The Bossticks - #146: Alison Brod - How To Build A Massive Career, How To Network, The World of PR, & What It Takes To Build An Empire

Episode Date: October 30, 2018

On this episode we sit down with Alison Brod. Alison is the founder and CEO of Alison Brod Public Relations. On this episode we discuss what it takes to start building a massive career. How to network once you decide on a career path, how to build your team or work within an effective team, & what it takes to scale. We also discuss tips for young people trying to get ahead and mistakes young people make at new jobs. To connect with Alison Brod click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) Capri Blue offers high quality candles, premium home fragrance, and beauty care products. With universal approval from both men and women Capri Blue offers products for everyone. All of Capri Blue's products are made with clean, cruelty free vegan formula. For 20% your entire order at Capri Blue go to capri-blue.com/skinny.  This episode is brought to you by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning space offering more than 20,000 courses. Join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare today with a special offer just for our listeners: Get two months of Skillshare for just 99 cents. That's right, Skillshare is offering The Skinny Confidential listeners two months of unlimited access to over 20,000 classes for just 99 cents. To sign up, go to www.skillshare.com/skinny. 

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to you by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning space offering more than 20,000 courses. We are currently using the platform for multiple classes. Right now, I'm actually doing one for MailChimp because I'm working on our email drip system so that we can push our email notifications to our listeners. This is a tool for brands and individuals to acquire new skills or take novice skills to an expert level. Think of it as the Netflix of learning skills online.

So join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare. today with a special offer just for our listeners. Get two months of Skillshare for just 99 cents. That's right. Skillshare is offering the Skinny Confidential listeners. Two months of unlimited access to over 20,000 classes for just 99 cents. To sign up, go to Skillshare.com slash skinny. Again, go to Skillshare.com slash skinny to start your two months of learning now.

That's Skillshare.com slash skinny. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Mike. Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. They would come to us with an idea. And I would say, okay, cool idea. What's your tagline? What's your elevator pitch? It's such a cliche, what you're like? And they would tell me, I'm like, I'm still not getting it like why I want to buy your product. I would find a line.

I'm like, that's what it is, or we would find a line. So we ended up, we spent so much time helping people message. So again, it's about editing. They forget what. They get so into their own head. Storytelling became like the buzzword of last year, right? So we've got to tell your story, your message, and now we have to like put you on the map

because you've done something important. It's not just about selling product. Happy Tuesday. Happy Tuesday. Back again coming in live. Well, not really live because we'll edit this in, but we're back again on the Tuesday. Welcome back to the skinny confidential him and her show.

If you are new to the show, thank you for joining. That clip was from our guests of the show today, Alison Broad. On this episode, we talk about the world of public relations, how Alison built her business from the ground up to work with some of the world's most prominent brands, how to network properly, and how to get ahead in a new job or career. For those of you who are new to the show and just joining us, I'm Lauren Everett's Bostick, the creator of the Skinny Confidential, a blog, a brand podcast, YouTube channel. And I'm Michael Bostick.

I'm a Sierra Entrepreneur and Brand Builder. Most recently, the CEO of Dear Media, which is a new kind of podcast. Podcast Network launching shows every week, every month. We are talking about networking in this introduction. Lauren Everts, why don't you take the lead? Networking Pro, go. And no, I am not a fan of networking. Like, I'm just not.

I'm not. I'm not going to pretend, Michael. You have it in the wrong context. Okay. Michael thinks I have it in the wrong context. But actually the truth is that I just don't love going to events and feeling that people's intentions are in the wrong places. Well, we talk on this show, as you'll see in the interview, a lot about networking. And I think you touched on one of the issues of the networking. I think a lot

of times people run into trouble and don't like networking events because they go. And most of the people they interact with are trying to get something from them or they're trying to get something from the other person. And it becomes this kind of ask and take type thing as opposed to what it's meant for, which is to meet new people and potentially drum up new business or new relationships. There's like nothing worse when I'm at an event and I'm talking to someone and they're not engaged in the conversation. And you know when you're speaking to someone and they're looking straight over your shoulder and they're just seeing who's coming up next? For some reason, that makes me cringe so bad that it's just turned me off to networking. I also think that with my industry, you get invited to so many different events all day.

Like they're throwing invitations at you. So it just becomes too overwhelming and I'd rather just not do it at all. Well, I think I have, I don't know if I can give the best advice here. I don't know if you can give the best advice here, but what I would say about networking in general, one, it works if you do it properly, obviously making relationships. That's not, I honestly think that's 90% of the battle. You can have skill. You can be smart. You can have this. But you have to know the right people. They say that what do you? What's that? What's that's like the sum of the five people you're with the most determined your life? Whoever says that. Why can't you just go network for me and I just delegate it? And then I can just meet people through you after you weed them out.

Well, what I was going to say is most of the time when things have happened, let's call it from a network setting in my life, it's not because I've ever gone into it with the intention of getting something from somebody or making some specific connection. It's mostly just going and being genuinely interested in people. And that later blossoms into some type of relationship. And from there, most of the time, things can happen. I find because I feel like if it's this relationship that's built on a predication of, you know, wanting something from the individual or needing something from the individual, it's hard to build a meaningful relationship and those usually fizzle out. So most of the time when things have come from networking events,

it's because I've actually become friends with people, and I've gone into it with the intention of not doing any kind of business or getting anything, but just genuinely becoming someone's friend. I think that sure networking is a part of business. I don't think it's the whole business. I think that you're in charge of your own opportunities. You create your own opportunities. And I think sometimes people put too much of an emphasis on networking.

