The MARKETING EXPEDITION that uses storytelling to build your brand and bottom-line. In Episode 38 of the Shining Brightly Podcast Show (links in the comments). People, brands and companies need to be found, known and trusted. Its noisy out there on traditional media, social media and now artificial intelligence. HUMAN INTELLIGENCE (HI) is needed to “measure what you treasure and automate what you hate”. - CLIENT WINS with HEROIC STORY and JOURNEY. Content creation for web, social and video that produces real results.

Mentioned Resources 

• https://www.peppershock.com/
• www.TheMarketingExpedition.com
• https://themarketingexpedition.com/podcasts/
• https://themarketingexpedition.com/blog-posts/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/peppershock/
• https://www.facebook.com/rheaallencmo
• https://www.facebook.com/themarketingexpedition
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingexpeditionmembers 

Promo code “Month1”

About the guest – Rhea Allen (Ray of Sunshine is Shining Brightly)

• Keynote Speaker. Marketing Coach, adjunct marketing professor at Boise State University
• Culture + Branding Facilitator

Rhea Allen, President/CEO of Peppershock Media (est. 2003), is known for her story-telling passion and extreme diligence in obtaining effective media campaign results by planning and crafting relevant and compelling messaging. Also, an in-demand integrative marketing consultant, national presenter and keynote speaker, Rhea emphasizes team building and creating a culture where she and her team can carry out superb work for their loyal Peppershock clients.

About the Host:

Howard Brown is a best-selling author, award-winning international speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, and a two-time stage IV cancer survivor. He is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for corporate businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. Howard has co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He is a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Howard, his wife Lisa, and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan, and his happy place is on the basketball court.

Website

Http://www.shiningbrightly.com

Social Media

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/howard.brown.36

LinkedIn - https://wwwlinkedin.com/in/howardsbrown

Instagram - @howard.brown.36

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#marketing #expedition #digital #agency #brandbuiding #bottomline #storytelling #media #video #entreprenuership #creative #economy # #strategy #artificialintelligence #business #boisestate #professor #growth #referrals #visibility #credibility #motivation #education #inspiration #podcast #listen #download #share #reveiw #shiningbrightly

Hello, it's Howard Brown it's the Shining Brightly

Show the maestro with the mic. We are shining so brightly

today. I have an amazing guests because our guests just help,

motivate, educate and inspire. And welcome Rhea Allen from

pepper shock media. How are you today?

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. Our

this is gonna be awesome.

This is so exciting. I so I'm going to tell

you about Rhea in a second. But she lives out in Nampa, Idaho

and my daughter's out in Missoula within shouting

distance. So I am learning about that part of the country. It is

so gorgeous. It is big sky, add some potatoes for Idaho. Add

blue turf for Boise State. It's cool. I want to tell you I'm a

big fan. Now for a guy that grew up on the East Coast and lived

in California for a long time. So well, let me tell you about

Rhea. So Rhea Allen is the president and CEO and co founder

of pepper shock media. They established this in 2003. So

she's been a woman entrepreneur for over 20 years. And there's a

little something about that 20 years we're going to share a

little bit later. She's known for her storytelling, passion,

extreme diligence and obtaining effective media campaign

results. She plans and craft relevant compelling messaging,

very important to get your message heard, right? If if

you're talking in in the forest, and the tree falls, no one hears

it. Right. So also you're very prestigious marketing

consultant, speaker presenter, you are an adjunct professor at

Boise State University for marketing. You host a very

popular podcast, I was on it. I'm excited for that episode.

And it's got a huge ranking and following. So very excited about

that. And you emphasise team building, creating a culture

that of empowerment, and produce superb work for your clients

time and time and time again, again, Rhea, thank you welcome.

Fill in some of the blanks. Where did I miss especially the

20 year part? And then we'll get jumping in.

