"Building Brands with Heart and Strategy" with Ingrid Schneider

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Ingrid Schneider, a franchising expert and CEO of Stay In Your Lane, shares her unique journey through various industries, emphasizing the importance of relationships, empathy, and authenticity in business. She discusses the challenges of franchising, the misconceptions founders often have, and the balance between consistency and creativity in branding. Ingrid also highlights the significance of emotional intelligence in brand development and the need for continuous evaluation of brand messaging. Ultimately, she expresses her desire to build a legacy of kindness and support for others in her professional endeavors.

Takeaways

• Ingrid emphasizes the importance of long-term, redemptive relationships in business.
• Her diverse career has taught her empathy, kindness, and courage.
• Authenticity is crucial in branding and leadership.
• Franchising is often more challenging than founders expect.
• Consistency in branding calms the nervous system of franchisees.
• An irresistible franchise brand should embody kindness and emotional intelligence.
• Crafting a memorable founder story is essential for brand connection.
• Brands should be evaluated regularly to ensure they align with their mission and vision.
• Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in understanding consumer behavior.
• Ingrid's legacy goal is to be remembered for her kindness and support for others. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Ingrid Schneider
• 3:22 Ingrid's Journey and Philosophy
• 8:03 The Giver's Mentality
• 11:01 Transitioning to Franchising
• 12:34 Evaluating Franchise Concepts
• 14:17 Misconceptions in Franchising
• 16:34 Consistency vs. Creativity in Franchising
• 19:05 Qualities of an Irresistible Franchise Brand
• 21:28 Crafting Memorable Founder Stories
• 26:24 Rebranding and Brand Evaluation
• 28:24 Foundation Labs: Building Your Brand's Foundation
• 29:55 The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Branding
• 32:18 Reliving Career Moments: The Hailstorm Experience
• 34:13 Empowerment in Leadership: Finding Your Lane
• 36:27 Trusting Your Gut: Navigating Client Relationships
• 39:46 Legacy of Kindness: Building a Meaningful Impact

Transcript

Chantel Soumis (01:47.454)
All right, hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today's guest is the human equivalent of a double shot of espresso and a warm hug all in one. She's magnetic, wise and walks through life like she's already read the final chapter. And spoiler alert, she wins. I'm talking about Ingrid Schneider, CEO and founder of Stay In Your Lane and Train In Your Lane and a powerhouse with a

Master's degree she's not afraid to flex. Whether she's coaching founders, mentoring teams, or mic dropping at training sessions, Ingrid brings the fire and the finesse. She's lived at least nine professional lives, each one cooler than the last, and somehow manages to lead with both heart and strategy every step of the way. She's a manifestor, a magnetic brand builder, and a certified franchising celebrity in her own right.

Working alongside her is like hitching a ride on a rocket ship with snacks, laughter, and soul-searching stops along the way. Get cozy or get ready because this conversation is about to light you up. Welcome, Ingrid!

Ingrid Schneider (03:02.658)
like the nicest intro I think I've ever received Chantel and I'm not sure how worthy of all of that I am but I appreciate you so kind so so kind

Chantel Soumis (03:10.791)
You are such a delight. Well, it doesn't speak nearly to any, it doesn't even scratch the surface. So if you could start off by telling everybody a little bit more about who Ingrid is and your expertise that you've built over the, over the last however many years, please do.

Ingrid Schneider (03:27.068)
Yeah, my name is Ingrid Schneider, as we've said like 10 times now, just in case you guys forgot. I am in the franchising space mostly, but I, my personal why is long-term, redemptive relationships. I don't know if we've ever talked about this, Chantel, but we talk a lot. But I really believe that we're put on Earth to walk with people and humans and be in relationship and community with them, whether it's at work.

or people on the margins or at home or in community if you go to church or if you have a third place like the gym, just relationships that sharpen each other and make each other better and that we rub up against each other and it's hard sometimes but we always come better, come out better on the other end. That's really my personal lie and that's who I am as a person. Do you want me to go into career history or what else do you wanna know? Yeah, that's a, I kind of.

Chantel Soumis (04:14.29)
Absolutely, yes. I mean, why franchising? Like you are known as a franchise celebrity.

Ingrid Schneider (04:19.9)
That's really kind, I just am a franchise human. Although I did get recognized at the airport the other day by someone who's not even in franchising and I was a little bit remissed and taken aback and wanted to crawl in a hole. But a very sweet man. I think my career history is very unique. I started in restaurants and I've done a little bit of everything and really it's me.

suffering from the I can figure it out gene. So I was in restaurants for a long time. I've done retail. And then what happened was I met a man in a restaurant and he managed or he didn't manage. He was the lead singer of a big rock band that sells at Madison Square Gardens. He wanted me to come work for him. I told him to kick rocks a bunch of times. In the meantime, I went and ran a comedy club. So the comedy club was amazing and it was fun. It's one of the largest comedy clubs in the nation, but I

got burned out on that really fast. It's a lot, you kick people out and people are heckling and it's just, it's a nighttime job as well. So I did go and manage the band and manage this guy's life and manage his non-profits, which I'm still really involved in and it still has pieces of my heart. And then got burned out with that and traveling and being on the road again, which I think my life's theme is actually traveling and being on the road, whether it's opening restaurants or now speaking or.

working in the music industry, I got burned out and it was really fun, but I was not sure what I was gonna do. So when I don't know what I'm gonna do, I often will go rock babies. So I'll find my friend who had the most recent baby and say, do you want help with your child? And I will go rock them. So I did that for about a year and just hung out and tried to reclaim myself and give myself some grace and some peace. Not that it was a traumatic leaving, but just sometimes you just, your body needs a break.