However. However. However, I'm going to give you a however. ever. When you have a person like Allison Broad, whose intentions are in the right spot, and she's such a hustler, and she obviously knows this business inside and out, I respect it, and I understand it. So I kind of see both sides, I guess. I think I need to get better at it, and it's something I need to fine-tune. And this episode, I feel like, really helped me with that. I think Allison is a pro-networker in a way that's not cheesy or off-putting. She just really gets it.

Well, you don't want to be like the hungry beaver jumping at everybody, but you also don't want to be like the groundhog sitting at home, not doing anything. You got to find the healthy medium, right? The hungry beaver and the groundhog. Can you put it this way? You know, like you ever see those movies, like the comedy movies and there's like the desperate girl chasing the guy. You don't want to be that guy, but you also don't want to be the girl in the shadows that's not pursuing anyone, right? There's got to be a middle ground. Okay.

That's what I feel like. Thank you. Do you have personal experience? And I just related myself to a beaver and a woman. Okay. So, there we are. Anyways, we would love to hear you guys' thoughts on networking. If you tell us on my latest Instagram what your networking thoughts are,

you will be entered for a chance to win five beauty products. And these ones are actually from Allison Broad. So there are some good ones. I'll pick a winner later this week. One tangible thing that's worked for me with networking, a takeaway for you guys, is wine. No, I'm just kidding. But wine does help.

I would say to read the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, okay? That's a great book. It's an easy read. Everyone should read it. It's something you can continue to go back to. And they actually have an online edition. So it's called How to Win Friends and Influence People, the online edition. So for social media.

This book will just help you sort of get out of a mental rut when it comes to networking and increase your influence. And it just gives you the ability to really get things done when it comes to networking. So check that book out. Do you have a tip, honey? Well, I was just going to, it's not necessarily a tip, but it's just a practice. I think a lot of times when people are networking, they're waiting for somebody to do something for them, or they're waiting for somebody to hire them for a job, or they're waiting for somebody to bring them something before they do something.

I think it's fine to be the first, just like, you know, if you're pursuing a woman or a man, I think it's fine to take the first course of action. I think it's okay to put yourself out there first for free and to offer value before anyone's even done anything for you. I think that's what gets people to remember. people and that ultimately is what makes people say okay i need to have a relationship with this person if you're sitting back waiting for somebody to bring you something it ain't going to happen most likely so my tip would be put yourself out there take some action first bring some value and see what happens give give give give give ask right yes without expectation what girl on the planet doesn't

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slash skinny for 20% off your order and check out the Christmas tree scent. You'll love it. All right, let's get into the interview with Allison Broad. She is a PR legend, you guys. Allison Broad was just 25 years old when a random stranger in an elevator convinced her to start a PR company. 20 years later, she still runs her own successful public relations agency in the heart of New York City, and let me tell you, it's cute. She represents some of the most powerful brands in fashion, beauty, and entertainment. Brands like Goop, Ardell, Corona, Burger King, Barstool Sports, Go Smile, Old Navy, to name a few. With that, let's welcome Allison to the skinny confidential him and her show. This is the skinny confidential him and her.

I'm going to just throw you a curveball. How do you make your first dollar? I'm going to tell my story in the quickest way. So I'm from New York originally. I'm a Jewish girl from a super waspy whaling town on Long Island that we didn't fit into. And then we moved to Miami to an island. and I go from the Jewish girl at the Waspie School to a Jewish white girl at an inner city school.

Two months into that, I move, and my parents put me in an Orthodox Jewish Day School, and then I go to a regular high school in Miami. Then they move me to the deep south to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I'm in Southern Baptist territory, where they've never met anybody like me. And I went to high school in Boker Time. I went to brand-new high school,

third graduating class. I went to Tulane. diehard New Orleans person, came to New York in 1991. It was the middle of the Gulf War. I gave myself a 30-day round-trip ticket to find a job in an apartment or a roommate, or I was moving back to Florida. I had a backup job, and I was getting back together with my high school boyfriend. So I had no choice. And I wanted to be a writer or advertising or an editor or write magazines. And in order to get into Condé Nast or Hearst, you had to type like 60 words a minute. We know how to type back then. So I was taking typing classes. And, um,

I had one good relative, one helpful person. And my uncle was Ralph Lauren's really good friend. They used to see old movies together. And he was kind of my fairy godfather, and he had me interview with, it was like AbFab back then. It was the hottest PR firm in New York. And he sent me, and two hours into it, she looked at me, and she said, you don't know anybody.

I can't hire you. Like, you're nobody. You're like this kid from Boca. Okay. I then meet the man who I ended up marrying four days into New York, and he took me to a black tie honoring Syne U-Hus. It was the most glamorous thing I'd ever been to. Don't forget, this is 1991.

Now we have these things every single day, but back then it was Donna Karen and Ralph Lauren and, you know, every celebrity when people actually danced and got drunk and, like, had a blast. And he was at the finance table. People don't do that anymore? Have I been doing it wrong? They literally, it's like you're in and out of a benefit now, right? And they're for a night that you're hopping to. And so at the time I drank like bourbon straight right out of New Orleans.

And I was doing my shots. I was so happy there was an open bar. And I see the woman who had interviewed me like the day before that blew me off. And I went up to her and I said, you know, I want to work for you. She called me 8.30 the next morning. She's like, I don't know how you got to the event, but, you know, show up on Monday. So that was it. Then.

