Allison Bran | How To Build Your Brand

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And now your host, Joel Mark Harris.

Joel: Hello, and welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. This is your host, Joel Mark Harris. We are on episode number 25 today, and we interview Alison bran of Rex marketing design. And you are. For a real treat today because Alison is a foremost expert on branding and she is somebody who I’ve always looked up to as, as a expert.

I’ve known her for many, many years. And whenever I have a question about marketing and branding, I look up to her and ask her about it. So hopefully you enjoy this episode. We talk about how she got into marketing, how she looks at brand and where she is today. Hello, Alison, how are you today?

Allison: Hi, I’m good. Joel, how are you?

Joel: Very well. So I’m super pleased and happy to have you on my podcast. I’ve been wanting to have you on for some time now, and I just want to get this on the record because, you know, you’re obviously amazing marketer, amazing brander. but for some reason I’m intimidated by you. So, Just because you like, you know, you exude such confidence and such knowledge. So I just, I appreciate you being here.

Allison: Oh, wow. Well, I’ll take that as a compliment because you’re very competition and, yeah, I mean, I think there’s just something wrong with my face. Sometimes I have that resting B face. I think people say that to me, but I’m not scary. So

Joel: I want to take you back. you are the owner of Rex Marketing and Design.

Where did that name come from and why did you choose that?

Allison: It’s actually kind of an embarrassing story in some ways. the short version is that the name Rex symbolizes for me a moment in time experience and a label that was given to me that I didn’t like, and that I turned into an opportunity that has become.

A significant part of my future and obviously my current life, but my future, my goal is my purpose. but it all started with a nickname in high school. You know how it is someone said something mean, and, my nickname was racks, nothing to do with a dinosaur. It’s not that. Interesting of a story, but as a young woman, young girl in school, I didn’t enjoy being called racks.

I want it to be one of the girls. I didn’t feel feminine and all these sorts of things and, and it stuck. And I still have friends that call me Rex. And now I love it now. I love it. Now. It’s not just part of my identity that I transformed, but it’s, it’s part of my team’s identity and this vision for the future.

Joel: What was the mind shift then that you went from hating it to loving it. And then what went through and that process?

Allison: I think the mind shift happened over a long period of time, just maturing and growing up. There was definitely in my early twenties experiences, people, books, seminars that I went to that taught me the basic idea that, you know, things happen in life and they don’t mean anything.

We apply meaning to it. And so if you’re, if you don’t like what has happened to you and you feel a certain way about it, you can take the power back by changing. The narrative. And so that concept have become firm in my mind. And really, in terms of using Rex for my company name, it was just. One of those things that I needed a name on a whim, I was working for a company that burned down and I needed to start my business and yeah.

A name. And I knew at that point that having one syllable and also that case down that you get with the X, like the Rex, is very strong in branding. So it was a bit of a snap decision. And in the moment, as soon as I said Rex marketing, it was actually Rex image in the beginning. As soon as I said it, I was like, yeah, that’s it.

And I felt so empowered. but the transition mentally had happened over the years prior just, you know, maturing and learning.

Joel: So, I know, I know a little bit about your story, how you got into marketing and transitioned to your own company, but I think it’s a super powerful story. And I was wondering if you could tell how you got into marketing and how you decided to start your own company.

Allison: Yeah. Well, as you know, it was by accident. I had no intention of becoming a marketer. I actually don’t even think I knew that communications was a job that you could have to be honest. I was pursuing physiotherapy. I wanted to get into sports medicine and I took a gap year from school just to make money for school.

And I ended up working at aol.com. It was the midst of the dotcom boom, and really what happened, long story short, I just fell in love with telling the stories of visionary entrepreneurs. And I had a natural knack for understanding storytelling and, you know, I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time.

and I saw the impact that it had on bringing visions to life on, on launching companies during a really exciting time in our economy. I mean, I was working with like, during the.com, you’re working with companies that are shaping the world that we know today. I designed the front end user interface and some of the marketing messaging for one of the very first internet reservation systems for bed and breakfast.

Like how cool is that? and then worked with a bunch of other dot-coms, during the time. And, yeah, I just, I think that’s when I fell in love with entrepreneurial-ism, but it, is that a word entrepreneurial-ism

Joel: so we’ll make it one if it’s not.

