#101: Building a Personal Brand While Working Full-Time ft. Roxy Couse

Roxy Couse (00:00.248)
I was so afraid of being seen, that actually benefited me and my role because I was talking about something that I have the authority to speak on. That's an example of like you're afraid to be seen, but being a thought it's when you work in corporate and you have all this knowledge that you're only using in your job, it's such a disservice to your brand because you can be a thought leader.

Rhona Pierce (00:19.864)
So brand deals are great, but you're still trading time for dollars at the end of the day. When did you realize that you needed kind of like a product based business and what led you to build Sloefy

Roxy Couse (00:31.98)
The best way to like if you're gonna be an entrepreneur, you have to figure out how to scale yourself. if you wanna make more money, if you want to have a bigger impact. And so

Rhona Pierce (00:44.984)
Millennials were sold a deal, follow the rules, work hard, and the career takes care of itself. Roxy Couse held up her end for over a decade. Corporate America didn't. So instead of grieving quietly, she got loud. 650,000 followers, 100 million views, brand deals with LinkedIn, IBM, and a platform called Sloefy helping other professionals do the same thing she did. Stop being the best kept secret in the building. Today,

We're talking about what happens when the path you were promised disappears and how you turn that into something nobody can take from you. Roxy, welcome to Workfluencer.

Roxy Couse (01:22.498)
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to talk with you today.

Rhona Pierce (01:26.328)
Amazing. So for folks who haven't met you yet, what's the Roxy Couse story in thirty seconds?

Roxy Couse (01:32.75)
So I worked in corporate for almost 15 years. And that time I worked for Fortune 500 companies. I worked in tech, started my career in e-commerce before I moved into tech consulting. And I found the content creation space a little over three years ago and started on TikTok. Just started playing around over there. And then my platforms just grew from there: TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn.

My content is focused on workplace culture, little humor or lots of humor, just making fun of the things that we take so serious about work. And yeah, that that that's really that's really how I went from corporate to where I am today. And now I'm launching this platform called Sloefy to help more cor corporate professionals to be more visible and build their personal brand inside of corporate and outside.

Rhona Pierce (02:27.694)
And that's something that I was very, very excited to talk to you about because visibility, it's just it's so important and it's so different from what we were all taught we had to do, at least us millennials. W was there a specific moment where it clicked for you that like being good at your job wasn't enough?

Roxy Couse (02:50.316)
I'll be honest, there there there definitely was a specific moment that I thought, okay, it was like a light bulb almost. But I was in the skip level meeting with my boss's boss and I I just asked because I'd taken three lateral moves and I asked him, what else do I need to do before I I can get promoted? Because I've been doing all these lateral moves and I feel like I'm doing a really good job.

I my performance reviews have been really good. You know, I've even I even got an exceeds expectation. So why am I not getting promoted? And he said, There's nothing else you need to prove. We're just not ready to promote you. And no one had ever said that to me, just so plainly and to my face. And I just realized that in that moment that no performance alone would not get me promoted. And

So I needed to figure out what would if if I wanted to stay in corporate, but no one had given me the game. So I just had to figure it out for myself.

Rhona Pierce (03:54.776)
I think I had a similar moment and I think there's some real grief in that. Like you did everything right and the reward you were told to expect just wasn't there. Like for some people that realization is just like deflating, right? But for you it seems like it did something. Like what did it actually push you to do?

Roxy Couse (04:18.029)
It it definitely was deflating. I mean, there were there was definitely tears. I but one thing about me is I am I I will cry, but then but then I'm going to do something about it. I don't I don't sit in my misery for long. But I I I just realized that I mean, if if s if something was gonna change, I was gonna have to be the one to to change it. And I was really tired of

the only way for me to move up was to promote myself out. I was constantly finding new opportunities elsewhere. I moved across the country for jobs. Like it was

Rhona Pierce (04:55.234)
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Roxy Couse (05:01.102)
I was very invested in trying to grow my career. And my first thought was not to necessarily job hop, even though I did do quite a bit of job hopping, especially in my 20s. It was it was definitely to have these conversations, these candid conversations about, okay, what else? Because I I'm doing what you told me to do. I'm learning an organization, I'm exceeding the expectations you've given me. I'm working really hard.

