Amy Vaughan:
Hello everyone and welcome to your weekly Power Lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughan and I am the owner and Chief Empowerment Officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections. You can join the movement@togetherindigital.com and today I am thrilled to welcome someone who has been living the entrepreneur dream and reality for over two decades. Rhea Allen is the president and co-founder of Pepper Shock Media and a woman owned certified business. I read that wrong. A certified women owned business that has been building brands and bottom lines since 2003. She’s also the host of the Marketing Expedition podcast.
Amy Vaughan:
This has been a fun little podcast episode swap. I highly encourage you to go check out her podcast. I had a blast being on it a couple weeks ago, so. So we’re excited to have her here with us. Her podcast, Marketing Expedition is ranked in the top 5% most popular podcast globally. Go, Rhea. And as she’s also an adjunct marketing professor at Boise State. Oh my gosh, it’s so Friday and it’s been three weeks.
Amy Vaughan:
But here’s what makes Rhea’s story so stand out. She has built all of this alongside her business partner and husband, Drew, while raising two kids, sons. So boy mom and keeping their spark alive, both professionally and personally. Today, Rhea is sharing how she and Drew balances marriage, marketing and making it all work without losing themselves in the process. We are diving into the entrepreneur, into entrepreneurship boundaries. Without losing yourself. Oh, no, I read that line again. We’re diving.
Amy Vaughan:
I’m trying to stay above water. We’re diving into entrepreneurship boundaries. Burnout, creative collaboration and real talk about what it actually takes. This is both a thriving business and a thriving relationship. Rhea, welcome to the Power Lounge.
Rhea Allen:
Well, thank you so much, Amy. Wow, that was a lot to read.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, it is for a Friday, but we did it. So I’m just gonna pat myself on the back and. Yeah, that’s the hard part. That’s over. The conversation. Never. Especially with you, Rhea. The two of you have been business partners and spouses, which, I mean, I think a lot of us that are listening right now are like, well, that’s not for everybody.
Amy Vaughan:
And not everybody could do that for over two decades. And that is, you know, obviously remarkable and wonderful. What made you decide to build a company together and what do you do? What did you think at the time would be the hardest part?
Rhea Allen:
Well, I guess it all started back when I was working at A TV station here locally in the Boise market. And in comes walking this guy. I’m like, who is that? Anyway, he got hired and it turns out I at the time was his boss. We didn’t date or anything and I at the time was already dating somebody else. And you know, that didn’t work out. But yeah, so we were friends and hung out and you know, got to know each other for quite a while just as friends. And you know, they always talk like friends first. So that kind of worked out and fast forward and he actually quit working in the TV station and worked for Micron.
Rhea Allen:
But then they laid people off and he decided, I want to move to Seattle.
Amy Vaughan:
And
Rhea Allen:
And I decided, well, I do too. I want to get out of Dodge, right? I want to go explore the world. And so I had to finish my undergrad at Boise State and then we both moved to Seattle and I worked at Northwest Cable News and then Fox station. He got a degree at the Art Institute and so we lived there for a little while until he got his degree and then I worked on my master’s degree at the same time. And while I was in Seattle, I got a whole bunch of big city experience working at the Fox station and did promotions in the afternoon, did news at night and really just after working news, it’s a kind of a love-hate relationship, right? You, you work Easter and Christmas and New Year’s Eve and all the things, all the holidays. And at the time, the main newscast director had been there for years and years. He’s still there to this day. So I really had no forward movement.
Rhea Allen:
And there was one point where he took some time off for his wife who had twins. And I ended up working 52 days straight filling in for him and for, you know, and, and I was like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. And my undergrad was in mass comm and marketing. I kind of combined two degrees into one and then my master’s degree was entrepreneurship and marketing. And so I’ve always had the entrepreneurial bug in me. Growing up with my grandparents, they both had a farm, a farm and a motel and just had that kind of work ethic. So fast forward, we moved back, we boomeranged back to Boise and got married in August of 2003 and started the business in October of 2003. So we’ve not known any other way.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, that’s so fantastic. And you’ve obviously successfully grown Pepper Shack Media. Now it is a certified women owned small business. You work in a lot of different industries. Looking back, what moment made you realize that you needed to establish stronger boundaries between work and home to actually sustain growth? Because I can only imagine, imagine you work together, you live together. It would be so easy to just work non stop, which is what you were leaving for, right? That’s why you went and did your own thing.
Rhea Allen:
Yeah, yeah, I think. And we’re also growing babies together. A couple years later, our oldest son was born. But I think the, the, I guess the, I don’t know, the secret sauce or whatever it is is just that we really balance each other out. So if I have a networking event to go to in the evening, you know, he would take care of the boys or vice versa. He’s a morning person. I’m not I’ night owl because working news in Seattle got me off. You know, the news goes on at 11 o’ clock at night and so I wouldn’t get out and you know, so I was just always a night owl.
Rhea Allen:
And he’s a morning person, which again, balances each other out. And honestly, there’s a lot of things that are yin and yang about us and I think that that is really the key that helped us make it work because we could really, I mean, I’m a little more, I can take risks, he’s a little more risk adverse. So then we kind of, you know, compromise and balance and talk about things. And that’s been, I think the pattern for us is being able to just understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and scheduling everything that we can, as much as we can. I mean, we kind of live and die by our calendars these days, but you know, and some flexibility too. Like when one of the boys was sick or when something happened, we just maneuvered the things that we needed to and worked it out. And yeah, sure, there’s times that could be stressful or, you know, heated moments, I will say in, in multiple different ways. But I think that we have an understanding, a mutual understanding of, you know, how he can help me and how I can support him.
Rhea Allen:
And, and it has been. Yeah. After 22 years of just really understanding each other’s needs. And, and he’s, he’s actually a really good guy too. I mean, he brings me coffee in the morning and he cooks and cleans, which. So there’s that. That is also very helpful. He’s, he’s a really, you know, just giving and thoughtful person that can, you know, help around the house and in the business.
Rhea Allen:
So.
Amy Vaughan:
Right. Yeah. Now having that balance and that intentionality, I think is really good. And then able to also feel like you can have those conversations that might feel like, I don’t know what your own style is, but like, you know, if one’s confrontational, one’s non confrontational, or if you’re both non confrontational, it can get really challenging. When you’re kind of dealing with not just household decisions and money decisions and family decisions, but business decisions. Do you feel like you guys do anything extra out of just being in sync from a personality standpoint? Are there other intentional efforts you guys make in order to make sure that each one of you feels seen and heard not just as a partner in your marriage, but also as business partners?
Rhea Allen:
Yeah. So we follow. Well, I mean, not, not necessarily religiously follow the EOS system, but I mean we do incorporate quite a bit and same page meetings. And I am the person who is. Ideation is one of my top strengths. And I come up with so many different ideas now. It’s awesome to have the team to help implement some of those ideas. And he’s sort of the sounding board that I will come up with in sometimes fast and furious ideas.
Rhea Allen:
And he’s gonna be like one that’s pulling the reins and saying, whoa, Rhea, let’s, let’s slow down a little bit and like, let’s finish what we started and you know, the execution part of it. So the same page meetings are really helpful. And it used to be when the boys were little, my grandma and his grandma would make it a point to watch the boys just so that we would have date night at least once a month. And that was, that was helpful and meaningful. And then the boys could go see their grandparents and be a part of that. So there’s different things that we would do and places we would go. And sometimes we would just, you know, take weekends off or day trips or road trips or something. A lot of what happens in decisions that get made is when we’re driving on long road trips somewhere because we have that dedicated time that we’re in the car together.
Rhea Allen:
And now my oldest son goes to school. And it takes about 10 hours to get to where he’s at. And you know, recently we have a production van and we needed to go take him some furniture because he just bought a townhouse with him and has. He had no furniture. So we took a road trip. And yeah, I mean, it’s just. Those are the moments that we make decisions and talk things through or we’ll listen to audio, audio books, or we’ll listen to podcasts and, you know, just get ideas and things that we can do to continuously improve where we definitely practice, you know, continuous improvements a lot and just, you know, processes and those types of things. And the big news is we just bought another agency.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, congrats. That’s huge.
Rhea Allen:
Now we have new employees and 25 new clients all overnight, right as of December 1st. So we. There’s a. A guy that showed up to one of my networking events, and I’m like, tom, what are you doing here? You’re. You’re my competitor. He’s like, I come in peace. I want to take you to lunch. And he’s, you know, going to eventually retire.
Rhea Allen:
He’s in the business now with us. And so we got to talking and he wanted to find somebody that would take care of his clients just as he’s. He’s taking care of his clients, you know, and so anyway, that’s. That’s a whole nother, you know, a whole nother ball game to put together and put it in motion. But I think, you know, we can do it.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I guess on that note, burnout is kind of a real thing, right? Within digital marketing, advertising, the clients, the demands, especially when you’re gaining 25. How have you worked? Like, what are some actionable things you’ve done to help manage the pressure of running a business? Teaching, hosting a podcast, and then also being present for your family without burning out completely? Because there’s a lot right there that you’re doing.
Rhea Allen:
Oh, yeah, there’s always a lot. I think that I’ve always had high energy anyway, and slowing down is. I mean, it’s. It’s a good part of what I do occasionally, like, I’ll specifically schedule time away or like a friend of mine, we, we. There’s a mountain town here called McCall. It’s a couple hours away. Just take a weekend and get away, Right. Kind of a spa day sort of thing.
Rhea Allen:
I do intentionally put time in to just, just, just slow down, take a break. But while I’m in the midst of it, while I’m teaching, while I’m, you know, doing podcasts and running the business and family and all those things, I really do live and die by the calendar, and if I have it in the calendar, it’s going to happen more likely than not. And unless I get sick, which does happen every once in a while, but. And still, you know, the nice thing is you can work from home when you have time. I have to. The aspect of just making sure that you spend time doing it. Doing your nails like I. I’m showing my nails like I.
