Surviving the Side Hustle

From Filmmaker to Social Media Maestro: Alessandro Frosali Journey to Turning Talent into a Thriving Business

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 43

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What if you could transform your knack for creating content into a thriving business? Join us as we chat with Alessandro Frasali of Frasali Creative, who shares his unique journey from the world of filmmaking and music to launching a successful agency with his wife, Julia. Living in the idyllic setting of Mallorca, Alessandro opens up about the power of consistency and natural talent in achieving social media success. Together, they help coaches, consultants, and personal brands get noticed online, turning expertise into engaging and impactful content.

Ever wondered how to convert online visibility into real financial success? Alessandro candidly discusses his challenges in making this transition, shedding light on the importance of genuine problem-solving over mere popularity. From aspiring to be an Indonesian pop star to solving real-world problems, Alessandro's story is a testament to the importance of aligning one's talents with tangible outcomes. His reflections on personal growth, family influences, and overcoming setbacks provide invaluable insights into the true essence of success.

Balancing growth with work-life harmony is no small feat, especially when working alongside a spouse. Alessandro shares the ups and downs of moving from client-based work to digital products, navigating financial unpredictability, and maintaining a strong support system. He emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, understanding life's various "seasons," and learning from the side hustle grind. With resilience and adaptability at the core of his advice, Alessandro leaves us with a motivational boost, promising more inspiring conversations ahead.

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Speaker 1:

what's going on? I got alessandro on today. How you doing, man? I'm doing really well I'm doing really well.

Speaker 2:

How about yourself?

Speaker 1:

yeah, um, it's a little gloomy over here in connecticut, um, but you know, just living the dream myself. You said you were, you had a pretty long day. How is it over there?

Speaker 2:

uh, it's good. It's like 5 p here, so I think we're like six hours ahead of you Living in Spain, in Mallorca, and it's you know, we've chosen to live on an island that's absolutely beautiful because we want to be in a beautiful place. So life is good. You know, even though I've had a full day of sales calls, I actually really enjoy it, but it's you know, you do a lot as an entrepreneur. You've got a lot going on, but you've got to choose the right places, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that man. For people who don't know you, would you mind giving a little brief introduction on who you are and who you help and kind of like the problem that you solve for people?

Speaker 2:

For sure, for sure. So my name is Alessandro Frasali. I run Frasali Creative with my wife, Julia. We essentially do everything to help coaches, consultants, personal brands and front-facing businesses with a service get visible online. And I started off being in filmmaking, in music, in everything creative, and I was just getting loads and loads of views myself and all of a sudden, someone once said how do you do that? Can you do that for my business? I did it for their business, got them to 200,000 followers and then started doing it for another business and another business, and all of a sudden there was an agency. And all of a sudden I was like, oh wow, it looks like we have to build up a brand. And so that's how Frisali Creative was born, and now we essentially focus on courses, on mentorships, on products, and we also teach other companies how to run their social media too.

Speaker 1:

Wow, wow, that's pretty cool. So how long has the whole organization been together? Like how long have you gone from that when you were just kind of doing it? For like yourself and somebody else, and to where you are now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was kind of a blend. So we I mean we set up the actual company formation. I had a company formation last year in Germany, but when we moved to Spain we just set it up new as Rosali Creative this year. But I've been doing all matter of work in content for probably 10, 12 years now since I got my filmmaking degree, so it's just been a slow progression. You know, it's one of those things where I think the life of a freelancer is you're doing a job and all of a sudden you're on the next job. You don't even notice what you're doing, you're just trying to get money and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, let me hire somebody for this because it's too much. And then, yeah, you find yourself oh shit, I'm running an agency.

Speaker 1:

It's a slippery slope. Huh, it's a slippery slope.

