Aubrey Wallace, Dandelion Branding, Nuenen, Netherlands

Aubrey Wallace, Co-founder Dandelion Branding helping organizations dedicated to social and environmental sustainability, elevate their impact, step into their brand identity, through holistic content marketing. Aubrey Wallace is also Podcast Host at "EnvironMental with Dandelion Podcast", available on Spotify. https://dandelionbranding.com

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Talk to Brazil with TomRiok, the business connector to business in
Brazil. Talk to Brazil's a leadingbusiness podcast and talks with business experts throughout
the world. I'm Tom Riock,an American known as the King of Networking,
connecting people from my studio in Brazil. Today's guest is Aubrey Wallace and

(00:21):
she's joining us from noon in theNetherlands. Aubrey Wallace is the co founder
of Dandelion Branding. Dandelion Branding helpsorganizations dedicated to social and environmental sustainability elevate
their impact step into their brand identitythrough holistic content marketing. So, Aubrey,

(00:45):
before I get to that, Ihave one question. How did you
get from studying criminal justice to cofounder of Dandelion Branding. Wow? Well,
thank you so much Tom for havingme on. Yeah. I think
life takes you in a wild way, right when you follow your heart,
and I'm one of those people that'sjust always going to follow what my gut

(01:10):
tells me to do. I lovedgoing to school for criminal justice. It
was fascinating. My goals were tokind of change the justice system in the
United States and be one of thosepeople that could do it from the inside.
I specifically was focused on oppression andat risk youth and changing that system.

(01:38):
But I am like five foot threeand a woman, and I am
very opinionated, and I don't knowif you know anything about the justice system
in the United States, but thosethings, yeah, sure they don't mash
well. I quickly found that thatwasn't a heart led space for me to

(02:06):
be in, and so I movedto California and I just sort of I
actually went there on a road tripand completely saw the mountains. Yeah,
and I'd never felt more at home. So I just said, yeah,
I'm just going to move here whenI graduate, and I did. Um

(02:30):
and I have always really loved towrite, so I kind of got this,
you know, I like wanted tobe in California now. It was
in my early twenties, and Iwas like, I'm just going to get
whatever job. And I ended upbeing the administrative assistant for a rice company
and rice rice yeah, And soI u ended up like being able to

(02:58):
forecast what was going to happen aroundin the rice like industry around the world
because that was my job. AndI got really good at forecasting and I
realized that that all comes from understandingbeing able to understand and analyze statistical data,

(03:19):
which I had learned in my criminaljustice degree. And from there,
the boss of that was like,hey, let's co found a company together
because I just have this like entrepreneurialambition all the time and always have.
And I said, okay, Sowe co founded a company called ravish Lee

(03:42):
dot com. It's like it's stilla thing. It's a feminist website.
But there again, I ended upbeing in this data position, in the
strategy position. And when I finallywas again listening to my heart centered space,
when I had got settled in California, I said, do I want
And I said, I still wantto help people. I still want to
make a difference. And I decidedto become a herbalist because I could work

(04:09):
directly with clients. I could befocused on their health and I could have
relationships with my clients that were morecomfortable. Um, that was a person
that you became a personal orbalists likeit. Yeah, I'm a certified herbalist
m went. I went to Berkeleyrbal Center for that, and then I

(04:30):
started working for a company called AnneMarie Skincare that where I met my co
founder, Courtney Hume. Um.We worked there together for several years,
and in that time I got evenbetter at building those strategies, at looking
at the data. The company hadnever had someone that said this is what

(04:50):
our data says, and these arethe changes we should make with that.
UM. So, even though itseems weird, like coming from criminal justice
and then moving all the way intoco founding Dandelion, it's not. It's
always been this like heart centered,data driven space, and it's it's always
like, I agree with you becauseI think we tend and I think younger

(05:13):
persons tend to be put in abox with regarding professions. And I used
to be young ones myself, andthen at guidance counselors who had said when
you're cut out to be this andthat, and it worked im into their
evaluation of me at that time wasrelevant. I don't want to say it
was wrong, but that's the wayI was, and that was the world
I lived in at that time.Then I went to school like you did,

