EWM INSIGHTS with special Special Guest Gabriela Lino of RMG Consulting

Empowering Change: Gabriella Lino's Journey from Costa Rica to RMG Consulting

Welcome to EWM INSIGHTS where we celebrate HUMAN CAPITAL!

Join us in this special episode as we sit down with Gabriella Lino, a dynamic entrepreneur and founder of RMG Consulting. 

Gabriella is revolutionizing the marketing and public relations landscape with her innovative strategies and relentless drive. Known for empowering businesses and nonprofits, she shares her journey and insights from building global connections to fostering community growth.

Discover how Gabriella's unique experiences, including her time spent living in Costa Rica, have shaped her approach to business and community engagement. Learn about her passion for integrating empathy with strategic planning, and how she bridges the gaps between "personability", sustainability, and public appeal for her clients.

Gabriella also discusses her involvement with local nonprofits like Packs for Kids and her commitment to education and children's welfare. 

Tune in to hear about her challenges, successes, lessons learned - and how Gabriela's innovative approach is empowering organizations to achieve sustainable success while fostering meaningful connections!

Topics Covered:

• Perceptional Consulting

• Bridging Community and Business

• Costa Rica to Kamiak

• Strategic Networking

• Authentic Marketing in the AI Era

• Passion Projects and Community Involvement

Note: This is personal discussion, and NOT an offer to purchase or sell insurance or investment products. 

It is Ellis Wealth Management’s expressed position that investments should be understood and discussed with an accredited financial professional before purchase. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Investments can loose value which includes risk to principle

Contact: 

Ellis Wealth Management

Paul Ellis: 425-405-7720

email: paul.Ellis@elliswealthmanagement.net 

Gabriella Lino

RMG Consulting

Phone: 425-308-6174

Website: rmgconsultingfirm.com

LinkedIn: Gabriella Lino

Additional Notes and resources have been attached below.

We hope our conversations will help you acquire more knowledge, become even more curious about the gifts that are in and all around us, while supporting you to reach new heights as we grow together.

You can subscribe and listen to EWM INSIGHTS on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or the Ellis Wealth Management Homepage: https://elliswealthmanagement.net/podcasts/

Above all, through EWM INSIGHTS we want to encourage you to:

INVEST IN WHAT YOU LOVE!®

RESOURCES

RMG Consulting

[rmgconsultingfirm.com]

(http://rmgconsultingfirm.com)

Edmonds Community College

[edmonds.edu]

(https://www.edmonds.edu/)

Packs for Kids

[packsforkids.org]

(http://packsforkids.org)

Mukilteo Chamber of Commerce 

[mukilteochamber.org]

(https://mukilteochamber.org/)

Build Her a Future

[buildherafuture.org]

(http://buildherafuture.org)

Well, all right.

What a great, great day it is in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

We are in the fall winter season and just getting ready to enjoy the wonderful holidays.

I have with us today a guest, a friend, and another person I consider one of the young lions in business.

We've got Gabriella Lino.

She's a dynamic young entrepreneur and founder of RMG Consulting, a woman owned firm revolutionizing marketing, public relations and nonprofit supports.

She's known for her innovative strategies and relentless drive.

Gabriella has built a reputation for empowering businesses and nonprofits to achieve sustainable success while bringing global connections and fostering community growth.

She's also working on a series of children's books and some new major endeavors are in the works in the field of health and wellness.

Gabriella, I am so glad you could join us today.

Thank you so much for having me on, Paul.

It's my pleasure.

Oh, I am really thrilled to be able to have a conversation with you today.

You know, you and I met at a Mukilteo Chamber event, the Mukilteo Gala, a couple of years ago, and your company set up a beautiful display of charcuterie.

And at the end of the evening, we had karaoke and all kinds of fun at the end of the of the gala.

And I think you and I actually we sang a couple songs together, didn't we?

Oh, we broke it down, Paul.

We did indeed.

We did indeed.

So in addition to all of your credentials and achievements, Gabriela has an absolutely amazing, amazing singing voice.

