The Power of Personal Branding for Entrepreneurial Success with Alan McLaren

with Alan McLaren

Mar 21, 2025 · 00:35:44

Today's guest is Alan McLaren. He is the co-founder of Strata Originals, and he co-leads a personal branding agency specializing in working with CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs, and legal professionals. With a strategic, intentional, and authentic approach, Alan has coached or trained over 600 CEOs in the past 2 years. Alan's passion for personal branding comes from over 2 decades of experience in leadership roles, including public companies, partnerships, and entrepreneurial ventures. As co-founder of InfinityCom, a full-service marketing agency, he developed deep expertise in public relations and marketing, honing his ability to craft and elevate brands, including CEOs' personal brands. Throughout his career, Alan has recognized the pivotal role personal branding plays in leadership success, helping leaders define their identity, articulate their unique value proposition, and enhance their professional reputation. His career journey spans roles from Canon in sales and marketing to president positions at ICON Quebec on the New York Stock Exchange and White Hat, which was a partnership, as well as InfinityCom for 18 years. With Strata Originals, Alan is committed to empowering leaders to maximize their impact through personal branding. Welcome to The Total Entrepreneur Mind, Body, Spirit, where we turn cutting-edge science into practical strategies for entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Dr. John Torrance. Entrepreneur, Inc. 5000 honoree, and professor of entrepreneurial practice at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management. Each episode, we dive into mental, physical, and spiritual health with expert guests offering actionable insights to help you thrive and perform at your highest level. Let's get started. Alan, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for being here. Really looking forward to our conversation. How are you?

Good, man. How are you?

Doing wonderful. Yeah, I've been looking forward to this for a while because we've known each other for a while. We spent some time on the international board together, so this, uh, this will feel like a fun conversation, I think.

Yes, I'm looking forward to it, John.

That's awesome. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your journey to Strata. It's a very cool concept to helping people work on their brand and things like that. So yeah, tell us a little bit about that and then we'll dive into some other questions.

Sure, I'll give you the short strokes on getting to Strata because it's a, you know, there's a little gray hair here. So, there's a lot of stuff. I started, you know, my career in this on the sales side of the house. So, I learned a ton about sales and then, you know, I was at Canon first and I went to ICON Office Solutions, which was a $16 million or billion-dollar conglomerate. And I learned a lot about business at ICON because they were all GE-trained executives. So, they taught you about P&L. When you work in a big corporation, you kind of see your budget and that's it. But when you're in charge of your own P&L, you start to learn about financial metrics. So, I learned a ton. That was my first president's job was at ICON. That's when I joined YPO back in 1999. I can't believe I could say that. But then I moved into IT security, ran a NASDAQ-listed company for a while, and then I met my business partner, Leanne, at that company. Her and I went off and worked with one of the subsidiaries of that company for 3 years. And then almost 19 years ago, we started a company called Infinity Communications, which was in the marketing space. We started it with PR and sales consulting and evolved it as technology evolved because technology and marketing seemed to go hand in hand. What we discovered, John, to be honest, was we started to see a little crack in our business model at Infinity. We started to see customers Who were telling us they loved us. They were at the end of a year; they'd leave. What the heck's going on? Why are they leaving? Well, it turned out we had given them a year of our strategy, and now they could learn the tech as quickly as we could. And then AI showed up, and that was okay. Now they've got strategy; they've got the. So we had to find something new. So as a professor of entrepreneurship, we'd appreciate this, and the pivot's overused a little bit, but. We had to pivot in a big way and we said, let's look at what do we love to do that's never been productized in a big way in the market. It was called thought leadership when we launched it. And then we realized that thought leadership was too aspirational. So, we called it personal branding. We started it inside Infinity, recognized, oh my God, this is going to be its own business, spun it out. And now, we get to work with entrepreneurs and it's the most fun I've had. in my entire career.

Wow, that's great. So before we dive into that, you mentioned something about working with a NASDAQ-listed company. So how would you describe that life? Right? Because I would imagine it's way more stressful than maybe a small privately held company. So how stressful was it if it was? And how do you manage that as the leader of a public company?

