You Betcha She Did! Business Tips, Life Advice for Rad Women Entrepreneurs, Leaders, Coaches and

95 | How to Be a Thought Leader Without Writing a Book or Doing a TEDX Talk

• Ladies First Digital Media Company • Season 5 • Episode 95

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Ever wondered what it takes to break free from societal barriers and earn your worth in leadership? Join us as we sit down with Mel Ripp, founder and CEO of Peapod, who shares her journey from corporate America to establishing her own PR and marketing consulting firm. 
Mel sheds light on the unique challenges women face, especially in the Midwest, and offers practical strategies for confidently sharing your expertise, finding your "why," and building meaningful connections.

Tune in as we discuss how to:

  1. Articulate Your Thoughts: Learn the three pillars—ideas, ideology, and information—to effectively share your expertise.
  2. Leverage LinkedIn: Discover how LinkedIn can help you build meaningful connections and grow your influence.
  3. Mastermind Groups & Awareness Buddies: Understand the benefits of supportive groups to create psychological safety and gain honest feedback.


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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of you, betcha, she Did, the podcast where we teach you to elevate your voice, grow your brand and earn your worth. I am your host, raina Rakicki. Today, I have Mel Ripp in the studio. She is the founder and CEO of Peapod, which is a marketing and PR consulting firm, and she is here to talk to us about the best ways to elevate your voice. Did she really do that, you betcha? She did.

Speaker 2:

I've been kind of a creepy fan of yours for a bit. Maybe not creepy, but I've been like checking it out.

Speaker 1:

And I just I love the podcast name.

Speaker 2:

I love everything, so I just love what you're doing.

Speaker 1:

I'll take any fans creepy adoring You're all. Welcome to you, betcha. She did.

Speaker 2:

This is great.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, we're all fans, it's good, so let's dive in. I know you know, as a PR and consulting firm, you have a whole plethora of ideas and tips about how to help women, especially, elevate their voice.

Speaker 2:

So let's dive into that. Where should we start? Where I'd love to start is just talk a little bit about kind of how I got into that business anyway. You know we always talk about how, as entrepreneurs, we tend to serve the pain we know. So I again. Name is Mel.

Speaker 2:

I've been in business for about six years full time, and so Peapod was a side hustle before that, but I was definitely full on in corporate America for about a decade.

Speaker 2:

I worked for companies in Chicago and in Madison and I had leadership roles at both of those, both of the companies that I worked at and I saw that when it came to idea generation, when it came to people kind of patting themselves on the back, I saw a lot of men being able to very clearly articulate kind of their ideas, why they were great ideas, why people should care, and I saw a lot of women hanging back from doing the same. And I think part of it when I was in the corporate world was I didn't feel comfortable doing that. I didn't have a personal brand independent of you know. So I was just. I was a worker bee, and when I got out of corporate America and started my PR consulting firm, I initially started working with companies, you know, I thought, oh, that's where I want to, you know, make an impact. And then, by mistake, or actually it was a happy accident.

Speaker 2:

But somebody reached out to me and they were like hey, mel, I know that you help with messaging for brands, do you ever help with messaging for people? And I was like what? It was definitely like a record scratch moment and I was like, oh, I did not know that that even existed. And so then that kind of you know, my eyes were open to the world of personal branding and thought leadership, and I started to think back about my experiences and how we're always telling women that they should speak up and they should, you know, tell everyone about their ideas, and they have all these insights and rich experience, but we don't really tell women how to do that, and we are in a society that I think is definitely more pro-women than it has been, but there are still a lot of barriers and there are still a lot of unspoken things that we do to keep women in their place. It's a reason why we don't have a lot of women in leadership positions, especially women of color, kind of all of that stuff. And so when I did this project for this woman who was a VP of HR at a Fortune 500 company, I was like, if this woman struggles with how to articulate her why and her unique perspectives. There are so many women, myself included, that have problems doing the same thing, and I think a lot of it stems from kind of all of the stuff that you'd expect Women tend to have.

