What do 2008, chaos, and personal branding have in common? They’re the foundation of April Rudin’s success story.
In this episode of The Focused Advisor Podcast, Ryan Ross sits down with April Rudin, founder of The Rudin Group, to explore the transformative power of branding during turbulent times. From launching her firm in the midst of the financial crisis to helping global wealth managers and FinTechs stand out in a crowded marketplace, April shares insights that every advisor and entrepreneur needs to hear.
💡 The Problem: In times of chaos and transition, firms struggle to differentiate themselves. But with the right branding strategy, you can turn uncertainty into opportunity.
📚 What You’ll Learn About Branding
- Why chaos is the BEST time to redefine your brand.
- The secrets to humanizing corporate brands in today’s market.
- How FinTechs can craft messaging that resonates with their audience.
- Insights from April’s upcoming book on global wealth management (coming 2025).
If you’re navigating change, seeking differentiation, or curious about the evolving wealth management landscape, this episode is a masterclass in turning disruption into success.
Takeaways
- 2008 was a chaotic time that led to opportunities in marketing.
- 60% of wealth advisors are over 60, creating a demand for new advisors.
- Women are gaining wealth at a faster pace than men.
- FinTechs need to focus on the problems they solve, not just technology.
- Branding should humanize corporate identities to connect with clients.
- Authenticity in branding is crucial for client and talent acquisition.
- Websites need to be updated regularly to maintain relevance.
- Advisors often lack their own retirement plans, which is concerning.
- Networking and conferences are vital for staying informed in the industry.
- Being open to new ideas is essential for growth and innovation.
Chapters
00:00 Navigating Chaos: Marketing in Transition
02:48 Understanding Branding: Corporate vs Personal
05:52 The Evolution of FinTech Messaging
08:39 The Importance of Authenticity in Financial Services
11:58 How Yankee Candle-Naming Style Is Influencing Company Naming
13:11 Lifespan Of A Website
14:45 The Journey of an Entrepreneur: Building a Brand
18:00 The Value of Conferences and Networking
20:51 Finding the Right Clients: Marketing Appreciation
23:39 Embracing Authenticity: Lessons from Martha Stewart
Episode Links:
Transcript
Hey everybody, it is your favorite bald marketer here, Ryan Ross, and in this conversation I speak about chaos. I speak about chaos and branding. And I speak about it with none other than April Rudin of the Rudin Group. April’s story starts at another time of chaos in the world, which is 2008. And that’s when she founded the Rudin Group.
And it’s during these times of chaos that the wheat is separated from the sheaf. And if you can understand who you are, In chaos, you can differentiate and that is what branding is all about. And in this conversation, we talk about this. We also talk about her new book on the wealth management industry, the industry as a whole, which is coming out in 2025.
So please enjoy this conversation about chaos and branding with April Rudin.
[00:00:52] Ryan Ross: All right, April Rudin, founder of the Rudin Group. Thank you for coming on the Focused Advisor podcast. Ryan, it’s great to see you in the U. S. since this is our second continent together. That doesn’t happen very often. I know that you started the Rudin group in 2008 and I think you said you started it because at that time firms needed to differentiate.
I’m curious because 2008 was kind of a chaotic time in the U S I guess globally. Yes. Now we have a time of chaos probably isn’t the right word, but like a time of transition, right? Maybe that is chaos. Chaos is the right word, but yeah. So how do you think about marketing? times of chaos or transition. So I think there that it’s the best time.
[00:01:40] April Rudin: I mean, 2008 was A time of chaos of firm, different kind of chaos. Let’s put it that way. That one was really financial crisis. So a lot of firms were, uh, going out of business, uh, their products that was changing, uh, the way they positioned themselves was changing and buyers were changing, uh, in terms of what things they were looking for, um, both From a wealth management standpoint, asset management, institutional, and so on.
So it was kind of, it was very far reaching. So it was a great time to launch my business because people were looking to reposition themselves. Even, you know, all the way as basic as having a new company name. Whether they had to reorganize or they wanted to reorganize or something that was a word or a name that meant something different or previous to 2008.
Um, so I think it ended up being a very good time to start my business with people kind of thinking differently. Fast forward to now, um, it’s a different kind of chaos, um, but there’s a, there’s a ton of opportunity amidst change, let’s say that. So um, there’s in wealth management right now, 60 percent of advisors are over the age of 60.