Allison: That’s when I fell in love with it, but not to become an entrepreneur initially, I didn’t actually have that vision at first, I just love supporting entrepreneurs. So yeah, I think the transition to becoming an entrepreneur happened much later. Yeah.

Joel: So when the dotcom boom kind of came crashing down, if I get this story correct, you a little bit disenfranchised with the whole marketing, the, the whole marketing, I guess, platform and you.

you know, are you a very frustrated with how a marketing was happening and how people were marking themselves? and I might be putting words in your mouth, so correct me from I, if I am. but can you just describe about like, how you were feeling at that time and how, you know, you’ve positioned your own company to be, to be different from how things were back then?

Allison: So the beginning of the dotcom boom, everybody was telling real stories and that’s what marketing was. And it was stories that, you know, of opportunities of technology that would change people’s lives. And it was real and people invested and people tried new things, and it was a real toward the end of the.com boom, opportunists wanted to get on the gravy train and start a.com company and get a bunch of investor income and, you know, Pump and dump a company to make a bunch of money in the stock market.

And I didn’t know at the time, but for one of those companies, that was my last.com com. I think that I worked for, one day I came to work and you know, this company that I’ve been working for two pay periods on paid. And so had the rest of the company, hundreds of people have been working for this company for two pay periods on paid.

And one day we went to work and the doors were locked. And the company had siphoned all the money out of the company in Canada and into a us holding company. It was just a mess. And it was somebody who was taking care, taking advantage of, you know, the moment in time in the market and telling lies. And I told lies, right?

I was marketing lies. So, yeah, that experience really, I call it like a come to Jesus moment. Like I, this marketing is awful, you know, business and money and marketing is the root of all evil. And I. I think, I felt a lot of things that all of us included marketers feel often, which is just super skeptical of anything being sold to us and feeling like something is always being sold to us.

and I, you know, I know when we do market research, that’s something that people talk about often. Like we’re just tired of the noise, right. And the constant sort of assault of marketing messaging. So I made a decision at that time that, You know, it took me a minute. I actually wondered if I would continue in marketing, but I made a decision.

To think about the visionary entrepreneurs that did change the world. And, you know, let’s just fast forward to right now we’re five and a half, six months into a pandemic and entrepreneurs have changed the world. In many instances, you know, completely pivoting shifting organizations to go from creating dog beds, to creating masks because we had a shortage in the country, for example, right?

Like. Entrepreneurs are amazing create opportunity. They create jobs. And so I just committed at that point to choose who I worked with and to choose companies that give a shit about people. And that’s how I say it. I hope I can say that to you. And I know I can say to you, I will say it on your podcast.

and, and we’re so committed to that. I mean, that’s a galvanizing part of our culture here at racks. Like everybody. In our company, when you ask them what they love about marketing, nobody loves marketing. We love the power of marketing and communication when you do it for the right reasons for the right companies.

Joel: So I’m going to ask you a very broad question next and feel free to take it, any way that you like. And I’m sure you get this question a lot, but what goes into creating a great brand?

Allison: Well, the first thing I say. Always when someone asks me about brand is that a brand is not a logo. And if you add fonts and some colors, it’s still not a brand.

you know, that’s, that’s a visual identity. That’s a, it’s an element of creating brand recognition, but it’s not a brand, a brand is a result. And if anyone wants to read a great book on brand and what it is, I recommend anything by Marty Neumeier. the brand gap is a great book. but, and he talks about how brand is a result.

For me, what goes into a brand and what a brand is, is an entity that is created. Between a company and its audience. It’s, it’s the relationship much. Like if you think of a marriage, you know, your marriage to your wife, right. There’s you, and there’s her and your individuals, but there is this entity that is created called your relationship called your marriage.

Right. And, and you need to take care of it. Both of you need to take care of it. Right. and what you say about your marriage might be different than what she says about your marriage. And what is said about your marriage from the outside perspective might be different again, but all of those messages and what people talk about that is the brand, right?

It’s the same thing in business, you know, what does the company say about themselves? What are they employees say about themselves and what do the customers. You know, or people outside the company, people buying from the company or influencers, or what have you, what does the world say? And so really where those three entities overlap, where what matters to those three entities overlap between the company, the employees, and the customers that entity in the middle.

