March 30, 2025 • 38 mins
Company: Trace Brand Building
Owners: Tracey Felicidade Jones
Year Started: 2022
Employees: 1-10
What do a cross-country road trip in an old ambulance and global brand strategy have in common? Tracey Felicidade Jones, founder of Trace Brand Building, shares her wild entrepreneurial journey from escaping danger in South Africa to building a purpose-driven agency in the U.S.
Inside this episode:
- How Tracey built an international agency rooted in clarity, creativity, and courage
- Why visual equity is a must-have for brands that want to be remembered
- The common branding mistake that leads to costly rework
- How brand archetypes shape messaging—and why your agency should lean into them
- A global perspective on doing business and what the U.S. gets surprisingly right
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
I can see the movie trailer now titled Big Jude.
The story strangers turnedfriends, an Ambulance and a
cross country road trip for twoand a half years and 42 states.
In this episode, I sit down withTracey Felicidade Jones, founder
of Trace Brand Building, whoseglobal journey from South Africa
to the US has shaped a vibrantand fearless approach to
branding that challenges thestatus quo.
(01:03):
We dive into the power ofeffective branding and discuss
perspectives on the US businessecosystem.
Along the way, Tracey shareswild stories from her personal
and professional journey,including traveling the US in
Big Jude and rebranding throughliteral fire and upheaval.
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Tracey Felicidade Joneswith us here today.
(01:25):
Thank you so much for being onthe show today Tracey.
Tracey (01:27):
Thank you for having me.
It's great to be here.
I really appreciate it.
Russel (01:29):
I am glad to have you as well.
Let's get right to it.
What does Trace Brand Buildingdo and who do you do it for?
Tracey (01:36):
Trace Brand Building, we are all about brand magic.
We create brand magic.
You get everyday branding andthen you get brand magic, which
is a special aha moment when yousee really, really cool things.
That's what we want to do.
We want to create beautifulbrands, beautiful stories that
resonate with your customers andyour ideal audience.
(01:57):
We love what we do.
We're very much in the consumerpackage goods, as well as
healthcare and business tobusiness, B2B.
Anything that you would find inthe food aisle, in the beauty
aisle, we do quite a lot ofstuff for beauty brands on
Amazon.
We want to work with coolbrands.
You want to work with coolpeople.
I think the longer you do this,you realize that there's a lot
of egos, maybe if you, peoplehave certain marketing budgets
(02:20):
and we just want to have fun andwork with really, really cool
people.
That's super important for me.
Russel (02:25):
Nothing wrong with that.
We all need a little magic inour lives, I would imagine.
Tracey (02:29):
Absolutely.
It's the fun spot.
Russel (02:30):
I want to hear more about all things magic making
and brand building.
Before we get to that point, Iwant to hear about Tracey and
young Tracey and where you cameup from in the world.
And we'll eventually get to thiswhole agency thing.
Tracey (02:43):
I am actually an American citizen as you can hear
from my, from my, uh, New Yorkaccent.
I was born in the US um, and mydad was working at the hospital
in New York, so I was born andwhole family is from South
Africa, went back to SouthAfrica when I was about two and
a half, three years old.
Lived there my whole life.
Went to boarding school in SouthAfrica, uh, saw the end of
(03:04):
Apartheid, which was really avery interesting place to be in
when, when Nelson Mandela wasreleased.
Got into corporate, um, Iactually didn't study marketing
originally.
I studied a bachelor of sciencedietetics.
Russel (03:15):
That's unique.
Tracey (03:15):
I wanted to be a surgeon just like my dad and my math and
science marks weren't goodenough and then went to a
college and just had a heap offun as you do and studied
dietetics and then realized,actually, do I want to study for
another 15 years?
I don't know if that's me.
Then took a bit of a road tripand came back to the US.
(03:36):
Ended up coaching tennis at asummer camp in upstate New York
and met a whole lot of othercamp counselors from around the
world and ended up buying anambulance, an old ambulance, uh,
a 90 Dodge and ended up touringthe US for another two and a
half years with a whole lot ofcamp counselors that I met
there.
That was probably one of thebest times of my life.
I was 22 to 24 years old and wesaw 42 states and as everybody's
(04:03):
visas ran out, we would dropthem off at the nearest airport.
That's where I fell in love withColorado because it was, it was
1999, I'm really giving my ageaway.
There were four of us left outof 12 and we were in Hilton Head
Island and it was starting toget cold.
We're like, what are you goingto do?
What should we do?
We're like, well, why don't welearn how to go skiing?
And Dumber and Dumber had beenreleased pretty recently.
(04:25):
This is how you make Aspen andthis is how you make your life
choices, right?
Like Dumber and Dumber.
We're like, well, duh, you gotto go to Aspen.
If you want to learn how to ski,that's where you're at.
Our ambulance was called BigJude and we rolled in with Big
Jude and, um, didn't lookanything like we belonged in
Aspen.
Ended up doing a season inAspen, worked there for eight
months, loved it, worked at TheLittle Nell Hotel.
(04:46):
I worked at the hospital as adietitian, Aspen Valley
Hospital.
I also worked on Gwyn's on Aspenas a, as a line, line chef.
It's where I learned how to ski.
And then all of my friends visasran out so they went back to
Australia and, uh, I then wenton to Vegas and became a dealer.
Then had a car accident and wentback to, went back to South
Africa.
That was my two and a half yearstint around the US and, um,
(05:10):
fell in love with Coloradothere.
That's where I live now.
That's a little bit about me.
Russel (05:14):
All right.
Well, I got questions.
This is a fascinating story.
I mean, talking about living thedream, this is the kind of thing
they make movies out of.
Were you guys living in theambulance?
How were you, like, sustainingand, and you know, making money
through this journey?
Tracey (05:26):
We arrived in the US, I had about 500 dollars, uh, this
was 99.
I think we got about, oh gosh, Ithink we got about 1, 200 for
our eight weeks of work at thecamp.
The ambulance costs 500 dollars.
Jay and I split the van and wethen just all kind of plugged
our money together and it waslike, okay, where are we going
to go?
Some counselors had family inCanada.
(05:47):
We ended up going throughCanada.
We would just kind of drive andstop and then you would either
camp or sleep in the van or, Ithink it was on the East coast
somewhere.
I forget the exact place,somewhere in Massachusetts.
There was a retreat, uh, a monk,like, for monks and you weren't
allowed to talk.
We worked there in exchange forfood and lodging and that was
(06:08):
interesting.
It was kind of like and thenstop at work and travel.
I would waitress, the guys woulddo, like, uh, building, you
know, they would do, like, hardlabor.
We just kind of worked andtraveled, it was a crazy time,
but what fun it was.
We would like stay somewherefor, like, two months if we
loved it, and we got work.
That's kind of how we rolled.
Russel (06:24):
I feel like I want to do a whole episode just on this
journey alone, but, um, youknow, I guess this is called An
Agency Story, but I'll, I'lllimit myself to one more
question.
Craziest story that happened inthis two and a half journey?
I got to know.
Tracey (06:38):
There's lots of them.
Probably the most fun that Ithink stands out is that, um, we
rocked into Boston and, um, businto Salem, Massachusetts.
We were all like, oh, it'switch, you know, you've, there's
all of that thing about thewitches and we had our broom to
clean the van.
We almost, like, had a kitchen.
It was a proper setup that wehad arranged.
(06:59):
One of the guys, you know, we'reall 22, like, college kids, took
the broom and started runningaround in the car park, you
know, like, pretending that he'sin witch country.
We ended up going to the bar.
Back then you were not allowed,there was no bar that was open
past, I think 10 o'clock.
Anyway, we persuaded him to movethe party down to the basement
of the bar and we ended upstaying there for, like, seven,
(07:22):
eight hours.
He would have lost his license.
I don't know if I can say thisstuff on, on the podcast, but,
um, but, but it was a lot offun.
Being in Aspen over New Year forthe millennium and everyone was
crazy, like, what's going tohappen?
It's Y2K, is everything going toshut down?
And then you're seeing, like,these beautiful, like, fireworks
over, um, seeing the century,turn of the century.
(07:43):
There's so many good stories.
Geez, I could talk forever.
Sleeping in the, outside theWhite House in the van.
There's a lot of them, but, butjust joy and laughter and fun
and just exploring life.
Russel (07:53):
Last question, what happened to the ambulance?
Tracey (07:55):
I was now living in Aspen.
I was the only one there.
We were working at The LittleNell and my very good friend who
still lives there.
Stephanie, she actually works atthe Regis.
I then decided I wanted to go toVegas and learn how to become a
dealer.
She said, okay, but we're nottaking Big Jude.
I'm not going to be seen dead inthat thing.
We ended up literally dumpingBig Jude at Pitkin airport.
Russel (08:15):
That's sad.
Tracey (08:16):
I was like, okay, well, I'm just gonna leave the van and
off we go.
Every time I see a high toppedwhite, like, Dodge van, I'm
like, is that Big Jude?
Is that Big Jude?
We deserted her.
I'll probably get fined if theyfound out, but yeah, it, just
dumped her.
It was quite sad, but I was notallowed to drive it to Vegas, is
the point.
Very sad.
Russel (08:34):
I don't know.
I feel like I kind of want to goon a hunt.
You could dig up the VIN numberand see if Big Jude could still
be out there.
Tracey (08:40):
Every time I go past Aspen, I'm like, I wonder if,
wonder what happened to her.
Russel (08:44):
Might still be sitting there.
Very fascinating story.
Thanks for taking us down what Iimagine, there's no shortage of
memories there.
Come back to South Africa, getus to where you actually, how
did you start your agency?
Tracey (08:54):
I didn't study marketing originally.