(05:33):
and you open up your mind otherthings, you see other things,
yeah, and you start building onyourself. And I right, and I
find that's just the way life isright and look like criminal justice and like
understanding our definition of criminal it's literallyjust a label and it gives you this

(05:55):
idea of people. What it actuallyit's a social science and it is the
study of the base interests of whypeople make choices. And some of those
choices are outside of the societal normthat we create that we just like put
these oftentimes arbitrary rules around and thenif you just don't do that, then
you are labeled a criminal. Butactually it always comes back down to that

(06:20):
base need. So now I havethis like this formal education and base needs
and base wants and what people whatlengths people will go to to get those
needs and wants. And you knowthat that's very helpful with marketing. That
like marketing is what you've looked atmarket You've seen marketing from inside out.

(06:44):
Talking about rice as a consumable,talking about skincare the other layer of the
same person. And as you mentionedthe statistically understanding rice, you understood the
world and then you started understanding climaticchallenges for food. Yeah, that was

(07:04):
a that was fascinating work. SometimesI still think about we talked about before
those podcasts about like what you knowabout Brazil and it's like I weirdly know
about Basil's. Brazil's like rice consumptionand production. Now everybody thinks it's you
know, just you know, potatoes, and it's not potatoes, even though
we it's rice and beans. Yeah, so much rice comes from Brazil,

(07:28):
like yeah, and that's it.So it just shows that we know,
I don't say we most people knowa little bit about the world they're in.
Yeah, we're talking about sustainability.They know very little about what's happening
in the world they're in. Yeah. Yeah, sustainability is is also fascinating.
It's kind of the wild West outhere in the sustainability space right now.

(07:51):
There's not a lot of rules.The language is still being formed the
you know, the Netherlands, andfor me, from my perspective, it
seems more organized than other places.That's fair. That's a fair consumption.
That's a fair assumption. But it'salso like, you know, that feeling

(08:13):
right before you realize you know nothing, where you feel like you know everything
and you're on top of the world. That's kind of the vibe that exists
here right now, where they're likeI'm on top of the world with our
sustainability measures, and we're about tostep into this very real, very scary

(08:37):
transition that people aren't really talking aboutthat is necessary. Right we're running onto
fossil fuels, are we're deserted.We're deserted fuying. I don't our agricultural
space. We are cutting down forests. There's a very real and tangible and
you can see it even I'm lookingoutside, like I can see the difference.

(09:01):
It changed that and they're a veryreal transition that we all have to
go through in order to step intowhat will Actually I feel that because I
said, I'm an American. Iwas born in Pittsburgh, and when I
was born in Pittsburgh couldn't breathe.We had the lead because I couldn't breathe.
Talking years ago, Yeah, andso things happen, things changed for

(09:24):
other people. When I came toBrazil, one of the first things I
felt here was the pollution. It'sless now, but there are challenges that
are still ongoing. But some personshave, you know, sort of lived
or weren't born within the middle ofthat. Maybe back to back to Europe,
younger persons or persons who have beenborn into a society that has it's

(09:46):
called it a different view of sustainability. Other places are stepping they may realize
they may not, that may bemore vocal. But that brings me not
to why Netherlands. What are youdoing there? You've gone from the States
to California looking at the ocean andthe mountains. Now you're out underwater in

(10:07):
the Netherlands looking at the flowers,beautiful flowers out the window. Oh yeah,
the tulips are popping off right now. Um. So I was living
in California, bopping around happily,um running an art collective like you know,
working at ASC like you know.And so I'm a burning I go

(10:28):
to burning Man every year. AndI was at burning Man and I met
a guy there and we just kepttalking. And before the end of the
first month of talking to each other, we had decided to travel the world
together. And we had a tripplanned for Iceland. Iceland. Yeah,

(10:48):
in January. We were like,let's go to Iceland in January and just
it just the world a line.And I fell in love and moved to
the Netherlands to be with him,and and we're getting married now in a
few weeks. So see, younever know where you're going and wherever you're
going, you never know where it'staking you. So no, it's the