And what you know, that is the brand. What people say about it is the brand. So, you know, it’s, it’s one of those things, like in the beginning of a project with a client, we need to get clear about, get on the same page about, because you know, the strategies or the objectives brought to us. It’s like, we want to have a brand that means X, Y, Z.

Okay, great. But you don’t get to control or decide that you can influence that. And what we need to do is talk really specifically about who you are, what you do, but more importantly, things like how you do it, why you do it and the impact that you want to create on the world so that you can have an entire team of people within your company.

Striving for that same goal, creating that same impact and so that you can create messages in your marketing and create policies and the leadership of your organization that give people that under understanding and impression so that they turn around and tell the world that that’s what your brand is.

Joel: I think that’s a great metaphor. I don’t think I’ve heard a better one. yeah, marriage. I’m going to think about that from now, from now on.

Allison: I actually think about marketing as, as a relationship often and it, it demystifies this whole confusion that we have around marketing.

Joel: That’s true. It is, it is a relationship. You recently did a rebrand yourself for your company and you, you did a video series about that process, which one award can you tell me a little bit about that process and what I’m specifically interested in is, did you learn something about that process that is different from, something that you would have done for a client?

Allison: Oh, interesting. I mean, so I’ll just tell you what stands out about the process. It was. It was hard to be the client. So essentially how we ran it in the company was that I was the client, as the founder of the company and the team was the team. Right. And then they were interviewing and doing discovery with me the same process that we go through with our clients.

and so for me, it was interesting to be on the hot seat. I think it gave me a reminder, and some compassion for what it’s like for our clients. When we sit down. And ask them about their company, their precious baby, their vision, their everything. Right. And I remember, you know, being interviewed and then waking up in the middle of the night saying, Oh, did I say this really important piece?

Did I get that across? Are they going, are they going to get it? You know, and that sort of wonder wondering that you feel or questioning that you feel, as to whether or not you’ve communicated enough so that this. Team can bring my brand to life, you know? So I remember that for sure. the specific question though, you wanted to know, like, did I learn something.

Joel: Yeah that. So, I mean, you do it for your clients all the time. Right. But exactly. Being on the other side, the whole process, must’ve felt a little bit strange and it’s probably something that you could take away and use for you, you know, you know, switching back roles.

Allison: Yeah. I mean, it’s there’s value. for sure, just in having been in that hot seat again, just to be patient, you know, we do this all the time.

We make decisions about brand direction, brand messages, brand visuals, all the time. And for us, it’s easier to make those decisions because we were removed emotionally from the situation. That’s actually one of the big pieces of value we bring to our clients. Like we are, you can’t see the label when you’re in the jar.

You can’t see the picture when you’re in the frame. So we’re outside and we’re able to reflect back to our clients. You know, the business strategy, the priorities of their target audience and present visual strategies or messaging that aligns with both. But for me, me to sit in the hot seat and to feel.

The tension that they, that they business owner feels the precious of my company and this message that means so much to me. it was really great to remind myself of that and how, you know, sometimes it’s hard to arrive at decisions. It’s just hard to make a decision. It’s like, again, let’s use the relationship metaphor.

Okay. I love this metaphor. I’ll use it over and over, you know? You met your wife. I met my husband at some point and we chose that person was going to be the person that we’re going to walk this life journey with. And that cuts out a lot of options as in everyone else. I mean, assuming you’re in a monogamous marriage, there’s lots of other people that aren’t, but that was the decision I made.

Right. So you choose a direction. You’ve just said no to other directions and you know, you’re making the right decision, but it’s, it’s a challenging, you know, you’d be silly if you didn’t wonder or question and just process that you’re making the right, the right call. I feel like that is how an entrepreneur feels.

Maybe just in a different arena when they make permanent decisions or what feels like permanent decisions, about their brand and what they’re saying to the world and how they’re showing up.

Joel: We’ve talked a little bit about this, but is there a ways that you demystify and make the whole marketing process more accessible to the average entrepreneur who may not like marketing or may not think of it as one of their strong suits?

