Brett Johnson [00:00:00]:

Welcome to business inspires where our goal is to inspire you to create the business that you envision. I'm Brett Johnson, Tri Village Chamber Partnership board member and the owner of Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Thank you for following and subscribing to the podcast. With me as always is Katie Ellis. She is president and CEO of the Tri Village Chamber Partnership and cohost of the podcast. Again, always great to be here with you, Katie.

Katie Ellis [00:00:25]:

Great to be here as well. And we have a returning guest with us today, Yasmine Robles, and a new guest, Izzy Dodosky. And a little drum roll because there is an announcement with these lovely ladies. They have, turned their name from Roblox Designs to Rebel Marketing. So welcome back, and welcome for the first time. Yeah. Right. Thank you.

Katie Ellis [00:00:57]:

Welcome back. Welcome, Izzy. And, I love it if you could describe your roles and the inspiration between the, the inspiration from the transition from Roblesse Designs to Rebel Marketing.

Yasmine Robles [00:01:13]:

Yeah. So I thank you for having me back. My name is Yasmin Robles for those of you who don't know me yet, and I don't know why you wouldn't know me yet. But Yasmin Robles and the founder of what used to be Robles Designs and is now Rebel Marketing. I'm the chief sparkle strategist, I think in the annoyance of Izzy. And, Izzy, why, Izzy, why don't you, introduce yourself?

Izzy Dadosky [00:01:40]:

I'm Izzy Dadosky, and I handle everything, numbers and backing up data and social media posting, to Rebel Marketing. So

Yasmine Robles [00:01:51]:

She also handles questions like, Izzy, have you heard of this red note thing? And then she's like, yes. I'm I'm

Izzy Dadosky [00:01:57]:

And then I respond back in Chinese. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [00:02:03]:

Oh, a day in the life. Wow. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, let's let's get into that inspiration of of, you know, the this transition. And and in that transition, how would you describe the personality of rebel marketing where Robles designs didn't have?

Yasmine Robles [00:02:24]:

So when I started Robles designs, I I thought it was just going to be a freelancer. And I think the first name that I got was Yasmin Robles Designs, which was very, very long. I shortened it to Robles Designs again, thinking that I would stay as a solopreneur. And then I started getting overwhelmed and started to try to get people to help out. And at one point, it just felt like it was all about me, and it wasn't. Like, I'm going out to events, but it's not just me doing the work. It's not really my brain that's functioning fully. And I kept complaining about it.

Yasmine Robles [00:03:01]:

I don't know how many times Izzy heard me complain about it, but I kept complaining about, you know, how it was my last name, and it felt a little awkward, and then having to explain the last name. And I wanted something a little bit more punchy, but I wanted originally to keep the r, just to keep everything the same, and so I started looking at r words, and words like radiant came up, and I was like, am I radiant? Obviously, but is the brand radiant? And then we did, an exercise in just like what, what our brand really was and looking at our competition. And I don't know about Izzy, but for me, yes, I can dress up, but you're never going to find me in a matching, like, pants and blazer. That's just not my vibe. I'm also tired of straightening my hair. I just have very few f's to give, I guess. And changing who I am just I'm I'm just an awkward person. And so I but I'm also always looking for that.

Yasmine Robles [00:04:04]:

What is that next cool thing that's happening in marketing? What is we don't just design. We create strategies for marketing and for small businesses. So I saw the word rebel and in Spanish, and I was like, that's that sounds like something we could do. And then, Izzy, what is your take?

Izzy Dadosky [00:04:23]:

Well, what's the name Rebel? I just well, 1, I felt like Radiant didn't really capture, who who we are and, like, what we give off to the world. I feel like when people meet us, it's very much like we come off as casual and professional at the same time instead of just being full blown corporate. And I feel like nowadays with some small businesses, people feel like they need to be perceived a certain way. They need to, come across as they're always professional, but I feel like that kind of just, takes away from why people would maybe wanna work with you. So when it comes to us, I feel like we're very much our own personalities and I feel like we're kind of breaking the barrier of what you typically see from a marketing agency because marketing is creative. Why can't we be creative and still have our own personalities? So I feel like we're rebelling in some sort of way, you know?

