urge. Put your feet to the fire, make a it happen. One thing that happened with me when I was in finance and then kind of, I call it my double dip year. So we have different analogies. But this idea that like, same thing, Monday through Friday, I'm hustling in the office non stop and on weekends, whatever I was doing at that time, it might have been brand deals, appearances, another TV show correspondent, anything. I would just double dip my income. My thought process was there Was I had a target date of when I wanted to leave. I unfortunately was put in a position where I was less let go about, like, eight months before I wanted to leave. But my thought process was, like, I need, like, two years of income financially, and then I'll be in a position where I'll take the leap. From a financial standpoint, you're at Goldman, you're making millions of dollars. What did you. Was. Were you making more in the content creation and entertainment space that you were able to leave Goldman? Did you save enough? Like, what was the finances that led to that decision?

[Gailey Alex]

Well, the beauty part, the beautiful part of double Tarzaning is that you don't have have to save because you're doing both at once until you know the second vine can fully support you. So I didn't let go until I knew that next vine could keep me off the jungle floor and pay for my own health insurance. Right. Pay for my mortgage and all of that. But I will say, like, big picture, at the end of the day, as much as I enjoyed what I was doing at Goldman, I did feel a little bit like I was feeding my mortgage and not my soul. And that was a big motivation to swing on that second vine and go with the design vine, because even though it wasn't making as much at that time by a long shot, actually I believed in myself and I believed that I would make it. And I think that's a really important aspect to entrepreneurship, whether you're a wantrepreneur or an entrepreneur, because I think every entrepreneur starts out as a wantrepreneur, so we cannot dock that word like that is still very respectable thing. But regardless of whether you're entrepreneur or you're actually doing it and you're an entrepreneur, I think it is so vital that you have ruthless optimism about your capabilities. You have to blindly believe that you can turn any ship around. You have to handle rejection so well that it's not like I'm gluten intolerant. It's like, no, gluten can't tolerate me. You have to be like, if you pitch somebody and they don't want to work with you or they don't want to invest in your business or whatever, the very next thing you should do is pull up your Google, go to harryanddavid.com, order a $275 fruit of the month gift basket, and send it to them with a note that says, I am so deeply sorry for your loss, because that is how you should feel when somebody rejects you. Their loss.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Damn.

[Gailey Alex]

And if you don't feel that way, it's going to be really hard to be successful. But by feeling that way, it also means that you should be comfortable taking a huge pay cut or even starting out from scratch and leaving your job and maybe not having as much in savings. Because if you really believe that you will find a way with that energy,

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

like drop moments here right now, you can't make that up. When we talk about the finances, 2018 is when you really got your go here. How long did it take you? Talk about the grind, the entrepreneur to entrepreneur, the fight for the people that are saying no, but you know that they're saying no for the wrong reasons. How long did it take you and have you been able to supplement that income over at Goldman Sachs and even outperform it?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah, so I'm definitely outperforming this year. I've been away from Goldman for two years now and I would say this current year I'm outperforming it by sixfold. And it has been the most exciting thing I've ever experienced and I never anticipated it would grow that much. I mean in the last year. I now have a rug line, mirrors, wallpaper, wallpapers in Home Depot stores. Bedding is coming out, we have flooring, we have lighting, we have pillows, we have outdoor rugs. Keeps going. I have so many products and I'm so proud of it. I have a book coming out on Amazon in August is called you can do beautiful things. You can pre order it now. There's so many things, all that kind of happened and I think it all kind of came together just in the last 12 months and it's so exciting and it's, I think it's a testament to just like kind of ruthlessly, optimistically believing in yourself and what you're doing. And I will say money was never the motivator for me and I think that's really important. Money. I've never, even when I was making $27,000 a year, money was not the thing that drove me. When I was at Goldman, I remember I'm driven by stack rankings. I don't know how else to say it. I am extremely competitive, but not with money, with lists. Maybe it's part of my ocd. So every day at Goldman I would wake up at 6am and the first thing I would do and I still have anxiety thinking about it. I also have high anxiety. I don't have a nervous system. I am a nervous system. So I wake up in the morning and I would Go to my email and I'd look at the stack rankings to see who's number one in market share, who's number one in mutual fund sales, who's number one in ETF sales. And I would want to see exactly where I was relative to. And I would use that to motivate me. If I'm at the top, then I better hustle so nobody catches me. If I'm not at the top, I better hustle so I can get to the top. And so that was really, really motivating for me. And what ended up happening is I got home from our New York annual sales meeting where they give out the awards one year, and my boss, I had won number one in market share. And I gave a big speech on stage, just film like a million bucks. And I get back to Florida and my boss calls me for a year end review. He's like, scaly, awesome year. Do you know how much you made this year? And I was like, honestly, I have no idea. He goes, how do you not know what you made? And I was like, I don't look at it. And he's like, you're messing with me. Well, what do you think you made? And I told him the number. And he goes, you're more than double that.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Wow.