I was doing a bachelor ofscience and then all the
dietitians became medical salesreps.
Because they just, you know, inAfrica, you're not worried about
a nasogastrophe, necessarily.
You're worried about HIV.
The patients, they don't reallycare about high protein feeds.
I had the opportunity to join mydad's practice and talk about
coronary heart disease and lowcholesterol, but I just wasn't
(09:16):
loving it.
I just wasn't feeling thecreativity.
I ended up getting a job at thehospital and then, um, I, but I
was always more creative.
Then I got headhunted to go andwork for LSG Sky Chefs, which
was more along my lines of,like, super creative.
I then got to design all thenutritional meals for Air
France, Swiss Air.
I really enjoyed that.
Then it was, 9/11 happened andovernight the business just kind
(09:41):
of collapsed.
Two months later, the businesswas closed.
There was no more airlinecatering because everything was
kind of, like, shut down and noweverything was moved over to,
um, one of the competitors.
I went into medical sales andthat's where I fell in love with
the marketing because you wouldsee all the cool stuff happens
in the marketing departmentbecause we would develop these
as a rep, you would get thesecool branding kits to take to
(10:04):
the doctor to try and sell themthe products.
It was so creative and I waslike, hey, I really enjoy this,
this kind of creative, like,execution and, and telling the
story and bringing things tolife.
Also from a medical family, mydad was very much like, if he's
going to see a medical rep,bring me value.
I don't need a pen.
I don't need a gift.
I don't need stuff that's goingto fill up a landfill.
(10:25):
Bring me the latest informationas to why this is going to
affect the heart surgery that Ido.
I was always aware of, like,what is the value and, and, and
what are you, what are you goingto do to, to just, you know,
make the, change an opinion oradd to the story, so to speak?
I was doing that for a couple ofyears.
I kind of missed the food sideof the, of the world.
Then started working at, uh,Tiger Brands, which is a big
(10:48):
food company.
By this stage, I'd alreadystudied marketing, international
marketing management, so I'dalready had my degree.
Then I started working at NestleFoods, uh, where I was the
marketing manager for the fooddivision for kitKat, Maggie
Brands, that kind of thing.
I got bored of the corporatespace.
It's very, very slow.
There's lots of red tape.
Having to kind of report toSwitzerland and Singapore from a
(11:09):
regional and global perspective,it just weren't getting, just
weren't, I wasn't loving it asmuch as I wanted.
I just wasn't loving it.
There was a gap in the marketfor cool agencies.
Quick work, super creative, downto earth, no ego, no BS.
I'm like, well, you know, whydon't I just, let me just do
this.
I opened up Brand SpankingMarketing.
(11:29):
That was a feat as well.
I'd gotten to the stage wherenow I'm going to leave corporate
and my husband had his ownbusiness and now he's going to
start supporting me while Igrow.
I left in April and in May, hisfactory burned down to the
ground.
Russel (11:42):
Your husband's factory?
Tracey (11:43):
My husband's factory burned down to the ground.
It really was a baptism of fire,so to speak.
Russel (11:48):
Oh my gosh.
Tracey (11:49):
Literally.
But that's, that's how westarted.
It's been now 13 years andthat's how Brand Spanking
Marketing started.
Russel (11:55):
What's the name?
What's the thought behind thename Brand Spanking Marketing?
Tracey (11:59):
In South Africa, you need to have a sense of humor,
um, because of so many politicaland, just, it's it's a
challenging environment to workin.
Brand Spanking, it's brandspanking new.
We're going to spank some funinto your brand.
It just resonated a lot.
Look, I was a lot younger then.
It really, really worked well.
And then when I moved to the US,I actually realized, we're all
(12:19):
about drink the Kool Aid.
Are you looking the part to yourtarget audience?
How do you look?
How do you make yourself thebest version of yourself?
What we realized when we landedhere was the word spanking could
be contentious.
The word marketing has a bit ofa mixed review.
Some people have been, theydon't like the word marketing
because they've been let down orwhat kind of marketing, it's so
(12:40):
broad?
Is it digital?
We also realized that the USmarket likes to know, like, what
is your niche?
What are you really, really,really, really good at?
We're really, really good at, isbrand building.
I took a step back and I'm like,okay, well, maybe Brand Spanking
Marketing isn't the right namefor the US.
It really became evident whenone of our clients is a lawyer,
a legal firm, and they wouldn't,they wouldn't call us Brand
(13:01):
Spanking.
They call us BSM.
I'm like, okay, there'sdefinitely something more to
this.
We rebranded in 2021, inSeptember, uh, or was it 2022?
Sorry.
The time's just flying, um, toTrace Brand Building.
The reason for that is because Iam tracing my steps back to the
USA after leaving.
We can trace the progress ofyour brand.
(13:21):
We can uncover trace elements ofwho you are and discover
beautiful jewels that we cankind of amplify if need be.
And then it happens to be ashortened version of my name.
We changed it to Trace BrandBuilding and that is now what
we're called in both markets.
Russel (13:35):
I like Brand Spanking too, but I don't know, is are
agencies the only place where, Idon't feel like I encounter a
lot of other businesses, andmaybe I don't know, cause I
don't work with a lot of othertypes of businesses or industry,
but it seems like a lot ofagencies change their name for
one reason or another fromwherever they started to
wherever they're at today.
Very common amongst, amongstagencies, but I find that
interesting.
Tracey (13:54):
I think as you, as you evolve, I'm always a thing of
like every, every seven to 10years, you need to look at your
brand.
I'm not saying change it, buthave a look.
Because are you still relevantto your target audience?
What's happening in the market?
Have your objectives changed?
We see so much bad branding andpeople have stuck with the same
logo for like hundreds of yearswithout any kind of
(14:17):
modernization.
We're like, can we just move youinto the century?
Because are you still relevantto your target audience?
Maybe that's what happens withagencies, maybe they are having
that introspection of like, arewe still relevant in, in how we
sound?
Russel (14:30):
I think it's definitely probably more the latter.
I totally get it.
I think we went through probablytwo or three name changes in our
agency.
Very fascinating.
I want to go back to your timein South Africa.
You said that the environmentwas challenging.
I can't remember exactly how youworded it, but obviously now you
have the comparison of runningan agency here in the US.
What were some of thosechallenging differences that
you're, that you speak to?
Tracey (14:51):
A big thing in South Africa is something called, um,
black economic empowerment.
It's called BEE and if youwanted to work with big
corporates, there's a BEEschool.
It's a bit like the diversity orthe DEI landscape here in the
USA, but there it's very much.
I wouldn't say it's law, but youget fined and, and, and big
(15:12):
companies have to report to thegovernment what their BEE score
is.
Are they using, and a whitewoman is not seen as diversity,
whereas in the US it is, okay.
You would have to sell more than51 percent of your business, um,
in order to meet thosequalifications.
There's a lot of stuff thatcomes with that.
I want to work with great peopleand my whole team is diverse.
(15:35):
It's about great people, greatwork, great output, great
attitude.
I don't care what color or sexyou are, just do good, good work
and be a great person.
That was limiting to someaspect.
Another thing is there's a lotof corruption in South Africa,
unfortunately.
There's a whole nother angle ofbusiness that you've just got to
be kind of savvy.
There, you don't get peoplepaying for, like, I get paid by
(15:57):
clients by credit card.
That doesn't happen in SouthAfrica.
It's an EFT or it's a transferinto your bank account.
If I've got a TV ad that I wasdoing, I had to make sure I had
the money to front roll that,and I would only get the money
maybe 30 to 60 days later,depending.
Usually after deliverable.
You always had to kind of be,you, you know, you had to be
(16:19):
kind of streetwise.
You're dealing with cash a lotof the time.
That was the challenge.
A lot of companies have cut downtheir marketing budgets.
There's just not work.
There's no work, really, inSouth Africa.
Moving here, I have been verypleasantly surprised at how
easy, I'm not saying it's easyto do business, but it seems
like there are fewer roadblocksto get work.
Almost like in South Africa, youhad to be an approved vendor and
(16:42):
you had to go through this,this, this, this.
I'm finding it, it's completelydifferent.
It's like, I like you.
I like what you're doing.
Let's do it.
It just seems like there's alower barrier to entry.
This really is, I know you guyshave heard this a million times,
but this is the land of, if youcan dream it, I truly believe
you can achieve it.
Whatever you put your mind to inthis country, you can achieve
(17:03):
1000%.
I just see opportunitieseverywhere around me.
If you go and get them and youwant to, you want to be active
in the community, oh my word,the rewards are there.
1000%.
Russel (17:13):
I think it's a good perspective for a lot of people
that have never really donebusiness outside of the US to
just, you know, understand.
Business is tough.
All of those things still breeda lot of competition and stuff
like that.
The opportunity is there in somuch as you're willing to take
advantage of it, dream it, dothe work.
Which could, you know, probably,I don't think anyone would
argue, the most free economy inthe, in the world to do that.
(17:35):
Certainly there's definitely,sounds like there's places that
are a lot different, but, uh,that's a fascinating
perspective.
Tracey (17:40):
Absolutely.
South Africans are also known tohave a very, um, good, solid
work ethic.
I've got a great team.
I wouldn't do anything withoutmy team.
My team is, are flipping rockstars, award winning rock stars.
The beauty of it is that we,we've got talent around, around
the world, so I can kind of dostuff and by the morning I've
got stuff already ready for myclient.
(18:02):
People are like, what, what'sgoing on?
I'm like, we're getting stuffdone.
We're from Africa.
I make shit happen.
Just get the work done.
Sorry.
Russel (18:09):
No, you're good.
Totally allowed.
This is a PG 13 podcast.
You can say that.