Rhea Allen:
Every. Every once in a while, a friend of mine and I get together to do that and just slow down to do the things that can give you some of that me time and let. Allow your brain to relax. I do. Sometimes I binge watch some Netflix, I’ll admit, just because I want to turn my brain off and just watch some dumb show, you know, and those things kind of help, you know, to. To just unwind and not have my brain going 247 like it otherwise could.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, it’s. Yeah, it’s all about pacing yourself. Right. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And if you’re not pacing yourself and taking the breaks that you need, like, you’re not going to go farther, faster, you are going to collapse right at mile 22. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think rest is a great way to actually perform better. I think sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that a rest is actually going to slow me down.
Amy Vaughan:
But no, what you get from that rest is going to help you perform better.
Rhea Allen:
The other day, you need to rest so that you can do all of the rest.
Amy Vaughan:
Yes. Yes. That’s a great one. I love that. Rest so you can do the rest 100%. I. I’m right there with you on that. So we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, both you and Drew are co-founders. How do you navigate the creative differences or when you disagree on a business decision, how do you keep that from spilling, like, into the family life? In the family dynamic?
Rhea Allen:
Yeah. I mean, I won’t lie. There’s definitely, you know, discussions that come up when we’re home. And, you know, our boys know the business just. Just as much as we do because they’ve been around it and seen it and been a part of it. And I, when they were little, I would take them to networking functions, so they knew lots of things, too. So it’s really, you know, we’re integrated. I mean, the whole work life balance thing is.
Rhea Allen:
I think, somewhat of a farce, that you can’t necessarily do that. 100%.
Amy Vaughan:
Sure.
Rhea Allen:
But now, you know, I think that we. We do take time away and, like, let’s just not talk about that right now, and let’s just relax or, you know, what my brain’s done for today. Let’s just. Just, you know, focus on something else or do something else. And we play games a lot and do some gameplay things. And I love trivia. I love trivia. And my dad is like this walking, I don’t know, encyclopedia, you know, and so we.
Rhea Allen:
And it’s fun because we can go to trivia night and have different generations and there’s something there for everyone. So it’s a really fun thing to do. So. Yeah, sometimes we’ll just do some things that are just for fun, you know, and. And that helps a lot.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. No, that’s good. Well, because I’ve also been learning lately about, like, co regulation, you know, when you get dysregulated because of stress and burnout, which we were just talking about, or if you’re in a state of conflict over something with a. In a business, in a close relationship, your nervous system’s like, what? And you could be all fight or flight. So this is a great tip for anybody. Whether you’re in a romantic relationship or in a work relationship that gets kind of contentious, going for a walk together, playing car together, anything like that can help you, like, co-regulate. Anything like that. That kind of takes you out of that moment of like, fear and flight and brings you back into kind of calm and logical and left side of the brain stuff.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. And I’ve even started doing that kind of thing with my kids just as well to kind of like, give us both time and space to kind of chill out for a minute and maybe pause the conversation and discussion and give us. It’s not a. Again, like the rest. Right. So you can do the rest. It’s. It’s not a distraction to permanently set.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s to help yourself back into regulation. So then you can kind of come up with a problem one more time. Maybe a little less hot.
Rhea Allen:
Right? Yeah, no, I know. It’s definitely helpful to take a pause. You know, one thing I also do is I have a ladies poker group, and I love it, and it’s nice to go and see the ladies and hang out with them.
Amy Vaughan:
I’m.
Rhea Allen:
I’m a mom, right at home. I have a bunch of boys, so it’s kind of fun to go around and do that. And it’s. It’s fun to get away and do those things. And then Drew, you know, also has his friends, and he does, you know, the hunting, fishing, hiking, biking things. And so it’s also good for us because we work and live and sleep together, that we, you know, sometimes have time apart from each other too, and. And that’s okay. And whenever he’s gone hunting for, you know, a couple weeks at a time it’s like, I miss him.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I love that. That’s good advice. All right, let’s talk about your podcast, the Marketing Expedition. It is in the top 5% of most popular podcasts globally again. Preach. Way to go. Awesome.
Amy Vaughan:
What is it like building that alongside everything else and what does it add to your life and business? Because I know I could speak on this. So I’m kind of curious from your standpoint, because it was such a delightful experience being on your show as well.
Rhea Allen:
Thank you. So the cool thing about the Marketing Expedition podcast, I mean, we. I’ve been podcasting for years and years and years before podcasting was such a cool thing to do. I’ve just done it whenever I wanted to or whenever I had somebody cool in the studio already that we were in or interviewing, I just say, hey, let’s record a podcast. Are you cool with that? And then we would. And then a pandemic happened and we started seeing the numbers, like an explosion of people downloading. And I thought the opposite. I was like, oh, no one’s going to listen because they’re not commuting anywhere.
Rhea Allen:
They’re commuting from the couch to the kitchen, right? They’re not, they’re not going to listen. But boy, was I wrong. And suddenly it just imploded and we started getting, you know, 60,000 downloads and all over the world. And I loved that. And so we did it every week. We now do it bi weekly just because it’s like, you know, during, during COVID you had time right now it’s like, okay. And so we pre-record and put them out there. And I have people come to the studio too.
Rhea Allen:
This, the studio that I’m recording now. And it’s been great because a couple things happen. One I learned from industry experts from all over the world and very interesting, cutting edge, bleeding edge things that people are talking about. And that is, that is so critical to our business because now I can implement things that I’ve learned and I’ve also gained new vendors because of people that we’ve talked to and interviewed and partners from all over that we’ve worked with. Then second, thirdly, I guess I’d say it’s, it’s great for our clients too. And it’s just that thought leadership and authority that I get to interview them and, and have them, you know, develop that relationship. And I’ve developed clients over, you know, podcast guest guesting and guests. It’s great.
Rhea Allen:
And then I guess the final thing really is it gives some Whenever I speak on a stage or whenever I’m asked to do things, it gives some of that like, thought leadership and authority of, you know, reputation building and things like that. So when you say It’s a top 5% podcast globally, you know, it’s like, wow, that’s so cool to hear. I mean, I want 1%. Right. I’m a little competitive too. That’s a little bit of my strengths. But I think. And definitely building it up over time and having some really amazing cool people like you on the podcast, you know, it’s been.
Rhea Allen:
It’s been such a journey and growing that show and then monetizing it. Right. Monetizing the mic. So it’s been fun. Yeah, I love it.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. Congrats. It is no small feat, podcasting, like you said, when you started, there was nothing in the space and happening, and now there’s a lot out there. And I do think people do miss or do underestimate the power of life, looking at networking as a way or looking at podcasting as a way to network and build relationships. And I don’t mean networking in like the slimy transactional way, but in like the true relationship building kind of way that can end up being transformative. Like you said, finding vendors, finding clients. Yeah. You know, just finding new professional friends, like, that’s just really.
Amy Vaughan:
I think what I enjoy best about it, for sure. And I think that that’s what makes it easy to give it time when you’re already so busy is because you know the value of that. So you’re like one hour every other week. Yeah. If it leads to new business, why wouldn’t I? It makes me a great vendor. Why wouldn’t I? If I make a new bff.
Rhea Allen:
Let’s go.
Amy Vaughan:
You know.
Rhea Allen:
That’s the fun thing too. Like, and sometimes I have people come back or they’ll have me come back too, because, like, what we’re doing is pod swapping. Right. And it’s nice because now we can both promote each other’s show and. And it also builds. And the other cool thing, I guess the bonus thing is now we have all this amazing content that we can pull from and do. And I think that being able to have snippets of all of these things that we can put out there, little quotable moments and things, helps with social media, helps with the recognition and just having that visibility online and in person. And when I speak on stage, you know, I’ll have them download them.
Rhea Allen:
The QR code or look at the QR code to do their Podcast, and I see a spike of it, and it’s nice to hear back. When people hear the show and have wonderful comments to say. It makes me feel good.
Amy Vaughan:
It does. I agree. Yeah, it’s always kind of trippy when people like it, I heard you on this show. I listened to the whole episode. It was so good. I’m like, ah, it’s very surreal, but also really nice because, again, it’s like you. You know, I think in your show, I feel like the whole conversation, everything was so easy and relatable. You know, it makes people feel hopefully a little less alone in what they might be facing or dealing with, because we talk about just about everything on the digital power lounge.
Amy Vaughan:
Like, I don’t know that there’s many topics between mental health and women’s health and what we do as marketers that we haven’t really touched on in leadership in ways that have been really, truly vulnerable. And I just. I appreciate it so much because a lot of women are kind of working, living on an island, and don’t always have the partners that they need, you know, to kind of muddle through or get through or figure it out. You know, they feel like they have to do it all on their own. And so I think that’s where, like, community and podcasting and being a part of podcasting, community is a really great thing. So, yeah, shout out to all of you that are listening. Live listeners, by the way, you can drop questions into the chat if you have any for Rhea. But I.
Amy Vaughan:
I would say, like, I encourage you, like, step out there if you’re looking at public speaking. I think podcast guesting is a great way to just get your chops, like, to build your chops, get your muscle built up on, like, doing interviewing, answering questions, finding your talking points. And to me, because it’s more conversational, I think it all comes out more naturally once you start doing actual public speaking, in my opinion, because, no offense, all my live listeners, but I have the time. I just forgot. I get so consumed by the conversation with my person. I just am like, oh, yeah, yeah, y’ all are here listening. Just kidding. I know you are here and I love you and appreciate you, but do recommend you consider it.
Amy Vaughan:
So don’t be shy. Look around. Was it a Pod Match? That’s a good one to look at for podcasting. You don’t have to start your own podcast right away. That is an endeavor of its own. But guesting alone, great way to build relationships.
Rhea Allen:
Yeah, no, definitely. And we get a lot of people who want to be on the show. And I always say, listen, if you come on the show and you’re there just to promote yourself for, you know, an hour and just be, you know, kind of salesy the whole time, nobody wants that. And that’s. Nobody wants that either for our audience. Right. And so I always want to make sure that people give value and have something of value to give and, and share, and then, yeah, okay, we’ll. We’ll drop the stuff at the end.
