Alex Costa is a popular YouTuber and social media influencer who creates content related to men’s fashion, grooming, and lifestyle. He has a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers where he shares tips and advice on a variety of topics, including fashion, style, skincare, and personal development. Costa has a large following on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and is known for his fashion and hair style tips.
I’ve loosely followed Alex for years, and when I thought about how I can invest in myself and my goals, I thought of him and his inner circle program. Alex clearly has multiple levels of success: he has a profitable online business as an influencer, his style and grooming is on point, his physique/fitness isn’t bad, his body language is on point, and he’s successful with women. These are all goals I’ve wanted to improve. For a bit more than the price of Netflix every month, I could invest in something that could move me in his direction.
I think it’s totally worth it and it will pay off. Having been a member of the Inner Circle for over four months now, I want to give you the good and bad.
Contents
What I Like
While there are hundreds of videos you can search through for free to piece together his tips, a program like this is structured with just the right tips in the right order. I won’t have to sift through and piece together an overwhelming of content and guess what’s most impactful. Influencers put out a lot of fluff content just to get more views, so you never know what’s most useful.
The Inner Circle has a small library of videos that get unlocked every month so that you can progress with the tips that matter most. There are six months of videos so after the six month, you have full access to all the content. The videos focus mostly on how to build a solid wardrobe and style & grooming tips, how to build a social media following, and how to communicate in a successful attractive way through all things verbal and non-verbal. There’s also tips on success mindset and habits that pop up.
Alex also provides action step exercises after every video with an accompanying PDF. The PDFs are beautifully designed; they come with tips from the video lesson and an exercise to take action on what you learned. Be prepared to spend an hour or two per month to get through the videos and exercises.
I thought the videos were very useful. In addition to the basic tutorials on how to build a wardrobe, Alex brings up a lot of nuanced understanding of topics like personal branding, non-verbal body language, and first impressions that make it clear why he’s successful. I’ve heard similar things from other coaches I’ve invested in, yet you don’t often here some of these tips in the general, free universe of social media. For example, he discusses the important of your vocal tone, first impression, what judgements people make when the first see you, what are your strengths/weaknesses, the importance of not having closed body language, and how it’s important to take control of your first impression. It really got me thinking of how I can better influence how I’m perceived by how I dress, move myself, talk, speak, and act around others. Like many people, I fall into the camp of people who gets a lot of advice online for free, but it becomes this ocean of advice that I’m familiar with but don’t always remember to follow. The amount of content in this course is structured and limited so that it’s not overwhelming and you know what to do.
You also get access to a Facebook Group to chat with other classmates. They do weekly or bimonthly Discord/Zoom calls to collaborate with each other and support each other. No, Alex is not an attendee of these calls. The group is a good way to get feedback on your progress and stay accountable.
If I stay the course and continue to reflect on my exercises and the tips provided by taking action, I can totally see myself improving my style, grooming, body language, communication, networking, relationships, and the personal brand.
What Could Be Better
I promised to give the good and bad, so here’s what could be better.
Yes, I was expecting Alex to be part of the group coaching calls or have some interaction with the members. It looks like he tried to do so a year or two ago, but made a transparent announcement to the Facebook Group that he can’t any longer because he’s busy. I understand that because he’s a successful, busy person. He occasionally leaves a like on my posts or others, so you know he’s at least observing and supporting us.
Unfortunately, I think that would’ve been a big benefit, since getting that direct interaction and feedback can really boost my progress sometimes more than just absorbing content on my own. In his place, he offers coaching from one of his friends that he trusts, someone who he claims is successful with career/fashion as well. You have to pay for these additional services, including for the initial sales/consultation call so that you don’t forget to show up. For now, I opted out. It’s still on my mind to consider trying this out one day.
There’s the weekly Facebook group call with other members, which is nice. The thing is it’s other members supporting each other, so it’s better than nothing, but it isn’t the same as having a person of expertise there.
I really like the video modules, and I think some of them have some amazing tips. You can tell he put some time in to design the video library and videos. I’ve been through other courses that were more expensive where it seems like they just threw something together quickly without editing any videos – Alex’s videos are edited, planned, and have b-roll. What could be better about it is more accountability for me.
It’s so easy to watch the videos and forget about it. I do the exercise prompts, but I may have missed one or two, and I think other members often skip the exercises. And then, I have to intentionally make sure I keep doing things the right way. It’s so easy to do the action steps once and forget about them, when they should be a recurring practice. Some of my action steps including being clearer, louder, and more crisp with my words and be intentional of how you can offer value when you’re in any conversation. I honestly forgot to do these action items after I wrote them down. On occasion, every three weeks, I may remember. I’ve got to intentionally continue to look back at my notes from this course to keep going through them.
The videos on building a social media following are a bit limited. He gives some solid, high-level points in about an hour total of videos on the topic. However, I felt that he could’ve gone more into depth with a step by step. For instance, he touches on how he finds and saves Instagram photos he likes and tries to copy them in his own way. I would’ve liked to see an infield breakdown where he’s taking the photos in a shoot and how he thinks, how he poses, and how he finds venues. A lot of it likely comes natural to him but not as much to me, so he might be thinking that saying things like “just find a few poses you like” is good enough to me when I need my hand held more on what are some good poses. He recently released an Instagram Reels course (affiliate link), so perhaps, that’s where he dives deep on the topic.
Lastly, I think for some people, they may think the topics this course tries to solve for are too broad and all over the place. This course/membership isn’t trying to solve one thing. It’s a smattering of multiple promises: increased fashion/style/grooming, better habits, better success mindsets, better verbal and non-verbal communication, and tips on improving and building an online following. I don’t mind since these are all goals of mine. However, as they say, the riches are in the niches; It can get confusing or reduce your focus when you’re being pulled in different directions or your fellow classmates have different goals. One of them wants to improve health and fitness the most and another wants to improve their career; I’m fairly content in those areas.
Simply put, the Inner Circle is valuable. There are just areas that could be improved to make it more valuable, and those might have slipped since Alex’s focus is in another direction right now. Drilling in more specifically towards certain topics and building in some system where we actually take action on certain topics with accountability could be valuable. The natural human urge is to absorb the content, think it was great, and forget to do anything about it. I have to fight that urge myself to review and reflect on what I learned and track my progress. That starts with simple things like changing my habits so that I gel my hair or add at least one accessory/item of clothing on so I don’t walk outside looking like a bum.
Was It Worth It?
Yes, I think so. Through the Inner Circle, I have a solid grasp of new information to improve in the areas I set out to when I first signed up for this course. The Facebook community is worth it if you take the time to use it. Their encouragement helped me choose to attend a social activity I was invited to instead of skip it because I was leaving that area later that day. This led to more practice and experience, as well as some good memories and connections.
The way I think about branding, perception, and style has changed as well. Alex thinks about how strangers judge you positively as something you can change and control if you don’t like it. Before this, I just felt you looked and acted the way you do, and if people judge you negatively, that’s bad on them for judging a book by their cover and not getting to know your personality. Now, I see more of the control and value I have with how I’m perceived and why people judge immediately. There’s going to be less leaving the house in the sloppy hair, shorts and t-shirts I’m comfortable in and more intention with how I speak, move, smile, and what I wear.
