“I’m a damn good salesperson and I sell because of the stories I tell and the loyalty I create with those stories. ”
— Jordan Hayles
Fabulousness isn’t a trait that comes easily to most people, but Jordan Hayles, creative director at The Radical Lab Brand, isn’t most people. “I’m always fabulous on accident,” she says.
As a brand strategist, Hayles helps individuals and businesses streamline their public personas into a singular, complete package. “Knowing how to create brand messages that don’t just spread but sell is one of the most important things for getting a startup off the ground,” Hayles says. She knows because she’s lived through the experience, first hand.
After deciding not to go to medical school, Hayles led a language learning startup and managed a global sales team. But nothing was really working. After suffering a major accident, she realized that she could leverage her many skills to help other women business owners develop and grow. “I’m a damn good salesperson. I’m an ideas person. I’m a storyteller,” she says. “And if you can create real trust and loyalty with those skills, then everybody wins.”
Hayles started The Radical Lab Brand, a collective of radically-savvy thinkers and doers who help companies foster their creativity, brand messaging and growth. The collective includes not only brand strategists, but inventors, artists, and an intuitive-in-residence who leads their signature program, “Unusual Trainings (that should be usual).”
Beyond branding, Hayles works on comedic writing. “That’s where you’ll see a lot of my radical energy come out,” she says. “I want to curse and I want to tell more of the truth that people are not telling.”
Several blunt comedic bits about periods, vaginas, and uteruses during stand-up sets led her to create vagina-centric think tank, Period Petty. She sees Period Petty as a physical space where resources for all things vagina and vagina-related can be found including information about menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause, and community for open complaint and conversation without shame.
Hayles blends her comedic and creative ingenuity into her forthcoming book, Your Brand is Boring—a how-to guide on the concept of brands, how to break rules in the industry, and how to engage with others effectively and authentically.
Storyteller: Cervante Pope | Photos: Intisar Abioto | Published: May 2018
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