Yasmine Robles [00:05:20]:

Well, what I the way I explained it, I think it was to Izzy, was we're not some cute aesthetic flower. Right? That we're, like, that weed that's in the sidewalk that's, like, growing out of that sidewalk crack, and it just keeps coming back, and you keep trying to stomp it out of the way. But it it's in your face, and it makes you buy a bunch of weed killers, and it never leaves. And at least for me, I feel like I'm that weed with a little bit of thorn in it. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [00:05:49]:

And then you do a little research going, well, that weed has some medicinal value. Right. Exactly. Maybe I should let

Izzy Dadosky [00:05:55]:

it grow.

Katie Ellis [00:05:57]:

I'm gonna start propagating this weed and growing it. Exactly.

Brett Johnson [00:06:02]:

You you bring up a really interesting, conundrum with the transition, from your name to a company name. Let's put it that way. Mhmm. Where a lot of new entrepreneurs, they I had that struggle too. And now, again, my last name being Johnson, it was a pretty easy choice not to have that name in my business name because it's just too common. Where you with Robles, that's really a a unique name, in regards to it's like a very easy to remember versus, you know, Johnson marketing, that sort of thing. I I there's really not a question there, just a statement, but I think you really gave a good example of why you should transition. How are those those things you should think about? And don't get stuck on your name, your last name.

Brett Johnson [00:06:55]:

Especially if you think it's a part of it because I I've worked with businesses that really avoided using your last name because they didn't want to have their family name potentially tarnished if the business went bad or they had bad reviews, that sort of thing. It's like, yeah, that's something to really think about. So it's there it's not a knee jerk reaction on what you should be, calling your business.

Yasmine Robles [00:07:16]:

Yeah. And I also wanted it to I'm not planning on selling it, but just to make it more make it sellable. Make it

Brett Johnson [00:07:22]:

Right.

Yasmine Robles [00:07:23]:

Again, more of a community instead of it's just all about me, and it isn't. It's it's all these other, like, Izzy, Aaron, who's our operations person. Everyone who is actually supporting the business.

Katie Ellis [00:07:34]:

Yeah. And with growth. Right? Room for growth.

Yasmine Robles [00:07:38]:

Mhmm. Yep.

Katie Ellis [00:07:39]:

So can you describe a little bit about any new branding elements like logo colors, messaging?

Yasmine Robles [00:07:49]:

So originally, I wanted to keep the very same logo, same fonts, and as a designer, that is the most difficult thing you can, having to create and design your own logo, your website, choosing fonts, you can do that every week. And so, I did, so we kept the R, like the the Robles, it was Robles, and so we changed it to Rebel Marketing. We, legally, we're still Robles designs, and when it came to colors, we basically kept the same colors. The only one that changed, we used to have a, like, a dusty orange. We just made it a little bit more vibrant. I think that's the only thing that really changed. Our green is still our main one of our main colors. It's still that deep green.

Yasmine Robles [00:08:33]:

So a lot of the stuff is kept the same. The fonts are kind of the same. We just switched up, which was the primary font, so most of that's similar. And then with the website, our messaging had already been redone. So it was really about going in through the site and seeing what we wanted to keep, what we wanted to take out, and then removing words that were calling back to Robla's designs. But other than that, I the brand guide is still the same, very, very similar, and that was on purpose. I wanted to make sure that we didn't have to change a lot of our back end systems. We I didn't want us to change a ton of colors, and I'm, you know, I just I didn't want us to do that much work because it was really focused on the name change.

Yasmine Robles [00:09:16]:

It wasn't focused on we didn't wanna change colors or fonts or anything like that. It was really we need a name that really encompasses the new messaging. That was it. We're, I'm excited for our photo shoot that we still got a schedule, but again, going back to rebel marketing, maybe a nineties awkward JC Penney photo shoot kind of thing. I don't know. The Rebel Marketing, you know, we're we're trying to have fun with it. Why else would anyone go into business if you can't just have fun within your business?

Brett Johnson [00:09:47]:

So the photographer's gonna bring a Kodak camera, basically.

Izzy Dadosky [00:09:50]:

Yes. Yes.

Yasmine Robles [00:09:50]:

Right. Or might actually go to j if it's still around, we'll go to JCPenney.

Brett Johnson [00:09:55]:

Right. Exactly. How long did that process take from the the very thought of, like, it's time to change to, you know, pulling the trigger and it's done this past here in 2025?

Yasmine Robles [00:10:08]:

I think I've I've been complaining about it for about 2 to 3 years.

Brett Johnson [00:10:11]:

Oh, okay. Okay.