A couple of questions there of,of just in the idea that, um,
you know, something that feelslike you kind of glossed over,
right?
This had to be a pretty bigdecision to move from South
Africa.
You bring your whole businessand come over here.
Obviously you'd got toexperience you know, the US
prior to that, but was it justthe restriction around business
or what?
(18:29):
Tell us a little bit more aboutwhat motivated to take that
move.
Tracey (18:33):
Oy vey.
It really was the violence.
Our neighbor was shot in thehead.
Russel (18:36):
Oh my.
Tracey (18:36):
I was at a retreat, in inverted commas, and one of the
guests had a, attempted murderagainst her.
She was stabbed multiple timesand I was a guest there and
managed to help pull her up thestairs.
That I think was the finaldeciding factor.
My step mom and my sister in lawwere held up in my dad's home at
(18:57):
gunpoint.
Everybody has a story of beingaffected by the fact that
there's no work, so there'sdesperation, there's crime,
there's corruption.
How long until you're astatistic?
The deciding factor was reallythe violence, unfortunately.
You couldn't necessarily bike orcycle outside because we used to
go to a bike park and then theystarted getting, you know,
(19:17):
people held up for their bikes,for their phones, for their
watches.
You're in a bike park, which issupposedly closed off in a safe
environment.
We had a great lifestyle becausewe were lucky enough to be able
to afford a great lifestyle, butis it a great lifestyle when
you're in a lock behind electricfences and, you know, bars on
the wall?
You don't see it until you'rereally out of it, but when you,
(19:39):
when you're out of it, youactually realize like, oh my
God.
I'll be now cycling.
I'll just jump on my bike, hopon my bike.
There's kids that are walking ontheir own, like, you could never
do that.
Or I'm seeing squirrels or I'mseeing, like, people fishing and
I'm just like, oh my word, thisis the small things.
The little things are the bigthings.
This is what life is about.
It's not about living behind afancy home with high walls and
(20:01):
electric fences.
That's really what was the nailin the coffin.
Russel (20:04):
I don't think anyone listening could blame you.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs, uh,safety and security are first
and foremost and if we don'thave that, that definitely makes
sense.
Fascinating story so far.
I mean, obviously, uh, some,some hardship there and
appreciate you sharing that, butseems like you appreciate just
the opportunity and, and reallyhave this abundant mindset and
(20:24):
that that is clearly has workedout well for you.
Let's talk more agency stuff.
Just tell a good client storyand we'll, we'll get, that'll
get us back on track here intothe agency life.
Tracey (20:34):
A good agency story.
We had a beautiful clientcalled, um, Dr.
Oetker.
O E T K E R.
It's the frozen food, frozenfood, uh, largest kind of frozen
food and they actually inventedbaking powder.
He was a chemist, a pharmacist,and he invented baking powder,
Mr.
Dr.
Oetker, and he is from Germanyand it's a family owned
(20:57):
business.
We landed that account, um,gosh, 13 years, 11, 12 years
ago, we had the account for 10years.
What a great, like, just arelationship and being able to
see grow a brand.
That's a global brand to whereit is.
They then bought a frozendessert section, which we then
also inherited.
That was very much retail aswell as daily.
(21:19):
They had, like, 15 kind of shopsaround South Africa.
What I really love is seeing,don't want to say their baby was
ugly to start with, but, butwhen I look at the, when I look
at the dessert side of thebusiness in particular, Chateau
Gateaux, rebranding them intothat beautiful space, like,
inheriting a brand and thenbeing open to, like, rebranding
and, and, and really targetingtheir ideal target audience and
(21:40):
then rolling that out against,you know, different stores, uh,
install point of sale,packaging.
It's just so gratifying to see afull 360 rollout of, of, of what
you do and, and how the customerreacts to rebranding and the
delight and the excite momentthat we bring pride to our
clients, seeing that come tolife.
(22:01):
We did television commercialswith them.
We did install point of salecompetitions.
We developed really coolanimated games where you would
chasing almost like Pac-Man oryou're chasing this pizza and,
um, that went viral.
Back to school competitions,promotions.
In COVID, we created this thingcalled Tasty Moments.
It was basically one, oneepisode a week of, of
(22:23):
edutainment, so to speak, and itwas a comedian educating you
about frozen food and how youcan use it.
It's been about therelationships and just walking
that, that journey.
I don't know if that's a reallygood agency story, but it's just
about seeing brands go from oneplace to the next and
challenging the status quo andbelieving in you.
Our job is to take you out ofyour comfort zone and to create
(22:45):
magic and to make you do whatyou normally wouldn't do.
I don't want to be seen as avendor.
I want to be seen as, really,your partner because bounce
ideas off me, challenge me.
We're building this babytogether and I want to be part
of the team.
I don't want to be seen as avendor and I won't deal with
clients if they don't want to beus to be seen as part of an
integral part of the team,because a lot of the time, like,
(23:08):
I've been a marketing manager, Iknow what is needed, so I've
been on both sides.
I can see it from a marketingpoint of view and a brand point
of view, whereas a lot ofagencies don't necessarily focus
on brand.
They don't have the, maybe theclassical marketing training on
brand.
They've got more just, like, theagency creative space, but we
can bring both to theconversation.
Russel (23:28):
As you were describing that, and there's a couple of
things I want to come back to,but one, it made me sit, right?
I don't know if you're a golfer,but everybody talks about golf,
you know, especially if you'renot very good like myself.
You suck, you suck, you suck,and then you have a really great
hole and that great hole makesit all worth it to go back
through and kind of go throughthe grind.
We get some of those where it'sjust all the right
(23:49):
circumstances, have a project ora client where we hit it out of
the park or part of the teamand, and really have that great
success that makes some of thoseother projects that just aren't
as sexy or whatever reason justdon't have that pizzazz behind
them.
But that's okay.
Everything can't be a Cinderellastory or anything like that.
That's what that reminded me of.
I want to come back to, youknow, cause I, I do think that
(24:10):
is an important piece of whatyou're saying is, we can't just
be seen as a vendor.
I think marketing is a thingwhere we've just got to be,
we've got to be part of theteam.
Anything that you've learned inyour experience that makes that
more possible than just wantingit or expecting it, if you will?
Tracey (24:25):
What I've realized, in the US, is that the education
systems are very, very differentto South Africa.
Russel (24:31):
Is that a nice way of saying, uh, crappy because I've
heard this before.
Tracey (24:35):
It's just very different.
I've realized this, that, thatin South Africa, okay, this is
obviously a generalization, sohopefully I'm not going to
offend anybody, but what we'verealized is, in South Africa,
you do four years and, three tofour years, and from, like, year
one, you're doing statisticalanalysis.
You're doing research.
You're doing very marketspecific, there's no generalist
(24:57):
subjects that you really take.
We worked on a, an educationbrand here and I was actually
talking to, um, the presidentand we were talking about, um,
the changes in education and thedifferences between the
countries and she's like, well,we're very generalist.
The first two years you canstudy whatever you want.
In fact, one of our friends'kids is doing, I think it's
(25:19):
African basket weaving at CUBoulder, because he didn't
manage to sign up for thesubjects quick enough.
I'm like, this is veryinteresting because we would not
have those kinds of subjects,but what she was saying to me,
the president of the universitywas saying, you know, for two
years or so, you do generalists,you do whatever you want.
Then in the last year, if youwant to do marketing, you choose
(25:39):
more marketing specificsubjects.
I thought that was prettyinteresting.
I don't know if you can, if, isthis what you see as well?
Because what, what the outcomeis, is that it's, you know,
people might not feel fullyequipped for going in and really
being, you know, the head ofmarketing or the VP of
marketing, not saying that youare from our side, but, but it
(25:59):
seems like there's a little bitof a gap.
There's a bit of a gap in, inI'm a VP of marketing.
I'm here because either I workedmy way through the ranks, which
is fabulous, but I'm just notfeeling that confidence in
archetype analysis or in thereal strategic side of growing a
business.
I get people telling me that allthe time, that in those
positions, and that doessurprise me because I would not,
(26:21):
I would never think that.
Russel (26:23):
It brings up an interesting notion.
I think from my own perspectiveand right?
I can't say I'm an expert andonly have my own experience, but
uh, I think we definitely dolack what probably when you do
have more specialization, youknow, maybe especially early on
in your education journey, youlearn what it takes to really go
in depth about something andalmost just that learning how to
learn how to go in depth.
(26:44):
I could see where that could bea challenge, um, in the big
scheme of things.
Where people are very becomevery siloed in what they know
about and what they can focus onin, in their career.
Every day that goes by thisworld, we're just getting,
everything is becomingintermingled, intermixed.
If we can't recognize patternsacross different types of
things, then then we might behurting.
But I struggle with that too,because right?
Have you heard that you'refamiliar with the T shaped
(27:05):
concept?
We didn't coin this but we useit a lot in our business.
The idea that your expertise isthe shape of a T and the, the,
the horizontal portion is kindof your, um, your breadth of
experience and then your, yourlong portion is your depth.
We always talked about, we, wevery much valued that breadth,
and we said, you might becomestagnant in your depth if you
don't have breadth.
Again, that's that patternrecognition, but, um, you know,
(27:27):
sometimes in the US we might,oureducation system might give us a
short T on both sides.
Long story short, and I hearthis from a lot of folks from
other countries, there'sprobably a lot of room for
improvement in, in, uh, in oureducation.
Tracey (27:38):
Not to knock it at all, it's just, it's just, we feel,
when we are talking to marketingmanagers, they, they love the
fact that we can talk aboutarchetypes.
We can kind of be their advocatefor like, why do you think we
should do this?
We become the sounding board.
This is a strategic reason,like, who are you as a brand?