So within the next 10 years. Um, there’ll be a huge, um, deficit in terms of the number of advisors. So that’s going down. The demand for advice is going up. Uh, women as a cohort are really gaining a lot of steam. So 51 percent of the population is female. Women are creating wealth at a faster pace than men.
Now, women are sorry for this, unfortunately, uh, inheriting wealth because they have a longer, uh, longevity, right? Then men, so they’re inheriting wealth. So the buyers are changing the, uh, and then also next gen, right, is also inheriting wealth. And then they’re also creating wealth at a huge rate too, with many people going into entrepreneurship.
You see a lot of younger entrepreneurs creating wealth, whether it’s, you know, Sandhill road, uh, West coast entrepreneurs or East coast entrepreneurs. Otherwise, there’s, um, uh, a big lean into that. Who do you usually work with and how has that evolved over the years? So I usually describe our business sort of buy side and sell side, but not the usual, uh, typical.
So, um, we usually work with enterprise firms, um, at an enterprise level and then RIAs that might work underneath that umbrella. Um, so. And then on the other side, uh, FinTechs and WealthTechs that want to sell into FIs. So I feel like we’ve got a really good understanding of how, what the needs of both sides are.
So how larger institutions can differentiate themselves and then individual advisors, practices all over the world. We work with teams globally. How can they think about themselves differently and differentiate? And then FinTechs and WealthTechs that want to know more about wealth and wealth management and how to sell into that.
And then of course there’s like the arc of wealth management, meaning there’s RIA, there’s independent advisors, there’s bank wealth management, there’s wire house, so a lot of different structures for people to understand wealth management isn’t just one thing. Um, you just mentioned that, so you’re working with the FinTechs and the wealth managers, and I’m curious, uh, specifically for the FinTechs, but how does the messaging evolve, right?
[00:05:40] Ryan Ross: Because on a previous interview, you’ve said that oftentimes these FinTechs are started by engineers, right? Which might not understand how marketing works, but can you just bring me through the, maybe the questions you ask them so that they can help refine what their messaging is? Sure. Lately, I have a new question line, Ryan, which is I make people tell me the problem that they’re solving without using the term AI.
[00:06:08] April Rudin: So, uh, because I think, you know, there’s this AI fatigue now. People really don’t care about how the problem is solved. That’s like underneath the hood, but it’s really important to articulate the problem you’re solving for. And that’s probably the most important, um, communication piece that people have is that message, what problem are you solving for so that your buyers and readers aren’t lost in the jargon of AI and digital and, uh, the Uber of this and the match.
com of that and all these, you know, cutesy, um, things. And yeah, I think it’s really easy to say like, Oh, it’s AI for this. But. AI might have a lot of different definitions, depending on who you’re speaking with, right? Because now we know there’s a lot of different versions of whatever AI is. There’s the chats, right?
[00:07:06] Ryan Ross: And then, which is, I guess, generative. And then there might be a lot of different versions. So it’s probably a lot. It’s really important to clarify, like, actually what that means without using the word. Because that’s just, it opens up a, it’s very nebulous. Yeah, I guess I would say I don’t even think it’s that important.
[00:07:24] April Rudin: I think business people are looking to solve business problems. And if we approach it from that way, startup founders, right? FinTechs and WellTechs should think about the business problem that they’re solving and lean into that. rather than, you know, the cool technology that they’re using to do it. Now that said there, there might be some place for it, but I think it’s way too heavy in terms of the messaging and the buyers of these technology products are again, especially for enterprise, right?
Looking to solve a business problem. It really doesn’t matter the technology. I think we all know that it’s not, you know, being run by a, an abacus or a calculator or something at this point. So, um, yeah. Well, you, you help brands or you help companies, wealth, wealth management companies, FinTech companies create their branding, right?
[00:08:27] Ryan Ross: What. Does so I’m curious, this is my like big question for the year, I suppose. Like what is branding and what is not branding? So branding really matters, but there’s two kinds of brands. There’s corporate brands and then there’s personal brands. And, uh, so more and more corporate brands, um, need are humanizing themselves.
[00:08:48] April Rudin: I’ll say so. know, some of the biggest names in the industry, like a Blackstone or Blackrock or Morgan Stanley or whatever, are really made up of people, right? They’re there. Nobody knows who they are or what they are. And so I think there’s more of a movement today to humanize the brands and talk about personal brands.
So if you look on LinkedIn, There are more videos that are more authentic to people. There’s more content that’s more authentic to people. You see more personal content. So you feel like you can get to know the person rather than just the corporate brand and the growth strategy that these firms have is exactly that leaning into the people.