Were your parents in the military? Was anyone in the military? You know, I know it sounded like that. My dad was in textiles at one point, and he actually created, like, I did way back when dolphin shorts and velour and tarry cloth. And then kind of we were either, like, fabulously wealthy with the glass house on the water, or he, like, screwed up, and we had no money, but we had all these fabulous things in tennis courts. So I think my drive, A, I was always the new girl, right?

I'm the new girl in the inner city school, or in, like, the Carolinas, and I'm a valley girl, and I can barely, you know, people are calling their parents, ma'am and sir. So I always had to sort of fight my way. And I think, you know, by the time, I made it a career in the end, you learn how to talk to people. And the one tip that I got that I think has helped me and I've, like, created a career from. You get what you want by helping others get what they want. Oh, that's such a good takeaway. It's sort of like part of it's a game. It makes you feel good in the end, but it's also kind of a game. And I, I used to do these big presentations to new business clients, and we'd talk, and I feel like

we would have the best presentation here, and we'd slay them. And then I realized, I was like, you know what, the best meetings that we end up having and the clients we get are when I stop what I'm saying and say, you know what, what do you think about this? Or have you ever done anything like this? And I'd let them talk because people like to talk. And so it sort of changed, like, how I viewed things. Do you think moving around like that, as you progress your career, do you think you look for stability because you have such a chaotic, I don't want to say chaotic upbringing, but you're constantly on the go?

I think it's almost the opposite. You know, we represent. We have so many different categories. I have so many interests. We're music and fashion and food. And I think I can't, it's almost caused that, like, you can't stand still. Okay. But I can talk to anybody.

And, you know, I can pull out. I tell people all the time. I was like, find a common ground. Like, ask 20 questions. to somebody. If you're staying, like, ask them 20 questions. Where are you from? Where did you go to high school? At some point, you're going to find something that, A, you can either find a bond with, or at least you know enough to fake it. How did you learn all these networking skills? Because you seem like a damn good networker. Thank you. It's like it was trial by fire. I always say, you know,

I got to the new school. But now my kids, like, they have assigned seats in the cafeteria. And then the teachers move them around and they make sure that ever back then it was like you know an 80s movie you walked in with your tray and you're like who am i going to sit with today right and you you had to survive i like that you were telling us a story earlier about last night how a blogger came up to you can you tell us that story again and and kind of the takeaway from that so i feel and this is a pretty common phrase but there are lots of good ideas right and out there and they're you know it's people it's execution I am not a person who wakes up with a million brilliant business ideas every single day.

That isn't my skill. And people I think, they're like, oh, you have a million ideas. It's not what I do. Where I feel like my skill is and us is editing. It's how to make, you know, you've got some raw talent or energy or whatever you have. How are you going to make a point of difference? So how are you going to be different? Otherwise, nobody cares anymore, right?

everybody's a superstar today. So somebody came up to me, a very cute girl, came up to me in a restaurant last night, and she said, I'm 17, I have a blog, I follow you, can I come, can we work on collaborating, can we have coffee, everything. And I said, you're super cute, you have terrific style.

I'm like, let me see, like right there, and then I was like, let me see what you're doing. And I looked at her, and I said, again, terrific style. Do you do anything besides post pictures of yourself in cute outfit? what is your point of difference? And she said, well, I'm a teenager. I said, but when I actually went to the blog and I sent back some notes. And I said, you were a teenager, but the lens in which you're doing it under, it's not, that's not coming out.

So how do you do the five things a teenager wakes up on Monday and, you know, wants to do and make it different? So that's kind of like there's always got to be that one thing that makes you different. Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, we've been podcasting now for close to three years. And now as we have this podcast network, there's a lot of, we're having a lot of conversations. People say, like, I want to do an interview. And I said, yes, there's a lot of people that are doing that. And interviewing has been around for forever.

But what is the point of it differentiated? Because if not, I feel like you're just another version of something that's already occurred. And you have to have something to hook the people in immediately. Because if not, you're going to go to the great, right? You're going to go like the Howard Stearns of the world, like best interviewers of all time. You have to have that thing that's unique or else there's just no way to get traction in the beginning. Yeah. How do you go from working with the woman?

that you started working for on Monday at 8.30 a.m. To today. Like, what does that look like? How did you build this massive company? So I get there, and it's the 90s, and it was an exciting time. Fashion way could just started in New York. You had the Hotel Cust. Paris was going crazy. Music and fashion were coming together. It was the year. It was a supermodel year. I was working with all this. I mean, and this woman was just not a, you know, She wasn't a mentor. And so what I took from that is every woman who works here has a mentor, has a buddy, you know.

And I say, you guys have no idea. I was 20 years younger than anybody else. I was like thrown into the wolves. And but it was exciting. I took what I could. And then my next step, I needed to get out of there. It just wasn't a great, it wasn't an organized place. And my husband at the time said you're really interested in restaurants.

Why don't you? Back then, you got your jobs from classified ads in the New York Times. And so I went and he said, there's a restaurant job. You love restaurants. So I send my resume. I interview and I'm 23, I guess, at the time. And I get the job and the man who hired me comes out with a stack of 200 resumes. And he said, I want you to know that you beat 200 people.

