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Rooted & Relentless is the podcast for big-dreaming, soul-led entrepreneurs building businesses—and lives—on their own terms.
Hosted by Biz Growth Strategist & Operational Powerhouse Steph Rubio, this show blends unfiltered business strategy with personal growth stories, mindset shifts, a touch of randomness, and plenty of humor to keep you laughing. Everything is on the table. It’s raw, real, and relentlessly honest.
New episodes drop weekly(ish). Bring your notebook & an open mind. This is where strategy meets soul, & scaling doesn’t mean selling yours.
Hang with Steph:
Boost Your Biz Strategy Sesh: https://www.stephrubio.com/small-business-consulting
Find Out Where You're Blocked w/ The Biz Blocker Quiz: https://www.tryinteract.com/share/quiz/6810432a8fa23ab768307116
Follow (& DM me - really, I love DM chats) on IG: https://www.instagram.com/virtually_stephrubio
This episode is for the people who are still afraid to show up online and in their businesses, wherever you're showing up, completely vulnerably themselves. The people who are still presenting themselves in any type of way because they assume they need to do so. Hey, I'm Steph Rubio, your go to for no nonsense chitchat on growing a business and life that you actually love. Around here, we're rooted in who we are, even if we're still learning to love her, getting clear on where we wanna go, and we're relentless in our pursuit to get there. We get into the nitty gritty of growth in life and in business, money, identity, boundaries, healing, leadership, parenting, partners, and all the messy bits in between.
Steph Rubio:If you're ready to grow on your own terms, laugh a lot, possibly cry a little, maybe laugh until we cry if we're lucky, then hit subscribe and let's get into it. This is Rooted and Relentless, where strategy meets soul and scaling doesn't mean selling yours. Grab your notepad and hold on to your tits. This one's for you. Listen.
Steph Rubio:Can I tell you one thing about business in 2025 and for the foreseeable future, at least in this online space? We are so fortunate to live in a time that people are actually craving real humans on the other side of it. Okay? ChatTPT has been out for a couple of years now, and that means it's way, way, way, way, way too easy for real folks to step in and fake it and create carousels online that say one, two, three ways to do something because ChatTPT said so. And then you see it every there.
Steph Rubio:So we don't know what's real knowledge and what's really working anymore unless we connect to the real human behind it. Let me tell you something. People will not buy from you if they do not trust you. And today, they're going to trust you because they see you, they hear you, they feel like they know you, they see the proof behind what you do. Your personal brand is what's going to carry you through the next few years.
Steph Rubio:Let's break that down for a second. Okay? What I mean when I talk about a personal brand, it's you. It's the you behind it. Now, some people you see this show up in that they have a personal Instagram account.
Steph Rubio:And I'll talk about the private one because if it's private, people can't see it. But they have one that's just like themselves. That's their name or something like that. Then they have their business, right? So, they get to be themselves and they get to funnel people towards their business that makes sense or vice versa.
Steph Rubio:So, you get this personability aspect. You start feeling like you know someone. I took a course several years ago, and I followed this person online for a year before I purchased from them. And I saw who they were. I connected with them in the DMs, and they were really talking to me.
Steph Rubio:Okay? This person is Sarah Wiles, who's a powerhouse in this space, who's a woman that I greatly look up to. First off, she cussed live. She was the mom, and she said fuck. And I was like, oh my god.
Steph Rubio:We could say fuck online. This is so cool. I connected with her. I built trust. We had similarities in our story.
Steph Rubio:So her sharing her story and showing up as herself and deciding not to put all these filters on and present as something she wasn't means that I trusted her to the point I was okay with pushing pay and giving my credit card for 4 figures for over a thousand dollars. When I post something that has nothing to do with my business, I get so much more traction and love because people feel a connection there. I told a story one time about an asshat boyfriend I had, like my first love, if you will, in high school and throughout that told me at one point I was never gonna be anything but white trash and live in a trailer for the rest of my life. I was full alert. None of this behind me.
Steph Rubio:And if you're listening and you can't see, it's boats and a nice plant and a nice chair and nice bookshelves in just my home office. It's not the rest of my home. I don't live in a trailer irregardless because if you do, that's completely okay and only asshats think it's not. The point is when I shared that story and it was kind of a and I don't sit around and think about people who used to shame me, except the way this story came about was because I had my first ever branding photos, like professional branding photos that my husband didn't shoot on my iPhone, which is completely okay too. Truly, I still use them sometimes.
