Opening And Show Setup

Announcer 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasly Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author, and financial advisor Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. Through his innovative work and the forward-focused forum, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a little fun. Now, let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein 0:41

Good morning, America. How are ya? I just want to remind everyone where that came from. It's not from the TV show, and it's not from Good Morning Vietnam. It's from Arlo Guthrie singing a song by um Oh, I just forgot his first name, Goodman, who is a songwriter. It's the city of New Orleans. Great, great uh song. And to me, it describes America, and it's it's a very good question to ask these days. Good morning, America. How are you? So how's America doing? Anyway, here we are. I don't want to get too serious. We are um we have our guest today, Deanna, who we'll introduce in a second, and we also have Nik Mondo back in the studio. Nik was on one of our last shows, and um I was driving in this morning and I happened to find I got a I got a notification about singer-songwriter that I know. Her name I wasn't gonna say her name, but I think I should. I'll give her a little plug. Uh Kerrigan Barry. Or Kerrigan Barry. And she is the daughter of a friend of mine, and I followed her music career since she was a teenager. She's a really good uh songwriter, good instincts, and then she went to school in Nashville at Belmont University, which is one of the great schools for songwriters and musicians these days. And she came out, and I thought she would do country music, and I think she was writing country music for a while, and she came out with this rock song, and it's a really in-your-face rock song, and it's called Obituary, and the middle part of that word is spelled D-I-T-C-H, and it's got some what they used to call off-color language. It's a little, it's very engaging and it's very in-your-face edgy, and it has a parental advisory on it. And you know, I had two different occurrences. One is that, hey, this is a really catchy song, this could really catch on. And then the second was, but it won't get radio play. And the third was what's she trying to do here? It was a question. And I it's clear to me she's trying to get attention and she's trying to put herself out there. But I just wanted to get I I think we'll ask Deanna first your thoughts on this. She's in marketing, we'll tell you more about what she does soon. And uh so I want to first ask from a marketing point of view what you think, and I want to ask what Nik thinks as well.

Deanna Robinson 3:04

Um, I think it is important in the industry that you need to be able to get yourself out there and be seen and be known. Um to having some type of edge regardless of what that edge is is definitely gonna be an upper hand for her. And as long as that's kind of the identity that she wants to have, then she's in. If she wants if she leads with this and then tries to go country, she might have to make it first. Um but it's good.

Marc Bernstein 3:27

Yep. So I we'll play you the song later. I played a little for Nik, it's pretty good. Okay, I can't wait.

Nikolas Mondo 3:32

It's edgy.

Marc Bernstein 3:32

Yeah, it's good.

Nikolas Mondo 3:33

I want to hear it. Um I'm not sure what it would even take to navigate through the the instant gratification from the social media, and I d and I'm not sure about how to even go about navigating that. And you know, that's that's something that maybe perhaps, you know, we'll we'll pick your brain a little bit further, Deanna, down down uh this interview and and see if you have any insight on that.

Women In Business Finding Presence

Marc Bernstein 3:59

I like that. The other thing that occurred to me about it is, you know, she's a young woman trying to make it in business, is really what she is. And you're still fairly young woman.

Deanna Robinson 4:09

Why thank you?

Marc Bernstein 4:10

You're welcome. Um that is uh mother of three, I should say. And but you know. Um so but you're so uh I wanted to ask you about your perception of being a woman in business and what it takes to be successful as a woman in business. Kind of a dumb question because it's like more than half of our population, but it's it's a very relevant question, I think, today.

Deanna Robinson 4:32

And I get it. And you know, I I surround myself in a lot of male-dominated industries. And I started in uh I was in an electrical supply house. So it was very male, and I was young, young. Um, and I think the the biggest key to being a successful businesswoman was kind of learning how to handle yourself in those situations. You know, you just need to have your presence known, but not to be different from who you are, just be confident in that. And that has worked for me. You know, if you can carry yourself in a room and hold a conversation with anybody, male or female, um, that helps and it kind of lets you be carve your mark.