So, Gabriela, share a little bit about yourself, what it is that RMG Consulting does flesh that out for us a little bit.

And then I've got some other questions for our listeners, of course.

Well, in short, I do view myself as a bit of a mini MacGyver, although from a business perspective, I'm a multifaceted professional with my main focus being on what I like to call perceptional consulting, which encompasses not only marketing but also public relations, rebranding, crisis aversion or fundraising event management.

And I will say that my platform is working with a mix of local nonprofits and commercial businesses while being on the boards of organizations such as Tax Break Kids and working with NGOs, advocating and aiding in brand consulting for build her a future in Kolesha.

But I initially founded RMG Consulting with my main goal being to build a firm that bridges gaps between personability, sustainability, and public appeal.

Can you explain that a little bit to me?

What do you mean by personability, sustainability and public appeal?

Well, by that I mean being the connector for local Businesses to gain a solid grasp of current media marketing in order to be a long standing sustainable company.

I believe that there is far too many astounding entrepreneurs out there who have such unique talent, but don't feel as if they have the time or the roadmap to find and build their community.

So does that mean that you're assisting these companies in getting a real grasp on the social media aspect of their marketing and their messaging and connecting that to their mission?

Yeah, I would say that my time mainly centers around strategic planning, local community partnership, and then leveraging those tech advancements to be able to help businesses and nonprofits streamline their media presence to achieve sustainable growth.

That sounds like an amazing benefit to small and medium businesses, even some startups.

How did you get started in that field or taking that particular path?

Well, to be honest, my journey into this field was driven by my desire to create a meaningful change.

Really early on I recognized the gaps of support for nonprofits and small businesses and I mean most folks that you talk to around Snohomish county will definitely understand the dedication that it takes to owning your own business and the loopholes that you have to jump through.

And so this combined with my passion for sustainable innovation and problem solving and I will say being young has its advantages in the sense that modern technology and media is so ingrained in my brain that I know there is no other way than to adapt with it, which is honestly what led me to establish RMG Consulting.

So what was your path?

You graduated in the area you went on to.

Did you go on to university or was it community college or what was your path?

Well, my path is a bit complicated.

I did go to school here.

I was in the Makosio School district From K through 12.

I did running start at Edmonds Community College and I studied business and psychology because I could not decide which way I wanted to go, whether it be people or corporation.

But on the other half of my life, my parents and I actually lived in Costa Rica for four months out of the year since I was about three years old.

So I got to experience life and school in another country which not only gave me an entirely different understanding of the world from a very young age, but it was incredibly surreal.

The differences of day to day life.

Wow.

So are your parents from Costa Rica or do you have family in Costa Rica?

Why Costa Rica?

I actually do not have family there.

My parents background is actually from Peru and Europe, but my parents found Costa Rica about 30 years ago and my they lived there for a couple summers and they Made some lifelong friends that are now extended family to us.

Wow.

Okay, so what?

So you started there, you said, at the age of three and you'd be there for a number of months.

What was that like?

It was surreal, especially from a young age, being consciously aware of the differences.

So, for example, I went to elementary school there and having my uniform every day with the school lunches being provided by volunteer grandmothers from the community and the entire class being so eager to have to walk a few kilometers down the road to be able to have physical education, because we would go to a public pool in a public soccer field, and that was our gym class.

But it was an honor and a privilege to be able to go and do that once a week with the funding from the community and being able to have the volunteers to come and watch over the children.

But the vast difference is coming back to the United States and the major polarity of having some of my best friends sit next to me in the cafeterias here and not have enough money for even the school lunches.

So they are stuck going hungry, having a single carton of milk.

There has been a major contrast, I believe, in just the culture and lifestyle habits and how support systems vary so greatly.

There are just so many things that I can't even begin to count where I has brought me on this journey of finding a way to fix what is so backward.

So that's fascinating.

When you were in Costa Rica, your facilities were more, shall we say, rudimentary.