And after that, my friend came up to me and said, hey, like, I want you to help me in my body shops. And I was, or my body shop. And I was like, it's not like something I'm interested in. And to make a long story longer, I ended up working with him and we opened four shops. That kind of went awry at the end. And I was doing consulting, pandemic hit, we couldn't get car parts. So I left car consulting and I came into the franchising space.

Ingrid Schneider (06:44.55)
That's the long story and that's why I'm here. I was CMO for a company called Frio Scoramy Pops. I've always been a creative and again, that's part of like, I can figure it out attitude I think is the creativity piece of things. Yeah, I'll stop there. Cause I feel like I'm going on forever.

Chantel Soumis (07:00.222)
No, not at all. mean, it really helps to paint the clearer picture of just how many lives you've lived to earn the wisdom that you have and understanding all of these different industries and understanding people, but also ultimately understanding yourself so that you can serve other people. Right. You can't pour from an empty cup. So if you don't work with people and make the mistakes or learn from other people's mistakes, how are you able to view that through a critical lens? Right.

Ingrid Schneider (07:26.192)
very true. I think it's taught me empathy, it's taught me kindness, it's taught me courage. I don't think I'd be an entrepreneur without watching other people do it and being like, this is in my blood and not living in the what ifs. Like, what if I did this? What if I did that? Like, I always want to just make things happen and do them because that's where we are in our heart. So that's a fair statement.

Chantel Soumis (07:47.396)
about you Ingrid, and I think everybody who knows you feels this way, is that you live with a servant heart. Like you literally are existing to help folks because you know that when you help them, it helps you too in some respects, whether that's grow or whatnot. how can you tell me a little bit more about that? Like what is behind your giver's mentality?

Ingrid Schneider (08:10.934)
that's a great question. And there's a lot of like nuanced responses to that Chantel. So there's a couple of things I would say. it's the way I was raised and also some dysfunction from trauma around that, to be honest. and like the more work I've done on myself, the more I know that like some of that people pleasing comes from some bad situations when I was a kid, but also

learning that that's my superpower and also learning boundaries as I've grown older. I think that humans need each other. Like I need humans. And as much as an introvert as I am, I think that we get really good chemicals released in our brain when we help people. like serotonin comes out in huge forms and we get all the feel good chemicals. So it's just a natural kind of innate thing in me. I...

love to take care of people, honestly. I think givers get, and not that I do it for a selfish reason, but I also think that generosity is a lot of what the key to the world is. And I do love the servant leadership mentality. I don't love the word servant leadership. I think it's kind of overused. I think that's really how we should all be living our lives. Like, I think it's just like being a good human. Like, that's more of what I think that I do.

I don't know, it just comes naturally to me and I understand it doesn't come naturally to some people, but like, I don't know, it's for sure in my DNA and in my core.

Chantel Soumis (09:42.304)
Well, I can tell that you focus on it and you really live intentionally with all of your actions and all of your words. And that's what leading by example really means ultimately. And in the fractional space, you know, it's easy to work with a expert or somebody who's worked with big brands or whatnot. But if they have that leadership mentality, when they can see things through a perspective that is very rare in these cases where you come from a giver standpoint and you're here to

literally bring in all the perspectives to see a creative picture. It's beautiful. And having that and letting the world know that, okay, this is a strong team of leaders. Ingrid is a powerhouse. That is ultimately like, it goes so much further beyond just franchising or marketing in a nutshell. You know, it's about the acumen. It's about the hustle. It's about the muscle behind everything.

Ingrid Schneider (10:37.392)
Yeah, I think you said muscle too. And I think that it's a skill that you build and something that you like think about. You said, you think about it every day, but it's like weightlifting, right? Like today, how can I, you know, my team drives me crazy some days and it's like, okay, I'm not gonna like, I'm just gonna let that go because we could just pick on that. Which we've all had the bosses who just like call out every little thing that we do. But I know that I drive my team crazy too, right? It's that self-awareness. It's, we're all a little nuts.

but we all love each other and that's kind of the differentiator, I think too, in that space.

Chantel Soumis (11:08.615)
I love it. Okay, well, let's transition over into the franchising space because, like I said, you are basically a franchising celebrity. You were voted like the number one franchising influencer, right? Were you not?

