Conversations with Alana Graddick

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alana Graddick

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I would say my journey towards becoming a coach initially started in 2016. For all of my life, I had struggled with depression, low self-esteem, and genuinely hating everything about myself.

2016 was the first time I realized carrying that heaviness around wasn’t a sustainable way to live. This was also the year 2 major events happened in my life. The first one was discovering “The Secret” on Netflix and learning that I have the power to radically change how I think and feel—the second occurred when I dropped out of college to move from Michigan to LA.

Living in LA completely changed the trajectory of my life. It opened me up to a world of healing practices I don’t think I would’ve felt as pulled to if I was still in my old environment. I would cycle through periods of intensely focusing on my healing journey where I was waking up and meditating, sleeping with healing frequencies playing in the background, going to church and deepening my relationship with God, repeating affirmations in my head all day, the whole nine. Then I’d fall off for a few months when life started life-ing until God called me back into it, and I’d start up again. Eventually, I reached a point where I was finally starting to love myself and feel confident. I had taken 5 steps forward but life was about to knock me 20 back.

In 2020, I had my daughter Gia and went through pretty bad postpartum depression. On one hand, I was in one of the darkest times of my life. On the other, I had this newfound motivation that I had never had before. I deeply desired to be a real-life example for my daughter that ANYTHING is possible for ANYONE as long as you keep God first and believe you have the power to achieve it.

That inspired me to dig myself out of my hole, even when I didn’t feel like it. I slowly got back into the practices that helped me heal my mind that first time, but I felt a calling to go deeper. Learning how to rewire my mindset became a passion for me. I started researching a lot about neuroplasticity and the fact that our brains are hardwired to keep us repeating the same patterns until we choose to rewire it to do something different.

It was around this time I also dived deeper into developing my personal relationship with God. I got connected to spiritual teachers who helped me begin releasing a lifetime of trauma from my nervous system. I got to a place where, in the middle of the pandemic while overcoming postpartum depression and caring for a newborn, I felt empowered and hopeful.

I began to feel a deep calling on my life to share what I was learning with other women. I started sharing affirmations and motivational messages on social media and in 2021 I launched an affirmation card deck called the EMPOWERMENT cards. Imposter syndrome hit me like a ton of bricks a few months later and I ended up self sabotaging and shutting that business down.

The three years since then have been the most significant chapter of my life thus far. God has led me to take some pretty massive leaps of faith to uncover the version of myself I needed to be in order to fulfill the purpose He put on my life.

Right after I shut down my company, I tried to run from that purpose and find other avenues to go down career wise. As a Black woman who experienced postpartum depression, I realized many of us who have gone through it don’t share our stories. I felt inspired to do my part to share my experience in the hopes that another mom out there could feel seen and know that she’s not alone.

Alongside my daughter (who was 2 at the time) and a PHENOMENAL all women crew, we created BAD MOM a short film about postpartum depression. I wrote and starred in it with Gia and it was the most incredible experience. It even got into The Social Impact Film Festival which I was thrilled about. Even though that first foray into filmmaking was beautiful and I initially moved to LA with dreams of being an actress, I felt in my soul that wasn’t what I was meant to do with my life.

With each pivot I made, I came back to that same conclusion. Nothing brought me the fulfillment I got from helping women break free from their limits and empower themselves to go for what they want. I finally realized the only option for me was to live life in full alignment with that purpose, and in that moment I promised God I was done running from what He called me to do.

At that time, I was still dabbling off and on with posting content on social media about mindset reprogramming, healing and my walk with God but I was holding back on figuring out how to turn that into a career. I started researching paths I could pursue, which led me to discover coaching. I immediately had the inner knowing that it would be the perfect fit for me. I decided to take yet another leap of faith and invest in getting my life coaching certification and restarting my entrepreneurship journey.

I love that as a life and mindset coach, I get to dive in with clients who are in that same space I was, of having a dream and/or a purpose they want to fulfill but are stuck in the cycle of letting fear hold them back. We work together to start creating consistency in the actions they’re taking toward achieving these big dreams while also empowering them with the tools to release the mental programming that has been keeping them stagnant and disconnected from their true selves so that they no longer fall back into those old patterns in the future.

At this stage in my own journey, I’ve realized the secret to attracting success and abundance is not about “becoming” someone new, it’s about uncovering who we are and who we’ve been this whole time. There is an empowered, infinitely capable version of ourselves inside of us who loves us, empowers us, and is there to guide and protect us. She is the voice of Spirit and she’s been covered up by the voice of the inner critic that we’ve been tricked into thinking is who we are.

My purpose is to help women uncover and connect to that voice and become unstoppable in the pursuit of their dreams. It is so beautiful to experience being at a point in life where I can confidently walk in that purpose without letting fear stop me.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has been anything but smooth. My top three struggles have been conquering that imposter syndrome that made me quit on myself in the past, learning to be courageous in the face of the unknown, and figuring out how to balance entrepreneurship with being a mom to a now 4-year-old.

For both the imposter syndrome and facing the unknown aspects, making God my best friend was once again the key to my success. I encourage my clients to find the ways that work best for them to cultivate a stronger relationship with God as well because having unshakable faith in His love and His plan for our life allows us to feel safe in that terrifying territory of having to show up and put ourselves out there in ways we never have before. The feeling of safety is a major key in getting the mind to lower the resistance it puts up to us going for big dreams in life.

