Julie Roehm, Firebrand, Press Icon, F500 Marketer and Change Agent on The Importance of Culture
DishyMix
Susan Bratton
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Episode 40 - Julie Roehm, Firebrand, Press Icon, F500 Marketer and Change Agent on The Importance of Culture

Dance The Night Away
Have you seen her? So fine and pretty
Fooled me with her style and ease
And I feel her from across the room
Yes, it's love in the third degree
Ooh, baby baby
Won't-cha turn your head my way?
Ooh, baby baby
Ah come on! Take a chance
You're old enough to
Dance (Dance) the night away
Whoa-oh (Ah) Come on g-girl, dance the night away
---- Van Halen

 

What in the world is Julie Roehm? The Mad Ave Scandal with Wal-Mart is reconciled and she's cranking out progressive marketing strategies for client after client at her consultancy, /META, Llc. Still living in Arkansas with her husband and two sons (want to buy a nice house in Bentonville?), she's flying around the country working on projects as diverse as a media platform for Sports Illustrated to a project for a real-estate developer who rubs elbows with a Sultan from Dubai. Julie talks about some of her career highlights at Chrysler and Ford and gives solid advice about managing one's career reputation - lessons she learned the hard way. 

Never one to lead a small life, Julie tells us about her helicopter flight to book Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler for a Dodge sponsorship, her work with Jack Nassar at Ford launching the Focus and how she ended up in a magnificent parlor room at the Wynn Hotel high above Vegas where she called in for the interview. She and Suz talk about her favorite band, Van Halen and the tour with David Lee Roth that's happening now. Here's what else is happening now - Julie Roehm - she's picked up the pieces from the Wal-Mart debacle and she's back out, creating progressive marketing that pushes the edge of the world as we know it. Thank you, Julie. You walked through the fire and emerged with vision, energy and grace.

Transcript

Transcript

Woman 1: This program is brought to you by PersonalLifeMedia.com.

Woman 2: This program is sponsored by Isobar, the world’s largest digital marketing company, servicing clients in nearly 40 countries. Visit us at Isobar.net.

[musical interlude]

Susan Bratton: Welcome to “Dishy Mix”. I'm your host, Susan Bratton. It's great to have you with us today because I have a wonderful guest for today’s show, Julie Roehm. Julie is currently consulting for a host of companies in new media and in marketing especially in the area of marketing strategy and execution. So we'll really going to get into what I call the “under the hood work” in our conversations with Ms. Roehm today.

Julie, of course as we all know, was most recently the Senior Vice-President of Marketing Communications for Wal-Mart and prior to that, she had a really solid career in marketing communications for both Chrysler and Dodge brands as well as for Ford working on their cars and minivans, even launching Ford Focus which is a great little car. So we're going to talk to Julie today about what's happening with her now.

The highlights of the show will include the importance of culture, reputation management, digital marketing in the Fortune 500 world, and of course, fun stuff like discussions about Van Halen and Aerosmith and guitar hero and rock and roll!

[musical interlude]

Julie Roehm: And the Meta, if you look at the definition of meta is something that it just sits above and looks over. So the idea of what I was trying to do was take a look from above the high level view of what's going on in the business and how marketing can work to actually improve the results of your business.

When people come to me, they know exactly what they're getting. They know that they're going to get somebody who's going to really push their thinking and take a look at things from a more progressive point of view and probably going to disagree and sometimes tell them that their baby could use a little lipstick.

It would make more sense if we were using more democratic approach based on, for instance, the NASDAQ system where supply and demand really dictate the price and it's based on transparency, arbitrage, flexibility, and anonymity.

It's such an exciting time because every single paradigm that we have ever known in the communications base is unbroken. Consumers have control of really their destiny. There's so many new platforms that are emerging everyday by which we can attempt to try to create interesting position to communicate our brand and to connect with customers.

[musical interlude]

Susan Bratton: Julie, welcome.

