Alison Rice from Offline
Alison Rice resigned from her then dream job to launch Offline—what started as a podcast has mindfully evolved into a conscious career and business development platform, supporting people to close the gap between their True Self and professional reality.
Photography: Bobby Clark
Alice Rice, Offline founder and director.
Offline's You Are On Purpose Tee features a passage printed on the back, which is 'the highest realisation available to people through me and Offline’s career and business mentoring programs,' says Alison Rice.
'In many ways, my mentorship methodology is about increasing the quality of our now.'
'My career is starting to feel more like a body of work.'
'I think Offline is valuable to its community because it gives them somewhere to land, rest, recover and redefine the role their work or their business will play in the overall storyline of their lives.'
Hello Alison—can you introduce yourself?
Alison: I’d love to, thank you. First and foremost I’m a mother, a daughter, a sister, a partner and a friend. When I’m sitting in my professional self I’m a founder, a multiple award-winning leader, a podcast host, evolutionary career mentor, regenerative brand strategist and conscious business consultant.
How has your career trajectory evolved throughout the years?
I've moved through some really interesting roles in media, publishing, programming and education over the last 15 years but when I sit and reflect on how my career trajectory has evolved in that time, it’s clear to me that the evolution has always been in the direction of a professional expression that feels more true and that allows me to be more useful to the needs of the time—my career is starting to feel more like a body of work.
Tell us about your spiritual journey, when did you first tap into it—was there a defining moment that you can remember?
Feeling into this, I don’t think I’ve ever not identified as a spirit having a human experience. I think up until my late twenties I just couldn’t articulate my relationship with the truth of what I am like I can today. There’s always been this sense of life being a story that I’m co-creating with something bigger than me—that Big Self, which I’ve since learned is Consciousness itself. With that shared, things definitely warmed up in my early thirties when I quit what was then my dream job as group publisher of four global women’s media titles to start Offline.
I’d also add that the last 12 months in that role felt defining because every single day I had to deny the evolution of my values and suppress who I was becoming in order to maintain the façade of who’d I’d so far been in the role and my career overall—this fiercely ambitious and strategic ‘Girl Boss’. It was so painful to pretend to be her in the end.
Your spiritual journey led you to find your true self—what’s one thing that surprised you the most during the journey?
That we don’t find our True Self, we make contact with it. That part of us existed before the conditioning, the programming and the capitalistic expectations of who we must become, under what terms and on which timeline. So that realisation was surprising and also quite revealing as I turned my gaze towards the self help and professional development space. People were (and still are) selling ‘the search’ when actually, what we’re searching through external sources already exists within us. What people need is an experienced guide that can help them walk back towards themselves and the principles their life bows down to, and that’s how I see my role as an evolutionary career mentor and business mentor. It’s a homecoming.
I read that you believe our work can be purposeful but not our purpose—can you expand on this and why you believe it’s important to not get caught up in the way we define ourselves when it comes to our careers and job titles?
Our current economic system thrives on us believing that what we do for a living is how we display and in turn, define our value in the world. This belief is what keeps us hustling, grinding, pushing, over-extending and over-delivering. We think that if we just get that next promotion or that next pay rise or another house or the Tesla, that we’ll finally feel valued, successful and fulfilled. But we all know those feelings never come—no matter what we achieve or acquire.
Why? Because our purpose in life is actually moment-to-moment. In every moment there’s a need we are each uniquely designed to meet but in our relentless pursuit of capitalism’s ideals of success, we miss these opportunities to fulfill our actual purpose.
So many people are living in and working from an idea of the future, but the only thing that’s actually real is the now. In many ways, my mentorship methodology is about increasing the quality of our now.
Do you have any creative rituals or routines that you follow daily that set you up for the work day?
Just meditation really. I practice a silent, mantra-based technique called Vedic meditation so that has me sitting down twice a day for 20 minutes and it isn’t so much about relaxation or reducing stress as I’ve released a lot of that over the years, it’s more about making contact with the truth of what I am—that one unique expression of the one whole consciousness—and allowing that part of me to express itself through my work.
'There’s always been this sense of life being a story that I’m co-creating with something bigger than me—that Big Self, which I’ve since learned is Consciousness itself.'
“So many people are living in and working from an idea of the future, but the only thing that’s actually real is the now.”
