Tracy Borreson

Your brand is the experience you leave other people with when you leave the room. It’s a feeling. An imprint. Every individual has one. Every business has one. And it's what business relationships are built on. Yes, even in the digital environment 💡 Other coaches and consultants may tell you that they can create a brand for you. And that might sound good (and easy). But if you want your brand to feel authentic, it needs to BE authentic. Which means someone else can’t create it. YOU need to create it. The act of branding is what you do once you: 1) have the clarity of what your brand is, 2) have the confidence to show up like that, and 3) have a community of people around you who support that version of you. Once you have the holy trinity, you can start taking intentional action to create brand experiences that leave THAT mark on other humans. Can you imagine having that kind of alignment within a team? Whether the experiences you are creating are social media posts, 1:1 discovery calls, management meetings, virtual summits or simply showing up at a virtual networking event, the human experience during those interactions is what other people take away. So, I'll ask you...do you know what people are taking away after an interaction with you? In almost any interaction, especially in the digital space, there is WAY more intention that we could be bringing to the table. If you’re not already in the conversations that help you explore what type of experience YOU are creating for people, it’s time you got in one. Come and check out my weekly LinkedIn Live series Conversations: The Business Files , or better yet, let's have a Tea Chat (yes, I do tea chats, as I don’t drink coffee). Hope to see you in the conversation soon :)

There is SO much human potential floating around the entrepreneurial ecosystem. And there is so much MORE potential that exists when those people get connected. But if there is no "one-way" that collaboration looks, how do you know how to create the ones that are going to work for you? That's what the Collaborative Entrepreneurship Incubator is all about! Helping entrepreneurs 1) understand their unique puzzle piece, 2) understand what you LOVE to bring to collaborations (and not just TASKS), and 3) helping cohorts create meaningful collaborations that deliver on their desired impacts, both personally, professionally and morally :) If you're an entrepreneur and your interested in exploring collaborations like THAT, come check it out. There isn't just ONE way...so come find YOUR way 💖

What do you do when you can’t find a place where you feel like you can be yourself? You build one! Or at least, that’s what Terra Argo and I did with Your Business Peeps. The online communities that we found were all related to DOING a thing. But we couldn’t find a place that was based on BEING the person you wanted to be, in both life and business, and finding YOUR way to do that (not following someone else’s way). One of the things that I deeply believe is that my path is my path. Others might be able to learn from it, but it’s not their path. And SO many coaches in the industry today are just selling people the path they took, and then going one step further to say, if it doesn’t work for them, they just aren’t dedicated enough. Well, of course they’re not…it’s not their path. It’s not the easiest thing to find your path. It takes exploration and mistakes. It comes with wins and losses. And isn’t that a lot easier to go through when you have your peeps around? The Your Business Peep Community is a place for business owners and leaders to connect to their personal brands, build an authentic & genuine network, and find their business peeps! So you can get the support you need in YOUR journey, to make the impact that YOU’RE here to make. No one here is going to tell you what you SHOULD do…but we will share our insights and support you in choosing the things that work best for you. And celebrate the cr@p out of you when you show up as your most authentic self; at work and in life. We have open houses at least once a month, so if you need a place like that, DM me and I’ll get you on the invite list for the next one :)

I think by now you all know how important I think branding and authenticity is. But a lot of the time, these two things don't make the priority list when it comes to Sales. And especially when it comes to AI in Sales. Which I think is because most companies creating AI tech DON'T have the industry experience required to understand the actual problem. A lot of people (and businesses) think that the sales industry has changed. But there's one important thing that HASN'T changed >>> people have problems they need to fix. What HAS changed, is that we don't want to put in the effort any more to understand your problem. We just want you to buy a solution. But no one BUYS that way. Which is why sales today is broken. And people DON'T want to do it. But what if we brought sales BACK to fixing problems? What if sales people got be show up as experts in fixing a specific problem? Especially if it was a problem they were EXCITED to fix? And then...what if we automated THAT? What if sales people could work within your defined brand guidelines AND find their own voice and process that worked for them? And what if they had an AI co-pilot that could customize that for them? In fact, it could customize EACH sales reps experience so that each one of them could sell as much as THEY could. What could THAT look like for revenue? That's Velocity.AI. And I'm SUPER stoked to be working as a Strategic Advisor with this phenomenal organization to bring that reality to the world. Because Sales People deserve to be people too 💖