And I I do consider myself a high performer. I'm an eldest daughter. I think there are certain characteristics about us that are just a little bit different. And so I I I realized I just had to do something about it. And entrepreneurial ship was one of those those paths for me. I feel like I was always being pulled to be an entrepreneur, but I was honestly really afraid to to take the leap. And I've tried several different businesses before. I've had an Etsy shop.

I've I've had a woodworking business. I've started a subscription box at one time. So you can you can also classify me as just like a bona fide busybody to always been this way. But hearing those words about like, no, we're not ready to promote you and realizing that I need it to change, I just started to think about like what that could look like for me.

Rhona Pierce (06:25.262)
Such a powerful thing because it's like, yeah, it's sad and definitely there's tears, you cry, but it's like, okay, what am I going to do next? How did the idea of like that take us back to that very first TikTok? How did you go like, okay, this is kind of like what I'm first going to do?

Roxy Couse (06:44.718)
So TikTok it was so funny because when in twenty twenty I I we were all trying to figure out like what's next. We didn't know if we were gonna lose our jobs. We I mean, I think everybody was a yeah afraid of what it was gonna look like. I mean, people were getting laid off. I I remember the the organization I was in at the time, they said, you know, there was gonna be a layoff, but keep your head down, keep doing your job.

And I remember sitting at my computer not knowing the the day that layoffs were happening, not knowing if I was going to be one of the people let go. And even leading up to that moment, the company had been trying different things. So for example, we did a day we fur we did a furlough and it was the first time that ever in my career that I'd been unemployed. And the unemployment process is awful. And

Rhona Pierce (07:33.186)
Yes.

Roxy Couse (07:35.55)
It it it it is not I mean when you're a salaried employer you're accustomed to making a certain amount, the amount that you get for unemployment is terrible. And and so so I I went through the unemployment process and for for for those two weeks, but I'll I'll be honest, in twenty twenty I was honestly thankful to to take a few weeks off from work.

especially knowing that it was temporary and I still had a job after that. Yeah. But in that in those two weeks, I started an Instagram and it was it was for home decor. I started this Instagram while I had this extra time and I was doing other stuff. I like was walking more outside. I was planting a garden outside in my yard. Like I I feel like I was finding joy living and doing things outside of my laptop for what felt like the first time in

a decade at least. But anyways, so I started with this Instagram and then I soon forgot about it when when worked picked back up and I knew about TikTok, but I refused to download it because I thought TikTok was just for younger kids. People were over there dancing and I'm like, I want nothing to do with that. I'm a corporate professional. I'm climbing the corporate ladder. And but twenty twenty one I did download TikTok. You know, it's funny, TikTok is very addicting. And I but I wasn't seeing

I wasn't seeing a whole lot of corporate content. I was seeing a lot of humor and I was seeing a lot of lifestyle stuff. But I think that's that's also the point. And so I started posting on TikTok, showing my home, not really thinking too much of it, but I also wasn't I wasn't growing that much as I was doing it. And I had this situation happen at work where I was basically on a team of

I think there was three, maybe four of us. I there was four of us. And something happened where I was excluded from some some something that was that was going on. And I had this moment where I was like, I I'm so sick of this. Like I'm so sick of the politics, the microaggression, all these things. And it was around the holidays and I go to TikTok and I just start I posted

Roxy Couse (09:51.038)
story. Like I'm I'm I'm great at storytelling. Like I'm a marketer. I growing up I used to go to a young writer's program a a as a kid and I just posted a story about being a homebody. And I led with like I didn't know this was a great hook at the time. I didn't even really know that you should lead with like a strong hook for your post. But I just said, you know, is anyone else a homebody? But yet you like being invited to things even though there's a ninety nine percent chance you're not going.

Rhona Pierce (10:09.72)
Should do yeah.

Roxy Couse (10:20.492)
Boom, like it was it was like night and day. Yeah. I probably had like a thousand followers on TikTok at the time. And within a couple of days, I had 10,000. And then within a couple months, there was 25,000. And I just rode that wave of talking about being a homebody. So like when I started, nothing to do with work. I wasn't talking about working in corporate. People didn't even know I worked in corporate. And I think that that is also the power of building a personal brand.

