Alex Alonzo
Alex is a Franklin, Tennessee based creative and entrepreneur working across digital marketing, social media, and creative direction. She is passionate about creating a life where faith and creativity aren’t separate- believing that dreaming, building, and pursuing business can all be done in partnership with God. Whether she’s developing a brand, creating content, leading community, or dreaming up her next idea, she cares deeply about stewarding creativity well, staying obedient to where God leads, and helping others bring their vision to life while encouraging others to believe their God-given ideas are worth pursuing.
What dream are you currently turning into reality?
This is a fun question, especially for the season I’m in now! Over the past year, I was privileged enough to step out and start my own business in the digital marketing, social media, and creative direction realm by building a client base and working based on their needs! I’ve been able to work with people from every walk of life, a lot of them in industries and sectors I thought I’d never find myself working in!
This started in a simple way. I saw the gifts God gave me, thought about how I could use them to advance the Kingdom, while simultaneously building my skills and income at the same time. I didn’t have a crazy God moment that led me to what I’m doing now! But I have discovered, as I’ve stewarded this new role, how much I love coming under and serving another person’s vision with my gifting!
I had a friend who told me my role felt like a “midwife in the spirit” as I encouraged, spoke life, and provided practical tools and systems for the God dreams people entrusted me with. I was able to see through this experience what aspects of this career give me life and leave me energized, as well as what aspects I would rather pass along to someone else or focus my efforts elsewhere.
While I don’t know if I’ll be in this exact role forever, the refinement God has done in my heart as I’ve stepped out in faith and believed in my skills has been invaluable. I’ve gotten so much clarity on what aspects of what I do are things I want to keep doing in the future.
When did you first realize you discovered your dream?
While I didn’t know the details of what it would look like, as I started to walk with Jesus in my early college years, He began to reveal to me that one of my callings was in the realm of business.
I will never forget being in my global business class, learning about the importance of business across the world and the impact it could have on society. As I sat in that classroom, my heart was burning. I knew business and advancing the Gospel were going to go hand in hand in my life.
Looking back, I can see that this dream was discovered simply through walking out the abiding life with Him. Jesus was the one who revealed it to me as He led me through life!
How does your faith go hand in hand with pursuing your dream?
Oh boy! Faith in who God is and what He has spoken, along with being in step with the Spirit, is SO important when it comes to pursuing what He has for us!
There were so many moments when I first got started where I would think, “God, is this what You still want me to keep doing?” He was always faithful to answer and help me out when I needed the reminder. I think when we’re double-minded about saying YES to what we feel we’re supposed to step into, that’s an issue! (We shouldn’t expect to receive anything from God, according to the Bible.) But I think there is also a very real aspect of our humanity in asking God if we’re supposed to keep going from time to time, and He will show up and confirm that! Having faith that He will respond is also key, because when He does and maybe things get hard, the way He spoke last time is what we can hold on to.
I remember a couple of months ago feeling like I needed to ask God for some confirmation to keep going. I went to a women’s event that was full of pastors, preachers, and women doing amazing things in ministry. I had asked the Lord that week to speak to me. At the end of the event, a woman came up to me and said, “I’ve been talking to so many women about what they’re called to in ministry, but right now I feel like I’m supposed to talk to you about business.”
She gave me a word that brought complete clarity and felt like a green light to keep moving in the direction I was going in business.
What’s one or two practical steps you take to keep moving forward?
Writing the vision down and making it plain has been crucial to the small beginnings I’ve had in saying yes to God. But it’s also been so helpful to see these reminders, prophetic words, and moments I’ve had with God written in my daily agenda, so that I don’t forget why I started.
Most of all, and what I will hold on to forever, it’s God’s presence that fuels any vision He gives me. He builds it, He sustains it, He blows on it. My job is everyday faithfulness and yielding to His work.
What encouragement would you share with someone who’s going after their dream?
Take it from someone who isn’t on the other side yet - I’m living in the tension of seeing promises fulfilled while also waiting for a lot of them to come to fruition. This tension is going to be a place we find ourselves in for a lot of our lives.
And the goal isn’t to get to the dream; the goal is to find Jesus on the journey there. Everyday communion with Jesus and being faithful in the little things will compound into a life full of vibrant adventures, learning curves, and the hand of God showing up in ways we would never see if we chose to take things into our own hands.
Keep finding Him in the tension and saying yes every day! That’s where the real purpose is.