The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - #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 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 Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the

ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Aha! 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's your elevator? And they would tell me, I'm like, I'm still not getting, like, why I want to buy your product. I would find a line. I'm like, that 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 messaging. 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 guest 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 Everts Bostic, the creator of The Skinny Confidential, a blog, a brand, a podcast, YouTube channel. And I am Michael Bostic. I'm a serial entrepreneur and brand builder, most recently the CEO of Dear Media, which is a new kind of 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, 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, 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 looking over your shoulder and they're looking straight over your shoulder and they're just seeing who's coming up next. I, for some reason that makes me cringe so bad, um, 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 are you, what's that? What's that? It's like the sum of the five people you're with the most determines 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 is 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, when you have a person like Alison 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 Alison 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 gotta be a middle ground. Okay. Thank you. Do you have personal experience? And I just related myself to a beaver and a woman.

So anyways, we would love to hear you guys' thoughts on networking. Um, 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 Alison 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. Um, 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 just, it 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.

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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'd you make your first dollar? I made my first dollar.

Okay, so 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 waspy school to a Jewish white girl at an inner city school. Two months into that, I move. And my parents put me in Orthodox inner city school. Two months into that, I move and my parents put me in Orthodox Jewish day school. And then I go to a regular, a regular high school in Miami. Then they moved me

to the deep South to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I'm like in Southern Baptist territory, where they've never met anybody like me. And I went to high school in Boca time. I went to brand new high school, third graduating class, 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, 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. You 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, um, Ralph Lawrence, 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 Ab Fab 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. 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 Cy Newhouse 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? If I've been doing it wrong? They literally, it's like you're in and out of a benefit now, right?

It's, you know, they're, 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, um, you know, uh, I, I want to work for you. She called me eight 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, um, was your, were your parents in the military? Was anyone in the military? You know, I know it sounded like that. No, my dad was in textiles at one point and he actually created like way back when dolphin

shorts and velour and terrycloth. And then kind of, we were either like fabulously wealthy with the glass house on the water or he like screwed up and, um, we had no money, but we had all these fabulous things in tennis court. 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'm, 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. So that's 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 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 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. 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 you can't stand still.

Okay. But I can talk to anybody. And I can pull out, I tell people all the time. I was like, find a common ground. Ask 20 questions to somebody. If you're a state, ask them 20 questions. Where are you from? Where did you go to high school? Did it at some point, you're going to find something that a,

you can either, um, find a bond with, or at least, you know, enough to fake it. How did you learn all these networking skills? Cause you seem like a damn good networker. Thank you. Um, it's like, it was trial by fire. I always say, you know, you got, 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 every – 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 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 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 there, you know, it's, it's people, it's execution. Um, 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, and us, um, is editing is 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? Um, 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, um, 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, 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 outfits? What is your point of difference? And she said,

well, I'm a teenager. I said, but when I, and 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 gotta be that one thing that makes you different. Yeah, I agree. But 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 differentiating? 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 greats, right? You're going to go like the Howard Sterns of the world, like the 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 AM to today? Like, what does that look look like how did you build this massive company so I get there and it's the 90s and it is it's it was an exciting time fashion week had just started in New York um you had the hotel cast Paris was going crazy music and fashion were coming together it was the 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, um, 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, 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 are 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. It teaches us how to prioritize, how to set goals, how to set priorities, how to more importantly set execution, 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.

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in an elevator and I eavesdropped. I'm an eavesdropper. So you're a podcast, by the way, I love that you use the term podcasting, but the best interviewers, and I always started to track, but I remember when my friend at ABC was looking looking to replace oprah at her you know she they needed talent and no big deal no big deal right easy act of following through 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 um over generalize they're not naturally curious to be a great like i say something you say you have to 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, he wants to know. Howard 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 of 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 realized 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 Arpels and 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 this. You had a clothing allowance and a driver. So I had a $30,000 clothing allowance that included Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry at cost, Burberry. I shared a driver. We had million dollar budgets for fragrance launches. I mean, it was a time as they say. Um, and this man you know i would go and i present and i would say 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 you actually come off as a better human that's a great we know 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 and um 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 a 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 Saks.com. There was nothing that you could, I mean, there was no Amazon. The president of eLuxury, 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. Ink 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 I, somebody said to me, they looked at my contract, they'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? Um, 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 week. 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, 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, 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 that a little bit and explain like why it's so important in your field and not just your field, but every field. And it's like, it's a huge like anger point for me too. So I told you the story about, um, you know, that I knew the name of the restaurant critic. Okay. It's so simple to Google and no one reads. Um, 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, obviously I'm going to go to their site. I'm going to look at

the words they use. Like 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 like warm people up. But so one of the questions I used to ask when I interview is, OK, what do you read? Like, where are you going to interview for positions or when? Yes. When I interview for positions here, I don't even bother anyone. I'll tell you why. So I say, where are you? 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 newyorkpost.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 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? If you don't know where it's going, right, then you're just constantly playing catch up 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, is there a mantra you do a meditation? What sets the tone of the day? I'm the most anti-mantra meditation person alive. Um, I have kind of weird sleeping habits. So I go to sleep late. I kind of wake up. What's late? I need like exact details. So 1.30 to like pretty, pretty late.