And I said, wow, oh my God, that's really great. And I said, why? He said, because you're the only one who knew the name of the New York Times restaurant critic. And I kind of said to myself in my head, I was like, wow, I was like, if that's all it takes, that all I have to do is a little bit of research to sort of like fake it. I knew nothing. I wasn't a restaurant publicist. I didn't know anything. I couldn't even turn on a computer at that point. Before we jump into that, let's talk about skills and more importantly, Skillshare. Who wants to learn some new skills? I have you covered,

and Skillshare has you even more covered. I love all the products and services on Skillshare. Lauren loves them too. They help you level up in life. Who doesn't want to level up? This episode has a lot to do with networking, being curious, building a business, and Skillshare is a platform that can help you with all of those things. One of my favorite classes right now that I'm taking is on productivity. It's by a guy named Brian Servino who happens to be one of the product marketing managers at Trello. If any of you guys have used Trello before, we've used it for many years. It's an organizational tool that helps you organize your personal tasks as well as your teams and we've used it for a long time but I didn't realize how many other functions that it

could be used for and so we're using it now teaches us how to prioritize how to set goals how to set priorities how to more importantly set execution um execution pinpoints so I'm using that class right now and it's called productivity prioritization tools to build your system and learn with trello so we're using that so again we're doing this all on Skillshare Skillshare has been a partner of this show for a long time you've heard us talk about it before but that's just because it's great and they offer that they're offering, you cannot beat it. For just 99 cents, you get two months of learning for just 99 cents. It's hard to beat that less than a dollar. For two months with over 20,000 online courses taught by people like you and me. They have courses on design, marketing,

finance, Photoshop, productivity, you name it. There are also some prominent names on Skillshare guys like Gary Vee, who are doing courses on branding and social media. Be sure to check that one out. So join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare today with a special offer just for our listeners, get two months of Skillshare for just 99 cents. That's right, Skillshare is offering the Skinny Confidential listeners. Two months of unlimited access to over 20,000 classes for just 99 cents. To sign up, go to Skillshare.com slash skinny. Again, go to Skillshare.com slash skinny to start your two months of learning now.

That's Skillshare.com slash skinny. And be sure to check out that Trello course recommended. You will thank me later when your productivity habits go through the roof. So then I had a couple other jobs. then I met a man in an elevator and I eavesdropped. I'm an eavesdropper. So you're a podcast, by the way,

I love the, you're used some podcasting. But the best interviewers, and I always started to track, but I remember when my friend at ABC was looking to replace Oprah at her, you know, she, they needed talent. And no big deal. No big deal, right?

Easy act to follow. I'm available. All these celebrities. And I said, oh my God, what about this person? And she said, here's the thing with some celebrities. I don't want to overgeneralize. They're not naturally curious to be a great, like I say something, you say something. You have to be a question back.

So it's like there has to be a natural curiosity. I think a lot of these late night people get in trouble because they go and they don't really give a shit about the guests and they're just sitting there like, you know, doing their talking points and reading off the screen. They don't care what the person has to say and then the show falls flat. It's the people that actually care about what the people are saying. Like Howard Stern, you mentioned the same. He wants to know.

So I eavesdrop a lot. I always listen to everyone's conversations. and I was at that fancy fashion firm. I remember all the women used to talk about things, and I hated this feeling. It was almost like being blind. I don't know that restaurant. I don't know that designer.

I don't know what they're talking about. And I'm like, I'm never going to be in that position again. I need to be connected by one person to everybody, and that's kind of my goal. So I eavesdrop in an elevator. It's gorgeous James Bond-like man is talking to somebody, and he's launching a fragrance. And I said, oh, my God, I'm a publicist.

I work on fragrances. and he kind of looks at me and he's like, I don't know who you are, kid, but he takes my card. And two weeks later, he called and he said, you know what? I realize my publicist doesn't even call me back. Do you want to meet? So we met at the Four Seasons for two hours, and it was the relaunch of Burberry on the fragrance side. Back then, it was Van Cleef and Rels in Escada. And he said, if you want to start your own business, I was 25, I'll be your first client.

And I had a clothing allowance and a driver, like this was the 90s, this was all. And it was the most incredible experience of my life. So I got a really lucky break. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You got to go back and walk me through. So you had a clothing allowance and a driver. So I had a $30,000 clothing allowance that included Van Cleef and Rappell's jewelry at cost. Burberry, I shared a driver.

We had a million dollar budgets for fragrance launches. I mean, it was a time, as they say. And this man helped me. You know, I would go and I'd present and I would say, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. And he pulled me aside once. And he said, I just want you to know, like, if you say we. It's inviting. you actually come off as a better human being.

That's a great tip. Everybody knows that it's you. It was you. You don't have to show. So when you're young, you know, you're trying to stay. So I learned a lot. Do you still work with him today? I do.

I do. And he's like a big guy in the fragrance industry. And I did sort of high end beauty at the time. And it was super exciting. And then I did e-luxury. And e-luxury was LvMH's website. It was the first online luxury website. You could buy a submarine or Louis Vuitton bag.

And this was a time when there was no sacks.com. There was nothing that you could be. I mean, there was no Amazon. The president of V Luxury, which I worked on for 10 years, got fired and went to Gap. And they were starting Gap Body, which was their active wear. And when I was six people, she's like, you did a great job. Do you want the business? I'm like, hell, yes, I want the business.

And then we got into Gap and Gap and Gap is still today. and it really changed. Because I had never, like, I had my retainer, and this is what people need to know. Like, I had my retainer, I would just do any work for it. And finally, somebody said, well, you've got to have a scope of work.

You have to define whatever career you're in. Here's the work I'm going to do for the money you're going to pay me. If it goes over, sometimes we can play around with it. And somebody said to me, they looked at my country, like, you're doing way too much work for the fee. I'm like, I can't ask for more money. and they said, just try it.