Katie Ellis [00:10:14]:

I know I need to do something. Just not sure when and how.

Yasmine Robles [00:10:17]:

No. If it's something that you keep complaining about, either stop complaining about it or do something about it. And I I was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna do something about it. And, Izzy, I think, officially, I might have said that we were going to change it, like, beginning of q 4 last year, and then over the holidays, I was just, like, playing around with it and accidentally launched it, the domain. And it's, you know what? This is cool. So guys, we're now our emails have changed, but it is forwarding. So we still get the old emails, and I guess we now have to change everything else. So, Erin, our operations person was, she's never frustrated.

Yasmine Robles [00:10:58]:

I just think that she she just had to change some deadlines on in Asana.

Brett Johnson [00:11:03]:

Okay. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. No. That that I think that's a good example of when you see the pain point, don't spend too much time on it. Address it. Either, like you said, get rid of it or decide, okay.

Brett Johnson [00:11:15]:

We're fine with what we are. Quit letting quit letting it agitate you over a long period of time. And and and and, again, once you'd finally made the decision, you just went in and did it, and and no looking back. I think that's that's that's great. So looking ahead, what are the primary objectives for Revel marketing in the in the next few years?

Yasmine Robles [00:11:37]:

Making more money and being as rich as Scrooge McDuck

Brett Johnson [00:11:40]:

k.

Yasmine Robles [00:11:41]:

And diving into a vault of not gold coins. I would prefer dollar bills because I don't wanna dive into

Brett Johnson [00:11:47]:

Even with the danger of paper cut. Wow. You're you're a rebel.

Yasmine Robles [00:11:53]:

I mean, we're we're still we have our our, like, 5 year plan that, in our budget and forecasting that, Aaron, our operations person has, put together, and then Izzy helped just bring in a fresh of a fresh look into those as well. So business wise, we're, we're looking to, Columbus is a little bit saturated, so we're looking to just continue expanding to different locations, within the Midwest and etcetera, different places. Not so for I mean, kind of, sort of, because I wanna travel and make it a business expense. Hopefully, the IRS isn't listening, but seriously, we'll have some conferences or something to go to.

Brett Johnson [00:12:31]:

So, Izzy, you're ready to go to Chicago? Cause I know that's a favorite place

Yasmine Robles [00:12:34]:

of Oh, Izzy does not. I love Chicago. I want to move to Chicago. Izzy's favorite Izzy has not had a good experience in Chicago, and I told her it's because she wasn't there as a tourist. Oh.

Izzy Dadosky [00:12:45]:

See, everybody keeps trying to change my mind on Chicago. Anytime I bring that up to somebody, somebody's like, well, let's go. We'll take you back, and you have a great time. I've spent years there. I think I understand how Chicago works. Alright?

Katie Ellis [00:13:00]:

That's hilarious.

Yasmine Robles [00:13:02]:

I I will say though that it's true that Izzy doesn't wear a coat. She rarely wears a coat, and I think it's because she was in Chicago. And I'm bundled up, not even I I don't even dress up in the winter. I have, like, 5 layers, and Izzy's just, like, in her sweater. And I'm like, is it is it because she was in Chicago?

Izzy Dadosky [00:13:22]:

Hey. I don't I don't know. But it was, like, 5 degrees yesterday. So I finally was like, maybe I should put one on. And I still don't think I really needed it, but we'll see.

Yasmine Robles [00:13:34]:

But yeah. So that's the the goal for that. Izzy, I don't know if you wanna speak to any of, like, the social media goals or anything like that.

Izzy Dadosky [00:13:42]:

For our socials, with well, 1, it's getting it all prepared to announce that we have made this, name change out of nowhere in the middle of December, but getting all the handles and different things. But, for, like, the tone of, what we're posting and different things about what we are posting, I think we're more focusing on now, like, really letting people know who we are. I think it's better than just giving them a graphic over and over again, of just words because then they don't really connect or they don't see our face. I know, like, sometimes when we go to events, like, people will be like, oh, we saw you on LinkedIn, and then that starts that conversation, immediately. But when it comes to, like, writing out the captions and different things now, I think I put our own little twist on it that kinda breaks up what you would typically see on LinkedIn. Because, again, I'm just trying to be us and how we would speak compared to somebody saying they went and ran a marathon this morning, and then they went home and read a book. And now they're thinking about their business that you typically see on LinkedIn, where it's more of, just our tone, how we talk, funny videos, just to kinda bring up, like, break up what you typically see on LinkedIn, and hopefully people respect that. So