Well, it is very complicated and there's a lot that I'm not allowed to share, but I'll give you the short strokes. I walked into that business and it was a little bit broken. So, I had to cut from 325 to 75 people inside 9 months.

Wow.

Sell off offices, do all kinds of things to right-size the business and get it where it needed to go. And then, unfortunately, and this is the part I can't talk too much about, there were some people that did some things they shouldn't have done, ended up being punished for it, and the business had to close because of some abuse of things that were not legal. I discovered those things and had to clean it all up. So, the pressures were immense for those 2 reasons because challenge number one is public company alone. I would never work for a public company again because you end up focusing on the wrong things, right? It's everything is your 10-K and your quarterly results and you're pulling shortcuts to hit those numbers because at the end of the day, that's where all the bonuses kick in and then you get shares and you do. It's not the right way to run a business. So the pressures are immense. You're dealing with shareholders, activist shareholders, crazy shareholders, supportive shareholders, and it's just not— I just love working for private companies, and I love being an entrepreneur because I have a decision to make, I make it. If I have an idea, I can implement it. I don't have to go through committees, crazy stuff. So yes, John, it was 9 months of heck. I'm supposed to say hell. Is this PG? Podcast? I don't know. 9 months in hell. But boy, did I learn a ton of stuff about leadership and about how integrity matters in everything you do. And you'd never make decisions for your own pocketbook. And I didn't. And there were lots of opportunities to do that. So, that was the Nasdaq story. Quite a long one. But yeah.

So, during that journey, how did you manage your mental, physical, spiritual health?

I was a mess, John. I'll be honest with you. My family was still in Montreal when I come over. I didn't know what was I was what I was in for, so I put on weight. I drank too much. I not drank too much. I wasn't, but I would drink more than I should have. My exercise was going through the motions. It really was. It was a heck of a lesson for me. 20 years later, looking at it going, "Wow, I could have handled that differently because I would have been more able to handle the stress." It was horrible because they were 15-hour days, six days a week, just to keep afloat. And if you're not healthy mentally and physically, that takes a toll. And it did. It took a toll on me and my family. And then when I got out of there, my God, the world opened up, and then I had a little more focus on the things I needed to from a health and wellness perspective. But that was. That was tough, to be honest.

And actually the things you described, you know, just not sleeping, maybe drinking, it's similar to what people experience when they're in a startup situation too, right? So even though the pressures maybe are completely different, the constituencies are different, there does seem to be some similarities. So if you fast forward to Infinity and then spinning off Strada, did you take anything with you or did you do something different because of those experiences? Or how do you manage those things now? your business?

Well, experience is a great teacher, right? And so, you— when you learn, at least what I learned, uh, was to compartmentalize. S is going to happen when you're an entrepreneur. It'll happen. You'll have 3 days, 1 good day and 1 bad day. It'll blow up those 3 days. And so, when you recognize that is part of the journey, then you— and then from a pure health perspective, you recognize to be at your best when that happens, You've got to be mentally strong, physically strong, emotionally strong, spiritually strong. Pick one of those things. And so for me, my life changer was yoga. And I shared that with you, John, but I, I started it kind of accidental. And right now I'm in 5 to 6 days a week. I have it in my calendar. It is amazing. That is as important as any client meeting. And the only time I, I miss— for example, I had a client meeting in California yesterday, couldn't do it earlier in the day, so we finished at 5:30. I don't like doing yoga after 4:30. I went Wednesday, which is normally my rest day, to make sure I'm consistently doing it. Schedule it, do it. And my body doesn't like it when I don't do yoga, so it tells me the right thing to do. That's allowed me to handle the stress at Infinity and the new stress at Strata. As you're building a new business, and so compartmentalize the stuff that's going to happen. But I feel so strong that I can do it that I'm ready for anything that could happen and will happen eventually.

So your yoga practice seems very consistent, and I think that's one of the things that that is hard for people is to establish a consistent practice. Whatever it is, whether it's mindfulness meditation, yoga, extra, whatever it is. So how long did it take you to get into a rhythm, or how did you decide yoga was going to be? the thing that you were consistent with?

