Episode 44: How Curiosity Built a Global Creative Agency | Aleks Lason of Chrillex
Aleks Lason is the co-founder and COO of Chrillex, a creative agency specializing in branded content that’s worked with brands like Puma, Under Armour, Ikea, and Kylie Cosmetics. She and her husband Chris started the company in Toronto, expanded to Los Angeles, and now lead teams across North America. Along the way, they’ve built a reputation for blending bold creative ideas with sharp marketing strategy, long before social media advertising became the norm. Aleks shares her journey from Poland to Canada, the leap from media arts student to creative entrepreneur, and how curiosity and risk-taking shaped her career. She opens up about building a business with her partner, navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, and why defining success on your own terms is the most powerful choice you can make.
“I don’t think I would have discovered who I was if I hadn’t started this company. I used to always walk around saying ‘I want to be this Boss Ass Bitch, taking care of business’ and I think this company gave me that confidence.”
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Chris Ray
Chrilleks
Berlin
Webfest Berlin
Start with Why - book
Sheridan College
Canada
Poland
Canadian Tire
Shark Tank
Vegas
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
Los Angeles
Puma
Mike Blabac
Germany
Ikea
DC Shoes
Penny Skateboards
Gym Shark
Under Armor
Hippeas
Santa Monica Pier
Thousand helmet company
Shopify
Kylie Cosmetics
Huntington Beach
Long Beach
Toronto
British Columbia
New York
Montreal
NPR
KPCC
Sara Blakely
Jen Rubio
Away
Reese Witherspoon -
Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters
00:00 Meet Aleks Lason
04:10 From Poland to Canada: Early Years
08:25 Discovering a Passion for Storytelling and Media Arts
12:15 How Aleks and Chris Met and Started Chrillex
17:20 Early Creative Wins and Global Brand Collaborations
21:45 The Leap from Side Projects to Full-Time Business
26:09 Why Risk-Taking Leads to Growth
27:53 The Role of Curiosity in Long-Term Success
34:10 Scaling Across North America
39:20 Lessons from Working with High-Profile Brands
44:30 Balancing Business and Partnership
50:40 Overcoming Challenges and Refocusing on Goals
56:15 Discovering Her Own Power Through Entrepreneurship
01:03:18 “I’m Exactly Who I’m Supposed to Be”
01:06:50 What’s Next for Aleks Lason and Chrillex
I don't think I would've discovered who I was if I didn't start this company. I used to always walk around saying, I wanna be this boss ass bitch taking care of business. And I think that this company gave me that confidence.
That's Aleks Lason and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast where I invite my favorite humans, the awesome, the up to something and the extraordinary to come and share their story. I hope that you'll be left, entertained, inspired, and moved to take action towards living your most powerful life.
Alex is a badass entrepreneur. She co-founded curlx, a creative agency that specializes in brand content with her husband, Chris. Eight years ago. They have offices in Toronto where they started, and now LA two with teams across North America. On this episode, Alex shares her journey from Poland to Canada to la.
She talks about what it's like being part of a creative power couple how taking risks and being curious is everything that matters, and how she discovered her own power and confidence in the middle of it all.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies podcast. Thank you for having me. Of course, I was connected to you through the amazing and magical Chris Ray. Yeah. Who has a huge part in our lives. Yeah. I can't wait to hear about it. So let's introduce yourself and
tell everybody what you're up to.
So my name is Aleks Lassen. I own a creative agency with my husband. We specialize in brand content, it's called Acrylics. So what we do at Acrylics is we're able to take all kinds of. All of your content needs under one umbrella, so we're able to do photo video. We've just announced that we're able to do copy content.
We also come in as production support because we have such a lar large roster of photographers, videographers, editors, everything. So Jordan, you wanna get on that roster. And so we always say we're like your marketing department secret weapon. Yeah.
Which I like because I'm a big fan of anything espionage related, so that automatically gets me.
But as a business owner, when I hear that I can outsource everything as a bundle. Yeah. That makes me really happy.
When we first started we always just coined ourselves as a video production company. And started realizing that we were actually hurting ourselves by doing that. And then. We were limiting to the resources that we had.
So it was really cool that now we're able to do this and because we're so obsessed with content and we're surrounded by all these creatives, we were like, why won't we just have people write blogs for our clients? We can make that an offer. And right now a lot of companies, for some reason are just not hiring marketing departments.
At first. But it's so important. Yes. What are you if you don't have a marketing department? So that's where we sneak our way in a little bit until they get settled.
No, 100%. It's with powerful ladies being in year one sill of our second phase of what we are. Having, finding the right fit for marketing and our sales story has been the hardest thing.
Yeah. And granted, part of it is my fault because our budget is like small to zero. And how do you make that all happen? But we have so many amazing stories and when people ask me what are we up to? And I list it all out. They're like, holy shit. Like, why don't I know this? I'm like you don't know this because I don't have a marketing team right now.
Yeah. And it's so frustrating and it like I know right now that our growth is being it's being stopped because I'm not putting enough effort into marketing. Yeah. 'cause you're doing everything.
I'm doing everything. I totally understand that. And a lot of the new business owners that we work with, we see that too.
Yeah. And Chris and I coming from. Such a small family run business. We absolutely get that. So we always try to do a little bit more above and beyond for our clients because we know what you're going through. We get it. We were there eight years ago. Yeah. So yeah, it, that's how it becomes more of a family.
All of our clients become fast friends. Yeah. Because of the amount of respect and family support we give from our end. So I get that.
Yes. And I love that you mentioned that your clients become friends quickly. All of them
do. Yeah. Yeah. I love executive coaching. I told you I'm all about it.
Yes. We both Chris and I have coaches from the same agency and they work together to attack us from both ends, and I love it. But it was, it's been one of the most uncomfortable and challenging things I've ever had to do in my career as the CEO. But I think, because of it. It's tripled our business in eight months.
Yeah. It's crazy what coaching can do. It's,
I don't know why everyone doesn't have one. You don't even need to know what you're up to yet. To get a coach. Yeah. And that's, I honestly, I have a few people that don't know what they wanna do. They just know they want something else.
Yeah. And so that's super fun. 'Cause then you're doing all the. All the inside deep work, like helping people figure out who they are. Yeah. I'm working on an ebook right now. Maybe it'll become a course. You are so cool. Yeah.
An ebook. I heard writing books is the hardest thing and you just keep throwing hard stuff on your
plate.
Part of it's because I have to for the trademark that like I'm trying to do it all at once. And like an ebook doesn't need to be big, like technically an ebook can, don't downgrade it. Coach just saying it can be like a five page thing. This is me breaking it down so I can not have a meltdown and get it done.
Yeah. But I'm, what I'm working on is called how to figure out what you wanna Do with Your Life.
Yeah.
Because it is the number one question that people are asking me. How do I know? Yeah. I'm like, Ooh, that's good. Let's talk about it.
Yeah. Do you deal with people who already know what they wanna do, but Yes.
Sometimes they need help to be better.
Yeah. Like I deal with people in life, business, or money. I have some clients that have a business and they wanna take to the next level, hire the first employee hire, stop, do less work and make more money, right? Everybody. And I have some people who are just like, I need to get my shit together.
Let's take this on. I'm like, okay, who doesn't? Yeah. Yes. God, hiring employees is such a whole other planet. Yeah. It's insane.
Yes. It can be. And it can be like the most powerful, liberating thing, right? We're going
through that phase right now too, where we have. Like a list of over a hundred freelancers that we work with worldwide.
And now I am having to let go of this controlling issue that I have that has clearly shown in my coaching sessions. And I, it's so hard to have somebody else walk in. And understand mine and Chris's dynamic. 'cause sometimes we don't even have to speak to each other for sure. And we know where we're, we know exactly what needs to be done.