Speaker 2:

All of a sudden, you're a business owner and you never really thought you were going to be.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can totally relate to that, my background being in strength and conditioning as a coach and they never teach you anything about business. It's a lot of anatomy and biomechanics and sports nutrition things like that. Not really too much of that transfers over into the business world, but you got to learn quickly to stay on top of the feet 100%, so I like how you mentioned, though, that you've been in the whole content creation world for a while now and there's no real such thing as an overnight success, but you help people pretty much get there as quickly as possible, right like with everything that you're doing yeah, I mean, I think we we believe in sustainability, um consistency, um bringing out natural talent.

Speaker 2:

so I think the reason why I like to work with coaches and consultants as people who are exposing their field, because I believe with social media, um, essentially, that anyone who is an expert just needs sometimes somebody to show them what's interesting about what they do to everybody else, because what they do they don't know is really interesting to a whole bunch of people because they look at everyone else in their field and they go well, everyone else knows this.

Speaker 2:

But because you have that knowledge above everyone else, you just need somebody sometimes to come in and go ah, why don't you try and show what you're already doing just in this way? And by doing that, it becomes appealing to 95% of the rest of the world because they don't know that. So that's one of the biggest things. It's not really about speed, but when you get it done well, it can happen quickly, like, for example, when we wanted to start our account. I'd already built a bunch of accounts, over 100,000 followers and our account. We started in October last year and within 90 days, just with one challenge that we did, we had 15,000 followers straight up on our Instagram, so it was just. It happens fast when you do it well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I like how you said you like to work with experts in their own rightful industry. Do you work with new coaches who are jumping into a new industry, or do they have to have a track record and they have to be an expert to a certain standard? Or can you help newer coaches too?

Speaker 2:

I can help newer coaches too. The thing is, it's really about the personas that you take on. So, for example, if you are that you take on. So, for example, if you are Russell Brunson has a really wonderful analogy for this, which is when you're on social media or when you're online, or when you're making content, you're essentially a character version of yourself, and when you are as not as proficient, or as you don't have as much expertise, you have to take on a slightly different role. You can't be the leader, because otherwise you seem disingenuous, right, like, how many times have we seen somebody going? This is how I made $10,000 a day, and you know for a fact they haven't made $10,000 in their life. And it makes you go well, okay, I'm not going to believe that guy, so that's why we always avoid that.

Speaker 2:

But there are loads of ways that you can do it elsewise. So, let's say, you don't have the experience. You become a documenter, you go. These are the people in the field right now. Let me chat to them. Things like these, podcasts like this, let me make content about what other people are doing and show you why I like it. That's wonderful ways of making content, but it's all about sticking to authenticity. So if you're the newer in the field, of course you can get followers and things like that, but it's just not claiming to be something that you're not. You can always by being authentic and saying actually, I've been in for this two years, this is what I'm learning right now, and how cool is this that makes so much better content than I'm going to tell. And how cool is this that makes so much better content? Then I'm going to tell you how to do this, because I know yeah, yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty cool. Um, so you're really helping people kind of create their own like, essentially, community and world. It's not just about getting their followers up and like posting strategic um pieces of content that might be more attractive to more people. Or do you have like a set strategy on like? Okay, these are the kinds of things that you need to be posting more often. Or is there a game plan to it or is it just like hey, you got to do this.

Speaker 2:

And it's definitely a strategy. So one of the major things that, like one of our trainings and one of the core things that we do in our mentorships is we teach my viral with value framework. So it's like how to go viral while giving the value that you range. Part of that framework is is really this three steps. You know it's it's the three different types of content that you need to have, and that is valuable content, viral content and vision content. And you know each person that you get to, you assess their social media and you notice that they might just have. Well, most people have way too much of the vision content, which is just content about themselves, and they completely ignore the, the value, and the viral, which is helping other people and appealing to other people.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure if that fully answered your question, but essentially I think that the last part of it is strategy wise, that's 100 strategy, but again, it's it's different for every person because there's just there's different natural talents that you can work with yeah, that's exactly what I was just going to ask you is if, if that's just kind of like the hey, here's a blueprint, do this and good luck, or is it like hey, we've assessed your profile, we've assessed a lot of your content and we feel like this would help increase your followers and your reach and things like that I like to work one-on-one with my mentors.