Allison: yeah, this is something I feel like really needs to happen that particularly for small businesses, you know, I’ve grown this agency over the last three years, officially as a full, you know, a corporation. And I was consulting for about 10 or 11 years before that. And as I’ve grown the agency, you know, Agencies are expensive to run and having really smart people with great brains that can give insights are expensive and small businesses.

Can’t always afford to hire an agency to help them with strategy. And what’s missing for small business it’s strategy. There’s great accessibility now through technology and the sort of freelance economy to great talent out there. But what’s missing for the entrepreneur is the strategy to be able to direct that talent.

And I think that that does a disservice, not only to the companies, but also to the talented freelance marketers out there who are given an objective. That just isn’t a strategic objective because that business owner doesn’t necessarily understand marketing enough to be able to provide clarity. And so the freelancers of the world are out there, busting their butts, hard, creating results that they think they’re supposed to create.

And the business owner isn’t happy and, and. They’re just blaming each other. Like how many times have you talked to a prospect is like the last marketer sucked all the time. And it’s like, I’m at the place now. When, if somebody comes, if somebody comes to us and says the last marketer sucked, it’s like, I don’t actually hold it against that last marketer.

It’s there’s some sort of missing communication. I don’t think I’ve met a marketer who tries to wake up in the morning and waste a client’s money. That’s not the intention. it, it happens, but it’s not the intention. So like in terms of demystifying marketing and what we’re doing about it, like. I mean, we have created a course.

We do have a course for small business owners to teach them the elements of strategy. And through that process, I really had to think of how to make some of these intimidating, the terminology within marketing and the process of building a brand strategy and a marketing strategy. Just break it down to a really simple step by step processes.

But an entrepreneur could follow. And you know, I’ve already talked to a number of times about this relationship metaphor. I just, that’s one of the things I use a lot. So for example, I’ll say to business owners, you know, I’m sure you’ve heard about this fancy term market research, so, and agencies go and do market research and like, cool.

How do I do market research? Well, I’ll just say to them, like market research is just a really like, it’s an agency term for talking to people. Getting to know what matters to them, what their priorities are, what their goals are, what their barriers are, what their misconceptions are, what their understanding is, what they’re misunderstanding.

Like it’s just talking to people. It’s like any relationship. And so, I try to do that through, you know, talking about brand strategy and positioning, you know, what is positioning, you know? Well, Positioning is very much just knowing who you are and what your value and worth is to the people that you serve.

Just like it is very much in the personal world, like knowing who you are and what your value is in your job or in your friend circle or family circle, like just knowing your identity. And so, I just try to simplify the conversation and the terms, and really, I know on the agency side, we really work hard at, Not being the, the sort of just not throwing around terminology and, and confusing our clients. We just try to talk you into human.

Joel: Another one that I find confuses people is customer avatar. They’re like, Oh, what’s that? You know, like that. It feels like, you know, this big thing that people don’t know anything about, but it’s really exactly just who you serving the best. Like who is your best target market and who do you jive well with, right?

Allison: It’s like, I got to have a customer avatar and you’re like, I love to ask that. Right. Like we got to have our customer avatar. Okay. What’s a customer avatar to you. I don’t know, I just need to have one, you know, and I think that there’s a lot of companies, a lot of small businesses that waste a lot of money, just thinking they got to do what they do, their competition.

Good. So that’s another thing. We talk about a lot with it. If you’re looking at what the competition is doing and you’re making your marketing decisions based on that. First of all, you’re just playing into the noise of the market. You’re going to sound and look like everybody else. Right. And so, and second of all, you’re not finding them your unique distinction and ability to gain market share because you’re just kind of a second best or slight alteration of this competition out there.

Joel: For people who are listening to this and they’re like, Oh, I hate marketing. I don’t want to do it. I just want to hire somebody. I actually just had a conversation like this the other day, like, Oh, I hate marketing. Marketing is just, like you said, you know, it’s, it’s kind of slimy and sleazy. how do you, you know, first off, I guess, what do you tell those people and how do you like maybe you don’t, but is there a way to change that perception?

Allison: I do dive into that perception for sure. I relate back to my own experiences and struggles with marketing, just cause you had to honor their feelings about it. also my own experiences and feelings about sales. you know, I had a business coach say to me once, like, how do you feel about sales? And I’m like, I’m being a salesperson.

