How to Intentionally Create A Brand (And Life!) in Alignment (with Stephanie Riel)

Angela Frank: 00:00:00

Today on the podcast we have Stephanie Riel, who is a 14 year entrepreneur, investor, speaker and branding consultant to six and seven figure businesses turned holistic business mentor, healer and energetics guide. She is a former marketing agency owner and branding expert who took her life from burnout to bliss. She's now passionate about helping others.

Tap into their intuition, refresh their energy and rebrand your life or business step. Stephanie, welcome to the podcast.

Stephanie Riel: 00:00:29

Thank you. It's so good to be here.

Angela Frank: 00:00:31

I'm very excited for our chat today. You're going to be going over how to intentionally create a business brand and life in alignment. I think this is going to be a super great episode.

Stephanie Riel: 00:00:42

I am too. And it's something that, you know, so many of us don't even like, think about when we start a business.

I mean, I started my first business at 22, so I wasn't thinking about a lot of things about business at the time. Learned a lot of it in trial and error. Um, but yeah, I'm so excited to be here.

Angela Frank: 00:00:58

I relate to that. I also started my first business at 22, so.

Stephanie Riel: 00:01:02

Oh yeah.

Angela Frank: 00:01:05

Before we get started, can you share a little bit about your own journey and what inspired you to ultimately become a holistic business mentor?

Stephanie Riel: 00:01:12

Yeah, well, you know, I think that journey that I went on is what inspired me because starting at 22, I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I had like an entrepreneurial mindset. I didn't really have a lot of intention behind it. I just knew I wanted to start a business.

And what I have found time and time again in my life is when we don't start with the right intention or the right vision, we end up creating something that oftentimes isn't what we really want and doesn't really serve us in our lives or, you know, businesses or friendships or whatever that might be. And so I share all of this with now, looking backwards, which hindsight is always so clear.

But at 22, I didn't think about the kind of lifestyle I wanted or the kind of business I really wanted to create.

I just started an LLC and started consulting and lived the the side hustle life for nine years and left corporate America, left my job that I was working during the day and working on my business and my clients on nights and weekends and ventured into a whole business, started a whole marketing agency, had a lot of success, but inside I was so unfulfilled all the time.

And so I'm sure we'll get more into it throughout today because so much of that intention that I missed first at 22 and then again at really at 31, 32 years old. Ten years later, when I, when I really started taking the business full time, full focus, I still hadn't, I hadn't met a mentor yet.

I had some business coaches, but I hadn't had a business coach yet tell me to build with the end in mind. And I was like, wait a minute, I haven't done that before.

And so, but because of that and because of that misalignment for the business, I ended up creating a life that was really out of alignment. I wasn't in the right path. I wasn't living my life to my fullest. It was great. We were winning awards.

We're crushing it for clients across the country when it helping them win and expand in some of the most challenging times in business. But inside, it felt so unfulfilling and it felt like something was really off.

So I'm really passionate about helping the person I was before get out of burnout, get out of stress, find clarity, and truly find their bliss. And so that's what led me on this journey, where I am now.

Angela Frank: 00:03:35

Yeah, I love that this podcast is really focused on helping bootstrapped entrepreneurs build businesses that they run right. You own your business, your business doesn't own you. And so I love what you're saying about the business that you had built.

It was winning awards, and by all means and metrics, you were very successful. But something still fell off. And I think that there's a lot of power in recognizing that.

So with that in mind, how can we take a step back and start creating an intentional brand?

Either from the start you're just starting your business, or somebody who is maybe feeling like they are off their alignment, how can they start bringing that intentionality into their business?

Stephanie Riel: 00:04:19

I love this question so much because we often think of in a business, and whether you're just starting now or if you've been in business for a while, you've probably thought about your mission, your vision, the values for the business or the brand, like, or what makes you different, like the why behind why you start the business. So many of us have that story. Regardless of industry, regardless of what you, what you do or how you serve, we have that.

But I often find maybe we haven't done it for ourselves. The intentional piece is not only having the values for the business and the brand, but like, taking a step back from it.