Speaker 2:

I know a lot of other mentors like to hire out another worker and then this other worker will do the work for them and just teach their strategy. But I find with social media, because there is a lot of nuance with the person you're dealing with, it cannot be cookie cutter. It cannot be. This is a strategy that will just work for everyone, because one person might be really amazing at scripts but might be terrible at impromptu. Another person might be really terrible at scripts but amazing at impromptu and you need somebody who, like myself I mean, I got a film degree, I worked in filmmaking as a director and writer you need somebody who can sort of understand and see, oh, this is what reads really well on camera, and when you find that you can then apply it to social media, it's the same kind of thing oh nice, yeah, um.

Speaker 1:

So that's pretty cool kind of flow of things and it seems like obviously your education plays out to be a very beneficial background and everything for you. But so has everything been so smooth and easy as you've been kind of growing, because it kind of seems like everything just falls right into place with you.

Speaker 2:

No, 100% not. I think my biggest challenge for the longest period of time was it was never attention. I was always good at getting attention, I mean, I think, since I got my first newspaper clipping when I was five years old and it was the boy with the golden voice. I remember my mother had that on the fridge for in Indonesian or in Balinese when I was living in Bali and all of a sudden that got 1.5 million views and I moved to Bali to become an Indonesian pop star.

Speaker 2:

But all of these things I was doing, it was the weirdest thing. I was getting so much attention, but my biggest problem was I was never getting any money. I was never actually getting anything from it other than more attention, and so I think that's been the biggest challenge for me was to go wait, I've got all of this attention. How do I switch that to? To, you know, sales and um, and it was only really solved, I'd say, in the last. Uh, maybe three years ago, maybe two years ago around there. It just sort of clicked. I ran an NFT company which I completely failed at, but again, we got a lot of attention and it failed, and you always learn from your failures. But then I realized it was all about. It's an extension of how you get visible is also how you get sales. It's just a slight different tweak and if you can tweak it well and actually still solve problems for the people, for your target audience, then you'll sell.

Speaker 1:

And then that's when our systems really started to work and everything that we do wow, yeah, so what I'm hearing hearing you say a lot of here is of of the self-awareness. Where did you, where did you get this ability to kind of like take a step back and reflect on everything you've got going on? Because I feel like a lot of people just go through life and they just continue to hammer their head against the wall with failure after failure and they never actually learn from them because they lack that awareness or self-reflection I'm not sure where I got it from.

Speaker 2:

Actually, I've never been asked that question, um, but I know I have a lot of it. I think it probably comes from, you know, probably different family things and always having family members that are in difficult situations and say you then start looking at yourself and I don't know. I've always been a little bit self-reflective. I've always enjoyed growing and growth. You know, like, um, that's been something that I've loved. I love that you earn personal fitness and everything like that. For me. I literally, when I was younger, I would say you know what? I've never had much challenges in my life because a lot of the things that I've had have just come really easily. So let me try and run a marathon, because that'll be the most challenging thing I can imagine, and so I do have that self-reflection. I understand that, but I don't know where it comes from. It's just something that it's yeah, it's been something that I employ at every point.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's very cool, I like it. You just kind of pick things up as you go. But I got to ask you, because you kind of briefed over that what happened with the pop star dream, what happened with that whole thing oh, that was my wife happened actually.

Speaker 2:

No, so I moved to indonesia and then, um, and I was like on bali tv. They asked me to be on indonesian idol, but I had some weird family things. My father passed away just recently, just after all of this had happened, and a little bit of my want for it went away. Like it's. It's the weirdest thing to always want attention and then be given all the attention in the world. Um had like a hundred thousand followers, but then the sinking feeling of losing your father.