Marc Bernstein 5:07

Great advice. I'll just tell you something personal real quick. My daughter, we were talking about this the other day, who's just gotten engaged to get married, she's 30, so she, you know, young woman. Um so she just got back from Morocco to go to a wedding, and she lived in Morocco for a while, so we went to visit her, and you know, we always worried about she was living in Rabat, like the capital city, and then we saw her, she was living in it seemed like the greatest neighborhood, and you know, and she's petite, she's five two and petite, and she's you know, so you worry about her in a foreign country like that and all that kind of thing. And early on, uh, we met her in Casablanca originally, uh, when we from where we flew into, which is kind of a rough city with a lot of pickpockets and thieves like that. And she and I went out together to see a mosque there, and um sh she she we we were with a cab driver, and apparently he charged too much, and she speaks fluent French, and she's this, you know, my my little daughter's got her like finger in this guy's face and telling him the way things are and him backing way up, and I was like, I don't think I have to worry about her. I think she's pretty good. So that's kind of an example.

Deanna Robinson 6:20

Also important to know when to turn that on, you know?

Deanna’s Path And Accidental Start

Marc Bernstein 6:22

Yeah, and I think I think she's little but mighty. And she can be very, you know, feminine and all that too. I mean, she's not if she's you know, she's quite on the quieter side, but when she needs to, she's she's not she's gonna speak her mind. And I was I was pretty impressed. I worried a lot less about her after that. So our guest today is Deanna Robinson. Is that your married name or your married name, correct? So you're Mrs. Robinson. I am Mrs. Robinson. As played by Anne Bancroft. I was thinking about that this morning, one of my favorite movies, The Graduate, um, for reasons maybe I'll speak about on another show. But anyway, Deanna is the founder of Social Impression, a full service marketing agency established in 2012 that helps businesses stand out through strategic planning, creative campaigns, and digital marketing. As a fractional CMO, she combines big picture strategies with hands-on to execution, guiding clients to reach their goals with a unique laddered marketing approach. I love the concept of that, and I'm looking at those things myself, and we'll talk more about that. So, welcome, Deanna, officially.

Deanna Robinson 7:26

Thanks for having me.

Marc Bernstein 7:27

My pleasure. Our pleasure, since Nik is co-hosting with me today.

Deanna Robinson 7:31

Yes, welcome.

Marc Bernstein 7:32

Um, so tell us about that. So tell us about your start. You mentioned starting working in electro electrical supply house. I've had those as clients very familiar with lots of supply houses. I've had many of them as clients. I worked in a warehouse myself, grew up in a warehouse business and uh worked in warehouses. So tell us, you know, where you started and how you arrived at this profession and sort of your early journey.

Deanna Robinson 7:56

Yeah. So um I started my journey um in fashion, actually. I was gonna run a fashion empire, and then I realized it just didn't fit the life that I wanted. Uh so I pivoted into marketing. That was my degree, so it was a perfect fit. I was at an electrical supply house, spent a lot of great years there, learned a lot of my foundation of who I am as a marketer.

Marc Bernstein 8:16

You were there as a marketing person.

Deanna Robinson 8:17

As a marketing person, yep. And then I had my daughter, and the plan was that I was gonna stay home. I wanted to stay home and I that's what I wanted to do. And it turns out I like giving people advice, regardless if they ask for it or not. But I just I like to share.

Marc Bernstein 8:31

You should meet my wife.

Deanna Robinson 8:33

And that is though how my company was born. It was completely by accident. It was not in my plan. It slowly grew with me as I figured out what I kind of wanted out of it. Um, I mean, I like to joke and say it started over free cupcakes because that literally my first client, it was the local baker, and I was giving her social media marketing advice. She's like, Manage my social media. And I was like, Well, you give me cupcakes because I was there with my daughter a lot. Um, and that's kind of how it all began.

Marc Bernstein 8:59

Did giving away cupcakes become a marketing strategy of her after that?

Deanna Robinson 9:03

A little bit.

Scaling With Specialists And Contractors

Marc Bernstein 9:04

A little bit. You know, casefully. There you go. Okay, so early on, um, I know you started out, it was just you. So one one what what kind obviously you had challenges being a mom and doing that. What what did that what did that feel like and what did that look like for you?

Deanna Robinson 9:19

Yeah, at the beginning of my journey, I like to say I was I was kind of living two separate lives. I was, you know, being a true state mom, home mom during the day and doing all these fun things, and then I would like moonlight as a marketer and I would work all through the night. Um, but it fueled me. You know, I was somebody who just like it was the best. I got to do everything I wanted to do. But you get to a point where, you know, you can only take on so many people where you're working all night and you have to sleep at some point. Um so then I started surrounding myself with others to help. But everything would still kind of funnel through me, say, you know.

Marc Bernstein 9:46

Aaron Ross Powell So your business, so you've been in business for about 13 years now.