[Gailey Alex]

So I was over 50% off in just my guess of how much money I made that year. Because how much money I'm making is none of my business. Like, that is how I felt as long as I was number one in the stack rankings. That's all I cared about. And I think the moral of that story there is as long as you keep driving and pushing yourself, the money will come.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Yeah. One of our principles and values at one of the companies that I run is one size, size fits none. And I believe that because I think we're our own machines. We're like our own manufacturing plants. And all of us have different inputs and outputs and drivers and things that. That get us going and fire us up. And obviously you know exactly what yours is like ranking and lists and numbers. I guess my question to you is like, we're seeing this viral moment just after last weekend with the Kentucky Derby golden tempo coming in from last place to first place. Blinders.

[Gailey Alex]

Love to see it.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Love to see it. My question then is, in this space, do you work more like a golden tempo, where your blinders are up, just moving full speed, or are you looking left and right and those are motivators for the people that are. You're competing against?

[Gailey Alex]

I don't. I don't look at anybody. I intentionally, unless I'm friends with them. I intentionally don't follow other accounts of people in my space because once you see a design, once you see something, it's almost impossible to unsee it and it goes into your own mental AI where it's going to generate and you don't even realize that it came from seeing somebody else's art. So for fear of ever copying somebody else, copying their edit, copying their design, I don't really follow any other designers. The only ones I follow are cause I'm actually friends with them and I want to support their business, but I do it just out of fear of copying them and then also because I have blinders on and there's enough to go around. We can all have our cake and eat it too in this space. So like I'm cheering everybody on, but I have blinders on to it and I'm not watching and I am head down focused on on what I'm doing. And I know that I'm going to push myself harder than anything else I could see anybody else doing would push me.

[UPS Store Narrator]

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[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I love it now.

[Gailey Alex]

No trainer at the gym.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

No trainer. Just go put the fee in the fire and go blinders up. What about there's so many revenue streams for you. There's so much opportunity. We heard about your book. We're going to buy two copies right now of your book and anyone that gives us a five star review let us know your trading secrets. We are going to give it away. So just let us know the trading secret. You got most. So we're getting two right now. Let's go into TV though. Do you think a lot of people are asking me, as I put this up, that you're coming on, will she be back on our TV screens? Is TV something you're pursuing? What does it look like and how was your experience when you did do it?

[Gailey Alex]