I’m like, I’m not a sales person. And he’s like, so how are you going to grow a business if you don’t sell stuff? So you’re not a sales person. And just recognizing that we don’t hate marketing, we don’t hate sales. We just hate what’s being been done with it. Right. So we have that conversation sort of philosophically.

But the other thing that I talk to entrepreneurs about a lot is, you know, marketing is developing a relationship with your audience. Marketing is communication, and you can’t extract yourself from that process when you’re building a company. So a small business. And I, and that’s everywhere up to, you know, multiple millions of dollars and 50 to 100 employees.

Like you’re still a small business. You can’t extract yourself from that and expect the company to be run in a straight line. I wouldn’t like to work division. You know, you are responsible for leading the voice of this company so you can hire help. And that’s a big piece of what you and I do. We take the burden of doing the work.

Off of the entrepreneur, but they can never fully extract themselves from the process until they’re ready to sell or step down and sort of another leader. and furthermore, they don’t want to, because the, the power of reciprocal knowledge that you get, when you’re part of the, of the process for building a marketing strategy, what you learned about the audience.

You know, as you go through years and years of marketing, and you’re touching up your market research and having conversations with your audience, what you learn is invaluable to go back into innovating your product or service. So, I just encourage entrepreneurs to reframe much, like I had to reframe the niche theme Rex.

It’s like, just reframe what marketing is and, and, and see it as a con as a conversation. And you’re not. Doing anything other than helping people. I’m a great book to read on that. I’m sure I know. You’ve read it. Actually, the Seth Goden, this is marketing. This is marketing by Seth Godin. He talks about how marketing is helping, and that all of these negative associations we have with it is just from people who have done it poorly.

Yeah, that’s

Joel: a great book. It’s a great book for people who, yeah. Who want to, or can, shift their mindset about marketing. Exactly. It’s just really about helping people cause people are they’re. They want a knee, they have a need. They, they have pinpoints it’s. Marketers, you know, it’s companies, almost duty to, to fill those and help those pain points.

Right.

Allison: So, and isn’t it great if you are a company that quote unquote hates marketing and you’ve got a great product or service, well, it’s more incumbent on you to get that message out there so that people can be served by you and not the company that you perceive to be taking advantage of people.

Right? Like get out there, get that voice.

Joel: I want to talk a little bit about social responsibility and branding. Is that something that brands should be aware of or is it something that should just come naturally to brands? Hmm.

Allison: What do you mean by come naturally?

Joel: You know, I think it’s, you know, people are, they always, they naturally want to help out in certain areas.

So too. should people or companies, should they.

Hmm, what am I trying to say here? Should they help, in ways that they just see naturally fit or is that like, or should they use it as a buzzword to say, okay, like black lives matter is a big topic right now we should, we should jump on that band wagon. Right? Or is it something that they should. Feel passionately about like deep in their soul.

Allison: It has to be real. Yeah. I mean, especially now consumers sniff B S better than ever. We are highly tuned BS leaders cause we’re marketed to all the time. And I think it’s gotten to the point where so many companies have taken advantage of, sort of values washing and piggybacking on social. Cause, that.

People are actually a little bit, they’re looking to see if it’s real, like, they’re not just wondering, they’re seeking out to find out if it’s real. So if you to, you know, do a version of your logo during pride week, you’re going to have people investigating your social media and your, tell storefront and looking for evidence that you are actually a part of and supporting actively supporting the LGBTQ community and not just.

Throwing up a rainbow logo so that you look like a good person. it does absolutely have to be real. The one thing I’ll say is that I think social movements are an opportunity for business owners to ask themselves if a cause is not important to them, why is it not important to them? And I think, you know, as companies that want to create cultures and jobs that are inclusive and.

Progress our society. We always have an opportunity to look at these social causes out there that are clearly important to a lot of people. Otherwise the, it wouldn’t be such a loud conversation. it’s an opportunity to learn and, and, and think about how can we make that cause, how can we consider whether or not that should be part of our cause, but before you start marketing it.