Julie Roehm: Thanks, Susan, nice to be here.

Susan Bratton: I would really think about you as being a press icon, a firebrand, you're a wife and mom, you're a Fortune 500 marketer, and most of all, you are a changed agent, Julie. [laughs]

Julie Roehm: Yes, for better or for worse. That moniker has taken a whole lot of new meaning the past year and a half, that’s for sure.

Susan Bratton: It has, but I think ultimately, probably God hope, it's all for the better.

Julie Roehm: Yes, absolutely.

Susan Bratton: So you are right now, talking to me from Las Vegas and before you came on the show today, you're telling me about the fabulous room you're in and you’ve got to describe that. Audio is all about painting pictures, tell us exactly where you're calling us from today.

Julie Roehm: OK. So I'm at the Wynn Hotel in a parlor suite. I received the call from a potential client Monday, who I've never met who’s a big developer and he'd set to come out here so obviously I checked them out to make sure they were at least authentic [laughs] before I got myself over here to Las Vegas. But they're putting me up in this beautiful parlor suite in the Wynn.

You come in and there's a model foyer with a small powder room. Then you walk out of that foyer with the small powder room and the little bar into a large sitting room with the big flat panel TV and bright red couch and two red Victorian chairs and a marble table and their floor to ceiling windows that overlook the Wynn golf course. It's a beautiful, crisp sunny day here today and I'm sitting at the desk in here.

Then you go into the bedroom and it's just like most hotel bedrooms - big bedroom, big flat panel. Then, the bathroom is the same size as the bedroom! [laughs] It's huge. So I felt fairly it's like I was in a palatial suite [xx] and certainly it's nice to be put up in a room like this versus some of the rooms I've had to stay in before.

Susan Bratton: Now, is it a more modern style, you said Victorian sofas, the combination of those two words makes me cringe frankly. I can't stand Victorian sofas. Isn't it ugly?

Julie Roehm: The couch is not Victorian but the two chairs are Victorian style but they're more of a modern Victorian. They just had the Victorian armchair type, you know, the wood back with the red cushion in the middle of the back and on the sitting, the wood and the curved leg on the chairs. So it’s got a little bit of a Victorian feel but more of the modern flair. I would say this is a very modern room. There are mirrors on the ceiling, the art in the room is very modern, very sketch art, really intriguing, very neat.

Susan Bratton: Is there pink champagne on ice? When you say mirrors on the ceiling, I fill it in with the evil songs, you know. [laughs]

Julie Roehm: Especially in Vegas, right?

Susan Bratton: Exactly?

Julie Roehm: It's not nearly as tacky as you might think and it's only in the living room.

Susan Bratton: You'll have to paint the picture for us.

Julie Roehm: I don’t think it's in the bedroom. I didn’t notice, but especially here in the sitting room.

Susan Bratton: That’s funny, and I hope you took advantage of that fabulous by having a wonderful bath.

Julie Roehm: No. You know what, my flight didn’t get in until 8:30 last night and I had a cocktail then till 9:00, I was in New York. So I flew in and went to these events so I didn’t get back to my room until midnight last night which, of course, is 3 o’clock in my body so I was in bed. So I didn’t [xx] the bed, maybe tonight.

Susan Bratton: Where are you living right now? Aren't you in Kirkland, Washington?

Julie Roehm: No, actually, my LLC--so my parents are in Kirkland, Washington and my LLC is managed out of there because my father manages my LLC, so my LLC is basically me. Then my father who's been so helpful in just managing all of the financial and legal and accounting issues for me while I just go out and do the work. So now, I'm still living in Arkansas with my husband and kids and we've had our house for sale there for 14 months now. In fact, just finally sold our house in Michigan in November after that being in the market for two years and we took a steep loss on that. So it's the perfect storm of the real estate market to have a couple of houses I'm trying to get rid of.

Susan Bratton: No kidding. OK, so you're still in Arkansas.