Yasmine Robles [00:15:12]:

Yeah. Your your marketing should really fit you like your favorite pair of stretchy pants. Right? And so making sure that, our voice on social is is saying that. And then, again, just having fun with it. We're not aesthetic I mean, yes, we are aesthetically pleasing, but we're not going to when you see us at events, we might or might not like, I might or might not be wearing lipstick. I might be stuffing a sandwich in my face. I don't know. And, I might be dressed up, or I might be really casual, and so being realistic on social media is one of those goals.

Yasmine Robles [00:15:48]:

Being, showcasing that there are ups and downs in entrepreneurship, but you can still be here 10 years later. Again, just being authentic versus just showcasing, pretty pictures.

Brett Johnson [00:16:00]:

It's interesting that you are ramping up for this last year already. This this is the way you're posting already, and now the new name kind of encapsulates it, which is great. Yeah. Yeah. Which is nice. I mean, and and now you kinda put a put a better cap on it than, yes, in your minds and and and marketing wise too that it's now Rebel Marketing. That makes sense. Yeah.

Yasmine Robles [00:16:20]:

And I think when when business owners are thinking about rebranding or changing their name, really, we already had that messaging. So around the time that Izzy came on board, we worked on that messaging. We kind of not officially, but we're we unofficially, we were refining who we were. And so that was basically done. You know, it then that's the most important part. We kind of had that strategy. We're gonna be more authentic on LinkedIn. So then that's when the Roblox designs just, it kept feeling really awkward.

Yasmine Robles [00:16:51]:

It kept feeling like, again, like you're putting on a banker's uniform, and you're not a banker anymore. And so really, it was just a name change, and one color got tweaked. But our messaging was done. Now, if you are completely new at this, and you're just starting to kind of think about a name change, and you haven't done any of that messaging work, I would suggest starting with that strategy, auditing what you currently have, why you're feeling like you want to rebrand, whether it's just visual or the name or the entire, way you're perceived online. And then once you have that messaging down, and you know what words you say, when you know how you communicate with clients, are you super, suit and tie, or are you is your brand pretty casual? And then that's when the new logo comes in. That's when the new name comes in.

Brett Johnson [00:17:43]:

Yeah. K.

Katie Ellis [00:17:45]:

And not only have you had this experience doing this, but this is something that you offer to help and support businesses with. So I think that's absolutely fantastic that, you're practicing all of the things that you can also do for others, which is great great internal processes. Right? So, is there any other sneak peeks or exciting projects that you could kind of fill us in about with Rebel Marketing for the future?

Yasmine Robles [00:18:16]:

We we have a couple of clients that we're working with right now. I'm excited to I don't know if I can share it, but I'm excited to finally launch their sites in 2025, and that's going to support us in gaining more momentum with those, that particular niche. So like small cities here in Columbus and things like that. We're, I mean, we're mostly full service now, so we have our partnerships with different folks, and we support with social media. Still industry agnostic, but mostly for service based businesses. We do support e commerce, depending on what stage of ecommerce they are at. Izzy, do you have any

Izzy Dadosky [00:18:58]:

Only cool people.

Yasmine Robles [00:19:00]:

That's true.

Izzy Dadosky [00:19:00]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Brett Johnson [00:19:01]:

Well, and I was gonna say we need to insert. You have an exciting announcement about Red Bull. So let's talk about this. Oh, yeah. Because there there are listeners that are probably drunk Red Bull, and they need to know about this.

Izzy Dadosky [00:19:14]:

As the number 1, Red Bull connoisseur, I would probably say, on this planet, I have given Red Bull so much of my money over the years that I should probably be an investor at this point, but I am allergic to aspartame. I am severely allergic to aspartame. It is really bad. I can I couldn't have the sugar free Red Bulls that they made or, like, any sugar free drinks that are out there? But now they have made red bull 0. And this is amazing because it has no aspartame, and it's only 10 calories, and they flavor it with monk fruit. So I would like to thank Red Bull. I've already bought 10 this week. I am a big fan.

Izzy Dadosky [00:19:57]:

I will keep my DMs open for sponsorships. Just hit me up.

