Women Empower X

MEET ALEXA CARLIN, FOUNDER & CEO OF WOMEN EMPOWER X, A PREMIER EVENT FOR WOMEN LEADERS, ENTREPRENEURS AND EXECUTIVES THAT CELEBRATES PASSION, FOSTERS CONNECTION AND INSPIRES ACTION

If there was ever a time for pursuing your passion and taking some risks, it would be now. You’re not alone if you feel like 2020 has been way longer than it has. However, through this unprecedented time, it has given people a chance to reflect on their life and what they truly value and what’s important. And if you’ve been dreaming of starting a business, let Alexa Carlin of WEX convince you why now is the right time to start pursuing your dreams.

Carlin, founder and CEO of Women Empower X (WEX), an event that brings together women leaders, entrepreneurs and executives and cultivates a strong community of like-minded women established in 2016, says she was a professional speaker before establishing WEX. She was speaking nationwide and a lot where she lived in South Florida and she noticed a disconnect among women at these events. 

“I would speak at events that were very segmented off by age, ethnicity or industry, and you see a lot of these conferences—they’re very millennial focused or events are very focused on an older generation or even just women in tech or women in PR or whatever that looks like, and while those communities are very important, it’s also extremely important for us to connect with diverse women,” Carlin says.

As a nationally-recognized professional speaker, Carlin, who is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, brought those skills and knowledge, in addition to her entrepreneurial spirit, as she started her first business at 17 years old, to create WEX with the mission to help more women pursue their passions and get to the next level in their career and life. She has built up WEX’s social following to over 15K on Instagram and 24K on her personal account. She has also been featured on Cheddar TV, FOX, ABC, CBS, OWN and in Entrepreneur, Glamour Magazine, Mashable, and TEDx among others.

“I just thought when I was speaking at event after event, ‘how much change can we create if we just connect and collaborate with women from all different backgrounds, all different industries and of all different ages?’ and that’s what really spurred the idea for WEX and also as an entrepreneur, I felt very lonely along this journey and I wanted a community,” Carlin says.

“I have an amazing community online and I wanted to connect with them in person and I was doing small events here and there and I just kind of went all-in and decided to host an event that was extremely inclusive and so we broke down that big barrier of a high price point and very much focused around the energy of powerful women coming together vulnerably and authentically to share not just what they do but also who they are.”

Carlin said WEX has transformed since inception and added the Female Founders Pitch Event in 2018 due to the need for entrepreneurs starting out to promote themselves and brand awareness because the event attracts a diverse crowd of women. “Everyone has their unique passions and interests and that’s what really sparked our layout for having everything go on simultaneously. All the sessions run concurrently and as well as the different activations because we wanted each person walking through the door to be able to pick and choose what they wanted to do, who they wanted to meet and what they wanted to learn based on their passions and interests,” Carlin says.

“People don’t follow logos—they follow people.

My personal brand has been able to create the energy, vulnerability and transparency we want for WEX…because if I’m putting myself out there by sharing my personal and professional challenges, yet I’m still chasing after my dreams, our community can be part of those dreams and grow with them, and it gives them permission to do the same thing.”

WEX features a keynote stage for inspiring keynote speeches, a WEX marketplace where attendees can explore more than 40 brands, services, companies and organizations in a number of industries, a VIP Lounge, a Networking Lounge to connect with others and learn networking tips and a Female Founders Pitch Event where female-led companies will give an elevator pitch on their company stage throughout the day. The entire WEX event, from the exhibitor marketplace, breakout rooms with workshops and panels covering finance to marketing and sales, keynote speakers and the different activations, is designed to create a connection for each person, Carlin says. 

“Our foundation for WEX is based on the goal that you walk away with at least one new connection, whether that’s a connection to a mentor, a connection to a new idea, a connection to a resource or a business or a friend, that one connection we believe really has the potential to transform into something that could potentially change your entire life, let alone your business.”

Attendees don’t have to be business owners to get a lot out of WEX, Carlin says a majority of attendees are entrepreneurial, so they may own their own business or they may have a side hustle that’s theirs and they have a full-time job, such as a director of marketing, Carlin cites as an example, “you still have to be an entrepreneur to turn ideas into reality—that’s the common theme, attendees have that passion and want to turn their ideas into reality: those are the type of women that come to WEX.”

