Beyond Vanity Metrics: Turning Visibility Fears into Client Conversion with Alexis Meschi

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Step into the world of success with Your Brand Amplified, the ultimate podcast designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host, Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies, and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success. I love it when I the call, we open the Riverside, and I immediately feel a connection with the person I'm about to interview. And that is absolutely the case with Alexis Meschi today. Alexis, I'm really thrilled to have you here on Your Brand Amplified. So thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

And I'm really intrigued because you started out as a photographer working with female entrepreneurs. You moved into personal branding and marketing. And with Aura Marketing, your company, you and your team help recruiters and agency owners generate millions in revenue through inbound systems. I'm really, you know, intrigued by recruiters and agency owners specifically. So before we get into that, I would love to talk about what you saw being behind the camera. What was it that showed you that there was something else missing? It wasn't just the visual elements, it was, there was something else that entrepreneurs needed to be doing or needed to have? Yeah.

Thank you for having me. I'm really happy to be here. That was probably, you know, I think a lot of times we look back at our careers and look at our journey and wonder like, what did this teach me about where I am today? And like photography in some sense seems so disconnected from what I do now, but it was one of the best teachers because I was able to see women and female entrepreneurs specifically because I was doing brand photography, like you said. And I think it helped me craft the mission of the way I function in business now and how I work with people. And what I saw was the hesitancy about being the face of your brand, and whether that was marketing yourself or putting yourself out there. I was taking these amazing pictures and giving them to women, and they had this They loved the photos. That was always a really exciting thing that happened. But then it was like, I don't know if I can put myself out there and do this. I don't know. But while they already had businesses and successful businesses, they felt this nervousness and imposter syndrome and insecurity about being the face of their brand. And it has been one of the greatest teachers because I ended up changing everything that I did in order to really address that. Part of what I know my clients really need. So being the photographer, seeing women, listening to them has been the greatest teacher in what I've done.

I appreciate you saying that because I'm not a photographer, but I have worked in PR and branding and marketing, and I've had the same issue. I've literally scheduled photo shoots for female founders who have very successful businesses and had them say, I'm not going to go somewhere else I've kind of gotten them to go to like a second location to— if they're in, you know, perhaps construction, and being a female founder in construction is very different because it's such a male-dominated industry. But trying to get some pictures of them in front of a house they're putting together, not just in the office, and not wanting to do hair or makeup or like do other things because they want the work to speak for the company, right? Instead of them being the spokesperson, because it really is the person who's driving the business, right?

Yeah. I mean, I think we can see it across multiple industries, across ages, across whatever it is, whoever it is that they work with, whatever they do, how successful they are, how starting out they are to senior they are. And I will say I've learned that men have the same, some of the same challenges as well. But I mean, working with female entrepreneurs really is a passion of mine. It's a really significant challenge and it's, you know, we're talking about, you You know, brand, obviously I don't think it's a negotiable option for a lot of people anymore. Like work doesn't speak for itself anymore when we can talk about AI and everything and how things are changing. Like being the face of the brand is one of the best things you can do to actually grow your business. So yeah.

Yeah. So talk a little bit about your evolution from being behind the camera to, you're still behind the camera in some ways, right? Yeah.

I guess I, you're right. I am still behind the camera with what we do. Yeah. Yeah, I, so as you mentioned, I started as, well, I mean, let's just start from that part of my story. I was, got into brand photography, um, for female entrepreneurs and specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, which I live. And it was fantastic. I loved doing the photos. And then I am, I'm an oldest child of 6. I'm like an organizer, master planner. I really got into understanding the type of photos that I wanted to take. So I was kind of doing these. Intricate layouts to make sure that I could represent the brands for the women. But as I mentioned, I realized that there was a lot of hesitancy about what do I do with these now? And can I do this? And this hesitancy. And so I started working on brand strategy in addition to the photography. And that's like really, really where I found my passion. So I continued for a long time doing photography, but I was really doing brand strategy in a lot of detail before we even got into the photos. So we did brand strategy, marketing strategy, then took the photos and then implementation plan. And that was really my bread and butter in the years that I was still doing photography. During that time, one of my clients, one of my male clients, because I did have some male clients, was working with recruiters and staffing agencies doing coaching and marketing for them. And we just really hit it off and ultimately ended up partnering with him to start our marketing agency. He is no longer a part of the company. Um, he has kind of left and done his own mindset work, which was really kind of the origin of what he loved about coaching anyways. And so now I run Aura Marketing. Um, I as the owner myself. But really, we got into that work specifically within this niche doing— obviously I don't do photography anymore, but we help companies become the face of their brand and generate inbound leads. I think that a lot of the work that I'm very passionate about is results-driven. Like, I want to make sure that what we're doing, whether that's video that we're doing for our clients— that's where, you know, behind the scenes comes in— whether that's brand strategy, email, it's all business development that leads to inbound leads. And especially recruiters and staffing agencies. It's such a human-to-human market, it's such a human-to-human industry. And so making their clients and potential clients feel like they have an experience of what it's like to work with them. Um, to note, like, we do very much specialize in recruiters and staffing agencies. We are building our other part of our business out for other entrepreneurs now, which is super exciting, um, now that we are kind of expanding in that area. But it was still our primary focus. And marketing is to recruiters and staffing agencies. So that's kind of what led me to here. It was always in the same vein and wheelhouse, but now it's a lot of results and revenue-driven work that we do for our clients.

