Creating Luxury Brands with an Emphasis on Impact with Alicia Johnson

Interviews, Show Notes

Creating Luxury Brands with an Emphasis on Impact with Alicia Johnson

[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/creativelive/p/content.blubrry.com/creativelive/PPP-ALICIA_JOHNSON-2017.mp3″ title=”Creating Luxury Brands with an Emphasis on Impact with Alicia Johnson” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

The Nitty Gritty:

  • How big brands are changing to embrace the way their consumers are believing
  • What brands should do in response to these new “woke” consumers who use their purchasing power to make an impact
  • Why the need to change rather than just a desire to change is the true motivation for a brand to update their strategy
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

I had the privilege of talking to Alicia Johnson this week on the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast about the current shift by big brands to be more transparent about the values behind their company. She and her husband and business partner Hal, a media artist, have spent the last 20 years at the helm of Johnson + Wolverton, a brand boutique that focuses on brand turnarounds. They have completed projects for BBC America, Jaguar, Cadillac, Comedy Central and more.

Brands Communicate Their Core Values

I started to see that happening—a big brand changing to embrace the way their consumers are believing.

– Alicia Johnson

In her work with a number of luxury brands, Alicia has noticed a shift, especially in the last six months, with people coming together around what they believe in. Consumers started to literally define their impact through their purchases. In one example, brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus pulled their advertising from Fox News amid the charges of workplace sexual harassment by Bill O’Reilly. It wasn’t until consumers started pushing on the brands that advertised on the show that the network had to deal with it. People are using their money to support what they believe in and the brands that believe the way they do.

Brands and Business Leaders should be Genuine

You can’t put a face on something that isn’t real.

– Alicia Johnson

Business owners and leaders should be clear on what they value and confidently move that forward, just as several brands did in this year’s Super Bowl ads that were super aggressive positioning around values, ethics and choice.

The most important thing a brand or a person can do is be genuine, because “you can’t put a face on something that isn’t real.” However, Alicia counsels brands to be very conscious of whether or not they desire to live in a political space as a business. As a company, if you don’t believe that you want to be there, you need to take a step back and look at some decisions you are making.

“My recommendation to clients is that they’re more thoughtful and move more slowly,” said Alicia. Even for fast-moving brands, reaction time needs to be much more measured. You are better off just taking a breath. It’s when you step back and get into product development or long-term campaigning, that it’s important to look at the shifts in overt alliances to ethics.

Brand Strategy Shifts when there is a Need to Change

When I’m creating strategies, I’m creating an outline for a brand story.

– Alicia Johnson

Change is really hard on an organization, so Alicia and Hal are typically only brought in to help guide a new strategy for brands when something really is not working.

In looking at making a big change for a brand you need to look at WHY and WHAT do we have permission to do? Oftentimes, brands just like people, get lost. They forget about what’s really awesome about themselves and what got them going in the first place. Sometimes it’s just coming back to the core. But sometimes the business that was started doesn’t exist anymore. So, they have to reinvent themselves.

To hear the entire conversation I had with Alicia, tune in to the full episode. We delve further into this unique time we’re living in, how she and Hal learned to take time off and preserve time for personal projects and her own creative project, Positano, a multimedia novel.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast on iTunes to hear all the nitty-gritty details and conversations I have with my podcast guests about entrepreneurship.

Making Your Business a Force for Good with The FruitGuys Founder Chris Mittelstaedt

Interviews, Show Notes

Making Your Business a Force for Good with The FruitGuys Founder Chris Mittelstaedt

[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/creativelive/content.blubrry.com/creativelive/PPP-CHRIS_MIDDLESTAEDT-2017.mp3″ title=”Making Your Business a Force for Good with The FruitGuys Founder Chris Mittelstaedt” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

The Nitty Gritty:

  • How “necessity being the mother of invention” guided The FruitGuys into the B2B space and the subscription model
  • How to think about growth or look for opportunity even in times of crisis
  • Why you should think about the meaning you want to have in the world all the time and how you drive business to align with that meaning
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

My guest this week on the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast is Chris Mittelstaedt, founder, CEO and Chief Banana of The FruitGuys, America’s No. 1 and original office fruit provider.  He tells me about starting a biz in San Francisco during the heyday of the first dot-com wave and weathering the bust as a business owner, his learning experiences for how and when to expand business operations and how making a difference and being a force for good is at The FruitGuys’ core.