Who run the business rather than what the business is. And that’s for a couple of things. It’s client acquisition, but it’s also talent acquisition because many young people have either a negative or no idea about who these brands are and they need to be paid for. More visible for, um, client acquisition.
Uh, similarly for like institutional clients. I was just talking to someone about that. I mean, no institution really buys anything again. It’s people and those people are changing, right? Those people are getting younger. Those people are using social. Those people are using all of the different tools and things to get to know the products and services and, um, not rely on some of the old ways of getting to know brands.
So I think, you know, the better brands and the more modern brands are. Again, humanizing themselves. So rather than having themselves be, um, more elevated, which was a trend, let’s say maybe 2008, um, the trend more is to humanize and made up of people. Yeah. So it’s like, it’s, it’s showcasing. The, the nuances of the people that work there, or if you’re a person, just the nuances of yourself, right?
[00:11:00] Ryan Ross: Exactly. The way you speak, the mess, the things that you say, how you say them, what, how you dress this color scheme have, have a thing to do with it as well. Absolutely. Because money is really a motive. So, um, colors, I think, you know, there used to be this, you know, really there were these. strong blues or greens or something like that, that most financial services firms use the color of money, um, uh, and strong, I’m going to say sort of male brands, but I think today people are leaning into more softer brands, more again, humanized, right?
[00:11:40] April Rudin: What are the things, and similarly with images, right? There was the trend on. Lighthouses, chess pieces, a lot of stock photos. Something with Bridget in the name. Anything with Bridget in the name. Yeah. Yachts. Which still works too, right? No, I don’t think so much because, you know, it doesn’t mean anything to people.
Um, and then on the opposite end though, a lot of RIAs will choose something like, you know, rolling rock RIA, which, you know, because they rolled rocks with their grandfather. In New Hampshire or something, which really is their own sort of personal story, which really doesn’t say anything about themselves either.
So I think the answer is somewhere in the middle to have words and names of products and names of firms that mean something to people, um, you know, signals, stability, signal expertise. Signal modern thinking, right? Signal all these other things rather than just, um, some old name that, you know, so and so capital or so and so bridge.
[00:12:51] Ryan Ross: You know, this reminds me of, I saw some. Uh, it was a meme on the internet and it was about the, the way that they name Yankee candles and it’s like, like actual, like this smells like cedar versus this is like, I don’t know, ethereal yesness or something that makes, makes no sense at all. It’s totally abstract.
Yes. Yeah. Did you say that we’re, we’re more towards the abstract versus the, uh, the, the total concrete. Totally. That’s a great, I love that because yeah, people want to, again, connect with a feeling around a brand. Right. So how does that brand make you feel? And that’s why websites are so important and so important to update your website and not to have, you know, website circa 2002.
[00:13:38] April Rudin: Um, because you know, the minute people hit their, hit your website, your homepage, they decide, is this a brand I like, or I dislike, does it feel like something that resonates with me? And then I think. On the side of the creators, people understanding that you can’t create something that’s going to please everyone.
And so you really create something that’s authentic to yourself and that’s where you go. Hmm. I see. And I read some statistic, it said websites age out in like two or three years, just because the internet moves fast and like Google’s algorithm for better, for worse, we’re all, you know, that’s what we searched through, right.
[00:14:20] Ryan Ross: And so many cases, and if it’s not fast. Because of the updates and keeping up with those updates, it’s not going to load fast and people get pissed off. So they go to the next one down the line, right? So the speed of the website is so important. I think the speed of the web, but the two years. So when you said that, what I immediately thought of is the language that you use that needs to be updated.
[00:14:42] April Rudin: The images that you use that needs to be updated, even something as simple as headshots, because, um, you know, Wealth management, for example, it’s a relationship and trust business. So if your picture looks like your high school graduation picture, or it’s a cutoff wedding photo or something that really, that’s not what you look like.
If you’ve gained 50 pounds, lost 50 pounds, have different hair, have no hair, right? Your picture, your image really needs to look like you. And I think also post pandemic, there’s, A less of an emphasis on a stiff formal photo, but one more that if that’s what you look like, uh, in business every day, that’s what your image should look like.
So people want to have something authentic that they can expect when they meet a person. They don’t want to have to look in a crowd and figure out who is the person on the web and just take a risk, right? But you don’t want to take a risk with money. I think there’s the phrase. Your money, your life.