You can start to unravel all these different aspects about yourself because your your brand is everything that has to do with you. And I am more than just my job. You are more than just your job. We are more than just the work and the titles that we have. And but it wasn't until I actually did start talking about corporate that things really started to to to change and my platforms just like skyrocketed because corporate professionals were looking for real talk and

I was able to provide that.

Rhona Pierce (11:19.37)
That is such a powerful story. And it it's so true. It's like there's so much, there is corporate content out there, but the content that always does well, the corporate content that does well, is when you're being real. Cause there's so much of the broetry and the like the stuff that it's like, okay, we all know this is fake. We've all sat in that corporate meeting where people are saying stuff and you're like, wait, what did you just say? You just put sentences together, but this is not how humans speak.

Right. so as long as you just are normal and real, your content will like resonate. And my gosh, I remember those days of TikTok back in in twenty twenty one where it you grew so fast and it was just like this moment. Tell me how that was for you, like growing so fast, because that's something that we don't really get trained on how to deal with.

All the comments, all the growth, the likes, the the criticism, the everything.

Roxy Couse (12:22.152)
think it's something that you ever get used to. I think and especially when you work in like this is not your your job. This is just this hobby that you're doing. I actually have coached corporate people on their personal brand and showing up on social media and I just remember this one example. one of the people that I coached she had this post that went viral and she deleted it she

later, she reached out to me. She's like, hey, I, and it was almost like a whisper. Hey, I TikTok, I had this post that was going viral, and people started, people started commenting on it. And she's I I deleted. And then I'm like, no, you don't delete it. You don't delete. The thing about being, we we have to realize that like if you're showing up on social or like you've decided that you want to be more visible, you you can't put like a maximum on how visible you're gonna become. Like you just can't. So

The the cost of like wanting to to be visible is truly to be seen and virality might happen. Like, no, that's not the goal, but it might happen and it's cool when it happens. Like you're not doing it to go viral, but it does happen. And I there have been some times where I've had some like really hot takes that I just wanted to like take it down and be like, okay, no. so for example, one time I talked about

work from home fatigue. One of the things that social media one thing that's really crazy about social media is that we say we want people to be real, but when you are real and you are sharing like real emotions, it it just evokes something in people. Like so for example, when I said I'm d I realized I was dealing with work from home fatigue, people are like, you're so ungrateful. You're the the reason why we need to they're doing return to office.

Rhona Pierce (14:16.563)
my you're you're

Roxy Couse (14:20.962)
This is corporate propaganda. And I'm like, no, this is a real emotion. Think about it. Like, people started getting let go. I'm working from home. Every my most of us, a lot of us corporate professionals, especially if you moved around for work because before 2020, like relocating for a job and getting paid to relocate these getting big relocation package money to do it.

your community become became the people that you worked with and then you started to build community around like your your your work, which is exactly what happened to me. And now all the people that I knew were moving away because now you have more flexibility around where you live. Why would you want to live by an office that was not open? And so yes, I would I was dealing with work from home fatigue, was trying to figure out how do I how do I be more than just this job. And

Sorry, I I just shared a little bit about that and people it it just went crazy. I also when I started talking about things I wish I knew in my twenties when it comes to my career, I remember sharing one example. Or I remember sharing the first I think it might have been first video I did on that. It went vi mega viral. It was the most viral video I had on TikTok, but I filmed it after a very stressful customer meeting and the

It was it was getting dark, so the lighting wasn't right. I was exhausted, my hair wasn't done, which also is like if you're striving for perfect, especially when it comes to social media and like showing up or being more visible, then you're doing yourself a disservice. And so I filmed this video, I posted it, and it starts going vi it starts going viral. I might have gotten like 40,000 followers just from

single video because there was a time where TikTok is like was just the algorithm was so much better. And I was nervous about that too, like when when I started going borrow with that because I just felt like I was more hiding in plain sight, especially when it came to my corporate job. Especially on TikTok. I'm like, nobody I work with is on TikTok, so they don't know. And yeah, so yes the cost of being visible.

Rhona Pierce (16:39.746)
Did how did that go at work? Like, cause I mean, if you went viral at some point, someone's gonna see it.