What was the hole that you saw in the market with specifically recruiters that led you to say, let's start here, we can always build back other parts of the company?

I would say the number one thing is what I mentioned. It's a very human part. Like, human commodities are their— like, humans are their commodity, an asset, right? Like, they are helping. They listen to candidates and their needs and what it is that they're trying to achieve in their next role. They listen to the needs of clients and the companies they work with and what they need, and then they partner and pair and communicate and connect. And so, That being said, they were very antiquated with marketing. Like, I had not— I've obviously worked with a bunch of different niches and industries. I was very surprised at how behind they were with marketing. And I think a lot of reason is because they still like relied on ways of like networking that we used to, a lot of in-person stuff, going into places, going and meeting and greeting. And then COVID like blew the roof off for them, right? Like that changed a lot of the way that people were doing things, but they still relied on those old methods, but then didn't have new tools. And so it was a really outdated market. They're definitely catching up, but I would say in general, they're still very behind on what they need to be doing, or they're relying on things like cold calling still, which is, I'm not saying it's ineffective, but like nowadays we usually need a more robust strategy to become the go-to or standard in their niche. So that's like really where we saw a need and a gap that needed to be filled. But they also, and they didn't understand about marketing, like they didn't understand. So really needed a guide and support, not just somebody telling them what to do. Yeah.

And when you're talking about this, I am thinking like stock photography, you know, just flyers, brochures that don't have that human element.

Exactly. Yeah, it was very. Or like larger pamphlets, like some of the things that I still see, I'm like, oh, I haven't. I mean, honest, this is the truth. A lot of people come to me and have recorded like a full-on commercial and I'm like, and thinking that like, that's the magic thing that's gonna like turn the wheel for them and helping remind them like attention spans have changed. Like the way we consume information has changed. So yeah, there was a lot of, again, sticking with like what they learned from like their mentor or how they've been. Brought into the industry. So definitely some outdated ideologies in regards to marketing.

Yeah. Can you talk about why that industry is still important? Because I know that we both have kids who are college, post-college, and I teach grad school, so I hear from a lot of students how hard it is to get a job. Is that part of the reason the why recruiters are still so important? Because people would probably have an easier time finding a job if they found the right person to help position them. For that job?

I think what recruiters do is even more important now. I think that there is a leveling out, like there is for many industries right now, but humans, I think, are very frustrated by the experience. So, if you're applying for a job and a lot of people are having to now confront AI interviews, none of their applications are getting seen because of the way they're being filtered through a company's AI system. And like, it's ultimate frustration, right? I, I truly, it's, it's very discouraging to hear about. And the way that recruiters are able to bring that human element in and place them not just for the professional looking for a job, but for companies that are looking for the best fit, for the long-term fit, for optimal retention, for optimal growth, right? Like whatever it is, you know, depending on what it is that they're doing, it's really invaluable. I mean, I don't know about you, but I mean, when we can relate to like any business owners right now, I'm not doing my own taxes and accounting just because I may be able to. I want to hire somebody who's great at doing that so it can give me the time to do the things that generate revenue, that give me time to do the personal things that I want. And I think that recruiters offer so much value in that way to either the hire managers or the internal TA team, um, to support the growth of the company by letting recruiters with do what they really do well and to ultimately help define the experience as well of a new candidate within the company. And that part's really important too, and they do a great job of that.