As far as overcoming imposter syndrome goes, I also had to separate the valid reasons for feeling like an imposter from the made-up stories my inner critic was trying to feed me. To give an example of the difference, one of my valid reasons was that I genuinely had no business experience and, therefore, didn’t trust my ability to be successful as an entrepreneur.

To remedy that, I created a habit of reading/listening to books targeted towards the areas I felt shaky in. I set a goal to read 12 books this year and right now I’m on book #9 because of cementing this habit into my life. The more I learn and apply what I’m learning, the more trust I develop in my abilities, which in turn melts the imposter syndrome I used to feel in those areas away.

A major false story my inner critic was feeding me was that I wasn’t worthy of serving my purpose because of mistakes I made in the past. I had to release the pain, toxic shame and trauma behind that belief from my body/nervous system. Reprogramming myself to connect with Spirit and identify that voice as the voice of my true self also really helped here. Once you stop seeing your inner critic’s voice as YOUR voice, you reclaim your power to stop letting what it says affect you.

The struggle I’m most proud of overcoming though, is figuring out how to balance all of this with being a mommy. All moms know there is a constant tug of war between feeling guilty for taking time and attention away from our kid(s) and feeling like we’re behind compared to everyone else.

In the beginning, I watched a lot of motivational, success/business gurus on social media and tried to implement their methods into my life. You know, that whole wake up at 4AM, work out every day, eat clean, dedicate hours upon hours a day to your business, dedicate your life to building self-discipline spiel we’ve heard a million times before. Trying to do life that way only led to two things for me: burn out and not being the mom I wanted to be because I was pouring from an empty cup.

I had an epiphany moment when I realized I needed to surrender to the reality that being a mom means my path looks different than others. I surrendered to the fact that for me, my daughter is my #1 priority and that can mean I don’t always have a lot of time to give to other areas. Most importantly, I surrendered to the knowing that my life in that moment wasn’t meant to be any other way than the way it was. We don’t have to rush to get where everyone else is; we are meant to do it in our own way and on our own timeline.

I learned to work with the free time I was given. If the only time I had that day was the 30 minutes my daughter took for her nap, I found a baby step I could take toward my dream to fit within that 30 minutes, and celebrated myself when I was done. This allowed me to make more progress than ever before because I could realistically stay consistent with it every day no matter how busy life got. The fulfillment I got from seeing myself finally being consistent and walking in purpose was what filled my cup and allowed me to pour into my daughter the way she deserves.

Over time, those small steps also helped build up my trust in my ability to be successful in the pursuit of my goals. That trust became crucial in avoiding self-sabotage because I finally stopped second-guessing if I would or wouldn’t give up and quit again.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a certified life and mindset coach. I specialize in helping women conquer self-sabotage and start creating consistent momentum toward their dreams.

I believe manifesting dreams into reality requires a mix of mindset, consistent action and staying connected to God & Spirit. Many people only focus on one of those areas at a time. Taking that approach can lead to one of two outcomes: 1 – we burn out because we’re going 0-100 and taking actions our mind and body still have resistance towards or 2 – we slow down our momentum and delay our manifestation because we’re waiting to achieve the “right” mindset or frequency before taking any action at all.

When you build a foundation of seeking growth in all three of those areas, THAT is when you fully break free from what’s been keeping you stuck and start accelerating your momentum toward the life you deserve. My coaching program, Audacity to Dream, is designed to create that foundation.

We begin the program by finding small, sustainable ways to create a pattern of consistent action and self trust. This is like creating fertile soil so the seeds you plant can grow as strong and fast as possible.

We plant the seeds by bringing awareness to and releasing the mental programming behind the self-sabotaging patterns from the body and mind.
****(Outside of my program, I also offer a free 7 day challenge & ebook called “The Dreamer’s Guide” that can help to ignite this process of discovering and releasing for those who feel called to do so)****

We water those seeds by creating a safe space for clients to deepen their relationship with God and start uncovering and connecting to their true inner voice, that voice of Spirit that will empower and guide them towards their dream instead of away from it like the inner critic did in the past.

That powerful foundation we build in the first half of the program lowers fear and resistance, allowing us to easily accelerate the momentum and take bigger, more courageous actions and leaps of faith later on in the program without burning out or getting stuck again.

I am most proud of the fact that I am a Black woman operating within this space. Many people miss out on powerful messages that could change the trajectory of their lives because they don’t relate to the people sending the message. I hope that by sharing my story and making myself available to serve others, I can be a spark that ignites a fire in someone who sees themselves in me.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Trust in your own uniqueness! Just because something is working for others in your space doesn’t mean you have to take that path too. Trust in your wisdom and your light. That’s what separates you and will attract the specific people you were called to serve. Key words, the specific people YOU were called to serve. It’s easier to avoid comparison and impatience when you know that no one can take what’s meant for YOU from YOU. Above all, keep God first. Stay connected to the wisdom He’s sharing with you and the blessings and opportunities buried inside the challenges you encounter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alanagraddick.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/alanagraddick