Well, you know, you kind of discover these things by accident. The first time you do, and it's a power yoga class, so it's not just stretching and, you know, yeah, yeah, with candles. This is athletic yoga. And, you know, as you get older, you got to look for something. And, you know, Henry and I, my wife, we decided that we looked forward and said, okay, we're in our 60s today. What do we want to look like in our 80s? And we can't start being that fit in our 80s. We need to be fit and strong today. So that we can get there together, so we can have a good next third of our lives, right? And so we love going to California, so we want to hike and walk and not have to worry about a cane. And so we said, okay, this is going to require effort, selfless effort for each of us, and selfish effort so we could do the things and feel strong and feel mentally strong. Because my dad died of dementia, so I saw that, what that does to somebody. you may as well have died because you're dead as soon as your brain goes. It's just horrible. I didn't want that to be— I didn't want that for my family. So this— so I doubled down on yoga and started a couple times a week. And then as I got the benefits, I started to realize this is good for me. And so you feel stronger and you can do push-ups and you can do stretch. You know, I'm pretty flexible for an old dude, right? And I can do Lots of things. So, there's a confidence that comes with that. And, to me, the secret for longevity was keeping my eye on the prize. The prize was I got to be ready for the next third. What I did can't get me there because if I do nothing, I'll atrophy like all bodies do.

Yeah.

So, it is like a game of whack-a-mole with your body as you get older. I'm putting it on the side of Yeah.

And I think just making sure that you can maintain your mobility and strength, that'll yield you lots of dividends going forward. Do you feel like you get a mental health boost from it too?

Huge. And it's also a community, which I didn't expect because I don't— when I used to go to the gym, I do my workout, you know, say hi to people and leave. But the nice thing about yoga is you've got 15 or 20 minutes before you're— while you're on your mat, you can have a conversation with somebody. And you end up building what I'll call yoga friendships. But you get to know about these people and their lives. And you— I had one person the other day came back, you inspired me.

What?

You inspired me. That little talk we had, I'm gonna do it. I'm going, what? Where did that come from? But John, it's about at the end of the day, humans connect over something that they're passionate about, and yoga is one of those things. That you— so there's the community aspect, there's an energy in there that you can't describe. It's not the exercise. The exercise is— you do the exercise at home.

Mm-hmm.

And then during COVID I did the exercise at home. I didn't get the same benefit I'm getting now because you laugh, you have— humans have an inert energy that we can feel, and you get that feeling in the class. And life-changing for me is not oversaid. Changed my life, and I'm going tonight after this, and I will go tomorrow, and I'll go Saturday, I'll go Sunday. I look forward to it. That's amazing.

Yeah, and what you mentioned about community, we—I mean—that is a known longevity factor—is having a community. So that's great.

Yeah, well, also, the YPO world we live in, John, is the other beautiful thing that we have to have community into our 70s and 80s. And then this yoga community and then friendship and family, that's the goal. I don't want to be— well, hopefully Annemarie will outlive me, but if not, I want to make sure I've got a lot of things to do and not sitting at home reading the paper because that won't work for me.

Yeah, for sure. So how has yoga helped your golf game?

Yeah, I would love to say it's actually— well, it doesn't help your score, but I haven't lost any distance at all as I've aged.

Yeah.

So the last— I've hit the ball as far today at 65 than I did when I was in my 40s. So I haven't lost anything there. So it's helped with strength because you're balancing on one leg and one arm and you're doing all kinds of things. So all those little muscles that you need for golf, um, really helpful. And, you know, I can walk 18 holes and it's not difficult. And those are the two things that my competitive outlet is golf And my physical and mental health is yoga. And that's the 2 things I've decided is where I'm taking this journey. And so far so good.

Yeah, I'm a yin yoga guy. I like yin a lot just because I find that I just need those deep stretches. And yeah, I really enjoy that quite a bit. Well, good. So I wanted to talk a little bit about Strada Originals because one of the— and I feel this too, I just, Anytime somebody talks to me about thought leadership or self-promotion or building your brand, I get anxious. And I've done cool things. I'm not just some slob. I have some things that I could share, but I don't know, for whatever reason, I am a terrible self-promoter. I don't like to do it. It makes me anxious. Is that something you experience?