Deanna Robinson 9:50

You got it.

Marc Bernstein 9:51

And um in my world, they'd say that's your bot mitzvah year and business. But uh you're uh so you you've 13 years. So how long did that go on for till you started morphing?

Deanna Robinson 10:03

Aaron Powell When I morphed into a real business, as I like to say, that would have been nine years ago. And the reason was it got to a point. What's the plan? Am I just gonna keep doing this and stop taking clients and be happy? I I was living a great life. Or do I want this to be bigger? Um and at that point I had my third child on the way and I was like, I know that I can't do all of this by myself. And my I wanted to go all in. So I decided that I no longer wanted to be the only expert. I want to surround myself with experts, you know.

Marc Bernstein 10:29

So what made you want to go all in considering that originally you said I want to be a stay-at-home mom? So something you got the bug.

Deanna Robinson 10:35

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: I just have the bug. I mean, I'm a I like being in everybody's business. I like, again, I like giving advice whether they want it or not. And I think I'm good at it. And I love marketing. Um, that makes me happy. And with my business, I I still get to do all the things. I'm a very hands-on mom, but I also now have, you know, a marketing company.

Marc Bernstein 10:53

Aaron Powell So how how did you go about starting to get all in? How did you do that?

Deanna Robinson 10:58

Finding the right people. It was, you know, I make it sound easier now, but it's hard to pull yourself out of the weeds when you're the one that does everything or think that you have to be the one to do everything. And part of that's because I just loved it, right? Like it's it's easy to spend time doing things you like. Um, but identifying where was a bad use of time and how others can be even more effective than me, you know, and others know more than me. That was the true turning point.

Marc Bernstein 11:23

So Nik and I talked on his show about unique abilities, getting people in their unique abilities in your business. It's I mean, it's conceivable that you might want people that all do the same thing that are marketing people. Was that the case, or did you need other people doing unique things?

Deanna Robinson 11:40

It depends. Because over the course of time, I have lots of different types of positions. I have some people who are jack of all trades and marketing and and think a lot like me in that sense. And then I have some people who are just digital ad experts, that's what they do. I have social media content creators, that's what they do, and that's their specialty. Um so it kind of depends on the position.

Marc Bernstein 11:57

Aaron Powell, if I'm not mistaken, do you have I don't think you have any employees. Do you have any employees?

Deanna Robinson 12:01

No.

Marc Bernstein 12:02

Right. So but you have a team of how many people, would you say?

Deanna Robinson 12:05

Yeah. Um twelve, we're at now.

Marc Bernstein 12:07

Yeah. So I think that's the um that for a lot of businesses, probably not for yours, Nik, you know, but I went down the wrong road with uh with that, so to speak.

Nikolas Mondo 12:16

You know, it's uh service-based industries, you need the the manpower for sure.

Marc Bernstein 12:20

Went down the wrong road, but you do have contractors and you have employees.

Nikolas Mondo 12:24

Oh yeah, we uh we uh certainly have a whole slew of uh 1099 contractors that we are specialty in certain areas that we use on a per project basis, for sure.

Marc Bernstein 12:33

But you but I but I I think it's the wave of the future. I mean it's it's getting more expensive to have employees, it's getting more problematic in a lot of ways. And um and and the employee and they and the people like to have some degree of freedom.

Deanna Robinson 12:48

Aaron Powell Well that's kind of how I always um spin it to people when we're talking about it. You know, it kind of gives them the ability to live their life the way that they want to, just like I've designed mine that way. You know, they can control it. I don't care. You make your own hours and do whatever you want to do as long as the job gets done.

Marc Bernstein 13:03

And look in my business we have employees, and the only non-employee that I have personally is my is Shan, who you guys have both experienced, our virtual assistant who's who's remarkable. I never have to worry about her work ethic, but also with our employees, because we've been virtual for a long time, and we have, I think, a strong culture. And even today, Fridays, they don't come our employees don't come in the office, but there's no letdown in workflow. So I don't really think anymore, if you're getting the right people, there's a difference in terms of how they're gonna go about their work. It's just a question of what suits the business and what suits your model better and what suits the people that you have. In a creative business, I think it m definitely makes sense to have independent people.

Deanna Robinson 13:48

Yeah, and we get lucky. I mean, we're marketing, so there's very rarely marketing emergencies. If there is, then you know, it's a it's a easy ask. Um, so that helps.

