Social Media, Secrets, and a Scholarship
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It's Thanksgiving. I hope you're all chilling. I hope you had your turkey dinner. I know you're not feeling thinner. Happy Thanksgiving. Oh my god, no more singing. Today is not a regular Thursday. Today is Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey Day, everybody. Woo woo

But seriously, I did just want to take a moment to reflect on what has happened the past year because I am so grateful for you guys and I wouldn't be here without you guys. But imagine you are in college, your senior year, all of a sudden you...

gain a massive following. Everyone is looking at everything that you're doing, depicting your life under this microscope. You're also getting to go to these insane events, getting flown out across the world. You're getting to meet celebrities. Like I have no idea what has happened this past year. It feels like a dream. I honestly have...

No idea how this is my real life. I got thrown into this new world, this new industry, this new life very fast and quickly and I'm still learning everything and I try to do the best that I can with it and it comes with a lot of pressure, but I really appreciate your guys' support and supporting me through everything even when I am...

or being crazy or being a hot mess. You guys are always there for me and I love you and you have no idea how much it means to me. Like I truly...

♪♪

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This episode is brought to you by Tinder. We all have a dream of how we'll meet that special someone, right? We think it's going to be this big romantic moment. I'm going to be walking down the side of the road. He's going to see me, think I'm the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, turn right back around, come sweep me off my feet. But that's never going to happen.

quite how it happens. I mean, I met my boyfriend at the bar, at a party, you know? I mean, I feel like that's how it happens when you go out. Some of you are still waiting for a meet cute moment to happen, but in reality, you might be more likely to find your meet cute on Tinder. A new relationship starts every three seconds on the app.

and the time it takes you to get a drink. You could have already met your special someone. So don't overthink it. Open Tinder and take a chance on romance. No matter how your journey starts, you may join the millions of relationships that started thanks to Tinder. Explore all of the possibilities for yourself. Tinder, it starts with a swipe. Download Tinder today. This is honestly me procrastinating right now. This is real life procrastination. I have all of my clothes for Vegas laid out on the bed right now. I am leaving for the airport today.

at 6 a.m. or my flight's at 6, so I'm leaving at like 4. I should probably get packing, but I was like, you know what? We're not going to pack. We're going to podcast. That just sounds better to me. Well, I'm filming this a few days before Thanksgiving and I'm going to be going back home to New Jersey. That's where I'm from. That's where I grew up. And yeah,

I am so grateful that I get to have a very blended Thanksgiving. I'm going to be going to my dad's house and my mom also comes over for Thanksgiving, which is super cool that my family can be really blended and normal and we can do holidays together. It is so unheard of and crazy, but...

My family has done a lot to make this work and they are all truly amazing. My dad, my mom, my stepmom, my little siblings. My sister Ashton is still studying abroad right now in Florence, so she's not coming home for Thanksgiving, which will be super upsetting and we're all going to miss her. But the rest of us will be there. The Earl gang will be hanging out all together and I'm sure you guys are going to see a

Lots of content that I'll be posting with them. I don't know. I just I feel like I want to be real with you guys for a second. I need to go home. Like I have just been craving going home, being back with my family. I've been really anxious this week. And it's so funny because I just put out the episode, my anxiety episode. And I was at my friend's birthday dinner the other night and I experienced anxiety.

the worst anxiety that I've had in a while. And usually I'll have anxiety when I'm out in a public place and then come back home and it's fine. But like I was sitting in bed freaking out. Like I have just been mentally going through a lot and I'm,

I am still trying to process it before really opening up about it and putting it out online. We are trying to calm down and I need to go home and lay in bed because I've been running around like crazy this month. I'm saying this right before I'm about to get on a flight to Vegas in the morning. And I also keep forgetting to take my Lexapro with me.