I don't personally experience it. You know why? Because it's got nothing to do with self-promotion. Ah, right. So what we do is we teach our clients how to share the best of them with the world. So for example, you did a TED Talk on ADHD, right? Right. Any financial benefit from that for you? Zero. No. Did you help a lot of people?

I get emails from a lot of people, yeah, saying thank you.

So the world of personal branding is about taking what you're passionate about and sharing it with the world. If you do it intentionally and with purpose, it can actually help your business. And I'll give you an example. So, I've been doing this now because we made a decision that we're not going to be the shoemaker's kid. We're going to do what we tell clients to do. So, I'm out there 3 to 4 times a week and I have a process internally that we do. And I'm telling you, John, I get— if I don't get a podcast request every week— I had a lead come for me Friday. You'll love this. Y&G. Got a call from Y&G, said, I saw your Instagram post. Can you come and do a talk for us in New York?

Wow!

Out of the blue. Real money, right? Real money. And every day, I get something happening because I've got stuff out there. And all of it is giving. There's not one, well, you should buy my stuff and we're on sale this month. It's all giving of knowledge. Let me teach you how to think about— so, my next video, John, believe it or not, is going to be about fear. What you just described, I'm seeing that as a pattern. I'm like, okay, maybe I need to address that head-on. Why are you so scared? As an entrepreneur, you have faced the shark in the water to use surfing analogy, right? So many times in your life you've broken through your comfort zone, but yet this— making a video scares you. Shame on you. How do you explore that to get to the place where you can give? And that's the work we do. 90% of the clients we have some fear or some imposter syndrome. 100%. They clear over that hurdle, John. Metamorphosis. And then they're on the other side and they see, oh my God, this is really cool over here, because the feedback they get was like what you got. But in this case, for me, I'm helping and I'm also getting benefit for Strada because that's part of our marketing strategy to showcase what we do. So that's the world. So fear is normal, but letting it stop you is not.

I think that's a good way to phrase it, right? It's if you put it more in an educational context, right? Like, hey, I've just got some information that I want to share. Versus I've got something I want to sell you. That makes a big difference. And I think for me, I like, I don't know. I, I just, you can pick it up, right? When somebody's posting something, you know, if they're selling you something. And I guess that's, I, I get hung up on that, right? Like I don't want to get, I don't want to fall into that. And I, I have a, I mean, my LinkedIn is maybe okay, but like my Instagram is a, is completely, it is a joke. It's embarrassing almost. Right. But I've just never have gotten into a rhythm and I always think, well, does Does anybody really care about this? Or surely, people must know this already. I can't be telling them this for the first time.

So, let me help you. Number one question we get from our clients, why would anybody listen to me? You know what the answer is? It's a really simple one. What you know, you might think is normal, somebody else might find fascinating. Right? So, let's go. Let's hone on the ADHD stuff. And I know you get tired of talking about that. But you are not only an expert at it, not from a medical doctor perspective, but from a practitioner entrepreneur perspective. Right? So, entrepreneurs would rather listen to you than a doctor who's giving them a pill because you are living their lives. So, if you wanted an economic benefit to that, and I'll just throw that out, You say, okay, well, I can do talks on this and actually make money because I'm delivering value to a group of entrepreneurs on how to cope with ADHD. I can have a group of employees in a corporation I can talk to how to work with an ADHD boss, which is 62%, as you shared with me. This class that you're working with, you're going, why is he so freaking crazy? He's not crazy. He thinks differently than you. His brain operates differently than you. He goes into rabbit holes. He has lack of attention. He had— but so you could make a living on that if you chose to. Not what you want to do, but there's examples of— and all you would do is share. Your TED Talk is a microcosm of what you would do in the world as building your personal brand, because that, that you have credibility in that world. So that's the world we live in, is helping people figure that out. what their gift is and then how to do it, and then allow your audience to want to— as you have an audience already, but you're a longevity guy, you love longevity, that's what you're talking about here. You're a catalyst for that. You're not Peter Attia, right? But you're a catalyst because people can't get to him, but they might be able to get to you. Hmm.