Ingrid Schneider (11:23.344)
Well, yeah.

Chantel Soumis (11:24.668)
we broke up there. You know what, weren't you named one of the franchising influencers? Yeah!

Ingrid Schneider (11:29.04)
franchise influencer. Yeah, think it's kind of cheesy, but it's, it's absolutely true. And honestly, I just like I think about that. And what I think about when I think about that is just like, authenticity, like authenticity is the highest vibration. And that's how I live my life is just being authentic. And if people are drawn to that, they're drawn to that. And if they're not, they're not my grandma used say there's a lid for every pot. And I know that

I'm sure my authenticity on LinkedIn or showing up places drives some people crazy and that's also okay. But I just know that that's the highest vibration and that's how I want to live my life. So as far as if you want to call me an influencer or if you want to call me a celebrity or whatever you want to call me, I just try to live my life in a way that's authentic to myself and who I am and show up real without a title. I just am Ingrid. And that's just kind of how I try to.

live my life. You can call me whatever you want. But authentic is the one that I'll go for.

Chantel Soumis (12:25.339)
Careful.

I love it. Beautiful. So with your many, many, many lives and your history in working with franchising in the franchising space, what is the first thing you look for when deciding if a concept has legs?

Ingrid Schneider (12:44.156)
It's a great question. mean, numbers are really important, right? Can franchisees make money off of this? So I think there's a lot. The leadership team is another thing. I think at Stay In Your Lane, we'd like to pick clients, and you know this because you work with us, that kind of vibe with us. And we'll say no to clients that we feel like maybe they have a great concept, but maybe the people that are running that concept are not for us. So I think for us, what we're looking for, honestly, is clients that...

Number one, have great margins so that franchisees can make money and it's a viable plan to launch into the world. We see so many times where after you pay royalties and after you add up all your costs, like recouping your initial investment is 15 years down the road and that's not really realistic. So what does that look like? We talk a ton about culture and what does their culture look like?

Do they have systems already in place? And if they don't, can we help them build them? There's a lot of things that go into really, really evaluating a franchise system and making sure that the system literally is there so that they can be successful.

Chantel Soumis (13:48.89)
Beautiful. I remember we were talking with a prospective client at one point and at first I had to ask the team, do you believe in this product and service? Do you believe in what this company is selling? And everyone without hesitation was like, yes, absolutely. And then I was like, okay, well then I'll dig deeper, know, say less. But I love that. I think that there's so much in alignment that really does give a whole purpose and concept legs.

Ingrid Schneider (14:11.729)
Yeah.

Chantel Soumis (14:18.445)
to really be effective. So what's the biggest misconception founders have when franchising their business?

Ingrid Schneider (14:29.244)
Will you say that question again, because we cut out.

Chantel Soumis (14:31.501)
What's one of the biggest misconceptions that founders of franchise, franchisors have when they're franchising their business?

Ingrid Schneider (14:43.824)
I think that the franchising journey is gonna be really easy and that they're gonna make buckets of money right away. Being a franchise owner is expensive and if you don't have the dollars to like live before you're royalty sufficient for a long time, maybe one, two years, maybe longer.

You're gonna be in the red for a while before that royalty starts paying for being a franchisor. I think they come into a system with big eyes thinking I'm gonna make boatloads of money because I'm gonna franchise this brand. That's not really the case for a while. It's a grind, it's hard, it's not a pipe dream. People think it is a pipe dream, like, I'm just gonna open 15 more units and of course the money's gonna cashflow and it's gonna come in. But really, you've gotta have the systems and support in place. Getting an FDD costs a lot of money, getting a team around you that knows what they're

doing costs a lot of money. I mean, it's very nuanced and there's a lot of laws and regulations around it, so you just can't do it, right? You've got to be able to make sure that you're opening correctly and above board with legal and getting that advice and making sure that your FDD is not in compliance, it's in compliance with the FTC. I mean, everything that goes into it is...

is a huge time and money investment, you've gotta be ready for franchisees to call you at nine o'clock at night and be like, this isn't working, like what's going on, or I can't get into this. Like there's so much where people just think that it's just gonna be a cash cow right away and that's not the case at all.

Chantel Soumis (16:04.948)
Right. That makes sense. know, do the research, do the work, really figure it out if you're going to do, if you really want to open this can of worms. And when you do call Kevin Betts with the Lineger Center. Get your knowledge on. He teaches amazing courses on franchising.

Ingrid Schneider (16:13.691)
Yeah.

Ingrid Schneider (16:20.72)
does do amazing courses on franchising. His law class, legal class, franchise law for, his franchise law for non-lawyers class is like one of my favorite classes that they teach at Lidinger. It's such a good class if you want to get into franchising. It's a really good one to understand.

Chantel Soumis (16:35.509)
Good, good, good. We'll have to include that in the show notes. So here's a follow-up question for that. When scaling a brand in franchising, what's more important, consistency or creativity?

Chantel Soumis (17:05.695)
Tell me more.