And delegating work. And I'm starting to notice that on my sets too. I'm able to step back and be like, okay, I don't need to be frustrated about this just 'cause it's not done this way. It's okay, I didn't give the instructions properly here. And yeah. It's letting go of that.
And then there's the whole factor of, beating ourselves up. It's been eight years. We've had maybe three full-time employees that kind of had rotated through that weren't weren't successful for us. And knowing that it's not always gonna be that situation. Yeah.
You weren't ready, then you're gonna, you're ready now you have all your ducks in order and even if you don't, you can figure it out. Yes. Working on that right now. I love
it. I just came back from Berlin where powerful lady is partnered with Web Fest Berlin. Oh, you're so cool. And it came up in every panel and every workshop, you know how you have directors and screenwriters and producers and they're like, how do I give up control?
And I was like, so it's not just me. It's not just you. Oh, great. It was, it. I could not believe how it came up over and over again. Yeah. And so finally we just stopped and started talking about it. And for me I was like, if you guys want my advice, it comes down to like your why. How do you get people hire you or people wanna work for you because they wanna, they want to work for you.
Not the thing that you're making necessarily. So how do you sell them on you? How do you sell them on your why? If people can get your why and what you really care about, it doesn't matter what you're making. I wanna get back to you because you're the guest. So how did you guys meet? How did you start this business?
Like where
does it begin for you? We both went to college. Media arts at Sheridan College back home in Canada. And we ended up being or we ended up being in the same section of the program and then with that section, you traveled to all your classes together the first semester.
Yeah. And out of all classes in the world, Chris ended up, Chris and I ended up in audio class and he, yeah, he just walked in and I remember looking at him being like, I, knowing that there's something really special about him and one of those moments where you're like. God, I love this guy without even knowing.
It was the most weirdest interaction, but I ignored it for a little bit. And we became fast friends. We ended up working on a production together. And at that time when we were working on that production, I just knew I have to be with the guy. And we made it happen.
And we had to keep it a bit of a secret from everybody. We couldn't tell our program because our professors told us that the first day when we had all 80 of us from the program in one room, we were told that, don't date, don't sleep around with anybody in the program because it's bad news.
It never works out. You're, it's gonna fail. It just starts drama every, we don't need that here. We're here to focus on careers, all that stuff. So we didn't tell anybody, but then it eventually started getting more clear that Chris and I had something special going on the side. And it, we had this two really first projects that we worked on together.
One of them was a Bolex film. We had to record I don't even remember what, but between Chris's shooting and my understanding of lighting and exposure, because I came from traditional photography, black and white photography. Our film was the best exposed, the best shot. And everyone was like, who are these guys?
And then another one was, we had this silly assignment of someone having to go through like the college entrance doors. Like you had to tell a story from waking up to going through the doors. And Chris and I both thought, let's do an orange and just have this orange rolling into class and all that. It was ridiculous, but it did very well.
So since we met, we were put in a position of partnership right away. And then, we ended up, and it was great because I've been in relationships that didn't understand what I do or what I want to do, and it's been very difficult. But when you're in a relationship with somebody who understands creativity and understands, the film industry and at the time we were both very driven to go into the union and work on film sets and we were both wanting to be in the camera department. So we both really understood. And it wasn't until we started actually working in the real world that Chris and I were like, why is this the way it is? We can make it so much easier. He was working for a commercial agency.
I was working for a TV station at the time sorry. Doing like TV series and we were both so miserable. And he's we should just start our own thing. And I was like, okay, if you want to start our own thing. I am totally down, but it's gotta be legit. I don't wanna just have a Facebook page up.
Like we have to have a plan, we have to have it figured out. And yeah. Next week we were at the lawyers setting up our company. Yeah. And then having to like, seriously talk about how I'm in debt. And I can't fully jump on this until that. And showing him my bank statements and him showing me his and what's this gonna look like? We're both camera people, that's not gonna work out. And it was very clear that Chris has an eye for the camera, creative stuff. Things that I couldn't do, but I could support and understand, which was great. And a couple months before grad, a couple months actually after graduating, I went to Europe with my documentary professor who only barely made me pass through the program.
All of a sudden hands me a flight ticket to go to Poland with him on this huge production and coordinate it all for him. 'cause I come from Poland. I flew in, in the language, so I had to set everything up for them and just be their boots on the ground. And I came back falling in love with this production world.
And that's how I ended up in the TVs world. And yeah. So when, by the time Chris said that I already knew we, I was gonna most likely run the business. And then, yeah. First day when I officially put in my very last check from that terrible company I worked for. $650 went into this tiny little in incorporation company called Acrylics.
And we were like, all right, $650 we need to buy a website. So it was good. It was just, I remember sitting in his parents' basement and thinking to myself, God, I can't wait until we have a nice office. Like I was worrying about the dumbest stuff. And not thinking, we gotta push this thing forward.
But we ended up in a year getting one of the biggest corporate clients. We could have been Canada 114 videos, French and English in six weeks of development, actually shooting and post-production and delivery. How did that happen? How did you land that client? Canadian Tire, which is like an equivalent of Walmart and another tire company out here in the us.
It was you can buy sheets, but you can also buy tires in the same store. Yeah. It's very confusing, but it works. I get it. They had their internal team and they loved me and wanted me to work for them, and I showed up at the meeting that they were gonna offer me the job.
And I was like, instead of giving me the job, what if you hired my company? And that way it just like totally turned their minds. While they were building their marketing department, they had me running all of their, outside productions. Like I ended up having to produce a sort of like a Shark tank version of a show for them in Vegas for like auto parts.
And then we were in. Like launching new stores, working with Olympic athletes. Like it was just insane for the first year. And then they developed this whole new other department that had their catalog that you would get mailed to you all the time actually on their website. And what they wanted to do was have this main video, which was like a thought starter.
Throughout the video there would be these little plus buttons that you could click. Anytime a product was mentioned, you go to that product, video explains the product, how do you use it, what recipes, here's some advice, here's a story about a person who uses this product. So it was just this like line of lines.
And it was incredible. What like, and that's where Chris and I were like, damn, branded content is amazing. Like you can just keep breaking into it. And I remember no one really understanding, everyone thought, you went to film school, you should be in the union. And what happened to that? And we were just like, no guys, this is like really serious.
This is big. Yeah. And yeah, it took about two years before people realized.
There's so much power in any short form content today. Yeah. And short form's excessive, because that can be up to 20 minutes and who we have a big debate on this podcast about how long my episodes are, and I'm like, listen, I can't make people talk less and I want, if I wanna know the questions and we wanna keep going we're gonna make it long.
Yeah. Because guess what, the fastest growing podcast segment is long form podcasting.
Yeah.
So deal with it, Jordan. But
sorry, Jordan.
Yeah.
I talk a lot. So you're gonna be editing four hours.
Yeah. But no, like it's, there's so much power in visual storytelling Yeah. And small digestible amounts that keep you click clicking through. You might end spending four hours on a random website because of one minute videos. Yeah.
Chris and I are now trying to push more of the three, five second content. Onto our clients because it's because now with the Instagram not showing you things in the right order anymore, you have to come up with ways to stick out.
And that was our way. And Chris is, so he sees that stuff like nobody else does. Like he's able to look at a product and be like, oh, I know how people are gonna be obsessed with this. And on top of that, people are sitting there watching it loop because they're like, how did they do that?
And it just it goes. And we've seen that so many times it's been working for our clients that we're so excited to be pushing that out now too.
So a lot of people who see something that doesn't work and they're frustrated with their day jobs, their next thought is not, we need to do this ourselves.