Roxy Couse (16:48.78)
It wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. So yeah. So actually when I had about forty thousand followers on TikTok, that was someone mentioned it and I was a little like, what? I mean, 'cause I felt like I was living this like Hannah Montana life. And at one point I went viral on TikTok 'cause I was talking about a loyalty program at a retailer and the

I I'm a marketer and the company I used to work for in the tech space also did marketing. We did marketing automation. And so for me to even be talking about a a marketing program at a retailer, this is this is right in the wheelhouse of the work that I do all day long. So this is this is great. This is a great use of your personal brand and thought leadership. So it goes viral and our PR team actually reached out to the the

our our agency reached out to the internal PR team. They're this is great. Roxy did this and it's being picked up by Business Insider and all these others. And so that's an example of like you're you're afraid to be seen, but being a thought when you work in corporate and you have all this knowledge that you're only using in your job is such a disservice to your brand because you're you can be a thought leader outside of it. And

I was so afraid of being seen, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. That actually benefited me and my role because I was talking about something that I I I have the authority to speak on.

Rhona Pierce (18:23.394)
the that's I think one of the the biggest fears of the people that I speak to daily and people who just like send me DMs. I actually have a DM right now of someone saying like, yeah I it's just people are so I I really think because of the stories that we hear, because yes, there are some shitty companies out there that do some things and like you go viral and they fire you. That is a thing. I'm never gonna say no. But I'm gonna I think most of the time companies

No issue with it, especially if they see a benefit. So, like, how did you decide? Like, okay, you've been there, you've you did that one, and now you're gonna now intentionally be talking more about like business side or like corporate stuff that you know, thought leadership. How do you decide what to talk about so that you can build your authority without setting off any alarms with your manager or with HR?

Roxy Couse (19:21.41)
So the first thing that I always tell people to do is to read the social media policy. And I when when I was posting on social media, I read the social media policy. I had it downloaded on my machine. I continue to look at it. And in my bio on all platforms, I always said these views are my own. They don't represent the company that I work for. I think still on my LinkedIn, it I it says somewhere in my about me that any story I tell do not represent.

the the companies that I was employed at. Because that that is that that's very important for you to follow the the the social media policy. And and for me as a corporate employee, that was important for me because I never thought that I would do have be an entrepreneur full time. I I just never thought that was that was my path. So I always wanted to make sure that I I'm a rule follower by nature anyways. But I did also

I was like, I I think I'll just ask for forgiveness instead of so if someone were to come to me and be like, Hey, we don't like your social media profile, you you can't do this anymore. Then I would have had to have made a decision on whether I wanted to continue, but nobody ever did that. And I feel like because I was following the social media policy that the company put out, it was more people felt awkward because they knew I was

had because they had seen content that I had posted and they were trying to figure out how to bring it up to me in in the workspace. instead of it feeling like they they they they they felt like I was breaking a rule or some or something. did I sometimes feel like my it might have been treated as like a distraction. yes.

And I feel like there were times where I overcompensated where I was sh I traveled a lot. A lot of people don't know that in my and I never share that because I'm very specific on what I share in content. But w when I was posting the the first couple of years working in corporate, I was traveling a lot for work. You would have never known. I didn't share, I didn't talk about where I was or

Roxy Couse (21:36.482)
Come along with me to do this. Like, no, I kept my work and the content separate separate and I probably overcompensated at my job where like I was more visible at work because I had something else on the side and I was trying to make it make it work too. So

Rhona Pierce (21:53.908)
That is something that we don't talk about enough. as someone obviously I I I started the same way, like working in corporate and working on the side, and then you I'm also a rule follower, so yes, social media policy's there and I work in HR, so definitely follow those rules. and then like it would be so ironic for the director of TA to get fired over not following a simple rule in the in the

social media policy. So that. But then also like because you were thinking, I and I know for me, because I'm thinking like, my gosh, people are gonna say this. What are people gonna think? Blah, blah, blah. I'm now overcompensating and trying to be like the perfect employee, follow all the rules, do all the stuff, work extra, work this, that. Like a lot of creators don't talk about that. Cause when we look back,

It's like, yeah, those you kind of like romanticize those those times in in corporate, but it was really rough juggling both things. I like have mad respect for people who do that.