So I'll tell you first, people sometimes think of

my name because it's spelled weird it's ray of sunshine. So

that's why Tom so shine brightly ray of sunshine. So there you

go. There's a way to know my name. And actually, I always

know when people don't necessarily know me right off

the bat. There's like, they say it's Rhea. They're like, I don't

know, maybe I'll take a message for and then I can see who it

is. But yeah, so yeah, I mean, the biocat It says a lot of it.

i Yeah, I've been around doing this business for 20 years and

worked with all of our staff, our community, our crew and, and

pepper shock media. And we started also the marketing

expedition community to help those who maybe you know, aren't

ready for an agency yet. Or maybe they want to learn a

little bit more alongside us for our clients as well. So yeah,

that's kind of a that and then I have two boys as well. Two

teenagers. So that's me. What one football scholarship. We

heard comment yesterday. And then 20 years in business, but

20 years. Married to to my coach, my co founder, Drew and

I, we yeah, we started the business. Couple months after we

got married. So yep, we've been at it for 20 years in marriage

in 20 years at pepper shock. And, yeah, so it's been a while

but we're gonna celebrate, we're gonna go to Hawaii for the first

time. We're gonna go to Maui. I've never been to life. So I'm

really excited about that, you know, we're celebrating the

graduation, the, you know, the kid turning 18 that the 20 year

wedding anniversary, the 20 years in business, so we're

just, you know, taking it one big trip, the younger kid, we

decided it's his half birthday, so he can, you know, go along

for the ride, too.

Oh, my God, life is happening for you. And

congratulations on that. 20 years is amazing. Alright, so I

gotta ask you tell us something. I know you weren't on a big trip

halfway around the world share with that. Let's hear what's

happening. Where do you go?

In February, I was asked to go to Saudi Arabia,

Riyadh, and to the big leap Technology Conference and speak

on the creative economy stage. And so yeah, I got to go to

Saudi Arabia. I went by myself because my husband is going

through the Executive MBA programme, and it was right in

the middle of when he was doing all of his classwork. So I went

on my own and had a wonderful time. I learned a lot from other

speakers, and then shared knowledge on a lot of different

topics that I tend to talk about, which is marketing and

branding and digital space. And now AI, so it was amazing.

I bet it was so cool. And did you go to Dubai or

Abu Dhabi or both? Well,

I went through Dubai and then had a layover there and

then to Riyadh. Yeah, by the time I was done, I think it was

hours of flights. Yeah, and like layovers and everything.

Okay, so you, you actually were in Saudi Arabia in

Riyadh.

Yeah. Yeah.

Just amazing what you're learning see seeing

another whole culture and country and

and I took a tour after I was done speaking, I had

a couple of days left to go tour the country side and learn and,

you know, I didn't have to wear anything over my head, I just

had to make sure I covered my shoulders and my knees and

respect, you know, their culture, but ya know, her job,

just be modest. Yeah, you gotta raise culture. So I'm so glad

what oh, just an amazing trip, just incredible to be, you know,

gone over there to speak and to say your message and to learn

about all that. So thank you for sharing that. That's amazing. So

I want to talk about your brand about a marketing expedition

because that's what you take your clients through, and you

take people through, I love one of your tagline is that you have

fortune Nanda fortune, you know, 101,000 mean, people can start

with you, or they're already marketing, they can join you as

well.

So take me through your marketing expedition, your,

your brand, and also the community associated with that.