It's my thought. Yeah. It's your thought. Like, how did anyone think you guys were insane? Besides everyone? Besides not going to the union, but were people like, what are you doing? Why are you even bothering starting a business? Like just make films.
Yeah. I think everybody thought it was a joke. And then my, I mean my dad who's super supportive European father. He was just like, oh yeah, my daughter has a business. Little does he know we're not doing anything. We're just like stressing all day. But he was just very, I think he's finally he's not someone who will tell me what to do, so he's oh, she finally figured it out.
But everybody else, 'cause I was like, oh, I wanna be a teacher. Oh, I wanna be a photographer. I wanna get into journalism. Like in, in high school, I was just like changing my mind every two months. And now he, when I told him we're gonna start our company, and I was starting out with Chris, he was like, there she goes.
There's the real Alex. But honestly, I think our friends thought it was cute. Yeah. I think everyone we went to school with thought it's a joke. Our teachers didn't really take it seriously because we weren't, 'cause everybody who did try to start our business, like they tried to make movie production companies.
And we came off as a production company, but we were filming like. Corporate videos and all the stuff that was showing up on Facebook and YouTube. And we kept going into meetings and pushing people, telling them, don't spend your money on TV ads. Spend it on Facebook ads. Really push this here.
And they just wouldn't, this was eight years ago, like Instagram wasn't even around yet. It didn't come into our, I think once Instagram came in our business fully yeah, flourished. People got it. Yeah. But when it was just Facebook and YouTube, it was really hard to get everyone to see that idea.
But yeah, I think my mom was worried because, I got offered this beautiful job with a great paycheck on this huge Canadian company with benefits and everything. And my mom's very traditional, so she was like, I think you should take it at least for a year or two and figure out what you really want.
Pay off debt, all this stuff. And I remember just battling it so hard that I was like, no, this is, I gotta do this. And my dad says, you have till September. So it. It was August when I got offered the job and he goes, you have September until next year to make this work. If you don't, I'm gonna start charging you rent.
And it was his way of being like, get outta here kid. Yeah. And it ha. So we ended up doing that and then it worked. It was working. And I think he forgot about having to pay rent because we weren't making very good money. But it was like, I think he forgotten. He just saw that I wasn't just goofing around.
Yeah. And then all of a sudden it was like, we got engaged the next September, we bought a house in November and things just started like really going there. Yeah. And then two years later it started all like falling apart. Yeah. What happened? We just, we weren't thinking forward. Yeah. We were constantly only fa facing and focus, sorry, focusing on today.
Yeah. And never focusing on what's next? You're getting sucked into the weeds. Yeah. What happens if Canadian Tire builds an entire marketing team and doesn't need us anymore? What happens if they start hiring their own internal shooters and editors? 'cause they realize how expensive we are.
That, they don't need us anymore. Yeah. And we. It just wasn't, we just, we didn't go to school for business. Yeah. We went to school to be creatives and had a totally different path and there was no way in hell I was gonna go back to school to learn how to do this. Yeah. I didn't have the time at the time to read books about businesses and everything.
So that's the time in my life when I really should have gotten a coach. Yeah. But didn't till, we moved to LA until we, yeah. Three years into LA where I was like, at an event and learned about what a coach was and hired her on the spot. Like it's, very different.
Yeah. You guys obviously made it through. Yeah. Those were dark dimes, two year blip. Yeah. It was pretty bad. Did you have to scale back your team? Was it you guys, were you eating the, ramen? Like, how did you make it through before you came back
up? My dad told me a story one time that it was the hardest.
Thing for him to do when he had to ask someone in the family for money to help support. 'cause we were going through a rough patch as a family. And having to be in that position was the most, we, first of all, we like overdid it. We, purchased a home that was totally out of budget. We, we just, we were kids.
We weren't thinking, yeah. We were spending money in all the wrong places. There was no one we could talk to that kind of did what we did. Or if there was, we were too embarrassed to talk or ask questions. Because people were expecting us to fail. That's put us in a bit of a corner too.
Our marriage started suffering too 'cause we were working from our house. Like we never had an office at that point. We were constantly, so it was like rolling out of bed, going into this room next door, working, and then just like rolling out of it and going back into bed. It was no, we weren't going into meeting.
Like it was just, it was depressing. Yeah. And it wasn't until so Chris called this consultant and she goes what's the goal? And he's I don't know. It'd be really cool to get like an office in Toronto. And she goes, that's not a goal. What's the goal? And Chris I remember I was like, about to run out the door and he's sitting there being like, I don't know.
It would be cool to be in la. And I thought to myself okay, we're gonna move to la. I was like, I just, yeah. And so we ended up working with her and she taught us about what we need to do as far as marketing and reaching out to the context that you already have, all that stuff.
How to reach out to new potential clients and helped us build like a marketing plan for that year. And we ended up blowing up to the point where when Chris said, okay, how do we talk about going to LA now? It was just like the smooth line of it made sense. Yeah. This is the right year to do it.
And also in the Canadian market, we were hitting a ceiling. We had all the big clients the first year of business which is
insane.
Yeah, it was. And so it's like, where are we gonna. Where are we gonna go from there? And we thought if we wanna continue doing what we love and we wanna continue being together as a couple because it got to a point where, we were considering maybe not staying together anymore. Because I believe that if you're happy in your job, you're a good person in your marriage to your kids. And that was not existent there. For any of us. And even if it meant getting full-time jobs or anything, it just wasn't, it wasn't working.
It made sense and we decided, you know what? We're gonna take the risk. The Canadian company is functioning on its own out there, which is great. With like the corporate clients, we'll get, we'll be able to do one production or two productions a year, and the company's like afloat and really comfortable.
And we just ran out, this way and barely had anything. Barely knew anyone sold the house, got, rid of one of the cars and just went for it.
So I hear a theme of not being afraid to just do
it. My coach said that the best time that you feel the most ha sorry, time you feel the most happiest is when you make, when you take a risk.
I know I do. Yeah.
I'm a little, everybody does. It's there's that, there's something in the free fall.
Yeah.
And I think they call it free fall. 'cause there's freedom in it. Yeah. There's that moment once you step off and you haven't touched ground yet.
Yeah.
There's that moment where you realize there's space to, to be, to mess up, to look around and it's, we think of free fall as a bad word.
Yeah.
And I don't know why, like we think it's a bad word because if you really imagine literally jumping off of a cliff and how much your perspective changes and how much wider. You suddenly can see. Yeah. All of that sounds good to me. Yeah. And then I purposely didn't said Touching the ground. Not hitting the ground because you don't have to, there doesn't have to be a splat.
Yeah.
That doesn't have to be what happens. Yeah. I always struggle goal relating to people that never take the risk like I really have. We talk about
this all the time. God, there must be this like common theme between people on this Yes. Part of the planet. Yeah.
I just in this room. Yeah.
On this podcast. Yeah. And I don't get it. I don't get people who don't want to travel or don't want to try, or to me it's a curiosity factor.
Yeah. Curiosity will get the best of me. I feel but I also feel like curiosity is the reason why I am where I am today. For sure. Curiosity is the reason for my success.
Yep. Yep. And it's, I don't know, can you imagine living any other way? No. Yeah.
No. And it, the, this is also like the biggest conversation that Chris and I will have too, because people close to us are in this routine life and they're fine with it. And we're like, but you could do so much more.
But then at the same time, we have to come from a perspective of understanding that what we do is also really hard. And we've now been doing it for so long that we're a punching bag. We're able to, yeah. We've been through the low two years. We know what that feels like. We can handle it. We know we can come back to that.
But we won't. Yeah. That's the thing is now we know how to avoid those flags. Yep. But I could see why a lot of people would've quit by now.