Make sure it’s a part of your operation deeply woven in. I’ll give you I’ll share something that is personal for me, you know, over the last number of months, with the black lives matter movement, we had a lot of conversations as a team, regular deep, tearful conversations, you know, on our primarily white team about.

you know, who we need to be and what we need to learn as marketers and also who we need to be and what we need to learn as a corporate culture. so that we aren’t. No unknowingly unconsciously perpetuating biases that we’re not hiding behind that privilege, that we have to sort of turn a blind eye because these issues don’t affect us in the same way as a primarily white agency that we aren’t perpetuating it by turning a blind eye.

but I wasn’t willing to market none of us would we, we, none of us wanted to market anything that we’re doing. We’re happy to talk about it, to share with other business owners about the ways that we’re. Endeavoring to, you know, educate ourselves, but it’s not about marketing, because we’re still in the process of learning.

And if, if we’re talking about, you know, diversity, equity and inclusion as a company, we’re going to be talking about the reality, which is we’re learning.

Joel: That’s awesome. That’s really great advice. I want to, so. I want to shift the focus a little bit. You contribute a story to a book. I believe it was called woman of worth and it was about business and moms.

Can you talk a little bit about why you chose to write it that, what’s the story was about and maybe, yeah. That’s why it’s important to you that you got that message

Allison: out. I think the universe offers opportunities that we can take a hold on just the right time. So as you know, at that time I had my very young, basically newborn daughter that’s, you know, I was approached around that time and asked if I wanted to cook.

To this book about being a mom in business and at the time, well, you know, the story leading up to that invitation was that, in. 2016 toward the end of 2016, I had sat down with my very first, she actually was an employee. She was a contractor, but I call her my first employee. and we had strategized the incorporation and launch of Rex marketing and design.

And the plan was that we were going to start it in 2017 beginning of the year. And I was going to work for a year and then I would have a company set up so that I could go and have my second child. and have a little bit of time and have a team working. That was the plan on paper. And so that was like December.

We were making these plans at Christmas and, I came back in January, found out actually on new year’s Eve that I was already pregnant when I made those calls. So, we had a timeline. We had like eight months at that point to get this company going, I built the company with the help of massive contribution to the team.

I say we built and launched the company. while I was pregnant. I was in labor sending text messages back and forth to the team about, a project that we were actually, I was in labor. One of our team members was working remotely during the hurricane and the, on the, on the Virgin islands. And we had another team member just basically holding down the Fort, sending WhatsApp messages between the two.

Two of us were like telling the hurricane team member to like Batten down the hatches. Don’t worry about the files. She’s like, I’ve got internet for a few more minutes. I’ll just send you some stuff. I’m in labor, like giving some strategic recommendations on something. It was quite, it was quite a time.

So, you know, you ask, like, why did you write the story? Like, I feel like there’s a lot. Yeah. The women who do this, I am not special. There is a lot of women who live this life and they have a full career or a business and their mother and their wife, and they’re all sorts of identities. And I feel that these stories are well, no, I’ll tell you, these are stories I was looking for when I was in my twenties, early twenties, I was looking for examples of women who were running a business and who had a marriage and who had.

Children. And in particular, I was actually looking for people who were still married to their first husband, or because, you know, the, the stories I’d come across were, powerful female entrepreneurs who had a lot of regret about broken homes. And so for me, somebody early on pre-marriage that wanted to have this idyllic family, which, you know, obviously doesn’t exist, but I wanted to try to create as much as I could this strong, unit.

1. I didn’t see people talking about that. And, I talk about it actually in my chapter about how there was this moment in my life, where at yet another women in business conference, I stood up and asked like, is there somebody I can look to, to be. an example of what it looks like to be married to your first husband, a mother to not have a near death breakdown, like, you know, experience from just being overworked and overstressed and who runs a successful business.

And I’m a woman that was with me at that conference. she’d heard me ask that question a number of times and I sat down because there was nobody on the panel that fit that description again. And I sat down on the cider and she’s like, Why don’t you just go be her. And so that was my goal, and I’m still trying every day, you know, marriages is it’s work.

It’s important to work on and being a mother and a present mother is something that I’m constantly trying to keep my finger on the pulse of, because you know, my business is my baby as well. My team is my family as well. And so, I just wanted to share my story. I want to share my story around how I.

How I manage things like mom guilt, how I manage, choices between tough choices when something with the family or the kids. Conflicts with something in the business. And, I just think that my voice is one voice and this was a great book because it brought together a lot of other women’s voices.

