Episode 87: Heart, Humor, and Unstoppable Business Hustle with Angela Tipton

Heart, Humor, and Unstoppable Business Hustle with Angela Tipton

What if the secret to a thriving business isn’t just strategy—but soul? The kind of business hustle that transforms obstacles into stepping stones, turns ideas into impact, and fuels an unstoppable drive for success. Because growth isn’t just planned—it’s hustled into reality.

In this episode, we sit down with Angela Tipton, Co-Founder of Tipton Franklin Marketing Strategies, to uncover what it truly means to build a heart-led business without sacrificing results. From her early days in the biotech lab to co-leading a bold, values-driven marketing agency, Angela shares how she blended science, strategy, and soul to create real impact.

Angela shares how authentic networking, a strong brand story, and staying true to your mission can drive real business success. From overcoming failure to balancing purpose and profit, her journey shows that leading with heart is a smart strategy. Whether you’re starting out or scaling up, you’ll be inspired to build with intention and lead with authenticity.

🎧 Tune in to discover how business hustle fuels a business built on both profit and purpose!

Key Takeaways from this Episode

The essence of heart-led business: more than just a buzzword?
Balancing passion with profit: the ultimate entrepreneurial dance.
Networking with authenticity: why genuine connections trump all.
Overcoming the fear of failure: anecdotes and advice.
The power of storytelling in business hustle, and branding.

About the Guest

Angela Tipton is the Co-Founder of Tipton Franklin Marketing Strategies, where science meets strategy. With a career that began in the lab and evolved into the boardroom, Angela brings a rare blend of biotech expertise and bold marketing vision. From Fortune 500 labs to redefining what’s possible in AgTech and Biotech, her journey is a testament to the power of pivoting with purpose.

Additional Resources

Website: www.tiptonfranklin.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/tiptonfranklin
Instagram: www.instagram.com/tiptonfranklinmarketing
Email: info@tiptonfranklin.com
Books Mentioned:

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Explore the Dialogue’s Treasures: Unearth the insights within! Delve into the profound wisdom woven throughout our conversation.

Speaker: 0:01
Welcome to the Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs: 0:36
Welcome to the heart-led Business Show where Passion meets purpose. And today we have the fabulous Angela Tipton, co-founder of Tipton Franklin Marketing Strategies with her scientific smarts and strategic savvy Angela’s redefining the landscape for AgTech and biotech businesses. One bold ethical strategy at a time. So get ready for insights that are as refreshing as a spring breeze and as vibrant as a garden in bloom. Let’s dive into Angela’s heart-led journey. Welcome to the show, Angela.

Angela Tipton: 1:07
Thanks, Tom. It’s great to be here.

Tom Jackobs: 1:09
Awesome. I’m really excited for our conversation’cause I don’t get a lot of marketing and AgTech and biotech folks on the show. So it’s always good to have another perspective of heart-led businesses and I’m really excited to hear your story and find out why you have a heart-led business. But before we do that, what’s your definition of a heart-led business?

Angela Tipton: 1:34
Yeah, so this is a one that I was thinking about for a while, and I think that you can define a heart-led business in a lot of ways, but I’ll give you my perspective on it. To me, a heart-led business is one that really helps change the world for the better. It makes people’s lives better. It makes life a little bit easier to live. It makes something easier. It just does better. It contributes to the world in some way so that you can wake up the next day and feel like you’ve done. A great job doing something, whether you’ve touched someone’s life or you did something impactful for their business, which is something that I like to think about that allows them to work more efficiently, effectively, allow them to do more with their business so that they can then make an impact on the world.

Tom Jackobs: 2:16
I love that. That’s a really nice definition and really broad as well in terms of, a lot of people can feel really good about the work that they do and the impact that it’s having on other people’s lives. I love that. That’s awesome. Thank you for that.

Angela Tipton: 2:30
Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I agree. I think that there are so many businesses that maybe we don’t even think about it intuitively, but really can be heart-led. We think about the day-to-day businesses that we might drive past on the street, down the road the plumbers and mechanics and all of those things. I think many of those really can be heart-led and they’re so important. They’re so critical. They might do small things here and there and be in their own focus and their own niche, but they really do make an impact, even if it’s just a plumber coming in to, to fix a repair, that, that makes someone stay just a little bit better. Right?

Tom Jackobs: 3:04
Exactly. Especially if the toilet’s overflowing, so that’s awesome. Yeah, I had a FinTech financial technology company on early on in the show. And that I was like I’m not quite sure, but when he was explaining just the impact that, that FinTech has and his technology has on people, it just made sense. I was like, yeah, that is, that’s really heart-led. So yeah, I think it does encompass a lot of different businesses. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your business and what makes it heart-led.