That's value.

You're not coming at it and saying, I'm a doctor, listen to me. But I've talked to 40 doctors. Here's the consensus. That's great value. That's what I'm talking about. That feel a little better now?

Yeah, I know. And I think philosophically or conceptually, I know this, right? But like anytime I have to sit down and, you know, I say, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to do a video. I'm going to create something. I just, it's just, it's almost impossible. It reminds me of when I wrote the book about my work with ADHD. And my publisher said, hey, this is great, but you really need to do the audiobook, because especially for your audience, they're going to want to listen to this, not just read it. So I'm like, yeah, you're right. This is great. I can't tell you how many times I sat down to record this thing only to say, screw this. There's no way I'm going to be able— I've got to read all these pages into a microphone. There's no way I'm going to be able to do it. So I actually had to hire a voiceover guy to do it because I couldn't do it.

But that's also part of the the opportunity and the challenge, right? Because here's the deal. There are— see, so you can say to yourself, okay, I can do that, or I could have a tran— the book is there, transcript can be read by AI now. So as an example, there's lots of ways for people. And as you and I have talked before in the past, many ADHD people, a percentage of them have dyslexia. So the way we work with them— we just had one I was talking about— always when we do our, our process, which I'll talk about in a second, I ask them a few questions. Are you a perfectionist? Do you have ADHD or do you have dyslexia? This woman said, yeah, well, I'm a recovering perfectionist. I said, that means you're a perfectionist, right? Well, we need to work with you in a certain way, talk to you in a certain way. And you have dyslexia. Would you prefer to have audio notes as opposed to video notes or written notes? Oh, that— you can do that? I said, we want to work with you to get the best out of you. So, audio would be better? Great. So, let's set that up. You can do audio text, audio WhatsApp. And now, you can tell your— give us your feedback that way. Oh my God! So, the fear goes down about the process, which ADHD people hate process.

True.

And if 62% of our clients are living in that world, we have to meet them where they are. So, that's what we do. So, and someone like you, John, if we were working with you, Is we would be coaching you and making you accountable and working with you to get there, as opposed to saying, you need to do this, John, because that's harder to do. But if I say to you, we're recording 6 videos on Tuesday, here's the 6 topics, here's your opening line, here's the one thing you want to say, you're good, I know what story I'm going to tell, you could do that in a heartbeat, right? That's why we exist, is to help people Through that journey. And it works and it's fun. It's fun for us. We love it.

Yeah. And I think you're a good example. And I like the fact that you chose not to be the shoemaker's kids because you do practice what you preach. Right. And I, yeah, I check out your videos and they're not like overproduced or anything. It's just you right there at the desk laying down some wisdom. So I think that's pretty cool.

Well, because what we've learned as well, John, when we first started this journey, we had the beautiful videos with B-roll and pop-ups and all this stuff. We recognized people— it felt like marketing. So we said, okay, we got to tone it down and make it real. So real is this. This is my background. This is my office. It's where I am. I'm going to do my videos here. Sometimes I'll have a shirt, sometimes I'll have a t-shirt, but you know me for years. Is it authentic? Is it Alan talking to you as if you were having a glass of wine with me, or is it some fake Alan? I try to be as authentic as I can be. Because that's what matters. People connect to humans and what you know is secondary to who you are.

Hmm. Yeah. And I guess that translates into just leadership too, right? Not just content creation and building a brand, but I think in leadership, right? Is— would you agree with that?

I would think that the one thing that's interesting about leadership is I think this is the highest form of leadership because if you're out there Your external audience, ergo your bankers, investors, customers, prospects, that they all get to know you. Wouldn't it be easier to raise money if you want to be an entrepreneur and talk to your— that if you're out there and more known than if you are in the corner, someone had brought out your deck to someone, try to sell it? And then your internal audience, your employees, have a sense of pride if you're out there just sharing wisdom and not selling. And then, your sales team goes out there and goes, oh yeah, I've heard of John. Yeah, I saw your CEO John out there. That's great. So now, you're out making your marketing better and your sales better because you're leading and putting a human face on the business. That's the magic behind what we do. But it requires time. It requires money if you're getting help. But it's longevity and consistency are the 2 keys. If you do it, don't do it for a month and stop because the algorithm doesn't care. Be out there. You need to be out there regularly. And over time, your audience will come to you for whatever it is that matters. And if it's just to share, that's good. Some people, I have a book, I just want to share it. I don't care about the money. Others is I want to at least break even. Great. Let's figure out how you would do that.