Rhea Allen:
But I think if people understand that people want to listen to stories, people want to hear things that are going to be relatable to them. And, and so when people are thinking about being on a podcast or being a podcast host. Right. Think about your audience and who it is that you want to hear and resonate with you. Yeah, absolutely.
Amy Vaughan:
I agree. That’s such good advice. Yeah. 100. I think that making it useful, making it relatable, making it real, you know, is so very, very important. You’re going to see a lot more come out of that otherwise. But yeah, no, great call. All right.
Amy Vaughan:
When you look at couples in business together, what is one thing that separates those who thrive from those who maybe struggle, would you say?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, I mean, I, I would say that we’ve struggled and thrived up and down all around you. So we’ve got it either way. I think those that thrive have a support staff and team to build them, and not just the support staff that they might hire, but maybe the support around them. So one of the things that we did early on was I made a pepper shock advisory board of people who wanted to help see us succeed. And I had former executives that have retired. I had a lawyer, I had a financial planner, I had a client sit on our advisory board.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it.
Rhea Allen:
And I think that was really helpful, especially since we were kind of young at the time when we started the business. I mean, I was 25, didn’t know what I was doing right. And I, I mean, I had to fake it till I made it right. I mean, that’s part of it, but I feel like asking questions and having a mentor is super critical in being able to thrive. The other thing I did is we did a ladies mastermind group and worked with and just had other leaders in. In that ladies mastermind group. And, there’s about 10 of us. And not everybody could always show up every time, but once a month, we’d get together for a couple hours over lunch.
Rhea Allen:
You know, we paid for lunch. We didn’t charge anything. You know, all of us coming together and I think we processed a lot of issues that leaders go through. We had like the CEO of a credit union, another, a person that had worked in healthcare that got burned out on healthcare and then started her business and was, you know, coming from healthcare, being a nurse to now starting a business is completely different. So we process a lot of things. Another gal was like, she was a vet, an event planner, and wanted to go big. And so we just, we process so many things for each other and we learned from other people what they were going through and how we can incorporate that. I mean, I, I, you know, everything from employee issues to, you know, I want to.
Rhea Allen:
When we moved building spaces years ago, I needed to process, do we want to move? Is this the right decision? You know, what am I not thinking about that I should. And maybe some of the people had already been through a move before. And oh, Rhea, you got to think about this. And oh, you got to spend money on this. And oh, you got to think about that. And you didn’t think about this. I’m like, like, oh, my gosh. Right? So it was just a really good thing to lean on other people’s expertise and experiences.
Rhea Allen:
And, you know, you do have to be careful about who you take advice from. Right?
Amy Vaughan:
Sure.
Rhea Allen:
Sometimes their advice may not necessarily be 100% applicable to yours or your situation. So obviously you have to discern what advice you’re getting and how you are going to incorporate it. But having those people around you and having the support is definitely it. You can’t go at this alone. You really have to have others. And lean on other people’s expertise. I have to do one more shout out to a really dear friend of mine. We went through an emerging leaders program together through the SBA Small Business Administration.
Rhea Allen:
And she’s a, she’s a cfo, cpa. Smart, smart person. And I was like, I really want to be in her group because she does numbers and I’m not great at numbers. Like, I have a little bit of dyslexia, so numbers and I, like, I know that I need that. And she has been like such a great asset and person in my life and just, you know, lean on a friendship, but also just, she’s so smart. Cheryl is her name. And I am so glad that we met because she has just kind of acted as a pocket cfo, if you will. And I think that having those support people around you who are smarter than you in certain areas have been the secret to really being you know, thriving versus, you know, surviving.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, no, that’s great advice. No, 100%. Like this. Never underestimate the power of your peers and peer mentorship. I think sometimes we think we have to go to people who have 10, 15 years on us, but there’s something really amazing about people who are kind of can be in the thick of it with you because that’s maybe where they were like, a half step ago, you know, or maybe you’re just a half step ahead of them and so you kind of know exactly where they’re at, what they’re going through. You know, 10 years from now, it’s kind of like giving birth. Right? We just kind of like, well, you know, it was bad, but it wasn’t that bad. Right.
Amy Vaughan:
Because then we have more kids, otherwise.
Rhea Allen:
We would, well, pay it forward. Right. And my students now, I mean, that’s what they do. They get to build an agency and pitch a real client. And I love being able to pay it forward and say, here’s what I’ve done. Here’s what I know. You know, learn from me if you want, and absorb. You’re going to get whatever you, you know, put into it.
Rhea Allen:
But definitely paying it forward and mentoring other people. I mean, I’ve done the Be Wise program for the Boise Young Professionals, and mentoring young people is. I mean, I needed that, and now I absolutely want to give it to other people when I can. For sure.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. I love it. All right. For any of our listeners or members who are thinking about starting a business with their partner, or maybe they’re already on that journey and maybe hitting a rough patch, what’s the most important conversation you would say that they need to have?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, so many thoughts kind of go through my mind, and I think the number one thing that you have to understand is that not everybody is entrepreneurial spirit. Not everybody has that entrepreneurial drive. And, and so when you pick a partner that you’re going to go into business with, whether it’s your. Your. Your husband or your spouse or your. Any partner, you have to understand where their skill sets are and where your skill sets are and how you can come together and understand how you’re going to be able to. Because sometimes you won’t agree. You just won’t.
Rhea Allen:
No matter who you are, no matter what, not everybody agrees with everything, and that’s okay. How are you going to handle it? What’s the reaction? What’s the plan to get through something like that that you don’t agree on? How are you going to come through the other side and maybe talk about the process that you’re going to go through when you have disagreements and what does that look like? Feedback is a gift. I say, right, yeah. And we say, you know, don’t deny, defender, blame. Just say thank you when you have feedback. One of the things that I’ve learned is to ask if you can give feedback before you get it. Because that gives a moment of like, okay, she’s got something to say to me. Yeah, let me get in the right headspace.
Rhea Allen:
And. And that’s helped a lot because I used to just be like, go straight for it. Go straight for it. Tell you what I think, when I think it and how I think it. But that emotional intelligence to stop, pause, and be like, I have something I need to say, but I need to think about what they’re at and how they’re going to receive this from me. And that is something I’ve. I’ve worked on a lot. I mean, after 20 years, we don’t want to.
Rhea Allen:
We don’t want to be like the wrath of Rhea. Right. We want to have the rewards. Right. We want to be in. In a positive space. So I’ve definitely learned a lot over the years and what I would say to those who are starting a new business in, in a partnership relationship, whatever it is, have conversations around how you’re going to handle conflict and how you’re going to be able to give back to each other. And
Rhea Allen:
And sometimes you have to just take a pause and walk away.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Rhea Allen:
And that’s okay. And just notice, like, okay, things are getting heated. I need to take a break. Let’s just take a break. And. And that’s okay, you know.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. That’s wonderful advice, Rhea. Wonderful.
Rhea Allen:
Thanks.
Amy Vaughan:
All right, got a couple. Oh, I’ve got one more question and then we’re going to go into our fun little power round, which are like our lightning round questions. And then again, live listeners, if you have any questions for race that are a little more specific to maybe what you’re dealing with or doing, we love having you here. So feel free to jump into the chat and let us know if you have questions. Looking ahead at the next chapter of your work in life, how are you thinking differently about success, balance in what you’re building together going forward, especially with this new news of this new agency.
Rhea Allen:
I know. Well, right now it’s kind of like moment by moment, day by day, just trying to, you know, meet all the new clients and everything. But fast forward from now, I think the goal that we want to establish is, or, you know, maintain and actually we’re going to be doing goals at the beginning of the year and, and kind of really laying out our vision of what we want. But some of the thoughts behind what we want is to be in a part of a place where like Tom just sold his business to us. Eventually either we’re going to be in that position where we will sell our business and, or our employees can, you know, we can go through that process if they, you know, are in a spot they want to carry forward with, with having it being employee owned or not. And, or I don’t think either one of our boys are going to meet. I don’t know what they’re. I don’t know.
Rhea Allen:
They’re 20 and about to be 18, so they’ve got some time ahead to figure that out. But I think ultimately we’re going to get into a spot where we’re not in the day to day as much as we are right now. And I’m going to focus more on the consulting, speaking, authorship kind of area of what I’m already doing just maybe at a, at a higher, you know, capacity. And I mean, I get to speak all over the world. They fly me everywhere. But I want to maybe hone in a little more on being able to be that speaker that people need for me, the content expert speaker that I am, that I am and do more of that and also, you know, finish another book and get that out in the world. And so those, so those are some of the kind of the, the sites I see in, in the future where we have the staff and the team to fully take on more of the responsibilities that Drew and I are doing now on the operations side for Drew and for me, kind of the business development, managing, running the company kind of thing, and start to peel off some of those pieces and some of those duties that each of us do to others and have them be able to be fully sustainable without just Drew and Rhea doing the things that need to get done. So that’s where I see us in, you know, the next five, 10 years.
Rhea Allen:
So that’s what we’re thinking.
Amy Vaughan:
Super exciting. I love it. That’s great. And I love that you guys are coming back to it on an annual basis. It’s so important. All right, time for a lightning round. What is the best business decision that you and Drew have made together, would you say?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, best business decision that we made together. Well, this is kind of a fun little. I’ll keep it short. We were in Northern Idaho, which is about Eight hours from where we are. Six to eight hours where we are on another project. And I got this random phone call on my phone and it was PMS Productions. So Peter Scott McGregor Productions, they called and I’m like, who is this random person calling me? Somehow we were in the toy shop buying toys for the boys. There’s a cute little locally owned toy shop up there.