Sometimes like that honestly is probably why i'm freaking out. I'll like forget to take my pills every day and then It's very bad. So Don't forget to take your anxiety medication if you're on it before we get into today's episode Don't forget to subscribe follow like this podcast whatever platform you're watching it on because this hot mess needs to keep going

So while we're talking about a surreal past year, I graduated. Yes, we know I graduated. Shut up, Alex. You've told us a million times you graduated this past May. But I graduated with a scholarship in my name. And I still can't believe those words are coming out of my mouth. I still can't believe this happened. But...

Basically, two months before I was graduating college, I was talking to the University of Miami, the admissions, the people in the business school, and they were just so nice and welcoming to me. And they loved the content that I was posting, promoting the school, even if it was me going out five nights a week. But the four years that I spent at the University of Miami were truly incredible. And that school just, I don't think I would be where I am without it. Like,

I just got the best friends. I got the best education. I got the best experience there and I wanted to do something to give back and help other students and just allow them to follow their dreams in the same way that I was able to because sometimes all it takes is a little push and someone believing in you. I wouldn't be where I am right now without the support of others and that does not go unnoticed for me at all and I

was lucky enough to be in a position where I'm able to give back to school and help others, inspire others. And I really wanted to do this scholarship. I was super excited about it. I didn't really know if it was going to happen when we had first brought up the idea, but somehow it turned into a reality. And this was the most moving thing I had ever done in my life because I am just...

so fortunate and grateful to be where I am and seeing these students who care so much about getting their degree, finishing out their four years of school and just kind of needed that extra push. Like to me, that meant the world that I was able to help in any sort of way. And, you know, besides the financial aspect of a scholarship, I

really hope that this could just be inspirational for any young student looking to follow their dreams and to make, you know, the unimaginable happen. Because no, I would have never thought that this is what I would be doing in my life. And I hope that no matter what these students' goals are, no matter what path they want to go down, that they're able to, you know, follow these dreams and turn their visions into reality. And I love that it's

able to keep me kind of connected with the University of Miami. Like, I'm going back to speak at a class. I am able to, you know, meet the students and stay connected with them. And I think a lot of life is about connections and community, who you meet. And I just believe in supporting one another and supporting each other's dreams. So...

That was a dream come true for me to be able to help not only one, but two other students. And it truly feels surreal. I think there's a lot of times where I knew I was super passionate about creating content and it was just even saying it, you're like, ew, cringy. And I'm like, I know, but like, I really, I liked editing videos. I liked making videos. I just loved the process behind it. And I

I would get made fun of and, you know, guys would laugh at me. Girls would laugh at me. It was just like a known thing like, oh, she's trying to be this influencer. And I really had to, you know, believe in myself. And when I had people around me that supported me, especially professors who supported me, it just meant the world. And it really gave me the courage to keep going and laying out the timeline of my senior year.

In December, the end of first semester, that's when I gained like a few million followers in a month. And that's when my life just like kind of flipped. I was like, what is going on? And I do want to make a whole episode kind of talking to you guys about what that's like. And if you guys want to hear that and

what it takes behind the scenes being a content creator, social media personality, whatever you want to call it. I would love to talk to you guys about that. I still think that's one of the things, though, that I am still processing because I don't know what's going on half of the time. It's just like a fake it till you make it situation. In December, I was thrown into this position, especially by January when I started to have a real team behind me where I

I was able to be working and really didn't need to be in school technically. If my goal was just to have a job, I could have basically just dropped out and I didn't need to finish out that last semester. And a lot of people would say that to me, like, why are you even finishing out school right now? Like, that's stupid. Like, just come on. Like, you're so well off right now. You could just go and do whatever you want. And that didn't matter to me. Like, an education and getting a degree has...

always been super important to me. And I actually did learn a lot in school. And I know maybe I would skip class and I'd be on trips to Dubai, but I really did put in effort and

It was important to me to finish out that second semester of my senior year and all my professors were very supportive of me. They knew that sometimes I was missing class, but you know, I would talk to them and they were like, it's okay. You can get this done at this time. And you know, they knew that I still wanted to learn. I was kind of out in this real world of marketing and seeing what was going on and how brands were working and

working on these bigger projects that we, you know, are doing class projects about. So it was really cool to see my senior year and I'm not claiming to be the smartest person. I know I'm not. I'm just putting in an effort and I think it's important. I know there are a lot of students that really also value education and sometimes, you know, may need that extra financial help and

I don't know, just if I could do anything to give back in some type of way, providing a scholarship to the University of Miami was the first thing that came to mind. And I do have more plans in the future, especially around Christmas time, of what I want to do to be able to give back. So today we're going from being a college graduate to being a professor.