Speaker 2:

You're like this doesn't mean anything and I think that's another thing for me that made me realize ah, you know it's, it's got to be more than just eyeballs. What's the point of just capturing eyeballs if you're just capturing eyeballs for the sake of capturing eyeballs. You know what I mean. Um, like I would find myself on days like doing 60 videos in a day and each one would be getting like the top one would get a million views, the lowest one would get a hundred dollar views. I remember getting on tiktok when I was doing the indonesia stuff. It had like 30 million likes overall, but there was really I remember my wife was looking at me going this is not gonna. Well, my then girlfriend, uh, saying this is not gonna get you anything, and I also felt hollow as well. So, yeah, I just sort of went. I'm just doing this for the attention, that's cool, but it's not getting me anywhere yeah, I, I can totally relate to that.

Speaker 1:

I'm sorry to hear about your father passing away, and and I share a similar experience with you is that, uh, I, when I was coaching as a strength and conditioning specialist, I scaled up my schedule to working 70 to close to 80 hours a week and I just buried myself in that work, in that grind, and I hadn't realized what was going on around me until about a year after my father passed and I realized that, hey, I'm all by myself, all my friends are all gone, all I do is worry about filling my schedule with clients.

Speaker 1:

And I had to take a step back and be like, hey, this isn't really doing anything for me, I'm just living to work, I'm not enjoying my life, and that was a hard pill to swallow, that I needed to change things and that really became the pivoting point of my career my coaching and really changed a lot of things that I had been doing and seeking after, and it helped me out tremendously. But again, I'm sorry to hear about your father, but I'm glad that you made these shifts into a different realm now.

Speaker 1:

So you're talking about sales, you're talking about attention. Where are you currently at with your business and where are you looking to bring it to?

Speaker 2:

What are some of the dreams or goals you've got going on? So we're currently we built out pretty quickly with clients and then we literally have dropped, one by one, all of the done for you services and now we're going like fully, we're doing the mentorships and the consultation calls and courses and different. So that's been a big transition for us. It's been um, it's been one of those things where you know, with clients they're annoying, but you know what's coming in every month. Right, you know I'm doing this work and I'm going to get paid for this work, but then when you're going to digital products, you can have a really good month and then you can have a really bad month and then you can have a finally a month and then you know you've got people to pay as well who are helping you, and it's just up and down.

Speaker 2:

So I think our biggest thing right now is just getting that consistency going, because you know we've got a lot coming through and that's what's great. That it's just one of those things. It's like making sure that we can consistently do that every single month and wanting to grow on top of that. I think also we're facing the problem of the bottleneck problem. You know, the company's run by me and my wife and we have three freelancers, four freelancers that work for us, but still, when everything comes to us, there's always that bottlenecking and that's, I think, you know, that's probably the problem that every company faces as it grows.

Speaker 1:

I think that's probably the problem that every company faces as it grows. Oh yeah, I feel like that's a natural progression as businesses grow and develop and as long as I feel like you have a clear head and you're excited for the challenge and you look at it as a challenge and not necessarily a problem that becomes pretty easily overcomable. But that's really cool. I like that and I can definitely relate to the ups and downs with certain things with business and attention and everything. It is super exciting when things are super high and then when it gets a little slow, it can be kind of sad and depressing. And working with your wife what's that kind of like in a situation? Because you got the ups and downs and now you're with her all day long talking about work how do you make that switch to personal life?

Speaker 2:

now it's the best and the worst thing at the same time as well. It's another up and down no, it's, it's actually fantastic.

Speaker 2:

The one thing is, um, ego always gets in the way. That's the only thing that ever gets in the way is when you take a business decision or a business need. Personally, that's always really difficult and that's something that you know. Julia and I get better and better at every day. It's not something I don't think you can ever get perfect. You know there's always going to be a day when your wife tells you I need three emails for this funnel because you need to do that and you need to do that by today. But that morning you had a fight and so you tack on the morning fight with the other thing. And then there is that personal. You know you do that On the flip side of that, like that's the worst side, which is not even that big. The flip side is it just keeps us really close, like we were the best team.