Rhea Allen:
And I’m like, I’m looking at this. I’m like, okay, I’ll answer. It turns out it happened to be the production company that hired Mr. Harrison Ford himself. And we got to work on a documentary about flight and aviation because Mr. Ford is a backcountry pilot, right? And so we got to spend a week with production and there’s one of the toughest landing strips in North America is in Idaho called Wilson Barr. And so this, this whole documentary, was for the Smithsonian Wings over the Rocky Air Museum in Denver, Colorado. So the Rocky Mountains, right? Through Idaho and Colorado, right.
Rhea Allen:
And anyway, we got to work on this, this amazing production that was so cool and we had to keep it under wraps because we, you know, no one knew that Mr. Ford was in town and doing all this with us. And then, the fun little story is that we found out that he likes scotch.
Amy Vaughan:
Okay. Ah, yeah.
Rhea Allen:
And I had never had it before and. And the liquor store is closed, so I’m calling all my friends who have vacation homes in the McCall area. Right. Mountain Town Resort. And we found somebody that they. And like, can we borrow your bottle of like. It was a 15 year old bottle of McClellan. McClellan’s Scotch, I think it’s called.
Rhea Allen:
And we get it. And one of the evenings that we’re doing the dinner, you know, doing the like, night thing, well, Mr. Ford decides to pass the bottle around and we all take a swig. And I, I had never really had scotch before. I know that you don’t really, you don’t just chug it, you just kind of. It’s like a sipping thing. And oh my gosh, I had to like keep my composure because when I, when the scotch went down my throat, it like, to me it was like gasoline coming down my throat because it was too much and I, you know, took too much or whatever and oh my gosh, I had to like keep calm and. And he’s like, he’s smiling with his little smirk, you know, and he’s seeing what I’m going through and I’m like, oh my gosh.
Rhea Allen:
So that’s my first experience with Mr. Ford and Scottish and scotch.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, at least you didn’t spit it out on his face.
Rhea Allen:
Oh, I know, right? Drew was quoted in the paper, like. He was like, holy, that’s Han Solo. And they actually put the word in the paper. Sorry. It was so fun. It was so. It was just an amazing, fun experience. So I’m.
Rhea Allen:
The. The best decision that we made is taking that phone call, right?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. Random phone.
Rhea Allen:
You know, I mean, we. We get spam calls all the time, but you never know what it’s going to be. That call that comes up that you’re like, wow, this was such a cool opportunity for us to get to do and work on this and, you know, shoot the footage and audio and. And we had a Cineflex helicopter with. Because this is before drones. It was 2009, and it had a camera on it, and the helicopter pilot was like a. A former helicopter pilot in Vietnam. And he is also in Transformers.
Rhea Allen:
And so anyway, it’s just. It was so cool. Such a cool experience.
Amy Vaughan:
I was gonna say. Sounds like it was pretty surreal. That’s amazing. All right, finish the statement. The secret to our marriage, surviving entrepreneurship is.
Rhea Allen:
You know, I think the secret to surviving marriage and entrepreneurship is I think we just have a love for each other that will never go away. I love him. He loves me, and I know that. And we love each other and our kids. Right. And our family. And I think that sometimes, you know, when I do something stupid and dumb, he can forgive me. And when he does something stupid and dumb.
Rhea Allen:
I hate the word. Maybe I should say ignorant.
Amy Vaughan:
Okay.
Rhea Allen:
You know, we forgive each other.
Amy Vaughan:
To me, forget.
Rhea Allen:
Forget. Move on and carry on. And I think that our secret is that, you know, we love each other. Really?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. When it sounds too. At its core, and I think this is important for just any relationship, platonic or otherwise. Right. Is that there’s trust and respect for each other, you know, and once that’s kind of. When that’s broken, it’s really hard to make it work, no matter what kind of relationship it is. So I love that. All right.
Amy Vaughan:
What is one boundary that you’ve set that has surprised your family, maybe in the best way?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, gosh. Boundaries are always like this. I don’t know. Do I have boundaries? Yeah, I do. I would say something like that. But I. I guess when it comes to how our kids were being raised or the things that we would, you know, want for our kids that maybe were something that, you know, some family member wouldn’t agree to or, I don’t know, whatever. Like, I don’t know, that was kind of hard to say, but I think, you know, we.
Rhea Allen:
Our kids are good kids, and I think that we kind of had to set some boundaries about what we wanted as far as for our kids, rules go and, like, how they would, you know, be able to interact and behave and be around. So, you know, when they would go to their grandparents or would they go to other people’s, like, we wanted them to be respectful and we wanted them to. To, you know, do all the things that we would do. And they were. They’re. My oldest is an Eagle Scout. The youngest is about to get his Eagle Scout. He’s so awesome.
Amy Vaughan:
That’s no small feat.
Rhea Allen:
Board of reviews and stuff. So. Yeah, that would be one thing. I think that would, you know, surprise the family. I don’t know. I. I don’t know. I struggle with it because I probably need more boundaries, to be honest.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s okay. I think we all feel that. We all feel that it is hard. It is hard. I feel you. All right, this is a fun one, because a lot of us here that are listening are working parents. And, you know, kids just kind of don’t always get it. What.
Amy Vaughan:
I mean, I know your sons are older now, but what do your sons think of you? Did their parents do it for work or maybe when they were younger? Were there any fun interpretations of that?
Rhea Allen:
Yeah, I mean, so we do video production and advertising, you know, full service advertising. But I think that they were most seeing us doing video because the. All the gear and equipment they had to load out, you know, help us load up and load out right here. So I think that that’s what they thought we did the most with cameras and video. Not necessarily seeing the other side of, like, the strategy and the planning and the, you know, the marketing audits that we do that was not as visible to them. So I think that they just thought that we, you know, mostly made commercials or something like that. There was a time, so we kind of spoiled my youngest son. We did a commercial with Santa Claus and Mrs.
Rhea Allen:
Claus. It was the big Ford pickup, 150 red, beautiful sleigh. We turned it into a sleigh, and it was a car commercial. And Mr. And Mrs. Claus were there, and it was a fundraiser or food drive. And so we were having my son load the truck up with food with Mr. And Mrs.
Rhea Allen:
Claus. Well, while we were busy getting the set, you know, the scene set up, Mr. And Mrs. Claus were kind of entertaining and keeping my kid, and he was pretty little. You know, they were coloring with them and just keeping him entertained. Of course it was Mr. And Mrs. Santa Claus.
Rhea Allen:
Of course. He felt so special, and he was so convinced, and so, like, just believed because they knew his name and they, you know, talked to him and knew all the things about him. Right. And it took a really long time for him later in life to not or just to let me. I don’t want to spoil this for anybody, but just to get past that, you know, what happens with parents, and just. I’ll never forget. You lied.
Amy Vaughan:
You lied. The betRheaal. How fun is that?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, my God. The older brother told little brother, and, you know, of course, so upset.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, my gosh.
Rhea Allen:
Because, like, it. It took, you know, a few more years. Then, like, the older brother figured it out, but the younger brother was, like, so convinced. Right?
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, yeah.
Rhea Allen:
Shelf thing, right?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Rhea Allen:
And so Charlie was the elf’s name. So they. They would, like, go up to Charlie and say, sorry, Charlie.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it anyway. I love it. Yeah. No, I think that is part of what we do, I think, because there’s sometimes tangible things. I mean, my daughter’s probably too young to remember, but I took her on set a couple times for, you know, photo shoots and commercials and just letting them see behind the scenes, you know, and kind of know, like, that’s really cool, because you’re right. When it’s intangible and it’s like, oh, hey, kids, look at this amazing PowerPoint slide and content strategy. They’re like, huh? You what? I mean, even adults are like, what the hell? Like my parents, they don’t even know.
Rhea Allen:
Right? Yeah, yeah. You’d be surprised. What you remember, my. My mom in college used to. She worked at. Or she did stuff with the PBS station. I remember Big Bird. And I was really little, but, you know, Sesame Street was a big thing, and they had, like, this fundraiser thing, and I was probably three maybe, at least that’s kind of the timing.
Rhea Allen:
But I remember Big Bird. Like, I remember that, and I remember Switcher, and, you know, fast forward. I worked in the news, and I, you know, worked on a Switcher. So, I mean, you. You’d be surprised. Like, what? What kids?
Amy Vaughan:
What stays? Yeah, what stays? I love that, dude. I just realized I had this moment. I was like, oh, my God, Big Bird. I would be fangirling, even as an adult. I’m like, oh, does that mean big birds might hear me out? I don’t know. I think I just need to talk to my daughter about this.
Rhea Allen:
I know Sesame street was a big part of my life, for sure.
Amy Vaughan:
What a cool experience. Well, Rhea, thank you so much for bringing such you know, amazing authentic energy as you always do, and some great wisdom to the conversation. You’ve definitely given our community permission to do something that we don’t talk about enough, which is be honest about the challenges of having, owning, sustaining a thriving business without sacrificing the relationship and the life we’re trying to build, because you’re doing both of those simultaneously. So if any of you have been inspired by Rhea’s journey, I encourage you to check out the Marketing Expedition podcast. Fantastic resource. You can also connect with Rhea on LinkedIn to stay in the loop with Pepper Shack Media’s work. And for anyone who is watching and or listening to learn what Together Digital is all about, again, check out the website. We’re all about creating real conversations with women who are doing amazing things like Rhea and are willing to be honest about them so that the rest of us can, you know, work together and figure it out.
Amy Vaughan:
So, Rhea, you’re just like a shining light for exactly what, like the Together Digital community is about. You’re full of women who are supportive and encouraging and enthusiastic. We love what we do and we aren’t gatekeepers about it. So I definitely loved having you on the show. I know lots of our members will be tuning in. That’s all we’ve got for you today, folks. We hope you enjoy the rest of your Friday. Until then, keep asking, keep giving and keep growing.
Amy Vaughan:
Take care, everyone. Thank you.