I'm going in to teach a class at the University of Miami. Maybe not teach. I'm just speaking. I'm guest lecturing. But one class that really stuck out to me in college was this social media marketing class. Of course, that's the one that stuck out to me. And my professor, while I was in the class, I remember I was leaving to go to like LA or something and we had a big project due. And it was actually something to do with like this project

Influencer like brand trip. I really wanted to get on I was like I really just like want to get myself out there I really want to do this This was during my junior year of college and he was like, um, like you cannot be missing class Like what are you doing? And I was like i'm trying to work like i'm i'm in la I don't think he believed me or knew what was going on and then my senior year of college he actually ended up emailing me and he was like I

I see all of the success. I see your name everywhere. Like students have been talking to me about you. I just want to say congratulations. And having my professor reach out to me and just recognize where I'm at in life was super crazy. And it really meant a lot to me. And he actually asked me to speak to his class. And it's the same class that I took two years ago. So literally in the same position, same seats that these professors

Students are in and I'm gonna go be a big-ass professor and talk to them. Now, I just want to preface this. I have already gone and spoke at class. I filmed that. That was actually yesterday. So, this is just edited to be after, but I already spoke, okay? You guys have no idea.

I leave there. I'm like, you know what? This is great. This is great content. I'm going to post me looking so scholarly talking to this class and I'm running to get ready for friends giving dinner. I throw up this post really quick. I edit a quick little video and I write guest lectured at University of Miami today. I post it and I don't go on my phone for like 40 minutes and that's rare. Like usually when I post I'm sitting there refreshing refreshing like replying to comments and

And I didn't go on for 40 minutes. I come back. This video has a million views. And I wrote, Gust lectured at the University of Miami. Like a dumbass. And of course, it's like me trying to have this scholarly moment. I'm like, hey, look at me. I can do smart things too. And yes, I wrote Gust. And everyone was like, oh my God, like...

And the comments were just tearing me apart, eating me alive. They were like, clearly she doesn't have an education. Like, clearly she didn't go to class. Like, of course I didn't mean to write gust. And I know how to spell guest. I just, I don't know what happened. I wasn't thinking. I was running to Friendsgiving. And that's just a quick little example of how like a little typo just turns into this big thing.

massive thing of me just looking like an idiot. So that was fun. And the University of Miami was probably like, great, like, come on. But you know what? It was a hot mess moment. And I think we need to start normalizing hot mess moments because we all have them. That's honestly why I named this podcast Hot Mess because life just is not perfect all the time. Like stuff just does not go the way it's supposed to all the time. And

People make mistakes and not even in a big way, just like little silly things. And I just think society holds you to such a high standard all the time or just...

in life, like in general, like it's embarrassing to not be so buttoned up and perfect and I don't know, doing all the right things, saying all the right things. Like, I don't know. I am a mess and I made a mistake. Let me be like, let me live. Okay. You know, I gust lectured and and it's fine. So if you are out there and no matter what aspect of life, if you're

parenting, if you're failing your class, if you are just, I don't know, going through a weird relationship, don't

beat yourself up. Just give yourself that break. Like, you know, we're just having a hot mess moment. Okay. We just, we messed up a little bit. It's everyone's first time at life. Not everyone knows how to spell guest. Okay. And when I posted that I was going back to class, a lot of you guys actually wrote to me and asked me to show you the questions and answers and like

were interested in what I was going to speak about to the class, which means the world to me. So I have it all recorded. It's all right here. You guys are about to see this go down. I'm in this little swivel chair. I'm sweating. I'm ripping off my nails. It's like a class presentation, but worse.