Public soccer field for gym, having to walk, you know, kilometers to school.

Some people would think that that would mean that the enjoyment or the learning would have been subpar.

And what you're sharing is that that is not quite the case.

That's not the measure of the experience that you had.

And here in the Snohomish county area, you recognize that there were some friends of yours who by all outward appearances would have looked like they were having a better experience, but in reality, it was not the same.

It was a subpar experience.

Do I understand that correctly?

Yeah, exactly.

I would say to the facilities in Costa Rica, from an outside perspective, people could definitely have the bias that they were receiving a lower grade of education.

Whereas in actuality, a third grader in Costa Rica already speaks three languages because they are taught English starting in kindergarten, and that is a continuous education throughout all of their schooling.

When they do go through school and graduate, by the time they have gotten their diploma or the equivalency of their diploma, they are already in a tech school.

School.

Oh, wow, that is Excellent.

In Costa Rica, the children are far more depth in understanding also the social aspects of the community.

From a young age.

They know what it means to have a profitable job, to be able to provide for the family.

But also that is not necessarily the life goal.

The life goal is to have a family, work, life balance that benefits multiple generations at a time.

They are much more human centered in every aspect of their lives, whether it comes.

And that ties in to the food.

Where they do not have a government program at each school designed to help the children eat.

It is genuinely a community process of who comes to volunteer every week to make sure everybody is fed equally.

Does not matter where they come from, everybody wears a uniform.

So what I'm hearing you share with me is that the sense of community is really, really important and family is really important.

And while the government may not have this program or that program in place, the community itself, the family itself, fill those gaps and build those relationships and take care of those needs.

As for the uniform that you mentioned, many schools that have uniforms use it as a baseline where we get past the clothing issue and now we get onto the learning issue.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

So it's along those lines where they have uniforms to almost as a status symbol that they are going to school and that their family is doing what they can to make sure that every member is educated.

At the same time having those uniforms, you also have those barriers brought down of it does not matter if you have lesser than to your classmates because everybody comes in on an even playing field and everybody comes in with that same status that they are enrolled in that school and that they will be educated.

That makes sense.

That makes sense.

I was raised Catholic and I went to Catholic schools for, you know, the first part of my education.

And I noticed the feeling regarding the uniform.

Everybody wore the same uniform.

It wasn't, you know, there wasn't a comparison on these jeans versus those jeans, these shoes versus those shoes.

I mean, it was, it was a non starter.

You obviously wanted your uniform to be clean.

You obviously knew what school this person was going to because of the colors of the uniform.

But beyond that, we get on with the learning, so to speak.

Yeah, I am a big advocate for uniforms.

I don't mind them.

I don't mind them at all.

So let me ask you this question.

So that's a fabulous experience to have at a really young age.

And how has that shaped you in regards to your particular business and in the areas that have helped you become successful?

Because it's definitely a driving emotional Starting point, having that experience, being outside of the country and being in the country, seeing the benefits and the differences, how has that drived you?

I would say it's driven me in the sense that I have honed my ability to integrate empathy with strategic planning.

And that has honestly been the pivotal moment for me, which was.

Which has allowed me to understand and cater to the needs of nonprofits and entrepreneurs effectively.

I strongly believe that empathy is one of the most important aspects when dealing with any corporation, whether that be a nonprofit or a business itself.

But understanding what people are seeing, understanding how anybody might take what you are putting out, is very important for branding and very important to understand who you are giving your money to as a customer.

And I believe that one of the main things in our generation that we need to keep a hold of is personability among companies.

I think that major corporations are fighting very hard to stay personable and relatable, whereas mom and pop shops that have been around for 20, 30 years, who offer that and have a community behind them are not online, which is what will create the ability for them to stay relevant and sustainable for the next coming decades.

So, on one hand, big corporations have a really hard time connecting to people through culture and understanding local markets.

On the other hand, smaller mom and pop companies have a harder time marketing and staying ahead with social media, or at least having a presence in social media.

So they.

They both have gaps, is what I'm hearing you say.

