Radically Weird - guest Isabel Pinaud

Start Time:: 00:00:02

End Time: 00:27:51.680

Jenn Wilson: Hello everyone and welcome to today's episode of the irregular humans podcast with me, Jenn, Wilson, and today, my guest, all the way from Peru is Isabel Pinot.

Jenn Wilson: and Isabel is an awesome human who I want you all to meet, whose business is called Brand your weird. Well, if that's not an irregular name. I don't know what it is, Isabel. Tell us all about brand your weird.

Isabel Pinaud: Well, Hi, Jenn, thank you for having me

Isabel Pinaud: brand. Your weird got started because

Isabel Pinaud: I realized that most designers were trying to

Isabel Pinaud: fit people into a box. Okay? And I don't think they're doing this out of you know any sort of bad intentions. I just think it's the way society teaches us to do things.

Isabel Pinaud: And so if you're a health coach right, your brand has to be green, because green equals healthy and random things like that.

Isabel Pinaud: And I wanted to break all the rules, because I've always wanted to break all the rules, and I knew that the people that were coming to work with me were not regular humans either.

Jenn Wilson: And.

Isabel Pinaud: They didn't want to be squished into some weird box. So I started brand your weird

Isabel Pinaud: to help quirky entrepreneurs kind of unleash their creativity and follow their curiosity and the rabbit hole, and also

Isabel Pinaud: allow themselves to have fun in their businesses again. That's 1 thing that I always talk about, like, if you're not having fun in your business, you're doing it wrong. Because if you're not having fun, then just go get a job like.

Isabel Pinaud: why, why start a business and work for yourself if you're gonna suffer the whole time.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I do you know that I find this as well a lot with the because I work with people who are purpose led right? People who aren't there because they want to make a big pile of money. I mean, they want to make a living. We all want to make a living and a comfortable one, and to have a life full of joy. But

Jenn Wilson: then that's not. It's not about hoarding money. It's about serving some someone, or putting some ideas out into the world, or offering some kind of change or something new. And

Jenn Wilson: I find that especially when people are new to entrepreneurialism and business. They really kind of.

Jenn Wilson: It's really easy to get stuck being gurued at by people who are like. If you don't do it this way you won't succeed.

Jenn Wilson: Do you know what I mean?

Isabel Pinaud: I do know what you mean, because I actually went through this myself where it was like, oh, I have to make this kind of post, and it was like 3 rules that your brand should follow if you want it to be successful and then post it in all the Facebook groups and randomly talk at at people, not to people, not with people. If you know what I mean, like, you're just bombarding them with these

Isabel Pinaud: random content posts that seem like they were written by AI, even though most of us started our business way before AI existed right.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: But that's how it felt. It didn't feel raw. It didn't feel honest, and I think that the reason a lot of people don't get the results they want is because they're trying to follow all of these made up rules.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: And I'm not trying to knock the strategies of all of these people.

Jenn Wilson: I'm not.

Isabel Pinaud: Though those strategies worked for them.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah, but that

Isabel Pinaud: that doesn't mean they work for me, or they'll work for this other person. It will work for a group of people, but not for everyone. No strategy works for everyone. I would say like, if someone says this will work for everyone like run, because there's

Isabel Pinaud: it's impossible. It's not like it's not real. Just run the other way, because no.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, that one true way thing. I have the same thing with people in the consent arena. When someone says, Hey, I'm really good at consent. I can show you how to get consent right all the time. I'm like, no, no.

Isabel Pinaud: Like.

Jenn Wilson: Doesn't work like that.

Isabel Pinaud: It's I feel like, humans have this

Isabel Pinaud: want and need to categorize things.

Jenn Wilson: And.

Isabel Pinaud: And and label things right. We can have a whole conversation about label

Isabel Pinaud: but it tends to lead to black and white or all or nothing, thinking.

Jenn Wilson: Hmm.

Isabel Pinaud: And as soon as you are going down that of like, I'm getting this right, and I am the best at this one thing, and I have the all the answers.

Jenn Wilson: Hmm.

Isabel Pinaud: You're that. As soon as you're in that mindset, you're down the wrong path, because no one

Isabel Pinaud: has all the answers. There is no such thing as black and white.

Jenn Wilson: No, absolutely. It's all about those shades of grey and all the other colors of the rainbow. Right.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah.

Jenn Wilson: Wonder, Isabel, about the word weird?

Jenn Wilson: Why did you choose that word to hang your hat on.