So somebody said to me, okay, I need you to do an extra project. And I said, you know what? My normal fee for this is going to be $10,000. They're like, great, just send an invoice. I was like, no way. And I made half a million dollars more that way. This is Michael's like favorite topic of life. Well, no, because I feel like people get so scared of asking, right?

And I feel like what's the worst that can happen? They say no. And people, but it's that fear of saying, I'm going to ask something. A lot of time people would say, okay, cool, like in that story. There's something you touched on a little bit earlier. I was watching an interview you did. I can't remember the publication. And you talked about the importance of reading for people getting in this space

because that's how you figure out what's going on in the world. Can you touch on it a little bit and explain why it's so important in your field and not just your field but every field? And it's like a huge like anger point for me too. So I told you the story about, you know, that I knew the name of the restaurant critic. Okay. It's so simple to Google and no one reads. and again, it's easy to fake it.

If I have a meeting, not only will I go and I haven't had time to truly prepare it, obviously I'm going to go to their site. I'm going to look at the words they use. You can fake it. You don't have to spend seven hours. Then I'm going to go to their Facebook, and I'm going to say, they have dogs,

they have kids. They went to college where my best friend went to college. I'm going to find the immediate touch points to warm people up. So one of the questions I used to ask when I interview is, okay, what do you read? Where do you get your news from? Yes, when I interview for positions here.

I don't even bother anymore, and I'll tell you why. So I say, what do you read? What newspapers or publications? So people, no one ever said a newspaper, even if they were getting into PR, they would tell me magazines, okay. Then the next level came and the internet starts, and they're like, forget about not even saying they read the Times or even the New York Post.

They weren't even saying they read like New York Post.com. I said, okay, well, now where do you get your news from? Twitter. I was like, so you're only reading 140 characters. Okay, so I was disillusioned then. Now the question is they don't even look,

they don't even look for news. They get their news. I've had this three times in the past week when an alert comes on their phone that there's news. Otherwise, the level of curiosity is not there to search out news. So I really, this is like,

it's a big thing for me. Well, I think it's important because you need to know not just what's happening in your world, but where the world's going, right? Like, especially with what you do, how do you know where to position brands or people you work with? You don't know where it's going, right? Then you're just constantly playing ketchup with everybody else that does. Exactly. So when you wake up in the morning, I get so curious about people's mornings, and you lay the foundation of your day.

What do you wake up and read? Is there a mantra you do, a meditation? What sets the tone of the day? I'm the most anti-moncha meditation person alive. I have kind of weird sleeping habits. though, I go to sleep late. I kind of wake up. What's late?

I need, like, exact details. So, one-thirty-two. Okay, so pretty late. Like, pretty, pretty late. And then I'll sleep, and then I may wake up at, like, four or five, and I will read Business of Fashion, the New York Times, the Post. I get three newspapers, like hard newspapers today. I get the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.

Love the New York Post. Then I'll go back to sleep. So I am completely erratic, and nobody should follow that schedule. It's the one thing. saying that I lack discipline in. But I like physical newspapers in my, the girls here laugh because I'll be in a taxi on the way, I'll exercise, I'll be in a taxi going through my three newspapers, taking pictures. Like, here, look at the story because they're so used to reading everything online on a phone.

Like they forget, like, look how beautiful our client is featured. I like that newspaper. I'm going to go, I'm going to go get newspapers. What do you think that energy comes from? Like, getting that little sleep? I don't know. Because you have a lot of energy. It's like afraid of, I'm a huge napper, though.

I'm like the biggest, and some big study just came out. Power nap is the most rejuvenative thing ever. People should not be embarrassed about wanting to take a nap. What's your workout? Okay. So I was married for 19 years. I met my husband, my fourth day. He's the one who took me to the benefit where I got a job, rarely worked out,

waited 12 years of marriage to have children. And then when I had kids, I had no time to work out. I get divorced. I start dating this, like, tough Irish Catholic from Boston who's doing, like, double boot camp workouts. I'm like, oh, I got a workout. So I started Pilates. I'm like, what's the easiest thing I can do? Because you can lay on your back. Because you're on your back. I could kind of, you know, like I'm not going to have to sweat. I can put my makeup on. And Pilates was like a gateway drug to me for exercise because I was like, wow, like what's an

oblique? But we now I have one. Like this is amazing. And so now I work out seven days a week. Wow. Lottie is Tracy Anderson, and obviously, you know, it's cliche, but like, it's a game changer. I want to talk about your discipline because for me as a woman, I look at you as someone who's a role model because you do have a lot of discipline. I mean, look at your office, your amazing team. A discipline. Like, can you just speak on it why it's so important to you, why it's so important to someone

that's listening who wants to take their career to the next level? Let me think about that for a second because, like, I wish I was more disciplined. I feel like my sleep is a mess. But you're an overachiever, so you're always, you always, I feel like you're over-accomplished, so you're always going to be hard on yourself. I don't know, but, you know, listen, a good night's sleep. Like, I don't, like, I am envious of people, not even of their careers, but you're able to go to sleep and put all your work away and get a good night's sleep.

Like, that's more discipline than me. I think, I'm not quite sure how to answer that. But I think, like, it's okay to be disciplined in. certain things and not, you know, and maybe not in others. I was just going to say something. Like, you're so disciplined with your workout. You're disciplined with your business. Where does that come from? Is there some, is there a place that's come from? Is there something that you tell yourself every day? I don't know if it's discipline. I think I relate to you on the level. Like I don't, I think I'm not disciplined in certain areas, but very in other words. You are so disciplined.