There's a level of I always think that when you, everyone thinks you're a little bit insane, you're probably doing the right thing.
Yeah.
And there has to be a little bit of throwing logic out the window.
Yeah.
And going based on heart or instinct or intuition or just being open to seeing what happens in discovery. Because if we do things based on logic, you stay
Yeah.
Like you become a librarian and you stay there and you save your pennies.
Yeah. And you don't leave. And logic says to keep things small. Because you're safer when you're small.
Yeah.
But that just doesn't sound like fun. Nope. Not at all.
We always say what if our kid's not what if we have a child, a kid, number one. Yeah. What if we have a child and that child doesn't wanna be this type of ambitious and, start their own company and move to another country.
We're always like even if our child wanted to be a janitor, we know that they're gonna be the best janitor in that space. And I've heard that before, saying if you are a garbage man or a garbage woman, be the best one in that section. I think that's where I come from.
That's the side, that's the kind of angle I'm trying to come from too. My friends who are doing the nine to fives, I believe. I'm really trying to believe that they're the best in that space. Because I can't do what they do. Yeah. That means they're the best in their space.
Yeah.
That's the way to turn it around a little bit.
No and I think too, like whether you're in corporate, the corporate world or you're not, or you're a mix, like I've always jumped in and out or run parallel. And, side hustles and everything else just because I'm chasing whatever sounds fun and interesting. Yeah. And adding to what's next.
Were you were you unhappy in your corporate jobs and that's why you did this switch? No, it was never that. I wasn't unhappy. It was I've always just been curious about something else. I've had small businesses since I've been like nine. It's just like always been something that I'm like, oh, what if we tried that or I can do that, or let's make that.
Yeah. So if anything, it was being in roles that weren't big enough for me where I was bored, like if I was fully consumed and exhausted and some of my jobs were. Especially when you were like, there was one point at Puma I was traveling internationally every week.
Yeah.
Which is, that's a lot.
You're just exhausted. At that point, I had nothing else happening. There were still dreams and lists being made, but that was just physical exhaustion. But a lot of the other times it's just been like, I'm a, I'm not full.
Yeah.
And why not? Yeah. There's more hours in the day.
So what made you guys want to come to la? Just the, I think the whole idea of coming to the us, especially as a Canadian business, is like the next thing you do. Most Canadian businesses end up going south of the border. But it. I think if we had to choose it, it always was between LA and New York.
Reality is we had more clients in la we had more connections and more relationships already built in la. Not that we didn't try in New York. It's just a very different market. Yep. And when we ended up coming down, I think it was our first time to la we met Chris Wright. We tricked him into doing a video with us and we connected with him.
We tricked him. Yeah. We tricked him. We had this like silly idea. Yeah. I'm not even gonna call it. 'cause if people find it online, they're gonna be like, you guys are crazy. Where we essentially just interviewed people and told their stories. Yeah. And Chris Ray, my, Chris being in the skateboarding world, me just yeah.
Floating into it as a supportive girlfriend or wife. I fell into it as well. But I didn't know Chris Ryan until the day we met him and we started interviewing him and then the next day he, at the end of it, he was like, this is really cool. You guys are really great. What are you doing tomorrow?
We're doing a shoot. Do you guys wanna come out and help me? And this guy named Martin. And I was like, sure. We had. We had planned to do like other meetings and other events, so that night I'm like scrambling to schedule things away. Yeah. So that we show up on that set and we do, and we meet Mike Blabla.
Yeah. Like the photographer of skateboarding and super nice guy. Yeah. And then we're in this situation where we're like helping them shoot and then we're also shooting BTS for our video with Chris Ray. Like it just all fell into place and talk about things. Meaning to happen. And we ended up staying in touch and he just every time we met with him, he would just be like, you guys should come down here. You guys should come down here. And I'm like, it's so easy for an American to say, Hey, come down. Yeah. I can't. Yeah. Legally I can't. I, when we went through, when we decided to do it, it was eight months of the gov, the US government ripping us apart paperwork wise, like having to look back five years, having to explain why our logo is the way it is, what does acrylics mean?
What's our five year plan, what's our five year forecast like? It was ripping us apart. What are you gonna promise us when you come here? Because in five years we're checking. So this whole it's overwhelming for kids on top of that, having to know that you're gonna pack your life up from this four level side split home to wherever you're gonna live. And the friend that Mar that Chris Ray connected us with Martin, he was kind enough to put a roof over our heads our first month here. So I was living with what are now my best friends. Yeah. Under one roof when I was going through the toughest part of my young adult life.
For sure. With my husband here we are married, living with, three, four other people in this one little house. And it in a new country, in a new city, yeah. Not knowing anything. Yeah. And I honestly feel like I won the jackpot there. I got my best friends. We got to go through this experience together.
Yeah. I feel sorry for the people that have to come to LA on their own and really don't know anybody and don't have someone to put a roof over their, that was me. Yeah. See? But I got so lucky. And then, yeah, we started, as soon as we got here Canadian Cleanse, were like, wait, you are in la.
That's so sick. We have a production in la do you mind taking care of it? And then it was like, we were hoping for a month of break to figure it out and get emotionally there. 'cause every time we went to the store and I couldn't find the milk I bought, I would break down crying. It was like, yep.
It's just, you're not used to your systems and your stores. And I was like, what is Trader Joe's? And yeah. Now I'm like, you don't know what Trader Joe's is it's it was just, it was like, what a time. Like I can't even, yes. I'm, you have to do it to know what it feels like because yes, there's no words to express what those three months of my life were like.
No. I moved here from Germany and before that I was in Boston. So I'm not from there originally, but. The first six months, I didn't realize I had a headache until one day I am like, my head doesn't hurt. I didn't even know it hurt. Yeah. This is weird.
Yeah.
It's so
funny.
I really, I think what cap the movie that captures the experience the best is under the Tuscan sun.
Yeah.
Because every day, even you get so embarrassed that you're having meltdowns about the dumbest things. Yeah. I remember going to IKEA in Germany and they don't have credit cards. They don't have any financing unless it's like a car or a house.
Yeah.
And so moving there at 26 and I sold all my stuff.
It took me nine months to be able to like afford or finally want to buy a couch. Yeah. And then I'm in Ikea losing my shit about what color to choose. I called my friend Tom and I'm like gray or white? He's what gray or white? Gray. Thank you. Bye. And just hung up.
Oh.
He's what the hell did I just choose?
I'm like, I couldn't pick the couch collar. I can't make one more decision by myself. You make, and you make an excuse to just
focus on the silliest things.
Yes. Or you just feel so overwhelmed. You're like, the silliest thing is like the only thing that I can actually choose.
Yeah.
No, I totally get it.
There's, Chris has this photo next to his his side of the bed, which is a Polaroid of our first month we didn't have a bed frame. We were living just sleeping on a mattress that when Chris came, he got his visa before I did. So he came a week ahead to just set up a little bit of a life.
And there's this there are sea stands that we brought with us are holding up all these like DC shoes. Clothing products and their shoes. And then next to that is just a bunch of penny skateboards. 'cause we just got a contract with Penny skateboards. Yeah. And we're like sleeping next to this.
Because we had a coworking space office that was smaller than even that space that we couldn't have all that stuff in. Yeah. Because it was just glass walls everywhere. And it's like a reminder of that again, low point that we're like, we're never coming back here. Yeah.
When you, you realize how capable you are.
Yeah. We think that we need so much literal stuff you don't, and space and I don't know we feel like a comfortable life is this way. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be. And honestly like the most creative stuff, some of the best times it's when everything looks like a hot mess and you're like, fuck it.