Isabel Pinaud: I chose that word because of all the negative connotations that has around it.

Isabel Pinaud: So I mean, I was

Isabel Pinaud: bullied in high school like a lot of us were right, and I was always called. Oh, you're you know she's weird. She's she's kind of strange. She's kind of intense. She's kind of bizarre

Isabel Pinaud: and a lot of my clients were also using that word.

Isabel Pinaud: And like, Oh, it's just that, you know. I this might sound a little weird, but what I had in my head was, or when they're explaining the concept.

Isabel Pinaud: and it kind of became this disclaimer of like, please don't judge me like this might sound a little weird. But let me tell you this thing. But the end of that sentence was usually where the magic was.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: And so I chose the word weird because I wanted to reclaim it.

Jenn Wilson: -

Isabel Pinaud: It's like, yes, I am weird and weird is a superpower. It's not, you know. It's not what makes me bad. On the contrary, it's what makes me awesome. And it's what makes my clients awesome, because

Isabel Pinaud: the things that make you weird right are actually the things that you're better at than anyone else.

Isabel Pinaud: and those are the things that you can teach to other people. And those are where that's where your gift lies. That's where your superpower lies. That's where, like the good stuff is the gold wine.

Isabel Pinaud: So I wanted to reclaim it and

Isabel Pinaud: flip it around, flip it on its own.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah. And I was talking to someone the other day about this about for me, about the word irregular.

Jenn Wilson: It's a similar thing. It's not quite as a reclaiming. But those labels you were talking about a minute ago, you know, like there are many labels I could use to describe my identity, like female, like gender, queer or queer, like neurodivergent, like older, you know, like there's all these like labels we can inhabit as identity, right?

Jenn Wilson: But all of those labels are kind of complex, and

Jenn Wilson: they're constructed in a sort of set of demographic ideas about what a person's identity is, whereas for me, irregular and weird are

Jenn Wilson: not an identity. They are

Jenn Wilson: a choice. There's something that you're that you're living and choosing to inhabit rather than a label you're stuck in, or on, or with.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah. And it can mean so many different things right? I don't think

Isabel Pinaud: when you think of someone who's weird, whatever pops up, or when you think of someone who's a regular, whatever pops up in your head.

Isabel Pinaud: it's not one single definition, right?

Isabel Pinaud: When you think of another, a different label, someone who's dramatic. Let's say right, which is a typical one thrown around in in women's spaces.

Isabel Pinaud: dramatic. You usually have a more specific definition of like what that is. Maybe it's someone from your past. And you're like, Oh, yeah, I know what I know, what that's like. Right?

Jenn Wilson: Hmm.

Isabel Pinaud: But irregular and weird, are a lot more open.

Jenn Wilson: -

Isabel Pinaud: And therefore kind of fight against that all or nothing, black and white.

Isabel Pinaud: because it can go in a million different ways, because also, what's weird to you is not what's weird to me.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. It's kind of not normal, not homogeneous standard run of the mill regular like every.

Jenn Wilson: It's something exceptional, something extraordinary.

Isabel Pinaud: Yes, exactly, exactly. And also like

Isabel Pinaud: when you say what's not normal, my brain goes immediately to well, what's not normal for who? Because yes, society has these

Isabel Pinaud: rules and and regulations and things that we're supposed to follow. But I'm from Venezuela, and I can assure you the rules in Venezuela are not the same as they are in Peru, and they're not the same as they are in the Uk or anywhere else.

Jenn Wilson: Hmm.

Isabel Pinaud: And so something that for you might be obvious as a societal norm in

Isabel Pinaud: where you are right now for me might be something completely out of the norm.

Isabel Pinaud: Just because of where I was born and where I've lived and grown up.

Isabel Pinaud: And so it goes back to fighting this whole.

Isabel Pinaud: Oh, this is the right way, because there is no right way.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Jenn Wilson: is it for you like? Because the other thing I sometimes see is people who'll use words like rebellious. And I also do see this a little bit with the word weird

Jenn Wilson: as like, Oh, look at me being really weird and quirky, and I'm the wacky one, and and I know this is ironic coming from someone who's sitting here with like scarlet and yellow hair, and like, you know, I I look a particular irregular way, but like.

Jenn Wilson: I don't expect my irregular humans to all be dying, their hair bright colors, and, you know, living alternative lifestyles. It's about you being uniquely you and it about

Jenn Wilson: by being irregular, by being weird, enabling and shaping a world where that's more possible for other people.