Although WEX has traditionally been held in person, due to the pandemic, Carlin and her team made the decision to create a virtual event called WEX Virtual, which will be held on Saturday, Nov. 14. The event will feature speakers including Carlin, Jessica Herrin, CEO and founder of Stella and Dot; Shontay Lundy, founder of Black Girl Sunscreen; Miko Branch, CEO and co-founder of Miss Jessie’s and Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, NY Times Bestselling Author.

“Obviously no one could have planned for what’s come our way and we have to adapt to changes and I believe we can either sit back and wait for things to change or we can change them ourselves,” Carlin says.

“For WEX Virtual, we wanted to put on a smaller virtual conference to reconnect our community during this time, and that’s our main purpose. It’s free to attend, we have speakers that have either spoken at our previous events or who have supported us to present,” Carlin says.

“We want to create that inclusive environment because everyone is in a difficult time right now, whether you have challenges with finances or your business or just your mental health and connection, we’re missing that connection, so that’s the goal of WEX Virtual is to reconnect this amazing community from all over the world at this one day event that anyone and everyone can attend for free.”

WEX is also launching their Inner Circle membership on Nov. 14, which is an inclusive membership community that focuses on high-performance training, education to grow your business, and all the tools you need to continue to scale. “We’re really excited about the WEX Inner Circle membership,” Carlin says. “It’s really focused on providing our members with the training, coaching and resources so they don’t have to spend years and hours trying to figure it out themselves, so they can start, grow and scale their company a lot faster.”

After holding WEX Virtual this year, is planning on hosting WEX in-person again in summer of 2021 in D.C. “We had that planned to host this year in April, we postponed it to later fall, but now with the climate and turn of events with the pandemic lasting way longer than anyone could have imagined, we postponed that to 2021 in the summer, so we’re looking forward to reconnecting in person but in the meantime hosting this virtual event for everyone part of our community.”

Carlin’s social media presence is also a big factor in her success, as she sees her personal brand as a way to increase WEX’s presence and points out that people don’t follow logos: they follow people.

“A personal brand I believe is imperative to growing any business, especially in today’s age and the personal brand: 1- it’s a passion project of mine — I love oversharing, I’ve always been an oversharer and I love photography and I love speaking, I love creating videos, so really it’s a passion project that turned into ‘oh, this can actually help me make money in life.’”

Her social media content includes tips on marketing, entrepreneurship, branding, networking and inspirational encouragement. “When you can put a face behind the brand, whether it’s me or a volunteer that introduces herself when you check in at WEX, you have that deeper connection and you can really trust them more because they see who they’re investing their time and money with,” Carlin says. 

“So that’s what I think the personal brand really has done for WEX, it’s been able to create the energy we want, create the vulnerability, the transparency, because if I’m putting myself out there and being vulnerable by sharing about my near-death experience or my auto-immune disease or all the challenges that I’ve had with my personal life, but also, I have all these challenges in the past seven years, yet I’m still chasing after my dreams and they can be part of those dreams and grow with it while seeing the story as it takes place, it gives them permission to do the same thing,” Carlin says.

“Our foundation for WEX is based on the goal that you walk away with at least one new connection, whether that’s a connection to a mentor, a connection to a new idea, a connection to a resource or a business or a friend.

That one connection we believe has the potential to transform into something that could potentially change your entire life, let alone your business.”

“So that I believe is true empowerment because now they feel empowered, like ‘maybe I can share my story and I’m not that expert yet, but maybe I can still inspire people, I still can start that Shopify or Etsy store, I still can do X, Y and Z, so it really feeds into both by yes, more followers, more awareness, more attendees and all of that, but also on the level of vulnerability and transparency,” Carlin says.

Through the last four years, Carlin says the most challenging and rewarding part of WEX is that she built it in a grassroots way from $2,000 to start the company that has been growing since without any other outside investment.
“It’s all been very much word of mouth through my speaking engagements and social media, so that has been extremely difficult because obviously you have to do a lot of the work on your own before you can ever hire out, but it’s also very rewarding because through that experience it’s not like we had tons of money to throw on Facebook ads or marketing dollars or to hire a giant speaker to try to compete with these other events, but through that, it’s the community that’s grown it,” Carlin says.

“WEX is a very community-driven event and experience as well as company, but though that, I think what can help empower other women is to know that from the outside looking in, you may think this company has more resources than you, but really they’re just using what they have to make it work and you can do the same.”

To learn more about Women Empower X or register for WEX Virtual, visit: womenempowerx.com.