Angela Tipton: 3:35
Yeah, so I am a co-founder of Tipton Franklin Marketing Strategies, and in our business we help biotech and AgTech businesses reach broader audiences and connect with investors and help grow their businesses. The way I like to look at it, and this is the reason why I got into the biotech business, to begin with years and years ago. Biotech to me is changing the world. We’re talking about new innovations in the medical world, new pharmaceuticals that can help cure diseases or help improve conditions. On the agricultural side of it, we’re talking about better ways to feed the world, a growing population, being better with our farming techniques. Or on the AgTech side, we’re talking about helping farmers do better in their jobs. And what I’m really passionate about what I do is that we can help those businesses do the next level of what it is that they wanna do and really continue increasing the impact that they’re having on the world. And that is why I’m excited about what I do because I really do believe that so many of these businesses are doing great things in the world. They just might need a little bit of help on the marketing side. Marketing is one of those things that can be. Really complex and unless you’re getting the world that word out about the great work that you’re doing for the world it can be really hard to have the full impact that you want, but there’s so much potential there. So what I love to do is help those businesses increase the level of impact that they’re having, which is just makes my day that much more exciting.

Tom Jackobs: 5:10
Yeah, exactly. Now I’m gonna play a little devil’s advocate here, if you don’t mind. So when I think about AgTech or biotech. First thing that comes to mind is big pharma and big farms. And, Monsanto or whatever.

Angela Tipton: 5:25
Sure.

Tom Jackobs: 5:27
And just that the food sources are getting just weird now and not really nutritious. So are you working with kinda the smaller farms and helping them like grow or helping those other heart-led businesses really produce a product that people can be really proud of as well.

Angela Tipton: 5:47
Yeah, that’s a great question. And yes, we do mainly work with smaller to medium sized businesses. We don’t do a ton of work with some larger businesses. I have here and there. It’s just not something that we do quite as much of. And it’s funny that you talk about the controversy that is Monsanto, I’ll give you a little bit backstory in my career, but years ago I worked for Bayer Crop Science, and I don’t know how closely you followed the news, but Bayer some years ago bought Monsanto. And I was actually right in the middle of this controversy and everything that was going on, and it was very strange to work for a company like that. And being on the inside, it felt to me like a very strange choice to purchase Monsanto. It wasn’t something that I stood behind, but it was one of those things that, hey, my company has decided to do this. I guess we’re going along for the ride. But really I think what it comes down to with a lot of businesses like that is that yes, there are some concerns about the science and their approaches, but really what we need to do as a science community at large is we need to be better at communicating and being more transparent and honest about the things that we are doing. I understand having been in the science world for a long time, there’s a lot of concern about IP, intellectual property. There’s a lot of stiff competition in the field and I get that companies wanna keep that IP as close as they can. There are stories that come out that are valid where IP gets stolen and that can really be very costly to a company. So it’s understandable why there are concerns about speaking about certain things, but I think on the other side of it, it comes at a very grave cost. There’s lack of understanding. There’s that lack of transparency, and I think truly, especially being in the world of marketing, we need to be more transparent. We need to be more honest about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and allow people to make their own decisions one way or another.

Tom Jackobs: 7:44
Yeah, exactly. And with that transparency comes vulnerability and just, opening up that heart as well to look at different views and, accept what other folks are saying as well. And just molding that into the business. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Transparency is absolutely imperative in business and for sure. Yeah. So tell us how you’re bringing in the heart specifically, maybe some stories that you might have of some of the heart-led initiatives that you’ve helped with for some of your clients.

Angela Tipton: 8:19
Yeah. So some of the things that I’ve done with some of my clients, I’m just trying to think of a good recent example. Actually one that comes to mind is a case study that I put together. It was actually a very simple task. But ended up having a really big impact. And case studies are one of those things that can really be a simple way of telling your story and the impact that you’re making on the world. So I, I get pretty excited about projects like this one in particular. But this client was, had a really complex instrument that they were using and was really struggling with how to best tell the story because once you start getting into those technical and nitty gritty details, some of that stuff gets boring. It gets dry and it’s just not really engaging and very interesting. But, when you focus on the value that it’s providing and what it’s doing for the world, and it might be a really simple thing. In this particular case, this was an instrument, I’m trying to remember, it’s been so long now, but this particular instrument was one that was designed to help improve safety. And security for consumers on some level. And again, I can’t remember all the specifics, but because it’s been a while, but I just remember that after the project was done, the client came back and said, wow this is usually a really dry subject. It’s hard to make something that’s really engaging and really interesting and you did a great job of outlining the story and conveying the impact that it had. And I just remember having experiences like I’ve had others like that, but that makes me feel good. That makes me feel like I’ve done a good job of helping that person, that company, tell their story in a way that was really meaningful, that was engaging for their audience, and really helped convey the value and the impact that business was having. That to me, is being heart-led in the work that I do, is that I help increase that transparency. We talked about transparency and also tell that story in a way that is engaging and interesting and captivates people in a way that ignites all sorts of feelings of excitement and great emotions that really give them that business, the level of impact that they are seeking.