Jenn Wilson: And it's not about just being oh, I'm so different. Look at me. It's actually about trying to make an impact and make a difference.

Isabel Pinaud: I'm gonna be completely honest here.

Isabel Pinaud: When I felt that kind of energy it used to really like

Isabel Pinaud: Trigger me like I would get mad, or I would be like. Oh, yes, look! You're so quirky. You wore a pink shirt like

Isabel Pinaud: I didn't understand it.

Isabel Pinaud: and as I've you know, healed and grown as a human because we we're not perfect. Nobody is.

Isabel Pinaud: I've learned to have a lot of empathy for those people.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Because I've realized that

Isabel Pinaud: they're using the word quirky, or the word regular or the word different, weird, unique. Whatever you want to place it

Isabel Pinaud: as an armor to see how much of themselves they can actually show.

Jenn Wilson: Hmm, yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Right when they're saying, Oh, look at me! I'm so quirky I dance weird.

Isabel Pinaud: There's usually a I've been told I'm a bad dancer my whole life.

Jenn Wilson: Right behind it.

Isabel Pinaud: There's usually an insecurity, and so, owning up the word weird or quirky, or different kind of becomes more of an armor.

Jenn Wilson: Hmm.

Isabel Pinaud: Because they're saying it themselves. So now they feel like they can't be judged, because I'm putting it out there first, st right.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, yeah, it's like the classic thing, isn't it? As the as as the comedian is very often the kid who's bullied at school. Because, you know, by like going, yeah, yeah, I am. I am weird. And I am funny. And it like, it's just a it's like a mask. Actually.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah.

Jenn Wilson: And it's a deflection, isn't it? And it's actually not an.

Jenn Wilson: It's not a real authentic weirdness in there. It's a defence mechanism like you're describing.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah, it's it's defense. And so I

Isabel Pinaud: like, I said, I used to be really triggered by it. And now I I look at that with empathy. And I'm more of a like

Isabel Pinaud: you're weird. Come into my world, you know. Let's find out how weird you really are, and

Isabel Pinaud: trying to see

Isabel Pinaud: cause. I feel like if those people accepted those things about themselves and actually learn to love the things they like and don't like.

Isabel Pinaud: And we're all on that path right? We all have things that we don't like about ourselves. But when we can learn to love those parts.

Isabel Pinaud: that's when we can show up authentically without having to put armor around it.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, so much so.

Jenn Wilson: And you, brand that tell us, tell us about how that works.

Isabel Pinaud: So. Yes, I well, my business has 2 different parts.

Isabel Pinaud: On one hand I have courses and offering

Isabel Pinaud: for people who want to do more. A diy version of it.

Isabel Pinaud: and I usually start by courses by saying, Take what resonates, leave what doesn't, because

Isabel Pinaud: I believe in experiments, you know. Try it out, see if it works for you. And if it doesn't, that's okay. It's not for you.

Isabel Pinaud: And now you know one way that doesn't work right like.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: I I usually tell my clients about the whole Thomas Edison light bulb thing, you know. He tried like 50 different ways.

Isabel Pinaud: and they didn't work, and when somebody asked him

Isabel Pinaud: he's just said, Oh, I just found 50 ways that don't work. Now I'm gonna go find the one that does right? So that's how I feel about it like experiment. Take what resonates, leave what doesn't.

Isabel Pinaud: And that's okay. And then on the one on one, you know, branding experience and journey that you can go on with me.

Isabel Pinaud: We sit down and we look at

Isabel Pinaud: what? What do you want to do? Who do you want to serve right. And I also have

Isabel Pinaud: the privilege of working with humans who have a purpose and who usually aren't just saying, Oh, you know, I want to sell this thing just because I want to hoard money like you said before.

Isabel Pinaud: Usually it's there's a lot. It goes a lot deeper than that, right. And with

Isabel Pinaud: digging into where does this purpose comes from?

Isabel Pinaud: Usually things start popping out that were unexpected. A lot of inner child things, a lot of childhood experiences, or even, you know, adult experiences, but that have been shaped by childhood experiences.

Isabel Pinaud: And I've found that I won't say always because black or white thinking, but a lot of the time

Isabel Pinaud: people are looking to lead someone who's where they were a few years ago.

Jenn Wilson: Yes, I think there's definitely a lot of that in a lot of the entrepreneurs and purpose-led people that I meet in my world. It's that

Jenn Wilson: I've been on a journey, and I want to share that journey, so that if you're.