[00:15:44] Ryan Ross: That’s what Google, they have a, they have a regulation about stuff on the site. And if it’s YMYL, your money, your life, then they’re really, really stringent about that. And there’s also, I think the SEC is really cracking down on testimonials. Because you’ve seen these, these people are being fined like hundreds of thousands of dollars because you say things that are true, right?
You gotta say things that are true. Well, you know, I, I must say just personally, I’m not a big fan of testimonials and advisors using testimonials for that reason. That Yeah. Um, you know, different people can have a different experience. Sure. And people have, uh, they’re not even sure what to say, like somebody might say an advisor.
[00:16:28] April Rudin: Is nice or listened or, you know, like the values and things that had a nice office. I mean, I don’t know, you know, things that really are not meaningful. So, yeah, well, I think it’s a good point, right? Like there’s so many reasons why somebody might choose it. One advisor over another, maybe it’s the fee rate, but it also might just be the responsiveness or maybe their website looks good or maybe they did like the office.
[00:16:53] Ryan Ross: Right. But, but the nuances are so. between who the audience is or who their, who their clients are. So maybe it’s like, it’s, it’s a very anecdotal evidence, right? It’s a slippery slope, something that means something to one person. It may not mean anything to anyone else and a recommendation is based, maybe based on results.
[00:17:17] April Rudin: And again, your results might be different than somebody else’s results. And you know, people are people. So our relationship, right, is different than your relationship with other people as well. So it’s so, it’s so personal. I don’t think ratings really capture that testimonials. So I want to shift gears a second.
[00:17:40] Ryan Ross: Um, you’re putting out a book in a few months. When’s it coming out? Oh, well, it’s coming out in September, 2025. So we’re still working on it. Yeah. You’re still working on the book. What’s the main like theme of the book? So the theme of the book is really an overview of global wealth management because there are no books on the market right now that cover wealth management as an industry.
[00:18:03] April Rudin: And, you know, as we talked about at the outset of this podcast, there are so many different things that have changed over the years and so many aspects of the industry itself that are really important for people to understand. Whether you’re in wealth management yourself, you’re in asset management, FinTech, wealth tech, um, accounting, so many adjacent, uh, different types of laws, so many adjacent.
Fields that really need to understand more about wealth management, uh, recruiting, talent acquisition. So we interviewed over 70 people globally. Um, and the chapters are just like what you would expect. So they are, uh, focused in on retirement and philanthropy and rise of high net worth, uh, sustainability and so on.
But we’re, it’s, it’s anecdotal and we have a lot of personal, um, Uh, information and opinions that, uh, people have shared with us from large companies to small companies in different parts of the world. So that’s, what’s taken us a long time to assemble all of that and, and have that be really useful. But, um, heretofore there’s nothing in the market.
There’s a few, uh, books that, um, cover portfolio construction or ESG investing or something like that, but no books on the actual industry itself. So it’s almost like I love these micro histories, right? Of just talking about one sliver of, of the global market, right? And you guys are focusing on like how it evolved, what it looks like right now.
[00:19:43] Ryan Ross: Kind of like a, a snapshot of what the industry looks like. Well, by topic, right? Some people are more interested in one topic versus another topic, depending on their, um, uh, practice, but other, you know, executives. want to have more of an overview. So it’s definitely an overview piece. Um, what we want to try to do is have, you know, some setting of the stage, but then also some to do’s because, uh, an advisor’s, uh, success is based on, you know, client success.
[00:20:17] April Rudin: They have to have business success themselves. And now there’s a generational success, whether, you know, it’s working with different generations of clients or passing their business along. There’s a lot of different dynamics happening, um, in the field today. Yeah. When you were interviewing the, these people, was there anything that like took you by surprise about how the industry is structured or anything like that?
So many things. I mean, our retirement chapter, for example, has sort of two tracks. One of it, one of them being the investor’s journey on retirement, which is not great, as we all know. And then the advisor’s journey on retirement, which is also not great. Many planners don’t have a plan themselves. They have no exit strategy.
They have no retirement plan other than selling their practice. So. It made me kind of feel like the planners have no plan themselves. So how are they advising people in retirement? Which is why I think retirement has become like a niche practice when it really shouldn’t be. Interesting. So it’s almost like, uh, the cobbler’s shoes, right?
[00:21:26] Ryan Ross: The cobbler doesn’t have any shoes, but, but it’s, I guess it’s. I wonder if there, if that’s a market out there for an advisor, right? The advisor for advisors, because sometimes you just, if you’re a cabler, you don’t want, ah, I’m tired of making shoes all day. So can somebody else make my shoes? Maybe there’s a consolidation with the aggregators in the RIA market is having a platform that people can tap into or having a structure because the idea of leaving warehouse or broker dealer or something and being on your own.