Tom Jackobs: 10:24
Yeah, absolutely. And I do sales training and sales coaching, but in integrate storytelling into that because a lot of times sales can be a little, little dull. And in the research that I’ve done in storytelling, especially for dry subjects and when people are giving speeches and things like that, a lot of times it’s very technical and we always try to wrap a story around it like you did with yours, and it gets into initially it gets into people’s heads, but ultimately that story because it is a story, filters down into their heart and it just opens up the possibility and it’s so amazing when you tell a really good story and you can see that audience just go along with the ride with you, and you can see their emotions go with your emotions, and it’s just, it’s a beautiful thing that you can’t get if you just do well this is what this thing does, and it does 5% better than this, and 12% better than that. It’s super boring that way, but the story is very engaging in it. I think there was a study that was done in a Yale study, I believe, where they did a functional MRI on a storyteller, and then two participants, or two listeners to the story. And what they found is that the same parts of the brain lit up on the storyteller as they did with the story receiver.

Angela Tipton: 11:42
Interesting.

Tom Jackobs: 11:42
Yeah, so it was like this neuro connection that was happening while the story was being told, which is just, is really fascinating. I’m sure if it was like a statistics or something like that, the receiver’s brains would be completely turned off at that point.

Angela Tipton: 11:57
Yeah, I agree that there’s something about stories that really helps us connect in different ways, right? It’s how we connect to our history. It’s how we connect to trials and tribulations. We talk about story brand was one of those things that I got really big into at one point, and we talk about the hero’s journey and it’s really simple. We hear it over and over again, but there’s something to that story or that story frame really that captivates us and engages us. We can relate to that here on some level, even if we have no similarities to them. It’s funny, I, this reminds me of, I, I just started watching with my husband. It’s been out for a while, but we just started watching Breaking Bad. And we didn’t know what to expect when we first got into it. But, talk about a storyline that I feel like I would have no relation to, and you start to feel bad for this guy and then you remind yourself, wait a second he’s a drug lord, should I feel bad for him?

Tom Jackobs: 12:51
Yeah, that, that story itself and just the character DeVeelopment that he goes, the actor goes through is just amazing. The transformation from season one through the end. It’s fascinating. It’s such a good show. I’m glad you brought that up.

Angela Tipton: 13:07
Yeah. It is it’s one of those things that, like I said I feel like I could never normally relate to, but you do. You start to feel bad for the guy and you think, wow, he is having a tough time.

Tom Jackobs: 13:16
A tough time driving selling his drugs. That’s crazy. So let’s shift gears a little bit here and let’s talk about everybody’s favorite topic. Money and profits. A lot of heart-led businesses, they struggle with that whole concept of still making a profit because they, a lot of times they feel like I really can’t charge because this is all about my purpose, my heart, which I understand. I was there once as well. But how do you balance the profit side and making money in your business and making money for your clients as well through their, your marketing and still being heart-led.

Angela Tipton: 13:53
That’s a great question and I think this is one that many of us debate and we try to consider and especially those of us that got into business for the right reasons, right? Wanting to make a difference in the world. Money is one of those things that can feel pretty yucky. Yes, it’s a tool. It’s something that we all need to survive, at least on some level. But it’s one of those things where we actually grew up feeling a lot of these negative things, some positive things too, about money. So it can be really hard to balance that. And the way I look at that is that I look at the fact that I have a responsibility to not only myself, but to my family. I have a responsibility to the businesses around me. So what that means is that I have to not only balance what I want in terms of being heart-led, but I have to make some sort of an income because if I am just doing all of this work for free. I’m gonna be outta business within a matter of a few weeks, and then I can’t continue to make the great impact that I’m making, and then I can’t continue to help these businesses make the great impact that they’re having. So I look at it as really, it’s a financial responsibility at this point to do what I need to do to maintain business. Now, of course, there’s a balance to that. There’s extremes on either side where you’re not charging enough or you’re charging too much. So you have to figure out where that balance is. And, the way I look at it is I focus on aligning my business with my values and, I check in with myself every so often. Is the work I’m doing with this client, is this aligned with my values? Do I feel good about the work I’m doing? Am I charging an a good amount where I have this balance between one, making that impact, but then also two, making sure that I’m keeping the lights going for days and weeks to come. Am I doing what I need to do from that standpoint, and there’s not an easy, straightforward answer, there never is. But one of the things I, I learned with that is that it also comes down to mindset. And I’ve done a lot of work on mindset, money, mindset, things like that. And I think that work for me has been really valuable because I’ve learned that there were some really deep ingrained beliefs that I had, some that were really good and were serving me, but there were others that were not and were making me get in my own way. And this was coming out in ways that I didn’t even expect. And I think that mindset work has really helped me, one, understand myself and understand the limitations I have or the kind of roadblocks that I run into when it comes to things like that. That way I can actively and proactively identify that, recognize that in myself, and then address it right then and in the moment. To answer your question, there’s not a straightforward answer, but I think a lot of this can be served or better understood when you start to uncover your mindset and make sure that your work is aligned with your values.