Speaker 2:

I really don't like calling imposter syndrome imposter syndrome, but we do have those feelings of like oh, you know, everyone knows this. Why would, why would anyone care about what I have to say? Or I'm a fraud and I don't know anything, which is my personal favorite sarcasm. I also think that we just aren't we. We don't really know where to start. That's kind of why I shifted my PR and consulting business to be more working with individual women, one-on-one, really trying to help them hone their personal brand platform, what they want to speak about in their industry or niche, and then kind of how to bring that to life. I just think it's important that we let people know that the things that they do are incredible, and part of the way that I do that is to kind of hold that mirror up to people and go. You may think everyone knows how to do this. You may think everyone has the same perspective, but nobody has this unique combination of experience and insight and perspective that you do and I want to bring that out.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, I love that. That story is really powerful, especially the part about like it's a vice president woman, very powerful and just like, like you said, she's struggling with this. Okay, then you just shows how far up that ladder it goes and I think, yeah, you know, women, often when we are raised, we're taught to be rule followers and you know not be the squeaky wheel, not brag where it's not the same for men and I don't know we definitely struggle with not, it's not even showing off, but, just like you said, sharing our expertise, our combination of all these things that we can bring to the table and I think the you know when to bring it back full circle to the podcast and to, you know, to really talk about Midwestern women.

Speaker 2:

There's a whole other layer of Midwest, nice and kind of, you know, wanting to be feeling that we should be seen and not heard. You know, I grew up in and I live here now, but I grew up in rural Door County. I mean it's not rural in and I live here now, but I grew up in rural Door County. I mean it's not rural, it's touristy, but, like you know, small town Wisconsin, where I still have moments and I live here now and I still have these moments of like, who am I? You know, a girl born in Sturgeon Bay, wisconsin, population 9,000 people. Who am I to be telling women that they should be bold? And you know, out there with their thoughts and ideas, right, so I still there's like this little layer of Midwestern-ness that's like oh, no, no, no, no, I couldn't.

Speaker 1:

Yeah don't, don't do that. Yeah, oh, no you don't. It's like you betcha, we need to like come on.

Speaker 2:

That's exactly how it is. And so I just feel like you know, I've worked. I've worked in the Midwest all my life. I've never moved anywhere, you know. So, like I feel like I see this firsthand and it's just so cool to work with a woman who has had all these incredible experiences and you kind of can again like show her and she's like, oh, I am pretty cool. And I'm like, yes, yes, you are.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I am pretty cool, like a little light bulb just went on. You're like let's show the world. You got a lot to share, all right, well, let's dive into some strategies and techniques. So what are specific things that women can do to elevate their voice, to get themselves out there? Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

So one thing that I always tell women and we could talk forever about like, oh, finding your why and making sure that your personal values align with the values you have professionally, and I could talk ad nauseum about that.

Speaker 2:

But I'm a firm believer that in order to really find out your why, you have to do a lot of what, and so I really want to kind of hone in on some actionable strategies because, let's be honest, you know, we can think about the why behind why we do what we do or the job we have, or the business that we run do, or the job we have or the business that we run, but that why is always going to be a little bit of a moving target, because we are not the same people as we go through our entrepreneurial careers, right, or our corporate careers.

Speaker 2:

And so one of the things that I always tell women because I always hear is like I have so many things I want to say but they just feel all jumbled in my head and I don't really know kind, really know kind of what I stand for. And so I start by asking three questions, and so I actually have clients journal on this or kind of write about it. I ask them about ideas, ideology and information. So ideas, these are the things that kind of keep you up at night and you're like I wonder why my industry does this, or I wonder why I'm the only person in marketing that thinks this way, or like these are those things that are that kind of keep you up and make you think am I, am I weird? Am I, am I different? Like I like that Good question.

Speaker 1:

I am, let's hope, yeah weird is good, I fully embrace weirdness.

