IAM2942 – Creative Strategist Helps Entrepreneurs Grow Their Brands

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Transcription:

Bri Seeley 00:00
Being a CEO means to me, uh, complete, utter, and total freedom. And yes, that’s time freedom and money freedom and creating all those freedoms. But also for me, being a CEO is the freedom to be myself unapologetically. And I get to live my core values every day and I get to use my voice every day and I get to be myself every day. And that is how I serve people and it’s The coolest freaking thing in the world. I love it.

Gresham Harkless 00:59
Hello, Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Bri Sealy of briesealy.com. Bri, it’s awesome to have you on the show.

Bri Seeley 01:08
Hello. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:10
Yeah, no problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Bri so you can hear about all the awesome things that she’s doing. And Bri Sealy is a creative business growth strategist for entrepreneurs. She’s a born catalyst who will help you grow your brand, maximize your impact, and grow your profits by both transforming yourself and your business. Her expertise in counseling, psychology, and entrepreneurship will support you in creating the success you desire on your terms. She is the author of the bestselling Permission to Leap and has been seen on the Today Show, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Yahoo, and many more. Bri, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Bri Seeley 01:43
I sure am.

Gresham Harkless 01:45
Awesome. Let’s do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to get started with the business.

Bri Seeley 01:51
Yeah, I am kind of a lifelong CEO or Lifelong CEO, I guess. Usually I say entrepreneur. That’s so interesting. I grew up going to work after school with my mom. She was a single mom and basically helped her run the business that she ran. I would help her restock merchandise, count the tills at the end of the night, train her employees, which were generally 4 times older than I was, like, and just kind of got the bug. And when I was in high school, she had another company and she would throw me the keys in the summer and say, you know, call me if it’s on fire. And so I just, at a very young age, kind of like sparked this entrepreneurial desire within me. And so I started my first business at the age of 23. Uh, had a fashion brand because I had studied, my bachelor’s and master’s were both in fashion design. Been sewing since I was 5 years old and launched my own fashion label. Did really, really, really well. Got, you know, picked up by Zappos and dressed Toni Braxton and LA Fashion Week and Apparel News and Women’s Wear Daily and all these things.

Speaker B 02:55
Wow.

Bri Seeley 02:56
But I realized about 8 years in that I just wasn’t excited by it anymore. I still loved fashion, but I didn’t like the business of fashion. And so with some guidance from the universe, 72 hours later, I closed my business down and walked completely into the unknown, had no plans or ideas about what was next. And basically what came out of it was me helping other entrepreneurs essentially do great things with their businesses. And so I’m about to enter year 6 of this business, which is great and awesome. I’ve had other secondary businesses along the way, but really helping entrepreneurs is my passion.

Gresham Harkless 03:33
Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that and obviously super excited to have you on. And I think it probably does take a lot of, uh, guts to be able to, to kind of take that leap to, to move from something that, you know, that you’ve been doing. But I feel like it kind of speaks to what you, you said with your story where I lot of times we evolve and sometimes we forget that evolutionary process and sometimes what worked for us yesterday sometimes won’t work for us tomorrow and may not even light our fire as much.

Bri Seeley 03:58
Yeah, totally. And I, you know, one of the things I’ve really learned on my journey as an entrepreneur is the importance of having that alignment and, and continuing to know that what it is that you’re doing is exactly what it is you’re also, that’s also lighting you up and that also, you know, is making the biggest impact in the world as well, because, you know, you just being excited about something, if it’s not making an impact in the world, it’s not really a business. So for me, it’s kind of always straddling those different areas and making sure that everything is still moving in the right direction.

Gresham Harkless 04:32
Yeah, I, I can imagine definitely, probably definitely with your background and everything and your expertise, you probably have a lot of clients that have to work through that as well too, and try to figure out where that alignment is, what is that alignment and how to align everything. So, I know that’s probably one thing that you do. Could you expand a little bit more and tell us like how you work with your clients and, and a lot more, a little bit more about your book as well too?

Speaker B 04:53
Yeah.

Bri Seeley 04:53
One thing that’s really important to me that I have learned over, you know, my entrepreneurial career and just working with a ton of people is that business has, is, it’s so multifaceted that you need to have a holistic strategy. So right now, if we look out into the market, There’s all these people saying, well, if you just have LinkedIn, you’ll, you’ll have a successful business. And if you just have Instagram, you’ll have a successful business. And if you just have the best sales team, you’ll have this, you know, successful business. And I think that all of those things are true and none of those things are true because people really like to silo things and say like, LinkedIn is the solution to all of the problems of your business. And my answer is actually it’s not at all. There’s so many other things you need to look at in terms of building your business. It has to be a holistic picture. I like to use the analogy of a puzzle. When you have a puzzle, there’s tons of pieces and they all have to be present and they all have to be fitting together in order to create the whole picture. I don’t know about you. I actually love doing puzzles. And so like I have a puzzle right now where there’s a piece missing and it’s the most unsatisfying thing ever because I know that picture will never be complete. And I approach business in the exact same way. You need to know your customer psychographics. You need to know what your team structure is. You need to know your organizational structure. You need to know the wealth incoming and outgoing in your business. You need to know your profit margins. You need to know all of your marketing strategies. What’s your zone of G? Like, there’s so many ingredients that go into business that you can’t just deny 99% of them and say, oh, this one thing is going to be like the silver bullet for you to be successful. So that’s really my approach to business because I’ve seen so many people do all the things they should be doing because the experts tell them they should be doing them. And then they don’t get anywhere in their business. And oftentimes it’s because they’re not looking at the full picture of what needs to be in place in order for that business to be successful.

Gresham Harkless 06:51
That makes so much sense. And I think so many times, as you said, you know, the experts say, oh, you need to be doing this, or you need to be doing that. And a lot of times we’ll do that, or sometimes even take away our energies, our time, our resources from the things that actually are moving the needle forward to do those things because they are that shiny object. They are that thing that you have to be doing that sometimes we’ll lose focus over what we’re ultimately trying to do.

Bri Seeley 07:14
Yeah, totally. And, um, the thing that I’ve really found, I’ve done a lot of research recently on like why businesses fail and, and, you know, why entrepreneurs don’t succeed, all those things. And really, a lot of the reasons they don’t succeed are because they’re not approaching things from a holistic level. And so, I don’t know, I’m just really passionate about it and I’m gonna, I’m getting a lot more outspoken about all the kind of like shiny object syndrome marketing that’s out there and how it’s actually hurting businesses. And there’s a lot of businesses spending a lot of money on these, you know, guaranteed success results things in their business that actually aren’t making an impact or helping them move forward.

Gresham Harkless 07:56
Yeah, that, that makes so much sense. And, and how do you, I guess, help people to get to that holistic, I guess, mindset or approach to business? Is there like a process or a way that you’ve been able to see that people have been able to do it well?

Bri Seeley 08:08
So for me, I’ve kind of divided the things down into 3 basic pillars, the people pillar, the found— like foundational organizational structure pillar, and then the strategy pillar. And so When I work with someone, we work through all 3 pillars. And I, I actually list them in order of importance too, right? Like everyone wants to start with the strategy pillar. I jokingly call it the sexy pillar because everyone wants to talk Instagram and LinkedIn and social media and networking and partnerships and like all these things. And I’m like, none of those things will work if you don’t first have the people pillar in place. And if you don’t first have the organizational structural pillar in place.

Gresham Harkless 08:47
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Bri Seeley 08:48
So I have to kind of get people, like you said, into a different mindset.

Gresham Harkless 08:52
Yeah.

Bri Seeley 08:53
To be like, we will talk about Instagram and Instagram will never be effective if we don’t have a good sales process and we don’t have a good product and you’re not speaking to your psychographics of your customer. And like all of, like, and this is the thing, right? A lot of entrepreneurs get in business because they’re passionate about something, not because they know what it takes to run a business. And They’re very different conversations. So for me, it’s really important. If you wanna have a business that’s around in 10 years, which by the way, 66% of people listening to this will not be around in 10 years, you have to look at the first 2 pillars and you have to look at them well and in depth in order for you to have a business and not just a passion.

Gresham Harkless 09:34
Yeah, absolutely. No, I, I appreciate you, you bringing that up cuz I think a lot of times people do get attracted to the strategy part because that’s why they wanted to be in business or they get to do what, you know, they talk about in The E-Myth of getting to be able to, to be that person that’s working on those things. But if you don’t have those foundational things in place, then everything will fall apart. So I definitely appreciate that. Yeah, it’s a phenomenal book, right?

Bri Seeley 09:55
For listeners who haven’t read it, like highly recommend The E-Myth. It’s one of the first books I read, I would say back in like 2010 when I first started working with a coach back then.

Gresham Harkless 10:05
Yeah, it completely, it hits, it makes so much sense and it does it in, in a parable and a, and a story. So it, it makes, it’s so attractive because a lot of times We start things because we’re super passionate about it, but not realizing that’s not what necessarily running a business is.

Bri Seeley 10:17
Yep.

Gresham Harkless 10:18
Awesome. So you might’ve already touched on this, but I, I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you personally or your business, but is it like that holistic approach that makes you unique and helps you, uh, kind of set yourself apart?

Bri Seeley 10:31
That’s definitely part of it. Another thing that I’m really super passionate about too, and we talked about alignment, is for me, I be— I believe in something that’s larger than myself as well. And so one of my secret sauce things is every single morning is kind of stepping into that bigger energy, that remembering that me running a business at the end of the day is ultimately not actually about me. I just get to be the one that brings this gift forward for the furtherance of humanity. And so a really big secret to my growth and success is I see the universe as my business partner. Mm-hmm. And I fully believe that I can’t do this alone. And if I were to try to human my way through it, or as I, I’m a Harry Potter nerd, if I were to try to muggle my way through it, like I wouldn’t be where I am today. So that’s another big secret of my success, I guess.

Gresham Harkless 11:27
Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And you might have already touched on this, but this could be like an app, your book, some information about your book or a habit that you have that makes you more effective and efficient?

Bri Seeley 11:39
So one of my biggest hacks I think is in terms of time management, they’re kind of 2. The first one is batching. Batching has really saved me a lot of time and energy. And then the other one is kind of multipurposing things. So I, I’ve done this in a few different ways. One, when I make a YouTube video, that YouTube video becomes my content. for literally every other platform. It’s my newsletter, it’s my podcast, it’s my blog, it’s my social media for the week. It’s everything. Um, so that’s one way I kind of double purpose. And another big tip that everyone’s told me they love is that when I am training a new employee or like a new member of my team or whatever, what I do to train them, because a lot of people don’t hire team members because they’re like, oh, I don’t have time to train them. I don’t have time. I don’t have time.

Gresham Harkless 12:32
Right.

Bri Seeley 12:32
Which is hilarious when you look at it. But anyways, What I do is I do the activity on my laptop and I record it. I screen record it and I audio record it, and then that becomes their training. So I’m concurrently doing the task while also training the person. Then I cut the video and the audio together. I upload it. And the cool thing is if my VA were to quit tomorrow, which she’s not because she just sent me the most lovely thank you letter.

Gresham Harkless 12:58
Congrats.

Bri Seeley 12:59
Um, I have all of the trainings that I would need to hire a new person tomorrow.

Gresham Harkless 13:03
Yeah.

Bri Seeley 13:04
And it would take me zero extra time.

Gresham Harkless 13:06
Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Bri Seeley 13:15
So one of the gifts that was given to me in 2014, I think it was, um, I was at a, at a conference, Arianna Huffington was speaking. And I ended up reaching out to her, but, but as I was sitting there trying to reach out to her, I had this like devil and angel like pulling at me. And basically what came to me, you know, the devil was telling me like, don’t reach out to her. Like, who do you think you are? She’s never gonna respond to you. But basically what like the angel said on my other shoulder was, if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. And making that outreach to her basically allowed me to start writing for the Huffington Post. One of my blogs went viral. That’s what landed me on the Today Show, which you know, 6 months later led me into coaching. Like, it really, that was a huge pivotal thing. And I just imagine if I hadn’t asked in 2014 where I would be and who I would be.

Gresham Harkless 14:09
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we’re hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So Bri, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Bri Seeley 14:20
Being a CEO means to me, uh, complete utter and total freedom. And yes, that’s time freedom and money freedom and creating all those freedoms. But also for me, being a CEO is the freedom to be myself unapologetically. And, you know, I get to live my core values every day and I get to use my voice every day and I get to be myself every day. And that is how I serve people. And it’s the coolest freaking thing in the world. I love it.

Gresham Harkless 14:50
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Bri, I truly appreciate that definition and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there’s anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get ahold of you, get a copy of your book, find out about all the awesome things you’re working on.

Bri Seeley 15:05
Yes. So the best way to find me, there’s 2 places. One is my website, briesealey.com. The other one is Instagram because that is my preferred strategy of choice. So you can come hang with me there. I love Instagram. I, it’s just one of my favorite places in the world. And then if you are interested in getting a copy of Permission to Leap to help you get out of where you are and into other places, uh, you can go on Amazon and it’s available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook.

Gresham Harkless 15:35
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And we will have those links in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you on Instagram, your website, and of course, get a copy of your book. And I truly appreciate you, appreciate all the awesome work that you’re doing. And I, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.