Because a lot of them don'tnecessarily have a brand
(27:58):
platform or they don't have,they don't know what their brand
archetype is.
Now, if you don't know who youare as a brand, then how do you
know how to communicate and howdo you know which channels?
I always say, if you were tolook at, I'm a huge F1 fan, and
Red Bull is one of the Formula1, uh, sponsors in one of the
cars.
They're an explorer brand andthey're all about, you know, the
excitement and doing things, andas a result, I will lean into
(28:21):
them on social media maybe 20,30 times during the race.
If I'm not watching it to seewho's winning, who's, who's,
who's, you know, who's in thelead now?
They can get away with thatbecause of their persona and the
archetype.
Now, if an innocence archetypelike Coca Cola or Dove, which is
all about kind speech, and ifyou look at Dove, you know,
embrace all body types, um, CocaCola, enjoy happiness.
(28:44):
It's all about kind speech.
Can you imagine getting 30messages from them a day on
social media?
You'd be like, I'm out of here.
I'm unfollowing you.
We always get people saying, canyou do our content for us?
We're like, absolutely, but whoare you as an, like, what's your
archetype?
Cause if you don't know who youare, then how do you know?
You can't become, like, lusciouslover the one day.
Excited, you know, you know,explorer the next day and then
(29:07):
the sage knowledge guy the nextday, you're going to confuse
your audience.
We always go back to thatdiscussion.
I think that adds a lot of valueinto just making people think a
little bit more about theirbrand.
If you want to build business,build a brand.
That's kind of our startingpoint.
Russel (29:20):
It's funny.
I generally don't think Irespected brand in the way that
you're talking about and untilmore recently.
I absolutely now, um, align withthat thought that we, we got to
have the right foundation andthen make marketing makes sense
to that foundation from thereversus, I do think marketing in
general and it's becoming such astrong science and we've got to
(29:40):
know just so many differentplatforms and while we might
even just build websites, wedon't get to ignore the fact of
things like brand and just allthe other mediums that a brand
might communicate with, um, andjust live in our little website
world.
The idea that because there isall this competition and all
this noise in the world, so manypeople want want to be able to
run an ad campaign and getcustomers and stuff like that.
(30:01):
That all just doesn't workanymore because, probably to
exactly what you're saying,that, uh, you've just got to
have that core brand, thosefoundations.
You can't just yell at people tobuy your products.
Maybe unless you're, like, theluxury of Coke or something like
that, that yeah, sure.
Throw up a commercial and you'regoing to make me want to drink a
Coke, but that's, that's notgoing to work, um, for you're
smaller or less recognizedbrands or anything like that.
(30:22):
You've got to have a really coremessage.
Tracey (30:24):
Besides that, it's also, like, how are you looking?
Do you look the part?
We're big on visual identity.
What exactly is that?
If you were to cover your logo,okay, what are the visual cues
or what are you looking at thatmakes you still know as the
reader or the consumer that it'syour brand?
Is it a use of color?
Is it a use of layout?
Is it a pattern?
What are the visual assets thatyou own so that you don't just
(30:47):
insert other branding agency orinsert other, other, um,
companies?
We had recently had a, um, aflooring company approach us and
we like, there's no visualequity.
You could literally take yourname and replace any other
company.
If you don't have visual equity,um, you're not building, you
don't have a strong enoughbrand.
We always build that in.
(31:07):
It's not about rebranding everysingle person, but do they have
a strong enough visual identityto be able to self identify on a
billboard far away?
Because those are the thingsthat add value to your bottom
line.
And when people look at yourbrand, what do they feel?
What's the emotion that youbring to them?
Because that's what they'rebuying.
They're buying the reliabilityand the emotion, which is the
(31:28):
promise that you're deliveringon.
Russel (31:29):
I love that.
It's just such a good reminder.
Going back to, we know this, wehear this, but then all things
clients and making this wholething work might, might
sometimes cause that to go bythe wayside at times.
But so, so true.
Really what it comes down to isauthenticity.
I think everyone cravesauthenticity at the end of the
day.
I think we learned this moreinternally and culturally, it's,
(31:50):
we can't, our values can't bewhat we want them to be.
Our values are what our valuesare.
We can have aspirational valuesand we can move in that
direction, but we have to behonest about what, what our
current values and brand, if youwill, says and work from there,
not just say it and hope it.
I guess you could say, hope isnot a strategy.
That old saying.
Tracey (32:08):
Hold on and hope like hell.
Russel (32:10):
There we go.
That sounds like a bumpersticker, maybe even a tattoo.
I love that.
Gosh, man, what a greatconversation and great insight.
I know you've got bigaspirations for this business.
What are the goals, hopes anddreams of Tracey and Trace Brand
Building?
Tracey (32:24):
We've got a flipping rockstar team.
The design work that we do andthe creative big ideas that we
come up with are just so muchfun and clever and well thought
out and well executed.
I really believe that we can beone of the largest independent
agencies in the US, but bringingjoy to brands.
I feel like there's a lot ofugly design out there, which
(32:44):
surprised me because we're inAmerica, but it's almost like
I've got an eight and a half by11, I've got to fill every
single inch of it.
Some of the most clever advertsor marketing we've seen, they
don't even need many words.
I believe, through good visualstorytelling, we can really
become a serious contender inthe US, um, and just bring fresh
thinking and fresh ideation.
Russel (33:06):
That's amazing.
I've got my popcorn out, readyto watch that journey.
Can't wait to see what comes tothat.
A great starting point is, isthe the ambition and the, and
the positive mindset.
I can imagine that willdefinitely take you a long way.
All right.
I guess someday this episode hasto end so I guess I'll, I'll get
us in that direction, which isthe, the old question of, are
(33:26):
entrepreneurs born or are theymade?
Tracey (33:28):
I never thought I was an entrepreneur.
I think a bit of both, gee,that's a tough, tough one.
But again, people are like, oh,I'm not a salesperson.
You can get taught how to sell,sell.
People are like, oh, I'm anintrovert.
I don't know how to sell.
That is complete bollocks.
You can get taught how to sell.
Entrepreneurs, I think they,they are, I think they're born,
but, but geez.
I'm not helping you with thisanswer.
(33:48):
I'm just looking at myself.
I never saw myself as anentrepreneur ever.
I was like, corporate girl andthen it's like, why not?
I would say they're born, butyou don't necessarily start off
as an entrepreneur.
It's your journey through lifethat makes you start kind of
challenging the status quo andthinking outside the box.
For us, it was necessity, like,oh my God, we've got a TV
commercial coming up, butthere's no electricity because
(34:09):
there's no power in SouthAfrica.
We got to make a plan.
Now we make plan B C D E Fbecause, you know, that ABC is
going to get kind of thrown offcourse.
That's very entrepreneurial,like, thinking out the box.
Hope for the best, plan for theworst.
I'm not really good at answeringthat question, I'm afraid.
Russel (34:25):
You did it far better than you're giving yourself
credit for.
I think that's what makes it apretty fun question is, is there
is no easy de facto answer and,and people's own experiences
color which, which side of thecoin there they might be on.
I thought it was a really goodanswer.
If people want to know moreabout Trace Brand Building,
where can they go?
Tra (34:42):
Www.tracebrandbuilding.com.
You can follow me on LinkedIn,Tracey Felicidade Jones.
We've obviously rebrandedourselves from Brand Spanking
Marketing so we're getting allof our socials off, you know,
zero, we're busy growing that atthe moment.
LinkedIn would be the best wayto connect with me or Tracey
with an E, T R A C E Y,tracebrandbuilding.
com.
Russel (35:02):
Perfect.
Thank you for sharing that.
Thank you for sharing your, youramazing story from ambulance,
touring around the country in anold ambulance to, um, you know,
some of the hardship that youhad to endure to get to where
you're at today, but love theattitude, love the mindset.
More than anything, I love thatand appreciate you taking the
time to share your story today.
Tracey (35:21):
Thanks Russel, I really appreciate being here and go
make magic.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(35:44):
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
One of the, the horrors, well, it was a bit of a horror
(36:05):
story is we did a rebrand forthe, this business and, um, we
then handed it over to theinterior design team to, to
actually go and do the fit, thefitting of the store, the way it
should be.
The color of the brand was, itwas the color of my shirt.
It's like a raspberry peachcolor.
The day of opening one of their,one of their stores, I was
(36:26):
looking at these photos and I'mlike, what's going, like, what
is going on with the store?
Because there's, the tiles wereyellow.
I'm like, oh my, like, what isgoing on?
I phoned up the MD and I said,listen, I'm sorry to be the
bearer of bad news.
I am your brand custodian and Ido not think that the design
installation team, who we hadnothing to do with.
They were self kind of, um,procured.
(36:49):
They haven't followed the brandguidelines.
Now you are looking like, yourfloor looks like a box of M&Ms.
It's so off brand.
It's so ugly.
I didn't say this to him, but Imean, it's completely off brand.
It's like, the McDonald's archesare a certain color.
You don't just start making themIgnacio and Sedona blue.
You don't just change theyellow.
There is very specific Pantonecolor yellow and they had gone
(37:13):
yellow.
Now this is a raspberry coloredbrand with gold accents.
He ended up not opening thestore that day and having to, I
mean, I think it costs themhundreds of thousands, basically
refurb all of this, all of thestock that had been bought, the
tiles we've imported from Italy.
I'm like, oh, okay.
Well, should I really be thatmuch of a brand custodian?
But, like, brand is brand.
It wasn't funny at all.
(37:33):
It was a bit of a horror story.
It wasn't our fault, but havingto make that phone call and,
like, they'd just gone gung hoon their own.