Was there anything that surprised you when you made the shift from photography plus brand strategy just strictly into the strategy part?

Yes, I was very surprised at the lack of framework and foundation that many businesses had not done, I guess. And that's probably a little bit more surprising coming from like a Type A organized oldest child. Like, you know what I mean? This is like where it's like, I'm like, oh my gosh, you haven't like thought about this? Like you haven't defined this part of like your business yet? That still surprises me sometimes. People who have a successful business have gotten kind of caught into what they're doing where like sometimes there's things that are not defined that are big gaps and pitfalls. Like even fully understanding your target market, for example, understanding what their needs really are. Can you easily identify them? And I'm talking about minor things, but like definitely some things that I think that I still am sometimes surprised that are not established for business owners. And that part always surprised me.

Yeah, I appreciate that because I think sometimes we, we do know some things, we have an inkling, but we don't know how to best approach them or get that part of the business set and settled.

We haven't revisited them in a long time. Like, you know, maybe there were things that we established even indirectly or directly a decade ago, but like haven't thought to revisit or think about that again and how that might have shifted or how we can add to it. And then I think it's really worth doing for a lot of different reasons.

But yeah, can you walk us through what the work looks like? Because I wouldn't normally think about— I, I think about people who do similar work for other niches and niches, but not this one specifically. So what does a day look like? And then is there something different that you have to ask or bring to the table to get that aha moment for them?

Yeah, you know, I think that one of the best things about what we do is everything. I can't understand how to market a brand unless I'm basically onboarded, like I'm your internal CMO. And like, that's what I think a lot of people do wrong. I think, you know, they're asking just questions in order to create the product, but like, I need to understand the foundation in order to best deliver something that actually generates revenue and inbound leads. And so we start everything with with me. It is actually— you work with the founder, um, right away in a 90-minute onboarding call. I ask questions. I need to know— I'm going to start, and I think that again, people think I'm going to start asking questions about you, your business, what you do. I'm not. I want to start by understanding your target market first, because I can't market to them unless I know those things well. And I need to know everything. Like, we have a very specific list of questions that I need to understand So then I may go into like, you know, your process, what you do, your experience, your authority. But I also want to understand what do you really believe about your market? What do you think about it? What are those things that you find yourself saying, even if you're not saying? And, and helping people kind of like look inward a little bit more because we have to position people the right way. So it's really a 90-minute positioning call before anything. And I think that's, you know, that's what we start with everything that we do from there. Our team builds some incredible stuff. So we build a brand blueprint that's like a multi-page document all about our client's brand. We give one that's client-facing so they have something that they can use, but we actually use that as an internal brief as well for everything that we do. And then we're building— our primary, primary marketing social space is LinkedIn. That's where recruiters' clients are going to show up. I have yet to have one person where their target market is like on Instagram or TikTok. Like, companies are not not finding— I'm not saying it's not fine for brand presence, but they're on LinkedIn. So we then build marketing strategy customized for our clients, customized for their clients on LinkedIn. So we're talking about videos of our clients, posts, graphics, articles, PDFs, poll suggestions. Every month we meet with them and build out their strategy and create all of that content for them. We also do email, we do automation and outreach through LinkedIn. We basically do everything anything to generate conversation in order to help them convert into clients. So everything is towards brand strategy, and then every month is a rooted strategy in their authority.

That's really fantastic, and that's something I think most people don't do enough of.

I mean, it's only 3% of people that are regularly using LinkedIn, and I mean, that's like the, the thing that I think that a lot of people need to understand is if you have authority and if you're consistent, you can generate some very significant traction. I'm going to say specifically on LinkedIn, but it takes those two things. You can't go through those feast and famine cycles. You can't go through like, when I have time, I'm going to do it, and then not. Like, especially with the way the algorithm works, you need to consistently be building that topic authority and the things that you're really good at and want to be known for.

Yeah. And as business owners, it can be really difficult to maintain that consistency. Life things happen, or there's a big project that needs our attention, and so we forget that we still need to be showing up in the spaces and places where our ideal clients and customers are.