It? Oh, I'm going to hold everybody's hand when I say this. TV is not the goal. TV is not the goal. It is not it. It has lost the plot. Social media is where you want to be investing your time, where you want to be investing your energy. I'm so grateful and honored that I got to do that show and I learned so much about myself. My team bonded in ways that you can't possibly imagine. Watching the sunrise while we're still cutting sheets of drywall and we're going, oh my God, we're never going to finish. And then we watch ourselves pull through. Like, that is bonding that I could never get on like a weekend course, right? Like, it was fantastic. However, it destroyed my social media in a sense because what happened is when you're filming a design show, I'm doing all these amazing projects and we're killing ourselves and I can't reveal any of it for a whole year, but that's all I'm doing all year. So my account sat dormant for a year with no content because I had to keep everything private for the show. So I had no growth because I was so focused on Goldman and the show, Goldman and the show. And then I couldn't reveal anything. And then the second the show ended and I did my first project without the show, I did a little like a little room pantry under my stairwell. I posted it. I had 100,000 new followers in seven days. Wow, that's crazy. And yet I did not change my following at all the entire year I was filming the show and after the show came out. So what that told me is Zero growth from the show and insane growth from my posts that I've always done that kept doing so well. So, yeah, as much as I loved the opportunity, you can catch me on Social.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I love it. Catch you on social. You're building your own show, your own community at your speed. When you want to turn it not based on TV time. With your social. We know all about the product lines you have and the places that people can buy those product lines. Have you found more success in the monetization of brand activations and. Or is it the product lines that are driving most of the revenue for

[Gailey Alex]

you, nil and exclusivity that is your money maker? Because if you build a name, image and likeness, in other words, a brand that people want to own exclusively and they pay the rights for those, that could be inclusive of a royalty deal where your name is on a product that could be inclusive of. Like I just recently did one with Behr Paint where I couldn't show any other paint brands. I'm not even going to say them because I'm still in that deal. I'm not even going to say another paint brand because I'm exclusive to Behr and I'm using them in all of my projects and I cannot show another paint brand. And that's not a royalty deal. That's just purely an nil deal and that's actually the real moneymaker. And I recently became my own agent and realized that it's very important for me to negotiate all of my own deals just because of my experience in deal making at Goldman. I don't think that's the right move for everybody, but I do believe that nobody can represent me the way I can represent myself.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Yeah, for sure. It takes a high level of acumen to do it. Clearly you have it. So, like, that's. I think that's really cool that you're doing and how you're doing doing it. We have a question actually from Rachel and it's all about this idea of when you're doing projects for others. Right. Just look at yourself as like you're being hired to do a project. How do you charge people? What. What is a rate? Like how if she wanted to hire you to actually work with her, how does she hire you? What does that look like? Is it possible? Talk to me about that.

[Gailey Alex]

So my best friend is my COO Maria from high school, and she is gonna cringe so hard. I can already feel her text message coming through when she hears this. But I. I'm awful about charging people. That is not where I make my money. And I can tell you that almost every job I did from that first project in 2018 up until after the show finished airing, I probably did, I don't know, 50 plus projects. I didn't charge anybody. I did it for free.

[UPS Store Narrator]

Oh, my God.

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah. And I didn't do a single brand deal either. Not until I left Goldman. And I viewed it as, you guys are trusting me with your home. You're allowing me to come in. And my business model is unique because even if you're a celebrity, I don't care. I'm not telling you a single thing I'm doing in your home. Everything is blind faith. From I've worked with incredible supermodels to NFL players to actresses, and I go into their multimillion dollar homes and I'm like, yeah, like, you set the budget and I'm not going to tell you anything. We don't talk about colors. We don't talk about style. All we do is say, okay, this is your budget and here's when you're going to move out for three days. And then my team and I move in. We sleep on sleeping bags on your living room floor, and we don't move out for three days until you come home. And then your whole home is renovated. So you never lived through dust. You never got VOC paint fumes. You never saw strangers going in and out of your house all day. You never had to rent an Airbnb. You literally went on a trip for the weekend, and your home is now perfection. And the reason I do so, I've never consulted with a client once. I've never talked with a client about what they want me to do in their home. I say, look, I've got a background in finance. I'm really good at roi, and I will renovate the homes in your house that are going to give you the best return on this investment, but also be the most additive to your life and how the house is going to function for you. We walk through all the rooms, we talk about what's not working for them, what is working for them. I'm looking at the nail polish on her toes. I'm opening up their junk drawer. I'm seeing the colors that they're attracted to. I'm seeing where they need help, and then I'm surprising them. And I did that business model for two reasons, right? One is because I wanted to have a competitive niche in the space. I think that's essential to setting yourself apart in the marketplace. What I learned early on at Goldman the companies we're investing in all have a competitive niche, right? Why is Amazon going to outperform Target or Walmart next quarter? They have a competitive niche with their delivery. Right. There is something so essential about setting yourself apart. You cannot do the same thing as everybody else and expect to have different results. So you have to do something different. So you and Katherine, you guys have your dream home right now. If you could just snap your fingers right now and have it all designed and done, like, what would that look like? If you, like, if you snapped your fingers, what would be your dream scenario with a designer?