'We think that if we just get that next promotion or that next pay rise or another house or the Tesla, that we’ll finally feel valued, successful and fulfilled. But we all know those feelings never come—no matter what we achieve or acquire.'
“I think Offline is valuable to its community because it gives them somewhere to land, rest, recover and redefine the role their work or business will play in the overall storyline of their lives.”
'Success also looks like a rested body, a high mind, clean energy and authentic relationships.'
'Honestly, I think we’re all so over being sold to every time we pick up our phone, turn on our TV or a podcast. It’s exhausting. I’m always trying to be the antidote to that.'
Offline started as a podcast and has evolved into a ‘professional belief system’ and conscious career and business development program—why is the network you’ve created so valuable for your community?
It comes back to people desiring an experienced guide who can help them walk back towards themselves and their individual definition of success vs. working with a self-proclaimed guru selling themselves as the answer. Offline also provides connection into a community of people who share the same beliefs about the broader ‘why’ behind why we work, which is something we’re all seeking within these lives lived increasingly online.
I also think Offline is valuable to its community because it gives them somewhere to land, rest, recover and redefine the role their work or their business will play in the overall storyline of their lives. It’s this spiritually-informed but still highly strategic redirection for their ambition.
What does success look like for you?
A seasonal existence that prioritises slow, connected time with my daughter and deep service to my community and anyone who would like to join us in this new era of work. Success is also a business that is comfortably sustaining profit and doesn’t require more of me than what I have to give—something I am very passionate about teaching founders and service providers how to achieve for themselves. Success also looks like a rested body, a high mind, clean energy and authentic relationships.
The most rewarding part of what you do?
Gosh there’s so much! But right now I am particularly fond of the feeling that comes when I help someone transition out of their stable full-time job and into their own stable, service-based business. It doesn’t have to be stressful or risky.
And the most challenging?
The online learning, coaching and content marketing boom has left a lot of people feeling either burnt, unseen or underwhelmed with the experiences they’ve had with other coaches or mentors. This lack of trust can make it more challenging to reach and activate the people that need most what I have to give.
Honestly, I think we’re all so over being sold to every time we pick up our phone, turn on our TV or a podcast. It’s exhausting. I’m always trying to be the antidote to that.
What’s a piece of career advice you’ve been given or would personally give someone struggling to figure out where they fit or feel a little lost?
I’d love to share the passage printed on the back of the Offline You Are On Purpose Tee. It’s really the highest realisation available to people through me and Offline’s career and business mentoring programs:
You are on purpose. Your existence was intended. You are a deliberate act of creation. Your human life is in service to your highest self. The big self. Consciousness itself. We are each one unique expression of the whole, which means we are the Universe, we just might not have realised it yet. Why would the Universe choose to create you if it had no need or purpose for you? No, no, no, no... We exist for the Universe’s fulfillment, enjoyment and ever-increasing sophistication. The Universe matures through our very existence and its one true hope for us is that we’ll co-create an evolutionary, dynamic and purposeful existence with it. Our life is a collaboration with the source of what we are and the way we liberate ourselves from the suffering that comes with believing we are separate from the whole is through this act of co-creation. We are Consciousness in manifest form, which makes heaven the human experience. It’s very powerful. A huge privilege. What will you do with yours?
Are there any dream projects you aspire to undertake?
I’ve got such a rich five-year plan for the business. I can’t wait to bring through more elements and offerings that will support people to move in the direction of their version of success.
Outside of those business development plans, I was approached to write a book a couple of years ago and that felt really true. I think there’s three books in me and I trust that the right publisher will come along, somewhere along the way. I’m also a big believer in earning the permission to publish and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 15 years—slow, impeccable, deliberate work.
What do you most love to do in your downtime?
Hang out with my little girl, cook something yummy very slowly, go for a long walk, get lost on Pinterest, go to a group meditation class, have a deep chat with someone I love.
What’s coming up for you—what are you looking forward to for the remainder of this year?
I’m in full preparation mode for my next intake into Serve. It’s my 12-week conscious business incubator for anyone wanting to start a purpose-driven and profitable service-based business. It’s open for enrolments for the month of November and we begin the program in late January.
I’m looking forward to taking December off (perks of said purpose-driven and profitable service business!) and pottering around Bondi. I love to make holidays like Christmas extra special for my little girl, so I’ll probably be drinking lots of chai and curating my Pinterest board.
For more information about Offline—follow the journey on Instagram.