Necessity: Mother of Invention

It was a reality-driven strategy, and to be honest I often think those are the best strategies anyway.

— Chris Mittelstaedt

Although Chris moved to San Francisco in the 1990s because he wanted to be a poet, he was working in the business services department of the Fairmont Hotel as a temp in 1997 when he first contemplated the idea of delivering fruit to offices. He and his wife were expecting their first baby, and Chris needed to determine what he wanted to do with his life very quickly. He had a friend who had a coffee cart and mentioned that office workers would really like something healthy to eat. So, the idea of The FruitGuys was born. They opened in 1998, an incredible time in San Francisco, as a bootstrapped company among a venture capital, dot-com world.

Chris shares that although this B2B business was the only option at the time and some of his earliest business decisions such as to focus on the B2B space and to create a subscription model of business were born out of necessity, he grew to really understand the B2B space and over the 20 years in business so far they have developed a core competency for the higher service levels required for B2B work.

Grow Smart in Times of Crisis

Risk aversion is actually something I think about all the time. I NEVER want to be a deer in the headlights and do nothing. I always want to be in fight or flight.

— Chris Mittelstaedt

After an early learning experience of expanding that left the business with a significant loan to pay off during a downturn in the economy, all of The FruitGuys’ subsequent expansion has been variable cost expansion not fixed cost expansion. That’s allowed them to think about growth and about how they expand or look for opportunities in times of crisis in a really creative way so they don’t put themselves in more debt or more at risk.

A Force for Good

Business owners need to be empowered to talk about the positive value of business, what it gives back rather than something that can potentially harm.

— Chris Mittelstaedt

From day one, The FruitGuys has been an organization that has always thought about its impact on the community and the world. Even in their earliest days, when they had leftover fruit, they would go around and hand it out to people on the street. Today, they operate The FruitGuys GoodWorks Program, that supports the small sustainable farms that grow their food and aims to reduce food waste and give excess fruit to those who are hungry. In every way, Chris wants his business to be a positive influence.

There’s much more to learn and be inspired by in the full episode, including more details about growing a business in San Francisco among tech giants, a specific example of how The FruitGuys expanded in a safe, variable-cost way and you certainly don’t want to miss out on hearing about Chris’ passion project to write Harry Potter meets the anti-Ayn Rand.

Every week, I speak with inspiring entrepreneurs about how they started and grew their businesses. Please join us and subscribe on iTunes today!

Pursuing an Adventurous Life with Uncaged Life founder Rebecca Tracey

Interviews, Show Notes

Pursuing an Adventurous Life with Uncaged Life founder Rebecca Tracey
[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/creativelive/content.blubrry.com/creativelive/PPP-REBECCA-TRACEY-2017_1_2_.mp3″ title=”Pursuing an Adventurous Life with Uncaged Life founder Rebecca Tracey” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

The Nitty Gritty:

  • How conscious scheduling allows Tracey to time gaps to be “out” of her business and travel
  • Why careful cash flow management is imperative when you sell fewer products or services
  • How experimentation was key to helping her business evolve
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

This week on the Profit. Power. Pursuit podcast I talk to Uncaged Life founder Rebecca Tracey, and the insights she has for building a business that allows her to pursue her personal adventures in rock climbing and traveling the world are incredible. Rebecca helps solopreneurs, life and health coaches, virtual assistants and more who are just starting out build an online business they can run from anywhere in the world.

Conscious Scheduling

I take a lot of time off. To the point people ask, ‘Do you work at all?’