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

That it's just done the way that we like it, with creativity, uniqueness. And it's just like, it's just done. It's so much as, you know, I have literally messaged you, like asking you questions for Katherine and I, and like, it's so much decision making and it's not our forte. She's very good at it, but like, it's not what we do. So if I could snap my fingers and it's done, it's unique, it's differentiated, it fits kind of our vibe. I'm in, like, sold. That's a dream, right?

[Gailey Alex]

So that's what I did. I put myself, and this is what any business owner or somebody wanting to become an entrepreneur you should do. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer or client or patient, depending on what sector you're in. Put yourself in their shoes and say, okay, where's there like a miss? I put myself in the shoes of a homeowner who needs a designer. And I said, okay, if I'm a homeowner, I'm going to be really scared about having to move out for six months or living through construction for five weeks. I'm going to be really scared about having to make 10 million decisions between the different paint colors, the sheens, the thickness of the baseboards, the metal tonnage. Oh my God, so many questions. I don't have time for this. I'm going to be stressed out about the budget and if it's going to go above it. And I, I feel like I am going to, I'm gonna drown in all of the, the decisions and the, the money. And so what I said is, okay, why don't I just alleviate every single one of those problems. You don't have to move out for months, just three days, go to your parents house for a fun weekend you don't have to spend over. Because I will never go over the budget you give me. If I do, it comes out of My own pocket. And I've paid for many of my projects myself, even when I'm not charging because I refuse to go over the budget. I just think it's worth an investment in the project and in the person. You don't make a single decision. I take all of that off of you. Everything is customized. None of my projects look the same. And they all are. The look and the feel of that person because I tailor it to them. Right. I'm not tailoring it to myself. And you're not having to see a bunch of strangers walking in and out of your house all day because again, we do it in three days. So I took all of that stress off of them and that was my business model. And then I used that in my storytelling or story selling with all of my posts showing the whole install happening and then their surprise reaction at the end.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Differentiation, putting yourself in the eyes of your ideal customer. It is genius. Question I have for you is when someone's coming up with a budget and they ask you, how should I appropriately budget? Do you have any tips or tricks there?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah, I think it depends on the rooms. Right. Primary bathrooms and kitchens are always the most expensive. Kitchen being number one. If you don't need new appliances and bathrooms right up there with it and then you kind of go from there. But I think what's important is to think about the functionality, like which rooms are you going to use the most and budget accordingly. Right. If your kitchen is the thing that you're in all day and it's also kind of your living room and where your family's eating dinner at your kitchen counter every night, like that room is so important. We should put everything into it. Like, let's make this great and don't cheapen out and just try to do little things here and there. Don't try and do little things all over the house. Tackle it one room at a time and make it perfect and go all out and save up and then do it again. Save up, do it again.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I like that. So reverse engineer what's the biggest priority for you and go all in on what that priority is for you and then hit the list after that. What about roi? When you look at investing in your home, let's just say it's not for you, it's just for the ROI of the resell and where you'll get the best value, what rooms and places are the best thing to invest in.

