Brand Mastery: Part 2

Speaker 1: hi welcome to the sheu fit experience with Melanie you're here because you want to scale and grow your business Master business strategy and learn about new tech Innovation join me and my inspiring guests as we dive into the topic of how how to create build scale and operate the business of your dreams in addition to being an entrepreneur I'm also a twin mom and Optimist who loves empowering you to experience the life that you crave Magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so grab a coffee or cocktail get comfy and let's dive in my episode with Tracy s was so good and full of knowledge for anyone building a business and a brand that we are bringing you part two Tracy previously served as SVP of marketing and brand integration at Los Angeles magazine BP of marketing for click Brands which includes who what where and currently is head of marketing and custom events for Sunset magazine how do you overcome challenges can you

Speaker 2: share an experience with us I've got a great team experience that also happened at who what where I hadn't been there very long and the team and I put together an influencer shopping event where we were hosting 150 influencers at our who wear offices in West Hollywood with a gorgeous rooftop deck and we set everything outside on this rooftop deck we had products from at least 45 Brands set up in the most beautiful way everything that we did was impeccable top tier level influencers with close to a million followers these women were all coming for an upscale experience throughout the course of the day we had a weather threat which you know as well as I do we never have a weather threat not in California usually no and it wasn't rain and it wasn't snow but it was wind so wind happened upon us where we had 60 to 70 mph wind gust where our beautiful landscape of our gifting Suite that was set up outside started to blow away piece by piece things were blowing over the roof candle votives were shooting across bars smashing glass it was a disaster being the leader of this team and a VP of the company I found self in a little bit of a predicament where our highest level of management was watching this out their window happen I had about 25 girls on our Collective marketing and project management team who were working with me on this and I had an arrival time of about an hour where all of these high-end influencers were coming in to see what we had for them with a little bit of encouragement a lot of luck and a hefty amount of prayer we somehow cleared the floor of our entire space within who what where and we brought everything indoors and Melanie when I tell you this was the most incredible bonding experience I will never forget it as long as I live because there were people we were 300 people at this time there were people coming downstairs from our top floor there were people coming out of office spaces I didn't even know existed bringing things from outside helping us set up we had a makeshift floor plan that we just pulled out of our brains out of nowhere and suddenly our 25 people turned into a 100 with magic it was set up and we were ready to present at the opening time it was I don't think I'm doing it justice because you really it was one of those moments when be motives are breaking and things

Speaker 1: are flying up I mean I can only imagine and it was insane but that's great

Speaker 2: leadership that's saying I'm going to delegate all of this out and I'm going to do anything and everything I can to make this happen for our clients and consumers too absolutely and for our guests and for our company where I felt really good about my leadership was a I demonstrated that nothing was beneath me and I was going to carry in tables or sweep up votives if this is what needed to happen in this dire moment which then Cascades down to the rest of the group whereas you might be at an executive director level and say I'm not really really up for doing that right now you saw your colleagues and you know what it was fun what was a disaster turned into something that we all bonded together people were talking to each other that had never spoken before in the company we laughed about it for months afterward but I think my ability to act quickly to resolve a very challenging problem with little to zero support and multiply that support so I know that's not your typical business experience I've had many more but that one really just

Speaker 1: sticks out in my mind but that speaks to your leadership and your abilities I mean you were even brought people together that had never spoken before and that's it was wild bringing a company together and you were able to execute an amazing event it was definitely a non-traditional challenge I

Speaker 2: could go on and on with challenges there's been times where we were faced with losing a big piece of client business and the world would collapse without this business and how did we get creative to win it back I've been part of those types of scenarios but I think

Speaker 1: this one is just falls into being a strong leader and to have people trust you and trust you enough to know that if she says this is what we should do I will do it because I believe in her or I believe in him whoever it may be and any company is lucky to have you because that is such a skill thank you do you have a favorite app that you use today I