(11:11):
journey of a heart led human,like you're going all over the place.
Well I can, I can dealwith it. I think that. I
think what we have as persons,the emotional part connection comes from the heart.
Yeah. Now to companies and whatyou do in branding, how do
you put a heart into companies?How do you make them perceive that sustainability

(11:33):
something to not just to talk about, yeah, but to bring it into
the heart. I think that right, that's what branding is when like the
actual definition is like building an identityinto your business so you can compete,
and that is very like a businesslanguage. But what branding actually is is

(11:58):
putting that heart in there, stayingtransparent, staying connected with your values,
and letting that trickle through everything youdo, every decision that you make,
and every you know, every daywhen you wake up and you sit in
front of your computer and you're writingcontent or you know whatever, you're creating,
building products and going through formulation,all of that, it will always

(12:22):
always connecting it back to your identityand back to your values. That's branding.
But to the point you need toshow what the You need to understand
what those values are. Yeah,you need to understand where those values are.
So you ask like, how dowe how do we get businesses to
bring sustainability in as a value?We don't. We don't work with businesses

(12:43):
that don't have sustainability as a valueor that aren't interested in it. Right.
If somebody comes to us and they'relike, we haven't you know,
we haven't talked about sustainability in thepast, but we would like to bring
that into our company, you know, we are more than happy to talk
with them about Yeah, what areyou doing that is sustainable? Because all

(13:05):
are you sustainable? Yeah? Yeah, we're not gonna lie. We don't
greenwash. That isn't that is likethe antithesis of dandelion branding. But no.
But if a company, we havea company right now that is very
actively transitioning into being a more sustainablecompany. Um, and we are doing
an internal literacy program with them tohelp change the mindset of their of their

(13:31):
staff so that they can naturally bringsustainability literacy program. Yeah, interminal literacy
program. Yeah, like an environmentalYeah. So we it's a it's a
BIM company. Uh, where sothey're in construction and they do design before

(13:52):
a building is constructed. It's fascinatingand it's also one of the one of
construction is one of the Biggs polluters. So we felt really excited to be
able to work with the folks thatbuild in design and so our goal with
this program is to help them stepinto the mindset of sustainability first, so

(14:16):
when they're designing a new building,for instance, they can think about,
what are we doing with gray water, where are we putting solar panels,
how are we getting power? Youknow, what way does the roof face,
Because if the roof is facing southwest, then they're more likely to be
able to get more solar power,right, like these sorts of orientations.
That's north of the equator, northof the equator, yes, yeah,

(14:41):
So these sorts of small shifts forpeople, they that especially in positions that
they're designing infrastructure for the future,is is one of the most important things
we can do for sustainability right now. So that's really that's really square one

(15:03):
in the on the playboard. Backto basics within a company. Yeah,
literacy, right, the literacy programalong the lines of sustainability. Yep,
we'll start there and we go allthe way to like, what do you
say to a front end user?Uh, you know. We also work

(15:24):
with a courrier company that has electricvehicles and they are working to create um
They they only do medical delivery,for instance, and they are working to
create an efficient network throughout the UnitedStates because every state has its own rules
around chain of chain of custody,which is can be frustrating if you're going

(15:46):
interstate for different sorts of that's aconcept you brought up criminal and justice system
in the United States. No,it's a difference. One we look at.
Europe is sort of homogenized itself inregulations. So when you previously,
when you look at Europe, it'seach individual country, you have individual everything.

(16:07):
Today it's more collective and it's moreinterwining. On the boarders the United
States, it's really a compendium ofstates. With each one of them you
have to figure out a whole bunchof stuff. Federation. Things are pretty
much the same everywhere. We're talkingabout not only we're talking sustainability, were
talking about the everything. So itis one thing in that sense, it's

(16:32):
easier to understand from a business sense. The United States back to you said,
it's becomes very complicated. It immediatelybecomes complicated if you have to cross
state lines boof like, right,you know your taxes, change your you
know, your rules change any sortof regulation like you have to know and

(16:52):
they're making that, they're making thata bit harder. Um, well,
that to sustainability, what I feeleach state sort of has a different from
vision of what that's all about.Yeah, well, I would say that
each European country also has a differentvision. What I appreciate about Europe is
there like train system, I wouldsay, there that is very collaborative.