Roxy Couse (23:01.442)
yeah. And I even s even more so that I I I mean, I while I was in corporate, like one of the personas that I started to be like the Millennial Manager. I became known as the Millennial Manager, but I was my role, I was at the director level at that point before I quit corporate to do be a entrepreneur full time. I was a senior director. So

I was I was highly visible. I was in these senior leader meetings. I was in my my boss was the the COO of the company. So like I'm interacting with executives all day long too. So I definitely had to wear mini hats and it was a lot more difficult because my role was very, very visible and I never wanted to come across as unprofessional.

And so so yeah, it it it was it was very challenging. And I think you know, maybe people think that because I was at that level too, I maybe I didn't do as much at at the job, so I had more time for content. That's that is absolutely not true because I was also a player coach and I mean c corporate has changed a lot, team sizes are really small, managers or directors, like you don't get to just

manage a team anymore. You also have to do the work too. when even when I was a consultant at at the director level and I had I was like I had like twenty one people on my team and I'm doing content. Yeah. I was still our lead consultant. I'm on calls. I'm leading consulting calls with c our enterprise clients. And then I'm clocking out and I'm going to do my content and doing all the other things on the side. So

It it's two it's basically two full time jobs and you have to figure out like what works and I it I always people always ask me about like consistency because I I do I do find that if you want to do content and you're trying to you're trying to see or or like if you're trying to build your personal brand, I don't want to just say content, but if you're trying to build your personal brand, you can fall off because you get busy at work. But it's like for me when I

Roxy Couse (25:20.494)
'Cause I know I wanted to build my brand. It was before work. I always had a meeting at 9 a.m. So that time is before I had a a child too. But that time, like from six to nine, I was working. And then that time afterwards, I I'm I'm working on it weekends. Like I would put a little time aside to do it until like I didn't have to do that so much to be so consistent, but still I'm still showing up consistently now. But yeah, it has to be for a while. It's two it's two full time jobs.

Rhona Pierce (25:49.006)
Yeah, it really is. Did you start seeing the benefits of that hard work that you were putting in while you were in corporate? And I'm talking about like brand partnerships or like speaking engagements and stuff like that. Were you had you started seeing those benefits while you were still in corporate?

Roxy Couse (26:07.214)
100%. I wouldn't have quit otherwise. So I mean, I there was a the the first year I was doing content while working in corporate, I I made like $15,000. And I'm like, my gosh, it's really great. Like $15,000 on the side is amazing. And the next year I did six figures in addition to my corporate salary. And I'm like, that that's that's amazing. The next year, there was like a single month where I'd done six figures and I'm still working in corporate. So I'm like,

I I I got to the point, and actually the the reason why I decided to I I feel like I'm on a corporate sabbatical. I would go back. People ask me all the time, I was like, I would go back. That's that's also the reason why I don't shit on corporate. I mean, it's a it's a job, and I was really good at the job, and I'm very passionate about I'm passionate about certain things, and I and I can do those things well. I know what I know what I do well. But I got to a point where I was really

I'm very cognizant of how much of my time I'm willing to exchange for money. And if I I don't I don't I didn't want two full time jobs. And if I could make the same amounting less, then I I'm gonna I'm gonna do it because at the end of the day, like that's that's the goal, like freedom, freedom of our time to do other things. And and I I that's where that's the point that I got to, honestly.

Rhona Pierce (27:33.922)
Did knowing that you could make that much money on the side, like I'm curious, did did having that option make you like bolder in corporate, like more confident or more checked out?

Roxy Couse (27:50.752)
it definitely made me more confident. A hundred percent. And I I feel like it was for for the first time in in my life, I felt like I I just felt like I was in the the driver's seat and I could actually walk away if something wasn't serving me. and that that's powerful. And if you

When you're in the room because you want to be in the room versus because you have to be, it just changes your whole mindset. And so when I decided that I'm done, it was it was awesome. Being able to do that on my my terms was amazing. That's that was the best way for me to go out. I never thought that that would be an option for me.

Rhona Pierce (28:42.316)
I love that. so that first, very first brand deal, let's let's go back to that one. Did they come to you or did you pitch them? How did that go about?