Tom Jackobs: 16:47
Yeah, absolutely. So were there some specific exercises that you went through? I’m always curious about mindset too, but any specific things that you went through to help you overcome some of the negative money mindset that you had?

Angela Tipton: 17:02
Yeah, absolutely. So there were a few things I used I’ve always been a really avid reader, so I love to read books on money mindset type concepts. And in some of those books I read, there were some really great exercises, some questions I could ask myself about, how does this make me feel about this? Or how does that make me feel? And as I started doing that, I started uncovering some things. I thought, oh, I guess that does resonate. Oh, that surprises me. The first step is that awareness. And you can get that awareness from reading like I did. You can also get it through meditation a walk in the park, or you can do this. There’s all sorts of different strategies that you can use to get that awareness, but for me it was really reading and uncovering the questions or asking myself the questions that I found in a lot of those books that I was reading. From there, once I had that awareness, so first that was a big light bulb moment for me. That was a oh yeah, okay, now I can do something about this. And once I had that awareness, I started to DeVeelop habits and routines to help me address that, help me understand when I was having that thought, for instance, and that way I could approach that with curiosity and ask myself, okay, is this true? Do I actually feel this way? Is there something else going on here? So it doesn’t end with awareness. And to this day, my, my mindset work continues. I think it’s one of those things you exercise like you do when you exercise your body. You also have to exercise your mind. And so I, I have those habits that I continually practice, revisit, make changes to and so on. But for, yeah, for me, it started with just reading a few books that I really enjoyed.

Tom Jackobs: 18:39
That’s awesome. Do you remember the title of any of those books that?

Angela Tipton: 18:44
Yeah, so one of my favorites is you are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. That was one that I really liked. There’s another one called the Audacity to be Queen by Gina DeVee. There were a couple honestly I have a whole list of books that I every so often will revisit. Another one actually that I really is, that’s a little bit more focused on business is Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek.

Tom Jackobs: 19:09
Yep.

Angela Tipton: 19:09
It’s really one of those that just helps challenge some of those ingrained beliefs and ideas you might have about work and money and how you work for money. Quite a few and I always like to find new books to read too. There’s always something new I learn which I love.

Tom Jackobs: 19:22
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I do audio books and I just love just hearing the, hearing those books and trying to relate it back to how I can put that practice into my life as well. It’s just, it’s great. That’s awesome.

Angela Tipton: 19:37
It is.

Tom Jackobs: 19:38
So are there any specific and pieces of advice that you can share with other heart-led business owners that might be struggling with the profit side of the business and specifically around when you get a client that is questionable in terms of if you can or should help them, but maybe the money isn’t there in terms of in the bank account, and you’re like, yeah, I’m gonna take them no matter what because I just need the money. Are there’s some, because that, that usually comes up is people tend to put away some of their beliefs because they’re, they have that scarcity mindset and are there certain things that you’ve done to overcome that?

Angela Tipton: 20:21
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a great question. And honestly, years ago I found myself in a similar situation, so I have done that before and that was actually why that business I ended up going, walking away from and ended up closing for that being one reason. But there were other reasons involved with that too. But yeah, having been there, I, I know how that feels. You have this mindset of. I’ve got to make that income somewhere. I’ve got to do this, and ugh, it doesn’t feel great. This doesn’t feel aligned with my values, I’m just gonna do it. And I’ve done that. And honestly, looking back on some of those experiences, that’s where some of my mindset work honestly came in because I realized that I was taking on those clients, not out of an alignment with my values. Of course, it was out of that feeling of need at that feeling of scarcity that, that fear that I had about money or not being able to get enough of it. And I can honestly say that I don’t regret those experiences. They weren’t great experiences to have. They were hard admittedly but you know what I think they taught me some really important lessons. They helped me understand myself and the struggles that I have. So I’d say that if you feel yourself being faced with the same situation, I think first of all, that’s a really tough choice to have to make and sometimes you feel like you have to make that choice, and maybe you do. And that situation, hopefully you at least learn something outta that. I know I certainly did, but you have to find a balance. And I think it’s much more important to lean on your values and being heart-led because one that’s gonna make you feel much better as a person that you are doing the work that you’re doing, that’s gonna help you lighten up in the work that you’re doing and also continue to contribute and to the businesses that you’re gonna wanna contribute to or to the consumer, whoever it is that you’re selling to.