Lesson in that is, really, ifyou, you need to make sure that
whoever is following youunderstands the brand and
understands the execution andunderstands the rollout so that
it becomes the vision that youpromised.
Cause that was a reallyexpensive exercise.
Russel (37:55):
My moral of the story there is always listen to your
brand person.
Have a brand person, number one,and listen to them.
That will avoid some costlymistakes.
That's a good lesson.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:24):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
I can see the movie trailer now titled Big Jude.
The story strangers turnedfriends, an Ambulance and a
cross country road trip for twoand a half years and 42 states.
In this episode, I sit down withTracey Felicidade Jones, founder
of Trace Brand Building, whoseglobal journey from South Africa
to the US has shaped a vibrantand fearless approach to
branding that challenges thestatus quo.
(01:03):
We dive into the power ofeffective branding and discuss
perspectives on the US businessecosystem.
Along the way, Tracey shareswild stories from her personal
and professional journey,including traveling the US in
Big Jude and rebranding throughliteral fire and upheaval.
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Tracey Felicidade Joneswith us here today.
(01:25):
Thank you so much for being onthe show today Tracey.
Tracey (01:27):
Thank you for having me.
It's great to be here.
I really appreciate it.
Russel (01:29):
I am glad to have you as well.
Let's get right to it.
What does Trace Brand Buildingdo and who do you do it for?
Tracey (01:36):
Trace Brand Building, we are all about brand magic.
We create brand magic.
You get everyday branding andthen you get brand magic, which
is a special aha moment when yousee really, really cool things.
That's what we want to do.
We want to create beautifulbrands, beautiful stories that
resonate with your customers andyour ideal audience.
(01:57):
We love what we do.
We're very much in the consumerpackage goods, as well as
healthcare and business tobusiness, B2B.
Anything that you would find inthe food aisle, in the beauty
aisle, we do quite a lot ofstuff for beauty brands on
Amazon.
We want to work with coolbrands.
You want to work with coolpeople.
I think the longer you do this,you realize that there's a lot
of egos, maybe if you, peoplehave certain marketing budgets
(02:20):
and we just want to have fun andwork with really, really cool
people.
That's super important for me.
Russel (02:25):
Nothing wrong with that.
We all need a little magic inour lives, I would imagine.
Tracey (02:29):
Absolutely.
It's the fun spot.
Russel (02:30):
I want to hear more about all things magic making
and brand building.
Before we get to that point, Iwant to hear about Tracey and
young Tracey and where you cameup from in the world.
And we'll eventually get to thiswhole agency thing.
Tracey (02:43):
I am actually an American citizen as you can hear
from my, from my, uh, New Yorkaccent.
I was born in the US um, and mydad was working at the hospital
in New York, so I was born andwhole family is from South
Africa, went back to SouthAfrica when I was about two and
a half, three years old.
Lived there my whole life.
Went to boarding school in SouthAfrica, uh, saw the end of
(03:04):
Apartheid, which was really avery interesting place to be in
when, when Nelson Mandela wasreleased.
Got into corporate, um, Iactually didn't study marketing
originally.
I studied a bachelor of sciencedietetics.
Russel (03:15):
That's unique.
Tracey (03:15):
I wanted to be a surgeon just like my dad and my math and
science marks weren't goodenough and then went to a
college and just had a heap offun as you do and studied
dietetics and then realized,actually, do I want to study for
another 15 years?
I don't know if that's me.
Then took a bit of a road tripand came back to the US.
(03:36):
Ended up coaching tennis at asummer camp in upstate New York
and met a whole lot of othercamp counselors from around the
world and ended up buying anambulance, an old ambulance, uh,
a 90 Dodge and ended up touringthe US for another two and a
half years with a whole lot ofcamp counselors that I met
there.
That was probably one of thebest times of my life.
I was 22 to 24 years old and wesaw 42 states and as everybody's
(04:03):
visas ran out, we would dropthem off at the nearest airport.
That's where I fell in love withColorado because it was, it was
1999, I'm really giving my ageaway.
There were four of us left outof 12 and we were in Hilton Head
Island and it was starting toget cold.
We're like, what are you goingto do?
What should we do?
We're like, well, why don't welearn how to go skiing?
And Dumber and Dumber had beenreleased pretty recently.
(04:25):
This is how you make Aspen andthis is how you make your life
choices, right?
Like Dumber and Dumber.
We're like, well, duh, you gotto go to Aspen.
If you want to learn how to ski,that's where you're at.
Our ambulance was called BigJude and we rolled in with Big
Jude and, um, didn't lookanything like we belonged in
Aspen.
Ended up doing a season inAspen, worked there for eight
months, loved it, worked at TheLittle Nell Hotel.
(04:46):
I worked at the hospital as adietitian, Aspen Valley
Hospital.
I also worked on Gwyn's on Aspenas a, as a line, line chef.
It's where I learned how to ski.
And then all of my friends visasran out so they went back to
Australia and, uh, I then wenton to Vegas and became a dealer.
Then had a car accident and wentback to, went back to South
Africa.
That was my two and a half yearstint around the US and, um,
(05:10):
fell in love with Coloradothere.
That's where I live now.
That's a little bit about me.
Russel (05:14):
All right.
Well, I got questions.
This is a fascinating story.
I mean, talking about living thedream, this is the kind of thing
they make movies out of.
Were you guys living in theambulance?
How were you, like, sustainingand, and you know, making money
through this journey?
Tracey (05:26):
We arrived in the US, I had about 500 dollars, uh, this
was 99.
I think we got about, oh gosh, Ithink we got about 1, 200 for
our eight weeks of work at thecamp.
The ambulance costs 500 dollars.
Jay and I split the van and wethen just all kind of plugged
our money together and it waslike, okay, where are we going
to go?
Some counselors had family inCanada.
(05:47):
We ended up going throughCanada.
We would just kind of drive andstop and then you would either
camp or sleep in the van or, Ithink it was on the East coast
somewhere.
I forget the exact place,somewhere in Massachusetts.
There was a retreat, uh, a monk,like, for monks and you weren't
allowed to talk.
We worked there in exchange forfood and lodging and that was
(06:08):
interesting.
It was kind of like and thenstop at work and travel.
I would waitress, the guys woulddo, like, uh, building, you
know, they would do, like, hardlabor.
We just kind of worked andtraveled, it was a crazy time,
but what fun it was.
We would like stay somewherefor, like, two months if we
loved it, and we got work.
That's kind of how we rolled.
Russel (06:24):
I feel like I want to do a whole episode just on this
journey alone, but, um, youknow, I guess this is called An
Agency Story, but I'll, I'lllimit myself to one more
question.
Craziest story that happened inthis two and a half journey?
I got to know.
Tracey (06:38):
There's lots of them.
Probably the most fun that Ithink stands out is that, um, we
rocked into Boston and, um, businto Salem, Massachusetts.
We were all like, oh, it'switch, you know, you've, there's
all of that thing about thewitches and we had our broom to
clean the van.
We almost, like, had a kitchen.
It was a proper setup that wehad arranged.
(06:59):
One of the guys, you know, we'reall 22, like, college kids, took
the broom and started runningaround in the car park, you
know, like, pretending that he'sin witch country.
We ended up going to the bar.
Back then you were not allowed,there was no bar that was open
past, I think 10 o'clock.
Anyway, we persuaded him to movethe party down to the basement
of the bar and we ended upstaying there for, like, seven,
(07:22):
eight hours.
He would have lost his license.
I don't know if I can say thisstuff on, on the podcast, but,
um, but, but it was a lot offun.
Being in Aspen over New Year forthe millennium and everyone was
crazy, like, what's going tohappen?
It's Y2K, is everything going toshut down?
And then you're seeing, like,these beautiful, like, fireworks
over, um, seeing the century,turn of the century.
(07:43):
There's so many good stories.
Geez, I could talk forever.
Sleeping in the, outside theWhite House in the van.
There's a lot of them, but, butjust joy and laughter and fun
and just exploring life.
Russel (07:53):
Last question, what happened to the ambulance?
Tracey (07:55):
I was now living in Aspen.
I was the only one there.
We were working at The LittleNell and my very good friend who
still lives there.
Stephanie, she actually works atthe Regis.
I then decided I wanted to go toVegas and learn how to become a
dealer.
She said, okay, but we're nottaking Big Jude.
I'm not going to be seen dead inthat thing.
We ended up literally dumpingBig Jude at Pitkin airport.
Russel (08:15):
That's sad.
Tracey (08:16):
I was like, okay, well, I'm just gonna leave the van and
off we go.
Every time I see a high toppedwhite, like, Dodge van, I'm
like, is that Big Jude?
Is that Big Jude?
We deserted her.
I'll probably get fined if theyfound out, but yeah, it, just
dumped her.
It was quite sad, but I was notallowed to drive it to Vegas, is
the point.
Very sad.
Russel (08:34):
I don't know.
I feel like I kind of want to goon a hunt.
You could dig up the VIN numberand see if Big Jude could still
be out there.
Tracey (08:40):
Every time I go past Aspen, I'm like, I wonder if,
wonder what happened to her.
Russel (08:44):
Might still be sitting there.
Very fascinating story.
Thanks for taking us down what Iimagine, there's no shortage of
memories there.
Come back to South Africa, getus to where you actually, how
did you start your agency?
Tracey (08:54):
I didn't study marketing originally.
I was doing a bachelor ofscience and then all the
dietitians became medical salesreps.
Because they just, you know, inAfrica, you're not worried about
a nasogastrophe, necessarily.
You're worried about HIV.
The patients, they don't reallycare about high protein feeds.
I had the opportunity to join mydad's practice and talk about
coronary heart disease and lowcholesterol, but I just wasn't
(09:16):
loving it.