Marc Bernstein 13:57

So aside from finding the right people and helping you grow, um, it's been a smooth ride, right?

Deanna Robinson 14:03

Of course.

Marc Bernstein 14:06

So so tell us about that. Like how what kind of challenges have you had uh along the way?

Deanna Robinson 14:11

Aaron Powell I mean the biggest challenge we can say, and this this is always um is salesmen. And and not for my company, but my client's company, right? Right. Because um marketing and sales do very different things and we work wonderfully together, but we work best at as a two, as a one and a two. Um and not always salesmen, you know, they don't always have that in their company. But depending on their goal, sometimes we need that in order for me to do what I need to do for marketing. That I have an example if that doesn't make any sense.

Marc Bernstein 14:40

I I'd like to hear it, and I have an example to give you back, because to me, to do a complete job, you almost have to educate salespeople a little bit.

Deanna Robinson 14:50

Sometimes I do. Yep, sometimes I do. Because we have very different outlooks. And sometimes um the salesmen are like, I hate marketing and you do nothing. And I'm like, no, you're just looking at it from the long lens. We just do very different things. But for sales, yeah. If, for instance, if you tell me um, you know, your goal and what you need today is leads. I need leads, I need to feed my team, you know, we need to eat and we need people to call, we need jobs. Well, I can bring them to you, but if you don't have a salesman to close it, I I can't do that because 99% of the time um that's what we need to close the deal, unless we have a long runway and we have drip campaigns and all that good stuff.

Marc Bernstein 15:22

Um so But the salesperson's message has to be consistent with the marketing that you've done. Correct. Right.

Deanna Robinson 15:28

And the salesman, I mean, and they have to be a salesman, right? They have to be hungry. The a hungry salesman, if they work with us, we're great. We you know, that's gotcha.

Marc Bernstein 15:36

Of course. Um I one more quick question before we go on break, because we're gonna do a one minute break. Um what what what is the um I'm trying to formulate the question in my mind. Um what challenges do you have in terms of that integration between sales and marketing?

Deanna Robinson 15:54

I guess is I mean, it's every company is different. I mean, there's some companies that don't even have a sales team. And then there's, you know, so it's you have to meet I always have to meet the client where they are and then obviously try to work with them with the systems they have. And if they don't have a salesman or they don't have a CRM or things of that sort, then we try to help design ideas around that, or that doesn't require that. But then we have to set our marketing objectives and goals, obviously, to um reflect that.

Sponsor Break

Marc Bernstein 16:23

Okay, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back and we're gonna follow up on that question. Thanks, Dean.

Announcer 16:28

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Marc Bernstein 17:29

We are back on Founders Forum with our guest today, Deanna Robinson, and Nik Mondo is with us. And at the beginning of the show, we were talking about um how women need to present themselves in business and the challenges of being a woman in business and that kind of thing. And Nik, I know you had a follow-up question for Deanna about that.

Nikolas Mondo 17:45

Yeah, Deanna, do you find um in your industry that there is a uh difference between your competitors that are male-runned or and if you do, how do you navigate that personally in your business?

Deanna Robinson 17:58

Yeah, so I can't talk about obviously the entire marketing world of women to men in general. But for me, I think what sets us apart is I think you can feel my marketing energy. And it's definitely a very feminine one that I'm giving off, and hopefully that ages with me as I age. Um, but you know, I kind of I'm a marketing geek and that pours out. And you either love that about me or I'm not we're not the fit for you. Um and I when I pick a team and people to obviously work with my clients, that's the one thing that I do make sure is consistent. Like, do they just like what they do? Because marketing is fun. And if the team's not having fun when we're doing it, we just shouldn't be doing it.

Marc Bernstein 18:35

Yeah. So well, I love when we talked earlier, you had actually said you don't take on clients that don't align with your values or your approach. I I think that's wonderful because you know who your customers are then.

Deanna Robinson 18:46

Yep. And it's not a niche thing, it's not a size thing, it's really just a for person thing. I mean, it's probably I don't know if it's the best business advice or the worst, but I always say if you're calling me and I look at my phone and I like cringe inside, we're not I'm not gonna be a good fit for you because I can't help you.

Marc Bernstein 19:00

Have you fired clients? I have.

Deanna Robinson 19:02

It very rarely. It's actually only happened once in my entire span.