Amy Vaughan:
Hello everyone and welcome to your weekly Power Lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughan and I am the owner and Chief Empowerment Officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections. You can join the movement@togetherindigital.com and today I am thrilled to welcome someone who has been living the entrepreneur dream and reality for over two decades. Rhea Allen is the president and co-founder of Pepper Shock Media and a woman owned certified business. I read that wrong. A certified women owned business that has been building brands and bottom lines since 2003. She’s also the host of the Marketing Expedition podcast.
Amy Vaughan:
This has been a fun little podcast episode swap. I highly encourage you to go check out her podcast. I had a blast being on it a couple weeks ago, so. So we’re excited to have her here with us. Her podcast, Marketing Expedition is ranked in the top 5% most popular podcast globally. Go, Rhea. And as she’s also an adjunct marketing professor at Boise State. Oh my gosh, it’s so Friday and it’s been three weeks.
Amy Vaughan:
But here’s what makes Rhea’s story so stand out. She has built all of this alongside her business partner and husband, Drew, while raising two kids, sons. So boy mom and keeping their spark alive, both professionally and personally. Today, Rhea is sharing how she and Drew balances marriage, marketing and making it all work without losing themselves in the process. We are diving into the entrepreneur, into entrepreneurship boundaries. Without losing yourself. Oh, no, I read that line again. We’re diving.
Amy Vaughan:
I’m trying to stay above water. We’re diving into entrepreneurship boundaries. Burnout, creative collaboration and real talk about what it actually takes. This is both a thriving business and a thriving relationship. Rhea, welcome to the Power Lounge.
Rhea Allen:
Well, thank you so much, Amy. Wow, that was a lot to read.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, it is for a Friday, but we did it. So I’m just gonna pat myself on the back and. Yeah, that’s the hard part. That’s over. The conversation. Never. Especially with you, Rhea. The two of you have been business partners and spouses, which, I mean, I think a lot of us that are listening right now are like, well, that’s not for everybody.
Amy Vaughan:
And not everybody could do that for over two decades. And that is, you know, obviously remarkable and wonderful. What made you decide to build a company together and what do you do? What did you think at the time would be the hardest part?
Rhea Allen:
Well, I guess it all started back when I was working at A TV station here locally in the Boise market. And in comes walking this guy. I’m like, who is that? Anyway, he got hired and it turns out I at the time was his boss. We didn’t date or anything and I at the time was already dating somebody else. And you know, that didn’t work out. But yeah, so we were friends and hung out and you know, got to know each other for quite a while just as friends. And you know, they always talk like friends first. So that kind of worked out and fast forward and he actually quit working in the TV station and worked for Micron.
Rhea Allen:
But then they laid people off and he decided, I want to move to Seattle.
Amy Vaughan:
And
Rhea Allen:
And I decided, well, I do too. I want to get out of Dodge, right? I want to go explore the world. And so I had to finish my undergrad at Boise State and then we both moved to Seattle and I worked at Northwest Cable News and then Fox station. He got a degree at the Art Institute and so we lived there for a little while until he got his degree and then I worked on my master’s degree at the same time. And while I was in Seattle, I got a whole bunch of big city experience working at the Fox station and did promotions in the afternoon, did news at night and really just after working news, it’s a kind of a love-hate relationship, right? You, you work Easter and Christmas and New Year’s Eve and all the things, all the holidays. And at the time, the main newscast director had been there for years and years. He’s still there to this day. So I really had no forward movement.
Rhea Allen:
And there was one point where he took some time off for his wife who had twins. And I ended up working 52 days straight filling in for him and for, you know, and, and I was like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. And my undergrad was in mass comm and marketing. I kind of combined two degrees into one and then my master’s degree was entrepreneurship and marketing. And so I’ve always had the entrepreneurial bug in me. Growing up with my grandparents, they both had a farm, a farm and a motel and just had that kind of work ethic. So fast forward, we moved back, we boomeranged back to Boise and got married in August of 2003 and started the business in October of 2003. So we’ve not known any other way.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, that’s so fantastic. And you’ve obviously successfully grown Pepper Shack Media. Now it is a certified women owned small business. You work in a lot of different industries. Looking back, what moment made you realize that you needed to establish stronger boundaries between work and home to actually sustain growth? Because I can only imagine, imagine you work together, you live together. It would be so easy to just work non stop, which is what you were leaving for, right? That’s why you went and did your own thing.
Rhea Allen:
Yeah, yeah, I think. And we’re also growing babies together. A couple years later, our oldest son was born. But I think the, the, I guess the, I don’t know, the secret sauce or whatever it is is just that we really balance each other out. So if I have a networking event to go to in the evening, you know, he would take care of the boys or vice versa. He’s a morning person. I’m not I’ night owl because working news in Seattle got me off. You know, the news goes on at 11 o’ clock at night and so I wouldn’t get out and you know, so I was just always a night owl.
Rhea Allen:
And he’s a morning person, which again, balances each other out. And honestly, there’s a lot of things that are yin and yang about us and I think that that is really the key that helped us make it work because we could really, I mean, I’m a little more, I can take risks, he’s a little more risk adverse. So then we kind of, you know, compromise and balance and talk about things. And that’s been, I think the pattern for us is being able to just understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and scheduling everything that we can, as much as we can. I mean, we kind of live and die by our calendars these days, but you know, and some flexibility too. Like when one of the boys was sick or when something happened, we just maneuvered the things that we needed to and worked it out. And yeah, sure, there’s times that could be stressful or, you know, heated moments, I will say in, in multiple different ways. But I think that we have an understanding, a mutual understanding of, you know, how he can help me and how I can support him.
Rhea Allen:
And, and it has been. Yeah. After 22 years of just really understanding each other’s needs. And, and he’s, he’s actually a really good guy too. I mean, he brings me coffee in the morning and he cooks and cleans, which. So there’s that. That is also very helpful. He’s, he’s a really, you know, just giving and thoughtful person that can, you know, help around the house and in the business.
Rhea Allen:
So.
Amy Vaughan:
Right. Yeah. Now having that balance and that intentionality, I think is really good. And then able to also feel like you can have those conversations that might feel like, I don’t know what your own style is, but like, you know, if one’s confrontational, one’s non confrontational, or if you’re both non confrontational, it can get really challenging. When you’re kind of dealing with not just household decisions and money decisions and family decisions, but business decisions. Do you feel like you guys do anything extra out of just being in sync from a personality standpoint? Are there other intentional efforts you guys make in order to make sure that each one of you feels seen and heard not just as a partner in your marriage, but also as business partners?
Rhea Allen:
Yeah. So we follow. Well, I mean, not, not necessarily religiously follow the EOS system, but I mean we do incorporate quite a bit and same page meetings. And I am the person who is. Ideation is one of my top strengths. And I come up with so many different ideas now. It’s awesome to have the team to help implement some of those ideas. And he’s sort of the sounding board that I will come up with in sometimes fast and furious ideas.
Rhea Allen:
And he’s gonna be like one that’s pulling the reins and saying, whoa, Rhea, let’s, let’s slow down a little bit and like, let’s finish what we started and you know, the execution part of it. So the same page meetings are really helpful. And it used to be when the boys were little, my grandma and his grandma would make it a point to watch the boys just so that we would have date night at least once a month. And that was, that was helpful and meaningful. And then the boys could go see their grandparents and be a part of that. So there’s different things that we would do and places we would go. And sometimes we would just, you know, take weekends off or day trips or road trips or something. A lot of what happens in decisions that get made is when we’re driving on long road trips somewhere because we have that dedicated time that we’re in the car together.
Rhea Allen:
And now my oldest son goes to school. And it takes about 10 hours to get to where he’s at. And you know, recently we have a production van and we needed to go take him some furniture because he just bought a townhouse with him and has. He had no furniture. So we took a road trip. And yeah, I mean, it’s just. Those are the moments that we make decisions and talk things through or we’ll listen to audio, audio books, or we’ll listen to podcasts and, you know, just get ideas and things that we can do to continuously improve where we definitely practice, you know, continuous improvements a lot and just, you know, processes and those types of things. And the big news is we just bought another agency.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, congrats. That’s huge.
Rhea Allen:
Now we have new employees and 25 new clients all overnight, right as of December 1st. So we. There’s a. A guy that showed up to one of my networking events, and I’m like, tom, what are you doing here? You’re. You’re my competitor. He’s like, I come in peace. I want to take you to lunch. And he’s, you know, going to eventually retire.
Rhea Allen:
He’s in the business now with us. And so we got to talking and he wanted to find somebody that would take care of his clients just as he’s. He’s taking care of his clients, you know, and so anyway, that’s. That’s a whole nother, you know, a whole nother ball game to put together and put it in motion. But I think, you know, we can do it.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I guess on that note, burnout is kind of a real thing, right? Within digital marketing, advertising, the clients, the demands, especially when you’re gaining 25. How have you worked? Like, what are some actionable things you’ve done to help manage the pressure of running a business? Teaching, hosting a podcast, and then also being present for your family without burning out completely? Because there’s a lot right there that you’re doing.
Rhea Allen:
Oh, yeah, there’s always a lot. I think that I’ve always had high energy anyway, and slowing down is. I mean, it’s. It’s a good part of what I do occasionally, like, I’ll specifically schedule time away or like a friend of mine, we, we. There’s a mountain town here called McCall. It’s a couple hours away. Just take a weekend and get away, Right. Kind of a spa day sort of thing.
Rhea Allen:
I do intentionally put time in to just, just, just slow down, take a break. But while I’m in the midst of it, while I’m teaching, while I’m, you know, doing podcasts and running the business and family and all those things, I really do live and die by the calendar, and if I have it in the calendar, it’s going to happen more likely than not. And unless I get sick, which does happen every once in a while, but. And still, you know, the nice thing is you can work from home when you have time. I have to. The aspect of just making sure that you spend time doing it. Doing your nails like I. I’m showing my nails like I.