Yeah, it's— I mean, it's very challenging. I mean, especially because nowadays, and like, I get it and we can grieve about it together, you're expected to be a marketer now on top of whatever it is that you're doing. Like you literally, I don't know many businesses that can afford to not do that. And so it is really challenging. And like, I definitely, I mean, that's why we exist as a marketing agency and, but keeping the founder at the center of it as opposed to just creating random content, it's really hard. It's really challenging to do that. Not only is it challenging to find the time to do it, and then let's say you have the time, and then let's say like, you know exactly what works on LinkedIn. Even if you know, it's so hard to think about what you should be doing and saying. It's really hard to think about having the confidence to do that as well. Not second-guessing yourself, not having like an, again, a fractional CMO to like bounce things off of. So even if you have the time and if you technically know what works in the framework, it's, there's still this really challenging thing about developing your brand voice, your brand topics, and the authority and confidence and be able to say those things to your audience consistently. Yeah.

And one of the things that I saw that you note is that recruiter content can get attention but doesn't always generate clients. What is that disconnect?

Yeah, the disconnect, and I will say this for multiple industries, is when you're talking to your peers, like People think that that's, you know, our egos still get stuck in impressions and traction and, you know, what gets better results. Technically, you think of that as results and it really, it's important, but it's very easy for recruiters to get content. I'm sorry, get engagement and better metrics from other recruiters or from candidates. And most recruiters need or are doing marketing to get more clients, not necessarily more candidates. So you can target those two. Areas, but they're not gonna lead to more clients. And it's very important that most of their content is geared towards clients. Does it always get the most impressions? No, because most hiring managers and people are not gonna be like, oh yes, I identify with this problem. Like, they're not gonna demonstrate their weakness publicly, but you still have to show that you understand those things and relate because ultimately those are the things and the, the breadcrumbs that lead to more client conversion.

We mentioned behind the camera because part of your strategy is when you fulfill the strategy, when you think about the strategy for the month, you're also going to record your clients so that you get those content nuggets. Has it also been difficult for clients to feel, start feeling comfortable presenting themselves in a different way than maybe they're used to doing?

I mean, 100%. Every single prospect that I meet with that I'm sharing our system says, ugh, about the video. Like, you know, there's all, there is not, I mean, actually there's probably one person that was like, oh, I'm excited about that. Everybody else is very video hesitant. So I hear that all the time. And then I will tell you this too. Every single client after their first recording says, that was so much better and easier than I thought. The way we prep people, what we deliver for them to do in a call. I mean, it, in our recording calls, it is very much interview style like this. That being said, we also have to be strategic. I mean, you can't do videos that are minutes long. You can't do videos that just ramble. So we are, our brand director is, um, Jen, give her a shout out. Jen can coach a client on like what to say and how to say it while still maintaining their voice and then keeping it within. Video performing practices that are going to work well on LinkedIn. So there's that fine balance, but I really do pride ourselves in saying that everybody gives us such— they feel so much more confident after that first recording, and then it gets better and better from there. But yeah, no one except for one so far has been excited about being— doing the video.

Let's talk about the done-for-you systems that you build and implement. What an actual system look like, perhaps taking a recruiter who maybe has no inbound at all. Somebody who's not only generating consistent leads, but going, wow, this made a really big difference to my bottom line.