but better, but more fun, but also scarier. And I'm just nervous. And it also makes me nervous that I'm like the same age as people in this class. So another thing is I showed up to class with my heels torn

soaking wet they had water in them I had to dump them over and pour out the water because there was just a hurricane in Miami that like the news just didn't cover or prepare anyone for I was sleeping last night and I had to put 10 pillows over my head because I actually thought that my windows were gonna come bust in and like I was gonna get swept away into some tornado it was the craziest thing ever all the streets are flooded so I'm walking to this class my pants are just

soaking wet and my heels are full of water. So I had a little bit of raisin toes during this, if you know what I'm talking about, when your feet are in the water for too long. And I also want to say thank you to the University of Miami for recognizing me and believing in me because this influencer industry, all the social media marketing, it's all new. And I

I think at times it can be kind of frowned upon. I know for me personally, growing up, I would have, you know, teachers and stuff say, well, you can't post these things because you're never going to get a job and it's never going to work out for you. And

It's just not so much the reality of things anymore. Life is changing. We are evolving. And I think it was a big step for the University of Miami to recognize this and recognize what I do as a real career because it is and it is a real option for people. It's definitely new and there's a lot to be learned about it still. So I think that hopefully this was a step in the right direction.

And it inspires other universities. It inspires other people in my position to give back and use their platform for good. And I hope that I can continue to be

a good influence or a good impact on you guys and you guys are truly a good influence and impact on me. You guys make my day every day and I love hearing from you. I love seeing you. I love interacting with you. So thank you guys because none of this would be possible without you at all. Let's go back to college.

Super senior, here she goes. We're finally going back. Are you guys ready? Are you ready to take a class by Professor Big Al? Are you ready to learn all her tips and tricks? I'm not. I'm not ready for this at all. So I promise, I think I promise, this is the last time we are going back to college. Let's go.

This episode is brought to you by Tinder. We all have a dream of how we'll meet that special someone, right? We think it's going to be this big romantic moment. I'm going to be walking down the side of the road. He's going to see me, think I'm the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, turn right back around, come sweep me off my feet. But that's never a

quite how it happens. I mean, I met my boyfriend at the bar, at a party, you know? I mean, I feel like that's how it happens when you go out. Some of you are still waiting for a meet cute moment to happen, but in reality, you might be more likely to find your meet cute on Tinder. A new relationship starts every three seconds on the app.

in the time it takes you to get a drink, you could have already met your special someone. So don't overthink it, open Tinder and take a chance on romance. No matter how your journey starts, you may join the millions of relationships that started thanks to Tinder. Explore all of the possibilities for yourself. Tinder, it starts with a swipe. Download Tinder today. This episode is brought to you by Mejuri. You know, I had a thought the other day. Since Rwanda jewelry becomes something we only bought on special occasions...

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I'm actually gonna fly away, I think, right now. Welcome to the University of Miami. As you can see, there's lots of students on the ground. It's a beautiful sunny day out. Go take a dip by the pool. We're literally walking through a hurricane right now. No biggie. I'm excited to see the dedicated students that go to class in this hurricane though. We're drawing attention to ourselves with these big umbrellas. If it was raining like this when I was in class,

My ass would probably be in bed. See, he's no umbrella in it. He's soaked. Oh my god, Alex, get out!

She was obviously bright, she was obviously talented. She has 2 million Instagram followers, that's probably conservative. 6 million TikTok followers. I saw her in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, Vogue Magazine, People, just to name a few.

I just saw her last two weeks ago on Kelly Clarkson. Had a guest spot. Yeah, that was cool. That was cool. She was really sweet. We were on the Today Show. She's been on CNBC, CNN, and even Howard Stern, who I know used to work in radio. She has sponsorships. I wrote down Nike, Coke, Apple, Victoria's Secret, and who knows how many fragrances, bracelets, necklaces, and makeups. I don't know. There's a lot.