That's good feedback. And I think most entrepreneurs or early-stage entrepreneurs, there's a lot to be gained from something like this. And I think with a lot of the younger people I work with now, they seem to get it a little bit more and it's more intuitive for them. But I think the older ones, even people like me, it feels— it's a different medium that we just have to get comfortable with and use.

What I found is that one of our clients was so fearful before she got started. And you can go see her testimony on our website. But it was about breaking through the fear.

Hmm.

That was the number one thing. And when she broke through the fear, we knew she was a badass to start. The badass came out. It came out because the medium, it should be as comfortable as what we're doing now. This is it. You and I are recording a conversation. That's exactly what we want to do. If you ask me a question— oh, by the way, and here's the fun part, see this content here? I can take this, edit it, and make 10 videos out of it, I don't have to do videos for 10 weeks.

Yeah, no, that's great.

So you— same, you're on podcasts all the time, that's easier. Oh my God, I have an editor. So there's lots of tricks and things you can do to get out there, but breaking the fear down is— let me just say one thing, and I'll say it as hard as I can— people really don't care. Right? They don't care about you as much as you think they do, right? Your friends do, right? But most people don't give a blank, right, about you until you go into their world and make a difference, right? You follow people on TikTok, you follow Rattia and all those longevity people because it's interesting to you and they're credible to you and you can't wait for what's next. Everybody has that gift. Everybody has that gift. It's just They have to believe they have a gift, and most people don't believe they have a gift, but they do.

Yeah, no, it's so true. Yeah, no, that's really good stuff to think about. Well, I want to switch direction a little bit now. So you've got a partner, and one of the things I see that is more often fatal than not for the young student startup teams is just partner disagreements. If anything is going to kill the young business, It has to do with the founders just not being able to make it happen together. So, and you and Leanne have been together for quite a while. So can you talk a little bit about that relationship and how you navigate and manage it and how you make it successful?

So I think like anything else, this is, it's like a marriage in a lot of ways, right? You've gotta figure out what works, but it starts with alignments and values, right? So number one thing is you've gotta be aligned. If you have a dream, as a partnership, what is that dream? And is it the same dream? Right. So what I mean by that is, if you think about it in this context, what do we want the business to look like? And do we have the same plan for it? One could say, I want to grow this to a $100 million business and then sell it and go public or whatever. The other one is, I just want to make enough money and have a life where I could do 40 hours a week. Well, if you're not aligned on that, Problem number one. Leanne and I have always been aligned. And I'm typically the business plan guy. So, I write the plan. We come together. We do it. And we're completely aligned. But if I were to pick one thing that matters is like in a marriage, you need to be caring about the outcomes of that person and have very clear expectations of their talents and how to use them. So, what we know is that Leanne has ADHD. So, there are some things she's incredible at and some things like a spreadsheet, is like a beehive to her, right? Near it. She's doing this when you talk to her. So, what do I do when I show her a spreadsheet because I need her input? Here's the dashboard. I don't show any of the stuff in the back. I need your input on this. Does this make sense to you? And I make it a narrative because she's a storyteller. And you have to learn that about your partner because like a marriage, you're not coming at it the same way. And then values. Do you believe in the same things? If one of them is in the gray zone and you're in the black zone, that's going to have a little problem at some point. So, I think that's what I would say is that make sure you understand each other's talents. Your expectations are aligned on who does what. We're very clear in our business. Leanne is good at this. I'm good at that. I'm her backup on the stuff she's brilliant at. And she's my backup on the things that she's not as brilliant at. And then for the most part, that works beautifully. And then we communicate and every once in a while we drive each other crazy. You know, Alan, you and your fricking process. If you're going to give me another spreadsheet, I'm going to lose my mind. You know what you got into 25 years ago. And then, so we've turned it into humor and every once in a while we get angry with each other, but it lasts about a second. That's what we've learned, 25 years of being business partners. Yeah, it's been a good ride.