Yeah. We have so many stories like that. Like we have so many case studies about doubling revenue, tripling revenue, about building teams and, you know, generating more inbound leads. Like that's really our bread and butter, what we do well. So the first thing that we do for our clients is develop their positioning. So your LinkedIn has to be positioned in a specific way. Everything from like your banner to your tagline, to your about section. It can't just be your logo. It can't just be your title, like, and then dog mom after, like, it, it has to be things that like really attract your market right off the bat. So after our brand blueprint call that I told you about, we overhaul your positioning. Our goal is to position our clients as the go-to in their niche. Like, that's— I want them to be the ones that people think of, the one that is the go-to for their clients. So we overhaul LinkedIn. Or any other brand channels that they're on in order to do that. The second thing that we do is we need to build what we call the market ecosystem. So I may be able to speak in front of a group of people live, and if I have 5 people in the audience, that's great. My chances of converting any of those to clients may be 1 in 5. If I have 5,000 people, I have a much better opportunity to convert multiple of those into business. The same, you have to think about your LinkedIn. How do you build your market with your target audience? So we work with our clients to build their connections and their followers of the right types of people using specific types of automation, so you don't have to manually do that. But we're building, we're getting more eyes on your content, more eyes on your positioning every day in order to have better conversations started. So that's a really important part of what we do, and it's really an exciting thing. And the other thing we can do is start messaging your audience. So we have a direct messaging strategy that always includes the personal. It's not just, it's not spam. There's personal things that we do in order to reach your audience. So we can start conversations with people that you already have there. And then the third thing that we do is really the content creation, which is, is what we do so well. Every month I have a strategy call with, I, I'm the one that has the strategy call with our clients. We have always developed topic clusters, which are really important on LinkedIn nowadays. So if anybody's marketing on LinkedIn, you know about topic clusters. We develop topic clusters for our clients. And so every month we're going into that bank of repeated concepts that you have to do. Everyone, this is not about getting creative and clever and cute every month. This is about repeating clusters. Like you have to be doing that. So we come in with ideas. I tap into my clients. What conversations have you been having? What are some of the feedback that you're getting? What is, what do you think the real problem is here? And we're having a strategic conversation. Then I deliver the content topic. Then they have their recording with our brand director. From there, our clients get all of their content for the month, literally copy and paste in their brand voice, which is like the beauty of what we do. Everybody has their own copywriter that knows their voice, knows what they love, don't love, how they speak and build. And then what works on LinkedIn. And then we're analyzing performance and tweaking our strategy going from there. And then again, there's so many nuances. A lot of our clients have emails, some have YouTube. We have different things that we're doing, but that's kind of the core of what we do for our clients and how that process looks on a monthly basis.

One thing that's really important to note about what you've just said is you're very specific about where you know that your clients are going to find their people, and that's LinkedIn. And I feel that be with every social media thing that comes out or that making a comeback or what have you, people often feel the need to be everywhere. And you know, I've never figured out the TikTok algorithm and I'm probably not gonna do anything that's gonna get a lot of attention on there cuz that's just not my business or who I am. And that's okay. But I think so many people think they do need to be everywhere and try to be all things to all people, even though. They're not going to find those clients. So do you make recommendations? Do you ever get pushback from clients and say, hey, maybe keep your Instagram for your personal stuff, let us focus on where the business really is?

One of the questions that I ask people, and it's just the, the question that kind of levels it all, is like, is your target market engaged there and taking that platform seriously? And if the answer is no, like Why would you invest your own time to try to figure it out or pay an agency to try to do any work for you there? Now, then the second thing I'm going to ask if they are interested in this another channel is, are you interested in getting business development there? Like more business, more clients, or are you just interested in increasing your brand presence? If the answer is brand presence and brand awareness, fine. Like, but if your clients, ideal clients aren't there. Then our strategy is going to be really different. Like, you don't need to be everywhere. And I mean, I'm going to say that at least for most professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, like, you do not need to be everywhere. You need to be in the right places with the right eyes on your content. And because most people— again, we're talking business development— that, that really is a LinkedIn place. YouTube, I think, is a great place with the right strategy. I also think X is somewhere that's like a better strategy. TikTok and Instagram from both, for a lot of businesses that does work, but if we're speaking recruiters and staffing agencies, Instagram is not your place unless, unless I will say the caveat, if you're trying to attract candidates and professionals there. And again, it depends on the space. But, um, like for example, one of my clients is a recruiter for creative and brand, and she actually does have a, we have a robust Instagram strategy. That's very client fo— I'm sorry, candidate, candidate focused. She also has services for candidates. So like they also pay her for things. So if it's just brand presence, like I don't, I mean, I don't, I wouldn't waste my time there. But if you have something specifically for professionals, it, those places can work.

When I am working with people for PR or just putting together an initial strategy, I go through, I think, a similar process of they really need to have their brand blueprint. They need to know who they are, who they're serving, what those messages are, right? How they're going to position themselves to differentiate in the market, all of these different things. But I, I feel like so many times on the PR side, I have had clients come to me and they don't have all of that, or they have it, but it— there's some tweaking that needs to be done. Like, I'm sure you find. If somebody's listening and they're going, I probably need to revisit what I've been doing, where do you think that they should start? Like, what is that first question on that path that they should ask themselves?