I just wasn't feeling thecreativity.
I ended up getting a job at thehospital and then, um, I, but I
was always more creative.
Then I got headhunted to go andwork for LSG Sky Chefs, which
was more along my lines of,like, super creative.
I then got to design all thenutritional meals for Air
France, Swiss Air.
I really enjoyed that.
Then it was, 9/11 happened andovernight the business just kind
(09:41):
of collapsed.
Two months later, the businesswas closed.
There was no more airlinecatering because everything was
kind of, like, shut down and noweverything was moved over to,
um, one of the competitors.
I went into medical sales andthat's where I fell in love with
the marketing because you wouldsee all the cool stuff happens
in the marketing departmentbecause we would develop these
as a rep, you would get thesecool branding kits to take to
(10:04):
the doctor to try and sell themthe products.
It was so creative and I waslike, hey, I really enjoy this,
this kind of creative, like,execution and, and telling the
story and bringing things tolife.
Also from a medical family, mydad was very much like, if he's
going to see a medical rep,bring me value.
I don't need a pen.
I don't need a gift.
I don't need stuff that's goingto fill up a landfill.
(10:25):
Bring me the latest informationas to why this is going to
affect the heart surgery that Ido.
I was always aware of, like,what is the value and, and, and
what are you, what are you goingto do to, to just, you know,
make the, change an opinion oradd to the story, so to speak?
I was doing that for a couple ofyears.
I kind of missed the food sideof the, of the world.
Then started working at, uh,Tiger Brands, which is a big
(10:48):
food company.
By this stage, I'd alreadystudied marketing, international
marketing management, so I'dalready had my degree.
Then I started working at NestleFoods, uh, where I was the
marketing manager for the fooddivision for kitKat, Maggie
Brands, that kind of thing.
I got bored of the corporatespace.
It's very, very slow.
There's lots of red tape.
Having to kind of report toSwitzerland and Singapore from a
(11:09):
regional and global perspective,it just weren't getting, just
weren't, I wasn't loving it asmuch as I wanted.
I just wasn't loving it.
There was a gap in the marketfor cool agencies.
Quick work, super creative, downto earth, no ego, no BS.
I'm like, well, you know, whydon't I just, let me just do
this.
I opened up Brand SpankingMarketing.
(11:29):
That was a feat as well.
I'd gotten to the stage wherenow I'm going to leave corporate
and my husband had his ownbusiness and now he's going to
start supporting me while Igrow.
I left in April and in May, hisfactory burned down to the
ground.
Russel (11:42):
Your husband's factory?
Tracey (11:43):
My husband's factory burned down to the ground.
It really was a baptism of fire,so to speak.
Russel (11:48):
Oh my gosh.
Tracey (11:49):
Literally.
But that's, that's how westarted.
It's been now 13 years andthat's how Brand Spanking
Marketing started.
Russel (11:55):
What's the name?
What's the thought behind thename Brand Spanking Marketing?
Tracey (11:59):
In South Africa, you need to have a sense of humor,
um, because of so many politicaland, just, it's it's a
challenging environment to workin.
Brand Spanking, it's brandspanking new.
We're going to spank some funinto your brand.
It just resonated a lot.
Look, I was a lot younger then.
It really, really worked well.
And then when I moved to the US,I actually realized, we're all
(12:19):
about drink the Kool Aid.
Are you looking the part to yourtarget audience?
How do you look?
How do you make yourself thebest version of yourself?
What we realized when we landedhere was the word spanking could
be contentious.
The word marketing has a bit ofa mixed review.
Some people have been, theydon't like the word marketing
because they've been let down orwhat kind of marketing, it's so
(12:40):
broad?
Is it digital?
We also realized that the USmarket likes to know, like, what
is your niche?
What are you really, really,really, really good at?
We're really, really good at, isbrand building.
I took a step back and I'm like,okay, well, maybe Brand Spanking
Marketing isn't the right namefor the US.
It really became evident whenone of our clients is a lawyer,
a legal firm, and they wouldn't,they wouldn't call us Brand
(13:01):
Spanking.
They call us BSM.
I'm like, okay, there'sdefinitely something more to
this.
We rebranded in 2021, inSeptember, uh, or was it 2022?
Sorry.
The time's just flying, um, toTrace Brand Building.
The reason for that is because Iam tracing my steps back to the
USA after leaving.
We can trace the progress ofyour brand.
(13:21):
We can uncover trace elements ofwho you are and discover
beautiful jewels that we cankind of amplify if need be.
And then it happens to be ashortened version of my name.
We changed it to Trace BrandBuilding and that is now what
we're called in both markets.
Russel (13:35):
I like Brand Spanking too, but I don't know, is are
agencies the only place where, Idon't feel like I encounter a
lot of other businesses, andmaybe I don't know, cause I
don't work with a lot of othertypes of businesses or industry,
but it seems like a lot ofagencies change their name for
one reason or another fromwherever they started to
wherever they're at today.
Very common amongst, amongstagencies, but I find that
interesting.
Tracey (13:54):
I think as you, as you evolve, I'm always a thing of
like every, every seven to 10years, you need to look at your
brand.
I'm not saying change it, buthave a look.
Because are you still relevantto your target audience?
What's happening in the market?
Have your objectives changed?
We see so much bad branding andpeople have stuck with the same
logo for like hundreds of yearswithout any kind of
(14:17):
modernization.
We're like, can we just move youinto the century?
Because are you still relevantto your target audience?
Maybe that's what happens withagencies, maybe they are having
that introspection of like, arewe still relevant in, in how we
sound?
Russel (14:30):
I think it's definitely probably more the latter.
I totally get it.
I think we went through probablytwo or three name changes in our
agency.
Very fascinating.
I want to go back to your timein South Africa.
You said that the environmentwas challenging.
I can't remember exactly how youworded it, but obviously now you
have the comparison of runningan agency here in the US.
What were some of thosechallenging differences that
you're, that you speak to?
Tracey (14:51):
A big thing in South Africa is something called, um,
black economic empowerment.
It's called BEE and if youwanted to work with big
corporates, there's a BEEschool.
It's a bit like the diversity orthe DEI landscape here in the
USA, but there it's very much.
I wouldn't say it's law, but youget fined and, and, and big
(15:12):
companies have to report to thegovernment what their BEE score
is.
Are they using, and a whitewoman is not seen as diversity,
whereas in the US it is, okay.
You would have to sell more than51 percent of your business, um,
in order to meet thosequalifications.
There's a lot of stuff thatcomes with that.
I want to work with great peopleand my whole team is diverse.
(15:35):
It's about great people, greatwork, great output, great
attitude.
I don't care what color or sexyou are, just do good, good work
and be a great person.
That was limiting to someaspect.
Another thing is there's a lotof corruption in South Africa,
unfortunately.
There's a whole nother angle ofbusiness that you've just got to
be kind of savvy.
There, you don't get peoplepaying for, like, I get paid by
(15:57):
clients by credit card.
That doesn't happen in SouthAfrica.
It's an EFT or it's a transferinto your bank account.
If I've got a TV ad that I wasdoing, I had to make sure I had
the money to front roll that,and I would only get the money
maybe 30 to 60 days later,depending.
Usually after deliverable.
You always had to kind of be,you, you know, you had to be
(16:19):
kind of streetwise.
You're dealing with cash a lotof the time.
That was the challenge.
A lot of companies have cut downtheir marketing budgets.
There's just not work.
There's no work, really, inSouth Africa.
Moving here, I have been verypleasantly surprised at how
easy, I'm not saying it's easyto do business, but it seems
like there are fewer roadblocksto get work.
Almost like in South Africa, youhad to be an approved vendor and
(16:42):
you had to go through this,this, this, this.
I'm finding it, it's completelydifferent.
It's like, I like you.
I like what you're doing.
Let's do it.
It just seems like there's alower barrier to entry.
This really is, I know you guyshave heard this a million times,
but this is the land of, if youcan dream it, I truly believe
you can achieve it.
Whatever you put your mind to inthis country, you can achieve
(17:03):
1000%.
I just see opportunitieseverywhere around me.
If you go and get them and youwant to, you want to be active
in the community, oh my word,the rewards are there.
1000%.
Russel (17:13):
I think it's a good perspective for a lot of people
that have never really donebusiness outside of the US to
just, you know, understand.
Business is tough.
All of those things still breeda lot of competition and stuff
like that.
The opportunity is there in somuch as you're willing to take
advantage of it, dream it, dothe work.
Which could, you know, probably,I don't think anyone would
argue, the most free economy inthe, in the world to do that.
(17:35):
Certainly there's definitely,sounds like there's places that
are a lot different, but, uh,that's a fascinating
perspective.
Tracey (17:40):
Absolutely.
South Africans are also known tohave a very, um, good, solid
work ethic.
I've got a great team.
I wouldn't do anything withoutmy team.
My team is, are flipping rockstars, award winning rock stars.
The beauty of it is that we,we've got talent around, around
the world, so I can kind of dostuff and by the morning I've
got stuff already ready for myclient.
(18:02):
People are like, what, what'sgoing on?
I'm like, we're getting stuffdone.
We're from Africa.
I make shit happen.
Just get the work done.
Sorry.
Russel (18:09):
No, you're good.
Totally allowed.
This is a PG 13 podcast.
You can say that.
A couple of questions there of,of just in the idea that, um,
you know, something that feelslike you kind of glossed over,
right?
This had to be a pretty bigdecision to move from South
Africa.
You bring your whole businessand come over here.
Obviously you'd got toexperience you know, the US
prior to that, but was it justthe restriction around business
or what?
(18:29):
Tell us a little bit more aboutwhat motivated to take that
move.