[00:22:01] April Rudin: Without having that entrepreneurial experience too, is sometimes daunting. And so, um, this is sort of a hybrid, right? Being part of something, but still running your own business. So, um, yeah, I think there’s definitely a market though, for advisors, advisor. That’s so funny. Yeah. I’m, I’m very curious about how you’ve built your business.
[00:22:25] Ryan Ross: You started it in 2008. And what was, what were the challenges and things you went through? Cause you, you’re, you’re very established in the industry now. And I’m just curious, like what the ride was like. Thank you. Well, I have to say, I was, you know, I’m not even going to call myself a reluctant entrepreneur.
[00:22:41] April Rudin: I was just like an unknown. I went into the unknown. I had no idea really how to start a business, but I had an idea that, uh, brands really needed to change and that most of them were oldie and moldy. And I have these two Gen Z kids and I couldn’t see that they wanted to buy from a brand that was a lighthouse, a yacht in the Chesapease.
And I went to a friend of mine who was running a trust company at the time. And he told me 16 years ago, you’re too old to be an entrepreneur. Banks will never hire outside firms. High net worth people will never be on the internet and social media is a fad. And so the minute I heard all of that, I thought, well, there must be a market out there.
So I built my own website and I made it my business to really go out and get to know people. And so I met a ton of people and began demonstrating my own marketing. So, um, right away I was fortunate enough to become a blogger for Huffington post. I met Ariana Huffington. And she was really interested in the idea of high net worth marketing.
And, um, so I put out a lot of what’s now called content and now called thought leadership. Someone said to me, you know, in the beginning, like you really have thoughts. And I thought to myself, Great. Because you know what, it’s not leadership without thoughts, but of course people put out a lot of content that has no thought, right, or has no point of view and being a young company and having no compliance or regulatory around me as a marketing firm, I was just able to, um, sort of digest and give my own opinion and establish a point of view on.
The opportunity in high net worth, the opportunity with younger people. Um, the opportunity with Bitcoin. Some of these, if I go back and I look at, um, my early blogs from 2008, um, you know, I really covered a lot in 2009, you know, continuing up, covered a lot of ground and things that, um, are now reality, but you know, just things that were coming into their own, uh, years ago.
Um, So you would create, you were a content creator before that, the phrase was cool, right? But that wasn’t the main thing. It was advising companies on how to build their brands, right? Yes, but it was the content creation that allowed me to create a big social platform, which is I think how you and I met.
Um, and uh, you know, that, that’s what creates right buzz. And that’s what creates brand visibility. And today we now know that as, you know, Content developer, content creation, influencer, maybe, you know, things like that, where people are aware of your personal brand. I think that that’s what I tried to do was that that’s just what naturally came to me and then I’m very social.
So getting to know people and meeting people, um, became important to me. Yeah. You’re, you’re easily one of the most social people out there, right? I feel like it’s you and Paul Hatch (See Paul’s Interview Here) put out so much. You’re, you’re. You guys are just so prolific. So what would you say? There’s a great book I think it’s by a guy named Mason something Mason Curry and it is it’s called rituals daily rituals something like that Right, and he talks about all these like creative people in their rituals, right?
[00:26:21] Ryan Ross: They waking up at I don’t know 4 a. m And they have one cup of coffee. It sounds like you’re not But yeah, I wouldn’t fit into that mold at all What would you say is your process of just working on a day basis daily basis? I would say that I lean more toward the other way, which is not having rituals, which is being open.
[00:26:42] April Rudin: You know, my calendar is filled many times with people who’ve just reached out to me cause they want to have a conversation. Uh, it’s something new. Um, I try to be as open as I can to learning about new experiences or new products or new problems or different parts of the globe or whatever it might be.
So, um, I think you could ask Paul Hatch. I think we share that same quality where we’re both really just interested in the world. And so I don’t have any, I would say rituals, um, because I like to be open to new things as they’re happening. When you hear about some new technology or idea, what do you do?
[00:27:26] Ryan Ross: What makes it like worthy of you wanting to investigate it, right? Like what what kind of pricks your ears up? That’s a great question. I would say again, it’s understanding what the new technology is doing. First of all, I’m not going to spend a lot of time reading through content or advertising or media that I don’t understand or is filled with jargon and buzzwords.