What are we gonna do today? Yeah. I'm really good at hot messes. Yeah. I love it. No, I, yeah. Honestly, I feel like I thrive in hot messes.
Every job I think I've ever gotten, they've been like, this is a shit show. You want it? I'm like, sure.
Yep. Yeah. Sign me up. Yeah. It's it's crazy 'cause I used to beat myself up about we were the first one from our group back home to get married.
The first one to buy a house, prob most likely one of the last to have a kid. And we come here and no one's married and some of them have kids and are married, but they're older. And it's we never have this, like and I thought, my mom, my poor mom just always wanted me to go to school, find a job, get married, have chil buy a house, have children.
And all that. And I just ended up mixing it up and taking pieces out and putting fresher pieces in and just, and I am, although I keep her on her toes, I'm definitely a lot happier. Yeah. And I don't beat myself up about it anymore. Like I used to. Yeah. I think it's because you have to go through these tough times and be like, it's okay.
I'm still happier with this hot mess than having to think about doing something that one of my other friends does. Yeah. That thing that we were talking about before where it's you're good at that, but I could never
no. And it's yeah. Just the space to follow the life that you want or to make the life you want.
Yeah.
I don't I'm a little bit nervous about where social media and the cultural conversation is about people being the same and like wanting the same stuff and
Yeah.
Even people are like nineties grunge fashion when they was like all coming back in. I was hoping that the nineties approach would also come back of celebrating everyone being different and it being cool to be like a little weird and creative and not to look the same as everyone else and not to follow the same path.
And it's interesting to me to see those two, like half of the world
Yeah.
Here and not the other half. Like I think it's slowly starting to change with a lot of the like people in their, 16 to 22 really becoming activists.
Yeah.
But I miss that. What are you doing to be creative space?
Yeah.
And even in entrepreneurship where that's normally where it thrives, it's still very cookie cutter.
Yeah.
Like I just talked about this in the workshop we did in Berlin of either you need to be on Shark Tank or you need to be a already successful 1 million followers influencer, or you need to go to a Y Combinator. I'm like, those are three. Fake news is about entrepreneurship. Yeah. And it's mad. I'm mad that's what people think you have to do.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, there's people like you guys that have a thriving small business that most people haven't heard of.
Yeah.
And you're killing it. That's why I made this. Yeah. So we can talk about you guys.
Yeah. Thank you. You are welcome. Yeah. I think that's why it's weird when people are like, Hey, we wanna talk about you.
We're like, why? Because it's all, we're not on Forbes yet. We're not on ink yet. Yeah.
Yeah. I got so mad when I turned 30 and I was like, shit, I can't be on a 30 under 30 list. Oh yeah. I was so mad. And I'm like, it's
fine. Chris got the Canadian version of 30. Under 30. Yes. And I was like, that's fine, I'll get the American one, but I'm turning 30 in four months.
And I'm like, that's not gonna happen. But also understanding that's just not my reality right now. Yeah. And I'm okay with
that. It's also a list. Yeah, you're on the powerful ladies list, so thank you. Welcome. I welcome. Prefer this list much. Much better. Yeah. This is a great list. Yeah.
When you look around and see who else has been here, like it's cool. Yeah.
Yeah. But you know what I like to look at too is that, that Forbes list those could be potential friendships that I built through work too. Yes. Yeah. It's coming. It's coming. It's definitely coming. Chris and I keep saying that it's crazy to think of where we came from to where we
are today.
Even your story more, right? Because you have a story before Canada. Yeah. Yeah. I came to Canada in 95 with my mom, my dad, and my brother. And my mom had to buy pots and pans from Goodwill, and I remember her cooking soup on. Frying pan? Not in a thing. Not in a pot, because I don't know why that happened, but she lifted it and the bottom got stuck and it went everywhere.
And I remember laughing and she just screamed and started crying. And I didn't understand what my parents were going through until Chris and I did that here in la. It makes me so sad. Yeah. And I always say to my parents, I'm like, how were you able to do that with two fricking kids?
Yeah. And Chris and I have FaceTime and internet, like all that. I was like, we're fricking cheating, so we can't complain. Yeah. And my dad said to me, you have no choice. It has to work. And that's what I've been approaching every situation since we got here is we have no choice.
This has to work. And then Chris has this new line where it's, they're saying no now, they'll say yes. Later. A hundred percent. So it's like a. Yeah. But yeah, coming to Canada was quite, quite an interesting path. I think it made me the human I am today. I'm super grateful for it and I think I made my parents proud by taking that, taking advantage of that and coming to the US.
Yeah. You're like all-star immigrant story. Yeah. Look, it can't work. I know what immigration's about
twice. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's and you hear the immigration story a lot in Canada, so it. It's not very talk very much talked about here in the US or maybe because people usually from here are somewhere from the other states, but Yeah, Canada is just a collage of immigrants.
So everybody has an immigrant story one way or another.
Technically the US is too. Yeah. And the only immigrant story that we feel the need to talk about right now is illegal immigration. Yeah. And it's beyond frustrating.
Yeah.
Like why do we have amnesia about what our country actually is?
Yeah. One of the biggest conversations we're having now is if we were to start a family how we would have to do it on our own, but we already run our own business together. Like at another, add another thing on top of that. Crazy and lonely, although we do have great friends and family here, but it's different when you can just be like, Hey, mom.
Oh yeah. Take this for now. Yeah,
we moved my whole life growing up. Yeah. So there was never that for my parents. So I think it just never crosses my mind that there's help.
Yeah.
Like people talk about you can't have kids and travel, and I'm like, what? Why not? Yeah. No, you just throw 'em in
a, throw 'em in a backpack, you're good.
Yeah. I think that, but that's the mentality thing too, because Chris and I are saying the same thing. We were like what happens if we have to go to Connecticut? We have a job there. You bring him? Yeah. Take the kid. I know someone in Connecticut who can gimme a couple hours of watching.
My sister lives there. She has two kids. Just drop him off. Thanks. Let's call your sister. No, it's okay. Still no kids. Yeah, no. It's like what? You know I had a dog. Yeah, I still have a dog. He's almost 16. I got him in grad school. Yeah. He moved to Germany with me. I worked full time. I was mostly single.
That whole like, yeah, like how do you have a dog and travel and work this much? I'm like, like you said, you have to make it work. Yeah. You figure it out. Yeah. Was it expensive? Yes it was. Yeah. Was it worth it? Yes. He's amazing. 16 years of your life.
He still year. Yeah.
Yeah. So it's like everything, whatever you want your life to look like, you can make it work.
Okay, so let me get Resituated. 'cause there's so many golden nuggets you've got. You've moved to la you have a double immigrant story. You have a business with your husband that's thriving. And I think if people are listening right now, or the people who are listening right now, they just wanna know like, how, what are you doing that you think is different that's making this all work versus everyone else out there that their businesses aren't working?
I can only speak in my space. Yeah. But we keep it simple. Yeah. Keeping why com, why make content into this whole, it lives online for a very short amount of time. But I'm not, just because I'm saying simple, I'm not saying cheap. Yeah. But it lives online for such a short amount of time and your audience is constantly changing.
The way people use these platforms are constantly changing. The fact that Chris and I are able to adapt. I also think one of our strongest, our strengths is definitely that we approach acrylics like a product brand. So we, when we work with clients like Gym Shark, we understand why they're focusing on this one item so much.
Because we, we do this same thing with acrylics. We approach the business plan, we approach, everything is approached, and I think that's what makes us different is most companies, creative agencies act as this one service. Whereas we're acting as this. Product. Product. Yeah.
It makes complete sense to me.