Rhea Allen:
Every. Every once in a while, a friend of mine and I get together to do that and just slow down to do the things that can give you some of that me time and let. Allow your brain to relax. I do. Sometimes I binge watch some Netflix, I’ll admit, just because I want to turn my brain off and just watch some dumb show, you know, and those things kind of help, you know, to. To just unwind and not have my brain going 247 like it otherwise could.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, it’s. Yeah, it’s all about pacing yourself. Right. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And if you’re not pacing yourself and taking the breaks that you need, like, you’re not going to go farther, faster, you are going to collapse right at mile 22. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think rest is a great way to actually perform better. I think sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that a rest is actually going to slow me down.
Amy Vaughan:
But no, what you get from that rest is going to help you perform better.
Rhea Allen:
The other day, you need to rest so that you can do all of the rest.
Amy Vaughan:
Yes. Yes. That’s a great one. I love that. Rest so you can do the rest 100%. I. I’m right there with you on that. So we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, both you and Drew are co-founders. How do you navigate the creative differences or when you disagree on a business decision, how do you keep that from spilling, like, into the family life? In the family dynamic?
Rhea Allen:
Yeah. I mean, I won’t lie. There’s definitely, you know, discussions that come up when we’re home. And, you know, our boys know the business just. Just as much as we do because they’ve been around it and seen it and been a part of it. And I, when they were little, I would take them to networking functions, so they knew lots of things, too. So it’s really, you know, we’re integrated. I mean, the whole work life balance thing is.
Rhea Allen:
I think, somewhat of a farce, that you can’t necessarily do that. 100%.
Amy Vaughan:
Sure.
Rhea Allen:
But now, you know, I think that we. We do take time away and, like, let’s just not talk about that right now, and let’s just relax or, you know, what my brain’s done for today. Let’s just. Just, you know, focus on something else or do something else. And we play games a lot and do some gameplay things. And I love trivia. I love trivia. And my dad is like this walking, I don’t know, encyclopedia, you know, and so we.
Rhea Allen:
And it’s fun because we can go to trivia night and have different generations and there’s something there for everyone. So it’s a really fun thing to do. So. Yeah, sometimes we’ll just do some things that are just for fun, you know, and. And that helps a lot.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. No, that’s good. Well, because I’ve also been learning lately about, like, co regulation, you know, when you get dysregulated because of stress and burnout, which we were just talking about, or if you’re in a state of conflict over something with a. In a business, in a close relationship, your nervous system’s like, what? And you could be all fight or flight. So this is a great tip for anybody. Whether you’re in a romantic relationship or in a work relationship that gets kind of contentious, going for a walk together, playing car together, anything like that can help you, like, co-regulate. Anything like that. That kind of takes you out of that moment of like, fear and flight and brings you back into kind of calm and logical and left side of the brain stuff.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. And I’ve even started doing that kind of thing with my kids just as well to kind of like, give us both time and space to kind of chill out for a minute and maybe pause the conversation and discussion and give us. It’s not a. Again, like the rest. Right. So you can do the rest. It’s. It’s not a distraction to permanently set.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s to help yourself back into regulation. So then you can kind of come up with a problem one more time. Maybe a little less hot.
Rhea Allen:
Right? Yeah, no, I know. It’s definitely helpful to take a pause. You know, one thing I also do is I have a ladies poker group, and I love it, and it’s nice to go and see the ladies and hang out with them.
Amy Vaughan:
I’m.
Rhea Allen:
I’m a mom, right at home. I have a bunch of boys, so it’s kind of fun to go around and do that. And it’s. It’s fun to get away and do those things. And then Drew, you know, also has his friends, and he does, you know, the hunting, fishing, hiking, biking things. And so it’s also good for us because we work and live and sleep together, that we, you know, sometimes have time apart from each other too, and. And that’s okay. And whenever he’s gone hunting for, you know, a couple weeks at a time it’s like, I miss him.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I love that. That’s good advice. All right, let’s talk about your podcast, the Marketing Expedition. It is in the top 5% of most popular podcasts globally again. Preach. Way to go. Awesome.
Amy Vaughan:
What is it like building that alongside everything else and what does it add to your life and business? Because I know I could speak on this. So I’m kind of curious from your standpoint, because it was such a delightful experience being on your show as well.
Rhea Allen:
Thank you. So the cool thing about the Marketing Expedition podcast, I mean, we. I’ve been podcasting for years and years and years before podcasting was such a cool thing to do. I’ve just done it whenever I wanted to or whenever I had somebody cool in the studio already that we were in or interviewing, I just say, hey, let’s record a podcast. Are you cool with that? And then we would. And then a pandemic happened and we started seeing the numbers, like an explosion of people downloading. And I thought the opposite. I was like, oh, no one’s going to listen because they’re not commuting anywhere.
Rhea Allen:
They’re commuting from the couch to the kitchen, right? They’re not, they’re not going to listen. But boy, was I wrong. And suddenly it just imploded and we started getting, you know, 60,000 downloads and all over the world. And I loved that. And so we did it every week. We now do it bi weekly just because it’s like, you know, during, during COVID you had time right now it’s like, okay. And so we pre-record and put them out there. And I have people come to the studio too.
Rhea Allen:
This, the studio that I’m recording now. And it’s been great because a couple things happen. One I learned from industry experts from all over the world and very interesting, cutting edge, bleeding edge things that people are talking about. And that is, that is so critical to our business because now I can implement things that I’ve learned and I’ve also gained new vendors because of people that we’ve talked to and interviewed and partners from all over that we’ve worked with. Then second, thirdly, I guess I’d say it’s, it’s great for our clients too. And it’s just that thought leadership and authority that I get to interview them and, and have them, you know, develop that relationship. And I’ve developed clients over, you know, podcast guest guesting and guests. It’s great.
Rhea Allen:
And then I guess the final thing really is it gives some Whenever I speak on a stage or whenever I’m asked to do things, it gives some of that like, thought leadership and authority of, you know, reputation building and things like that. So when you say It’s a top 5% podcast globally, you know, it’s like, wow, that’s so cool to hear. I mean, I want 1%. Right. I’m a little competitive too. That’s a little bit of my strengths. But I think. And definitely building it up over time and having some really amazing cool people like you on the podcast, you know, it’s been.
Rhea Allen:
It’s been such a journey and growing that show and then monetizing it. Right. Monetizing the mic. So it’s been fun. Yeah, I love it.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. Congrats. It is no small feat, podcasting, like you said, when you started, there was nothing in the space and happening, and now there’s a lot out there. And I do think people do miss or do underestimate the power of life, looking at networking as a way or looking at podcasting as a way to network and build relationships. And I don’t mean networking in like the slimy transactional way, but in like the true relationship building kind of way that can end up being transformative. Like you said, finding vendors, finding clients. Yeah. You know, just finding new professional friends, like, that’s just really.
Amy Vaughan:
I think what I enjoy best about it, for sure. And I think that that’s what makes it easy to give it time when you’re already so busy is because you know the value of that. So you’re like one hour every other week. Yeah. If it leads to new business, why wouldn’t I? It makes me a great vendor. Why wouldn’t I? If I make a new bff.
Rhea Allen:
Let’s go.
Amy Vaughan:
You know.
Rhea Allen:
That’s the fun thing too. Like, and sometimes I have people come back or they’ll have me come back too, because, like, what we’re doing is pod swapping. Right. And it’s nice because now we can both promote each other’s show and. And it also builds. And the other cool thing, I guess the bonus thing is now we have all this amazing content that we can pull from and do. And I think that being able to have snippets of all of these things that we can put out there, little quotable moments and things, helps with social media, helps with the recognition and just having that visibility online and in person. And when I speak on stage, you know, I’ll have them download them.
Rhea Allen:
The QR code or look at the QR code to do their Podcast, and I see a spike of it, and it’s nice to hear back. When people hear the show and have wonderful comments to say. It makes me feel good.
Amy Vaughan:
It does. I agree. Yeah, it’s always kind of trippy when people like it, I heard you on this show. I listened to the whole episode. It was so good. I’m like, ah, it’s very surreal, but also really nice because, again, it’s like you. You know, I think in your show, I feel like the whole conversation, everything was so easy and relatable. You know, it makes people feel hopefully a little less alone in what they might be facing or dealing with, because we talk about just about everything on the digital power lounge.
Amy Vaughan:
Like, I don’t know that there’s many topics between mental health and women’s health and what we do as marketers that we haven’t really touched on in leadership in ways that have been really, truly vulnerable. And I just. I appreciate it so much because a lot of women are kind of working, living on an island, and don’t always have the partners that they need, you know, to kind of muddle through or get through or figure it out. You know, they feel like they have to do it all on their own. And so I think that’s where, like, community and podcasting and being a part of podcasting, community is a really great thing. So, yeah, shout out to all of you that are listening. Live listeners, by the way, you can drop questions into the chat if you have any for Rhea. But I.
Amy Vaughan:
I would say, like, I encourage you, like, step out there if you’re looking at public speaking. I think podcast guesting is a great way to just get your chops, like, to build your chops, get your muscle built up on, like, doing interviewing, answering questions, finding your talking points. And to me, because it’s more conversational, I think it all comes out more naturally once you start doing actual public speaking, in my opinion, because, no offense, all my live listeners, but I have the time. I just forgot. I get so consumed by the conversation with my person. I just am like, oh, yeah, yeah, y’ all are here listening. Just kidding. I know you are here and I love you and appreciate you, but do recommend you consider it.
Amy Vaughan:
So don’t be shy. Look around. Was it a Pod Match? That’s a good one to look at for podcasting. You don’t have to start your own podcast right away. That is an endeavor of its own. But guesting alone, great way to build relationships.
Rhea Allen:
Yeah, no, definitely. And we get a lot of people who want to be on the show. And I always say, listen, if you come on the show and you’re there just to promote yourself for, you know, an hour and just be, you know, kind of salesy the whole time, nobody wants that. And that’s. Nobody wants that either for our audience. Right. And so I always want to make sure that people give value and have something of value to give and, and share, and then, yeah, okay, we’ll. We’ll drop the stuff at the end.