It has to be about your target market. I mean, there is no other place to start. You don't exist as a service or a business if your target— if you don't get your target market. And so, I, I mean, I cannot tell you how many times I asked this question, or I did when I was working with different entrepreneurs of different, you know, industries, and I asked about their target market and like within 30 seconds they start going back into what they do or how they help. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, back it up. Like, we are only talking about your target market. So like, you have to understand who they are, what it is that they actually want when they come to you, what is it that they're— and then go and then unpack that even more, right? It's not just like, I need a new sales rep. Why do you need the new sales rep? Like, the underneath part of it. The reason why that's important is in relation to marketing, and I'm, you know, you know this for PR too, is like, that's what we need to market to, is the underneath layer, not the surface level layer. So if you have not analyzed your ICP, ICA, target market, ideal clients, like however you wanna call it, that is like your first move again. Like you have to go back and to fully understand that so you can speak to them and speak in a way that makes them feel like you really do understand their needs beyond the surface level needs that they're saying that they want. Yeah.

Yeah. Great advice. We, we touched a little bit on AI, and I have had, anecdotally, have had friends tell me and colleagues tell me that they've been going through the interview process and they've had an AI interview. So this is obviously a huge shift. In the area that you're working with. Can you talk about where you see this industry headed? Like, what else are you seeing that we might not be seeing? But where are recruiters and agency marketing directives heading?

Yeah, this is definitely a topic that many of our clients are talking about. In an interesting way, I think it positions them even stronger because as of right now, it's not— recruiters are not using the AI, um, interview tools, companies and internal teams are often using them before they're bringing on a recruiter because, you know, in when they're trying to do everything themselves. And what that's leading to is a lot of frustration from a lot of companies because they're not getting the right, and then frustration from the candidates. They're not getting the right people. They're spending so much time, they can't find the right match. I think it's, it's ballooning a large problem. I think that if I honestly really feel like good, really good recruiters are going to come out so much stronger right now. And I think we're going to see a lot more success from those people because one of the things I talk about is how like human is becoming the new advantage and the new edge. I mean, we talk, you know, like I was just on a, doing a summit presentation last week and I talked about it being like the human sticker. Which is like how organic stickers used to be like, oh, I'm organic, I'm gluten-free, I'm non-GMO, I'm no seed oils, right? It's like these stickers that we see on like food that like tell us and like, oh, okay, that must be good. And I really think human is going to be a new sticker in that way. And I think that that's what recruiters are really great at. And I think that they, if they continue to lean into their expertise and their authority, and I would say this across multiple industries, everyone. If you lean in and understand what your human advantage is that your clients value, okay, again, don't make it just about you, make it about what your clients want. That's, I think, the new massive advantage. And it's not that you're not using all the tools and staying up with technology. Like, please don't think that I'm saying like go archaic caveman on anything, but like, if you can understand how to position your value and make your ideal client's life a lot easier while being able to actually work with one-on-one humans. I think that that's the biggest advantage, and that's where I kind of see things going.

Yeah, it's so interesting. As more people are using different AI tools, I'm seeing the backlash as well, right? And, and yeah, use them here but not here. And just like doing videos with clients, right? You're doing real videos. You're not just uploading their digital image and using a digital replica, just like this interview. I, I will never just be an AI version of myself because this is the part that's so good and juicy. Yeah.

So it's the human connection part, right? And I think that there's people with a very clear purpose on never losing that in what they do. And I think we do have to find a way to be efficient and use tools and stay up to date while keeping our mission of connection always at the core. And those are like the kind of clients that I work with anyways. Like they want that, right? They obviously wanna give the, the experience of who they are, but it's a mission-driven, it's a mission-driven thing.

Yeah. You briefly touched on an expansion of your business that maybe will help you go a little bit full circle. Can you talk about, tease it out a little bit for us? What does that look like or what do you think it's going to look like?

Yeah, I'm a really big believer in staying in your lane and being in a niche. And so we've like been sticking with recruiters and staffing agencies, not because what we do couldn't work for anybody, but because I think in marketing too, it's really important. But part of me is, uh, I mean, I've always wanted to go back to working with female founders and other founders. So we are now just building our marketing in order to target more founders themselves and doing what we're doing. Helping them become the face of their brand. Successful entrepreneurs, right, who know how important the human edge is. They know they need marketing and business development, but they want the human guide and the team to help them with that. So I'm so excited to be kind of going back. We're still fully focusing on recruiters and staffing agencies, and we're also adding an arm for female founders specifically who want another woman to work with, who understand the nuances of everything, but they also want to build their business really, really well. So I'm very excited about that. Um, my team and I are working on all of our development for that right now.