(17:18):
Yeah, it has to be.So it's they're building high speed trains in
Germany is in the forefront of that. But Germany is also generally struggles a
little bit more with with having thecitizens get into a sustainable mindset. So
there are different, radically different mindsetsthroughout Europe, even though the lawmakers come

(17:41):
together more readily. I would say, well, but but to that point,
trying to reach consistency across multicultural,multi lingual countries, which is you
know, it's not one language there, so no, that's not easy.
But to what you do a dandelions, do you have clients everywhere or are

(18:02):
they focused in Europe. So wehave clients predominantly in the United States and
in Europe. Um. I ifI have a clients in Europe, then
I like to go visit them becausea lot of times they well because I'm
in Europe. And if we canswing a visit into into the US,

(18:25):
that's also important. But that's harderbecause you have to go by plan,
which is not a sustainable way totravel. Right, So that major won't
come to Brazil ever, is thatit? I'll be I'll come to Brazil.
Yeah. I think we can't stopour lives, you know that until
Yeah, sustainable travel is a challengingum is a challenging topic. But I

(18:51):
think it's a necessary topic because wedon't want to understand the world as you
have done. You can only understandthe world if you see part of it.
Yeah. If we don't get outof where we are, our own
backyard, we can't understand a globalconversation. No. No, And I'm
from a part of Michigan where peoplejust don't leave. They don't have right

(19:14):
they I think everybody has the partof them that you know. You grow
up, you you're born, yougrow up, and you die. In
the same place, you know.There's why I had that until I got
on a plan a game to Brazil. So and you went to California.

(19:36):
No, it's opening up, it'sgetting out and seeing. Yeah, that's
all I say. It's good orbad. I understand how that even in
Brazil we have places people just don'tleave where they are. Yeah, and
that's I think that's really normal.But I don't necessarily know if that's if
I feel comfortable with people that thatfeel that way, being lawmakers or being

(20:02):
like policy, especially as it relatesto sustainability, because even though I look
outside and see the Netherlands and youlook outside and see Brazil, we're all
in one planet, right, andin that way, we all have really
one massive ecosystem with all of theseminor little things, you know, like
we share clouds, we share air, and it's really important that we understand

(20:32):
what we do to the environment hereimpacts what happens the environment there. Same
thing with sustainability in terms of cleanwater or the way we treat people.
Right, there are so many peoplein the world that are treated horribly at
their workplace or just by their government, and that's not among themselves or among

(20:56):
themselves. Yeah, that is nota sustainable way to that. Yeah,
So for me, sustainability also hasto do with how we treat each other.
And so that's your first step inany business arrangement, any client that
you come to. Yea, sothey need then And I see you say
you are also on your site you'rea woman owned and operated sustainable marketing agency.

(21:22):
Prefer female owned companies or not necessarily, Um, not necessarily. I'm
trying to think right now we're actuallyworking more with male owned companies, but
that that shifts back and forth forus. Um. The one more question.
You're five point five three right,Yeah, I'm sure. No,

(21:48):
you're not short. I'm very short. Well my mother was four to nine
okay, so that's short. Butanyway, you have your perspective from that
perspective, yes, all right,and you have that, you have a
multiple perspective also from being a woman. Yes, I am unfortunately in a

(22:10):
country. A second, unfortunately I'min a country. Unfortunate to be in
a country, but unfortunately the viewof women here is different. It is
probably the country in the world thatyou have spouses murder their wives on a
daily basis here, So it's stilla macho type environment. Yeah, and
obviously there's a lot of work doingthat. There's a lot happening to try

(22:33):
to elevate women in terms of businessand anything. But it's still a challenge
because there's so many hurdles to comeover, and that sustainability. You can
only sustain a country if you cansustain the people that are in it.
If you kill, if they backto what we were about treating people,