Speaker 2:

He's incredible, okay, and he's incredible. It's fantasy is incredible and making sure things are working. And I'm pretty damn good at going and making work and and going in and doing the little things that need to be done and working one-on-one with people and my communication skills and being the face. So it's one of these things where everything I don't have she has and everything she doesn't. So it's. That's why it's perfect solid balance.

Speaker 1:

yeah, uh, so I've heard you talk about, whether you have noticed it or not, you do have a great sense of self-reflection and awareness. I know we touched on that a second ago. You've got a great team around you. Your wife sounds like the better half of you, picking up everything that you might be dropping and vice versa, and you're even considering and building and kind of scaling up your team a little bit, so you're surrounding yourself with some incredible people, um, but what are what are like another tip or trick or something that you personally do that keeps you performing at a high level?

Speaker 2:

um, I think, taking seasons. So for me, I believe that there are seasons in life and there's kind of seasons also even in your content seasons in where you're at and how you should react to your business. For me is not the same in all seasons Because, quite honestly, there are times when your workers are not there and you've got to change things up, and then there are times where your motivation is not there and you're not really clear on what you want from your private audience, so you're a little bit pulled. But then there are other times when you're running and everything's on fire. So I think the biggest tip or trick that I would suggest is to look at how you're dealing with something. Well, get that self-reflection and look at how you're dealing with something in the season that you're in. So really look at your life like a season.

Speaker 2:

I know for us, you know we've just gone through a big maintaining season and trying to try out new products and try out. We started our podcast and things like that. And I know for a fact we're going into a new season now because we've both signed on for health coaches. We've got a health and nutrition coaches we both have. We've got a business coach that started with us yesterday, a really great marketer in the space, and that's now a season of learning. So, yes, our content is going to be, you know, as we feel like, as good as it has been in the past, but we know that this season is learning. You know that's the.

Speaker 1:

It's the growth season for us now and you act differently in that yeah, I love that and I love love that you brought up seasons just in general, because that's something relatively new to me about the last year or so. But I've really been diving into that and I had previously finished up my season of learning. I was going through a period where I was kind of stagnant with my business and things. I had my clients and everything, but I wasn't growing and I was kind of stuck. And then I had a little bit of self-reflection and I realized that I was just listening to so many podcasts and I was in multiple coaching programs, I was reading all these different books and I wasn't producing anything. So it was just all me consuming. So I was building up all this knowledge. But then I needed to take a break and change seasons and like, okay, now I'm in a production mode.

Speaker 1:

I hosted a ton of events last year and then launched a podcast and new coaching program and a bunch of other things, and then that season ended and then I was just all about speaking and traveling and doing these other events for other people and that season pretty much just ended about a week or so ago and I was kind of looking at it. I'm like, all right, thankfully, I can kind of relax a little bit, take some downtime, spend some time with my girlfriend, and I want to get back into that production mode again because I feel like I can help make the most impact when I'm creating for other people. So that's the season I'm going into. So I appreciate you sharing a little bit about that, but I want to be courteous of your time. I don't want to hold you up too much because very busy, but I do got to ask.

Speaker 1:

You said the podcast. So where do people go to find that? How do people reach out to you? They're looking to dabble and ask you questions or possibly even work with you. I didn't even ask are you taking on new clients at the moment?

Speaker 2:

yeah, we take on. We take on two mentorships every month. So we've got one more spot available in may and then, um, we'll have another two spots available in june, um, yeah, so if anyone wants to find us, we're for Frasali Creative on Instagram. Instagram's the best place. I answer every single message personally and we have. It's always funny. I'm always asking other people to do this on our podcast and then I do it myself and I'm like, oh crap, I'm getting stuck. So we have the Visible Visions podcast. Our podcast is all about helping people get to their first 10,000 followers. So you can find the Visible Visions podcast anywhere podcasts in places, but that's essentially how people find us. It's either Frasali Creative on Instagram or we're just starting up our YouTube now as well or you can find our Visible Visions podcast.

