Hello. I'm Alexia. I also go by Lex, and sometimes, Fancypants. You'll know when to call me what.

 

I grew up wanting to be a concert pianist and went to the University of Cape Town music school to follow that dream. Except I'm not really cut out to be a concert pianist. Advertising school seemed like an exciting alternative, and I was offered a copywriter job at Ogilvy and Mather before I finished my first year. That felt like a sign.

​

I took it. Spent my early career in Johannesburg writing campaigns for IBM, Avis, South African Breweries and Sun International. Won awards in London, New York and beyond. Learned from some of the sharpest minds in the business. Then I moved to the US, kept climbing the agency ladder, and eventually did what every agency person secretly wants to do. I crossed the floor and started building my own things.

​

In 2003 I founded a triathlon with a twist: participants could choose from 12 different race orders. As far as anyone could tell, it was the only event of its kind in the world. Might still be. By the final year, nearly 800 people showed up. I built it from nothing, ran it for five years through two pregnancies, and sold it in 2008.

​

That same year, at the bottom of the worst recession in a generation, I co-founded Vuka Sparkling Energy Drinks. Two hundred and fifty energy drinks a year were failing. Everyone thought we were out of our minds. Six months of consumer research told me the 25-plus market was completely underserved. We launched at a farmer's market in August 2009 and were on Whole Foods shelves two weeks later.

​

What followed has been eighteen years of building something real. Vuka became one of the first natural energy drinks to hit the mainstream market. We hit 17 states. We became the official energy drink of Red Rocks Amphitheatre, the Denver Convention Center, and the Denver Pride Festival. At Whole Foods we ranked top 5 energy drink nationally, contributing over a million dollars in sales. At Lifetime Fitness we became not just the leading energy drink but the second top-performing brand in the entire national chain, across every category. The leader was a chocolate bar and nobody can beat that. 

​

Vuka still sells out online in under 14 hours. Eighteen years later.

​

In between, I founded Wigglebug Toy Company (play dough with collectible figures buried inside, because why not), Tough Girl Tutus (born at the New York Marathon on Halloween, sold in 2013), and Salt and Reverie, an ocean lifestyle brand I still run today with 30 SKUs across 7 product categories and a 4.8-star rating on Etsy.

​

I also spent two years as Director of Marketing at The Bureau of Small Projects, where I led strategy and campaigns for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (8.5 million impressions at launch), boosted Jackson Galaxy's Shopify conversion rate by 75%, and delivered a 97% OTT video completion rate for a bipartisan commission co-chaired by a former senator and a former governor. Among other things. Then I spent a one and a half year stint learning how to run a world class photo studio shooting Nike, Rubio's, Colorescience and Olukai and dipped my toe into high-end book printing and crafting trading card collectibles.

​

The point is not the list of things. The point is that I have sat at every seat at the table. Copywriter. Creative director. Founder. Operator. Marketer. I know what it costs to build something, what it should cost to market it, and the difference between strategy that looks good in a deck and strategy that actually works.

​

I go up to 40,000 feet to see the entire field. Where the whitespace is. Where the real opportunity lives. Then I come back down and get in the weeds to make it happen. Equal parts logic and magic. And yes, I have the Gantt charts to back it up.

 

If that sounds like what you need, let's talk.