Roxy Couse (28:52.596)
Yeah, so most of my brand partnerships, I mean, even to date, have they they've they've come to me. And so my first partnership, it was with Pear Eyewear. And they they came to me and they said, We'll pay you a hundred dollars for a video. And at the time, I'm pretty sure I had I had like twenty five thousand followers on TikTok, which if you're if you're watching this now, you're probably like twenty five thousand and you only got a hundred dollars, but you have to understand like

When I say that I went from a thousand followers to twenty five thousand in probably like a month because that from that first video and I wrote it. so that's actually what happened. And then I got this part I got this for they were like a hundred dollars for a video. And I think it might have been like a three video deal or something. So it might have like three hundred dollars. I don't I don't remember exact the exact amount or I'm I I don't remember the exact amount of videos, but

I was like, deal, this is this is amazing. so then I I did the video, got paid, and then they came back and they said, Well, we like that. We w we wanna work with you again. I was like, Well, I w I'm I will, but now my rate has gone up because my platform is growing. So I w so I negotiated a higher rate. I worked with them again and

And then I I'm pretty sure the next partnership I got, it was like a single, it was a bigger brand. They had reached out to me and it was a single video and it was like three thousand dollars. And so I'm like, my god, like I made a hundred dollars on this video, one video or a hundred dollars video, and then I'm three thousand dollars. I realized that the the power of

money, how money flows in in in this space in the the creator economy and a lot of times it doesn't make sense but I knew I wanted to be I wanted to be a part of it.

Rhona Pierce (30:58.26)
Yes. And and and that's a big reason of why I do this show because that those moments, like it's hard to explain unless you've lived it. And when you live and it's such a humbling thing, still till this day, every deal you learn more about what it takes. So you learn more that your price, not only because your platform grew, but now you know like, well, it's not just a video, it's like I have to do this, I have to do all of these things.

So your price increases, but then people see the value in your worth. I hate seeing talking about it that way, but that's really what happens. Brands see that they come with to you with these numbers that you're like, every single deal, the number they come at you is bigger, and you're like, is this really what I'm doing? Because you're used to corporate. You fight for that salary, you negotiate for it, and that salary is with you for a year, a good year or two.

And then maybe you get three to five percent or and then you have to switch jobs to get like a real increase. But here it's like one deal, then the next deal, you're like, whoa, it's like it's such a mind I I just I can't explain it to people.

Roxy Couse (32:07.426)
Yeah. And it's it what I think the most bizarre thing is I think the biggest corporate bonus that I've gotten was probably about like $25,000. I've gotten it from a single video. So and and I had to work a whole year and go through a performance review and all of that for like that $25,000 bonus. And that was just for for to get that for a single video where it's like

You tell me to do the video, I post it and now I'm getting paid in thirty, sixty, ninety days. It does I again, like it changes how much of your time you're willing to exchange for money. So

Rhona Pierce (32:48.984)
What do you think about this? Because a lot of people are like, my gosh, I can't believe they're making that much money for so little work. Is it really that we're making so much money for so little work? Or is it that corporate was like bringing the most out of us for so little money? Like

Roxy Couse (33:06.774)
Yeah. I don't think that people I I I think if you think about if if you think of it in terms of someone's getting paid that much for a brand partnership, it it is a lot of money. But if you think about so me as a creator, one, I have a my undergrad was in in retail marketing, my masters is in user experience design. I've worked in AI and machine learning for the last ten years. I've worked in product design, customer marketing. I used to lead product design, UX. I've

Fortune 500 tech, like so if if a tech company or like someone in customer marketing or someone in customer experience comes to me and they want to work with me because now I have this, I've built this platform and this audience who trusts me because I have this lived experience. You're paying me for that experience and that knowledge. And it's the same way of someone working in corporate where corporate's paying you a salary.

because of your experience, your resume, and all those. It's the same. It's it it's literally the same. Someone is literally paying for your lived experience and times your the platform that that you build because you need the you need the audience. And that's what I think of it is it's like it's not a single one off brand partnership to me. It's that and actually when brands reach when br when brands reach out to me and

The reason they work with me again is they always say, like, you have you have this great way of like explaining very complex concepts. I used to be a consultant. I used to consult enterprise customers all day long. I used to do training and enablement for enterprise custom fortune five companies. So like th this is not new. This is me. I'm now just like the the the the company that pays me.

is well, at the end of the day, my payroll is Broxy Cal CLC, which is myself and some the the companies are now employing employing me to do this work, but like I've I've built this knowledge over years of working in corporate spaces. So thank you for that.