– Rebecca Tracey

Even though Rebecca first started her business while living in a van while on an 8-month rock climbing trip (something she doesn’t recommend by the way), she soon realized that for her to live the life she wanted it would be important to not have client time during the climbing season. She has created a business model that allows her to run one main program that launches twice a year that are strategically scheduled for right before or after climbing season. When she’s traveling, she doesn’t have anything in her business that consistently needs her time, although she admits it did take some time to experiment and figure out what would work.

Careful Cash Flow Management

My lifestyle is adventurous and awesome, but also pretty cheap.

– Rebecca Tracey

Rebecca used to run her program six times per year, but has gone down to two times. It’s her second year trying out her streamlined business model and she’s still getting used to it. It’s definitely a bit scary and a little stressful being reliant on only two launches a year to make the money she needs. To ease that stress, she has a financial buffer in savings to cover her personal and business expenses if one of her launches doesn’t hit the numbers, but so far, things are working out well. Her operating expenses are also quite low.

Evolution of a Business

As her business model evolved Rebecca wasn’t afraid to experiment. The program that she runs is really fine-tuned and gets results, and it’s the thing she loves doing most in her business. She decided that her program was going to be the thing she would sell, and she stopped messing around with trying to create new things all the time. She decided to just give it a go at her program being her main thing. It was working and feeling pretty good, so she decided, why not just go for it.

When she realized that running the program six times a year wasn’t very “uncaged” of her or good for her sanity, she experimented with reducing the frequency. As a result, even though at first she didn’t want to increase her group size and it was a little scary to do so, she had to if she was going down in frequency. So, she doubled the group size and when everything seemed to run smoothly, she doubled the group size again. She did have to make changes to the program to accommodate more people and she’s still adjusting her marketing efforts to be sure she gets the number of participants she needs for each launch. She knows that she will continue to evolve her business model in the future, as the program she runs will eventually expire.

Be sure to tune into the full episode where you can learn more specifics about Rebecca’s adventurous life and her formula for success at juggling her business and her personal passions.

I invite you to subscribe to the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast on iTunes to join our community of like-minded entrepreneurs and learn my guests who share the nitty-gritty details of forging the life and business you want.

The Ins & Outs of Authentic Networking with Art of Charm Co-founder Jordan Harbinger

Interviews, Show Notes

The Ins & Outs of Authentic Networking with Art of Charm Co-founder Jordan Harbinger

[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/creativelive/content.blubrry.com/creativelive/PPP-JORDAN-HARBINGER-2017.mp3″ title=”The Ins & Outs of Authentic Networking with Art of Charm Co-founder Jordan Harbinger” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

The Nitty Gritty:

  • What a day in the life looks like for Jordan as an entrepreneur
  • What he does to manage his email and not waste time
  • How to maximize your return when you network
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

Networking guru Jordan Harbinger, co-founder of the Art of Charm podcast and franchise is my guest on this week’s episode of the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast. In this episode, we dig into his daily routine as an entrepreneur, he shared some email management tips I’m excited to implement and lots of valuable insight on the best way to network—we can all use that, right?

Jordan and his business partner AJ didn’t start out with the intention of creating a business together. What became the Art of Charm podcast started out as just conversations about nonverbal communication, persuasion, influence and even dating and attraction. Their friends found these conversations valuable and would join AJ and Jordan at restaurants and bars before any of us knew the term podcast. Soon, the team ventured online and even had air time on SiriusXM satellite radio. Their business continues to grow since having a weekly broadcast since 2006.

A Day In the Life of an Entrepreneur

I like to make damn sure that I’m engaging with people and practicing what we preach here at the Art of Charm and not just sitting up here writing books about networking and then never doing it.

– Jordan Harbinger

As he would advise any business owner, Jordan checks email first thing every morning to be sure to jump on any issues or negativity before it has a chance to get out of hand. He also spends a bit of time every morning on personal development; right now he’s learning Chinese! In addition, he studies his craft and will watch other interviewers each day to get his creative juices flowing. Following that, he works his network by checking in with friends and colleagues and then does extensive show prep for the podcast.