Well, I've been podcasting for quite a while

just off and on. And then, you know, the pandemic hit, and we

started seeing more people watching and listening. And I

thought the exact opposite. I'm like, Well, no one's gonna

commute anymore. They're only commuting from their couch to

their kitchen, right. So they're not commuting. But it started to

increase the listens. And the downloads are increasing the

subscriptions were listening. So we decided to move it on a

regular ongoing basis, and take people on the marketing

expedition. And then we also built the marketing expedition

community. And the reason for that is a couple reasons. Hyper

shock media, we're an agency, we're full service, we do a lot

of things for our clients. But we started seeing that not

everybody could necessarily afford what we do for them, but

we needed to solve some answers for them, because they either

we're doing it themselves of DIY are done with you or done for

you. And some of our clients during that time, the pandemic

was making it a little difficult for them to, you know, either be

done with you or done for you. So we created the community

using a lot of the knowledge and expertise and marketing journeys

that we've all gone on, and share all kinds of trainings and

Downloadables and, and blog articles, articles that we post

and so people now can have access to this and have agency

you know, knowledge that they can subscribe to, and, and all

the latest and greatest. I'm always constantly interviewing

and talking to people and and, you know, speaking on stages, a

lot of that's recorded in there for people to understand what is

the latest trends and tips and information. And then of course,

the podcasts every week, we're interviewing industry experts,

we industry, you know, we interviewed Howard and other

entrepreneurs and authors. And, you know, we go on an expedition

a marketing expedition together and talk about the different

tactics and tools that work for people. And yeah, it's

absolutely growing or top 5% most popular podcast globally,

which is really cool. I never in my wildest imagination would

know that that would be something that people would want

and need. And it's all about, you know, building your brand

and your bottom line and continuing to grow and scale

your business. And using maybe some cost effective ways or, you

know, just effective efficiency. And being able to continue to,

you know, grow the business in a way that's not going to waste

your money.

I will tell you that building your brand, so

that people can find you know, what you do understand you and

trust you does help your bottom line and that's exactly what you

offer. I want to say for those that are listening, there is a

big giant orangish butterfly over his head. And I always

think about that the butterfly starts as a caterpillar, it may

not be so pretty, right. But eventually it gets unstuck or

changes to a beautiful butterfly to spread their wings. And and I

think that's the journey that you take people on, whether it

being a website, whether it be video, all things digital, and

quite frankly, I am so excited for your podcast with me to drop

because I'm gonna hit a whole new space because you're so

popular and I want to get where you are up to the up the

rankings on the podcasting. So maybe this episode will tag

along with it as well. So I want to ask a question and this will

be a little bit more detailed discussion. The big shiny toy

now is artificial intelligence. And I gotta tell you that

there's a lot of misperception there's a lot of glare glory on

this thing. And where are you at with artificial intelligence in

part of the digital scheme and how you're sharing that with

your clients and making the move through that because it is

important I think it's going to have some some effects but not

all positive yet but I think there's there's got to be a

space for it right in your in your clients and your plans. So

take take us through thinking there?

Well, I think if you are afraid to tap into what

artificial intelligence can do for you, I would say the first

thing to do is just test it out, go to chat GPT there's, you

know, Bard, and there's several others. And then there's 175

different tools that I just researched to say, you know, AI

tools for creatives is what I typed in. And I came up with 175

different tools that you can use, that are sampling or

creating new images based on other images that you're using.

