~aggressively curls eyelashes~

Alix Earle is Gen Z’s newest ‘it’ girl. She has almost 6 million TikTok followers, over 3 million Instagram followers to her name, and has quickly become the face of the #GRWM (get ready with me) video trend.

(If she’s not on your TikTok algorithm yet, she will be after this email. Shoutout to the FBI agents in our phones. Love you guys.)

Seemingly every product she uses sells out and every brand she promotes feels the #AlixEarleEffect.

Her influence is so powerful that Poppi, the beautifully branded probiotic soda, opted to go all in on sponsoring Alix’s trip to Coachella. Many other brand choose multiple influencers to host. Poppi said we’ll put all our eggs in Alix’s basket. Brilliant, IMO.

The decision immensely paid off for them. Poppi experienced a 200% boost in sales following Earle’s weekend at Coachella and had one of the biggest launches of their new flavor in company history.

This marketing strategy may deserve it’s own Salesgirl Social, but we’ll leave it at that for now.

Alix started posting on TikTok in 2020, and was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 last year, mere months after she graduated college.

When I was in college I once checked my checking balance and had $5.47. 

But, Alix isn’t the only TikTok creator posting GRWM videos – so what makes hers so popular and why do ours have 9 views?

The best anyone can tell about the Alix Earle Effect is this: there’s aspirational and there’s relatable and Alix lives right in the middle. 

Sure, Alix has an NFL boyfriend and lives in a Miami penthouse, but a quick scroll through her TikTok feed shows that her candid content still comes first, from being open about her acne to sharing heartwarming moments with her family. 

Despite her newfound fame and fortune, Alix’s followers praise her for remaining down to earth and keeping it real as a 23-year-old. 

So what can we actually learn from Alix besides how to wear eyeliner correctly as elder millennials? 

(TY for that Alix, btw.)

Your message may be serious, but you can’t take yourself too seriously.

In fact, the more life-changing your message is, the more people may need to see your normalcy. So that they can not only be inspired by you, but see that it’s possible for them too.

It wasn’t until I started studying Alix that I realized someone else who has the relatability to inspiring ratio down to an art: Sara Blakely. 

sarablakely

View more on Instagram

Sometimes making millions as the founder of Spanx, always making unicorn shaped pancakes for the kids on Sunday mornings. 

Now I’m certain that there’s something to it. 

As we reach new heights, may we not get so high that we forget to show others that it’s possible for them, too.

Xo, The Salesgirls