Jordan is also responsible for engaging his audience on Twitter and Facebook. Although he delegates regularly posting, he personally handles responses to posts as “it’s a little disingenuous to say, tweet at me, and some person in the Philippines is pretending to be you.”

He schedules all admin duties and meetings on Monday, so he can spend the rest of the week on creative pursuits. And to avoid micromanaging, he checks in on the work his employees are doing just once per week. A lot of his responsibilities are scheduled and regular which is great because it makes it predictable. If there is ever any sort of emergency, he can plan to be flexible for that because he’s not just flying by the seat of his pants all day every day.

Email Management

Jordan triages his email every morning with the assistance of Spark, an app that helps him quickly see the important messages and organize the rest. If there is anything that needs done immediately, he delegates those tasks. He suggests that every time you look at an email you need to make a decision about its level of importance and what to do with it. If you don’t have the time to make a decision, don’t look at the email at all. It’s just a waste of time, because you’ll have to re-read it later when you are going to make a decision about it.

Networking Is Usually about a Serendipitous Relationship

The only way to maximize your return on your networking is to help everyone you can without actually expecting anything in return.

– Jordan Harbinger

Most people network with a specific target in mind and want to meet a particular person because they think that person will deliver opportunities. In Jordan’s experience, they rarely do, even though hobnobbing with celebrities or powerful people does make for good cocktail party conversation.

You usually can’t see the opportunities that you end up getting because they are over the horizon. So, the way that you get them is by helping other people without expecting anything in return. Those are the same types of people that will then later on reciprocate.

Check out the entire podcast to learn more about networking, how to avoid a major faux pas of networking, what’s next for Art of Charm including The Art of Networking, a new course on CreativeLive, and more!

Each week I interview today’s brilliant entrepreneurs who offer listeners nuggets of wisdom for anyone building a business. I hope you will join me and subscribe in iTunes so you never miss out!

Cultivating A Confident Personal Brand with Bestselling Author Gabby Bernstein

Interviews, Show Notes

Cultivating A Confident Personal Brand with Bestselling Author Gabby Bernstein

[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/creativelive/content.blubrry.com/creativelive/PPP-GABBY_BERNSTEIN-2017.mp3″ title=”Cultivating A Confident Personal Brand with Bestselling Author Gabby Bernstein” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

The Nitty Gritty:

  • Why bringing your authentic self to every interaction is the key to confidence
  • Why getting your content right first is priority over branding
  • Why you must be committed to healing any beliefs that stand in your way of receiving
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

You’re not going to want to miss a minute of the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast this week when I talk to No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, spiritual junkie and international speaker Gabby Bernstein. Gabby shares her secrets about cultivating a confident personal brand, when she added to her team and, oh yeah, getting interviewed by Miss Oprah Winfrey.

Your Authentic Self Builds Confidence

Nobody really wants anything other than you.

– Gabby Bernstein

Gabby says the key to confidence is showing up as your authentic self whether that is vulnerable, goofy, nerdy or something else. If you show up with the state of presence of being your authentic self, that’s when people resonate with you most.

She gained more and more confidence over the years when she became more and more Gabby, and she believes showing up as your authentic self is the key to owning a room, holding a group and to having your presence have an impact.

The first step is knowing the difference between what if feels like to be in alignment with your authenticity and what it feels like when you’re not. When you witness that misalignment, stop doing whatever you were doing and take a breath. You can always breathe yourself back to your truth.

To those that worry about coming off as egotistical when you are your authentic self, Gabby says:

“Being more authentic is the least egotistical thing you can do. The more authentic you are the more you give other people permission to be real. It’s a gift to be real to other people. It means your ego is out of the way when you’re authentic. When you’re trying to be something else is when your ego is in the way.”

Get Your Content Right, Branding Can Follow

I need to make sure I’m keeping it real with whatever I’m doing.

– Gabby Bernstein

No matter what Gabby produces—a new website, blog, social media post or event—she always checks herself to be sure what she’s presenting is free of ego and in the service of what she is doing.