And then with the copywriting, it's a great idea generator. And

you know, I say that you can use AI, but it still takes a chai,

an H, I say is human intelligence, right, you have to

still have the human input in order to utilise artificial

intelligence. Remember, it is artificial, right? It's not

necessarily what you would want to use 100%. But there are so

many different ways to go about it and measuring and I always

say measure what you treasure, automate what you hate, right

there is your what you treasure dump, what you don't automate

what you hate, and you utilising AI can help you in in a lot of

different ways to measure some of the things that you're doing

the results that you're tracking, and being able to have

data that can be then, you know, use in a way that can help you

make some good decisions. So there's lots of different tools

that you can now incorporate into your process. And when we

first started, you know, playing around with it a couple years

ago, there was a tool and my copywriter was like, Oh my gosh,

am I going to lose my job and like, No, you're just going to

enhance, and you're going to have these tools to help you

even do more. And honestly, it's a great idea generator, if you

type in, you know, ideas about selling shoes, I don't know,

whatever, it is gonna spit out a whole bunch of different ideas,

and some of them are going to be junk, right? They're not going

to always give you what you want. But it might it might fuel

some other ideas that you could have. And you know, if you if

you look at it and play with it, you can have it write your bio,

if it if it knows and can you know know enough about you from

where you're from? I tried it I wrote write a bio for Rhea

Allen. Well, I didn't quite know who Rhea was. So if you have to

write a bio for Rhea Allen pepper shock media, from Nampa,

Idaho, and it started pulling in things and kind of it did a

pretty good decent job. But it also said some weird stuff that

I was like, I've never done that before. I don't know what that

What are you talking about? But it kind of reworded some of the

things and made it like, oh my gosh, that's a really great way

to put it, I'm probably going to tweak it a little bit more. But

yeah, but the big question, right, the plagiarism and the

you know, copying and sampling is the information, you got to

fact check it. I also teach. I'm an adjunct professor of

marketing at Boise State. And the big thing that was, you

know, the topic of conversation with all of the other professors

is, how do we detect if they're plagiarising? Or if they're

using AI to continue to do? And my thought is, you know, what,

this next generation, they're going to be infiltrated with AI

regardless. So how do we embrace it, use it to our advantage, but

also make sure that you know, they have their own thoughts and

ideas. So some of the things that I've been able to do when I

have the my students do journal entries, I asked them specific

examples of things that we talked about in class, tell me

how that made you feel? Or what do you think about, you know,

XYZ that we talked about in class, because AI is not going

to be able to generate anything about it, because it's your

feelings? Or it's your, you know, it's your reaction? It's

your thoughts, it's your opinions? Well, artificial

intelligence can't have your thoughts. So there's kind of

ways that we're working around it. But I actually gave my

students an assignment to write an essay on their own about a

topic. And then now go and plug in that topic into AI, and see

and compare the difference and how, and you can definitely tell

what their own versus what the, you know what the AI tool did,

because it's very general, it's very broad, it's not as detailed

as what you can do yourself. So that's my solution to making

sure that we're not doing something that we shouldn't be

doing is allow them to do it when you want them to write I

mean, allow them to understand and use the tools to their

advantage. So that's my solution. We'll see how all

works out. Because who knows there's there's not yet been a

court case of you know, plagiarism or copywriting just

yet that's brought to that I know of anyway, but it'll be

really interesting to see what happens if something like that

does. One of the speakers at the LEAP Technology Conference. She

spoke she's from Shutterstock. She's the she's a she's got her

doctorate, and she's the head of AI at Shutterstock and

Shutterstock, I should say, and they won the ethics of

conversation was kind of the intersection between how do you

pay the content creators who AI then samples pieces and parts of

their photos, right, and then to create a new image. So now

they're trying their best to track that and be able to give

money to the creator of the original when AI is sampling

something of theirs, you know, you might have, you know, hot

dog in one picture and, and a beautiful sunset and another

picture and you have, you know, multiple, like, maybe a dog from

another picture. And then they all come together, and they're

sampled of each of those. So each of those creators should

get paid. Right,

I have to tell you, my daughter just graduated

University of Michigan. And so I was thinking about that, and you

put on your Professor Allen hat, and I love the way that you

actually have them. Embrace the tool that grow up digital, and

you said it best the human intelligence piece, you make

them include that. So that's really important for the

students. But I think it's also important for your clients as

well, to be able to embrace it now. I did I put in Howard brown

shining brightly, it was about 85%. Correct. And I fix it, I

fixed it. And I published it, you know, just to say that I got

GBT did for me. And you know, it's not accurate. I think what

it does is, it helps with some ideation, as long as you

understand that it is not perfect. I know, it's a learning

system. But it's here, it's today. And I think you addressed

that perfectly with your students. So take me through,

just, you know, give give me a smaller client win and a bigger

client win, just without naming the client, but kinda, you know,

that showcases, with what pepper shock does, well, I have a

client of mine that we're recently going to work with,

again, we started them, we got them launched, we got them up

and going when they have their first round of seed money. And

that was our goal, that was the only thing that we were hired to

do to get their website up, get their, you know, logo branding,

get them, you know, listed and everything get their SEO going,

you know, it was a specific length of contract. And they've

been going since in 2017, I believe 18 ish. I don't know,

every year kind of blends together. But that's about what

we're thinking. And they're doing well, they're, you know,

expanding their services, a software company, and I actually

met with them again, they're ready to do more with us. So

they've grown over time. And now they're ready to actually, you

know, kind of take that next level with us to be able to help

them grow again and do more. And now it's not just launching

them. But now it's, it's not only maintaining them, but it's

to scale them and continue to help them build their brand and

their bottom line. So I'm really excited about this client,

because they, it's, I love it when clients come back to us,

right, it would get them going. And that's the only purpose to

start. And then they get to come back because they've done well

with what we've launched them on. So that's definitely a win.