Does it, 'cause sometimes people are like, what are you talking about? No. I come from making products. Like a world where that's what you're doing. And wouldn't it be nice to have a vendor who
understands that?
Yes.
Yeah. I mean it agency is such a sensitive word right now. Yes.
And I'm almost like scared to say that we're this creative agency, but to me, an agency is just like a hub that's able to offer more than one thing. Like I'm this one, one stop shop kind of idea. Everything you need creative under one umbrella creative group. Yeah. But then I have a friend telling me, everyone who wasn't an agency is quitting and saying that agencies suck.
And they're starting their own companies and saying because agency world is terrible. And I'm just like, maybe it's just stop saying we're a creative agency. But yeah I'm in that. So that's something that I'm definitely trying to like, figure out right now too, yep. I say we're a creative agency.
'cause I feel like that's the language people understand. But right now it seems like the word agency is a negative word.
I feel the same way about consultant. Everyone hates spending money on consultants 'cause they don't do anything. They don't add value. And like I've exp I've said this and experienced it myself too, so I'm like, I'm the anti consultant.
Yeah. And people are like, what? I'm like, what do you, I'm just gonna help you with your problem. So what do you wanna fix? Yeah. How do I break this down? Yeah. So I get it. You're like, how can we tell you we can do everything for you and elevate you and make you look amazing? What words make sense that you get that?
Yeah. Sometimes I'll sit there in meetings and just say, we're like a creative agency without your agency fees. And then they're like, all right, we're listening. Yeah. Yeah. What type of clients do you guys, do you specialize? Are you really broad? We are able, we definitely are real. Our strength is in lifestyle brands.
Whether it's like a shoe product, clothing product, we do really well there. But that being said, we also have food clients that we're like kicking. But and something that Chris and I are always open about is we have this network of freelancers. So if it's maybe a product that we aren't exploring in the right way, we can get somebody else in.
But then also, isn't it interesting that we haven't had that type of client? Like we, we might be working for a company that does towels and we are the right team to do that because we don't come from this traditional. Agency that does this. And one of our skincare clients said this before too when they called us and said, we wanna hire you.
We were like, why? We don't know anything about skincare. Like we can do this, we can figure this out, but why? And the president of that company said, that's exactly why, because you're not gonna put us in a template. Yes. And you're gonna approach it from a totally different perspective. It's funny because. Since we got to la I feel like the way Chris sees palm trees is not like everybody else here because he can, he, we didn't grow up with palm trees. Yeah. It is that whole different perspective and our company's able to approach that. All that client, all that type of clientele very well.
But we definitely do very well in clothing and shoes. But yeah, we're working, so we're working with Jim Shark. We've done work with Under Armour. We are working with hippies, which is a chickpea puff. We're working on their new campaign for next year. We, I always lose, oh, we just wrapped Santa Monica Pier, which is really great.
Awesome. We did their Twilight event, which was I think for a little Canadian company to come in and say we have Santa Monica Pier. That was huge. We work with a helmet company called Thousand. We do everything for them from photo, video yeah. The clientele list. It's insane and I love all of them.
Yeah. Like they like when we get called, we like vet through whether or not we want to work with clientele as well. So it's been really great to be able to to be in that position too, where we're like, we're not the right brand for you to do this and we understand.
But yeah, Chris just brought, we also work with Shopify, which has the platform to have all these other companies. Yeah. Powerful lady, Susan Shopify. There you go. Yeah, we were the ones that did the popup video for Kylie. She ended up sharing it. We were like, what happened?
No one knows it's us, but we were like, sick. And it was like, and you know what that was, we arrived here at the end of August. And that December that happened and that, that's where we were like, shit's real here. Yeah.
Do you feel like there's an element of charm to, like, how things have happened for you guys?
Some people, I'll give my personal opinion about luck later, but some people say we're lucky. Some people say things are working out. Like how is all of this happening for you guys? Where it's right when you need it, things are showing up, do you think?
I could say it's hard work.
Yeah. It's definitely hard work. The curiosity gets us in trouble all the time. But it's there. Honestly, I think it's the experience. Yeah. I think once you work with us, you can't go back to another, like another agency and it's happened where they'll come back and be like, yeah, we just wanna work with you guys though.
Yeah. And it's fine. And I'm not like, there's no, in our contract it doesn't say you're exclusive to us or anything like that. And with some other, like the bigger agencies, maybe I will stop saying agency. But those bigger agencies, they definitely do make you stay there for a couple of months or years.
And we don't do that. There's no obligation there. And I think that makes it good too. 'cause we understand we can't get, we can't take everything on for you. We can suggest other teams too. And why would you want people to feel trapped? Do you want them to be there? 'cause they're hyped? Yeah. The whole idea is we're coming in as your marketing department's secret weapon, like we want to be a part of your team. We're helping you. Yeah. Succeed. If you succeed, we succeed. This whole success of this brand is like on our shoulders just as much as it's on you. Yeah. So I think it's the experience that makes us different,
when you look back at what you've achieved and what just you and your business as a whole.
Yeah.
What is something that you like are most proud of? This is a key defining moment in you getting to become you or getting a big lesson? I don't think I would've discovered
who I was if I didn't start this company. That I used to always walk around saying, I wanna be this like boss ass bitch.
Like just taking care of business. And I think that this company gave me that confidence. Prove to me that I am. And prove to me how strong I am. 'cause it's only through the company that my life got so difficult and complicated and and Awesome. Yeah. I handled it like a champ.
I'm super happy. I am, we were sitting in Huntington, like I live in Huntington Beach. We were sitting in Huntington Beach that first trip that Chris Ray completely messed up our schedule. And I remember sitting and saying to Chris, wouldn't it be nice to live here one day? And now I live in a small, tiny studio apartment, where my kitchen and bedroom and living room are all in one space.
And I'm so happy. And on top of that, like I get to do with the love of my life. Yeah. I get to wake up every morning and go to this office that, you know how I told you when we were in the basement? I was like, I just wish I had this like New York style office. I have that in Long Beach now, and I love walking in there.
It was the first time in our company's existence when it came to offices where I got to tell them, knock this wall down, put a door here, paint the walls white. Like I, I never was in a position to be able to do that.
Yeah.
And it's like thinking about, we were, I was 21. I was 21. Yeah. I was 21 when we started the company and.
I just, I used to always tell, think I'm weak, I'm not strong enough, I can't handle this. And I'm like, I'm exactly who I'm supposed to be. And it's thanks to this thing I created with Chris on our own, going against what everybody said. 'cause when we were saying we were gonna go to the US it was during the the new elections.
So it was now or never because you knows you might not be allowed in. I might not. Yeah. And I don't think, yeah, it was, all of our friends were like, you wanna go? And that's happening. Or there's this perspective like Americans have about Canadians. Canadians have about Americans.
And it's no one was looking at it from a, oh this is a smart business move, but yeah, you guys are crazy. And how dare you go and
hang out with those hillbillies instead of us. Yeah.
And it's it was hard, but everything that Chris and I did when people always fought against it was the right.
Move for us. Yeah. My personal opinion of Canadians is that I haven't met one I don't like yet.
Yeah.
Yeah. Like Toronto's one of my favorite
cities. Yeah. I love Toronto. And you know what? When we were leaving Canada, I think because of that whole transition being so tough, we approached it from a really negative perspective.
We were also very unhappy because of other things that were going on. Yeah. That now we come back to Canada to vacation. Yeah. Yeah. Because we just it's a beautiful country. People are great. Yes. The food is amazing. The, like all those, cultures and different foods and it's just, I have so much more love and passion towards that place now than I've ever had before. And I think sometimes it's good to leave your hometown too.