Ingrid Schneider (17:07.132)
Intermittent reward system is something I learned about when I had a really bad boss and I would do the same thing over and over again and sometimes he would scold me for it but sometimes he would praise me for it. like the reward system we use on dogs, right? So dogs will sometimes get a treat when they sit and sometimes they won't but they're always sitting because they think they're gonna get a treat, right? They're trying to please you but you only give them a treat every once in a while and it becomes the most powerful reward system in the human psyche. It's really, really hard. So when you are not consistently

you're basically getting people around you and your franchisees intermittent rewards, right? Which is something that's just not healthy and good. So consistency gives them a piece, it calms their nervous system, they know that no matter what you are going to do, that X is gonna happen. And it really helps them understand that these people are for me, that they're here, that they're gonna move forward, that they're really doing the best for the brand. And they have to really understand that your consistency in your actions is gonna be what's there every single time.

So as much as I'd love to say creativity, I'm gonna go with consistency. Really, really calming those people down. I mean...

We talk about like kill the beast moments a lot at saying you're laying Chantelle and you know this, but like when you have a group of people that have bought into a system and one or two of them are mad, they can really rile everybody else up and get mad about the same thing. So just making sure that you're consistent as far as giving them resources and the way you answer things and building systems that can scale with them, that's really the most important thing so that you can keep everyone's nervous systems calm and in check and being consistent.

Creativity is hard, but it's consistent.

Chantel Soumis (18:43.646)
Beautiful. No, I completely, I see what you're saying. And it's such a hard toss up because you should never have to get stuck in that kind of dichotomy, right? You want to be able to choose both all the time. But when we work with different accounts, going in and seeing the CRM and seeing the relationship between sales and marketing, if that is not set up with a seamless structure in order to catch the top quality leads, it's disastrous. You're basically throwing spaghetti, right?

Ingrid Schneider (18:53.308)
Yeah.

Chantel Soumis (19:11.732)
We don't wanna waste a dollar. We know that marketing is usually the first budget to be cut. It's also the last one to get funding. So we need to make sure that we're doing every single step in the process, right? Especially as a fractional coming in and being able to overhaul if needed, but really making sure that we're tracking every single metric to its fullest capacity. So thank you, I agree. I like consistency as your chosen win for that question. Okay.

Ingrid Schneider (19:18.491)
Yeah.

Chantel Soumis (19:39.217)
I do have more questions about franchising. I'll ask you one more because I want to go through and highlight a lot more in terms of brand and storytelling too. But if a franchise brand were a person, what qualities would make them irresistible?

Ingrid Schneider (19:56.506)
Consistency, we'll go back to that one for sure. Like having systems and processes in place, I think that they need to be a little type A person. Maybe center brained with some creativity and some type A. Well rounded, emotionally intelligent, kind for sure. Kindness always reigns. Wise, think seasoned also.

supported, maybe they have a really good therapist or maybe they just have a really good team if they were a person. I think therapy is necessary for everyone in every place. So what is that person's therapy? Maybe it's a great lawyer, maybe it's a great marketer, but just some sage wisdom and advice around that person. What else would they, probably would have a dog because they need good work-life balance, but they're still really, you know, they need to have important,

Chantel Soumis (20:28.156)
love it. Yeah.

Ingrid Schneider (20:51.494)
calming metrics, I would say that they are a good person emerged in community too. Like what does that person look like? They have community around them that would be a safe place, but also guide them in knowledge base and in their life as far as like if they were a person training.

Chantel Soumis (21:10.577)
Very powerful. I'm trying to imagine this person and I'm seeing a like a visualization of all this in harmony in my brain. You know, we've come back to consistency quite a few times now already in our short conversation so far. And that consistency really does build trust. And if it's, we're talking about a brand, if we're talking about a business, the way you show up through and through time and time again, it's really going to be able to cement that kind of predictability and people that just rely on that brand, that company, that

the value of service, whatever it is, that quality, right? Consistency really is the name of the game. Well, okay, let's move into storytelling and brand strategy because this is really where you are incredible at. You are a master storyteller and we see this through your LinkedIn posts. We see it through the copy that you write when you're working on writing articles for brands. But what's your secret to crafting a founder story that people actually remember?

Ingrid Schneider (22:05.372)
That's a really hard question and I think it's really dependent on the founder and really bringing out their best qualities. So who are they? Why do they matter? And I'll think of some of our founders as people that we work with.

Let's talk about Jenny from the Sports Bra. I think of her as a great founder and her story, her origin story is really cool. And she shared with us in one of those franchising pride meetings the other day about how she just, her parents wanted her be a doctor and she just felt like that wasn't for her, but they were parents that had expectations for her and she didn't feel like she met them and she went into the restaurant space, but she's always been a creative and she made it work and she knew that she would make it work.

She also has a really cool concept, which is, if you guys don't know about the sports bra, but it's a all-women's sports bar. They're always packed, there's always a line at the door, they can't get a seat.