Marc Bernstein 19:07

That's I have a couple stories like that too. Very, very rare, because we're very selective about clients we take on too. But if we get to a point where we say this isn't working, we look for commitment. And people say, well, we're financial planners, it should all be on us. But if clients aren't committed to the journey that they're on and to doing what they need to do to get there, then we can't help them after a certain point.

Deanna Robinson 19:28

And for me, I can only help you if you want to be helped, if that makes sense. Right.

Three Year Vision Fractional CMO

Marc Bernstein 19:32

I think it's two different sides of the same coin to a certain extent. Um so what are your let's let's talk about your future vision for a second. Sometimes I go later in the show for this, but I want to get right into it. So, and I you chose to talk about your three-year vision. So if we're looking out, it's October of 2028, and we're sitting here together, and you're saying uh this was a very successful period in my business and my life, what would have to happen, Deanna, for what to result in that conversation?

Deanna Robinson 20:02

Yeah, I mean, just being in business makes me happy and I will consider it successful. But obviously we have to have goals because if not, you know, you're gonna go backwards. So in three years from now, I hope to have a larger fractional CMO side of business and consulting. And that's mainly because our operational side of social media, digital ads, graphic design, you know, it's like a well-oiled machine. We we do it, we do it well, we have a good mark in the industry for it. Um but I personally love giving marketing strategy and consulting advice. Um, so it would be great if we could pick up more clients in that in that realm.

Nikolas Mondo 20:37

If that goes well, is there a particular vertical or uh type of company you like working with?

Deanna Robinson 20:42

Yeah. So for the fractional CMO, we're then gonna be looking at larger clients. So because we help now a lot of medium-sized and large business. I mean, you could still be 50 million um, you know, in in some, but or in even like 150, 200 employees. But then you're talking much larger, you know, they already maybe have a marketing team and people, but they just need outside strategy, outside ideas. They know what, you know, maybe it's an intermittent because somebody's out of office or they're replacing somebody, you know, in a the executive leadership. Um, that'd really be a fun new role that we could take more on.

Marc Bernstein 21:15

Now, would that be a role just for you, or would you hire, would you use some of your other people to be that fractional CMO as well?

Deanna Robinson 21:21

For now that would be me. However, you know, we're always just one more client away from that. I would love to have somebody else, though, of the same equal caliber with experience to also be able to take over some of that.

Marc Bernstein 21:32

Is that instead of your normal marketing services or in addition to the build on it?

Deanna Robinson 21:37

Yeah, just to build on.

Marc Bernstein 21:38

So we had talked before about diversifying services, so I think that's what you're referring to. Yeah. Exactly. Gotcha. Um and you talked about more customized strategies when we talked earlier, too. Is that is that different than what you're doing today?

Deanna Robinson 21:52

Or that's I mean we do a lot of that now, but not everybody has a buzzer, you know, and and that is kind of where it sets us apart, is where we meet clients where they Are, you know, I'm a big believer is you don't need to have, you know, six, seven figures for a marketing budget. If if you only have four, that's okay. Let's make it work. You know, doing anything is better than nothing. Um, so it would just be doing more of that.

Marc Bernstein 22:14

What what um challenges lie ahead in terms of accomplishing that vision in your mind?

Deanna Robinson 22:19

Oh, that was a good one. I didn't come prepared. What lies ahead? It's really just putting myself out there to do it and and going for the extra large clients that we don't typically service now.

Marc Bernstein 22:30

And I would also think if you're expanding services, expanding your business, because you've always had this balance of family and and business. How how old are your your child do you have all daughters?

Deanna Robinson 22:40

I have two and a boy. So I'm a I'm a mix. I have a 14, an eleven, and an eight.

Marc Bernstein 22:45

Okay. So they're in their formative years still. They are. And three years from now you'll have, you know, pretty much well, a younger one and teenagers.

Deanna Robinson 22:54

Yeah.

Marc Bernstein 22:54

So how do you that could be a challenge, I would imagine.

Deanna Robinson 22:57

I mean, I'm a mom.

Marc Bernstein 22:59

Right.

Deanna Robinson 22:59

I'm a working mom. So every day is a juggling act, and there is no secret to it, and there's definitely no balance to it. It's just it's always chaotic.