[Gailey Alex]

So the things that people really care about when. And realtors will back me up on this. They want to have Homes where the rooms that are turnkey are the ones that would be a nightmare to live through construction on. So nobody wants to live without a kitchen for six weeks. So having a kitchen recently remodeled is great, roi. Same thing with your primary bathroom. And then just randomly in general, nice closets sell. People like to have a nice primary closet. Something about it makes them feel like they've made it it, you know.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Especially when you think about moving into a house on the turnkey and like, how you'd have to be out of the house if you had to redo the kitchen. Where do you see people. We talk about both sides of spending on the side of saving from a consumer perspective. Where do you see people overspend in renovations or interior design that they necessarily don't have to be overspending in that category?

[Gailey Alex]

I think it's not so much about overspending. I think it's about just buying into the trend that are trends for a reason. It's because they have a life cycle, meaning a start and a finish. So there's a lot of trends that people will spend a lot of money on. For example, don't hate me people for this, but color drenching, right? People are color drenching and they will do emerald cabinets with an emerald backsplash and then a high gloss emerald ceiling. And they'll be like, this is so moody. This is so in right now. Some of the Kardashians have done it in their kitchens and. And they're spending so much money on all this custom millwork with this, like, deep jewel tone color. And like, in a couple years, it's going to be the new shiplap. Right? Like, it's in and then until it's not. And so I would say try not to dive too heavily from an expense standpoint into the trends. And instead I implore you to focus on things that are more timeless, like solid wood doors and higher, taller baseboards, because that's more elevated, like custom quality millwork. Like, that's never going to go out of style. But don't paint it emerald green.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

What? Speaking about painting it emerald green, what colors would you say are the colors that you tend to see yourself leaning towards that are in right now or timeless?

[Gailey Alex]

So if you're asking me this on behalf of my clients, I would say the colors I always gravitate towards are them. Everything I do is for each of the clients. So I think about what they're like. I said, I look at, like, her nail polish, I go through her closet and I look at all of the tones she tends to be wearing. Like, I look at the colors of the cars, like what did, like what are they drawn to? And if it's super aggressive and I think it's not going to be timeless, then I find a way to mute it and incorporate it with pillows or things that are more interchangeable. And I won't put that color on the wall, but I'll introduce it with like a throw blanket or in the fringe on a pillow or something like that.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I love it. Some people that don't have the fortune, another consumer protection question. Have the fortune of working with you that say, if it goes over budget, I'll pay for it. And they're dealing with some, let's say, like tougher vendors, if you will. What are some tips you would give someone to make sure that they're not overpaying for a quote that they receive on something to be done in the house?

[Gailey Alex]

I think you need to have constant check ins, keep an open dialogue with a running tab of exactly what the line items are. If you everything that's getting spent. I don't really have that problem because I have a set budget and I'm just spending everything and I'm not needing to check in because there's no, I can't show you what I'm buying. But if you're living through the project and you're watching things happen, just keep checking in and make sure that every time you have a conversation with them, are they going to charge you upcharge you 20% for making a change order? What does that look like? Know where all the, the, the bodies are buried as far as the fees go. And this is a huge drop I'm going to leave right here, which, and this is no designer's fault. I think that the world of design and the schooling behind it is a little bit archaic. I never went to design school, I never studied it, but I have a finance background. And I feel like the way that designers are charging and it's not their fault. It's literally how they were taught to do this. I think it's ass backwards. So what I mean by that is designers will come in and let's say, Jason, let's say a designer comes in to meet with you and Catherine and she says, all right, guys, this is going to be 100 grand. 20 grand is going to be my fee. 80 grand is going to be what I need for all of my materials and install labor. And you guys are like, okay, great. So then, so then she Says, okay, give me the first 50 grand and I'm going to go out and buy all these things on my Amex for my business and then I'll invoice you. And then she does it again for the other 30. Now you're at 80k. What, what just happened in that scenario? What just happened is that you and Katherine just spent $80,000 of your own hard earned money on your home. Right. And you gave it to the designer, and the designer put it on their Amex, which means who's getting the points?

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

They are.

[Gailey Alex]

But who paid for everything?

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I did.