Rhea Allen:
But I think if people understand that people want to listen to stories, people want to hear things that are going to be relatable to them. And, and so when people are thinking about being on a podcast or being a podcast host. Right. Think about your audience and who it is that you want to hear and resonate with you. Yeah, absolutely.
Amy Vaughan:
I agree. That’s such good advice. Yeah. 100. I think that making it useful, making it relatable, making it real, you know, is so very, very important. You’re going to see a lot more come out of that otherwise. But yeah, no, great call. All right.
Amy Vaughan:
When you look at couples in business together, what is one thing that separates those who thrive from those who maybe struggle, would you say?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, I mean, I, I would say that we’ve struggled and thrived up and down all around you. So we’ve got it either way. I think those that thrive have a support staff and team to build them, and not just the support staff that they might hire, but maybe the support around them. So one of the things that we did early on was I made a pepper shock advisory board of people who wanted to help see us succeed. And I had former executives that have retired. I had a lawyer, I had a financial planner, I had a client sit on our advisory board.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it.
Rhea Allen:
And I think that was really helpful, especially since we were kind of young at the time when we started the business. I mean, I was 25, didn’t know what I was doing right. And I, I mean, I had to fake it till I made it right. I mean, that’s part of it, but I feel like asking questions and having a mentor is super critical in being able to thrive. The other thing I did is we did a ladies mastermind group and worked with and just had other leaders in. In that ladies mastermind group. And, there’s about 10 of us. And not everybody could always show up every time, but once a month, we’d get together for a couple hours over lunch.
Rhea Allen:
You know, we paid for lunch. We didn’t charge anything. You know, all of us coming together and I think we processed a lot of issues that leaders go through. We had like the CEO of a credit union, another, a person that had worked in healthcare that got burned out on healthcare and then started her business and was, you know, coming from healthcare, being a nurse to now starting a business is completely different. So we process a lot of things. Another gal was like, she was a vet, an event planner, and wanted to go big. And so we just, we process so many things for each other and we learned from other people what they were going through and how we can incorporate that. I mean, I, I, you know, everything from employee issues to, you know, I want to.
Rhea Allen:
When we moved building spaces years ago, I needed to process, do we want to move? Is this the right decision? You know, what am I not thinking about that I should. And maybe some of the people had already been through a move before. And oh, Rhea, you got to think about this. And oh, you got to spend money on this. And oh, you got to think about that. And you didn’t think about this. I’m like, like, oh, my gosh. Right? So it was just a really good thing to lean on other people’s expertise and experiences.
Rhea Allen:
And, you know, you do have to be careful about who you take advice from. Right?
Amy Vaughan:
Sure.
Rhea Allen:
Sometimes their advice may not necessarily be 100% applicable to yours or your situation. So obviously you have to discern what advice you’re getting and how you are going to incorporate it. But having those people around you and having the support is definitely it. You can’t go at this alone. You really have to have others. And lean on other people’s expertise. I have to do one more shout out to a really dear friend of mine. We went through an emerging leaders program together through the SBA Small Business Administration.
Rhea Allen:
And she’s a, she’s a cfo, cpa. Smart, smart person. And I was like, I really want to be in her group because she does numbers and I’m not great at numbers. Like, I have a little bit of dyslexia, so numbers and I, like, I know that I need that. And she has been like such a great asset and person in my life and just, you know, lean on a friendship, but also just, she’s so smart. Cheryl is her name. And I am so glad that we met because she has just kind of acted as a pocket cfo, if you will. And I think that having those support people around you who are smarter than you in certain areas have been the secret to really being you know, thriving versus, you know, surviving.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah, no, that’s great advice. No, 100%. Like this. Never underestimate the power of your peers and peer mentorship. I think sometimes we think we have to go to people who have 10, 15 years on us, but there’s something really amazing about people who are kind of can be in the thick of it with you because that’s maybe where they were like, a half step ago, you know, or maybe you’re just a half step ahead of them and so you kind of know exactly where they’re at, what they’re going through. You know, 10 years from now, it’s kind of like giving birth. Right? We just kind of like, well, you know, it was bad, but it wasn’t that bad. Right.
Amy Vaughan:
Because then we have more kids, otherwise.
Rhea Allen:
We would, well, pay it forward. Right. And my students now, I mean, that’s what they do. They get to build an agency and pitch a real client. And I love being able to pay it forward and say, here’s what I’ve done. Here’s what I know. You know, learn from me if you want, and absorb. You’re going to get whatever you, you know, put into it.
Rhea Allen:
But definitely paying it forward and mentoring other people. I mean, I’ve done the Be Wise program for the Boise Young Professionals, and mentoring young people is. I mean, I needed that, and now I absolutely want to give it to other people when I can. For sure.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it. I love it. All right. For any of our listeners or members who are thinking about starting a business with their partner, or maybe they’re already on that journey and maybe hitting a rough patch, what’s the most important conversation you would say that they need to have?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, so many thoughts kind of go through my mind, and I think the number one thing that you have to understand is that not everybody is entrepreneurial spirit. Not everybody has that entrepreneurial drive. And, and so when you pick a partner that you’re going to go into business with, whether it’s your. Your. Your husband or your spouse or your. Any partner, you have to understand where their skill sets are and where your skill sets are and how you can come together and understand how you’re going to be able to. Because sometimes you won’t agree. You just won’t.
Rhea Allen:
No matter who you are, no matter what, not everybody agrees with everything, and that’s okay. How are you going to handle it? What’s the reaction? What’s the plan to get through something like that that you don’t agree on? How are you going to come through the other side and maybe talk about the process that you’re going to go through when you have disagreements and what does that look like? Feedback is a gift. I say, right, yeah. And we say, you know, don’t deny, defender, blame. Just say thank you when you have feedback. One of the things that I’ve learned is to ask if you can give feedback before you get it. Because that gives a moment of like, okay, she’s got something to say to me. Yeah, let me get in the right headspace.
Rhea Allen:
And. And that’s helped a lot because I used to just be like, go straight for it. Go straight for it. Tell you what I think, when I think it and how I think it. But that emotional intelligence to stop, pause, and be like, I have something I need to say, but I need to think about what they’re at and how they’re going to receive this from me. And that is something I’ve. I’ve worked on a lot. I mean, after 20 years, we don’t want to.
Rhea Allen:
We don’t want to be like the wrath of Rhea. Right. We want to have the rewards. Right. We want to be in. In a positive space. So I’ve definitely learned a lot over the years and what I would say to those who are starting a new business in, in a partnership relationship, whatever it is, have conversations around how you’re going to handle conflict and how you’re going to be able to give back to each other. And
Rhea Allen:
And sometimes you have to just take a pause and walk away.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Rhea Allen:
And that’s okay. And just notice, like, okay, things are getting heated. I need to take a break. Let’s just take a break. And. And that’s okay, you know.
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. That’s wonderful advice, Rhea. Wonderful.
Rhea Allen:
Thanks.
Amy Vaughan:
All right, got a couple. Oh, I’ve got one more question and then we’re going to go into our fun little power round, which are like our lightning round questions. And then again, live listeners, if you have any questions for race that are a little more specific to maybe what you’re dealing with or doing, we love having you here. So feel free to jump into the chat and let us know if you have questions. Looking ahead at the next chapter of your work in life, how are you thinking differently about success, balance in what you’re building together going forward, especially with this new news of this new agency.
Rhea Allen:
I know. Well, right now it’s kind of like moment by moment, day by day, just trying to, you know, meet all the new clients and everything. But fast forward from now, I think the goal that we want to establish is, or, you know, maintain and actually we’re going to be doing goals at the beginning of the year and, and kind of really laying out our vision of what we want. But some of the thoughts behind what we want is to be in a part of a place where like Tom just sold his business to us. Eventually either we’re going to be in that position where we will sell our business and, or our employees can, you know, we can go through that process if they, you know, are in a spot they want to carry forward with, with having it being employee owned or not. And, or I don’t think either one of our boys are going to meet. I don’t know what they’re. I don’t know.
Rhea Allen:
They’re 20 and about to be 18, so they’ve got some time ahead to figure that out. But I think ultimately we’re going to get into a spot where we’re not in the day to day as much as we are right now. And I’m going to focus more on the consulting, speaking, authorship kind of area of what I’m already doing just maybe at a, at a higher, you know, capacity. And I mean, I get to speak all over the world. They fly me everywhere. But I want to maybe hone in a little more on being able to be that speaker that people need for me, the content expert speaker that I am, that I am and do more of that and also, you know, finish another book and get that out in the world. And so those, so those are some of the kind of the, the sites I see in, in the future where we have the staff and the team to fully take on more of the responsibilities that Drew and I are doing now on the operations side for Drew and for me, kind of the business development, managing, running the company kind of thing, and start to peel off some of those pieces and some of those duties that each of us do to others and have them be able to be fully sustainable without just Drew and Rhea doing the things that need to get done. So that’s where I see us in, you know, the next five, 10 years.
Rhea Allen:
So that’s what we’re thinking.
Amy Vaughan:
Super exciting. I love it. That’s great. And I love that you guys are coming back to it on an annual basis. It’s so important. All right, time for a lightning round. What is the best business decision that you and Drew have made together, would you say?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, best business decision that we made together. Well, this is kind of a fun little. I’ll keep it short. We were in Northern Idaho, which is about Eight hours from where we are. Six to eight hours where we are on another project. And I got this random phone call on my phone and it was PMS Productions. So Peter Scott McGregor Productions, they called and I’m like, who is this random person calling me? Somehow we were in the toy shop buying toys for the boys. There’s a cute little locally owned toy shop up there.