Working Mom Juggle And Life Design

Marc Bernstein 23:07

By the way, I say this to my wife all the time, and she's a she was a family therapist, so she did, right? But it was it's a lot harder when we had teenagers. You know, in fact, she's got out of her practice around that time because it was so much to just focus on her own teenagers and what was going on. The um but I I think women are amazing. I really do. I put them on a pedestal because that balance um, you know, is difficult for men. Most men, including me, look back and I was pretty active with my kids and try to get to all their games and all that. But I look back and I always wished I did more. But moms do it all, and they're used to doing it all all the time, you know, which is it's almost innate to women, I think.

Deanna Robinson 23:45

Aaron Powell That's my favorite part about being an entrepreneur, though. I mean, I've literally designed my life so that I'm still picking them up from the bus stop and things. I mean, I might be driving them to their sport and having a conference call. And sometimes the client knows, sometimes they don't know.

Marc Bernstein 23:59

You're one of those on your ear pods while you're while you're at the game and sometimes, I mean, when you have to, you have to. But um, I did that too.

Deanna Robinson 24:05

I also hope though then it like shows the kids that, you know, look, you really whatever you design your life to be, you can kind of make happen.

AI Tool Not Marketing Solution

Marc Bernstein 24:12

So um what else, what else, what else, anything else you see or for your future or anything you see changing uh in your industry that you'd like to talk about?

Deanna Robinson 24:22

I mean, I don't nothing specific, but marketing changes every day. I mean, and that's partially why I like you know, when I'm bringing on more people on my team, you need them to love it because if you don't just naturally love it, they can't stay up to date because it changes too much.

Marc Bernstein 24:35

Aaron Powell Can you give an example of something that's changing right now before our eyes or is anything current?

Deanna Robinson 24:40

Aaron Powell I mean, the biggest thing I guess people are talking about is AI, right? And AI and marketing. And my my biggest like little one line there is it's a tool, it's not a solution. And people just can't forget that. Because at the end of the day, if you just let AI do all your marketing, you're gonna sound like every other company out there. Instead, have your marketing team use that to make it sound more polished, get new ideas, you know, more refinement, things like that.

Marc Bernstein 25:02

So I've been I'm in charge of our marketing in our in our company, and I've been using AI, and I got really great ideas from it, but where I'm stuck, and this is what we'll talk about, is it's just not quite coming across the way I need it to come across yet.

Deanna Robinson 25:18

Yep. And that's a sh it's good that you recognize it. I mean it's a lot that's typically what happens.

Marc Bernstein 25:23

I purposely, because we talk about that a lot on the show, so I intentionally use it all the time now. In fact, yesterday I just we we were in kind kind of a historic building that we bought for our business. You'll see it tomorrow, but it's gonna be named the Armory. And the armory it was an armory actually in in World War II. And but there's various stories on it, and I used AI and I used two different AIs, ChatGBT and Claude, and I got two totally different pictures. But they both refer me to the Concha Hawkins Historical Society. So I'm gonna we're gonna go and try to find out more about it. But AI itself isn't gonna give us the answer that we're looking for.

Announcer 26:01

Yeah.

Marc Bernstein 26:01

Um, so a couple quick questions of fire at you. What are your favorite books? What do you like to read?

Deanna Robinson 26:06

So the one I always go back to is The Never Split the Difference by Chris Foss. Um I like it though, I suck at negotiation, so I don't actually put it great into practice, but I use it a lot with my writing, you know, for like email campaigns and stuff and tone it down a little bit. But I I that's a gem that I always go back to.

Marc Bernstein 26:24

Um What are your thoughts about your legacy?

Deanna Robinson 26:28

So, you know, my legacy, I'm a tool to other people's legacy. So I hope that when they think of me, they do it kind of with a smile and maybe a chuckle and be like, oh, Deanna or Deanna's team, they really helped me grow and reach our goals, and man, they just like really liked what they did, and it just brings a smile upon their face.

Marc Bernstein 26:45

You sound like me. That's exactly what I would say. Really? Well, one of our things is we do wealth creation, wealth preservation, and uh legacy. I mean, that's you know, a lot of what I do is about people's legacy. So I love that. And if you could speak speak to your younger self, what advice would you give you?

Deanna Robinson 27:03

Oh man, um just do your thing, it'll all turn out. You know, I I was not the conventional learner. I was terrible in school, and I found myself to be very successful. So I tell myself, just be you and you'll be just fine.

Marc Bernstein 27:17

Well, from my experience of you so far, you do a great job of just being you. So thanks for being here, Nik. Thanks for being here again. Thank you very much for having me. This is a great conversation, and hope you all enjoyed it. And we'll see you again next week on Founders Forum.

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