Every woman got a chapter. And so I just think it’s, it’s a great thing to have out there for other women who are charting, you know, their early thoughts. And, you know, I want to sit, share this as well. when we launched Rex. And had a launch party. My daughter was less than a month old and I had her in the silk sling that matched my jacket for the events and she’s sleeping on my chest.

And I was giving my little talk, just thanking people for coming to our launch event. And at the end of the event, one of my team members, friends had come to the event and she came over to me and she thanked me for the day that evening. And she said, you know, I had professors in university tell me that I had to choose between a future as a mother and a future as a ruin or a business owner.

And today I realized that I can have both. So, you know, there’s lots of yeah. Doing it. The more of us that share this story, just give choice. Because the other thing is there is, this is not the only way to do it. I actually don’t think that there’s anything virtuous about being a woman that has a business and a fact we just all should be able to choose what’s right for us.

Joel: I totally agree. And I think that’s common perception is that women can have, have either a career or they can be, you know, a good mother, but they can’t have both. And so it’s, it’s inspiring to see you accomplishing that. what. What advice would you give yourself to that 20-year-old Allison?

Allison: I don’t know if I want to change any of the experiences that I had to go through.

I think I still give 40 year old, Alison, the same advice that 20 year old Alison needed, which is trust yourself. You know, you could do this and every time you hit a new ceiling, as in you reach a new goal and you bust through that glass ceiling to the next. Paradigm the next level of your life and your journey.

You’re going to have to learn again how to trust yourself because now you’re a fish out of water again. but I really embrace every challenge, every heartbreak, and I mean that there’s been some big ones. I really embrace it and I have learned through personal tragedies in my life that you can’t and wish the challenge, because if you wish the challenge.

I have direct evidence in my life of a gift that I have, that I would also be on wishing cause it was the direct result of a loss. So, just keep moving, choose a growth mindset, choose the story you make up about your experiences. and thankfully that was advice that I got from somebody else and from books and seminars and things that I was exposed to in my twenties, And it’s a, it’s a big part of what I try to pass on to people who are younger than me, that, you know, anyone really, but you know, my team and my culture, that’s a big part of our values.

Yeah.

Joel: Mentioned books a couple of times that I think I know. So I, I asked this question to all my guests and it is what’s your favorite book? And I think I know the answer, but people have surprised me in the past. So, but what book do you. w I guess, yeah. What is your favorite book and what book do you enjoy gifting?

Allison: So the truth is I have different books for different phases over the last five years. My current favorite book is the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership by John Maxwell. I love that book. I read it when I was in my early twenties and I thought ask a book now it’s like a great book.

I’m sure. Yeah. I read a book once and you’re like, Oh yeah, yeah. And you come back to it and like your life’s experience in that moment just needs that book done much more. it’s great for anybody who’s in any sort of. Leadership position, which John Maxwell defines as a position of leader of influence.

Like if you are influential over people, you are a leader. And so I’m a mother, I’m a team leader here, like so powerful. I just love that book. and there’s two other ones that really have impacted me and my trajectory. Yeah. As a business owner, when it start with why by Simon Sinek and the other is leaders eat last by Simon Sinek.

Now they’re popular books, all of them, but they’re popular for a reason. They’re good. I can’t stop at one. I’m sorry. Yeah, go ahead. I give those three. I do give those three. and then the other classic that we are, redoing as a team. I’m redoing and that I’m doing with my team and our book club is the seven habits.

This is just foundational stuff, you know? Everybody benefits from learning, seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey, 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, and just the concepts of starting with why and leaders eat last. I just think so empowering for anybody who wants to accomplish big dreams.

Joel: I forgot that you had a book club going. Can you tell me a little bit about that and why you decided to start that?

Allison: Yeah. well, you and I have a common friend, Bob Wang. he’s an actor printer, young man entrepreneur. Who’s done amazing things. Are you created and sold as first company and.

and he, he and I were having a conversation a while back and he talked about how, it was important to him in his startup to build an organization of leaders that if you want to grow a small business and, and have it be a powerful impact to customers and to grow, you need everybody to think of themselves and to operate as a leader.