I love to dance. And I love fitness. So when Zumba became a thing, I was convinced that I was going to teach that. But when I started taking the classes, I realized that it was made for people who could pick up choreography very quickly…people who were already dancers. But, what about all the people who loved to dance who weren’t good dancers, or had little experience? Didn’t those people deserve a dance workout as well? So, I created Cardio Dance. A fitness program that includes all kinds of dance styles, works the entire body, but focuses on simple dance moves so anyone can get the most out of the workout. I taught the class at Trico Centre in Calgary for 6 years. It was the longest running registered class they ever ran. In March of 2020 when the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trico Centre shut down as well. But I couldn't very well leave my students high and dry like that. So, we moved online. The first few classes I taught were Facebook lives (not ideal), and then we moved over to Zoom. And huge thanks to Zoom who has made their platform MUCH better for this purpose since then! We have a small but mighty contingent of Cardio Dancers that dance together online every Wednesday (6:30pm Mountain Time) and Saturday (10:30am Mountain Time), and every once in a while, when there are 5 weeks in a month, we have a Free Trial Class! If you ever want to give one a try, DM me :)

Although the site has since been disbanded, I launched The All-In Mom blog when I was on maternity leave. As a new mom, there were so many things I found people weren’t talking about, and I wanted to create a platform to open up the conversation about so many things that were flying under the radar when it came to parenting. I blogged about what’s normal vs. what’s common, a theme that was introduced to me as part of a Post-Natal Personal Training Program I took on maternity leave. I blogged about how to actually FIND something you love that gives you the time and space to re-energize yourself. I blogged about work-life balance, creating moments, being the change we want to see in the world, time management and wardrobes. I blogged about how children are the mirrors into ourselves, and how we can use that to learn more about ourselves to create our own personal development journey. All of that eventually morphed into how Personal Branding could empower our parenting. All in all, there were some great articles from myself and others in the space that were meant to empower moms specifically to bring their awesomeness to the world. But once I launched my own business and started blogging more often about Personal Branding from a wider lens, it just didn’t make sense to upkeep two separate blogs. The last post on that site was in December 2020; A New Direction for 2021. The essence of the entire All-In Mom experience is outlined in that blog (which I also published on the TLB Coaching & Events blog). It’s about the power of being yourself; of turning off the noise to hear the real you inside. I still blog from time to time, but now solely on the TLB Coaching & Events website.

Once I was in this role, I had a huge realization: that the thing I loved the most was coaching people. Now in charge of two departments, I had an amazing opportunity to coach each individual team member in the way THEY needed it, to empower them to do their job in the way that felt good for them. I coached each team member for an hour a week. We worked on their goals. We developed individual processes that worked for them to reach those goals. And it was amazing to watch the team grow. For many individuals, it meant that they grew beyond the team and got move onwards and upwards in their careers. But something was nagging at me. I now had sent my son back to daycare full time, and there was something that kept telling me that the time I was spending at work wasn’t a good trade. That message became louder when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020. I started working from home; my husband started working from home, and Nicholas couldn’t go to daycare. Suddenly, 100% of the time I spent working was in direct contrast to time that could have been spent with Nicholas; making memories with him as a small boy that I would never be able to get back. And that instinct became over-riding for me. In June of 2020, I gave my resignation. Not because of anything SPLICE had done wrong, but because, at that point in my life, I needed to be with my family, and not work 60+ hours a week. I left believing I could find a way to spend half the amount of time working and make the same amount of money. So, I started to look for ways to do that.

After taking my year of maternity leave (thanks Canada!) I knew I didn’t want to go back to work full time. Which also meant that managing the team from the top didn’t make sense, because I wouldn’t be available the way I would want. So, I came back in a Project Management capacity. But I really struggled with the role. I was so used to being “all-in” and trying to manage my new expectations of myself was extremely difficult. I needed to figure out how I could go all-in working only 15 hours a week (from probably 60ish before maternity leave), to make an impact that felt good for me AND the rest of the team. Luckily, about 4 months after I got back, a new project got thrown at me: The Website Project. The Marketing Team (which didn’t include me at this point), was redoing the entire site and was behind schedule. I came in as the PM to get the new site released as quickly as possible, while still making all of the relevant changes. Well, we got it done. We changed the site from 42 pages to a simple 8. Highly focused, highly optimized, and speaking to a specific audience, with a specific goal. We defined what role the site was playing in the marketing and sales cycle and built it for THAT, instead of it being all things at all times. It has since been through some more iterations, but I was super proud of it. The success of that project led the CEO to offer me a part-time VP of Marketing role. I wasn’t sure how I could be a part-time VP, but she seemed confident, so I took her up on it. Then, 4 months later, when the VP of Sales resigned, there was no one better to run the joint Sales & Marketing departments than me. So, back to full time I went.