The hashtag Alex Earl Effect has over 106 million TikTok views. Search Alex Earl Effect has over 2.1 billion views, which is amazing. She understands...

this medium, the size of this screen, all her videos are up close and in personal. That's why they work. They're very, sometimes they're uncomfortable in person. So on top of all that, the reason Alex Earle is what Alex Earle is, is because of one thing and one thing only: hard work.

she works harder than anybody I know not only is it just the posting the editing and doing all the things she did while she was in school she went out at night

till five o'clock in the morning. You know, this is hard as a student. And then how many times did you post when you were a student a day? - I looked three to four. - I mean, it was a full schedule for you at University of Miami, for sure. - Yeah. - Did you feel stressed? - For sure, for sure. - Yeah, and you talked about it. - Especially senior year.

I think you've outworked everybody else. This doesn't come easy. I think when you're... We're going to start at the beginning. Thank you for all the nice things and compliments. And hi, everyone. This is like...

So scary for me right now. I feel like I'm doing a class presentation again. I'm scared. But yeah, I was in your guys' seat two years ago. I took this class and why I wanted to come back to this class and I always say like this class has definitely resonated with me the most because truly like what you learn in this and the social media analytics, I'm sure you guys are probably doing the project right now where you're growing a social media account, the non-for-profit, like all of that and

the behind the scenes of that and just getting post up and seeing how posts perform like that has always been like very interesting to me and maybe it's not interesting to everyone but i really liked it and from day one in the class

I think we had the like Zoom meetings with Professor Bolton and I told him that I was really interested in social media and that I had a passion for social media and he was like wow that's so great that's so interesting and I truly learned a lot from this class and I still use what I learned from this class to this day. How did you come up with Watch Me Get Ready? What motivated that?

would do live streams on TikTok and my live streams would get more views than my actual videos would get. And I would literally just be like at my little desk in my apartment over at Thesis and I would do these live streams and people were watching them, interacting with them. So I decided to make them into these like get ready with me style videos, which are probably, I mean, definitely like my most popular style videos that I do. And they kind of took off from there. And yeah, it's like

Very storytelling. Things took off way more when I started to show my personality and incorporate that into my content. Do you have a team now that edits your videos? No. You still edit them yourself? Yes. Wow. Yeah, that's something I'm like super controlling over. And I also just started a podcast, which is called...

Hot mess. That has been a lot of work as well. And I hired someone for social media for the podcast. And I can't even let one of those videos go without me tweaking it a million times. I truly like being involved in the editing process. And that's like, I feel like my baby. That's something I don't think I would really let go. In college, were you going out with just a cell phone or did you have a better camera than that technically to do your videos? Just my cell phone. Wow.

Did the job. And what editing program did you use to get that done? So a lot of what I post is in real time, which I think is super important to my brand just because, I don't

I don't know, like I posted on my way here, like get ready with me to go to Miami. Like I like to post in real time and I will film in the TikTok app and they have like a little editing tool where you can fix it all up in there. But if it's a longer form video or usually like brand videos, I will just film it in my camera and then I'll use the app CapCut. I think it's pretty easy to use and that's what I'll use for that type of content. Not only is she doing all this, she's dating an NFL player.

You know, I was like, there is no way he's going to bring that up. That is crazy. I mean, I don't know where you're finding the time to do all this. They're doing their social media projects right now. Yeah. Any little tips you would give them to get increased engagement based on what you've learned? I definitely think, which I feel like you hear, but it really does apply just doing like,

interacting with whatever audience you kind of build on there, whether that's like stories with like questions and polls or making your caption to a post, a question to like get people to answer in the comments, all the little things that you hear and you say, and it sounds stupid, but it really does work. And even hashtags, that's a big thing. I'm not sure if you guys, do they post TikToks for the project? Yeah, like hashtags on TikTok, I would use a lot. And that doesn't mean people are going to like

It doesn't mean your video is going to do better, but say I do #umiami, if someone goes to search umiami in the search bar, then basically your video has a good chance of popping up there. So hashtags are a really great way. And looking at the times of engagement and posting, you can see that in the analytics, like what days are most popular for you to post, what times are most popular. And I think just being consistent.