Julie Roehm: Still there, yes. It's quite an experience.

Susan Bratton: You have to stay because you’ve got that house there and you built that house, right?

Julie Roehm: It was new, it was already built. We [xx] and we moved in after it was completed. So we didn’t build it to our specifications but we we're the first owners, first people in it. My kids are in school and really, I can't afford a second home at this point.

Susan Bratton: Absolutely not.

Julie Roehm: It's hard to taking the loss I did on the one out in Michigan.

Susan Bratton: Right. Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, you were laughing at me that I was advertising--because my home is for sale. I live in the Silicon Valley I have it out on Facebook for my house and I'll tell you that at least a third of the referrals to the website that I built for my house come from Facebook.

Julie Roehm: Yes, I thought that was fascinating when I was listening to the podcast with Ron. Honestly, I've got some great ideas [xx] [laughs] selling my house.

Susan Bratton: Good. Absolutely. So tell us about Backslash Meta LLC, not only where you came up with that name and how you'd plan to use it but also some of the work that you're doing, for example, with Sports Illustrated.

Julie Roehm: Yes. The name is actually--I probably could have discovered Julie Roehm LLC but try and be creative and quirky. So the Backslash was so if I was doing work, for instance, for Sports Illustrated, which is a client of mine, I could say, “OK, here's my project work update, Sports Illustrated Backslash Meta. The Meta, if you look at the definition of meta is something that sits above and looks over. So the idea of what I was trying to do was take a look from above, the high level view of what's going on in the business and how marketing can work to actually improve the results of your business and then you get down into but it's more of a meta approach.

So we talk about meta tagging and meta data and things like that. So it was really the idea of what the word “meta” meant that I thought was an interesting way to describe a bit about what I can do from an overall marketing strategy vision standpoint and then going deeper into the execution.

Susan Bratton: I really like the name and I really like the idea of blending the two things together because it shows in a way that you have skin in the game for the work that you're doing.

Julie Roehm: Yes. I think across the board, I have been really lucky in getting as much work as I have. I have been really fortunate where I haven’t had to go out and look for work from a consulting perspective. It just come to me through people who know of me, know me and the work has been terrific. I think, back to your point, it's largely because for all the other things I may have the reputation for now and those are just scar tissue from what happened in your life becomes public and sites become public.

But prior to that, when its really the substance of who you are and people who worked with you who have had seen what you have done. That never goes away so I'm very fortunate that I've had such a really strong career that’s very results-oriented and very outspoken in terms of my opinion. Because of that, when people come to me, they know exactly what they're getting. They know that they're going to get somebody who's going to really push their thinking and take a look at things from a more progressive view and probably going to disagree and sometimes tell them that their baby could use a lipstick. I mean, it's really that type of approach from a personality standpoint that I haven’t had to explain because people know that of me when they find me.

Susan Bratton: You are known for a progressive point of view and for pushing the envelope in everything you do. Now, it's bitten you in the ass here and there, right?

Julie Roehm: That’s right, yes. That happens, right.

Susan Bratton: [laughs] So that happens, God bless you. So tell us about this Sports Illustrated project, what can you tell us about that, that’s really interesting.

Julie Roehm: Yes. I've been working with some, it's been almost a year now and I know I can talk about it now because they gave me an OK to talk about it at the conference I was speaking at. But we're basically creating a media exchange. So a couple of years ago, it's almost three now, I'd made the big presentation at the ANA in New York back when I was at Chrysler about how the media, in buying practices that we currently use particularly in the realm of television.

But really across the board, it's really archaic and that it would make more sense if we were to use a more democratic approach based on, for instance, the NASDAQ system where supply and demand really dictate the price and it's based on transparency, arbitrage, flexibility, and anonymity. Those are the four principles of the NASDAQ exchange and if we we're to use those same principles in how we were to buy and sell media, I think that we would be finding a much better price, you wouldn’t have as much of a complaint from the buying side where they're--in a film there's the idea of the raycar and nobody pays the raycar but what's really the right price?