Yeah.

And both of those gaps, I believe, meet in the middle, where I am able to bridge what is missing in the sense that I believe smaller corporations will be able to benefit from having a level of online presence that continues their personability and their person, personal communities that they have worked so hard to be able to build.

Whereas major corporations that are taking over have so much visibility online.

But there is a majority of folks out there who would rather give their money to smaller, more honest, respectable businesses, but they're a lot harder to find.

And so the convenience of being visible but still being able to be true to your brand is what I believe I can offer to the community.

Yes, it's really a challenge for smaller businesses to stay ahead of the marketing that.

You are 100% correct there.

And it's very difficult for large corporations to have a.

Have a pulse on what's happening in certain markets.

That's true as well.

So, Gabriela, what are some of the biggest challenges you faced when you started out?

Some of the biggest challenges include keeping pace with the rapid evolution of AI while integrating it and keeping A very human centered marketing strategy.

Additionally, I believe balancing the push for global reach while maintaining a very genuine and personalized service for my local clients.

It really does come down to defining yourself by what you say no to sometimes.

Yes.

And I for sure have not been able to say no to a lot of things that I have learned from.

That's a challenge.

That can be a real challenge.

Establishing credibility in a space that is not well understood can be a real challenge.

Meaning if you've been in business this long without having effective social media presence, it's easy to believe that you can continue without having a marketing plan for social media.

That's not necessarily correct.

You could be the last of the buggy maker or the last of the buggy whip makers.

But it doesn't mean that eventually the need for that particular type of marketing is not going to have to be replaced.

It is going to have to be replaced or at least added to at some point.

And I think that is a challenge helping people understand that.

So what are some of the unique skills that have helped you be successful in transitioning businesses who have not had a strong marketing presence to having a strong marketing presence through you?

What's been some of the unique skills that have helped you be successful there?

Some of the unique skills, I would say come back around to integrating empathy with the strategic planning.

But my proficiency in PR and fundraising has really, really enabled me to create opportunities and resources that can empower my clients.

Key skills that I believe I hold are very strong leadership capabilities and my knack specifically for creating community connections.

I am very big on people and what possibly we can do for each other.

One of my main goals is to be able to create a system where it is a win win for my clients.

Nonprofit.

And most of my planning that I bring to my clients is to showcase a win win for everybody involved.

You know, you shared a story with me that had to do with shoelaces and common sense, and I really liked how you shared that.

You know, the foundational pieces that need to be there in order for something to work and then the common sense on where to and how to apply that knowledge.

And I thought that was really a terrific way of visualizing putting unique skills to work, both shoelaces and common sense.

What do you think about AI from the aspect of authenticity one can create with AI?

Just about anything, but it doesn't necessarily at times have the feel of authenticity.

So in other words, I had mentioned at the beginning of our conversation today that you and I had an opportunity to enjoy karaoke and sing along with others and then sing a couple songs ourselves.

And we, I think we held our own.

But with AI, we literally could upload a couple of pictures of ourselves and then type in, make a duet singing at an event, and here's the song.

And the AI could create that without us actually being even being there holding microphones.

So from a marketing standpoint, while that's fun creatively, from an AI standpoint, it does create questions about the authenticity.

So with marketing, a company wants to show their real personable self, I think is the term that you used.

And yet at the same time, one could use technology that might indeed mimic that authenticity, but without it actually having that truth component.

Does that make sense?

Oh, I'm completely following you.

I would agree on the aspect that AI definitely does not have the personability of people, which is what that integration I've mentioned is mainly about.

For my company at rmg, we teach our clients to use AI for the purpose of automation for tasks that would take them far longer.

So in the sense we use AI to schedule the posts that we personally create, we use AI to automate the ads that are being run so that we do not have to spend as much manpower, which in turn makes us be able to offer our services to our clients at a much cheaper rate in comparison to other media companies.

Got it.

We would never use AI for the creative aspect of our business.

That is where we are very human centered.

That is what people can tell.