So just telling that story, like the why too, I think the why of who that founder is and what they're wired to do, there's different people that are wired to do different things. Jenny wanted a place where she could watch women's sports and be inclusive, right? I think about other founders who have found products that they just become obsessed with and they're like, the rest of the world needs to experience this because I experienced it one time and it's really cool. Or they're trying to meet a need where they're like, hey, I had this need. I think about Romp and Roll, one of our first clients.

Michael and Babs, they built this kids gym because their kids needed that, right? And now it's amazing and they have tons of kids and they serve those kids all the time, which is so important. So I just think depending on the founder's story and their why is something that you really need to bring out. And that's really where the magic happens and just understanding their psyche and how they can really relate to people that they're going after, their clients, their franchisors, their franchisor, their franchisees, and just the people around them.

Chantel Soumis (24:00.784)
I love thinking about it like the brand is actually a person and then thinking about the founder's story because it really is what infuses the brand. And when you look at the stats about how people really prefer to connect with people over brands itself, or that's why personal branding is so critical. You you have to be able to follow and connect with that person and their story versus what we use as a typical brand, like a Wendy's, Arby's, A &W. We want to know what the story is behind that, which is really fascinating. And I think it

Ingrid Schneider (24:28.252)
Isn't this that? Go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. Isn't it like 81 % of people would rather buy from a person than a brand? And I think that's what the founder story is like the most important piece of it is that like they're buying the founder story and the founder and that person rather than buying the brand. I think people often buy Stay In Your Lane because of Ingrid or because of Chantel or because of Roche or because of Tory and what they're doing. Like.

Chantel Soumis (24:30.359)
What's that? The stat? There's a stat? You got a stat for me?

Ingrid Schneider (24:54.3)
They're amazing people. We have a really talented team, but it's about the team. And I hope that I shine a light on that enough. Like, my team's amazing and I can't do half of the things that they do, but they, like, Tori, I mean, we were just working on a website this afternoon and she's animating all these things. And I'm like, I would, I don't know how to do that. I couldn't figure that out. And I'm a creative, right? So it's not just buying a-

product or a brand, but it's also buying the people that like hold that in their hands, right?

Chantel Soumis (25:23.998)
Absolutely. I completely agree. But that level of acknowledgement and appreciation and awareness, too, that's very rare in companies these days. So hiring a leader that also invokes all of those qualities is going to help through and through. It's going to help so much more than just the branding and the creative, but that's going to be contagious. And you're going to continue to spread that kind of acknowledgement and that culture and support or world of just value alignment. So everyone benefits. It's beautiful. And I did find a quote I didn't find that quite

That statistic, wow, blunder. But I did find that 92 % of people trust recommendations from people, even if they don't know them over brands. So 92%, that's bananas. Isn't it? You know, it's getting a little bit more shaky now that people are paying companies to leave reviews, know, hundreds of reviews on Amazon or whatever. But I think having that brand profile that shows up constantly.

Ingrid Schneider (26:04.358)
Yeah.

Chantel Soumis (26:22.304)
consistently, wow, let me pause for a minute. That brand profile that shows up consistently and communicates back and forth with people that are commenting or leaving messages, that's where the real magic happens. And that's where it gets really exciting too, because you can play with those creative voices that really spin on the founder's story or the culture or the vibe. Like Wendy's and their playful social media.

antics that they're constantly doing with Burger King and McDonald's. I love it. There's so much room for creativity.

All right, so when do you know it's a time for a rebranding grid? And what's your process for leading that evolution?

Ingrid Schneider (27:05.584)
This is one of my favorite things to do in the whole world and you know that. Every brand is really necessary. You need to be evaluating your brand every year. Are you still communicating the things that you wanna communicate? Is your mission the same? Is your vision the same? When we talk about branding, we're not just talking about logos and colors. That's all great, right? But what does your brand actually stand for? Who are you? What's your mission? What's your vision? Has your avatar changed? Have the people that you're going after to sail to, start over.

Has your avatars changed? Like who are the people you're going to sell to?

and are they the same people, right? Like maybe we've realized that we're actually not targeting millennials anymore. Maybe GenX has become our most important buyer. How do we need to change that? How do we need to think through how we communicate? All of those things need to be done on a yearly basis, but I wouldn't do it always internally. Every three years, hire an outside company to go through your brand and just to walk through things with you and make sure that you're all communicating with the same language. I think what we see in branding a ton is that everybody kind of has an idea of what the company does,

don't always communicate that in the same way. So if I talked about stay in your lane with you Chantel, you're like what does stay in your lane do? Our stories maybe be a little different. You're in the marketing wheelhouse most of the time and I'm running the entire company so it might be a little bit different in how we communicate but it should be the exact same. So how are we communicating messaging? How are we communicating nuance? How are we really conveying our values even through our LinkedIn posts and how we represent ourselves out in the public and who we are as a brand?

things are so important. So how we do that is what we call the foundational lab. It's a three-hour process and it's one of the funnest things that we do. The most fun things, the funnest isn't a word is it? We're gonna call it a word today. I like to speak English that I make up all the time. Just do it. Skibbity. I mean I don't even know what skibbity means but whatever.