Tracey (18:33):
Oy vey.
It really was the violence.
Our neighbor was shot in thehead.
Russel (18:36):
Oh my.
Tracey (18:36):
I was at a retreat, in inverted commas, and one of the
guests had a, attempted murderagainst her.
She was stabbed multiple timesand I was a guest there and
managed to help pull her up thestairs.
That I think was the finaldeciding factor.
My step mom and my sister in lawwere held up in my dad's home at
(18:57):
gunpoint.
Everybody has a story of beingaffected by the fact that
there's no work, so there'sdesperation, there's crime,
there's corruption.
How long until you're astatistic?
The deciding factor was reallythe violence, unfortunately.
You couldn't necessarily bike orcycle outside because we used to
go to a bike park and then theystarted getting, you know,
(19:17):
people held up for their bikes,for their phones, for their
watches.
You're in a bike park, which issupposedly closed off in a safe
environment.
We had a great lifestyle becausewe were lucky enough to be able
to afford a great lifestyle, butis it a great lifestyle when
you're in a lock behind electricfences and, you know, bars on
the wall?
You don't see it until you'rereally out of it, but when you,
(19:39):
when you're out of it, youactually realize like, oh my
God.
I'll be now cycling.
I'll just jump on my bike, hopon my bike.
There's kids that are walking ontheir own, like, you could never
do that.
Or I'm seeing squirrels or I'mseeing, like, people fishing and
I'm just like, oh my word, thisis the small things.
The little things are the bigthings.
This is what life is about.
It's not about living behind afancy home with high walls and
(20:01):
electric fences.
That's really what was the nailin the coffin.
Russel (20:04):
I don't think anyone listening could blame you.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs, uh,safety and security are first
and foremost and if we don'thave that, that definitely makes
sense.
Fascinating story so far.
I mean, obviously, uh, some,some hardship there and
appreciate you sharing that, butseems like you appreciate just
the opportunity and, and reallyhave this abundant mindset and
(20:24):
that that is clearly has workedout well for you.
Let's talk more agency stuff.
Just tell a good client storyand we'll, we'll get, that'll
get us back on track here intothe agency life.
Tracey (20:34):
A good agency story.
We had a beautiful clientcalled, um, Dr.
Oetker.
O E T K E R.
It's the frozen food, frozenfood, uh, largest kind of frozen
food and they actually inventedbaking powder.
He was a chemist, a pharmacist,and he invented baking powder,
Mr.
Dr.
Oetker, and he is from Germanyand it's a family owned
(20:57):
business.
We landed that account, um,gosh, 13 years, 11, 12 years
ago, we had the account for 10years.
What a great, like, just arelationship and being able to
see grow a brand.
That's a global brand to whereit is.
They then bought a frozendessert section, which we then
also inherited.
That was very much retail aswell as daily.
(21:19):
They had, like, 15 kind of shopsaround South Africa.
What I really love is seeing,don't want to say their baby was
ugly to start with, but, butwhen I look at the, when I look
at the dessert side of thebusiness in particular, Chateau
Gateaux, rebranding them intothat beautiful space, like,
inheriting a brand and thenbeing open to, like, rebranding
and, and, and really targetingtheir ideal target audience and
(21:40):
then rolling that out against,you know, different stores, uh,
install point of sale,packaging.
It's just so gratifying to see afull 360 rollout of, of, of what
you do and, and how the customerreacts to rebranding and the
delight and the excite momentthat we bring pride to our
clients, seeing that come tolife.
(22:01):
We did television commercialswith them.
We did install point of salecompetitions.
We developed really coolanimated games where you would
chasing almost like Pac-Man oryou're chasing this pizza and,
um, that went viral.
Back to school competitions,promotions.
In COVID, we created this thingcalled Tasty Moments.
It was basically one, oneepisode a week of, of
(22:23):
edutainment, so to speak, and itwas a comedian educating you
about frozen food and how youcan use it.
It's been about therelationships and just walking
that, that journey.
I don't know if that's a reallygood agency story, but it's just
about seeing brands go from oneplace to the next and
challenging the status quo andbelieving in you.
Our job is to take you out ofyour comfort zone and to create
(22:45):
magic and to make you do whatyou normally wouldn't do.
I don't want to be seen as avendor.
I want to be seen as, really,your partner because bounce
ideas off me, challenge me.
We're building this babytogether and I want to be part
of the team.
I don't want to be seen as avendor and I won't deal with
clients if they don't want to beus to be seen as part of an
integral part of the team,because a lot of the time, like,
(23:08):
I've been a marketing manager, Iknow what is needed, so I've
been on both sides.
I can see it from a marketingpoint of view and a brand point
of view, whereas a lot ofagencies don't necessarily focus
on brand.
They don't have the, maybe theclassical marketing training on
brand.
They've got more just, like, theagency creative space, but we
can bring both to theconversation.
Russel (23:28):
As you were describing that, and there's a couple of
things I want to come back to,but one, it made me sit, right?
I don't know if you're a golfer,but everybody talks about golf,
you know, especially if you'renot very good like myself.
You suck, you suck, you suck,and then you have a really great
hole and that great hole makesit all worth it to go back
through and kind of go throughthe grind.
We get some of those where it'sjust all the right
(23:49):
circumstances, have a project ora client where we hit it out of
the park or part of the teamand, and really have that great
success that makes some of thoseother projects that just aren't
as sexy or whatever reason justdon't have that pizzazz behind
them.
But that's okay.
Everything can't be a Cinderellastory or anything like that.
That's what that reminded me of.
I want to come back to, youknow, cause I, I do think that
(24:10):
is an important piece of whatyou're saying is, we can't just
be seen as a vendor.
I think marketing is a thingwhere we've just got to be,
we've got to be part of theteam.
Anything that you've learned inyour experience that makes that
more possible than just wantingit or expecting it, if you will?
Tracey (24:25):
What I've realized, in the US, is that the education
systems are very, very differentto South Africa.
Russel (24:31):
Is that a nice way of saying, uh, crappy because I've
heard this before.
Tracey (24:35):
It's just very different.
I've realized this, that, thatin South Africa, okay, this is
obviously a generalization, sohopefully I'm not going to
offend anybody, but what we'verealized is, in South Africa,
you do four years and, three tofour years, and from, like, year
one, you're doing statisticalanalysis.
You're doing research.
You're doing very marketspecific, there's no generalist
(24:57):
subjects that you really take.
We worked on a, an educationbrand here and I was actually
talking to, um, the presidentand we were talking about, um,
the changes in education and thedifferences between the
countries and she's like, well,we're very generalist.
The first two years you canstudy whatever you want.
In fact, one of our friends'kids is doing, I think it's
(25:19):
African basket weaving at CUBoulder, because he didn't
manage to sign up for thesubjects quick enough.
I'm like, this is veryinteresting because we would not
have those kinds of subjects,but what she was saying to me,
the president of the universitywas saying, you know, for two
years or so, you do generalists,you do whatever you want.
Then in the last year, if youwant to do marketing, you choose
(25:39):
more marketing specificsubjects.
I thought that was prettyinteresting.
I don't know if you can, if, isthis what you see as well?
Because what, what the outcomeis, is that it's, you know,
people might not feel fullyequipped for going in and really
being, you know, the head ofmarketing or the VP of
marketing, not saying that youare from our side, but, but it
(25:59):
seems like there's a little bitof a gap.
There's a bit of a gap in, inI'm a VP of marketing.
I'm here because either I workedmy way through the ranks, which
is fabulous, but I'm just notfeeling that confidence in
archetype analysis or in thereal strategic side of growing a
business.
I get people telling me that allthe time, that in those
positions, and that doessurprise me because I would not,
(26:21):
I would never think that.
Russel (26:23):
It brings up an interesting notion.
I think from my own perspectiveand right?
I can't say I'm an expert andonly have my own experience, but
uh, I think we definitely dolack what probably when you do
have more specialization, youknow, maybe especially early on
in your education journey, youlearn what it takes to really go
in depth about something andalmost just that learning how to
learn how to go in depth.
(26:44):
I could see where that could bea challenge, um, in the big
scheme of things.
Where people are very becomevery siloed in what they know
about and what they can focus onin, in their career.
Every day that goes by thisworld, we're just getting,
everything is becomingintermingled, intermixed.
If we can't recognize patternsacross different types of
things, then then we might behurting.
But I struggle with that too,because right?
Have you heard that you'refamiliar with the T shaped
(27:05):
concept?
We didn't coin this but we useit a lot in our business.
The idea that your expertise isthe shape of a T and the, the,
the horizontal portion is kindof your, um, your breadth of
experience and then your, yourlong portion is your depth.
We always talked about, we, wevery much valued that breadth,
and we said, you might becomestagnant in your depth if you
don't have breadth.
Again, that's that patternrecognition, but, um, you know,
(27:27):
sometimes in the US we might,oureducation system might give us a
short T on both sides.
Long story short, and I hearthis from a lot of folks from
other countries, there'sprobably a lot of room for
improvement in, in, uh, in oureducation.
Tracey (27:38):
Not to knock it at all, it's just, it's just, we feel,
when we are talking to marketingmanagers, they, they love the
fact that we can talk aboutarchetypes.
We can kind of be their advocatefor like, why do you think we
should do this?
We become the sounding board.
This is a strategic reason,like, who are you as a brand?
Because a lot of them don'tnecessarily have a brand
(27:58):
platform or they don't have,they don't know what their brand
archetype is.
Now, if you don't know who youare as a brand, then how do you
know how to communicate and howdo you know which channels?
I always say, if you were tolook at, I'm a huge F1 fan, and
Red Bull is one of the Formula1, uh, sponsors in one of the
cars.