No, but not in certain things. Like I went as when you were speaking, I'm all so terrible. like putting things away and getting good sleep and doing that and like, you know, I run into trouble. But when it comes to like we were talking, I gained a little bit of a wine gut because we were just in Europe running around. I was like, I got to get it now I got to get under control. So I'll be disciplined with stuff like that, but other things I'll be completely neurotic and out of control. Yeah. I think it depends like what I get my focus on. And I mean, I am, you know, I think that what people don't know about me.

Yes, I come in. I'm dressed every day. Like I, you know, there's a look and feel that I want for this agency. But then I go to New Orleans with 50 friends, three. times a year. I see bands that don't even take the stage until three o'clock in the morning. I drink beer and I dance until the sun comes up. You sound like a good time. You know, like I really am. I have lots of different groups of friends and yeah, I believe and I laugh every day. I come into this office and I was like, you guys, when I was your age, even now, like I would come out and hung

over three times a week at least. Like you guys don't even go out. You have juice for dinner. You watch TV. I said, and you care about your workout, which is awesome. Like, you guys have got to live a little. Got to go out fun. Like, I want to know what they're doing. They don't go out because they don't need to as much, right? We had, it was, you had TV on Thursday night. It was like must-see TV.

It was friends or whatever. If you miss the show, you miss the show. And you had to actually get out. So I laughed so hard. I was like my Upper East Side. I'm like, people underestimate, like, Upper East Side people in their 40s. I was like, we're out every night. We're like desperate for human interaction.

Well, you guys are. all in bed like on Netflix. That is so interesting. It's such a change. I feel like I think it's because we're all on our phones. Yeah. You know what I mean? We are and you know people who live in New York City. Everyone says oh, you're in New York City so you're you need to be active. I said I think it sifts out right. Like if you've had kids here, I mean it's not an easy life to live here, right? It's expensive and it's getting around. So if you've chosen to stay, you're here for a reason. Like it sifts out. I don't want to say the wheat, but it sifts out people. So you're here because You need to see five people at the manicurist.

And you want to go out to dinner on a Tuesday night and see people that you know. It's not for home bodies. Yeah, it's not for home bodies. You love it. Yeah, but I love it. That's fine. Because I don't like being a homebody. It was certain things, right?

But I love the energy of the city. I want to speak about teams because every time I come in here, you've built these incredible teams. Yeah, I am very envious of that because I've found that one of the hardest parts of my business has been employees because I was used to being a solopreneur. and I went from a solopreneur to an entrepreneur. And I've had to make that transition. And I look at you with your teams and it's, I mean, it's goals. How have you structured the teams to be effective? Okay.

So, again, as I said, I'm not an idea person, but I feel like I'm an editor and I do understand management. And so sometimes I would say to women, I was like, you know, you've got to manage your assistant and train them. Like, it takes too long for me to do that. I'm going to do it myself. And I said, I wouldn't have a company today with 70 people. If I had that attitude, you have to take the time and do it. So a lot of people don't quite understand that. The other thing is, so no man's an island, no woman's an island.

One of the things that not only do we work in teams, but we pick the teams based on, like for a client, let's say. Teams don't work, they don't move from one client as a team to the next. It's what is each person good at? They may not be good for, you know, a burger cane, but they're great for something else. So it's a little difficult here sometimes because somebody could report to five different people, but I feel like they're learning more. And then when we have everything's brainstorms, right?

And people are all day long. Did you see this activation in Central Park? Maybe we can do something similar. So our brainstorms, I ask, I want someone from beauty, from fashion, from lifestyle, from the celebrity team. You want, like, what Burger King's doing. You may never think that L'Oreal could get some ideation from that and some confidence. But like that's kind of what goes on. When somebody new comes here, let's say they're on the beauty team,

I want them to go to events every single category. And so collaboration, and when we hire people from other agencies, they're so used to being in a silo and not speaking to each other, like they don't know how to participate and we have to do this total immersion. There's a lot of college graduates looking for new careers that listen to the show that are jumping into, you know, spaces similar to this. What do you think some of the biggest mistakes, you know, young people make her when they're jumping into a career like this, or any career, I guess.

Okay, so here's another big thing. So everybody's mother now tells them, Father, do what you love, do what you love, right? So they all come in, they talk about their journey and their passion, and I could give you 50 other buzzwords. And then they get to their job thinking it's their dream, because, of course, they've posted their beautiful pictures of themselves, and they deem themselves to be a publicist, and don't get me wrong, there's so many amazing women out there. Just because you're doing what love does not mean you love every minute and every day. Sometimes you've got to eat shit, right? That's the clip I want for my Instagram, Taylor.

Like, you're going to come to work. Like, I love doing this, but I don't love every minute. And so I think that they get caught up. Well, my mother told me, I have to love what I do. And I'm like, honey, like, this is, you know, it's 7 p.m. We're all crunching for this client who doesn't understand that it's going to take seven hours to do it. So I think that's part of it. I also think, like, teaching people to manage early on to say, think ahead.

So people, it's being strategic in your life, whatever it is, is a skill. Think about all the things that you have to do at the end of the day. And if three o'clock you realize that you're never going to get that stuff done, just tell us. We will figure it out. We will call that client and say, listen, it's just not going to happen. And if that client says you have to have it, we'll find someone else to do it. So I think in powering them to think ahead to manage up, right? If your boss hasn't like given you what you need, you've got to stand in front of their face.