But then it's also on the sell side and there is a big fear that if that happens and their prices go down. Well, the issues if the prices are going down, then what you have isn't really worth as much as thought. But if it is a really worthwhile property, your good piece of media, a good section of space, then you probably have the opportunity to gain more than you’ve been selling. You've been compromising on prices portion of your premium inventory because you have to discount it in order to get rid of your last premium inventory.

So this is really just an approach to even out the playing field in terms of buying and selling media. So Sports Illustrated had come to me and I really give them credit for being visionaries, not in finding me [laughs] but in their idea that they thought that they could actually increase their customer service--both to buyers of the space, both in the print and the Internet space--but also find enough opportunities for more revenue because they really do believe in their brand and their product. So we're creating a media exchange for Sports Illustrated.

Susan Bratton: You’ve created a technology-based thought experiments, I'll be interested in talking to you a year from now. If it doesn’t work, you'll not going to be able to tell me anyway. So it’ll really be interesting for us to watch externally and for the people in the buying community to see if in fact this lives on and can truly optimize their revenue and create a platform of customer service for their buyers.

Julie Roehm: Yes, I think we've already won in that category. Honestly, I think, with Michael Walrath of Right Media and DoubleClick came, there's so many different exchanges out there already. Each do it slightly differently but they're all based on that same principle and that's really come to be their powerful presence in the media landscape interest in the past three years. So I feel as though it's already been a win for us, that it is the signs of progress and be able to see if this particular experiment of a close internal auction. I'm usually for open auctions but I think this is interesting for this brand.

Susan Bratton: I think that in the case of arbitrage media, it's primarily been for access inventory, not for premium inventory.

Julie Roehm: That’s too remnant. [sp]

Susan Bratton: Right. So with SI [sp], what I'm hearing is that it's for premium inventory as well. So to me, that is pushing the envelope.

Julie Roehm: Yes, it is, it is. I think it's really interesting and it creates the spontaneity and I think it gives a lot of the buyer to really be interested in their properties, but maybe aren't as big an advertiser and therefore, aren't in contact as frequently with the actual sales rep a change to really look at the full offering and maybe get inventory that they otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to look at.

Susan Bratton: That’s right, it unlocks some things for a wider range of customers.

Julie Roehm: Right.

Susan Bratton: So I want to finish off the Backslash Meta and give you an opportunity to tell me who you would like to be your customer. You have a public platform here to ask for anything that you want. Who would you like to work for next or what kind of a project would you like to take on next? Where's your area of passion?

Julie Roehm: Oh, gosh! OK, so this is a fun one, this is an unexpected question. I'd love working--first and foremost, it's really about the people and the culture. It's but probably my past, but I'm so looking for a great group, a team of people with a fun culture progresses, that kind of group of people who are embracing ideas who, you get in the room and the ideas, they really blasting off the wall. I've really been looking for that kind of energy and that kind of movement from a company, a culture, what have you.

There's a kind of work specifically is--I do a lot of B and B and B to C. My passion tends to be really with the more B to C crowd though. I love the idea of how do you take a real business need, a real practical. We need to grow profit, we need to grow share, we’d choose our brand. Let's get into what the brand stands for, let's get into really the intangibles of it, the insides for it and figure out some really interesting ways to connect that brand with customers.

Right now, it's such an exciting time because every single paradigm that we have ever known in the communication space has been broken. Consumers have control of really their destiny. There's so many new platforms that are emerging everyday by which we can attempt to try and create an interesting position to communicate our brands and to connect with customers. It takes a special customer, a special client actually to be able to want to reach out and do that and to take that risk of being the first to try some of these new things.

I always look at the opportunities not to just try new things for the sake of trying new things but actually creating a model that says, “What is the strategy? What is your outcome?” There's 20 new things to try but probably only maybe five or 10 make sense to try given the kind of outcome we're looking for, the kind of customer we have or the brand, guardrails that we have created.