if you have a set schedule for posting and you want to post three times a day, then stick to that. And that definitely helps a lot. That's something I try to hold myself to is posting three times a day on TikTok. Sometimes more. And then, I mean, there's also times that I would stress myself out so much because I was like, oh, I have to get all these posts up. But I think not like pushing content just to get content out, make sure it's like

and meaningful and there's a purpose behind it, but... What do you do with fans, followers that email you? How do you deal with all that responsibility? I don't know if they're emailing me. You know what I mean. But... They're DMing you or whatever they're doing. I mean, they're trying to get in touch with you. That's like a really good point. Engagement is...

super, super important, especially if you are looking to do this as a job. It doesn't matter how many followers you have, how many views you're getting. They want to see the engagement. They want to see that if you have 100 likes, you're getting 30, 40 comments. I mean, that's an insane level of engagement there. And you're replying back to the people. That's something I try to always do is reply back to my followers, go through DMs. I always reply back in the comments. And I think it just...

obviously makes them feel a little bit more seen because it is kind of a person that's behind a screen and can feel a little like out of touch and far away so I think kind of trying to break down that barrier sometimes and I don't know just trying to get to like know them a little bit and interact with them definitely helps. I know you said you post three or four times a day so how do you brainstorm content like how do you figure out what to post on a day-to-day basis?

I, so I kind of got down my set videos. Like every time that I'm going somewhere, I will make like a get ready with me in an outfit video. So those are like two set things that if I know I'm doing something the next day, I'm like, okay, well, I'm going to have those set two videos. But obviously there's days that I'm not doing something that requires me to like

do a full beat and put an outfit on. So I will kind of come up with content on the spot, which is another thing that I do. It's just very spur of the moment. Like if something comes to my mind, I will just pick up my phone and start recording. And in terms of planning other content, like I know, for example, if I'm going on a trip or doing something specific, I will

look for sounds or specific brainstorm specific ideas that I could do on the trip. I have a notes app in my phone actually for days when I either don't have something to talk about, don't have videos that I feel like I can make and just maybe topics I haven't touched on before or other things that I will keep this little like list of notes in my phone and I will just resort back to that.

So that helps me. You know when you're working movies, there's that point where you walk down the street and people recognize you. What's going on with that? Sometimes people say hi, yeah. It's cool. There's definitely points when I meet people and, you know, I guess it's mostly girls that

watch my videos and especially since the podcast it's been crazy just like I put out an episode about an eating disorder and you know I had someone come up to me after a workout class that I was in and she was like you have no idea she started crying to me she's like you have no idea how much that helped me and like I start crying and it's just been like overwhelmingly positive. U Miami definitely helped me get to where I am and I

I am very grateful to be where I am. So I wanted to be able to give that opportunity to other students. We have two students on the Alex Earl Scholarship right now, just to follow out their dreams and talk to them and mentor them and just realize that like you can really do the unimaginable. Like you said in the beginning, I'm no different than anyone else sitting here. I just had a goal and a dream and followed it and

exceeded that times 10 so it was nice to be able to give back and that was super important to me thank you you can get a group picture I think she caught us on like the radio stage of the year oh no I know I literally was going through a swimming pool getting here one two and three and one more with a flash and we're all set

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Welcome back to Get Real With Me. This is where I'm basically doing my skincare routine, getting unready while I talk to you guys about a little exciting giveaway that I'm doing. So that was Professor Big Al. You could tell I was kind of nervous in that, but I also just have like a resting bitch face when I talk. I don't know what it is about me, but I don't like smile when I talk or at all unless I'm like laughing.

So I always see videos of myself and I'm like, I look miserable, but I'm actually very happy. So I have to work on that. But since it is Thanksgiving, I did want to surprise you guys with a little giveaway for you as well. And I was thinking of what I could do. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to make like a little Alex giveaway pack. So I start going through my room. I'm like, what are my favorite things that I use? My favorite things that I have?