Steph Rubio:I realized like when we talked about locations, we did it in my home. And then after I had this full circle moment, like literally the day off, I was like, I just felt so proud of my home and the aesthetics and what I built that I invited a professional photographer here to take photos of me to then share to the world, share on social media with my thousand followers, to share with my email list, to share on my website, to share on speaking opportunities now and be on stages. It just brought that back to light for me, like what they said. And I was like, Jokes on you. And by the way, I did get a college education in October 2024, so very recently.
Steph Rubio:So this whole, like, you'll never go to college, you'll always be white trashes. Freaking hilarious jokes on you. It's also a reminder to you badasses out there not to let what people say about you dictate you. You need to know you at the end of the day, and that's what matters. There was your sidetrack ADHD moment.
Steph Rubio:The point is when I shared that a couple months ago just because it was important to me and was sharing my branding photos, the amount of women that connected with that and actually took the time to comment and connect with me was off the rails. When I shared that I had a fever blister coming up, not only did tons of people give me advice on what has helped them, but other women were like, you're so brave and you're so bold for sharing that because I feel like I get them all the time. And people are like, oh my god. What's going on? This is disgusting.
Steph Rubio:And, like, folks are judging me based on that, and I just don't have the confidence to show up and do that. Do you guys know how long I was picked on for having a deep voice growing up. I have a podcast. I'm literally talking to you on a podcast right now, but people used to mistake me for a man. And as an adolescent, that was very, very problematic and scary to me.
Steph Rubio:I let that stuff hold me back. And if you're doing that, you're letting it hold you back too. Hear this. You need a personal brand. That's what's going to carry you through this online business, this solopreneurship journey that you're on because the market's going to change and shift.
Steph Rubio:We saw that when AI come out, and the only thing that's gonna carry you through all of these market shifts is having a solid foundation that is you that people connect with. So this is your permission to not only show up as yourself but be excited that you had the opportunity to do so. Ten, fifteen, thirty years ago, you had to wear a suit and a tie to show up in any sort of business. I worked at a bank in my late teens, early twenties. I couldn't have my nails painted anything other than, like, a French manicure or clear.
Steph Rubio:We couldn't have bright colors. We couldn't have bright colored hair. I worked at a jewelry store, Kay Jewelers, where I literally wore like all black and some pink leggings that you could see like this much of from my knee to my blue boots, and I couldn't wear those. Okay? I'm on this podcast with my hat backwards and my hoop earrings and a t shirt because I can do what I want, and people know that what they want and what they need from me, the knowledge in this brain that can help them grow lives and businesses that they're obsessed with, that's what they're paying for.
Steph Rubio:What I'm saying is you can still give glimpses into your life, and you should, and you should get excited that you even have the opportunity to do so, and you don't have to be someone else. I know that there's vulnerability in being yourself, so you still get to choose what parts of your family and your life that you show you do get to be strategic there, and you should, and you can still protect these vulnerable parts of you. But just know that people are craving real humans and real connection, and that also will convert for you. So just get excited. I will challenge you today to show up wherever you show up the most or you feel most comfortable with that social media, a newsletter in person, and do something today or tell someone a story or something that happened to you or that you did that is just 100% you and a peek behind the curtain.
Steph Rubio:And see how folks respond and react because I promise you, your people will find you. And if they don't relate and that's not okay with them, they're not your people, so they weren't going to buy from you anyway. And if they did, you were gonna be miserable, so why do we care? Build your personal brand. It's going to be a foundation that carries you through all the market shifts that we're up against right now and that we will be, and get excited that you have the opportunity to do so and grow business and life the way you want.
Steph Rubio:Bye. Well, that's a wrap on this episode of Rooted and Relentless. If it made you laugh, nod along, or grab that cute little notebook of yours and scribble something down, please hit me with the SSR. Subscribe, share, and review, as in leave a review. Don't forget to tag me on Instagram at virtually underscore Steph Rubio and tell me what you're reading this week.
Steph Rubio:Seriously, a live for a good book moment. Thanks for hanging. Bye.