Speaker 2:

But those are the things, like those. That's what I call kind of your secret sauce, those things where you're like I have an opinion on this and it's unlike anything I've ever heard before. So that's the ideas part. The ideology is all about your values, right, and that can be everything, from your personal values. Like I always say that my ideology is curiosity above all, and so when I start to create content, whether that's on LinkedIn or whether I start to think about a speaking engagement, I'm always leading with those values of curiosity, empathy, you know, and there's tons of values, worksheets out there that you can do, but really it's just starting by writing down like what do I hold dear? Like what you know? What is the hill I'm prepared to die on? What are the things that irritate me? Whose life do I want to change? And so when you start thinking about those questions, your brain can kind of open up to like, oh, okay, like this is why I'm here and this is what I want to say.

Speaker 2:

And then the third piece is the information. Right, it's all of the stuff that we have accrued through years or decades of doing what we've done for a living. It might be, you know, I don't have kids. But a great example is, like you know, I have a client who's a working mom and also trying to build a startup at the same time. She has information about how to do that that other people may not have. I have 20 plus years of marketing experience for nonprofits, right, and so like I cannot kind of talk about that and like what I've learned, and so I think if you approach what you want to talk about from those three pillars, you can very easily start to see patterns that start to emerge between the information you have, the ideology you want to convey and, frankly, those big ideas that you might be known for. Like that might be your ticket to what your positioning is as a person.

Speaker 1:

I like that. I mean it almost sounds like yeah, take those three buckets, yeah pillars. It's like you make yeah content pillars right, where everything about your brand and what you stand for can stem from those and you have a pathway to have it really represent you.

Speaker 2:

And then the other thing that I think is really important is and this sounds this probably sounds like a huge cop-out, because I'll say noticing, and people will be like I notice everything, like I'm a noticer, but we don't really. We notice, but we don't document Right. And so I noticed that when I go for walks, my mind will start to wander and I'll start to think things like let's see. I start to think things like wait, why do we feel like thought leadership only has to be reserved for certain people?

Speaker 2:

Or why do we only think that thought leadership is a very specific type of new information, and so like my whole thing is that anybody, within reason, anybody, can be a thought leader. Like I am so tired of of like talking about thought leaders, like it's some, like old white guy on a pedestal talking to us, right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and they have a book and they have done a TED Talk, it's like no, it doesn't have to be that.

Speaker 2:

When I start to think about that and I really start to kind of parse out those ideas, I realized that all of a sudden, I've got like seven questions that I want to answer for myself. I have three things that I want to talk about in a LinkedIn post, for example. Of you know three things that I want to talk about in a LinkedIn post, for example. And I document everything, Like I'm I'm on my iPhone opening up my notes app and I'm just you know, you know keyboard. Sometimes I look at it a couple of days later and I go, yeah, I still don't know if I have anything to say about that, but I at least wanted to. You know kind of plant that seed. And then there are other things where I'm like, oh, my gosh, yes, Like this is, this should be a piece of my platform. You know, this should be kind of what I'm talking about all the time.

Speaker 2:

And so noticing and documenting, and I mean like I I do this all the time, Like my husband and I watch a lot of like political commentary, right, so like we'll be on MSNBC and you know someone will be talking and I'll be like, oh, like I wonder, blah, blah, blah, and like it will trip something in my head Like I'll be on Reddit, I'll be on LinkedIn, and so, just noticing, when your tummy tickles a little bit, like notice a spark there and you're like, oh, I want to add to that conversation and I promise you that there there's going to be a list. If you really commit to document, noticing and documenting, there's going to be a list of things that you want to talk about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I love that. Those are, like you talked about, two really good strategies there. One is stepping away from your work to go for a walk. Like I feel like I do my best thinking when I'm, yeah, walking around or gardening or you know whatever, getting out in nature, all of a sudden, that your mind shifts. There's got to be some chemical thing that happens. And these ideas, yeah, just happen. And, like you said, bring a little notepad or your phone, jot it down, because then it's out there in the world and you can come back to it and see if it resonates. And then I also liked how you talked about you were talking about a tummy tickle. I always think it's like your. For me it's like my eyes light up All of a sudden. I'm like, I was like, oh, there was a really strong connection that happened in my brain and I'm excited about that. Yes, I mean, don't?