Speaker 1: this is a fun way to get in touch with people without sending an email or a text but it's an actual physical card that you can send it's really fun I love that and there's seasonal cards as well oh nice that's super fun yeah it's really fun Tracy you have a yoga certification in the world we live in today it is so important to slow down and take care of ourselves can you tell us a little bit about your practice of

Speaker 2: yoga why you appreciate it oh gosh Melanie you know how much I love yoga yoga is such a part of my life it has been for 19 years now I can't believe it it's something that grounds me since I've been practicing yoga I've become a much calmer person so the cumulative effects of it are really beneficial for me I think they are for most people but I don't know if everyone really sticks with it the way that I do I think when I moved to LA nine and a half years ago I made a conscious decision to get more involved with yoga because I needed to feel grounded I was out of my comfort zone I was in a foreign land like you did I mean you moved here when you were 19 I wasn't 19 but I didn't really have any friends here I just started a new job I just moved into a new place I didn't know where the grocery there was all those things yes it's hard and on my mat was one place I could always feel grounded started seeing teachers regularly had my favorites one day one of my favorite teachers Liz Arch announced that she was doing a teacher training and said if you come up to me after class if you're interested I'll get you the application I thought application I have to apply I hope I make it I don't know and I have a dance background like you do I went right into audition mode what do I have to do to audition for yoga yoga teacher training so yes I applied and I was accepted surprise and it was hands down one of the best things I have ever done for myself 10 weeks of intense education about the philosophy of yoga and Sanskrit my decision to participate in yoga teacher training wasn't really so much to become a yoga teacher and I often joke with all of my East Coast friends that when you move to California

Speaker 2: I've only done three I a vegetarian I am a yoga teacher and I see it life coach I'm a pescatarian which kind of you know same same I'm a pescatarian as well so a few of those are missing from my list but I always joke about that it makes me laugh I didn't really want to become a yoga teacher but I really wanted to deepen my practice and understand why I was doing these movements and why the breath made me feel better what was this doing for me how could I get more of it right I really wanted more of it during that journey I recognized that it really calmed me down and removed a lot of the stress and then it became something that I could share with others you talked a little bit in the beginning about finding Joy or bringing joy to people that brought me joy so if I could share

Speaker 1: what brought me joy with other people and see them get this yoga glow at the end of a class that was a joyful experience for me so I did it for a couple of reasons one to feel more calm the whole process of breathing and meditating and having a moving meditation through these ASAS and through these postures was very beneficial to slowing me down and taking away some of that frenetic Pace that I'd been so accustomed to working in a very crazy and challenging business environment so that's really the reason that I did it but life-changing life-changing moments for me and I recommend it to anyone who is even thinking about practicing yoga there's so many ways to get involved and it is for everyone and the biggest misperception that I hear is oh yoga I can't do that I'm just not flexible but what did I say practice right yoga is a practice so if you practice something you get better at it right you get better at it you practice meditating you practice the postures on the mat you will get better at it and it's not even about being better it's just being with yourself and feeling good about who you are how special you are and what your unique special self can offer this world and the people that are involved in your

Speaker 2: life since we are all dreaming of travel right now what is a favorite trip that you've ever been on a favorite place you

