Erika Geraerts on the myth of more & rejecting how we’ve been told to be

Dearest you. I’ve wanted to sit down with Erika, the founder of Fluff Cosmetics, for such a long time. This is an honest conversation with a founder and businesswoman, but Erika doesn’t identify as these labels as that's what's sitting at the heart of this glorious, wandering conversation — being who and how you want to be not who and how you've been told to be.We get into:Meditation and business as spiritual curriculumHow the traditional markers of success turned out to be versions of moreWhy Erika believes beauty is a humanity issue rather than a vanity oneWhat money did and didn’t settle inside herWhat is dying in both of us right nowYou won't find tips and tricks here, just a long, honest conversation between two women working out what enough looks like.Alison xogo deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you.To be clear, I'm not an AI advocate. The way LLMs were built is unethical and it's abhorrent that a handful of people are choosing the pace of this for all of us. But I am an advocate for evolution, and I believe we need to start having a more sophisticated conversation about what this technology is asking of us.The question I've been asking on this podcast since 2018 — who are we outside of what we do for a living — is no longer optional.In this episode I explain why I believe the time is now to stop focusing on professional development, and instead, start focusing on spiritual development and community. Local and in-person, if possible. Alison xoJOIN THE GET OFFLINE COMMUNITYTo help us find our way back to each other the point of a human life in the age of AI, I've opened the Get Offline Community through my Substack. Knowledge sessions, reading rooms, hobby classes, in-person gatherings, a spiritual book club and a physical library you can borrow from. I hope you say yes. It's $35 a month and you can come and go as you please. Join here.go deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you.This is a response episode to a question from a co-creator inside serve that's also very alive for me right now: What do we do when we feel like we can't relate to our friends or chosen communities because we've come off social media and don't know what's happening in social culture? My take — and what I get into in this episode — is this is short-term problem. We're heading toward small, chosen micro-communities full of people that have also made the same values-driven decisions as us. We are simply experiencing the complexity that comes with being early. I also get honest about the cost of coming off Instagram as it was my main conversion channel. If you're thinking about your own break, I offer some advice. Alison xo go deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you.I recorded this conversation with Laura Poole in 2021. I'm bringing it back now — five years later — to demonstrate how subtle making contact with the need we are each here to meet actually is.So many people are wondering what their purpose is. What their contribution could be. This episode provides guidance.You also get to hear me make contact with the idea for my service business practice room and program, SERVE, and Laura cognise what has now gone on to become her shared field of belonging for Vedic meditators and teachers, Radiate.Alison xolinks. Join serve hereJoin Radiate hereExplore our Learn to Meditate Sydney course herego deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you.When I realised my screen time was at 10 hours a day and six of those were spent on Instagram, I deleted the app off my phone almost immediately. How did I get here and is this the best use of me?In this episode I share my earliest observations and reflections of what life feels like without Instagram, what I've gained and as it relates to my business, what I might lose.I also talk about why I'm pouring into my Substack and the result of seven days of sustained focus on that platform. It's been very revealing to say the least.Alison xoSubstack essay: If I stay off Instagram, I get 12 years backgo deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you.We're consuming more than ever and tending almost none of it.In this episode, I introduce the concept of a digital garden — a personal, non-linear, evolving collection of the things that genuinely matter to you. A place for your thinking to live, grow and develop into something that is entirely your own.I explore why our inner worlds have become so fragmented, what we're losing when ideas never get to connect and why building something slow and self-authored is one of the most rebellious things we can do in the age of the algorithm.If the seasonal curriculum is your planting plan, the digital garden is where things actually take root.A full guide to building your own — including a Notion template — is coming to Substack soon. Subscribe below.Alison xolinks.Subscribe to Substack hereSeasonal Curriculum episode on Spotify here and Apple hereSeasonal Curriculum Notion template herego deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you. A Little, Rich Life is such a sweet philosophy, but what does cultivating one actually look like in practice? What decisions and sacrifices are required? That's what this episode is about. I'm sharing personal stories and real financial decisions to show what enoughness looks like as a lived practice not just a beautiful idea.I talk about why there's no framework, rejection as a throughway to what's true for us, handling judgement and projections from our loved ones and why building a manageable, sustainable life is not poverty consciousness but one of the most radical acts of self-authorship there is.If you're wondering what it looks like to choose depth over size and living life over enduring it, this episode is for you. Alison xogo deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join serve hereDearest you.There's a particular kind of tiredness that comes from building something in a room that doesn't believe in what you're building or how you want to build it. I know this because I've been there.This episode is about a different kind of room.It's an invitation to join me inside serve — a living practice room for women building purpose-driven, regenerative service businesses. It's not (just) a program you complete. It's a held space for becoming the founder you already are alongside other women practicing the same thing.In this episode I map the architecture of the room:Foundational business programAI mentor trained on the program and eight years of my workLive mentoring, co-working and deep work sessionsIn-person meet-upsForming service collectivesWhile everyone is welcome inside this room, it has been built with two very particular women in mind.The first is standing at a threshold, circling a service business she can feel but hasn't yet found the courage to begin. The second is already inside her own service business, feeling the ground shift beneath her feet with AI. She knows she doesn't want to abandon what she's built but she needs guidance on how to evolve her business to meet the moment we find ourselves in. If either of those women is you, the door to enter serve is here. Take your time and if it lands in your body, I'll see you inside.Alison xogo deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dearest you.This episode begins as satire and if the opening feels uncomfortable, that's the point.All of it is real. Quotes and close paraphrasings from women and founders being held up right now as the aspiration.We have a problem.Eight years into this work, I find myself more alarmed than ever. Girlboss 2.0 feels to be emerging and mainstream media is serving her up as the role model we should be learning from and aspiring toward. And so many of us — consciously or not — are still subscribing.This episode is a call to action. It's an invitation to excavate the seed of ambition the system planted in us and to replant something more honest, more nourishing and more suited to bodies that cycle and lives that take place in seasons.It's an invitation to define your version of enough — your version of A Little, Rich Life — and build from there.No one is coming to save us. The external conditions will not change. We can't do this in isolation and that's what serve is for — my living practice room for regenerative entrepreneurship and service business. Alison xoExpress interest in serve herego deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Express interest in serve hereDearest you.This is the permission slip so many have been waiting for and an explanation of why it's finally arrived.If the thing standing between you and starting (or sustaining) a service business has been the belief that you have to become a content creator, a semi-influencer or a founder building in public, this episode is for you. The model is moving on. Content marketing as the primary strategy for service businesses is giving way to something that has always felt more true in the world of purpose-driven business — relationship-based, community-led and human-centered.I trace what's driving the shift (the saturation of AI-generated content on social platforms, the quiet death of the follower economy, the coming transition away from the phone itself) and what I believe is next and will be preparing us for in serve — consulting collectives, long-form authority building and service businesses designed around depth of relationship rather than volume of reach.The conditions you've been waiting for are finally here.Alison xoExpress interest in serve herego deeper.Subscribe to SubstackJoin SERVEBook a 1-1 SessionWatch on YouTubeSeasonal Curriculum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.