Fantastic. Yes. And share a little bit behind the name Aura. Aura.

Yeah. So we record all of our clients' content in one hour and aura, the word aura in Spanish, right, is like our. And so we wanted to do something that kind of paid homage to that, that like we do everything for for you in 1 hour a month. So it's kind of a play on that language.

Yeah, and you're delivering— you're, you're stating a brand promise of yours, right? We're going to help deliver all the solutions for the next month in 1 hour, and you are actually doing that. So it gives somebody a lot of confidence knowing who they're coming to and what to expect.

Exactly. I mean, I think, you know, at the core of what we do It's taking our framework— like, we have a very specific framework. We do— we have a very specific model of what we do with our clients, but we want to take our clients' brilliance. Like, I can't pretend to be our clients. Like, I can't just have one call and write content for the next months, like, and do it really well. So that's, that's always been the tenet of what we do. How do we take our clients' brilliance and our framework and deliver all their content to them in an hour of their time a month so we can honor their life, personal and professional, but really still drive results for them.

Alexis, do you have a quote, a motto, a poem, you know, a verse, words that continue to inspire you in what you do and what you're bringing to your clients every day?

I have to say that my favorite quote has to— it's Henry David Thoreau. I'm also a former, former teacher, Anika. Like, we haven't touched base on that, but I taught I taught high school English for, um, a while in my previous life as well. That was my previous, previous life to brand photography. And I love Henry David Thoreau and the Transcendentalists. And I— he has this longer quote, but I won't give you the whole thing. But the part that he talks about that I've always loved, it has to do with sucking the marrow of life, shaving clothes, clothes, dealing with a broad swath. And he talks about basically like living life optimally, like with everything that you're doing. And I have always loved that quote because that's exactly what I want my life to be like, is like taking everything out, the best, the hard, everything out for the day. Whether that's personally, whether that's professionally with my clients, like making the optimal best and enjoying the work that I do and enjoying each day. And that quote, like everybody knows me famously connected to that quote, like if you know me, because I think it's, it's truly what I try to live by as a mom, as a business owner, as a wife, as a friend in my daily life and, and professional life. That's really what I aim to live by, Henry David Thoreau's philosophies.

And of course, we will have your LinkedIn in the show notes as well as your website, auramarketing.us.

Yeah.

Yeah. So that people can find out more about you and you'll have to let us know when you launch that other part of your business because I know it'll be launched by the time the podcast airs.

So it, it is officially launched by the time you listen to this.

Fantastic. Yeah. Cause I think that is something a lot of people need right now is that just that boost. Yeah.

Strategy and support. That's really what I aim to be is like you get the strategy, you get everything, but you also want somebody that's really supportive. Supportive and a guide for what you're doing.

Yeah. And even though we've been talking about your specific current niche, everything you say applies to everybody who runs a business and really how we should all be approaching our businesses. Because you're absolutely right, we think about a problem we're trying to solve, maybe for ourselves, and we think about our areas of excellence and our areas of passion and things we can make money doing. But at the end of the day, if we don't have that consumer, if we aren't mapping to somebody's needs than where you just have a pretty website and, you know, a little bit of marketing about ourselves and it's not making an impact in the world.

Yeah. And like, we dive in way too fast to like, oh, the logo, the website, all the things. But like, we have to get the root foundation of the brand, otherwise the strategy falls flat. Yeah. Yes.

All right, well, there's a lot for everybody to think about. And this is the kind of conversation that really inspires me because as I'm going through this process myself, I think sometimes we forget to do it for ourselves and we have to take a step back and go, we also need this, these services. We also need to remember that we're showing up for our clients and people we wanna work with. So thank you so much, Alexis. This has been a really fun conversation and I know that I got a lot out of it and that everybody who's listening has something to think about.

Good, I'm glad. And any questions, I'm very responsive, so feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn or through the website. I'm happy to answer any questions. And it was so— you're a lovely host. Thank you for the enjoyable conversation. Grateful that you had me.

You make it easy. And with that, thank you to everybody who's listening to this episode or watching it on your favorite platform. I'll be back again with another amazing guest to share their story, their journey, and something for you to think about as you move into the next part of your business and your life. Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of Your Brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at yourbrandamplified.com.