Isabel Pinaud: Correct.

Jenn Wilson: Through that

Jenn Wilson: it's easier for you. It's you've got some guidance on that journey, and I really feel that about going the irregular way, because, like, if you follow the standard path, there's loads of guidance. There's loads of support. There's loads of people cheering you along and going. Yes, well done. You did what you were supposed to do good for you. But if you are someone who's going, I want to challenge those expectations and do this a little bit differently, actually, because I don't think that that's

Jenn Wilson: that paradigm, that system, that standard way of doing things, is actually getting the human race.

Jenn Wilson: Planet anywhere except Doom and Armageddon. So what if we went over here? And there's no guidance there is there? There's like no signposts. There's no, there's nobody out there forging the way. So I think a lot of purpose driven. People are

Jenn Wilson: kind of trailblazers that want to help light the way, for other people. Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah. And I I always I always feel like it's like, I'm waving around a flashlight like.

Isabel Pinaud: Hey, this isn't like an official signpost. But if you want to come this way, this is what I found right?

Isabel Pinaud: But what comes from that is, how do I say this?

Isabel Pinaud: You have to be okay with being visibly who you are.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah, right? And that's the hardest part.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Because it's really easy to be who you are when you're alone in your home, dancing to music and singing, and right.

Jenn Wilson: Yes.

Isabel Pinaud: But being who you are publicly for the world, you know, waving around that flashlight isn't that easy?

Isabel Pinaud: But if you imagine, and the person someone's gonna imagine

Isabel Pinaud: each person listening to this will imagine a different person. But if I tell you to imagine, like the typical perfect person of society.

Isabel Pinaud: like that perfect person. Whatever you imagine is correct.

Isabel Pinaud: And they're like, be authentically you and be weird. It's okay to be you.

Isabel Pinaud: You're gonna be like.

Isabel Pinaud: what are you talking about in like? In my case? It's like in your suit and tie, like, what are? Oh, yeah, be authentically. You with your Navy suit, like, you know.

Isabel Pinaud: And

Isabel Pinaud: and that's what I try to tell my clients like. If you're showing up in the way traditional business tells you to show up.

Isabel Pinaud: Your people aren't seeing you.

Isabel Pinaud: They're seeing someone in a suit and tie. Tell them

Isabel Pinaud: yes, you can definitely follow your dreams.

Jenn Wilson: Bye.

Isabel Pinaud: Easy for you to say.

Jenn Wilson: Right?

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Jenn Wilson: yeah, so much. I mean, I really went through this in the early part of my journey with a regular ink and the consent work, and I still wrestle with it from time to time of like how much to lead with

Jenn Wilson: the word consent. Right? Because, like, I'm the founder of the International Day of Consent. I do consent. Lead, that's my thing. That's the thing I geek out about. But

Jenn Wilson: when I say the word consent, people either think I'm talking about sex.

Jenn Wilson: or they think I'm talking about compliance and data protection and tick boxes.

Jenn Wilson: So I'm immediately into a conversation about what I mean. And you know, and what I mean is, you know, agency, decision, making connection, human relationships, how we all

Jenn Wilson: form alliances and groups and communities and cultures. That's what I'm talking about. This much much bigger, broader.

Isabel Pinaud: Crazy, that's it!

Jenn Wilson: Yeah. And and but there's not a word for that. There isn't a simple word for that. But so I used to sort of like try to find ways of talking about it that would.

Jenn Wilson: in traditional marketing parlance, sell the sizzle, not the sausage. Are you familiar with that expression?

Isabel Pinaud: I think I've heard it once or twice.

Jenn Wilson: And like, Go, I can help you with your people pleasing.

Jenn Wilson: I can help you with your boundary setting, and I can do that, and I do offer those kinds of services, but it's like the teeny, tiny tip of the iceberg. And actually, what I found was the more I leant into going. I do consent. That's what I do. I do consent led business. I do. Anti-capitalist like that's 1 that people want to argue with me about.

Jenn Wilson: And

Jenn Wilson: it's and it's magnetic, insofar as it attracts the people that want to play with me and get into exploring that and repels the people who are like you're weird.

Jenn Wilson: I am. Thank you.

Jenn Wilson: The thing is, and I don't want to repel anyone. I want to welcome everyone in like we all want to be able to reach everybody, don't we? But in the end, if you're trying to make a business that works and be seen and be visible and talk to the world. Then.