Gosh, these wipes are crazy. Like I swear my face is always clean and then you use these and I'm like, oh, maybe it wasn't. Also, my skin is just a little bit crazy right now.

any of my acne girls i'm sure you can understand it's always a good time me and the pimps hanging out but i literally would be nothing no one have nothing to do in life without you guys so i wanted to do something to give back to you so i will be doing a giveaway there's going to be three winners and the first part of the giveaway is going to be the dyson air wrap

I always use that on my hair. It's the best. It's like the best investment ever. If you're someone who just doesn't know how to blow dry your hair correctly with like a brush and a hair dryer, this helps so much. It curls your hair, straightens it. It just makes it like fresh and soft and nice.

and it's not too harsh on your hair but they are very expensive um so i know that's not really attainable for everyone and it's just something that i love i think it's a really good product so i wanted to give one of those away to each of the three winners and the next part of the giveaway i was like

What's something else that I just love, I use all the time? And I'm going through my closet and my closet is full of suitcases and travel bags and I'm always on the go. And I do have like a go-to luggage that I just absolutely love. Because one thing about me is I will definitely be overpacking. I...

will always have an overweight bag and I can never fit my stuff into one suitcase. But these base suitcases, you guys have no idea, they have this little expandable zipper and it like pushes it out. You basically have 10 suitcases in one.

I love it so much. I have my big neon green one. You guys probably see me all the time traveling everywhere with it. It sticks out like a sore thumb, but I love it because I'm like, that's my bag. I'm never going to lose it. I think a really nice one though is just like the black color. Very simple.

you don't need to be walking around with a lime like me. They really are just great suitcases and another great investment that I love. The other thing that I really like about them as well is that they're light, like they're not heavy. So it does help if you are an overweight

baggage girly like me, it definitely helps because sometimes I've had those like metal suitcases and those in themselves like are overweight. So it's nice that they're light, they can fit a lot, they're good quality. I bang mine around all the time and it doesn't break which is great. So definitely a good suitcase, a great investment. And then the other thing I wanted to give with that was one of the little weekender bags.

It has a little slit where you can like slide it onto the suitcase. So when you're walking through the airport, it's just coming along with you. You don't really need to worry about dropping it. And these base bags, like the little personal bags that I bring all the time on every flight, they have so many niche compartments. Like you will just have a pocket for everything when you're traveling and it just keeps me more organized and it fits everything. And I like truly love them. The best bags.

I actually have a funny story about my weekender bag last Christmas.

Some of you guys might remember this. Some of you might not, but I basically didn't exist as a human. I lost every credential that was Alex Earl. Alex Earl was not going to exist anymore. So it's Christmas break. I'm going on vacation for New Year's with my family in the morning and I'm driving from my mom's house to my dad's house. It's like a 30 minute drive. You got to go on the parkway and I'm driving with

My little sister Ashton, she has a Jeep Wrangler. So the trunk goes sideways. It opens like a regular door. It doesn't open up and down like a regular trunk. Well, Alex being the hot mess that she is, put her bag in the car and like the handle was kind of hanging out from my weekender bag. And I closed the trunk and it got stuck and we couldn't open the car door. Like it was hanging out a little bit, but the latch like just got stuck.

tangled with the bag and we could not open the door for the life of us. So we were like, okay, this sucks, but like when we get to dad's house, we're probably gonna have to like cut the strap and like cut my bag out of the car because it was literally stuck in the door handle of the trunk. And in this weekender bag, this was meant to be my carry on.

I put all of my nice designer expensive belongings into this bag because I always get petrified that my suitcase is gonna get lost. So like designer shoes, designer bags,

And at this point I was like, I'm growing up, I'm becoming an adult. I should probably take my like birth certificate, social security card, all those things from my mom's house that my mom has had in her safe since I was born. I was like, you know what? This is just great. So I had my wallet, my passport, my social security card, my birth certificate, whatever other special documents there are all in this bag with my nice heels, with my nice bags and

and it's locked to the trunk door. Ashton and I are driving to my dad's house and we get on the parkway and all of a sudden we hear, and the trunk door had just slammed closed. And we were like, that's weird because how did it open? It was locked, but also it was just closed. So it meant that it was just opened. So we pull over on the side of the highway. My sister and I get out, we look in the trunk and our suitcases are there. Everything's good. And I'm like, wait a minute.