Rhona Pierce (35:16.194)
Yeah. Yeah. And you don't turn and you don't turn off that knowledge just because you're doing a video on social media. You bring all of that in too. And that's why you're successful. So yes, I love that phrase.

Roxy Couse (35:28.462)
You didn't go from corporate to being an influencer. Like you went you you went from corporate to now you're you using your visibility to make an influence. Yeah, exactly.

Rhona Pierce (35:41.71)
Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So brand deals are great, but you're still trading time for dollars at the end of the day. Like when did you realize that you needed kind of like a product-based business? And what led you to build Sloefy?

Roxy Couse (35:58.496)
Yeah, so I I started doing consulting last year and I and I wanted to do consulting because like I said, I used to do consulting in in in corporate and I I lo I loved it. Like I I loved doing training with customers and I've I've always been really close to the customers, even when I worked in e-commerce, like the the data side, like really listening to like the the voice of the customer, that stuff was something I was super passionate about. And so

As I started to see how well I was doing with building my personal brand and I would get all these messages like seems so hard, like how do I take this experience and and start showing up or like I don't know what to post about. I I don't I I just don't know where to start. And so I started doing consulting. I people could book a session with me and I at the end of the at w at the end of the session I would send them a a recap and I would put these together manually. Like

this is what I would be posting, this is what I would this is how I would position my platform, this is where I would start. And but then you can the best way to like if you're gonna be an entrepreneur, you have to figure out how to scale yourself. if you want to make more money, if you if you want to have a bigger impact. And so I can't scale myself doing these one off.

Sessions and there are some major learnings from talking to all of these people that I then wanted to put into a product. And so I started to build Sloefy. So not only can I, you know, there there's like this learning and enablement part of the platform, but there's also community. One thing about building a personal brand, especially when you work in corporate and corporate.

professionals is my target audience. My primary target audience for Sloefy is it's very lonely. Like it's lonely as hell. Nobody understands it like in real life or and especially at your job. Like you don't know who you can talk to at job. And so you need community. And and I've I'm creating it in a way where it's like like cohort style. So like or not co cohort style, but it's I guess it kinda is, but it's, you know

Roxy Couse (38:23.008)
If you if you work in HR and you're trying to build a personal brand on social media, you might want to see what other a people in HR are doing. There there are people I w I did a beta the last couple of months and there's people in healthcare. And there's regulations around healthcare. They they have to be very cognizant about what they share on social media. So the best way to

actually brainstorm and figure out what's happening in in the larger ecosystem is to talk about talk to other people who are also doing it. And so I'm trying to bring these people together to have those conversations. also as a part of Sloefy there is, you know, how do I how do how do I create great hooks? How do I where where do I start in terms of like my my my prompts ch of challenge aspect. Like we're gonna do like

storytelling challenges and all these different challenges to just help people to elevate their personal brand and shorten the gap between thinking and doing. And I I'm really I'm really excited about it. It it the beta went very well. I had 10 people, 10 paying customers go through the beta. I got a lot of good learnings. So we're now going into the second phase of building so that we can continue to build this platform and hopefully releasing it early next year. So yeah.

It's it's been there's been it's been challenging, but also I'm I'm really excited about it.

Rhona Pierce (39:47.318)
Yeah, and it sounds amazing. And it just it shows just that explanation right there, just shows all of your expertise from corporate, how you're bringing it in to what you're doing. so for corporate professionals listening right now who are like grieving the career path that they thought they would have, what's the very first move they should make this week to start building their own leverage?

Roxy Couse (40:12.65)
I if I if I'm grieving the path that that I thought I would have, I would one, I take a step back and think about the things that are going well. I I feel like a lot of times that we we're in this space where, you know, maybe we have a toxic boss or we're in a toxic culture. and so that is not going well.