[Gailey Alex]

And I think there's something morally wrong with that. And it's, again, it's not a knock on designers because they are literally instructed in schools to do it this way. And don't hate your designer if they do it this way, guys, because nobody has told them otherwise. Otherwise. But I have a finance background and I approach it very differently. And I say, I am going to get your credit card. I still have my series 6, 6, 3, 7. I'm a fully licensed financial advisor. I'm a fiduciary. Like, give me your credit card. I'm going to put everything I purchased on your credit card. So a full transparency, because now you're going to see every single store I'm buying it from. Right. And I can give you the receipts after the reveal day if you want to see it all. And it also means that you're pocking those 80,000 flyer miles points and you're going to be able to go to the Ritz and Aruba for free next because of all the money I put on your card. Additionally, it protects me. And this is where I think it's a disservice to designers because they're not being protected. Because what if you go out and you spend $80,000 and you send the invoice to the client and they choose to never pay you. You're now sitting on a $20,000 job with an $80,000 debt that isn't yours for stuff you don't even own. It's in their house. So, like, it's also risky for designers to do it that way. I had an NFL client, he had just won the super bowl, is in this beautiful penthouse, and I go to get his credit card. He hands me a debit card. And I was like, I'm sorry, sir, no, we do not do debit cards here. You cannot get any points on. You're not going to accumulate any points. There's no cash back on a debit card. It's just straight out of your account. He goes, no, my account's good. Trust me. We got millions in there. You're good. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, you're not good. We need to put you. We need it. So I set up my client, my design client, an NFL super bowl winner. I created a amex card for him so that he could clock all the points of everything I was spending for him. And I realized his financial advisor had done him a serious disservice. But, you know, this is again where, like, I just. I approach design and I approach my business differently. And I think most of that is because of my Goldman background.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I love it. It's. It's brilliant. It's a whole different approach. It's exactly what new. What industries that have been around forever ever need. You create the clarity with communication, and the communication is clear, and it builds trust and longevity. It's brilliant. I'm looking, you know, as we're wrapping up here, about to get your trading secret. I'm looking at some of the submissions here. Then we got several people here. Literally, I'm looking at 1A. TT Sheldon, we got Megan Dolski. There's a bunch of them saying you and Katherine need to set her up with a man, help her find love. So we have some requests in here. I'll tell you that, Mike.

[Gailey Alex]

Oh, really?

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Yeah. We'll have to put you through maybe a bachelorette series on trading secrets next time.

[Gailey Alex]

I. I would love it. Let me tell you, there is pee in the dating pool, and it 100 has a UTI like, it's so rough out here, Jason. So, yeah, if you have somebody, I'm open to it.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

All right, all right, we'll keep. We'll keep it. Everyone will keep their eyes and ears open. All right, another one here. Can we get. Can we please get a renovation collab between Gaylee and Sierra Miller on her grandpa's house? So something to think about.

[Gailey Alex]

I would love. I would love nothing more. I think she already has somebody, but I would be there for that girl. Heartbeat, let me tell you.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Okay. Another one is. We see a lot of lines from Gaylee. Would she be open. This is great. Would she be opening to starting her hat line? I want all the hats she has. So you got. You got. You could go multiple directions with all the different lines you have.

[Gailey Alex]

I. I will take that into strong consideration.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Oh, my God. And I mean, there's just like, how is she still single? How can someone become her client? This one says, does she still get her clients through Instagram. Do you still source your clients through Instagram?

[Gailey Alex]

So we. This is. I. This is a wild number, but we average anywhere from 10 to 12,000 requests every seven days.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Oh, my God. Well, guys, you can go be one of those requests. This is from least. Why doesn't she give herself more time to get the projects? I get pressured feeling it from her. Do you feel there's too much pressure?

[Gailey Alex]

Like I said, I am a nervous system, so I think I thrive in it. And I think that a lot of people on my team have day jobs. My woodworker is a school teacher. One of my other instrumental handy women is a lawyer. So everybody has day jobs still. So I have to kind of get it done over the weekends when I can have my whole team there. And guess what? I refuse to change my team.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Let's go. Refuse to change. Two more rapid fires. Robin Bryant says, does she have insomnia? How does she never sleep and move at that speed? I can tell you someone that I don't sleep well either. I, too, just wake up wired. What is your trick? To keep moving fast when you don't sleep much?