Because we can easily build businesses, find success, but if we don't know what our core why is and what, what Our life that we want to lead is we can really lose our way and end up building something that might just follow what somebody else wants to do or what somebody else is modeling. And so the first step to building that intentional business is really to be internal with ourselves. Like, why am I even doing this?

What do I want out of it? And then what alongside of a business? If you're brand new, you can do this. At the same time, you're building the business and the vision.

But even if you're revisiting it, because I always say our businesses are like humans, we're meant to evolve, the business evolves too. So you can always check in and say, does this really support the life that I want? And evaluate from there. So it becomes. It's an internal job, really?

Angela Frank: 00:05:44

Absolutely. I feel like a lot of times you can lose sight of that core guidepost that maybe you have set.

How can you grow your business holistically when you're in this high growth or this scale mode where you feel like you, you really have to be putting so much time into the business because things are working, but you still want to honor your original intention of why you started it.

Stephanie Riel: 00:06:07

It is so important in those seasons. And I think it's to remember first and foremost that it's a season like, yes, our.

There's going to be seasons of life that require more from us, seasons of our business that require more. If you are in a heavy scale, heavy growth mode for your business, it's probably going to require more of you. You might not be as balanced.

I think balance is kind of a unfair expectation anyway. I don't think that anything's really ever in balance. I think it's. We're always striving towards feeling more balanced and centered.

What I found through my journey and what I help my clients with a lot now is how do we support ourselves and our nervous systems during these, these seasons? Because the seasons are going to happen, right? We're going to have seasons of growth, expansion, but they can be very taxing on our bodies too.

And so carving out some time and making that non negotiable, whether it's the first few minutes of your day before you look at your phone, taking a couple of gentle breaths for yourself, you can start really small.

But having some different core practices where you're taking care of you because you can't take care of business if you're not taking care of you first.

Angela Frank: 00:07:09

Absolutely. And you mentioned doing practices that help to regulate your nervous system and help to combat the stress that you Feel during a season of growth.

What are some of the things you mentioned? Breathing exercises or taking a few breaths in the morning?

What are some other things that you recommend to your clients when they are dealing with stress?

Stephanie Riel: 00:07:27

I always love to recommend starting small so because whenever we're starting a new habit, we want to be able to work with the way that our neurochemistry works and our brains to help us feel like we're achieving a result.

It's why on a checklist, you might check off the thing that's the quote, unquote easiest or least time consuming first, so you get that little hit of dopamine. Same thing with these little tactics. So the thing that I love about a lot of the things that I'm going to share, many of them are free.

I have free resources that you can access, that I'm sure will link in all the links and all the things. But I have a YouTube channel that has some of these. But there are gentle breaths that you can access. There's different apps that you can access.

There's all kinds of different resources and things that you can access for free on YouTube.

But the one that I love that usually is accessible for anybody, it doesn't cost any money, is standing outside in the earth, either the ground or the grass or the dirt or rocks or whatever you have available to you, barefoot for even a minute a day and just taking gentle breaths or taking a walk in nature for 10, 15, 20 minutes, doing some gentle breath work where it's in through the nose, holding for four seconds and then letting it go for seven seconds.

Because that even that essence of where we're breathing in and then breathing out, and we're taking a longer time to breathe out, that signals to our bodies that because our brain and our nervous system are always connected and our brain and our gut, so our brain is telling our gut through the nervous system if it's safe or not. So that's going to change how your digestion is, how your sleep is. All these things, it's all connected through our vagal nerve.

But when we're able to breathe and take a longer exhale, that literally signals to our body that we're safe. And it can lower stress, it can lower the nervous system response in your body. So it brings you to more of a centered state.

So little shifts like that, which don't cost anything, it's just a breath. And doing it in an intentional way can really signal to your body and help you. So creating some kind of a practice for that.

Meditation is something that's been super helpful to me, and I do some breath work with meditation. And the thing that I also love, especially if you're a bootstrapped entrepreneur, you're new, you're in growth mode.

One of my clients, we were in a session the other day, and we did one of the breathing techniques for 30 seconds. 30 seconds. And it changed her entire state. She was able to come out of a stress state, come back into a rest state, and really find a sense of ease.