They're an explorer brand andthey're all about, you know, the
excitement and doing things, andas a result, I will lean into
(28:21):
them on social media maybe 20,30 times during the race.
If I'm not watching it to seewho's winning, who's, who's,
who's, you know, who's in thelead now?
They can get away with thatbecause of their persona and the
archetype.
Now, if an innocence archetypelike Coca Cola or Dove, which is
all about kind speech, and ifyou look at Dove, you know,
embrace all body types, um, CocaCola, enjoy happiness.
(28:44):
It's all about kind speech.
Can you imagine getting 30messages from them a day on
social media?
You'd be like, I'm out of here.
I'm unfollowing you.
We always get people saying, canyou do our content for us?
We're like, absolutely, but whoare you as an, like, what's your
archetype?
Cause if you don't know who youare, then how do you know?
You can't become, like, lusciouslover the one day.
Excited, you know, you know,explorer the next day and then
(29:07):
the sage knowledge guy the nextday, you're going to confuse
your audience.
We always go back to thatdiscussion.
I think that adds a lot of valueinto just making people think a
little bit more about theirbrand.
If you want to build business,build a brand.
That's kind of our startingpoint.
Russel (29:20):
It's funny.
I generally don't think Irespected brand in the way that
you're talking about and untilmore recently.
I absolutely now, um, align withthat thought that we, we got to
have the right foundation andthen make marketing makes sense
to that foundation from thereversus, I do think marketing in
general and it's becoming such astrong science and we've got to
(29:40):
know just so many differentplatforms and while we might
even just build websites, wedon't get to ignore the fact of
things like brand and just allthe other mediums that a brand
might communicate with, um, andjust live in our little website
world.
The idea that because there isall this competition and all
this noise in the world, so manypeople want want to be able to
run an ad campaign and getcustomers and stuff like that.
(30:01):
That all just doesn't workanymore because, probably to
exactly what you're saying,that, uh, you've just got to
have that core brand, thosefoundations.
You can't just yell at people tobuy your products.
Maybe unless you're, like, theluxury of Coke or something like
that, that yeah, sure.
Throw up a commercial and you'regoing to make me want to drink a
Coke, but that's, that's notgoing to work, um, for you're
smaller or less recognizedbrands or anything like that.
(30:22):
You've got to have a really coremessage.
Tracey (30:24):
Besides that, it's also, like, how are you looking?
Do you look the part?
We're big on visual identity.
What exactly is that?
If you were to cover your logo,okay, what are the visual cues
or what are you looking at thatmakes you still know as the
reader or the consumer that it'syour brand?
Is it a use of color?
Is it a use of layout?
Is it a pattern?
What are the visual assets thatyou own so that you don't just
(30:47):
insert other branding agency orinsert other, other, um,
companies?
We had recently had a, um, aflooring company approach us and
we like, there's no visualequity.
You could literally take yourname and replace any other
company.
If you don't have visual equity,um, you're not building, you
don't have a strong enoughbrand.
We always build that in.
(31:07):
It's not about rebranding everysingle person, but do they have
a strong enough visual identityto be able to self identify on a
billboard far away?
Because those are the thingsthat add value to your bottom
line.
And when people look at yourbrand, what do they feel?
What's the emotion that youbring to them?
Because that's what they'rebuying.
They're buying the reliabilityand the emotion, which is the
(31:28):
promise that you're deliveringon.
Russel (31:29):
I love that.
It's just such a good reminder.
Going back to, we know this, wehear this, but then all things
clients and making this wholething work might, might
sometimes cause that to go bythe wayside at times.
But so, so true.
Really what it comes down to isauthenticity.
I think everyone cravesauthenticity at the end of the
day.
I think we learned this moreinternally and culturally, it's,
(31:50):
we can't, our values can't bewhat we want them to be.
Our values are what our valuesare.
We can have aspirational valuesand we can move in that
direction, but we have to behonest about what, what our
current values and brand, if youwill, says and work from there,
not just say it and hope it.
I guess you could say, hope isnot a strategy.
That old saying.
Tracey (32:08):
Hold on and hope like hell.
Russel (32:10):
There we go.
That sounds like a bumpersticker, maybe even a tattoo.
I love that.
Gosh, man, what a greatconversation and great insight.
I know you've got bigaspirations for this business.
What are the goals, hopes anddreams of Tracey and Trace Brand
Building?
Tracey (32:24):
We've got a flipping rockstar team.
The design work that we do andthe creative big ideas that we
come up with are just so muchfun and clever and well thought
out and well executed.
I really believe that we can beone of the largest independent
agencies in the US, but bringingjoy to brands.
I feel like there's a lot ofugly design out there, which
(32:44):
surprised me because we're inAmerica, but it's almost like
I've got an eight and a half by11, I've got to fill every
single inch of it.
Some of the most clever advertsor marketing we've seen, they
don't even need many words.
I believe, through good visualstorytelling, we can really
become a serious contender inthe US, um, and just bring fresh
thinking and fresh ideation.
Russel (33:06):
That's amazing.
I've got my popcorn out, readyto watch that journey.
Can't wait to see what comes tothat.
A great starting point is, isthe the ambition and the, and
the positive mindset.
I can imagine that willdefinitely take you a long way.
All right.
I guess someday this episode hasto end so I guess I'll, I'll get
us in that direction, which isthe, the old question of, are
(33:26):
entrepreneurs born or are theymade?
Tracey (33:28):
I never thought I was an entrepreneur.
I think a bit of both, gee,that's a tough, tough one.
But again, people are like, oh,I'm not a salesperson.
You can get taught how to sell,sell.
People are like, oh, I'm anintrovert.
I don't know how to sell.
That is complete bollocks.
You can get taught how to sell.
Entrepreneurs, I think they,they are, I think they're born,
but, but geez.
I'm not helping you with thisanswer.
(33:48):
I'm just looking at myself.
I never saw myself as anentrepreneur ever.
I was like, corporate girl andthen it's like, why not?
I would say they're born, butyou don't necessarily start off
as an entrepreneur.
It's your journey through lifethat makes you start kind of
challenging the status quo andthinking outside the box.
For us, it was necessity, like,oh my God, we've got a TV
commercial coming up, butthere's no electricity because
(34:09):
there's no power in SouthAfrica.
We got to make a plan.
Now we make plan B C D E Fbecause, you know, that ABC is
going to get kind of thrown offcourse.
That's very entrepreneurial,like, thinking out the box.
Hope for the best, plan for theworst.
I'm not really good at answeringthat question, I'm afraid.
Russel (34:25):
You did it far better than you're giving yourself
credit for.
I think that's what makes it apretty fun question is, is there
is no easy de facto answer and,and people's own experiences
color which, which side of thecoin there they might be on.
I thought it was a really goodanswer.
If people want to know moreabout Trace Brand Building,
where can they go?
Tra (34:42):
Www.tracebrandbuilding.com.
You can follow me on LinkedIn,Tracey Felicidade Jones.
We've obviously rebrandedourselves from Brand Spanking
Marketing so we're getting allof our socials off, you know,
zero, we're busy growing that atthe moment.
LinkedIn would be the best wayto connect with me or Tracey
with an E, T R A C E Y,tracebrandbuilding.
com.
Russel (35:02):
Perfect.
Thank you for sharing that.
Thank you for sharing your, youramazing story from ambulance,
touring around the country in anold ambulance to, um, you know,
some of the hardship that youhad to endure to get to where
you're at today, but love theattitude, love the mindset.
More than anything, I love thatand appreciate you taking the
time to share your story today.
Tracey (35:21):
Thanks Russel, I really appreciate being here and go
make magic.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(35:44):
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
One of the, the horrors, well, it was a bit of a horror
(36:05):
story is we did a rebrand forthe, this business and, um, we
then handed it over to theinterior design team to, to
actually go and do the fit, thefitting of the store, the way it
should be.
The color of the brand was, itwas the color of my shirt.
It's like a raspberry peachcolor.
The day of opening one of their,one of their stores, I was
(36:26):
looking at these photos and I'mlike, what's going, like, what
is going on with the store?
Because there's, the tiles wereyellow.
I'm like, oh my, like, what isgoing on?
I phoned up the MD and I said,listen, I'm sorry to be the
bearer of bad news.
I am your brand custodian and Ido not think that the design
installation team, who we hadnothing to do with.
They were self kind of, um,procured.
(36:49):
They haven't followed the brandguidelines.
Now you are looking like, yourfloor looks like a box of M&Ms.
It's so off brand.
It's so ugly.
I didn't say this to him, but Imean, it's completely off brand.
It's like, the McDonald's archesare a certain color.
You don't just start making themIgnacio and Sedona blue.
You don't just change theyellow.
There is very specific Pantonecolor yellow and they had gone
(37:13):
yellow.
Now this is a raspberry coloredbrand with gold accents.
He ended up not opening thestore that day and having to, I
mean, I think it costs themhundreds of thousands, basically
refurb all of this, all of thestock that had been bought, the
tiles we've imported from Italy.
I'm like, oh, okay.
Well, should I really be thatmuch of a brand custodian?
But, like, brand is brand.
It wasn't funny at all.
(37:33):
It was a bit of a horror story.
It wasn't our fault, but havingto make that phone call and,
like, they'd just gone gung hoon their own.
Lesson in that is, really, ifyou, you need to make sure that
whoever is following youunderstands the brand and
understands the execution andunderstands the rollout so that
it becomes the vision that youpromised.
Cause that was a reallyexpensive exercise.
Russel (37:55):
My moral of the story there is always listen to your
brand person.
Have a brand person, number one,and listen to them.
That will avoid some costlymistakes.
That's a good lesson.
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