Before Brandma
I’m Phyllis Williams-Strawder, but most folx know me as the Ghetto Country Brandmother® but call me Brandma
I'm the founder of Brandma’s House® and the unapologetic voice behind Brand Behavior™. I didn’t come up in branding through academia or ad agencies. I came up from the smoke, literally, building a multi-million-dollar barbecue business with my husband. I wasn’t the one cooking, but I was the force behind the brand that made Bigmista’s a household name in Los Angeles.
When I walked away from that business, I walked straight into a crisis of self. I’d been so wrapped in my husband’s dream that I didn’t know my own. I tried life coaching. I tried business coaching. I tried pretending to be “professional.” None of that shit fit.
Becoming Brandma
Getting through an identity crisis by shedding behavior that made you money seemed stupid... at first
What did fit? The moment I realized I’d been doing brand behavior all along. Raising brands with the same fierce independence and idealism that I raise my daughter: with strategy, boundaries, and behavior that matches the energy you say you stand on.
Walk it like you talk it.
That realization birthed my personal brand, the Ghetto Country Brandmother®. It gave me the audacity to create my own IP:
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Founder-First Brand Architecture™ - because the founder is the cornerstone of any business brand
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Brandparenting™ - my method of Nurture, Advise, Guide (N.A.G.™) to grow brands that behave
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Brand Behavior™ — strategy in motion; the proof that your brand IS what it does, not just what it says
Being Brandma
This is how I make my money, not how I live my life. And having money to pay me does not entitle you to all of me.
I’m not in this to make you look good. I’m in this to make your brand behave right; consistently, profitably, and without fucking with your sensibilities.
You can find me preaching that gospel on podcasts like The Futur, Brand Master, and Rebel Rebel.
But don’t get it twisted, Brandma is only part of who I am. I’m also a bourbon-sipping, cigar-smoking, film noir-loving wife and mom. I was raised hood adjacent by a country momma, which means I will hospitably drag you on your brand behavior™ and still pour you a stiff one for the pain.
If you’re ready to work with Brandma to build a branded house instead of playing dress-up with your business welcome home.
20 min