[00:27:49] April Rudin: So knowing what’s going on, seeing a problem that I know that exists in business or in the market and understanding a solution to that, to me is really interesting. And that’s what gives it meaning. Otherwise, it’s just a solution in search of a problem. I put like maybe blockchain into that category. So like blockchain is great, but it, it spent so many years looking for use cases, right?
Oh, it’s great, but who needs it? And how are we going to use it? So it’s a little bit fast, awkward. So I would say I’m always interested in understanding new solutions to old business problems. That’s what remains the same. Yeah, I know that you, you go to a lot of conference, right? Or you have in the past.
[00:28:37] Ryan Ross: What is like your, your top few favorite conferences to go to? So I used to go to more conferences, um, than I do. Um, Then I do now. I would say that, um, the most important, you know, a lot of the conferences have become really repetitive. It’s the same people speaking on the same topics. So I like to go to conferences where there are new and different speakers, uh, than I’m used to hearing.
[00:29:06] April Rudin: Um, and I also, as you, you well know, like to go to international conferences because there’s a lot that you can learn from the globe. I consider myself. a global citizen. So I try to go to conferences in London or Monaco or Switzerland or any other money centers, Asia, uh, Hong Kong money centers, because there’s always something new that’s happening there that, um, is important for us to bring back to our clients and our business here.
[00:29:39] Ryan Ross: When you approach going to them, how do you make sure that you can like really make it worth going? So, um, Usually, obviously first year conferences are not the best, but, um, watching something over time and seeing the kinds of, um, speakers that they have the, um, you know, I, I, I’m a little bit skeptical, I would say about the social media that comes out of many of these conferences, the photos are taken from an angle sometimes to make it look like it’s a full room or something like that.
[00:30:13] April Rudin: But I would say by reputation, I’ll talk to people who. been at the conference and if they find it worthwhile because many of our clients, you know, ask us about sponsoring conferences and the only way to really know is to experience some of them, experience them yourselves in a lot of advisor conferences, for example, technology, fintech, well tech that want to sell to financial advisors.
But the people at the conference. are really just other vendors, right? There are no advisors that attend. So try to avoid those kinds of situations. Um, how, let’s see, we’re, we’re wrapping down. I’m curious, when I asked you about your process of working, I think that’s great. What, who is like the ideal client for you guys?
So I always say it’s people. I try to work with everybody, wherever they come from, wherever they come. And, um, even if they’re small, um, you know, we try to work within a budget. Sometimes we can’t, but I would say people who really want to do marketing and appreciate marketing is an ideal client. In the early days, I feel like I had to sell people on what the value was of marketing.
And I, I think I’m like beyond that now. I, you know, if people understand marketing and they value it and they want to have strategic advice and tactical experience, we love working with people like that. Okay. Um, how can people find you? You’re pretty findable, but just in case they don’t know how to find you, how could they find you?
[00:31:43] Ryan Ross: Um, So our website is, uh, the root in group. com and you can email me, April at the root in group. com or find me on LinkedIn. Still spent a teeny bit of time on X, but some of the other social platforms as well. Okay. Well, what would you say is your, I think is LinkedIn your go to? LinkedIn is definitely my go to.
[00:32:07] April Rudin: In fact, I just got a notification that From LinkedIn that I think I’ve been on LinkedIn for. 16 or 17 years, something like that. So I feel like an OG of, uh, that’s cool. Um, one final question and I’ll let you go. What would you say is a book that you’ve read or like a documentary you’ve seen lately or some piece of media that like changed your mind in some certain way?
Oh, that’s an interesting question. You know, the one that came to mind was Martha Stewart. I just saw that one. I watched it too. It was great. It was amazing. I mean. So I would say, you know, what could you take away from that? Which is, don’t be afraid to be yourself. Just be your authentic self. Some people are going to like you.
Some people aren’t going to like you, but they’re going to definitely know what you stand for. Yeah, that’s really good. I watched it. It was, I’d never, I’m not her like demographic, right. But it was so good because she has evolved over the years to just doing some very interesting things. Started out like catering.
[00:33:07] Ryan Ross: I think that’s what it was. And then built a brand, built a She was a stockbroker. She was a stockbroker, which is what played into the insider trading because she was a stockbroker. Very interesting. Well, that, yeah, I, I’m glad you brought that up because I, sometimes I forget, I watch these things, but it was so good.
I know it might seem like an unusual choice, but I think she has the freedom to be herself and she’s not afraid to be herself. So yeah, that’s good. It’s wonderful. All right. April Rudin, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. Thanks for having me, Ryan.