Speaker 1: visited and why I love this question I was late to the party and discovered Italy in 2017 I have two favorites that is one favorite because of the magic that Italy brought I was working at Los Angeles magazine for six years and our company was acquired so I had some time off and my boyfriend said if there's anywhere in the world you could go where would you go and I said Italy and he said great let's go oh I love that so it was spontaneous it was magical I really enjoyed every moment because because I didn't have to check my phone or get on Zoom calls or do emails I was free it was absolutely free and the food and the wine and is there a place that you went or a particular restaurant you can describe I loved Venice I loved Florence and there's that special place called chinatera I don't know if you've been there but it means five towns and it's just a magical little place on the coast of the lorian sea it's a little trail of five towns built into the hillsides that's surrounded by water and one of the most unique components about it is that you can do a hike from one town all the way to the end and then you can take a train back or you could hike back if you want I think it's about eight and a half miles but fun it's so special I really recommend that and I need to go back to Italy so I can be along the Amalfi Coast so that's on my list but my second favorite place for a different reason was after going through my yoga teacher training I went on a retreat and I went to Bali that was a life-changing experience mainly because I did that on a whim my teacher offered a retreat I said I'll go and I went alone with strangers that was really bold of me I had never been to Asia I had never been on a plane for that long and I went alone the only person I knew was my yoga teacher that experience exp erience was really life-changing and while I was there it's a very spiritual place a wonderful place where you can really look deep inside yourself and understand what it is that could be missing or what you could do more of or what you can give back so I set an enormous amount of intentions I often look back at my intentions that I scribble down in this little Journal that I kept while I was there and it's all unfolding the way I asked that it would be so I hope that way but yeah that was lifechanging

Speaker 2: thank you for painting that beautiful picture two amazing places for different reasons magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip you can leave with us today about how you

Speaker 1: find and live your joy being authentic about what brings you Joy and practicing that within yourself and then giving

Speaker 1: those things so I am authentically naturally a positive person and that makes me happy I can just smile I mean I can change my mind I think we're similar in that way we can find our joy pretty fast when we need to and that does not mean we have not been through like some of the hardest most challenging times in

Speaker 2: life absolutely my life has by no means been perfect same yes we have both carried many many heavy burdens being

Speaker 1: positive doesn't mean that you just fly around with Fair Wings it's a choice so for me to express Joy I like to cultivate Joy or positivity and give that back and to me that creates Joy I truly believe in filling our mind with positive thoughts and being around positive people not to not be real about what's going on in the world but I just prefer to live more in the positive right and that doesn't mean that I'm ignoring things or ignoring what's going on around me we feel it I just the only way I can get up and move on and accomplish as much as I want to do in a day the only way I can do that is to put myself in a positive mindset cuz if I focus on all of the negative things that are out of my control there's no way I'd be able to accomplish all that I want to in a day and with six-year-old twins that I'm homeschooling but it's all wonderful it's never like I very rarely have a moment to myself and I've just learned over the pandemic to live like this that's why the workouts the 45 minutes I get to work out to an hour every day is so sacred and I might admit that the 45 minutes after the twins go to bed when I watch a show on Amazon Prime or Netflix when I have no control over anything that's happening you have every right and you could complain all day long and whine about it but where will that get you and then you can practice the whining and not the kind that comes in the cup that we both enjoy the whining practice The Whining what will happen what will happen you get better at whining so why not practice being positive and practice being happy and on top of that I'm also a big believer in getting up and getting dressed no matter what get ready for your day make yourself feel good present who you are present your personal brand feel good about who you are pick your shoulders up roll your shoulders back sit up tall talk to people engage with people project a smile it's so easy even if you're not feeling it I could be dying inside you don't know what's going on right now and everybody has something going on that's every one of us do we all do we're all really good about putting on the mask no pun intended but we are and if we can just project a smile and bring a little bit of happiness to someone's day I said it earlier but surround yourself with people who who feel like sunshine really

Speaker 2: good advice I love it I love it you have had the courage to successfully make leaps throughout your impressive career thank you so much for joining us Tracy we have learned so much from you you are so insightful and I've Loved this conversation can you tell us how we can learn more about you and where we can

Speaker 1: find you first of all thank you for having me this has been so much fun I always love talking to you you and I always have great conversations and we've known each other a while I've known you before you became a mother and before she built it was even off the ground and we've had some business engagements ourselves as well so everyone can find me on LinkedIn it's just my name Tracy sang I'm also pretty active on Instagram and people can find me there again thank you for this delightful opportunity and for doing what you do Melanie you're so talented and I just wish I had an ounce of the motivation and the drive that you have to start my own

Speaker 2: business oh thank you thank you if you are new to she built it we'd love for you to join us we offer

Speaker 2: around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave