Shownotes
Transcripts
What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts.
Sara Lohse [:I'm Sara Lohse, and this is Branded, your comprehensive guide to creative branding.
Larry Roberts [:And on this episode of the podcast, we have Aleya Harris with us. Sara, who is Aleya?
Sara Lohse [:Aleya is one of my favorite humans. She is fantastic. She's a genius marketer. She is an award-winning speaker. She does something really interesting. She is a bioenergetic, I believe, business coach. And she helps businesses differentiate themselves through radically authentic messaging strategy. And if that is not absolutely perfect for this show, I don't know what is. So welcome, Aleya. We're so happy you're here.
Aleya Harris [:Thank you so much for having me. I'm very happy to be here.
Larry Roberts [:So awesome. This is you know, I met you in La, what, a month ago? Was it six weeks ago?
Aleya Harris [:Yeah, something like that.
Larry Roberts [:We kind of hit it off right away because we were both really interested in that taco truck.
Aleya Harris [:Yeah. So my first conversation with you, I think, was like, hey, come here real quick. There's a lot of people here, and there will be one taco truck. I need you to give me the signal of when this taco truck opens, because I will be first in line. And I was because Larry's a man of his word, y'all. He gave me the signal.
Larry Roberts [:That's right, I hooked you up.
Aleya Harris [:And the tacos were good, so it was perfect.
Sara Lohse [:What was the signal? Was it like it was a little.
Aleya Harris [:Bit like I don't even think you said anything. You're like? Yeah, like you mean like time I.
Larry Roberts [:Just came up behind you. You were sitting in the audience. I said to one of the speakers. So I was trying to be coy and not be too distracting for the whole audience at the same time. I think I gave you a little tap on the shoulder. Well, what's up?
Aleya Harris [:Yeah, what's up? So you want your tacos? I got your taco, man. Here taco, man.
Larry Roberts [:That was a lot of fun, man.
Sara Lohse [:I'm offended. I did not get that signal. I waited in line, and Larry didn't even wait in line. I waited for.
Larry Roberts [:And I appreciate it. She was helping me out. She knew I was under a lot of know. I got a two day warning for that event that we were going to run the whole thing. So Sarah was very helpful.
Aleya Harris [:Fabulous job.
Larry Roberts [:Thank you.
Aleya Harris [:Fabulous.
Larry Roberts [:Thank you.
Sara Lohse [:And the tacos were delicious. But that's not why we're here. I need you to explain bioenergetic business coaching.
Aleya Harris [:Sure. So at my company, the Evolution Collective, Inc. We actually are the first bioenergetic business consultancy of its kind. We combine energy healing with business strategy to help you create a radically authentic story on your own terms. Bioenergetic. It's kind of funny because if you, like, were to Google it right now, you're going to come up with some wacky stuff, you're going to come up with sciency stuff, you're going to come up with new age stuff. You're going to come up with some stuff that's like that probably is like a corner of the Internet. I don't really want to go down, but for me, what it is, is relating to the energy that penetrates and surrounds your body and how you use it. It relates to energetic sovereignty. You being the sovereign ruler of your own energetic domain and knowing how to keep yourself energetically clean, energetic hygiene so that you avoid, yes, disease and all of that stuff, but so that you then can conduct and manage your energy to your own highest benefit rather than allowing the world and situations and emotions to do it for you. Often how this relates to messaging, I promise there's a connection. Often what happens is people come to me and they're like, hey, Alea, I want you to redo my message. And we're going to sit down. And I'm also a Story certified guy, and we're going to take it through this framework, and it's going to work, and it does, but it really only works for, like, maybe three months, maybe six months, and they're like, gosh, this just doesn't feel right anymore. It felt so right when we did it. The reason for that is because we were building a foundation of messaging strategy on rocky, uneven soil, on top of your limiting beliefs, on top of the things that were holding you back, on top of the paradigm shifts. That haven't happened yet. On top of the ideas that somebody else gave you that are a bunch of crap, that you are actually living your life based on them. And I've done this many times before, right? So there's no judgment here, but that's what happens. And then as the ground shifts a little bit, your story starts to shift and the foundation starts to crack. So instead of doing that, we deal with the ground first. We help you clear limiting beliefs. We help you rewrite a story that is as authentic as possible, and then you can go out and share it with the world.
Sara Lohse [:That is so much smart words that over my head.
Larry Roberts [:I hear it and I start thinking biogenetic engineering. And we just recorded an episode before this one for a future release about our brand story. And when I read your bio and it says bio see, I can't even say it. Bioenergetic. I think biogenetic because at one point in my high school career, I thought I was going to be a biogenetic engineer.
Sara Lohse [:I thought so, but before or after the cowboy phase?
Larry Roberts [:This was way before the cowboy phase. Okay, but I was a sophomore in high school and I was dating this girl that was a sophomore at the local junior college. So number one, I thought I was the cat daddy, right? But she was going down that biology path, so of course now I have to go down that biology path. So yeah, biogenetic engineering was a thing for me. I took Biology one and Two that same year. But when I read that, it takes me back down that path of, okay, I'm looking for something. I'm looking for my story. And obviously, even way back then, most people are as a sophomore in high school looking for their story, looking for.
Aleya Harris [:Their path and their retirement party. Most people are still looking for their story when their grandkids are born.
Larry Roberts [:Yeah, I think it's super interesting that you're leveraging is it science? Would we call it science?
Aleya Harris [:So it's actually based on quantum physics. So, yes, you would call it science, I guess, depending on how scientific you want to go.
Larry Roberts [:I mean, are we talking string theory here or are we talking more about.
Aleya Harris [:Because the last thing I want to do is make people turn this off because they're like, oh, my God, this is way more of my brain than.
Larry Roberts [:I'm just tapping into my inner Sheldon. That's it. That was a big bang.
Aleya Harris [:I love it.
Sara Lohse [:My brain went to Doctor Strange. So how can we use this to be superheroes?
Aleya Harris [:I mean, I am a big we're spiraling here.
Larry Roberts [:We're spiraling.
Aleya Harris [:I'm a big Marvel fan, actually. I'm a big Marvel fan, and I like Jack Snyder's, the Justice League, his director's. Cut. I'm not a huge DC fan in general, but that movie is probably just pure perfection, I think.
Larry Roberts [:I don't disagree. I'm a big fat yeah, so there we go.
Aleya Harris [:Anyways, back to what you were saying. So it's based on the concept that when you look out into space, most people think that it's empty right? In between the stars, which are millions of light years away from each other, it's actually not empty. There's sound and frequency that happens in space. There's sounds and frequencies of the universe. There's sound and frequencies that make up the microphone I'm talking in. And there's sounds and frequencies that make up my hand. Right? Everything in the universe is made up of frequency or waves and different levels of frequency. So, like, when I listen to Know Break My Soul, which currently, I'm really listening to lizzo's It's about Damn Time, that's also always on my playlist. But when that happens, it's not like Lizzo's standing in front of me, singing at me, right? I'm hearing waves of sound that are coming through a speaker to me. I don't see those waves of sound. Same thing is like when I am warming up food in the microwave, right? I don't see the microwaves, but I get hot food. People don't think of your body like that. They're just like, oh, it's flesh and bone and muck.
Sara Lohse [:Right?
Aleya Harris [:And some poop probably in there. Right? That's what people think of when they think of bodies. That is true. But you also emit the same type of waves that the universe does, that Lizzo does through Spotify, and that the microwave does. There are different types of waves. Those energy waves, which you can measure through different devices and all of the different things. You can also align and regulate to be more in alignment with themselves and more in alignment with the same type of energy of the universe, right? So that what happens when you do that, is you just feel better. Like when you feel like crap, it's really hard to run a business. When you feel like crap, it's really hard to tell a story, right? So when you are lost, you're confused, you have brain fog when you aren't sure if an idea that you have is really your idea or if it's just been around long enough that you've adopted it and you really don't like it. All of that is a misalignment of energy and the information that is controlling that energy. So what we do is I actually use a tool that's been based off of about 40 years of research through this program called Nest Health and we help shift your energy. So it's like, basically, you can go and you can spend a bunch of time talking to a therapist and maybe some years, or we can work together for a couple of months and you can also see that therapist and we'll fast track your results and be able to tell this story faster depending on where you start from.
Sara Lohse [:One of the things we've talked about is kind of the idea of brand clarity. And something that you do is you help people really narrow down their focus to what most excites them. How can someone do that? How can someone really figure out that one thing that they want to focus all that energy on?
Aleya Harris [:When you're trying to figure out your one thing, a lot of the times what prevents people from doing that is the pressure to figure out their one thing. Because then they're like, what box do I fit in? I must be about one thing. And what ends up happening is they don't go inside. They go outside looking like, well, I guess I like soccer. I'm the soccer girl. Or I like lipstick. I am now the makeup girl. That's my thing. And I want you to go back a little further. Have you ever seen the movie Soul? Like the Disney movie? I love that movie. I'm a big child.
Sara Lohse [:Same.
Aleya Harris [:Also, my actual child that came out of my body is eight months old. And so she's not even old enough yet for me to use her really as an excuse to see all these kids movies. I just have to own it. That I need excuses. And I mean, I guess not really. I guess not really.
Sara Lohse [:We have Disney Plus. We don't even have to do this in public.
Aleya Harris [:I know. I have Disney Plus as well. It's fabulous. Fabulous. But Soul is a movie, right? And for all of you that don't know, there might be some spoilers. So if you were going to go watch it. Pause, watch, come back. They have these little beings up in heaven or up in the universe or whatever, and they all have their little purpose. And when they find their spark, right, their little bellies light up, and they're ready to go into the world. And it's that very intangible spark that we're not trying to find as human beings. We are trying to remember it. So when you're looking for your one thing and you go out into the world and you ask questions and you try to have experiences and you go on adventures and you travel and you change your diet and you change your haircut, all these things that clients usually do before they come to me, and they are like, but I haven't found it. And I'm like, well, because you're looking in the wrong place. You need to remember that what's on the little belly of your soul that happens to be chilling out in your body and what that little spark was. So when you go inside, you start asking questions. One really good technique is to take your hands and to put it on your belly, right underneath your belly button, close your eyes and to be like, take some deep breaths and ask, hey, you down there? Because this is where the center of your basic self is, right? The oldest kind of soul part of yourself. And you're like, hey, how are you doing? What are you thinking? What are you feeling? What information do you have for me? And often powerful imagery comes up when you're sitting and you're really asking those questions, and it's, hey, thank you so much for talking to me. You've been ignoring me for years. And it's the by the way, I really want some ice cream because there's, like, this childlikeness, right?
Larry Roberts [:You beat me. I was going to say mine is just saying taffy. Just.
Aleya Harris [:But you follow that thread. There's a reason why taffy came up for you. For me, when I did it, it was a hug, right? Because I'm very hard on myself. And when I'm hard on myself, I'm really hard on my basic self. And then so that's the story that ends up coming out into my business. Everything has to be hard. I have to create a business that is almost so difficult to execute that even I can't do it. But when I do, man, I will have accomplished something, right? So then what does that mean? Revenue generation becomes difficult. Client attraction becomes difficult. Building a marketing funnel becomes difficult because that underlying belief of that basic self who I haven't talked to, but I'm pushing into doing hard things is not helping me out. When you develop a relationship with that basic self, you can be, huh, taffy. Well, let me go get some taffy and see how I feel about this then, right? And then don't tell him twice.
Sara Lohse [:He's on his way, right?
Aleya Harris [:Life becomes a little bit more of a dating game of getting to know that person and paying attention. So you try to be the best partner you can as they're like, I would really love some taffy, Larry. You're like, you know, baby girl, I'm gonna give you that taffy. Right? And then you go and you're like, okay, we got taffy. Now what? Now? What do you want? Well, now I actually want to talk to so and So. Do you? Why? I don't know. Right? And if you just follow that leading, you end up getting people always talk about flow. You end up getting in flow and putting yourself into positions and circumstances and situations that are actually for your highest good because you're listening to yourself. Then the voices start not like a crazy person, but the voice inside you starts getting louder, right? Then you start hearing, start feeling, you start sensing. And all that is that little soul in your belly with this little spark on his belly is glowing brighter. And then you start navigating the world from a multidimensional perspective, rather than being like, I'm the soccer girl, I'm the makeup girl, I'm the whatever girl.
Larry Roberts [:Well, I think that it's really powerful. First and foremost, I got to tell you, I'm definitely going to try the taffy line this weekend, see how that works.
Aleya Harris [:You should. It's what your basic self wants you to do. It's not me, it's yourself.
Larry Roberts [:Right. Of course. So we're going to test that theory this weekend, see how that works out. But I think it's so interesting that if we even just take it back know, we're always looking for know. Sarah was alluding to it earlier, like you're telling your biogenetic engineer story. Was that before after the cowboy phase? And was that before after the karate guy phase? Was that before after the fighter phase? Was that before after the car salesman phase? Was that before after the podcast phase? And those are just some of my many phases and efforts to how long.
Aleya Harris [:Is the red hat phase going to last?
Larry Roberts [:Well, the red hat is here to stay.
Aleya Harris [:It looks good on you.
Larry Roberts [:Thank you. Well, see, and that's kind of where I was going to a certain degree, because I was doing the supreme phase there in order to connect with people, and it naturally transitioned into the red hat, because regardless, I'm a hat guy. I've always worn hats. I've always worn ball caps, flat build. I mean, it's just my thing. That's just how I dress regardless. So when I was able to tap into that real representation of who I was now, granted, I probably would have chose a blue hat if I had my choice, because blue is my favorite color. But just the fact that it's a hat, just the fact that I can still give a little bit of flash, a little bit of my own personal style to it, and it came naturally just because it tapped right into that spark. Even if we go way back into the early eighty s, I was a breakdance guy, so I always had my.
Aleya Harris [:Hat, my breakdance hat on. So many cool things today.
Larry Roberts [:So many people are learning right now as they listen to this as well.
Aleya Harris [:And why is there no video of.
Sara Lohse [:I was going to say we need proof.
Larry Roberts [:Well, it was 84, so I don't even think we had camcorders back then, to be honest with you.
Sara Lohse [:We have them now.
Aleya Harris [:I was like, once a break dancer, always a break dancer, buddy.
Larry Roberts [:I held onto it much longer than anybody ever should have. I could promise you that. But even then, I wore a hat. I had the hat. If you remember, you probably don't, but if anybody out there is listening and you remember the movie Break In, which is still one of my all time.
Aleya Harris [:Favorite movies, my husband made me watch that movie several times.
Larry Roberts [:Yes, your husband is my homeboy. I love it. That's great. But there's a dancer that has the hat with the flaps in the back, and I had to have me a flaps in the back hat. It's like a desert hat. I wore it everywhere I freaking went because I was always a hat guy. So when the red hat did emerge, it really tapped into that spark, that energy that I have naturally within me to represent my style, my flair, whatever you want to call it. But it was just a natural transition to my personal brand that then became an extension of my professional brand as well. So I love what you're saying. I love tapping into that spark and how people can do that and find their real brand, and then it's just up to you to embrace it. I catch a lot of shit for the hat. I know people are talking shit behind my back, going, he's 50 years old. He's dressing like he's 35. Somebody just dogged me out on Facebook the other day. Some dude I didn't even know capped off me on Facebook because I can't take you seriously. Or you're a 50 year old dude, you dress like you're 18. Okay, well, that's how I feel on the inside. So that's my spark.
Aleya Harris [:That's my haters going to hate 100%. They can keep hating somewhere else. I actually take it as a compliment, because the more you put yourself out into the world, the more that people have something to react to. And that's good marketing. If you didn't give them something to react to in favor or against, then you're not doing a very good job. You're not initiating a conversation, which is what marketing is. Your hat and your vibe and your spark all allows you to initiate a conversation. All they can do is participate in a conversation that's already initiated because they don't have their own ideas, but they know what they don't like, which is nothing.
Sara Lohse [:I was just having a conversation. I was a guest speaker for a couple it's a group of high schoolers that were interning somewhere, and they asked me because I purposefully put myself kind of in the public, because I have podcasts and social media and all of these different things that I do online, how do I handle negative feedback? And basically like online bullying and all of that. And I think because it kind of goes back to that whole idea of authenticity. If we are putting ourselves out there as our authentic selves, and we are very aware of that, we are not perfect, and we don't think we are perfect, it actually becomes really difficult to bully someone because not too much we'll mess up a podcast episode and we'll put out a blooper reel. We know, even though this is what we do, that we're pretty good at what we do, but we also mess up. We're not perfect. And I think just knowing that and other people knowing, like, she doesn't think she's perfect. She knows she's flawed. What are you going to say then? How are you going to bring negativity to that?
Aleya Harris [:You kind of can't. That's like what comedians do all the time, right? They purposely are making fun of themselves in their lives. How are you going to add to this conversation? Because I've already done the work for you. That's one track. And another track is just understanding where it comes from. So when you are so rock solid in your own identity, you can be like, Why are you reacting like that? For me, I don't know. I'm a very curious person. And so when someone has a reaction to me like that, that's a negative. I'm like, where that's coming from in them. That's interesting.
Larry Roberts [:Oh, wow.
Aleya Harris [:I didn't expect that to jar some stuff up in people. Maybe I should do that again. And then I'm also a little bit petty, so there's that.
Sara Lohse [:I'm a little bit petty, so it's okay.
Larry Roberts [:Yeah, I'm a lot of bit self deprecating. I do that all the time because I did get bullied growing up. I mean, now I'm a pretty big guy, but growing up, up until honestly, ten years ago, I was about a buck $55 60. So almost six foot four, at least used to be. I've shrunk a little bit, but six foot three at 155 pounds, that's a little stick figure. And I got bullied a lot. So bullying, I created these defense mechanisms to overcome that bullying by being self deprecating right out of the gate. It's what you were alluding to. You already throw the insults out there so they can't throw them at you. Same thing we saw with Eminem in Eight Mile. That was his whole shtick there was he busted out every rhyme he could to overcome any kind of counter rhymes, and I still do that today. And Chris Cremitzos, he's the founder of Podfest. He's the founder and an owner of podfest. I work with Chris a lot, but he's constantly on me about being overly self deprecating.
Aleya Harris [:And that's something that the word that you said, the word that you said about defense mechanism. I want to call your attention to those words. Because defense mechanisms are great when you're in battle, but then you don't wear your armor to bed, right? You are, but you shouldn't, right? If you're imagining this great epic battle, right? It's all bloody and it's dirty. You take it off, you rinse, you take a shower, you go to sleep, right, without your armor on. And then the next day, unless you are feeling like your life needs to be a battle, you find a way to stop fighting. So that's the next for me. I'm five foot ten, and it's funny because I actually am well, I actually don't know how much I weigh. Maybe like 170. I actually don't know. I don't own a scale because they're pieces of crap and not a big fan.
Larry Roberts [:Mine sucks.