Speaker 2:

Our bodies are so intuitive, I feel, and I don't know a ton about body-mind connection, but I do know that when I'm working with a client and we have an hour-long phone call, that flip-flop in my tummy that happens and I know it's kind of elementary to call it a tummy tickle, but that flip-flop that happens that's when I know to say oh, whoa, whoa, back up, tell me more about that, like I want to know about that. And more often than not my client will be like oh, I didn't actually think that that was important, you know, and I'm like no, no, no, like this is what makes you, you Like this little you.

Speaker 1:

Cool, that's really nice just to have someone be a sounding board. Like you said too, sometimes your clients don.

Speaker 2:

I really want to stress too as a strategy is that most of the time we don't want to elevate our voices because we don't have that sounding board and when and so many of us you know who may just be solopreneurs we work in our offices alone every day. We maybe have a couple of Zoom calls, but we don't have that kind of back and forth banter that you might have at like a corporate gig or an agency or something like that. And so I have two people in my circle that I feel so psychologically safe with that. I can ask them anything. I can be like hey, do you think this is too far to post this on LinkedIn, or do you think this is a little too cheeky for my website copy? And they'll be like, no, do it? Because we do a lot of self-editing to ourselves without even realizing it, and so I always want to make sure that people have like an awareness buddy around that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yep. No, I love that Like having, yeah, just a couple of close buddies or like a mastermind of like-minded individuals, someone, yeah, cause it's true, you, you do start to self edit and with time you get better at like throwing stuff out there and be like I'm going to put this up as a post and see how it goes. You know, maybe it'll spark something, maybe it won't, but you don't know unless you try.

Speaker 2:

And I know how hard that can be, you know, and I think that the advice like, oh, just get it out there, is well intended, but I think that for a lot of people who are kind of in that solitary way of working, it can feel really overwhelming.

Speaker 2:

You know, it doesn't matter if you have 10,000 followers on LinkedIn or 200. You know, there are those feelings of like, oh, this person I worked with 10 years ago that we didn't get along, like, what's she going to think? Or, you know, my ex-boss, what are they going to think? And so I always tell people think about who really matters in your corner and write for them. Don't write about the people that like. There are people in your network that are not going to care about what you write anyway, and that's okay. Don't write for them. Write for you and write for the people that need to hear it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great advice. It's true, that's another bad female trait. We all need to just throw. Yeah, that's great advice. It's true, like that's another bad female trait. We all need to just throw in the garbage. Is that people, pleasing? It's like you don't need to please your old boss, like you said.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, for the people that you want to connect with, and they will they'll find you, unless your boss is gonna pay you a million dollars, and even then you know you might still be like, nope, I don't want to. I don't want to deal with that trauma.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, I'm done. Moving on Next chapter.

Speaker 2:

What are the best ways that people can work with you, and Peapod is very focused on thought leadership and personal branding strategy and then ghostwriting content for kind of how to get that, how to get your ideas out into the world, and so we do a lot of LinkedIn content, we do a lot of email sequences and newsletter content, and then we also do website copy. And so a lot of the women I work with primarily female entrepreneurs and executives and really that you know, we can kind of personalize a package that will make sense. You know, maybe you just need the strategic piece and you're totally happy to handle the writing. Maybe you don't have the time and the brain space to be, you know, formulating expertly crafted posts, and so you need to bring in some reinforcement. So those are kind of the ways that we can work together.

Speaker 2:

And then I also do a little bit of consulting for brands, really to kind of make sure that their subject matter experts and their leadership, the personal brands of them, are aligning with the ethos of the company. Obviously, a personal brand is forever. It's something that can follow you from job to job or from corporate to consulting or whatever. But while someone is at a particular company. I always want to make sure that they feel that those two things are aligning. So I do a lot a little bit of brand work, but mostly I work with individual women.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, how can people get in touch with you and I'll have everything linked in the show notes. But let's give it a shout out.