Brett Johnson [00:20:02]:

Yeah. Yeah. I smell product placement huge in the future. I really, really do. I think Red Bull would miss out

Izzy Dadosky [00:20:12]:

on the opportunity. Yeah. I'm giving them free publicity literally anywhere I go. That's all I talk about. Right. Right. If not if nothing else, fruit mug needs to be talking to you. I mean, it's Yes.

Brett Johnson [00:20:23]:

Yes. Perfect. Yeah. Exactly. I love it.

Yasmine Robles [00:20:25]:

Yeah. Speaking of brands, we typically do decide so, like, in we do have a podcast market like a top, and that's where we do talk about, like, I think, Izzy, you brought up last time Sabrina Carpenter and Shake That S.

Izzy Dadosky [00:20:39]:

Yeah. So Have you seen that Shake That S campaign?

Yasmine Robles [00:20:45]:

So we we talk on at that on that podcast, we talk about, a lot of the the brands and what they're doing online and how we can how how you as a small business can take that learning and and apply it for yours. And then we do have, like, the circle of experts or circle sessions. We're usually on there and,

Brett Johnson [00:21:04]:

Yeah. Whenever whenever the host actually gets it scheduled, yes. Exactly. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

Yasmine Robles [00:21:10]:

That's Yeah. And then raise

Brett Johnson [00:21:11]:

in my hand. Yep.

Yasmine Robles [00:21:12]:

Yep. We, we recently revamped our website checklist. So now it's not just a checklist. It's like, you know, when you when you download someone's freebie, it's sometimes 1 or 2 pages. I can't kind of went a little overboard, and I probably could have gone even more, but we revamped it where I think it's like about 9, 10 pages. It's an actual workbook. We created some videos to help you guide you through those work, worksheets. So that was, has been revamped and just trying to help.

Yasmine Robles [00:21:42]:

I know that as a startup, it might be very hard to get support with marketing and hopefully we can still through podcasting, workshops, master classes, all that stuff, we can support and then slowly indoctrinate you into our cult of Rebel Marketing.

Izzy Dadosky [00:22:01]:

It's like Duolingo where you get a new lesson every day once you sign up for the marketing worksheet. So would recommend.

Yasmine Robles [00:22:07]:

We're also on Duolingo if you guys wanna be friends with us.

Izzy Dadosky [00:22:11]:

Here we are. Yeah. Probably have to start learning Chinese. It sounds like it.

Brett Johnson [00:22:20]:

Oh my gosh.

Katie Ellis [00:22:30]:

Is there anything else that you wanna share or how we can get ahold of you?

Yasmine Robles [00:22:37]:

Yeah. The easiest place to find out what we're up to is LinkedIn. We're both really active on there. And if you want to check out the site, ro it's my rebel marketing dot com. Robeless Designs will still forward, but it's my rebelmarketing.com, and the free worksheet workbook is my rebelmarketing.com/checklist. Yeah, you can catch us in a lot of places. Any tribalist chamber event, look for us there. And we do take bribes of, depending on the time of day, coffee and carbs or tacos and margaritas.

Katie Ellis [00:23:12]:

So good to know. Yes. Exactly.

Yasmine Robles [00:23:15]:

You should always tell people how to bribe you, you know?

Brett Johnson [00:23:18]:

It's not a bad idea.

Katie Ellis [00:23:20]:

Instead of my list of favorite things, it's this is how you get things done with me. Right.

Brett Johnson [00:23:26]:

Exactly. Exactly. Izzy, how can I get to find you? Where are you?

Izzy Dadosky [00:23:31]:

I'm always on LinkedIn. So just hit hit me up in my DMs or my comments, but I'm also clearly connected to, Rebel Marketing LinkedIn. So you could also contact us there.

Brett Johnson [00:23:44]:

Super. Thanks.

Yasmine Robles [00:23:45]:

Or I

Izzy Dadosky [00:23:46]:

can give you my phone number. Here you go.

Yasmine Robles [00:23:48]:

No. Just put along just put along

Katie Ellis [00:23:54]:

the Yeah. Nope.

Brett Johnson [00:23:56]:

Nope. We we just took that out. Yep. Well, listeners, thank you for joining us, and don't forget to check out our podcast page on the Tri Village Chamber Partnership website. Look for that podcast tab at the top of the homepage, and be sure to tell us what you think about this or any of our other episodes. That email address, not phone number, is info at chamber partnership.org.