Tom Jackobs: 22:10
So I

Angela Tipton: 22:10
think it’s really important to revisit your values, revisit your mindset. Ask yourself, why do I feel like I need to take this on right now? And is there something else that I could be doing instead? I think that’s a really important question to ask yourself is what could I do instead of taking this on because it forces you to think of something that is uncomfortable. You have to think of doing something that is maybe outside of your comfort zone that you haven’t considered. Maybe you find clients somewhere else, for instance. I know I had to ask myself those kinds of questions and eventually I got to the right answer. It took me a little while. But I think that anyone that is facing those kinds of struggles, I, I think you just need to ask yourself is this right for me? Is this aligned with me? And if it’s not. Then think about it a little differently. Try something you haven’t tried yet, even if you feel like it’s not gonna succeed, give yourself an opportunity to do something different, because leaning into being heart-led and leaning into your values is gonna be much more impactful for you in the long term.

Tom Jackobs: 23:14
Enables you to sleep better at night. One thing that I do is with a team, we have our core values in terms of the company. And I tell them, if there’s ever a question, just go back to the core values because those written core values will show you the way and we’ll help you make that decision. And I do that personally as well. When a client comes and says, Hey, I wanna work with you, and then, it’s a little bit questionable. I’m like what are my core values? Okay. Yeah. Nope. Sorry. Can’t work with you for whatever reason. Yeah. And it’s hard at the time, especially when the bank account is dwindling down and you really have to lean on those core values. Otherwise it’s just, it’s gonna be a soul suck. Yeah.

Angela Tipton: 23:53
Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 23:54
Cool. I can’t believe the time has gone by so quickly. But tell us how can people learn more about what you’re doing in terms of your marketing and potentially work with you?

Angela Tipton: 24:03
Yeah, so the best place to check us out is we have a website. It’s tiptonfranklin.com. We also have a really handy guide. We’re big on technology, of course, and we have this really handy guide on the Leaders Guide to AI strategy. So it’s a good way to really, if you’re interested in AI and you wanna use some of these tools to streamline the work that you’re doing, it’s a really great quick start guide to just help you get started. And we also help businesses in their own journey with AI, that’s one of the things that we do as well. We’re very passionate about technology. We love what it can offer to the world, so we’re doing all sorts of fun and innovative things when it comes to not only ai but other tools as well. And so that’s what we’re passionate about doing, is helping people and organizations find the tools and the strategies that will help make them the most effective at what they do.

Tom Jackobs: 24:52
Oh, that’s awesome that, that’s music to my heart and my ears as, as well, because I’m big into the AI and how to use that along with a heart-led business and in sales as well. And I know a lot of people struggle with just how do you integrate the AI with your workflows and it really is pretty easy. But it does take some thought as well to make sure that.

Angela Tipton: 25:14
It takes some time too, especially right now. I Just in the last few years, the tools that are available. The AI world, they’ve just exploded. So if you’re not staying up to date with it, you can very easily be behind and not even realize it. So unless you’re very closely following this space, you can lose track of where things are at. So that’s something that we do. It’s really keen to Travis and myself to follow up with AI tools and integrate the new, newest and greatest of what we can into the work that we’re doing.

Tom Jackobs: 25:47
Awesome. Great. Thank you again so much for taking the time outta your day and spending with us, and with the audience. I really appreciate you being here today.

Angela Tipton: 25:55
Thank you, Tom. It’s been great to be here.

Tom Jackobs: 25:57
Awesome. And thank you listeners for watching the show today. I really appreciate that you have taken the time to do that and make sure that you’re checking out everything that Angela’s doing, and we’re gonna provide all that into the show notes and along with the links to the books that she had suggested as well. So it’s all right down there in the show notes. Make sure you check that out. And while you’re there in the show notes, there’s probably gonna be a little button that says, rate and review the show. If you could do me a favor and do that, I’d really appreciate it. And until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 26:27
You’ve been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.