Where is my weekender bag? I don't see it anywhere.

I'm freaking out. I'm running down the side of the highway in New Jersey. I'm like, where is this weekender bag? I'm looking all around. I can't find it anywhere. And basically I am now freaking out because I'm like, okay, I just lost probably the most important things in my life. My sister and I turn around on the highway and now we're on our way back down. We're trying to look on the road and we don't see it. So I called the police and

And I call the police about, I'm like, there's a bag in the middle of the road. And they're like, yes, we've gotten some calls about this already. We know that the bag is on the road. Like we know that it's blocking traffic. And I was like, no, this is my bag. Like that's my bag that I lost. Like, could you tell me where it's located? So they give me a street address. They're like, it's here at this stoplight, which is like a huge eight way intersection.

So my sister and I drive back. It's like three miles from where we heard the trunk closed. So we were like, that doesn't really make any sense. I'm in the middle of this huge intersection. It's one of those that has eight different lanes. That's like two, two, two, two.

Quick math. And I'm out here in my sweats. I'm pretty sure I had like a Wawa sweatshirt on in the middle of the road looking for this bag and we don't see it. It's been like 30 minutes now and at this point I am bawling my eyes out because I'm like, I'm not going to be able to go on vacation the next morning. But more importantly, I don't exist as a human anymore. Like I have no passport, no ID, no social security, like no birth certificate. Like what's going to happen to me? I

Alex Earl does not exist anymore. So I'm in the car freaking out and crying and I was like, I know if there is one thing the girlies can find this bag because you guys are crazy and you can do anything and I was like, they will come to the rescue. We are putting out a search warrant for this bag. So I get on my phone. I make a TikTok basically explaining that I had just lost this bag in the middle of the road and I'm like,

"Please help me, I need to find it." Like freaking out. Five minutes later, I get a DM and it's like, "Hey, my dad found your bag on the side of the road."

I'm freaking out. I'm not sure if like these people are lying to me, if they want me to just come to their house and like kidnap me, but I was like, "I don't care. We're going. We're going to get that bag." Turns out, I pull up to this house. The dad walks out. He has my bag in his car and the place that it was dropped wasn't even the correct location that the police told me. So I was just basically on a manhunt on the middle of the highway for no reason.

but the girlies saved the day. Apparently this dad was like, "Oh, I found this bag." And they opened it up and the girl was like, "That's Alex Earl's bag." Like, "Dad, you have Alex Earl's belongings." And they literally DM me and gave me this bag back.

I have a TikTok with the dad and the family in my Wawa sweatshirt. It was so nice and like honestly like God bless them. We sent them gifts after. I was like, thank you so much. You just saved my life literally. And even after all of that, my weekender bag was intact after being rummaged through the road. Everything was zippered up in there. So I really, I love these bags and I have a deep connection to them. So for this giveaway, I'm going to tell you guys how you can enter and win.

Basically on the hot mess instagram the handle is just @hotmess I don't know why I needed to spell that out. You guys definitely know how to spell it. There's going to be a little giveaway graphic on there that you'll see and if you comment down below just this turkey emoji and you follow the hot mess page

That will be your entry to win the Dyson Airwrap, a base suitcase, and a base weekender bag. So again, just go to the Hot Mess Instagram. There's going to be a giveaway graphic there and comment the turkey emoji and then also follow the page. And if you're feeling extra lovely, you could also subscribe and follow this podcast. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. It really helps a lot in

Would mean a lot if you guys would subscribe so you guys can always get updates and not miss any episodes. Happy Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving I hope you're all having an amazing day. I love you all and seriously you guys are really the best like I just

Love meeting you guys. Love interacting with you. Like, I just, I wish I could give you all a hug. All right, well, that is all for today's episode of Hot Mess with Alex Earl. I will see you guys next Thursday. Love you guys. Bye.