Chantel Soumis (28:56.901)
you

Give it a riz. Yeah.

Make it stop.

Ingrid Schneider (29:05.436)
So we do that through Foundation Labs, the three hour process. We literally start with your goals because if we don't know what your goals are, we can't grow and attain them, right? Like that's part of your brand is your goals. Then we go through your mission and your vision and your values. We do psychology studies through some different exercises that are super fun about brands that you align with and why you align with them and why you would say that you feel like them. We go through a really cool exercise about colors and if you're a brand new brand, like what do you

want to represent and people don't even know we're doing colors but we talk about all these different words and color psychology is so interesting as you know I'm obsessed with psychology like you are in the brain like what does a color make us feel like when we look at food we know it's orange and red and yellow those are the colors of McDonald's those are the colors of Burger King Wendy's has a little blue thrown in there but it's still red right that's a food

psychology that's very very standard for a reason. So like going through those colors and really talking about the words that evoke the emotions, it's a really fun exercise. I could go on and on about it for days, but at the end we give everybody like

basically a book, it's 150 to 200 pages of just information about your brand and the way that you want to get in your one, three and five year goals with your brand in your branding, how it's going to propel you there. And we even talk about sales, like we touch every single piece of operations and how all of that touches your brand and how it affects it, which is really, really holistic and really helpful.

Chantel Soumis (30:37.679)
beautiful. You mentioned knowing the psychology, right? I'm obsessed, we're both obsessed with like the neuroscience, the consumer psychology behind brand development. I've got a question for you on emotional intelligence. Okay, so what role does emotional intelligence play in brand development?

Ingrid Schneider (30:57.03)
Great question. think there's so many nuances with emotional intelligence and brain development. And I think that if you're not keen to the nuances and you're not emotionally intelligent, you can look at numbers on a paper and it may add up. But honestly, like if you're not figuring in all the human components, then you lose, right? It's also, right?

Chantel Soumis (31:15.705)
That's your consumers, your consumers are humans. Yeah, you've got to connect with them somehow more than numbers.

Ingrid Schneider (31:20.828)
And I talk about feelings a lot, and I think if you're not emotionally intelligent, you don't have a lot of feelings, or you don't want to feel them, which, I mean, we all battle with from time to time, but how do you really embrace the feeling that a brand gives me, right? If I'm dealing with Ben and Jerry's and I'm going to go get a pint of ice cream at the store, chances are I just want to go home and be kind of like an excavator or a digger and find the treasures in my chunky monkey and find the bananas and the chocolate.

Chantel Soumis (31:48.003)
Yes.

Ingrid Schneider (31:50.028)
Or if I'm going to the shop, that's gonna have a different emotion, right? Like I'm going to the shop because I'm probably with a friend. Last time I was with my friend Patrick, we went to the shop because it was really cold and for some reason I love ice cream on cold nights. Let's not talk about it because I'm a little bit weird in that way. Because like.

let's go get ice cream. was like, yeah, it's freezing. And we walked down to Ben and Jerry's in our jackets and that was a different experience. It's more of a community experience. We walked in, they, you know, were greeting us and they were letting us taste ice creams. Way different experience, right? But that brand, Ben and Jerry's still evokes so much emotion, which is part of the emotional intelligence. Like how do we use our emotional intelligence actually to convert consumers into customers or into clients?

Chantel Soumis (32:33.112)
beautiful. It goes so much deeper than most people can ever fathom, especially when you're so locked in and the CEO brain and that seat where you're just looking at metrics and quantitative analytics, where you really can't think of all the qualitative, the psychographics, along with the demographics. So thank you for sharing that. I want to ask you a couple more questions as we wrap things up, because I know we both have a hard stop at the top of the hour. But this one's something to think about. I'm really curious.

You've lived many lives in your career. If you could relive one chapter, which would it be and why?

Ingrid Schneider (33:14.652)
this is gonna sound crazy and people that know me are gonna be like this is really what you'd choose Ingrid but 100 % I would choose it. I just went out on a breakfast with my friend Matt Moore the other day and he's in the automotive space and I'll tell you that I built a really good name for myself in the automotive space and leaving that was really hard. Not just because I had a good name but because I ended up becoming passionate about it and what I really want to relive is we had a hailstorm season

Ingrid Schneider (33:47.203)
and 2015 in Colorado, which is this is gonna be crazy to you, but it hailed and it's traumatic on people. They come in with their cars, they're all busted up. Literally we had golf balls, all this size hail. I loved it, which is this is gonna sound so wacky, but I loved telling people like, yo, I get it that your car's totally busted up, but we're gonna make it better and we're gonna make it right and we're gonna fix it in the right way. I loved.

the constant movement in that. This is gonna also sound weird, I loved calling insurance companies and kind of like arguing with them and being like, no, like you're gonna pay us the right amount of money to get this person's car fixed. You're not gonna lowball us and you're not gonna lowball the customer. Like they signed an agreement with you.