So you try those in many experiments and then you hope that a couple of those actually turn into something really interesting. You can go much, much deeper and on a broader platform with the broader customer base or a broader geography base or a broader brand premise and really makes something terrific. It's a bit of trying to create that model and that process that doesn’t squash the opportunity for creativity, for idea generation, and for the opportunity to really try new elements. I'm always about the measurements, it's my engineering and the graduate degree. I'm really always about trying to get to showing that it really does make a difference.

Susan Bratton: So for those of you who have an appetite for experimentation, call Julie. So I really want to talk about your [xx] days in the auto industry. You did some extraordinary work there. But before we go to that, we've got to talk about what's happening with Wal-Mart. Give us an update on where everything stands with you.

Julie Roehm: We settled that case, thankfully, back in November so we're done fighting with each other which is terrific and we're all getting on with our lives which is even better. It was a painful year, I can't talk about the details of what went on in the case any longer. But I will tell you that none of these could you ever, in you're wildest dreams, think what's going to happen. Could you ever imagine what was going to come.

Yes, it was a painful time for everybody involved, not just me but everybody from the people who were at the office, families. There's no winners I don’t think ever in a public battle like that. So it's one of the things I've learned, it's best to get away from those things as quickly as possible so you can go on with your life because it really becomes consuming.

I was really fortunate to have such a strong base of friends and family. Interestingly enough, I felt really blessed because I had so many people reached out to me by email and phone who I'd never met or even heard of, just offering their support, giving stories of similar experiences that they had, really talking about their point of view on it. On the latter days, it was that kind of thing that really kept me going everyday so I was really blessed for that.

Susan Bratton: So going through this now, you’ve come out the other side. Obviously, it's something that you'll carry with you forever. What advice could you give to any of us about reputation management now that you know this?

Julie Roehm: You always know. It's not that I was naïve to, you owe your reputation, it's all that you have. But I think reputation management is one thing that if you believe in yourself, you know who you are, you know that you're good. It's a matter of self-reflection almost, it's a bit of a spiritual journey that you have to go through because it can be very daunting to be in that kind of position. Do you really have to have the courage and I think the strength without family and friends, daughter, whatever your spiritual connection is? I think it's a very difficult thing to get through.

From a reputation standpoint, you have to hold on to what you know is good. Now, before you get to that point where you're having to manage reputation, I think the thing to look for is culture. I don’t think anybody should ever underestimate culture fit and that’s why for me, it's really important now when I'm looking at opportunities to make sure that yes, while I know why people label me a changed agent and yes, I know that really by definition, it's because I want to do things differently and I guess that’s the definition of change.

It's an environment where there is a real willingness across the board to do that and that you don’t get too overly confident and think that you can enact change in a place where maybe it's really only skin deep to change element that it's not really all the way through to the heart and soul. It's really only in places like that where if you really are a “changed agent” that hard and you really want to go forward, that you're going to have a chance to even create any success for the company you're doing the work with or with the team you're trying to create.

Susan Bratton: Got it. So the net net for me is that depending on--be very aware of the culture in which you work because it can either give you massive momentum to explore your ideas and to offer your talent or it can kill you.

Julie Roehm: Yes, truly. A lot of people choose to go in when they find a culture that isn't fitting and they basically decide to change themselves. They really decide to conform and to change themselves and you know what, for some people that may be great. For somebody like me, it wasn’t and people will put all kinds of labels on that. For me, it is what it is but I had to be true to myself and I know a lot more about myself as a result.

Susan Bratton: We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about some of your career highlights as a media mechanic and your best campaigns you’ve ever done.

Stay tuned. You're with Julie Roemp and we'll be right back.