Angela Frank: 00:10:11

I love that. I think that the example that you just shared shows that you have the ability to help control your own nervous system and regulate your own emotions.

And I love that you point out that there are so many fast and free options to do that, Especially if somebody is in a high growth mode or, you know, they feel like they don't have time. Everybody has 30 seconds to breathe or to stand outside barefoot and really just enjoy being present for like a minute or less.

Stephanie Riel: 00:10:45

Yeah, well.

And I think the more that we get to experience that presence, the more we can allow ourselves to have more of it, too, because it's really easy to just be on our phone and be caught up in the quote unquote drama of the business. Right? Like the stress, the uneasiness. And that can feel really comforting to a lot of us, especially. There's so many stressors around all the time.

But I think if we can take even 30 seconds to breathe or stand in the grass, it doesn't need to be. I mean, I. When I first started, I did like a 30 seconds to a minute. I stand in the grass for at least 10 minutes a day.

Sometimes I just go lay in the grass. I have grass in my yard, so I literally just go lay in the grass. Um, I know that that's not attainable for everyone, though.

And so that's the biggest thing we can remember that it. We can take 30 seconds and not bring our phone with us and just take a couple deep breaths. That's beautiful.

Angela Frank: 00:11:39

I love it. I actually was in a really busy period of my life last fall, and I started doing just like putting my phone down for a couple second.

Like, you know, normally you would have it out, like when you're taking a quick break or something.

And I tried just putting it away, and it led to this whole new ritual that I have now where every Friday after work, I do nothing all the way through the end of day Saturday. I call it my do nothing day. So it's half day Friday and most of the day Saturday. And I don't do any phone Social media, that sort of thing.

And that has been insanely good for my mental health.

I really resonate with what you said about how you can feel like really good, you think you feel really good like being busy and constantly checking and being online. But the minute that I started to step back I was like, whoa, I actually don't feel good when I do that.

And so that's become a non negotiable part of my routine.

And even if I am very busy one weekend, I'll at least try to take a half a day on either Friday after work or a half a day morning or evening on Saturday and really try to set that time aside and just do nothing, like lay around, take a nap, you know, that sort of thing.

Stephanie Riel: 00:12:58

Oh, I just love that. And I think it's, it's so interesting to see we are meant to change as humans.

And there was a time of my life where I wouldn't even use do not disturb mode because I couldn't be away from my notifications.

Granted, I had a team of eight all over the country, clients all over the country at the time and I would always tell them that there was no such thing as a marketing emergency because we weren't surgeon, you know, we're not in an er, we're not saving lives and I still was allowing all of the business to consume my life. And there's a lot of reasons that were happening that we don't have to go into today. I mean we can, but we don't have to.

The point I'm making with this share is I now spend most of my days on do not Disturb. I like have a phone. I had a phone date with a friend the other day and I totally forgot and my phone was on do not disturb and they're like testing.

Hello, we know you're on dnd. Please undo it so that we can talk like we're supposed to. And I'm just over here wondering, oh weird, why haven't they called yet?

And I'm like, oh, I'm probably still on dnd but two years ago that wasn't me.

But I think like you were saying having that little break from it, your do nothing time or whatever it is, like that's just your time for you because like the business is still going to be there tomorrow and I think, I know it's challenging is if you're in that growth season and you know, if you are bootstrapping and you're doing it really savvy and you're probably wearing a lot of hats you're like, oh my gosh, you're probably very triggered right now of, how could I? She doesn't like, we can't really take a time off. 5 minutes.

Give yourself 5 minutes and see how you feel because you might find that you are maybe really comfortable and used to the chaos that the business or the constant notifications on your phone or your email inbox or whatever it is provides you instead of just being able to just be present for yourself and with yourself for a few minutes.

Angela Frank: 00:14:50

Yeah, I love that. I think the other piece of this that I really like is the way that you show up for others.

I know we haven't talked about it much in this episode yet, but I had worked at one point for a prominent YouTuber who was known to be like, always go, go, go. They work literally nonstop, like 20 hours a day until they had a mental breakdown and then needed to take a day off every 10 days.