And so through that conversation, he actually turned me on to rereading the 21 years. You’re repeatable, lots of leadership. And he talked about how he had had his team read it. And so I thought that’s a great idea. and, I immediately just bought a copy for everybody. And we did our first book club, which was, it was shaky at first, like the first time you bring a book to everybody on personal development, they’re like, why are we doing this?

You know, what’s happening? There’s I think just natural skepticism of employers. Like, what are you trying to brainwash me? You know? But it turned into. Such an important part of our culture and just deepened our relationships because we would read a chapter and then everyone would share their own personal reflections and perspectives on what we learned and grew together.

And so it just became it’s something now that everybody loves, everybody looks forward to. Right now. we, well, we actually put our book cut on hold. When we, when moved to work from home for a little while. And when we re started, we paused our book club on the 700 highly effective people. And we’re currently reading a book called you.

Can’t talk about that at work, race, religion, politics, and other other polarizing topics in the workplace. And I mean, that’s direct result of us trying to learn about how to uncover unconscious biases in our communication styles as a company and our culture here internally. And as we help guide other cultures as brand strategists, and learning to have these tough conversations.

So yeah, our book club has been a huge source of, Learning for us individually, but also galvanizing and connecting our team because when you read, you learn and when you learn you process and good and bad things come up with yourself and awareness. And so it’s been really powerful for us and you’re doing it together too, which I think is key as well.

Joel:  I was wondering if I may talk about Simon Sinek, cause I’ve never seen a company that has embraced one author’s principles, so deeply in their whole purpose. so start with why obviously hugely influential on your company. Can you tell me a little bit why that message connects with your company so deeply?

Allison: Well, you know, if you go back to this business owner is entrepreneur in the end of the.com boom. That was an opportunist and screwed everybody, investors, employees out of all the millions of dollars. If I had had the conversation with him about why he was doing this, I would have been able to sniff out the bullshit.

So that was the first thing is when I would ask we sitting down on a needs assessment, I’d be just asking like, why, why does this matter to you? And it’s not, it truly, wasn’t, isn’t from a sort of skeptical perspective. I just like to feel people and understand people. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is, I have learned through other experiences in my personal life.

the importance of developing understanding before you come up with ideas and solutions and try to solve a problem. So again, in relationship conversations, we can go to our marriages. how often communication breaks down in marriage, because you have one person saying something, the other person isn’t listening, and they’re just waiting to speak, speak back what their perspective is and how powerful the transformation is when you sit there and you try to understand why this person is saying what they’re saying.

So starting with why develops a deep understanding of the person sitting across from you and it changes the communication dynamic and makes you able to align on a common understanding and then achieve a goal together. So as a culture internally, that’s critical for us. but to help us, help us, help our clients achieve their goals, we need to first understand them.

The third element to that is how highly. Influential it is when you share vulnerably, what matters to you? so as a company uncovers their why and they share vulnerably with their audience, what matters to them, or would the world, what matters to them? Their audience will show themselves their audience will just be drawn toward them.

You’re not selling anymore. You’re just saying, this is what matters. And the world naturally goes, Oh, that matters to you. That matters to me too. And they’re drawn to you. So it’s also very powerful in marketing.

Joel: Well, Allison, I think that’s a great place to cap it off. Where can people find you?

Allison: Definitely on our social.  Startwithrex is our handle on Instagram as well as our, as on Facebook, we are @startwithrex.com. That’s our website. I think those are the main places. And if you can’t, we’re on a bunch of social, but if you just land on our Instagram or Facebook, which has lots of education content on there, it’ll lead you to anywhere else that you want to find Rex.

Joel: Well, Allison, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking the time. Great chatting with you.

Allison: Thank you for having me. Thank you for asking me. Hopefully I wasn’t, Scary or whatever. No, you’re awesome. Joel, I really appreciate the chance to sit down and talk with you. And, you know, I feel like your, your listeners should know what a rock star you are.

And, one of the things I want to say back to you is just how your values have always shown through. So. you know, I’ve seen your career progress and most recently I feel like you have really leaned into your own personal values in your own business. And I see how sincere you are in wanting to help the customers that you have and the people that you’re impacting.

So I have a lot of respect for you.

Joel: I appreciate that. Thank you.

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