Speaker 1:

Awesome and just to be clear, you got um one more space left for the month of may. I believe the episode as we're recording right now we're in the middle of may. By the time this releases it will be closer to june. So just in case, if they don't get in for that, may you also have two spaces available in june and then each month they're going to be available for two. Yeah, 100.

Speaker 2:

We'll have directly in our bio link in Instagram. We'll have the applications for the mentorships. You fill in a few questions and we'll see if we align, because, again, it's like you can't work with everybody, but we can definitely help as many people as possible. But fill in the application form and we'll reach out to you if they work. But other than that, we do have courses. So we have um, the ultimate backdrop bundle, which literally uh, by the click of your fingers, you can turn a green screen background like this into a professional studio with just a minimal amount of money, which is fantastic. And we're launching new courses pretty much every month, so that can also be found on Instagram.

Speaker 1:

Oh, very awesome, Nice, nice, I like that. Cool, yeah, so that's what I was going to ask about was the courses and then the coaching and stuff like that too. That's awesome. You have that application process, which is great because that's super helpful for the vetting. Who is somebody that might be listening to this? That maybe they're not quite ready for what you have to offer. So what do they look like? They're eager to get going and rolling, but they might not be perfectly ready just yet.

Speaker 2:

I would say, somebody who's not ready just yet is somebody who's never sold anything online. I like to help the people. You've got coaches and consultants and personal brands. If you've never sold anything online, like there's that next step go and make that first sale. And when you make that first sale, I'll teach you how to replicate that over and over again, because there's so much work that goes into making that first sale. But at the moment you do, you start realizing who that target audience is, you start realizing your bank end, your funnels, your systems, and then you're ready for the world to see it, because before that you haven't worked out who you're speaking to and you haven't worked out how they're going to or what problems you're going to solve in order for them to fully purchase from you. So those are the two things that need to be there Just make that first sale and know who you're selling to. Oh, perfect, yes.

Speaker 1:

I know a couple of people listening to this right now. I know they're exactly in that situation where they're kind of figuring out who they're going to help and what and how they're going to go about it. So you guys listen, I know who you are. I'm not going to call you out at the moment, but you heard it from him. You got to get those parts down and then come talk to Alessandro and he'll get you rolling with it. With that being said, dude, thank you so much for coming on.

Speaker 1:

I want to just take a second to recognize you. You're doing a lot of crazy, awesome things for a lot of really cool people in the world, and we need more people like you that help others, help others, the world and we need more people like you that help others, help others. That way, we change the world and everyone making a better impact and we leave it a little bit better than where we found it. Additionally, make sure you guys give him a follow on social media, the best way to reach out to him and talk to him. Very easy to answer very quickly.

Speaker 1:

I apologize for my replying. I'm typically a little bit better, alessandro, so I apologize for thatlying. I'm typically a little bit better, alessandro, so I apologize for that, but he's on there right on easy, quick access. If you have questions about any of his things, reach out to him and just. He's a great dude. So I really appreciate you taking this time. But before I let you go, I got to ask you what would be your number one piece of advice to survive the side hustle. What would be your number one piece of advice to survive the side hustle.

Speaker 2:

My number one piece of advice of surviving the side hustle is to have a plan and try it, and then, if that plan doesn't work, don't get discouraged. You just didn't make the right plan. It's the endless process. All you need to do is try one. If it doesn't work, yeah, make a new one.

Speaker 1:

I love that. That was perfect and I'm such a strong believer in that, so I appreciate that being your sign-off Again, dude, thank you so much. This was fun Thanks.

Speaker 2:

Joe.

Speaker 1:

I'll have you back on the show sometime soon, dude.

Speaker 2:

Anytime, man, anytime.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, All right.