This was an opportunity to restructure the internal team as well to help them get as much satisfaction from their jobs as possible. I implemented two key leadership practices that allowed this to happen: 1) Start-Stop-Keep Conversations that would help me understand what I could Start doing that would help the team, what I should STOP doing (things that are hindering them) and what I should KEEP doing, because they depend on it. 2) Love/Loathe Lists as part of our annual reviews. These helped me to see what job activities people liked and didn’t like, and allowed me to restructure job responsibilities so that everyone can do more of what they love. This created a team of specialists instead of a team of generalists. Whereas before everyone on the team could do every task, afterward, each team member had one key responsibility and they got really good at that. Account Managers were the relationship experts. Data Analysts were data experts. Voice Engineers were sound experts. And each client not only got an Account Manager, but a team of experts to create the success they were looking for. And it worked. Client Success rates were off the charts. Client retention was 100% YOY. The team loved their jobs and got to grow and learn in the areas they enjoyed. Everyone was winning. And then, I got pregnant with my son. It seemed like perfect timing. The team was functioning beautifully. The clients were all happy. Our portfolio was growing nicely. Everything was going to be fine. I would go on Maternity leave and the team would handle it. And then I would come back, and everything would be the same. What I didn’t count on was the fact that I wouldn’t be the same when I came back.

And so, I became the Director of Client Care. All client experience rolled up to me at the end of the day...and I was all about it. Because, to me, it’s always about the human experience; how can I improve the employee experience so THEY can create the best client experience. And, how can we use the software to create the best END customer experience? The puzzle of optimizing all these experiences was my jam. I gained a lot more leadership experience in this position. I got to practice hiring for the first time, although I would still say that, based on those hires, I leave something to be desired in the hiring department. My track record with hiring was NOT great, and quite honestly, I still have a lot to learn about how to hire well…although, in retrospect, I think there might have been a bit of a misalignment between what I was looking for and what my boss was looking for. The biggest success I was a part of during this time was the opening of our offices in Chicago. It was the first time SPLICE had hands-on-the-ground in the US (although most of the clients were already there), and it was my first time to go to Chicago. The next time you’re in Chicago, if you haven’t tried Garrett’s popcorn, it’s a MUST! I would make our Chicago team bring me some Chicago mix every time they came to Calgary for a team event :) After a while, and with more additions to the leadership team, the management layer was re-structured to remove Directors and go directly to a VP level. Since I had been with the company for so long, and because of the team's tendency to default to me when my boss (the CEO) was out of the office, I was given the new title of Senior Vice President. At that time, we also decided that my role was more about creating success for the clients than just taking care of them, so I became the Senior Vice President of Client Success.

I joined the SPLICE Software team in their Calgary offices in 2012. Remember SPLICE from earlier in the story? Yes! They were the ones that ran the VIP events for The Brick, and had expanded to a bunch more international furniture retailers by the time I joined the team. Here’s to staying connected to your contacts after you leave one organization…I simply reached out to Tara Kelly when I decided to come to Calgary and asked her if she had a position for me. Luckily, she said yes. Client Operations Manager was a new role when I joined the team, and I got to standardize a bunch of processes. I remember the very first campaign template I made in Excel, which has a fancy calculator that would tell you the due date of all the pieces of a campaign if you just put in the event date. I think there were still people using that, at least for training, when I left :) Because of my background in Marketing, I always did a lot of marketing support for the team as well, especially when it came to representing the company at trade shows. I got to attend my first international event in Vegas the first October after joining the team and I was in heaven! Meeting all types of people, sharing with them a solution that created an amazingly unique experience for customers, it really was a dream. As the SPLICE Team continued to grow, and because I’m such a big fan of supporting other people in growth as a team, it was pretty clear that I would be added to the Management layer at some point. That point came when the VP of Marketing abruptly left and I became the interim VP of Marketing. But running Marketing AND client programs was too much, and so my boss let me choose which direction I wanted to go. Because of my past relationship with Marketing, and my love for taking care of people, I chose the Client Care route.

I joined the Kirk Marketing team as a Project Manager and quickly worked my way up to Senior Project Manager and then Team Lead, thanks to the support of my wonderful manager. The number one thing I learned at Kirk was how leadership can influence a rising star. After only a few months on the team, my manager observed how I naturally fell into a role of taking care of the rest of the team, and supporting them to get their jobs done the best way possible. He offered me a six month trial as official “Team Lead”, after which, if I liked it, I could stay Team Lead, and if I didn’t, I could simply go back to being a Senior Project Manager. Since the risk was so low, I went for it! And never looked back, from a leadership perspective. I learned that one of my favorite things to do is to learn about people so that we can find better ways for everyone to perform. Whether that means new processes, training, or team building activities, we explored it all. And we had a kick-@$$ team because of it. I would have stayed at Kirk for much longer, but personal life got in the way. 2 weeks of vacation were spent every year going to Edmonton where my family was (if you know, you know) and my personal relationship was falling apart. I needed to be closer to my family for those reasons, and so I had to give my resignation. I cried when I gave it, because I did NOT want to leave. If remote work was available at that time, I might STILL be with Kirk (although it has since been bought out by a larger organization). Of all my work experiences, it was one of the best; the best leadership hands down. But, to get closer to my family, I went to Calgary for the next chapter.