[Gailey Alex]

I don't need a lot of sleep. I think that I'm high on light and I wake up so excited. I would implore anybody who wishes they had more hours in the day figure out a way to do what fuels you and what you really love. And I'm confident that you will have enough energy to get it done every day, because it will. It, like, feeds you. I don't know how to explain it. Like, I go manic on these projects and I don't get tired because I'm so excited about whatever room we're touching next on the installation.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

Tired is a state of mind. I'll tell you this. There are so many damn questions here. The love and outpour of support is endless. We'll end with this one. This was from Dubs Renee. Just curious, where does she draw inspiration from?

[Gailey Alex]

From the client, like, all day long. It's from what they need, who they are, and what I want for their life.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I love it. Well, this has been amazing, Gailey, if you could leave us with one trading secret, you've left us.

[Gailey Alex]

Wait, I didn't drop it off.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

I was gonna say you've left about 8,000 already, but we always wrap with one. So one of the 8,000 you've already dropped or a new one. What can you leave us with?

[Gailey Alex]

Yeah, so this is. I hope if you remember anything that I said on today's podcast that this is the one thing you remember? Well, other than following me. Aylialex. Okay, so it's this. We talked a lot about money, we talked a lot about finances, and we're hyper myopic on that all throughout this. Because that's the whole point of this podcast, right? Is to help people attain financial freedom. But I think it's really, really important to know that money is not a through line to happiness. Success is not a through line to happiness. I think that we get so hyper focused on creating these lofty metrics. I want to hit a million followers. I want to have a $10 million exit from my company. I want to get that million dollar bonus. We set these expectations for ourselves, so we have a goalpost to work towards, right? But if you don't address what's happening within you, whether something that you're hurting from, something that's breaking you, an addiction that you're struggling with, negative self talk or a sense of self worth, whatever it is that you're dealing with on the inside, if you do not address that, it doesn't matter what's going on. When you hit that milestone and you get that million followers, so you have that $10 million exit, all of that stuff is still gonna be there because that will not fix it. And it's a little bit like, you know, they say that addicts, it's like driving down the street in a Volkswagen and they're putting all of their issues, all of their pain, everything that's hurting them or stressing them, they're just throwing it in the back of the Volkswagen, throwing it back there, throwing it back there. And then the day that they get sober, it's like slamming on the brakes and everything comes forward and it suffocates you right while you're still sitting in the driver's seat. And it's just really important that you listen to yourself and the same energy and effort you're putting in to try and hit success and hit that goal post, don't forget to address that internally and what's going on inside of you, because otherwise you're going to get to the goal post and you're going to realize it still didn't fix you. And then that's going to be really depressing.

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

It's brilliant. It's an unbelievable trading secret to end on amongst the the many other. This episode was just filled with information, inspiration. Honestly, it's the three E's this episode, right? You hit the emotion, you hit the education, you hit the entertainment. Absolutely brilliant. You nailed it. Absolute grand. Slam Gailey where can everyone find everything? Your lines, your socials, everything going on. Where can they find it?

[Gailey Alex]

Yes, all of my products, everything you can buy, from my wallpaper to my flooring to my decor. It's all at Gailey. Alex gayalyxdesign.com that's spelled G A L E Y A L I X and then if you just want to be part of the videos and part of everything we're doing, just follow me at Instagram or TikTok AX Again G A L E Y A L I X

[Jason (Host of Trading Secrets)]

and we have two pre orders to give away. Give your five star review and your biggest trading secret that you learned today from Gayle Alex and we will send those your way. Gayle, thank you so much for being on Trade Secrets. Unbelievable episode. This has been such a pleasure.

[Gailey Alex]

Likewise. Bye bye.

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