I can't tell you the energy that's in a hail season, which is gonna sound so crazy. Like maybe you would be like, Ingrid, you work for a rock band and you open restaurants and you ran a comedy club and like, you know, became friends with Sinbad. But like a good hail season is there's nothing like it. So weird. It's just so weird. But it's, I think about it all the time.

Chantel Soumis (34:49.698)
isn't that funny? A good hail season. Get that on a sticker for staying in lane. May you be in your good hail season. All right, when you feel most in your lane, what does that moment look or feel like?

Gabe Leal (34:51.701)
I you,

Ingrid Schneider (34:56.86)
I could have chosen.

Yes.

Ingrid Schneider (35:08.89)
I think it's empowerment. When I feel most in my lane as a CEO, like I feel like my team is empowered to do things. I'm not micromanaging them. They're being more creative than I am. As a creative, I have often thought like, I'm like a really, really, really creative person. Like no one can outdo me, which is kind of egotistical, but also like I like things done the way that I like things done as a creative.

But it's so fun when like I see Tory or Roche coming to me with some design work and I'm like, yeah, that's amazing. And way better than I would have ever done or way different than I would have thought about things. I really feel like my team is running holistically. I think about like the gears in a clock watch and how they all kind of have their part and they're all moving. Like the watch is flowing. I can look at the time and nothing's stopping and everything keeps going. Like that's when I really feel like.

Holistically, things are moving forward, but I'm also taking care of myself, and I'm taking care of my dog, and I'm taking care of everything around me. And I'm also serving people on the margins, that's the passion of mine, as I work with people in Pine Ridge, and I work with some of the homeless folks here in Denver, friends. So I think that's what being in my lane feels like for me.

Chantel Soumis (36:25.779)
That's beautiful, that empowerment, empowerment. But you build that on like acknowledgement, like you fan the flame, right? And you do that by through the lens of empowerment. Beautiful. Well, thank you, thank you as well, because I feel it on my end, Ingrid, and I feel empowered and acknowledged and appreciated. And people don't realize that Tory and Rochi with their creative lens and their just genius that pours out.

You can't be creative all the time. So you really need to be in a place where you feel acknowledged and appreciated and empowered in order to let out all of that magic. And a lot of people don't realize that.

Ingrid Schneider (37:04.144)
Yeah. And it's disheartening sometimes, because sometimes you like pour out all this magic and you go back to the client and they're like, I hate all of it. And you're like, what? Right? Like making them happy also is super hard. So they, it's true. They have a hard time being on all the time. And so it's quite an interesting space to be in to be a creative.

Chantel Soumis (37:22.839)
That means you really need that support system, that circle that really does hype you up. We all need a hype team. So you are a very intuitive person. You usually go with what you know and you stand firm in that presence, in that power. Can you share a time when you trusted your gut and it saved the brand?

Ingrid Schneider (37:29.616)
we do.

Chantel Soumis (37:46.215)
for your sanity.

Ingrid Schneider (37:46.872)
Okay, I mean, I think that we're not always easy to work with, Chantel, and I think that there's been times where we've had clients where I'm like, this isn't a fit for us, but early on we took clients that shouldn't have been our clients. And I think that we've had to go back to clients and be like, hey, like, this obviously isn't working, and it's a gut instinct sometimes, or it's like obvious, where we actually have to let them go, because it's not a mutual.

It's not a mutually beneficial relationship. I don't want to be in a relationship where my team's being belittled or they're not being appreciated or they're being questioned about decisions that they're making. They're experts in their field. We have all these little experts. UX, UI, a meta expert, a digital expert. We've built this entire congloberation of people that...

operate like holistically right? So I think that for me when I really feel like my gut instinct is like, this client isn't treating my team right or I mean I've had some woo-woo like instinctual stuff where I've been like, yep we'll never work with that person for sure, but I think more than that like holistically I'm always trying to

put myself in my team shoes and how they're dealing with the clients and it's not about making the money, it's really about keeping my team intact and safe and secure and the money comes later. Like we have to continue to really protect them and protect their piece and obviously we have a job to do and sometimes it's uncomfortable. It's a job, right? It's not called fun, it's called a job. But how do we continue to protect them, protect their piece and know that like

When you're our client, we're pushing you to do the right thing and we're pushing you to make changes. And sometimes it's really interesting, we get hired and you'll be a fractional CMO for somebody and you're like, hey, you have no systems in place and you've got to overhaul this. And they're like, we don't want to. And you're like, then why did you hire me? What is this about? So really understanding that we can pivot and that it's okay to pivot and that our intuition is often our guide and knowing who's our customer and who isn't.

Chantel Soumis (39:55.898)
It's so scary giving up the keys to the creative engine and I feel like a lot of people are very hesitant to do that and if you're not ready to do it you're not ready for a creative department you're not ready for a fractional CMO unfortunately. If you don't want to change your systems to make them better and improve them. Why am I here right so very very very fair to say.