Jenn Wilson: if you're trying to be an influencer or a thought leader, you've got to share some thoughts right? You've got to say something inspiring and influential. You can't be a thought leader by just saying the same thing. Every other person's saying so.

Isabel Pinaud: And even if you say the same thing, every other person saying someone's going to be against it.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Everything like you could be like, oh, I like pancakes, and people are like, why do you hate waffles? And it's like, what do you mean?

Isabel Pinaud: Said, I. Like, like, what are you talking about? And it happens with everything.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: But also I completely understand what you meant when you said.

Isabel Pinaud: like, I want to be welcoming of everyone.

Isabel Pinaud: because I also want to be welcoming of everyone, but

Isabel Pinaud: creating a safe space, for everyone also means not allowing people

Isabel Pinaud: who don't make that space safe in yeah. And that's hard, right?

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, because one person safe space is another person's not safe space. And actually, you know, I think you can't actually ever create a safe space, or an inclusive even space, because.

Jenn Wilson: You just can't like, but you can go. These are the things I stand for, and these are the things I stand against, and these are the things that matter to me. And these are the values that I hold.

Jenn Wilson: And I want to connect with everybody on the basis I mean, my core values include relentless kindness, playful curiosity, radical consent, and no to normal. Those are my 4 like core values. That's very succinct. There's a whole big explanation for them all. But like, if you take a value like relentless kindness that is about, I don't want to exclude anyone. However.

Jenn Wilson: that doesn't mean it's like that argument, free speech. I can say what I like. That free speech doesn't mean that you can be hateful to everybody.

Jenn Wilson: That's not what we.

Isabel Pinaud: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Isabel Pinaud: But also I feel I want to be welcoming of everyone, but they also have to welcome themselves in.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Right, and they also have to welcome me in, because it's a it's double sided.

Jenn Wilson: It's dialogue, it's a, it's accountability and agency. And both of those things. Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: If if I'm welcoming someone in. But they're not welcoming me in, then I'm just people pleasing.

Isabel Pinaud: And then we go back to that whole. You know what we were taught to do, and how to be a good little girl or a good little whatever right for society. And and then you're not being who you are again.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, because it's just diluted into some bland, vague thing that is not anything.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Yeah, I used to have a whole thing of like bland brands must die years ago.

Jenn Wilson: That's quite aggressive.

Isabel Pinaud: I stand by it like it was years ago, but I still stand by it.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, it it is, you know, like you can do unique selling points and kind of

Jenn Wilson: fake the weirdness. And it be not authentic. But I think that what you're describing in the way that you work in the way that I work is, that is, leaning into

Jenn Wilson: a lived and experienced and honest and open and uncomfortable truth of the kind of spiky, weird, and irregular thing that humans are.

Isabel Pinaud: And uncomfortable is

Isabel Pinaud: if that word really hits home, because there's a lot of days when you wake up, and it's like I don't want to be visible today. I don't want to go out into the world today because I just wanna hide because we're humans right? And we all have days where we're ready to face the world and days where it's easier to just

Isabel Pinaud: cover ourselves up in our bed and hide.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: But learning to be okay, living in that discomfort.

Isabel Pinaud: And in my case, I'm I'm like hopeful that

Isabel Pinaud: learning to live in that discomfort

Isabel Pinaud: will eventually lead to me, being comfortable in my own skin, like.

Jenn Wilson: Good.

Isabel Pinaud: The whole way right.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jenn Wilson: It's an ongoing journey.

Isabel Pinaud: It is.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah.

Isabel Pinaud: Is, and every time you think you're done it's like, Oh, by the way, here's 1 more thing.

Jenn Wilson: Yeah, absolutely.

Jenn Wilson: Oh, Isabel, thank you so much for sharing this space with me today and for sharing your unique amazing weirdness with the irregular humans. Podcast

Jenn Wilson: if people are looking to brand their weird and to connect with you, where should people look to find you.

Isabel Pinaud: So it's either at brand your weird on Instagram and Facebook.

Isabel Pinaud: or it's at Isabel Pino on Tiktok and Youtube.

Isabel Pinaud: And you can also go to either isabelpenel.com or brand your weird.com. It'll redirect you to the same website, whichever one you remember.

Isabel Pinaud: And yeah, I'd love to connect with more weird, irregular, bizarre, intense, passionate humans. So.

Jenn Wilson: Oh, great Isabel Pino, thank you so much. Always a pleasure to talk with you, my fellow. Irregular, human

Jenn Wilson: same. I love you. Thank you.