Yeah. Appreciate that. A hundred percent. The first time I went was just before Christmas. And I got to go up to my friend's cottage north of Toronto as well. Oh. And I got the full canadian Christmas experience.
Oh my God. And it was amazing. And I consider Boston home. And so for me to go to a city where we were going into like dark bars and we got to hang our coats up by the door like in a booth. And we're having great conversations and Yeah. I like places where people like to talk. Like my biggest complaint about California, Southern California is that you can't just sit around and have open conversations with people about whatever.
Yeah.
And I'm like, what? What? Why is this weird? Like you go in Boston and you'll have everyone at the bar from like the Patriots fan to the tweaker, to the guy from Harvard to you name it.
Yeah.
And we're all having one conversation at the bar.
Yeah.
And it can get super political, but, and people might yell and debate.
Yeah. But like everyone, it's passionate. It's passionate. And then like you buy around for everybody, you cheers and you keep talking. Yeah. So I'm like, why? Where did we, what are we doing wrong here? That talking about things is bad? I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. 'cause I think I'm still trying to figure out what California is.
But yeah you're right. We'll go to New York. We'll have, we'll be at a little small, like faux spot fofa and you'll, you're like shoulder to shoulder the person next to you. Yeah. But you end up like meeting a great friend. Yes. And all of a sudden. Yeah. Or we just got back from BC and I feel like we just made the greatest friendship of our lives with two Australians, like at the airport.
Yeah. And Yeah. Here it's like nobody will talk to each other, or if you do, it's they're difficult conversations. Yes. But that's what I'm saying. I'm very lucky with the friends I have in Huntington. 'cause Yeah. They've become family and. It's a different conversation too. Yes.
And I need to also,
yeah, sorry.
Put an as down there. We're just
justifying. No, but because I have amazing friends too. Yeah. And we do have conversations, but it's, I guess I come from a place where it doesn't need to be friends. It can just really be anyone. Yeah. And there's, yeah, it's difficult. Talking and conversation. And I have a request.
Yes.
So what I love about how Canada does television is they're so good at doing the subliminal Canada is great. Commercials and PSAs. Like they don't I don't even know if Canadians realize it's happening, but it's so obvious to me. You talking about the Newland
one?
No. Like I I was in Montreal during the Olympics.
And great place to be during the Olympics, by the way. It wasn't, it was when they were in the last Winter Olympics. No, I know. But I feel like Montreal is very passionate. Yes. Yeah. Another amazing city. But I was, I'd be in my hotel room working at night and watching the Olympics and there were so many commercials about what makes Canadians Canadian.
And we're not just nice we're, and they're showing diversity and people doing things. Yeah. And I was like, why does the US is so bad at internal pr?
Yeah.
Like, why aren't we talking about all the good things that are happening? Or even just telling the US like who we are, like reminding us.
Yeah.
And it doesn't need to be like eagles and flags. It can just be like really mellow and just a reminder like, no, we're good citizens and we help people cross the street. And we start businesses. And so maybe you guys being Canadians here can start sneaking this into, yeah.
Who do I talk to?
I'm not sure. Maybe start with NPR or KCC. I don't know. But I'm like, there has to be a way for us to. Heal the current US state by just reminding everyone that we are actually a lot more Yeah. Alike. We like kids and barbecues, like everyone can say yes. Who wants that, right? Yeah. We all vote, we ask everybody where they put themselves on the powerful ladies scale.
Zero being average, everyday human, and 10 being super powerful. Lady. How do you feel today? How do you feel on average? I'd say a 10. Yeah. Awesome. I got this. Yeah. Yeah. For women who don't feel like they're a 10, what are, what do you, what advice would you give them? I think it's to have, having to get a coach.
I think a lot of it has to be from exploring on the inside. I, if you asked me two years ago, I would've said probably a four. If you asked me a couple months ago, I probably would've said maybe six and a half. I think that the more I'm saying yes to things, the more I'm exploring, the more I'm being out of my comfort zone.
The more I meet with people that I haven't, I wouldn't normally meet with and just throw myself in conversations and embarrass myself and be okay with it. Yeah.
The more confidence I've started getting, and also I was saying this to Chris, my coach does a really good job of making me write down the things I'm doing.
And breaking it down because, in, it's all in here in my head, but. It's hard to get Chris on the same page understanding like, what did we net this year? Or whatever. So once I start writing these numbers down, I'm able to be like, wow, it was a huge part of this. I'm really good at my job because I got us here.
Yeah.
Or wow, I got a Santa Monica pier. That's great. And then in my personal life, it's like I'm going to, events where I'm meeting women that I don't normally do and I'm learning to at these events. My friends started this company where. You just go and like they do these sort of it, it's a little harder to explain 'cause I'm still trying to figure it out.
But you go to these events and you meet these other women and they give you like a list of questions. And you have to ask each other, but they're difficult questions. I love this. They'll be like, they'll ask, I have to ask the person what their first impression of me was. Yep. And you don't like being in this position.
But because of that, it gets you to just start telling people things right away or not being in your head so much. I also never go into a room now and start judging people. I'm not gonna be able to talk to that person or that person gives gives me the creeps or the, I am, they're definitely way too ambitious for me.
Now I'm just like, alright, I'm not the smartest person in this room. That person has a story. That person's really interesting. That person's shoes are great. We need to have a conversation. It's just finding so much more positivity and just, I think finally. Loving myself has gotten me to give that con that confidence. But it took work. We were, I blamed myself anytime something wouldn't succeed.
Now,
if we don't get a contract, I'm not in a position where I go, oh God, what did we do wrong? And this was my fault. I can't sleep for two days. It's more just like they'll call they'll eventually call back. What are you doing to, is it cocky to say, I am a 10? No, I'm confident I'm a 10. No. Yeah, no.
We had a woman say, I'm
a 12, and I was like, yes. Sick. Yeah. I didn't know that was an option. Yeah. Didn't wanna push my, didn't wanna push my confidence. Chris is like, oh god.
When you have your own business, and especially when you have a business with your partner, your whole world can be the business. Yeah. What do you do to make sure that you're. Giving time and energy to other parts of your life? Yeah, so we only became very good at this as of recently. So I would say we've been practicing for about a year, maybe a little bit more of about what that looks like. Because when we obviously got to the states, it was like restarting a whole new business again. Different markets and all that. So we started making that. Wednesdays is date night.
We don't have our phones on us when we're cooking dinner, and we're always both coming up with new recipes to just try out. So it like really takes your brain and just focuses on that. Yep. Talking about what the schedule's gonna look like so that what's in my head is now like public, so Chris knows and knows the expectations. Also practicing alone time too is very, yeah, beneficial. Doing our own activities. And then Chris has this whole thing where, I don't care if you still have work to do at five o'clock, we leave the office and we have this ne acrylic sign. And anytime it's on a timer and it's five o'clock, you start seeing us like, put our things away.
I like that there's a visual cue. Chris is very visual, so he needs that. And I could if we didn't have that visual cue, I think I would've just been like, oh, it's five 50. He doesn't notice yet. I'm terrible at that. And I think it's also because Chris and I have been so honest and open and vulnerable when we first started dating and then having to go through starting the company.
The bottom line is. It's us over the company. Because we both know, we're both confident enough in ourselves and in our work that if it gets to a point where the company's taking over our marriage, that we can leave the company and get full-time jobs anywhere. So we're not worried about, there's not gonna be any work if we, this thing falls apart.
Yeah. I think I'm just talking now, but more importantly, I think it's just we both have a ton of respect to each other for each other. And I think that's important. Chris is, a huge huge push on women and, encouraging them to Chris empowered me to be a powerful lady.
Like without Chris, I don't think I would explore a lot of what I, a lot of me behind every person is a great partner. And I, I can't imagine ever doing a company by myself. Or going through life alone. Yeah.