I love that when that happens. And you know, they want to come

back because they know they can trust what we can do for them

and super excited about it.

They made it through COVID. And now they're ready to expand. And

there's so many ways to expand via social and video today. So

to get and broaden their reach. So it's important.

So yeah, it's time to tell the heroic story on

their website, we want to do a video, have some client

testimonials helped share, you know, the pain points of why

people would use their software and so and then kind of give

some examples and how it helps and then right they become their

own hero when they buy the software because now it's gonna

be making their life so much better. So we love to do those

types of, you know, explainer videos or the hero's journey,

right? It's a it's a great way to share that in and not be

salesy too much salesy is kind of not what people want to hear.

So, if you can create and capture story and tell the

story, then you're going to be a lot better off and having that

on your website on your socials. All the things and video

production is a lot of what we do in in, you know, what we

create in content for our clients and design? So,

absolutely, I'm excited about them.

Yeah, no, that's great. So that the fact that

they repeat, coming back to you after a first phase and now a

second phase to grow and expand, that's what it's about. And

that's that's what makes you able to get a good client

reference but also produce real results for them. And so shaping

their brand and and their bottom line which which is so

important. Well, let me tell you this, we hit it hard today. So

we're actually going to start something called the shining

brightly spotlight. It's shine on RHea Okay, Hey, I'm shining

it back on you would my glasses, okay, and I want you to tell

people how it's best to get a hold of you. Also, I think you

have a giveaway. And give me some final comments to wrap up

the show.

Absolutely. So really, it's two things, I would

encourage people to listen to the podcast, the marketing

expedition podcast that's powered by pepper shock media

hosted by me. And then, so you can find the podcasts on any

platform out there, Spotify, Pandora, all of them. And then

you can visit pepper shock.com to do the creative or marketing

services. And then I would invite you to go to the

marketing expedition.com. And I had to put the word that in

there. So don't forget that we don't own the other URL, but

then marketing expedition.com and join the community and the

first month is free on me by using the promo code month one

and that's the number one month one. And you can sign up and

join us in the community and have access to webinar training

videos, all the downloadables that you need, if there's

specific topics that you want me to cover, I either can do it, or

I find somebody in our industry that knows even more than I do,

which then I get to learn by interviewing them and putting

them in side the community. And we have a Facebook group, the

marketing expedition members group, you're free to join that

group. And then also, I'm on all the social media channels and

LinkedIn and all the places so you can follow me there. And

then last comments, I would just say, after all of the things

that we talked about, the most important thing that you can do

in your business is to measure what you treasure, dump what you

don't, and automate what you hate.

I love it. What are those sound bites, oh my

god, we're going to clip those, like, so we'll make sure that

the podcast, the Web site, the socials and the promo code,

that's a nice offer to come check you out. It's a try before

you buy and to check out all the resources that you have. So this

is great. I love being useful for my audience that they can

actually jump in and and help you know, jumpstart or get into,

you know, the branding and the marketing, you know, help

themselves grow and things like that. So, wow, what a great

show. We hit it hard. You can find me at shiningbrightly.com

my speaking the podcast that book. And also, there's some

downloads on survivorship mentorship, which is leadership

and entrepreneurship and interfaith stuff. So I'm very

interactive. So come Come find me here and listen to this. And

please download, review and share this episode once it

launches very soon. So again, thanks for being on the shining,

brightly show. Ray. I love it. It was great. Very informative,

and I think helpful for for everyone. So thanks. And also

congratulations 20 years for the business and on your wedding anniversary.

Yeah, thank you.

Enjoy Hawaii when you go,

Oh, I can't wait.

So. Remember, shining brightly just a little

bit each day for ourselves for others and our communities does

make the world a better place. Thanks for watching and listening