Aleya Harris [:Just all of them. I don't care. I'm not a fan of them. But let's say I'm like 170. I've been this height since the 8th grade and was always the tallest. I'm still most of the time the tallest. Definitely female in the room. But I think that instead of becoming self deprecating, I just became loving. Loving. So it's really hard to be mad at the person who's sitting there trying to understand you or who sets proper boundaries, who says, no, you can't talk to me like that, right? But then that story had to be unearthed within me. I had to discover it. I was never self deprecating, but then I had to also realize, well, how much of that hurt and pain was getting inside of me and how much of it do I need to actually look in and remove? And it's always the story that you think that you've blocked, the story you think that you've written on your own that you realize you haven't. So my current company, the Evolution Collective Inc. Is a bioenergetic business consultancy. We do a lot of strategy work. Before it was Flourish Marketing, we also did strategy work, but I was terrified of calling it strategy. I would say marketing strategy and I would say messaging strategy, but not just straight up business strategy. Why? When I was the head of marketing for North America, for a really large company, I was getting laid off and my boss was the head of strategy, and he said as he was laying me off, which feels super illegal, but we're letting it go. I'm the head of strategy, and you're not a strategic thinker. You just don't have the brain for strategy. So the white European guy in a blue suit and at the time I was like, you don't know me. You don't know what I could do. But it went inside of me to the point that when I was in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses program that pushed me to really claim my role as a strategist, which is what I've actually been doing for years. But before then, I didn't claim it. Why? Because somebody else got their little mittens inside my little story. They doled. My little spark that was on my soul's little belly and told me something that wasn't true. And I built a whole company on it. I went and built a whole identity around being something that was as close as possible to who I really was and the skills I really was using without claiming it, because that's something that only white, British, old men do and I'm incapable of filling that role. So even no matter if you're using a defense mechanism of self deprecation or you're trying to love your way through it or to set up boundaries, crap gets inside of you. So it's about excavating it to tell that story that makes sense that you actually want to tell on your terms, not on somebody else's terms. I was telling the story that that Douchebag wrote for me, right. As opposed to story that I wanted to write for myself.
Sara Lohse [:I know we've talked about this, but I had something similar with I was told I was just a copywriter. And why would I get hired as a marketing manager? Marketing director? Because I'm just a copywriter. And now anytime I have any type of win or any type of advancement in my career, when I get promoted, when I launched a company, it's always in the back of my head. It's like, wow, how did I manage to do that? I'm just a copywriter.
Aleya Harris [:Yeah. Use it to fuel your flame. Move forward. Spark it. I love it.
Larry Roberts [:I love it. Man, that's amazing. ALEA, where can people find out more about you and find out how to get in contact with you so they can learn how to find their spark?
Aleya Harris [:Well, the best way to do that is on LinkedIn or Instagram. You can go to Instagram at Aleya Harris. A-L-E-Y-A-H-A-R-R-I-S. You can also find me on LinkedIn. Same name. There's not a whole lot of me, not a lot of people named Aleya Harris. You can find me I love here on this podcast.
Larry Roberts [:That would be awesome. So with that, I got to tell you, man, this was an amazing episode for me. I had a fun time walking down memory lane and exploring my inner spark a bit. Sara, how did you feel about it?
Sara Lohse [:I am just as usual, anytime I have a conversation with Aliyah, I am just in awe of her. So, so thankful she was here with us. And I know we'll be probably on a call next week and I can tell you even more about how much I love you.
Aleya Harris [:Well, now we definitely are going to get on a call next week. I never. Shirk at those opportunities.
Sara Lohse [:We'll have another little love session every other week.
Aleya Harris [:It's great.
Larry Roberts [:ALEA, thank you so very much for joining us. Really, really appreciate it.
Aleya Harris [:Thank you so much for having me.
Larry Roberts [:Hey, and everybody, if you got some value out of this episode, and I know you did, I know you got some value because I know right now you're thinking, where is my inner spark? You're going through the exercise. You're putting your hand on your tongue, just under your belly button. And maybe yours isn't talking about taffy, but what is it talking about? Let us know in the comments. And with that, if you found some value, do us a favor, smash that subscribe button so we can continue to bring you these amazing episodes of Branded each and every week. I'm Larry Roberts.
Sara Lohse [:I'm Sara Lohse.