But there are a lot of things that are going that that are going well or that have gone well or maybe there's a path forward. And so I I would reflect on the all the things that are happening that are going well, as well as, you know, the the opportunities. And I I would also map out like if if you don't like where you are, where would you like to be? I I I feel like sometimes we

We don't know, we don't like where we are, but we also don't know what our North Star is it like and you could be completely honest with you, maybe you don't want to say it out loud, but write it down. So when I knew I wanted to quit corporate, I actually made a note in my notes app on my phone. I said, In six months, I want to be in a position. Actually I think I might have said, I want to be financially stable enough to quit corporate. And I it was like a work back plan. And I just

And I held myself to it and it didn't take me it took me longer than six months, but that was my goal. And I and I wrote it down and you can just you need to just be totally honest with yourself, even if you don't share it with somebody else, but be honest with yourself.

Rhona Pierce (41:46.466)
Love that. So if you've ever watched the show, you know I always ask questions at the end, kind of like rapid fire. so it's time for a segment that I created because quite honestly, I've been nosy my entire life. These aren't the type of questions that you were expecting, but they're the ones I am curious about. Are you ready? Sure.

your serialized content like the corporate zodiac signs and the corporate the millennial manager are like they're hilarious. I absolutely love them. Is there an idea that's currently sitting in your mental drafts that's so out there that you're doubting if you should post it?

Roxy Couse (42:28.898)
so the one thing about me is that like I don't do content calendars and I don't have plans. I have no future plans of content lined up. And and I know that's crazy to hear because I am consistently posting on social media, but that's the honest truth. I know I want to be funny, I know I wanna be real, but

I don't know. I don't know what I'm gonna post next. I'm trying to do more mom stuff, honestly. And I'm having to talk to my mom friends 'cause I wanna get it right. So

Rhona Pierce (43:00.184)
Yeah. That's cool. what's one thing that has happened since you decided to be visible and bet on yourself that felt like proof that you made it, but like not by other people's standards, by your own standards.

Roxy Couse (43:17.642)
I made it. So this actually just recently happened. So I'd applied to speak at a I'll just say I I applied to speak at Afrotech and I didn't get I I didn't get selected. And the when it came back to me, it said, You didn't get selected, but here's 10% off a ticket. And I was like, Okay, I mean, I don't I

I don't know. But so I go to Threads and I'm like, I I wanted to speak at Afrotech. I really thought this was my year. I'm a little disappointed. And not even an hour later, we get an email like, Hey, we'd like for Roxy to speak at Afrotech. And that's the power of building a personal brand.

Rhona Pierce (44:05.39)
Yes. Absolutely love that story. Love it. who in your life has been the most surprised that all of this has worked out?

Roxy Couse (44:19.374)
Probably my husband. Because when I told him, I was like, I'm about to I I don't know why he's surprised because he has he has known me for so long and but he's I think he's just always surprised by like like one time I hated my job and he's like well find find another job and then we'll talk about it. Well I found two jobs. One was in Fort Myers, Florida, one was in St. Joseph, Michigan, and we chose St. Joseph, Michigan, and we moved.

And so when I told him, I was like, I'm gonna start post like people are making money posting on social media. And he's like, Okay, whatever. And he we still talk about it sometime. Like I today we just celebrated, I reached four hundred thousand followers on Instagram recently. And we were s we were just celebrating it and talking about like this is it's still so crazy because can't can't believe it that

That that it actually happened. But also he should be able to believe it because anything I say I'm gonna do, I do my best. I do my best to make it happen.

Rhona Pierce (45:27.212)
I love that. So I've really, really enjoyed this conversation and I know listeners have enjoyed it as well. If anyone wants to connect with you, where can they find you?

Roxy Couse (45:40.022)
Yeah, I'm at Roxy Couse on all of my socials or LinkedIn as well. Roxy Couse there.

Rhona Pierce (45:46.926)
Amazing. And we'll add all of that to the show notes. Thank you, thank you so much for this conversation for being on the show today. If you're enjoying the Workfluencer pod, share with someone who's changing how we talk about work or who should be. And hey, if this episode gave you ideas or inspiration, leave us a five-star review. Reviews help other listeners find us. And honestly, it makes my day. This show is produced by Workfluencer Media.

Roxy Couse (45:55.886)
Thanks for having me.

Rhona Pierce (46:16.492)
Visit Workfluencermedia.com to learn how we help companies build video first content systems that attract, engage, and retain qualified talent. That's Workfluencer Media.com. Thanks for listening, and I'll chat with you next week.