[commercial break]

Susan Bratton: We're back. It's time to get to know Julie Roemp a little bit better. Julie, you have been at Chrysler, you’ve been at Ford. You really cut your teeth in marketing in the auto industry. There's a lot I want to get to about you and your personal life as well so I just want to really touch on some of the campaigns or programs or project that you’ve done that you really feel were the highlights of your work thus far. It sounds like that you're just getting started.

Julie Roehm: The early days, obviously, we know that Ford with the Ford Focus launch, that for me, I think, put me on the map at least in terms of people who had the chance to offer me new opportunities. So it was a great opportunity to go in, it was a good time in the auto industry, it was the late ‘90s. In fact, interestingly enough, when Jack Master 25:00 was running Ford and I give him a lot of credit for being--talk about a changed agent. He was very much that and very much embraced at the time, which wasn’t necessarily terribly popular, interactive and new media.

He was really into that and again, we were doing fairly well at the time, and I was given--I wouldn’t say [xx]--but I was given a great deal of leeway in managing the Ford Focus launch in the United States. We went after, I use basically culture, I used culture, [xx] and yet we had to sell an enormous number of vehicles. So we did it in a very interesting way and that, in itself, like to take you through all the elements of live television commercials and on the Internet, you could spin your own music through a virtual DJ. Now, it all seems so old school but in 1999, it was a pretty big [xx].

I actually ran into Jack Master [xx] in New York just last week, it was sort of funny though the kind of the world [xx] background but that was a really fun opportunity. It was successful, of course, and we were very strict on the measurement of showing that we were actually not only selling the cars but selling it to the audience what we had intended. That really open doors for me to move on to more at Ford. But then, going over to Chrysler was, I'm recruited by Jim Schroer who had moved over from Ford to Chrysler and he's now CEO of Carlson Marketing Group.

He, at Chrysler, had given me the challenge of the Dodge brand and that was probably my second like most proud accomplishment and it's for a variety of reasons. Some of which you would guess and some of it you wouldn’t. When I went in to Chrysler and I took the Dodge brand and the Dodge brand was Dodge Different and Edward Herman was the spokesperson. He's in a three-piece suit on a very clean white stage with the red vehicle that was really opening doors and showing the insides. So it was a very cerebral approach to the brand.

I went in in, I guess it was May, and we had to launch the new Ram truck in September but we wanted to do a new brand campaign to redefine the brand a bit more. I went in and, of course, that was when we created “Grab life by the horns”, I launched that at the same time we launched the Ram, brought Aerosmith in. So we're sort of the streetsmart versus the booksmart. Edward Herman was booksmart and Aerosmith, you can tell it was streetsmart.

So we really changed the direction of the brands from where it had been but it was all about going back to the root of the brand. The brand itself had been steep with the Dodge brothers who were very macho and raw. So we just brought the brand back to its roots which is where it's been today. But what was fun about not just the outcome of “Grab life by the horns” and then that led into Dodge Hemi and all that thing, got the Hemi campaign.

But it was really the process that was probably one of my proudest moments because when I went to Chrysler from Ford in Detroit, when you're really [xx] and you go to another car company like [xx] and then when you get to the other car company, you're like one of them so you really can't win. [laughs] It was sort of a difficult time to come in and try to make friends and build the team and get launch a brand new brand and a car all within the span of four months, all when I was pregnant.

Susan Bratton: Oh, my God!

Julie Roehm: I was really pushing the limits [xx] for myself but the one step I took that probably illustrative of why I was so proud was it was the time when Daimler had already bought Chrysler, and so [xx] so the others were running the company. We had to go in and present the new Dodge brand, the Ram launch as well as the “Grab life by the horns”.

I wanted to bring the larger team so not only people who reported to me in Communications but also the brand managers, people from PR, people from the engineering side of things, so really all the ancillary people who were supporting the brand. I wanted them to come into the boardroom with me to present this to the Executive Board. They were so excited about that because they’d never been a lot in the boardroom before to present.