Nobody's ever going to be mad at you for like asking, asking that. What is it like working in client services? I know that that can be very interesting. Do you have, do you have 10 hours? I'm sure that's a long question. I didn't get into PR because I'm a super nice person. So I'm just going to lay that out there. right now. I get a lot of gratification from mentoring women and I love. I'm so lucky in that,

like, I get to work with CEOs. The PR person gets to work with the top with the smartest people in the world, right? So I'm so lucky. But I'm competitive. And it's sort of like a public thing. You help to build a company, whether it's a startup or now we do a lot of re-inventions. And the New York Times or, you know, whomever it is, Today Show does a start. story about fast company, all the great work. It's almost like my name was on it or our name was on it. So it's sort of, I don't want to say it's like it's an ego thing, but it's an ego thing. Like you want to be out there and be competitive. I'm curious to know what you do when you're working with a client that doesn't understand the social media digital landscape.

So we're going through a lot of this right now. And so whether it's media, traditional media or social media. We just had a meeting and I said, we have to over-educate. It has to be in writing. We may have an article or somebody in social media may say something. There's going to be stuff you might not like. We can't control it. Even if we pay for it, we can't control it.

Here are four things that might be in this article or post that you're not going to like, are you prepared that this may go astray? Are you prepared for a quote from your competitor? And it's like there's so much more work that we need to do because you have to educate them. Otherwise, they don't know. It's not their fault. They don't do what we do. There's less control of it now, right?

I talk to a publicist in the past, not a, doesn't do what you, but with like a publicist, mostly for personalities, right? They're saying that they were able to control stories a little easier in the past because they had relationships with a lot of publications. You know, like, the bar stool guys. We represent barstool. Yeah, yeah. You do?

We do. I was talking about how great they've asked me. But by the way, that's like people think we're this total, like, chick friend, but we're barstool and working. Bad ass. Yeah. So Dave just went down to Lexington, Kentucky, reviewed this pizza place, you know,

just pizza reviews, and they kicked him out, and so he gave it a 0.0. And, like, the Barstool fans went to their Yelp page, and now this poor place, that's like a one-star review. But that's a perfect example, like social media went ablaze, and this company can do nothing to control that or stop that other than try to get ahead of it.

It's just crazy. And, you know, Barstool also gets criticized because I think people think it's this, you know, just a sports site. It's a comedy site. Yeah. So, you know, it's sort of like, it's a how we're,

stern it's an all equal so you just have to take it with like a wink um i love what they do because they do what they want to do in a very authentic way and they just push the boundaries some people are going to like that message or not but i think like from a business standpoint they're killing it i like anyone who's doing what they like to do on social media and not giving a fuck i'm about that but that vibe but okay so so yes but here's the other thing i think like the indulgence on social media right every time we post, let's say, our site. Okay, yeah, there are times where I think I look really hot and I want to post, but I'm going to do it in a way where no matter what I'm educating somebody.

So I went to the South Bronx, and there are all these cool, like, hip-hop places. So here's my picture, and I think I look cool in front of the graffiti wall. Not going to lie. But I'm going to say, like, here are the four things that you should do there. So I think that people have to stop being so indulgent. Like, the Internet's going to break down. It's just you were there sort of like. like to entertain a little bit.

This shouldn't be your personal mirror. I always say if your post doesn't educate, entertain or inspire, get out. Yes, but you're like the only person that I, in your position, I've even heard anyone say something. It has to have a takeaway. If I'm posting a selfie, like what lashes am I wearing? Where can they go get it? There has to be something they can apply to their own life. I think that if anyone's out there and they're an influencer and they're listening,

if you could even just elaborate even more how important that is as a blogger to give that value and takeaway. Yeah. Well, I also think if everybody's posting, whether it's, you know, a million pictures of your kids or it's a million pictures of you with all your friends, no one's going to see your post, your important posts, right? Because there's so much you're glazing over. Also, as people are making money, whether it's companies or people posting, you've got to

make sure, like, your content is something that's saleable, right? You want to drive, you want to drive business. And if there's so much fluff in between, like, you're going to, you're going to lose eyeballs. So everyone needs to edit. So it comes back to editing, right? Like, just edit yourselves. You don't need to post every single minute. Sometimes less is more. Yes. Especially in this atmosphere. You were talking earlier about how you, in the beginning, worked directly with influencers. Like, there was no agent. And you said that when an agency came into the picture, you were like, oh my God, what am I going to do? Can you kind of tell that story to the audience? Yeah, sure. So we always have represented celebrity brands, right? Never celebrity talents.

So we work with Reese Wether's Boehraper James. We work Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Beauty. We're working with Kate Hudson, all these amazing people for products. But years ago, influencers used to be called tastemakers. And we built an office that's like a, it's a lifestyle place. You know, lifestyle's an overuse word. But we have a hair salon here. There are lounges. There's Florida's ceiling product. And when I did the design and I built out this space that I just wanted to be like a great social place, the architect said, Alison, you didn't leave room for desks. You need 80 desks. I'm like, oh, I forgot about the desk. Anyway, so they used to be called tastemakers, and we always had people come up. Like, if you were head of marketing for some cool company,

we wanted to work with you, come up. If you're a designer and Vogue is going to profile what you have in your bag on the way to, like, Santa Domingo, great. So we'd always worked with people and brought them up. then we were early on to influencers, and we were seeing the power, and it was the most incredible thing. And they'd work directly with us. And one day, I will never forget this day, somebody said, an influencer said to us. They weren't even called influencers then. They were just bloggers. You have to call my agent.