People have this thing in their brain that screams at them when something does not seem quite right.

It's called the Uncanny Valley effect.

Now, there's multiple different levels to what is obviously not real.

But going back to what you were saying about the karaoke and being able to say, us doing our immaculate performance, we at least at the time being having the technology to make that seamless and completely undetectable, that it is computer generated would take a lot of time and money.

That is not the goal of what we do.

Plus, at a certain level, you can tell based off just the pixels.

I feel like anybody who's seen some AI generated images online can clock them pretty quickly.

Oh yeah, especially.

Especially at the level that we are teaching and offering to our clients.

So we mainly train our clients to use AI to make life easier, but definitely not to replace the human, empathetic, personable aspect of their business.

That makes perfectly good sense.

I mean, otherwise you've got the cart before the horse and the.

Exactly.

That's a big challenge that a lot of industries and businesses are having to deal with right now, are they going to control the AI for specific areas or.

Or are they basically turning over the keys to the.

To the messaging, et cetera?

And I look at it as a tool.

It's a, It's a fascinating tool.

But you, you definitely want to be the one in control and your message, you want it to be as authentic as possible.

You want it to be your voice.

And having a system to do so allows one to use that tool with the greatest amount of efficiency.

I would agree with that.

What you're doing right now is really fascinating.

So, Gabriella, you've done a lot of work with non profits and small business owners, mom and pop business owners, and you're really passionate about some other areas outside of work.

What are you working on in addition to RMG or bringing in some different focuses that you may be passionate about within rmg?

Well, at the moment, I have been very invested in my work with education and children, which I am on the board for Pacs for Kids, which is a local nonprofit organization here based in Muckle to that really aids in helping the 40% of underprivileged children gain access to the food that they deserve.

Nice.

Really nice.

Now we know a little bit about Packs for Kids.

Jim Tinsley is involved with Packs for Kids, and I believe that, you know, Jim, we're a good, strong community here in Mukilteo and Packs for Kids creates backpacks for kids with food.

Is that correct?

Yes, exactly.

I am a great friend of Jim's.

He is an absolutely amazing, amazing person in the community, in business, and as him himself, I cannot say enough how much he has taught me.

Actually, he is one of my mentors that has really helped me integrate into the community as well.

But yes, Packs for Kids.

What we do is every week we go out and pack up over 150 bags of food to be able to give out to children across the elementary and middle schools that don't have access to the nutrition that they need, especially with the trying times and how expensive things have gotten here.

That is a.

It's a beautiful organization.

It's a beautiful organization.

So let me ask two other questions as we wrap up here.

What do you wish you would have known before you got started, before you created rmg, now that you've, you're, you know, you, you, you run rmg, what do you wish you would have known before you got started?

I wish I understood the importance of strategic networking much sooner.

My initial focus was on perfecting my services and building rmg, but I realized that building relationships and focusing on community partnerships early on really would have accelerated growth and amplified my reach.

And another thing is I wish I would have learned was to adjust to absolutely no sleep while still being reliable.

No.

But on a very serious note, I've had to learn the hard way that prioritizing rest and personal relationships is extremely important.

And it's never I don't have enough time in the day.

It's about the conscious decision to get out of bed at 5:30 instead of 8:00 or make that phone call instead of writing an email.

Yes.

Yes.

How you prioritize makes all the difference.

It really does.

Yes.

Well, how can people be involved how can people be involved with rmg with you and PAX kids with you and other areas that you're working on?

How can they get in touch with you?

What are your coordinates?

And you can find us on our website at RMG consulting firm dot com.

Excellent.

Well, Gabriella, I know you are extremely busy.

You have the energy of the of three or four energizer bunnies.

I mean, you have a lot of energy and you are involved in a lot of great organizations and your care and your passion for people and the spirit of humanity is greatly appreciated and admired.

So as one of the young lions doing great work, I want to thank you for your time with us today and we look forward to seeing you do more and continuous great things.

And I want to encourage everyone to always invest in what you love.