So for the night, [xx] the day before and up till midnight that night before, I remember being in this boardroom with them rehearsing, literally the presentation and everybody’s part and how it connected and how we were going to pull this off. I'm like pregnant, my feet are swollen and we're ordering pizzas in this room and it went off smashingly.

So what was great about it is it was not just, of course, our campaign was approved and we went on with it and it turned out to do, I think, very good things for the brand but it was really the cohesiveness that it created with the team. Literally, it's the thing that I look back on, I'm most proud of. It's the thing that nobody saw or heard of that happened behind the scenes that was really fun about that.

Susan Bratton: That’s a great story. I really like the fact that you made it clear how many people it will take to execute such a big vision, and I love that campaign. It made me think, what car do you drive?

Julie Roehm: For now, I'm in a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited which is the four-door Jeep with the hard top and then I take it off in the summertime. So one of the good things about Arkansas is the weather, so it's warm a lot of the year. I just called my husband and they're supposed to get 10 inches today. As the threat of that, they're all set down for their home.

Susan Bratton: It is, it's actually a nice place to live. It's centrally located which is good as well and you’ve got a ton of infrastructure there because of Wal-Mart. So I can see why you'd want to stay there and keep your boys in school there, that makes a lot of sense.

Julie Roehm: I don’t know if they want to stay there, Susan, but I'm going to be there. [laughs]

Susan Bratton: Right. You are there. You are there. Yes.

Julie Roehm: I'll make the best of it while I have to be there, yes.

Susan Bratton: Yes, and you're a strong woman, Julie, that you make the best of everything, absolutely. So I want to talk a little bit more about music. You hired Aerosmith as a part of the Dodge program. Did you have an opportunity to play with them at all?

Julie Roehm: Oh, God. Yes, all the time. It was really funny, and my husband is like the biggest Aerosmith fan ever. So when I took the Dodge stuff and we brought in Aerosmith, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven. While we're trying to get them, I was working with Peter Arnell, who I just read yesterday, he's back actually doing some consulting work for Chrysler, so again the world spin full circle. But Peter helped to enact that entire effort.

I remember we were in New York, I was meeting with Peter. He got us the helicopter ride right for Manhattan and that was the time when [xx] this was in, I want to say, it was June of ’01. We took a helicopter ride and we're going right down in the middle of the city in between the buildings of Manhattan by the Twin Towers and we went over to Connecticut where the band was playing, get out, I'm big pregnant woman, I was going to meet the rock and roll band.

We struck the deal with them backstage and they went on for a year. We did several--I was talking to them all the time and we did videos with them. We did special edition cars. We were doing a great deal with the band itself over the course of that year and I have a couple of funny stories. He'd call the house or his people would call the house, looking for me to talk to me about something. My husband would answer and [xx] “Steven Tyler on the phone for her.” “Yes, I'm sorry. She isn't here.” “Yes, but it's Steven Tyler on the phone for her.” “OK, but I still can't make her appear.”

The other phone story about him was when I was pregnant and I was right at the 20-week or 21-week where you go in and we found the sex of our second child was a boy. I'm sitting literally on the table and we had just had the ultrasound and we were waiting for the doctor to come in and talk to us. My phone rang and I picked it up and it's Steven, talking to him, I said, “Well, Steven, you know, you'll be the first to know next to my husband, we're having a boy.” He was literally the first person beside my husband and, of course, the technician to know I was having a boy for my second time around.

Susan Bratton: Nice. Did you name him after him?

Julie Roehm: No. [laughs]

Susan Bratton: No. [laughs]

Julie Roehm: No. I haven’t gone that far yet though. It was an interesting time, certainly interesting to see that part of the world.

Susan Bratton: You are not as big an Aerosmith fan as you are a Van Halen fan, that’s your number one band. Right?