Speaker 2:

The best way. I'm on LinkedIn all the time because that's my personal playground. I love posting on LinkedIn and kind of testing content there. So I'm there at Mel Rip or Melissa Rip Mel in parentheses and then my website is workwithpeapodcom, so pretty easy to remember. You know, happy to. You can send me a note there, you can send me a note on LinkedIn or just follow me. You know, I'm happy to help with whatever's needed.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, that's great. Thanks, mel. I personally love LinkedIn too. I know it's not for everybody, but I think if you're an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, a company, it's such a fun place and, like I said, to test out content, connect with people. I don't know, I really enjoy being on there. Do you have a recommended amount of posting you tell your clients they should do there, or is it kind of like what fits with their lifestyle?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I do have just a tiny little soapbox about LinkedIn that I want to just convey. So the first thing that I really want to make sure that people keep in mind about LinkedIn is that of course, it is a social media platform, but I promise you that you will do so much better on LinkedIn and you will think about it in a different way if you regard it exactly like you said a place for connection, a place for relationship building. I'm a little tired of the whole. Like I posted on LinkedIn for three months where are my leads? And I'm sure you might get a little bit of that from a podcast perspective, but you are building relationships. You are making it so that when someone is ready to work with you, they already feel like they know you because of your LinkedIn content. So I've had to make that shift in my own brain to make it. Of course, getting leads on LinkedIn is the goal. Speaking opportunities because of something you post that's the goal, but there's only very rare cases where that happens immediately, and so if you can shift your mindset to thinking more about connection and offering help and building relationships on LinkedIn, the better you're going to feel about your LinkedIn strategy In terms of things, and just in terms of like, oh, how often to post.

Speaker 2:

I stick by my three posts a week. It's not too much, it's not too little. It feels manageable for people, even if they're not writers. I've heard like oh okay, I can do that. And so I always say kind of early in the morning that the nice thing about LinkedIn is it does have a better reach than you know X, where your tweet is seen for a whole two seconds, or Facebook, where you know people might not be anymore and LinkedIn also just said that they're actually they're making strides or you know, kind of working on things to improve reach even more. And so it's not uncommon and I'm sure you see it too it's not uncommon for people to like my post two, three, four, five a week, you know, for seven days after it's been posted. I just think three, you know, to quote Schoolhouse Rock, is the magic number.

Speaker 1:

It's the magic number. Excellent, I like that. That does seem really manageable and I fully agree with everything you said there.

Speaker 2:

It's like use it to nurture and build relationships. It's really fun connecting with people. I feel like I wouldn't normally have found or found me, and I was like like, oh, I don't meet anyone interesting on LinkedIn and I'm like that has not been my experience.

Speaker 1:

Oh same.

Speaker 2:

I have I don't know like I have visited people that I met on LinkedIn. I've, you know, collaborated with people I've met on LinkedIn great tool not only for getting your voice out there, but just for really building those relationships and just feeling good that you have kind of this ethical marketing strategy that is not just based on like, oh, how many leads can I get from this viral post that I'm going to write?

Speaker 1:

you know, yeah, yeah, exactly Like. No, don't, don't go that route. Trust us, it's not going to work Totally Awesome. Well, mel, thank you so much for being on the show today and giving us some great tips and listeners, like I mentioned. If you want to get in touch with Mel and Peapod, please check the show notes. I will have everything linked there. Definitely find her on LinkedIn. I enjoy her posts. She's very pro-women, got some fun things she's putting out there, so check them out, as always, if you like what you're hearing on you. Betcha, she Did don't forget to leave us a positive review. This is the best way for new viewers to find us and also share the show with a friend, a cousin, a colleague. You never know who might need this information. All right, until next time, take care.