They say that they do that and that actually created a really negative team environment. That people were really happy to be working there for this person, but they didn't really enjoy that part of it and how this person treated them.

And so I think that taking the time for yourself not only serves you and your business, but it serves the other people in your life that you have to continue to show up for.

Stephanie Riel: 00:15:45

Absolutely. And if you are listening and you have a team, this is one thing I learned from having a team. And I don't, I don't have any human children yet.

I have some for kids. But the team picks up on your actions more than your words.

So you know, in that moment of like saying, oh, there are no marketing emergencies, using my own example, but I was treating everything in his emergency, that created a lot of a very stress filled environment. Because our energy, how we show up, does affect the people around us. Even if we're on a zoom right.

We're having a conversation right now that affects, that affects thing, it affects the work product, it affects the culture, it affects a lot of things.

And so I think even just what you said before of remembering that we're in control of it, that we get to, we can take some time and space for ourselves, we can take a few moments to just breathe and just be away from the devices. Because there's a lot of things in the devices that even just signal to our brain to stay awake. It's not safe to sleep. The blue light, for example.

And so if you're finding yourself waking up in the middle of the night, say around 3 or 4 o'clock, in the morning could be related to stress and your screen time, but there's all these things that when we start to loosen the grip with it a little bit, it's not that, not that bad. Kind of like a hard, difficult conversation. Um, I just had a difficult conversation right before this actually, and I was so scared about it.

And then the moment that we started to have the conversation, you know, it's never as bad as we think it's going to be in our head. Kind of the same thing with giving yourself some space from your phone.

Angela Frank: 00:17:21

Yeah, absolutely. I was telling a friend how I do the do nothing day and they're like, you don't feel like you're going to miss anything on social media.

This person is also building her business and I'm like, no, I don't think I'm going to miss anything during the day that I take from myself. It's, it's proven to be okay at this far. I don't think it's going to change. So. I love what you were saying.

Stephanie Riel: 00:17:41

Yeah, well, we have to pull back to be able to push forward too. So we need those times of rest to be able to build the best business and life that we can.

Angela Frank: 00:17:48

Yeah, I think the, there's no world that you need to be working constantly. You're not giving yourself time to reflect and rest and actually make sure that you're making the right decisions for yourself and your business.

Stephanie Riel: 00:18:01

Exactly. I agree.

Angela Frank: 00:18:02

Well, Stephanie, I really enjoyed our conversation today. What's next for you?

Stephanie Riel: 00:18:08

Well, I am currently prepping to take a group of high achieving female entrepreneurs to Costa Rica for a retreat in September. So it'll be business strategy. We'll be talking about business.

I'm bringing one of my business besties with me who's also been an amazing sales and strategy coach to me over the years.

And I'm going to be handling all the rest and nervous system regulation modalities of getting us connected to nature and taking care of our bodies and nourishing ourselves mixed with some business strategy. So that's big on my list and I am really excited about it.

And some other one on one programs that I'm getting ready to launch to help more entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs build from a really aligned and intentional place that doesn't sacrifice their personal lives and gets them back into their bliss if they've lost it.

Angela Frank: 00:18:59

Amazing. And if anybody's interested in attending the retreat in Costa Rica or just keeping up with you, where is the best place for them to do that?

Stephanie Riel: 00:19:07

I am most active on Instagram and I've been posting a lot about the retreat and all the other things that are going on both in the US I'm based in Arizona. I do events and retreats here. I'll be doing sound events all over the country later this year too.

So you'll be able to see all of that on Instagram at iamstephanirel or on my website@stephanireel.com awesome.

Angela Frank: 00:19:30

And everything that you just mentioned. We'll have this linked for you in the show notes. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us today.

Stephanie Riel: 00:19:37

Thank you.

So great to be here and I hope, I hope everybody listening just takes a moment of pause for yourself in the next couple of days and just see how it feels and DM me on Instagram and tell me what you think.

Angela Frank: 00:19:48

I love it. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Growth Pod. If you did, please leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform.

Thank you so much for listening and I look forward to seeing you in the next one.