And I was like, say, what do you mean? Agent. And so I'll give DBA a shout at. So I called DBA, and I've known the founders. Raina was a longtime client, and Karen Rabinowitz. who's now partners with Michael and Dear Media, just to wrap it around. Wrap it around, big fan, Raina.

Shout out. Love you, Raina. And Karen Nubinowitz, and I called each of them. I was like, what that? Are you kidding me? And I was like, I hate you guys. I'm like, A, I'm so incredibly jealous

that I didn't think of this myself. But, like, these women, like, changed everything. And now women can have these careers. But it's tough managing. You know, I think Raina said in interview. She said, well, people used to make fun on us and say, hurting,

you know, bloggers is like hurting cats and it was so hurtful. I'm like, well, it should have been hurtful. Like, that's just kind of,

you know, people don't quite understand. Just again, like you said, though, we have to keep educating. Yes. Over communicate.

Keep educating. But people posting have to be smarter. Yes, they're going to be thought of like herded cats. You know what I mean? It's not,

listen, whatever category it is, beauty is a, we have more beauty clients that are valued over a billion dollars right now. I mean,

these women are doing fantastic women and men, right? So it's all about being successful. I have a selfish question, just if I ever go into product or whatever. What makes your agency shine so bright? Like I look at all these PR agencies and there's something about yours that's doing something different. Well, I thank you. So I think, again, I try. So like people talk about social media. We're truly, I'm a truly social human being. I am out every night. Like I do travel. So I try to hire women who are social and resourceful, right? Like I ask people, like, where do your friends work?

Like, if we need to get to somebody, I want to know that, like, whatever designer it is, that you're an ex-nanny's cousin and you know how to get us there. So the type of people, I think, that we hire is one thing. When you're also paying attention to social behavior, which I think is the big, you know, we've worked with so many PR companies in the past. And like they, they kind of start believing the hype and drinking the Kool-Aid and just saying, like, this behavior works this. And it's like you're not paying attention to how humans actually behave. Yeah.

So do you sit down with the company like you said you worked with, not Budweiser, you said a beer company. We do Corona Global. Corona. Yeah. So when you sit down and make a strategy with them, is it like, you said it's mapped out, there's a scope of work? So yes. Okay. I'm glad you brought me back to that.

So we were Allison Broad PR, we were ABPR, switched to ABMC marketing. communications because what we found that we were doing, both to the smart Harvard duo girls and everyone had their startup or the big companies, here's an idea. And they would come to us with an idea. And I would say, okay, cool idea. What's your tagline? What's your elevator pitch? Right? It's such a cliche. What you're like? And they would tell me, I'm like, I'm still not getting like why I want to buy your product. And on line seven of the page 20, I would find a line. I'm like, that's what it is, or we would find a line. So we spent so much time helping people messaging.

So again, it's about editing messaging to get, like, they forget what, they get so into their own heads. So we started messaging, and I think, you know, storytelling became like the buzzword of last year, right? This year, it's agenda setting. So we've got to tell your story, your message, and now we have to, like, put you on the map because you've done something important.

It's not just about selling product. But, you know, that's really part of it. Like how do we get back to point of difference, which is a big thing. And I know you asked that question a lot. A book resource podcast that you could recommend to the audience. Doesn't have to be all three. It could be something that's self-help. It could be something in business, anything, something that maybe you consume a lot.

So I read biographies. So do I. It's all about the biography. Oh, my God. I have so many that I feel like you would like and I bet you have a whole about. I've always just loved like Richard Branson. I think Richard Branson was one. Okay, you're going to love that.

because he was one of the first listen Richard's you know flying to the moon and whatever he's doing he was the first one and he came out and he was like I was dyslexic I was this I was a mess and here's my story like people weren't quite as honest years ago now

you know everybody's in their bathroom showing you know their pimples and this but back then you had to kind of protect that image and he was the first to just be totally like vulnerable here I am vulnerable I'm reading his and funny humor people take them so seriously.

You know, it comes back to entertaining. Like, don't take yourself so seriously. I agree. And you know what you have to read that I just read that you would love? No Lifeguard on Duty by Janice Dickinson. It's so juicy. I know Janice. I love her. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I remember Janice for years ago. You got to tell me some secrets. I love it. I love it. Where can everyone find you, Allison Broad? Pimp yourself out. Where can they find us?

Well, we have an Instagram feed, Alice in Broad, M.C. and we like to break news there, whether it's Ashley Longshore. Everybody give a shout out. Ashley Longshore is this female empowerment artist out of New Orleans who's doing amazing collaborations to new product tips. And we'd love your feedback. If ever there's anything you want, just DM us. Thank you so much for coming on. I love this.

I'm coming to meet with your team in two days. Oh, good. Good, good. Put him through the ringer. Hey, guys, thank you for listening to the podcast. Don't forget to check out the new podcast site over at TSC Podcast. Podcast.com, all of the show notes for this episode and all of our others can be found there. It's a really great resource that highlights all of the awesome people we've talked to on this show,

all of the different books and resources and services they've recommended, as well as the stuff that we have recommended. It also has a section for new listeners trying to get caught up to speed with the show. So check it out. Go to tscopodcast.com. We will be back this Friday. This episode was brought to you by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning space offering more than 20,000 courses online.

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