Gabby had never done any traditional branding until about a year ago, mainly because she doesn’t live in the world that way. She’s not a visual person, but when she sees something that’s right for her, she physically knows it and feels it.

Before you get your brand right, get your content right.

Stay Committed to Healing Any Beliefs that Stand in Your Way of Receiving

As I become more grounded in my spiritual foundation, my business grows more, ultimately.

– Gabby Bernstein

Gabby had a belief that if she wasn’t the one to handle things for her business, no one else would, but she shared that that belief was going to kill her and led to severe work addiction. Transcending that belief system changed her life and allowed her to hire tons of people and invest in her business so she can focus on more creative pursuits rather than be tied down in the minutia of the business.

I hope you’ll join us for the full episode when we talk about how Gabby healed and kept her business running after hitting rock bottom, why things happen in her business at the perfect time (yes, even that call from Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday producer), Gabby’s Spirit Junkie masterclass, her “greatest contribution in the world,” and what’s on the horizon for her.

Every week I chat about the nitty-gritty of entrepreneurship with leaders who are building success. Never miss a single episode by subscribing on iTunes.

Finding a Niche That Leads to Success with Photographer Galicia Virgen

Interviews, Show Notes

Finding a Niche That Leads to Success with Photographer Galicia Virgen

[smart_track_player url=”http://media.blubrry.com/creativelive/p/content.blubrry.com/creativelive/PPP-GALICIA-VERGIN-2017.mp3″ title=”Finding a Niche That Leads to Success with Photographer Galicia Virgen” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

The Nitty Gritty:

  • Why determining a niche and focusing on it helps business thrive
  • How staying in alignment with core values produces success and new opportunities
  • How to capitalize on marketing that also creates revenue
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

When Galicia Virgen, my guest on this week’s Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast sticks to her core values within her business, she finds she ends up with a revenue mindset and her business thrives. Galicia is the owner and creative mind behind Photography by Galicia, a high school senior portrait studio and The Twelfth Year, a training resource for other senior portrait photographers.

Finding Her Niche

When Galicia started her photography business, she used to shoot everything—babies, food, families. After being inspired with a creative collaboration with one of her daughters and the resulting confidence boost that a high-quality, personalized senior portrait session had on her, Galicia knew she wanted to give that feeling to other girls.

Becoming niche specific has been a blessing. I have more work than I can handle.

– Galicia Virgen

So, about a year into her business, she decided she wanted to be known as the best senior portrait photographer in her town. To gain experience and knowledge to help her achieve her goal, she turned down work taking pictures of other genres. She studied all she could about how teens think, how they look at themselves and what they look for. She became an expert in senior portrait photography, and now has more work than she can handle.  

Alignment with Core Values Produces New Opportunities

I found such great success when I switched my business model to reflect what my passion was.

– Galicia Virgen

With a go-giver mindset, Galicia has developed new products and services for both businesses based on her desire to serve. She wants the high school seniors and other photographers she works with to become the best they can be. When ideas brew in her heart and her gut, she knows she’s onto something that can make a difference. This was the case for her latest product that develops social media content for teens, by teens that can be used by her fellow photographers to reach their target market.

Street Team—New Twist on Senior Rep Program

Most senior portrait photographers have a senior rep program where teens are used to market the photography business, but Galicia’s focuses on what she can give the girls who participate in it. Called the Street Team, this program is her pride and joy. By delivering above and beyond and making it all about the girls and the incredible experiences they get by participating, it has done more for her business than requiring them to hand out her business cards and other tactics used by other rep programs. She focuses her program on the participants and to help them become better versions of themselves. She treats them like other clients, but they get a lot more perks and bonuses.

To listen in to our conversation, tune into the full episode where we talk about her process, her team and plans for the future.

Why not become a regular listener to the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast? Just subscribe on iTunes to get the nitty-gritty details directly from today’s most innovative and successful entrepreneurs who are living the lives of their dreams.