(22:55):
you kill your wife, your girlfriend, whatever, could be a male partner,
something really wrong, and that needsYeah, if that's a normal,
if that's a societal norm, that'sproblematic. Um. Yeah, Yes,

(23:15):
the world is made up. Isay it depends on where you are,
if you say it's half women,half men, half whatever. But we
need to understand various points of view. Yeah, and from and from different
altitudes or different heights, from differentheights, as we're not all one thing
different And you know, oppression isreal and in general, it can happen

(23:41):
societally, it can happen familiarly,it can happen within a within your workplace.
Uh. And it's not it's it'snot a it's not a safe or
sustainable way of operating. And sowhen you ask like, do I prefer

(24:03):
to work with women owned businesses?I love working with women owned businesses,
but I also am one and Ilike to hire women. So I and
I like to, you know,we put forward where women own women owned
business because we are empowering ourselves.Should Yeah, to say, we're here

(24:26):
and we're making a difference, andthis is how we're choosing to have an
impact, and this is how we'rewi is how we're putting forward our role
and we work with people who wantto bring that into the world. And
your company it is, yeah,it's also part of It's not like it's
also yes, my company, butalso Courtney, one of my business partner,

(24:48):
is an amazing woman and she wealso immediately connected when we met because
of this topic because we both likeShe also went to school for an interduc
sciplinary study also studied this like oppressionand how to change it and how to
grow through it. And so thesocial enterprise and the social aspect of sustainability

(25:11):
is something that we both hold reallyas a really important piece. And it's
not just environmental, even though that'swhat we call our podcast. I don't
want to say that the buzzwords,the words are important to be found.
Yeah, the words are important tobe found and that's to our brands.

(25:33):
It's what we say and how wesay it is how we're going to be
found. Absolutely what people are lookingfor. But anyway, sustainability is the
word. It's the challenge. Yep. I don't want to congratulate you and
Courtney for what you're doing, whatyou have done, and certainly more for
what you will do because the pastis the past, but the future needs
to be preserved and Urchard, yeah, yeah, we get for our listeners,

(26:00):
how can they find you? Yeah, sure, so you can find
me on LinkedIn if you search AubreyWallace. That's Aubry Wallace as in William
Wallace, same same spelling. That'shelpful. You can also search LinkedIn for
Dandelion Branding. We are not hardto find as a marketing agency. We're

(26:23):
around and you can check out ourwebsite at Dandelion Branding dot com. Very
good. So for persons who thinkthat dandelions were a bad thing in your
yard, you've changed that too.It's a good thing to have around,
right. Yeah. Can we touchon that for a second, because dandelions

(26:44):
are a vibe Okay, they areso helpful, They help improve the soil.
They are the first bee food.They are very good food for humans.
Like you want, if you getdandelions in your yard, you should
feel honored and you should cherish thembecause dandelions are so amazing and they're very

(27:06):
good at procreating. But every timeyou see a dandelion, know that it
is fixing the soil for you andhelping the biodiversity of the space that you
are living in. I gets steppedone in literacy right because I think seriously,
it's perception is what people tell youis that dandelion's popping up in your
yard at some place that you knowthey don't have dandel You don't know what

(27:26):
a dandelion is. But yeah,everything, no matter what it is,
it should be sacred, should beYeah. Yeah, cherish your weeds because
they're they're they're fixing your soil there. They grow faster than everything else.
Yeah, they're great, very good. Well again, thank you for being

(27:52):
part. Yeah, thank you somuch for having me. Tomas has been
it's been really lovely meeting you andcoming on the show. For me too,
it is great. And for aidInsight again, it's Aubrey Wallace,
a U B R E Y thelast named w A L l a c
E. Find you on LinkedIn andalso Dandelion Branding dot com. Dandelion Branding

(28:15):
dot com. Thanks for all ourlisteners and our sponsor Focus on My Market
Intelligence. Focus on My specializes inmarket research for the Brazilian agricultural market.
More about them on their site FOCUSMIdot com. Remember when you talk to
Tom, you talk to the world. Goodbye and thanks for listening. Thanks

(28:40):
for listening to Tom Riach on Talkto Brazil, the business connector to Brazil.