Meet Teju Aluko

We were lucky to catch up with Teju Aluko recently and have shared our conversation below.

Teju, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
My optimism stems from choosing joy – everyday.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned in life, but more specifically as a business owner, is to understand, embrace, and choose joy. Choosing joy has been very advantageous for me and I can’t express that enough. My optimism serves as a catalyst for my joy and it is defined as “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something”.

There’s so many ebbs and flows within business and it’s tough to not get caught up in the singular desired emotions – like wanting to always feel happy. Business ownership takes you on a whirlwind of emotions and feelings and joy allows you to not throw in the towel when the undesirable emotions come at some point – instead you’ll remain optimist. Joy allows you to embrace those emotions and stay steadfast in your pursuit. And again, in my experience that’s an important concept to understand in life.

I read a quote from Shari Alyse, America’s Joy Magnet, where she states that she’s found optimism is a catalyst for joy too as it keeps her focused on the good, sets her up for wins no matter what, and keeps her grateful and appreciative for the gift of that moment, and I couldn’t agree more. For me, there is always a piece of joy in any situation, you just have to choose it, and keep choosing it – as it’s a destination never reached but a decision to move forward in spite of. Optimism is a mindset influenced by joy.

An optimistic spirit is a gateway to experiencing more joy – experiencing more joy keeps you optimistic. Joy is where my optimism comes from.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m an intuitive empath and Chief Experience Officer at Branperience [/bran-/spear-/re-/ence] a Full Service Brand Experience Firm that I founded in 2018. We’re a one-stop, all inclusive Firm with a team full of empaths committed to building brands through memorable brand experiences – the experiential way. Our approach to Brand Experiences is very unique and center end-to-end journeys through emotion-led relationships – not just one-off transactions like traditional marketing and branding.

Over the past few years we developed a diverse portfolio supporting an array of industries, most notably in Sports & Entertainment, Nonprofits, Social Impact Organizations across the Country. Our work is for businesses and brands who center people within their brand experiences. Our Stakeholders understand that we have emotions and feelings & those emotions + feelings are involved in everything we do – down to the way we use products, services, brands – everything. Science tells us that 90% of the decisions we make are based on emotion, not this rational thinking that we think they are – so we account for them, strategically, and that’s what sets us apart.

Every day I’m extremely motivated to partner with businesses + brands to strategically sustain their experiences, despite dramatic budget and capacity differences, with an experiential strategy, unified end-to-end journeys, and experience touchpoint management. Doing this while playing a small part in changing the trajectory of the traditional marketing and branding space, by centering our human decision making triggers, our emotions + feelings, to truly connect with those we do business with beyond the sale.

We’ve recently added a new division within the business that will take on brand consulting and development for brands and businesses that are early stage entrepreneurs/business owners that aren’t in the position, just yet, for all of our full service packages.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey have been: being disciplined, practicing discernment, and enforcing boundaries.

We have such an innovative and unique approach to marketing, branding, and business building, it oftentimes goes against the grain from what social media or society tells us. So, it takes a lot of discipline to stay steadfast in our pursuit to champion strategy over tactics, two-way communication over sales pitches, and consistency over ‘prisoners of the moments’, and much more. When experiential marketing is mentioned it’s usually referenced in terms of events or activations and we’ve been able to prove that it’s a much more beneficial concept than that. We’re not positioned as a “quick fix” or siloed approach type of Firm and without discipline it would be easy to derail from what makes us, us. So discipline has been key.

Discernment is a must. Our unique approach puts us in a good spot, as we’re a Full-Service Firm and can provide most of the services that a Stakeholder would need 5-6 agencies to do, because of that we receive a lot of inquiries and referrals from businesses to partner with us on their refreshed, rebranded, or rebooted experiences – and that’s where the discernment comes in. Our qualifiers aren’t just discovery questionnaires and calls to see if the budget aligns, but about mindset and company culture because there lies the emotions and feelings needed to build a sustainable brand experience from the inside out. We’ve been able to partner with some really great Stakeholders over the past few years with this method and I attribute that to our discernment.

Enforcing my boundaries was extremely tough for me but a necessary skill. It required so much interpersonal work. It was one thing to set the boundaries but the work came with actually enforcing the boundaries. Whether it was strictly enforcing policies + procedures with Stakeholders, holding them accountable, increasing one area of business and reducing another, or terminating long-term contracts, enforcing my boundaries has been extremely impactful in sustaining our business.

For those early in their entrepreneurship journey I’d encourage them to develop these three areas:

Invest in your mindset – personally + professionally. Your business habits are an extension of the person you are outside of business – that’s why mindset in entrepreneurship is so important. Poor personal habits will bleed into your business, so continue to work on yourself in both aspects of your life.

Stay disciplined. There’s a big learning curve in entrepreneurship – especially in the beginning stages, so you have to stay disciplined and diligent in the process. Embrace joy and stay steadfast & disciplined in your pursuit.

Make decisions. Make them when you’re nervous, unsure, certain, etc for your business. It’s not necessarily the act of making decisions that is so frightening, it is the uncertainty of the results and repercussions of those decisions but that’s where the power lies. On the other side of fear is freedom, so decide.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
One of the most influential books I’ve read was “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown. It was gifted to me by one of my friends, Nicole Smith – a Life + Executive Coach and Founder of Smitn , after a conversation with her about my next steps in life and business. She’s amazing at identifying needs and this book was right on time.

The essence of the book surrounds doing less but better, to make the highest possible contribution. The book helps you adopt the Essentialism mindset, which if you’ve ever felt busy but not productive then this concept and book would be extremely valuable. It can be applied personally + professionally – which is great for us business owners because our mindset in our personal lives bleed over into our businesses.

Two really valuable nuggets from the book that immediately come to my mind: ridding “sunk-cost bias” by uncommitting and the prioritization of trade-offs – these two concepts have aided me in my disciplined pursuit of less but better.

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Image Credits
Madi Sims Ann Chatillon

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