Work-wise, most of what I did at Honeycomb was the same as at Pennylane but with two major differences. It was the first time that I got to work on RFP’s (Requests for Proposals) on behalf of the company, for some REALLY big pieces of work. And it was my first introduction to sales and networking. When I entered the networking arena for the first time I was SUPER nervous. I remember going to a local marketing industry event in downtown Vancouver and having NO idea what to say or do. But one of the things I always knew about myself was that I would figure it out, so I just started talking to people. But first, I listened. I developed a networking strategy I still use today which is based on: - Getting a feel for the room by tapping into the energy in different conversations - Finding a group that seemed to fit my vibe (I wasn’t always right, but it was a good start) - Listening first to see if there was anything I could contribute - Adding some flavor with a story of my own to get into the conversation - Going with the flow It’s funny to write that out now, because it’s the same thing I do in my virtual conversation spaces still. I guess some habits do die hard. During my time at Honeycomb, the VP of Marketing from one of the local competitors called me out of the blue and asked me to coffee. I didn’t know what was the right thing to do, so I said yes. Since I really enjoyed that conversation, and felt so at home when I met the team, I took him up on the opportunity to leave Honeycomb and join the team at Kirk Marketing.

In my search to find a new opportunity within marketing to test my passion, I discovered Pennylane Communications, owned by Russell House Marketing, which was just down the road from The Brick. I really loved the opportunity to ADVISE people in a marketing capacity instead of solely focusing on execution, so I jumped right in. It was my first time working in any sort of production-oriented environment. As a print shop, I got to learn all about paper stock, print speeds, mailing costs and all the different ways to distribute a message to a person. Mass mail, direct mail, addressed, unaddressed, targeted or not, it was amazing to learn all the ins and outs of getting mail to people’s doors. The greatest challenge I experienced at Pennylane was not anything work related, but culture related. It was the first time that I was REQUIRED to eat lunch away from my desk. At the time, I really couldn’t understand that, as it took me away from getting more work done. We had to do all of our calls via video chat (LONG before Zoom was a thing), which I hated at the time, but can see the value in relationship building now (the head office was in Halifax). The one thing I did love was that, if you took your entire 2 week vacation allotment at one time, you got a bonus week…the management was WAY ahead of their time in encouraging employees to take their time off. As a 26 year old I didn’t understand it, but I do now. My biggest win here was the opportunity to move to Vancouver as part of the corporate buyout of Honeycomb Direct Mail. When my boss asked if anyone would be interested in going to Vancouver to help set up the new shop, I volunteered! I spent three days in Vancouver meeting the team and finding a condo, and then over I went!

You know, I don't think I lived up my university days like most people did. I studied...A LOT. I played basketball...A LOT. I built my public speaking skills through Toastmasters. I supported international fundraising opportunities with Golden Key International Honor Society. And then I studied some more. I didn't get pre-acceptance to business school, so my first year, I took General Studies. I learned that I LOVE Art History. Still to this day, if someone wanted to give me a job curating an art museum, I'd be all over that. I also love Earth & Atmospheric Science. How hard are rocks...why rivers migrate. But I applied for Busines School and got in, and that seemed like a more "reasonable" choice at the time. Once there, I chose Marketing as a major because it was the only major that didn't require you to take the Government in Business class. The classic "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" decision making about life we make in our twenties :)

This summer business program was one of the best decisions I ever made. I made life long friends. I got to step into my natural leadership role for the first time (and multiple times). I got to run a baseball stadium for the day (go Nashville Sounds!) and was one of the members of the brain trust who launched the Dodge USA University Dodge Ball League. I met friends that I still have to this day. It was my first time away from home for an extended period of time. I learned a lot living in res (if you know you know), and, because no one knew me, I got to recreate my personal brand in an intentional way to be the person I actually was. We stayed up late working on projects (and playing beer pong). We got up early to practice networking in the business world for the first time. We scavenger hunted and played Monopoly, and grew into the people the program knew we COULD be. I will always have a special place in my heart for the peeps and the staff of this program 💖