That's great. That's one of the things I've learned too, is that, you know, and I never worked on it specifically, but I generally don't take myself that seriously, but I take the work I do seriously. And I think that's a key thing. So besides laughter and, you know, having a little levity, what are some other, you know, practices that really work for you both? And what What kind of advice could you give to other people just starting out in a partnership?

You know, I think don't leave stuff unsaid. It's like a marriage, right? If you— like, I really want to equate it to a marriage in the way that if you don't communicate effectively when something's shitty— for example, if we're in a workshop and I don't like what she said in the workshop, her and I will have a chat afterwards. Tell me more about what you meant there. Let's talk through that, make sure we're aligned on What you said because it didn't come over as I felt it should have, but maybe that was me. And then we have that chat, and then, oh yeah, oh, I see your point now. Oh, I see where you were going. Well, it did. Oh, okay, maybe we could do that differently. Maybe these words make a difference. Okay, good. So we don't let any of that go at all because because it matters because at the end of the day, we're on a path. but we're serving our master, which is our client. So, everything we say matters. How we say it matters. And that's really, I think, to me, the key is communication. If you leave things unsaid, then they fester. They fester in a marriage. They'll fester in a partnership. And then they blow up.

Right.

And when they blow up, sometimes it's irrecoverable. But if you have values and you have a center and you know how to solve a problem, So, for example, every time Leanne and I have had to deal with something major, as all entrepreneurs do, we come together and say, okay, and we look at the problem as if it's not involving us, that the problem is sitting by itself, we're trying to solve it. And then we say, okay, we turn the page on that. What did we learn? What can we make sure we don't do again? Whether we lost a customer, which hasn't happened at Strada yet, knock wood. But if we learn something, then great. And then what is our role in it to make sure we could do it better, whether it was something she was responsible for or I was responsible for. It's all strata responsibility with the values, and it works. And we're lucky that way too.

Yeah, no, and knowing you for as long as I have, I can vouch for the fact that emotional intelligence is an absolute strength of yours. I've always admired that.

So thank you. It's, you know, I learned that— I think I got that from my mom, who was a great For educated immigrant to well, not an immigrant. Her parents were immigrants to Canada, but what she gave was the comfort and the love that you need as a young person to feel comfortable in that world where it's all we have, John, is other humans. Yeah, we have interact with animals and stuff in nature, but it's that's all we have. So we better learn how to do that, and then also be self aware. The one thing that, that I've had to learn as I get older is what's my role in this thing? What can I learn from how I reacted? Was I short? Was I impatient? Because we all have that. You just got to catch yourself and go, I don't want to be there again, so I got to be smarter. And that's what we've learned. And, you know, we've been lucky enough to have long-term employees that have been with us 7, 8, 10, 12 years. So it makes us feel good that people see it as a bit of a family, even though business isn't really family. It should feel like that. And it does. Yeah.

Yeah. And especially like referred to it being like a marriage a lot. And then in terms of legal documentation, very similar. Right. So yeah, if you could approach it that way. Yeah, for sure. Well, great.

I wasn't thinking of it that way, but yes, shareholders, marriage contract, kind of the same thing.

Yeah, for sure. Well, Alan, this was a really great conversation. I appreciate it very much. If people are interested in learning more about you and what you do, where can they find you?

So they can go to our website, strataoriginals.com, or find me on LinkedIn, Alan McLaren, and connect with me there. Tell me you saw me on the podcast. Happy to tell you more about what we do and help you. We do, you know, kind of free 30-minute coaching things that people want to figure out. Even you, John. We'd offer you a free 30-minute coaching thing to help you kind of position who you are. And we're happy to do it. We love what we do, and hopefully we can encourage more people to do it. Amazing.

Alan, thank you so much.

Thanks, buddy. Good to see you.

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