Chantel Soumis (40:20.409)
am obsessed with our conversation, Ingrid. I could literally talk to you all the time. I wanna bring you back on to really go through the empathetic leadership side because you really are a leader that I admire and adore and you have so much wisdom in you that's just gifted. feel like half of this just natural. It just pours out of you. It's just radiating like you're the sun and we're all kind of rotating around you to absorb some of it. So I really appreciate it. But I will ask you one more question.

What legacy are you most excited to build through stay in your lane and train in your lane? Because we didn't really talk about train in your lane.

Ingrid Schneider (40:57.34)
We did not. So, I mean, we have two companies. One is obviously fractional, C-suite work, project-based work, and a lot of creative work. And the other one is a fractional...

chief AI officer named Nick who can serve people, but we also do a ton of trainings and a ton of speaking. And that kind of happened organically. It wasn't something that like we've set out to do, but we started using AI and adopting it from day one when Chat CPT was released. then Kitty and the Academy was the first company that came and said, like, will you train our team? And we're like, yeah, because we were using it internally for ourselves to bolster our team and to use it for marketing and to use it for operations and to use it for sales. So we were constantly like integrating it into our stay in your lane, but then talking about how we were integrating it. And so then people wanted.

that. So I rolled off the company because I really wanted people to understand what stay in your lane and train in your lane was. Let me go to the legacy now. I think my legacy is really kindness and if if I put my head at the pillow at night my pillow at night

I put my head on my pillow at night. If I can say like I was kind today and I really did my best in serving the people around me and loving the people around me and showing them grace and empathy and helping them be a better human and them helping me be a better human, then that's okay. Like my job is done. Like, and I think about that often when I lay my head down on my pillow because...

Ingrid Schneider (42:22.244)
I mean, I don't want to go to sleep and die in my sleep, which I mean, I'm not afraid of death, but like, I want people to be like, Ingrid was kind. Like she was just kind. She was gracious and she was kind. So.

If we're kind to our clients, if we help them grow, I think you and I talk about how we over give to our clients often because we're givers and sometimes we should be charging them or we're intervening and we're like, okay, all hands on deck and helping them get through a big project or a problem when they're not necessarily paying us to do that. I think that's where kindness goes hand in hand in what our team does and who we are.

Chantel Soumis (42:58.186)
Yes, I mean, right back to the first intro of you just being a giver. take, we all take so much pride in our work because we love what we do. And it does come from a place of giving and the fact that we just want to leave things better than the way we found them, right?

Ingrid Schneider (43:14.652)
Yes, 100%. Or we didn't do anything. Our job is not there, right? That's our job, to leave things better.

Chantel Soumis (43:22.281)
Amazing. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Ingrid. Woo! All right. That was a... Yes! my word.

Ingrid Schneider (43:29.272)
Thank you, Chantel. Like, let's thank somebody. I'm going to just add this at the end. Chantel is a unicorn. And I put an ad up for fractional CMO. How long has it been now, Chantel?

Chantel Soumis (43:45.138)
seven months.

Ingrid Schneider (43:47.28)
Yeah, and she's just served our clients in really fun, unique ways, and she's jumped in with both feet, and she constantly amazes me. We had actually had a client today that we did a departure meeting with, and I just came to the meeting. Like, I barely gave anything, and Chantelle had it organized and ready to go, and she's constantly, she's constantly, like, over the mark, and not under the mark. She's constantly...

overperforming and over giving and over serving and in the most beautiful ways. I actually texted her and the rest of the team that did that meeting today and I said, you guys just nailed it. Like, way to leave a client with so much good. It was really cool, so.

Chantel Soumis (44:28.677)
I it. thank you so much. Well, it's really nice when we don't have to say goodbye to a client. Full transparency, I was just filling in for somebody while they were out on maternity leave. So I was just in for a very small piece of time. Yeah. So when we were able to host that meeting and they were like, we still want to work with you, send us a proposal for X, Y, and Z, it really...

Ingrid Schneider (44:39.46)
Right. You're gonna get fired.

Chantel Soumis (44:51.974)
It lights me up because I don't want to ever say goodbye. I just love these brands that we get to work on. It's like you become a part of them and they become a part of you. All right. Anyways, Ingrid just dropped wisdom like confetti. And I hope you're walking away feeling lit up, locked in and ready to lead with more intention. From franchise growth to brand soul searching to flipping your lid with style, which we will talk about next time when we're on empathetic leadership.

Ingrid reminded us that scaling a business isn't just about systems. It's about staying in alignment, staying in your lane and showing up with your whole heart. If this episode resonated with you, go give Ingrid some love on LinkedIn and check out her work at Stay in Your Lane and Train in Your Lane. Trust me, you'll want her in your orbit. And as always, thanks for tuning in to the Fractional Marketing Advantage podcast. Until next time, stay spicy.

Stay curious and don't forget, magic happens when you own your lane.