Julie Roehm: Yes. I've really always liked Van Halen, it's almost hard rock chick, I don’t know. I think it was like my midWestern upbringing. I still love the Van Halen thing, I would love to have gone to see them now. I'd never seen David Lee Roth with them in the early days. I know that he's back and I didn’t get to see them this summer when they were touring.

Susan Bratton: No, they're touring now.

Julie Roehm: Already right now?

Susan Bratton: They're touring right now.

Julie Roehm: Yes, so I'm really a big fan, I know exactly where they are. Right. No, but I'd love their music, one of my favorites.

Susan Bratton: I just happen to know that because I looked on their site today because I wondered if David Lee Roth was back with them. I'd heard he was, one of my customers got to go to LA to--like a pre-tour practice and go backstage and meet David Lee. So I thought, “Oh, yes. He's with them back again.” They have a really good tour schedule. They literally could be coming to a town near you.

Julie Roehm: Wow! Well, I travel most of the time so there's certainly be coming to one of the town I'm in. I'm almost always in New York and DC.

Susan Bratton: Exactly.

Julie Roehm: Yes. I'll have to make an effort because they're fun. I just have always loved their music. It was feel good and I loved the rock bass. I love new music as well, I'm sort of a big music junkie.

Susan Bratton:  What's your favorite Van Halen song? “Jamies’ Crying”, “Hot for Teacher”.

Julie Roehm: “She's Old Enough”. I think I've always been an old soul and I was always one of those teenagers, kids who wanted to be older and who always had older friends, always. It was “She's Old Enough” to dance the night away was the one.

Susan Bratton: That’s the one. Now, you must be around 40.

Julie Roehm: I am 37, I'll be 38 in September.

Susan Bratton: Thirty-seven, there you go. So you're still a young spring chicken.

Julie Roehm: Yes. I keep looking in the mirror though, I'm looking for the magic potion to cover some of the lines.

Susan Bratton: I know. Well, I have a podcast called “Beauty Now”, it's the intersection of anti-aging, longevity, cosmetic surgery, and biomedical innovation. On a weekly basis, my host, Teri Struck, will tell you all about the latest procedures. She interviews all the famous like “90201” plastic surgeons and all the people who are worried about how they can keep young forever.

Julie Roehm: I'm not [xx] the surgery but I was just reading magazine and it's like the A to Z of all--there are so many different potions and lotions and ingredients. I don’t--just tell me which one's and I'll go and slather them on everyday. It's so confusing.

Susan Bratton: You just pick a system you trust and stay with the whole system. I think that’s what they're saying now. It's all these chemical stuff we're dumping on ourselves, I do worry about that.

Julie Roehm: Yes, I know. I'm worried about mixing them, I'm going to create some sort of chemical fire on my face.

Susan Bratton: Explosion. At the cellular level, a mitochondrial explosion. [laughs]

Julie Roehm: Exactly, exactly. I don’t know what I'm going to do.

Susan Bratton: Oh, it's so funny. Well, it's been really nice talking to you. We've spent a lot of time, I had so much more I wanted to talk about you. You’ll have to come back.

Julie Roehm: Great, I'd love to. It's fun to talk to you. I enjoyed this so much. It is such a great to really get into some really fun business issues but making it very personal as well. So congratulations to you as well.

Susan Bratton: You helped me beautifully strike that balance today, Julie. I really appreciate it. Enjoy your fabulous palatial experience at the Wynn today.

Julie Roehm: I'll do that. [laughs]

Susan Bratton: I hope you’ll make a little bit of time for maybe just to have a glass of pink champagne.

Julie Roehm: I'm going to try to do that tonight for sure. You know, it's Vegas.

Susan Bratton: Good. Exactly! Absolutely! All right, well, it's been terrific to talk to you. Have a great day. You’ve been learning all more about Julie Roemp and getting to see the softer side of Julie.

So this is your host, Susan Bratton. Thanks for tuning in today and I'll see you next week.

Woman 1: Find more great shows like this on PersonalLifeMedia.com.

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