Who are powerful ladies that have influenced you?
I have so many.
I love Sarah Blakely. From Spanx. Yep. One of my favorites. Yeah. She's she's such a great example of a woman who's gone through so much all the time. And she takes it like a champ. She laughs about it all the time. She's, I admire women who can laugh at themselves. Yes. 'cause I think it's something that has taken me a really long time to do, but she can eat shit and talk about it and laugh.
She can drop her kid off on costume day and her kid has no costume, like and she can cry about it and be very open about it. And I wish, I know I'm, I hope one day I can be like that. Yeah. Where I'm just open about screwing up. And she also worked really hard, but she had a lot of loss in her life as well, but she's turned it around to being so positive.
And, yeah. And she just her husband's crazy too, and he, and she like encourages it and she does that stuff too, and it's great. And then I'm also really impressed with, and I follow a lot is Jen Rubio from away. She's I discovered a away quite early on, so I've seen Jen grow to what she is today.
And she actually is marrying a Canadian too. Yeah. So I think just the way that a way was approached I just have a ton of respect for her. Because she's just, her and Steph are just really smart women and what they've done with luggage is incredible. Yeah. And like Reese Witherspoon's fantastic.
And she embraces her like silliness and quirkiness. I am, I think what I love about. What I always look for in other woman is their confidence, ability to laugh at themselves and their smarts. I used to always get very nervous to speak to other women, and now I'm just like, we need to have a conversation.
We need to learn. Yeah. I, I don't know, I it's, you could be in a room with people and my friend has this new company and you can be in a room with people and realize that everyone has or feels the same way as you. And you're like, I would've never thought because you look so perfect.
Yeah. But Yeah. Yeah. We just have to start all talking, so I really appreciate you doing something like this 'cause it gives women the opportunity to speak. We should do a round table. You wanna do a round table joining you in? Yeah. We just talked about having round tables. I'd love to be a
part of a round
table
because I love doing panels.
And they're so impactful at events when we do them. Yeah. It's like my favorite way to have an event. Yeah. And we need to start capturing these conversations 'cause they're so powerful. Yeah. People who want to be like you, how do they start? What do they do? You just start what does that look like on the ground?
You just have to, just starting.
You just have to do it. Come up with what that business looks like. And then try it on for a little bit. Tell people that you're doing it and do it and practice, and when it gets tough, don't give up. Keep going. I think the first thing is you have to just start.
A lot of people have these great ideas and they're such geniuses, and it's a shame that it never comes to reality. You have to remind people of what you're doing and what you're good at, and that doesn't mean that you have to keep posting on social, this is what I'm doing, da. Have genuine conversations.
Call them and let them know. Let them know you're doing a podcast and do they know any powerful ladies that think could be great. Tell everyone and be confident about it. Try not tell yourself first, this is what I'm doing, this is who I am. I didn't really start realizing who I am in this company till recently ago, and this is eight years now in the making, but I finally found my mold.
I finally found where I wanna be in this business. When we begin hiring the full-time employees, what does that look like for me? And get a coach.
And just to remind everybody, like you guys didn't know, you didn't know everything that you didn't know, and you didn't have all the answers.
You just knew. I'm just making up a number, like I know how to do these five things. And we'll just start doing those five things. I think so many people get wrapped up in, I don't know how to make a business plan. I don't have a lawyer. I don't know what this looks like. You're like, what do you wanna do?
Yeah. You wanna be a graphic designer. Start designing, like just do the thing. Because all the people make business look so complicated, which is makes me mad. Which is why I've started my business. 'cause I'm like, it should be easier. Yeah. The bus, like the business part.
Yeah.
Isn't the part that you make, you get paid for.
You get paid for the product, the thing that you're doing. Yeah. Do the thing and then you can hire people like myself or other people that, yeah. Went to business school to help you do the other parts that anyone can do.
And it's also pretty incredible what resources you can get for free. Yes. That we didn't realize until we left Canada and we were like, we could have done that.
So we started applying that here and what a difference it made. This has been lovely. Yeah. I really enjoyed myself.
I'm curious what are you up to next? What do you want people to know?
We are now not just photo and video, we now are releasing our copy content. So we're able to actually, we have a really long list of incredible writers worldwide who can write anything from blogs, press releases to brand books, brand bibles, we call them.
Anything really. And they, so that's coming out soon. We're actually releasing that on Monday or Tuesday. We're announcing it. Monday And thanks Chris. And we just wrapped a really big campaign for gym Sharks, so I'm really excited to see that. And I think that 2020 for us is going to be that really huge transitional year.
So you're gonna be seeing a lot more of us. And yeah, I'm just really excited.
That's amazing.
2020s
gonna be a good year. It is. Yeah. I have to give Chris a huge thank you for connecting us.
Yeah.
And Chris Ray. 'cause we have so many Chrises Yeah.
In the
world. I have
a lot of Chrises in my life.
Yes.
Chris Fright, thank you for connecting us. I even think Jeff Goforth was like secondary to make sure that we got connected. Another He's so sweet. Yeah, he's great. Aaron too. But thank you. This has been awesome. I'm glad we lived down the street so we can hang out. Yes. And we'll definitely have to have you on again and I think next time we should interview you and Chris together.
Yeah. Round table too. Okay. Yes. Round table. I'm taking that really seriously. Thank you so much. Yeah,
thank you.
Here at The Powerful Ladies, we have huge heart shaped eyeballs for Alex. She's smart and fun and honest, and she's a great example of going for it and just doing it. We love her entrepreneurial spirit, and now she's approaching her whole life that way with intention, curiosity, and truly looking to be the curator of her own life.
I am so excited that Chris Ray connected us, and selfishly, I'm just excited that I get to meet awesome people like this and share them with all of you to connect, support, and follow Alex Acrylics. You can. Follow them on Instagram at acrylics, Twitter at acrylics and their website, acrylics.com. We'll have all the spellings for all of that in the show notes, plus additional ways to connect with Alex as well.
If you'd like to support the work that we're doing here at Powerful Lid, there's a couple ways you can do that. Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Leave a review on any of these platforms. Share the show with all the powerful ladies and gentlemen in your life.
Join our Patreon account. Check out the website, the powerful ladies.com to hear more inspiring stories. Get practical tools to be your most powerful. Get 15% off your first order in The Powerful Ladies Shop, or donate to the Powerful Ladies one Day of Giving campaign. And of course, follow us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies for show notes and to get the links to the books, podcasts, and people we talk about.
Go to the powerful ladies.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy. She's one of the first female audio engineers in the podcasting world, if not the first. And she also happens to be the best. We're very lucky to have her. She's a powerful lady in her own right, in addition to taking over the podcasting world.
She's a singer songwriter working on our next album, and she's one of my sisters. So it's amazing to be creating this with her and I'm so thankful that she finds time in her crazy busy schedule to make this happen. It's a testament to her belief in what we're creating through Powerful Ladies, and I'm honored that she shares my vision.
Thank you all so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. I can't wait for you to hear it. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Episode 118: The Couple Who Designed Their Dream Life | Thomas Claesen & Chelsea Levine | Entrepreneurs & Life Designers
Episode 96: How to Be Confident and Create the Life You Want | Tawny Newsome | Actor, Musician, Podcaster
Episode 101: How to Have an Extraordinary Relationship and Business | Chris Grubisa & Aleks Lason | Co-Founders of Chrilleks
Follow her on Instagram: @chrilleks @alekslason
Follow her on Twitter: @chrilleks @little_aleks
Visit their Website: www.chrilleks.com
Find her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandralason/
Email her: aleks.lason@chrilleks.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