Rhea Allen:
And I’m like, I’m looking at this. I’m like, okay, I’ll answer. It turns out it happened to be the production company that hired Mr. Harrison Ford himself. And we got to work on a documentary about flight and aviation because Mr. Ford is a backcountry pilot, right? And so we got to spend a week with production and there’s one of the toughest landing strips in North America is in Idaho called Wilson Barr. And so this, this whole documentary, was for the Smithsonian Wings over the Rocky Air Museum in Denver, Colorado. So the Rocky Mountains, right? Through Idaho and Colorado, right.
Rhea Allen:
And anyway, we got to work on this, this amazing production that was so cool and we had to keep it under wraps because we, you know, no one knew that Mr. Ford was in town and doing all this with us. And then, the fun little story is that we found out that he likes scotch.
Amy Vaughan:
Okay. Ah, yeah.
Rhea Allen:
And I had never had it before and. And the liquor store is closed, so I’m calling all my friends who have vacation homes in the McCall area. Right. Mountain Town Resort. And we found somebody that they. And like, can we borrow your bottle of like. It was a 15 year old bottle of McClellan. McClellan’s Scotch, I think it’s called.
Rhea Allen:
And we get it. And one of the evenings that we’re doing the dinner, you know, doing the like, night thing, well, Mr. Ford decides to pass the bottle around and we all take a swig. And I, I had never really had scotch before. I know that you don’t really, you don’t just chug it, you just kind of. It’s like a sipping thing. And oh my gosh, I had to like keep my composure because when I, when the scotch went down my throat, it like, to me it was like gasoline coming down my throat because it was too much and I, you know, took too much or whatever and oh my gosh, I had to like keep calm and. And he’s like, he’s smiling with his little smirk, you know, and he’s seeing what I’m going through and I’m like, oh my gosh.
Rhea Allen:
So that’s my first experience with Mr. Ford and Scottish and scotch.
Amy Vaughan:
You know, at least you didn’t spit it out on his face.
Rhea Allen:
Oh, I know, right? Drew was quoted in the paper, like. He was like, holy, that’s Han Solo. And they actually put the word in the paper. Sorry. It was so fun. It was so. It was just an amazing, fun experience. So I’m.
Rhea Allen:
The. The best decision that we made is taking that phone call, right?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. Random phone.
Rhea Allen:
You know, I mean, we. We get spam calls all the time, but you never know what it’s going to be. That call that comes up that you’re like, wow, this was such a cool opportunity for us to get to do and work on this and, you know, shoot the footage and audio and. And we had a Cineflex helicopter with. Because this is before drones. It was 2009, and it had a camera on it, and the helicopter pilot was like a. A former helicopter pilot in Vietnam. And he is also in Transformers.
Rhea Allen:
And so anyway, it’s just. It was so cool. Such a cool experience.
Amy Vaughan:
I was gonna say. Sounds like it was pretty surreal. That’s amazing. All right, finish the statement. The secret to our marriage, surviving entrepreneurship is.
Rhea Allen:
You know, I think the secret to surviving marriage and entrepreneurship is I think we just have a love for each other that will never go away. I love him. He loves me, and I know that. And we love each other and our kids. Right. And our family. And I think that sometimes, you know, when I do something stupid and dumb, he can forgive me. And when he does something stupid and dumb.
Rhea Allen:
I hate the word. Maybe I should say ignorant.
Amy Vaughan:
Okay.
Rhea Allen:
You know, we forgive each other.
Amy Vaughan:
To me, forget.
Rhea Allen:
Forget. Move on and carry on. And I think that our secret is that, you know, we love each other. Really?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah. When it sounds too. At its core, and I think this is important for just any relationship, platonic or otherwise. Right. Is that there’s trust and respect for each other, you know, and once that’s kind of. When that’s broken, it’s really hard to make it work, no matter what kind of relationship it is. So I love that. All right.
Amy Vaughan:
What is one boundary that you’ve set that has surprised your family, maybe in the best way?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, gosh. Boundaries are always like this. I don’t know. Do I have boundaries? Yeah, I do. I would say something like that. But I. I guess when it comes to how our kids were being raised or the things that we would, you know, want for our kids that maybe were something that, you know, some family member wouldn’t agree to or, I don’t know, whatever. Like, I don’t know, that was kind of hard to say, but I think, you know, we.
Rhea Allen:
Our kids are good kids, and I think that we kind of had to set some boundaries about what we wanted as far as for our kids, rules go and, like, how they would, you know, be able to interact and behave and be around. So, you know, when they would go to their grandparents or would they go to other people’s, like, we wanted them to be respectful and we wanted them to. To, you know, do all the things that we would do. And they were. They’re. My oldest is an Eagle Scout. The youngest is about to get his Eagle Scout. He’s so awesome.
Amy Vaughan:
That’s no small feat.
Rhea Allen:
Board of reviews and stuff. So. Yeah, that would be one thing. I think that would, you know, surprise the family. I don’t know. I. I don’t know. I struggle with it because I probably need more boundaries, to be honest.
Amy Vaughan:
It’s okay. I think we all feel that. We all feel that it is hard. It is hard. I feel you. All right, this is a fun one, because a lot of us here that are listening are working parents. And, you know, kids just kind of don’t always get it. What.
Amy Vaughan:
I mean, I know your sons are older now, but what do your sons think of you? Did their parents do it for work or maybe when they were younger? Were there any fun interpretations of that?
Rhea Allen:
Yeah, I mean, so we do video production and advertising, you know, full service advertising. But I think that they were most seeing us doing video because the. All the gear and equipment they had to load out, you know, help us load up and load out right here. So I think that that’s what they thought we did the most with cameras and video. Not necessarily seeing the other side of, like, the strategy and the planning and the, you know, the marketing audits that we do that was not as visible to them. So I think that they just thought that we, you know, mostly made commercials or something like that. There was a time, so we kind of spoiled my youngest son. We did a commercial with Santa Claus and Mrs.
Rhea Allen:
Claus. It was the big Ford pickup, 150 red, beautiful sleigh. We turned it into a sleigh, and it was a car commercial. And Mr. And Mrs. Claus were there, and it was a fundraiser or food drive. And so we were having my son load the truck up with food with Mr. And Mrs.
Rhea Allen:
Claus. Well, while we were busy getting the set, you know, the scene set up, Mr. And Mrs. Claus were kind of entertaining and keeping my kid, and he was pretty little. You know, they were coloring with them and just keeping him entertained. Of course it was Mr. And Mrs. Santa Claus.
Rhea Allen:
Of course. He felt so special, and he was so convinced, and so, like, just believed because they knew his name and they, you know, talked to him and knew all the things about him. Right. And it took a really long time for him later in life to not or just to let me. I don’t want to spoil this for anybody, but just to get past that, you know, what happens with parents, and just. I’ll never forget. You lied.
Amy Vaughan:
You lied. The betRheaal. How fun is that?
Rhea Allen:
Oh, my God. The older brother told little brother, and, you know, of course, so upset.
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, my gosh.
Rhea Allen:
Because, like, it. It took, you know, a few more years. Then, like, the older brother figured it out, but the younger brother was, like, so convinced. Right?
Amy Vaughan:
Oh, yeah.
Rhea Allen:
Shelf thing, right?
Amy Vaughan:
Yeah.
Rhea Allen:
And so Charlie was the elf’s name. So they. They would, like, go up to Charlie and say, sorry, Charlie.
Amy Vaughan:
I love it anyway. I love it. Yeah. No, I think that is part of what we do, I think, because there’s sometimes tangible things. I mean, my daughter’s probably too young to remember, but I took her on set a couple times for, you know, photo shoots and commercials and just letting them see behind the scenes, you know, and kind of know, like, that’s really cool, because you’re right. When it’s intangible and it’s like, oh, hey, kids, look at this amazing PowerPoint slide and content strategy. They’re like, huh? You what? I mean, even adults are like, what the hell? Like my parents, they don’t even know.
Rhea Allen:
Right? Yeah, yeah. You’d be surprised. What you remember, my. My mom in college used to. She worked at. Or she did stuff with the PBS station. I remember Big Bird. And I was really little, but, you know, Sesame Street was a big thing, and they had, like, this fundraiser thing, and I was probably three maybe, at least that’s kind of the timing.
Rhea Allen:
But I remember Big Bird. Like, I remember that, and I remember Switcher, and, you know, fast forward. I worked in the news, and I, you know, worked on a Switcher. So, I mean, you. You’d be surprised. Like, what? What kids?
Amy Vaughan:
What stays? Yeah, what stays? I love that, dude. I just realized I had this moment. I was like, oh, my God, Big Bird. I would be fangirling, even as an adult. I’m like, oh, does that mean big birds might hear me out? I don’t know. I think I just need to talk to my daughter about this.
Rhea Allen:
I know Sesame street was a big part of my life, for sure.
Amy Vaughan:
What a cool experience. Well, Rhea, thank you so much for bringing such you know, amazing authentic energy as you always do, and some great wisdom to the conversation. You’ve definitely given our community permission to do something that we don’t talk about enough, which is be honest about the challenges of having, owning, sustaining a thriving business without sacrificing the relationship and the life we’re trying to build, because you’re doing both of those simultaneously. So if any of you have been inspired by Rhea’s journey, I encourage you to check out the Marketing Expedition podcast. Fantastic resource. You can also connect with Rhea on LinkedIn to stay in the loop with Pepper Shack Media’s work. And for anyone who is watching and or listening to learn what Together Digital is all about, again, check out the website. We’re all about creating real conversations with women who are doing amazing things like Rhea and are willing to be honest about them so that the rest of us can, you know, work together and figure it out.
Amy Vaughan:
So, Rhea, you’re just like a shining light for exactly what, like the Together Digital community is about. You’re full of women who are supportive and encouraging and enthusiastic. We love what we do and we aren’t gatekeepers about it. So I definitely loved having you on the show. I know lots of our members will be tuning in. That’s all we’ve got for you today, folks. We hope you enjoy the rest of your Friday. Until then, keep asking, keep giving and keep growing.
Amy Vaughan:
Take care, everyone. Thank you.
