Alaina Feister

Business Owner/Model

Photographer: Jason Rivera

Suit: FASHION DRUG by ANAHIT

How would you describe yourself in 3 words? Why?

I would say visionary, spiritual and innovative. I am a constant learner and always striving to improve myself and expand my life experiences. I have created a successful company from a simple idea when I was in college and so I would say I am a visionary because I always think anything is possible. I allow myself to dream and think big and I always stay optimistic about life no matter what happens. Because I am a deeply spiritual person I trust life and my path, whichever way it unfolds. I am innovative and always evolving with the quickly changing online world to best stay relevant for my company and my clients. I love to travel and explore different cultures, places and ways of thinking, and this does support my company as my clients are from all around the world and each have extremely different personalities, belief systems, religions, life goals. etc. I believe in the power of collaboration and the importance of creating positive impact in my community and so in my business we always focus on having a positive effect. 

Tell us more about your digital marketing company. What made you realize you wanted to go into this field? What has it been like for you? Any particularly exciting stories you can share with us?

I own a digital marketing company called Enlightened Media that focuses on social media marketing, content creation, graphic design, Instagram and Facebook ads, copywriting, and influencer marketing. I realized I wanted to go into this field when I fell in love with traveling and had the idea to do the digital nomad lifestyle where you can travel and work anywhere in the world.. I have always been entrepreneurial and grew up around a family of business owners, I even created my first online business selling on Ebay when I was only 13 so I’ve always been creating and selling online. The reason I chose digital marketing is because I saw a huge need for this service and I knew I could help a lot of business owners grow their brands on social media. I started my company when I was only 22 years old and I was still in college in Michigan State University. Now, 5 years later I have been living in Los Angeles doing this full time for the past 3 years. Before I moved to LA I got to live the dream working online and traveling. I lived in Southeast Asia for 9 months and then Europe for 3 months while working online and growing my business and personal brand. It has been a difficult but beautiful journey creating my company and I’m glad I never gave up. I will never forget when I got my first client outside of Michigan which was at a Tony Robbins event in Chicago and after that I hired a business coach that really helped my company take off and expand. 

I saw that you are passionate about personal development, psychology, and life coaching. How do you use these passions to improve your life and the lives of those around you?

I do love personal development and have a degree in psychology and English Literature from Michigan State University. I was in route to becoming a therapist and even did an internship with NASA in the area of social psychology but once I discovered life coaching I was more intrigued than ever.  Life coaching is focused on the present moment and future achievements, while traditionally psychology is usually focused on diagnosis and examining the past. As an ambitious and entrepreneurial woman I felt inspired to create my own path and my own business doing spiritual life coaching alongside digital marketing, which really took off during the pandemic in 2020. I completed a 9 month Human Potential Life Coaching certification created by Dave Asprey’s brand Bulletproof and I did this partially online and in Brooklynn, New York. I am also certified in reiki, meditation and Akashic Record reading so combined with these energetic healing modalities backed by traditional psychology and owning a digital marketing business I find myself attracting other spiritual business women who I do one-on-one sessions with online. I often help them discover what they truly want out of their lives and their businesses, how to move forward from something blocking them, relationship issues, business planning, helping them to dream and think bigger and more. Oftentimes, my clients need accountability and someone to hold them to their goals so I help them with that as well. 

I saw that you love to travel! What are some of your favorite places that you’ve been to and why?

I have been to 35 countries and I love them all for different reasons but I have to say my favorites are places I have had a personal transformation in. I lived in Bali, Indonesia for 9 months and I lived there alone not knowing anyone and did a lot of deep work on myself so that place will always be special to me. Not to mention Balinese culture is so beautiful and peaceful and the island is a tropical paradise with many creative and innovative entrepreneurs from around the world who live there. I also love Eastern Europe because I studied abroad at the American College of Thessaloniki in Greece for a year and travelled to many Eastern European countries. I loved Croatia and Montenegro a lot and of course the Greek islands. Egypt is also one of my favorites because I love ancient history. Going inside the great pyramids and spending a day in the desert of Giza is one of my favorite travel memories. 

Do you have any advice for women who are hoping to follow a similar career path to yours?

My advice is to go all in and put 100% of our effort in. Hire a coach and/or find a mentor who is doing what you want to do. My business only took off when I invested in a business coach who I hired for 6 months and that helped me so much. Years later that business coach is still paying off. There is magic in investing in yourself and your personal development. Life seems to always reward you in ways you can’t expect when you bet on yourself and go all in on something. Also surround yourself with successful people and network as much as you can. If you’re not living in a place that inspires you and feels like it’s supporting your growth and the lifestyle you want, I recommend changing the city or area you live. I could live anywhere in the world since I work online but I chose southern California because it’s a great place to connect with like minded people and grow my business. Also take good care of your health, both physically and mentally. It’s better to grow your business slightly slower and take time to workout, meditate, hang out with friends, travel etc. I always aspire to be a well rounded person who is successful in all areas of life, not just business. I’ve noticed that when I take great care of myself and stay in my feminine energy I effortlessly attract more aligned people and opportunities. 

What accomplishment are you most proud of and why?

I’m most proud of the spiritual connection I have with myself in my life that brings me more happiness and fulfillment than anything else. My spirituality is the basis of everything else I have created, including my business and my ideas to travel the world. I have a strong meditation practice that keeps me in tune with myself and from that place I usually get guidance and ideas for what I want to create next. I am also proud of the business I created that allows me to have the freedom to travel the world and help people at the same time. Creating this business was extremely hard as I was only 22 when I started, and so the skills I have had to learn have improved all areas of my life. I always say that being a business owner is a spiritual path in itself because it will expose all of your personal insecurities, mental blockages, limiting beliefs, etc and once these rise to the surface you have to overcome them to achieve your next level of success. 

What can we expect to see more of from you in the next few months?

In the next few months I plan to travel more and create more content for my personal brand on instagram @alainainthelight. I am always working hard on getting good results for my current marketing clients and we are always taking on new clients that are aligned with our services. Most of my current clients are medical spas and beauty/ fashion related companies.  I plan to help more spiritual business women with my one-on-one sessions and I have also been doing modeling while living in LA so you will be seeing more of that as well.