And then I'll sleep. And then I may wake up at like 4 or 5. And I will read Business of Fashion, The New York Times, The Post. I get three newspapers, like hard newspapers a day. I got 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 that I lack discipline in. But I like physical newspapers in the Girls Hair Lab 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 this story because they're so used to reading everything online on a phone like they forget like look how beautiful our client is featured so a newspaper i'm gonna go i'm gonna go get newspapers what do you think that energy comes from like getting that little sleep um i don't you know because you have a lot of energy like afraid of and i'm a huge napper though i'm like the biggest and there's 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 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 to work out. So I started Pilates. I'm like, what's the easiest thing I can do? Because you can lay on your back. Because I can lay 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 wait, 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, it's cliche, but like, it's, 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. mean look at your office your 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 and I but you're an overachiever so you're always you always I feel like you're you're over accomplished so you're always going to be hard on yourself. I don't know, but you know, listen, good, a good night's sleep. Like I don't like the, 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 disciplined than me. Um, 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, in others. Um, I was just going to say something. Um, like you're so disciplined with your workout, you're disciplined with your business.

Where does that come from? Is there, is there some, is there a place it'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 areas. You are so disciplined. No, but not in certain things. Like when you were speaking, I'm also terrible at 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 cause we were just in europe running around i was like i got i was like i gotta get it now i gotta get under control so i'll be disciplined with stuff like that but other things i'll be completely neurotic and out of control just 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 till three o'clock in the morning. I drink beer and I dance until the sun comes up. You sound like a good time. Like I really am. Um, I have lots of different groups of friends and, um, yeah, I believe. And I laugh every day. I come into this office and I'm just 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. But, like, you guys have got to live a little. Got to go have 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 like people underestimate like upper east side people in their 40s i 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, 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 week, 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 homebodies. Yeah. It's not for homebodies, but I love it. That's fine. Cause 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, 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. Cause 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 a Burger King, 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 that, some ideation from that and some concepts, 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 at 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 that 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 this show that are jumping into spaces similar to this. What do you think some of the biggest mistakes young people make are 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, and don't get me wrong. There's so many amazing women out there just because you're doing what you love does not mean you love every minute and every day. Sometimes you 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, it's 7 PM. 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 those people to manage early on to say, think ahead. So people, 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 3 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 like empowering 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, I didn't get into PR cause 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, like the PR person gets to work with the top, with the smartest people in the world. Right. So I'm so lucky. Um, but, uh, I'm competitive and it's sort of like a public thing. You helped to build a company, whether it's a startup or now we do a lot of reinventions and the New York times or, you know, whomever it is today,

she does a 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, 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 talked to a publicist in the past. It doesn't do what you do, but like a publicist, mostly for personalities, right? They were able to control stories a little easier in the past because

they had relationships a lot of publications you know like the barstool guys we represent barstool yeah yeah so you do i love it let's talk about how great by the way that's like people think we're this total like chick friend but we're barstool and that is bad yeah so dave just went down to lexington kentucky to review 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 has 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. 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. So, you know, it's sort of like it's a Howard Stern. It's an all equal.

So you just have to take it with like a wink. 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. Some are 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, 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 gonna lie but I'm gonna 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, you were there sort of like to, to entertain a little bit. This shouldn't be your personal mirror. Um,

I always say if your post doesn't educate, entertain or inspire, get out. Yes. But you, you're like the only person that I, in your position, I've even heard anyone say, 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. 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, 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 yourself. 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 talent. So we work with Reese Witherspoon for Draper James. We work with 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 is an overused word, but we have a hair salon here. There are lounges, there's floor to 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. And 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? What do you mean? Agent.

And so I'll give DBA a shout out. 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 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 Rabinowitz. And I called each of them. I was like, what the? 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 an interview, she said, well, people used to make fun of us and say hurting, you know, bloggers 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 we have to keep educating. Yes. Over communicate. 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 at 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, um, I think again, I tried, 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. Um, so I, I try to hire women who are social and resourceful, right? Like I ask people like, where do your friends work? Like, like if we need to get to somebody, I want to know that like whatever designer it is that you're ex nanny's cousin and

you know how to get us there. So the type of people I think that we hire, um, is, is one thing. Um, and 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, 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, you're not paying attention to how humans actually behave. Yeah. So do you sit down with the company? Like, um, you said you worked with, um, 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, is it like, it's, 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 brought 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's your, 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 ended up, 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, that's really part of it. It's like, how do we get back to point of difference, which is a big thing. And I know you asked that question a lot, uh, book resource podcast that you could recommend to the audience. It doesn't have to be

all three, just something that you made. It could be something that's self-help. It could be something business, anything, something that maybe you consume a lot so i read biographies so do i it's all about the biographies oh my god i have so many that i feel like you would like and i bet you all about um i've always just loved like richard branson i think richard branson okay you're gonna 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, here I am vulnerable. I'm reading his and funny humor people take themselves 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 my god i remember janice from years ago you got to

tell me some secrets where can everyone find you allison broad pimp yourself out where can they find us well we have an instagram feed allison broad mc and we like to break news there whether it's um 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'm coming to meet with your team in two days. Oh, good. Put them 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.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 TSC podcast.com. We will be back this Friday. 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 tscpodcast.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. I am currently using the platform to learn MailChimp drip emails to serve our emails better.

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