[0:00] Music.
[0:07] This podcast.
[0:12] The longer and longer I'm in this coaching world, the more women I work with, the more different types of business owners and service providers that I work with, the more and more I am realizing the importance of personal branding. So I've been thinking about this a lot because I think that I used to think in the early days of business that branding was is for like the big guys. Branding is for like the Coca-Cola's and the Chick-fil-A's and the Google's where they are, you know, touching so many lives and impacting so many lives that they can really go all in on having this brand, this image that captures the feeling of their products in these cases. But I'm just realizing like in the coaching world, in the service industry, there's a clear difference between the women who have or know or understand at least what their brand is and those who don't. And I think this is something that's so important for us to understand because this makes a big difference, not just in the content that we create and the way that we create it and the way that it looks, but it makes an impact in the type of clients that we aim to create. And it creates a big difference in the amount of money aligning in our bank accounts. And so if you are listening to this episode today, you are, I hereby dub thee, a personal brand. If you don't already know that, I need you to have that be your number one takeaway
[1:38] from this episode. You are a personal brand.
[1:41] And the longer that I've been playing around with this and watching this, I am watching, I am seeing what a huge difference branding makes. So you probably all know by now, my brand designer is Rebecca Peterson. I hired her to rebrand me when I was launching myself as a coach for the first time officially in air quotes about 18 months ago. And at the time or before Rebecca, I thought that I had a brand because I had colors that I consistently used. And you can scroll back on my old Instagram account and see what those colors were. They were very like earthy tones, not quite neutral, like terracotta, dark green.
[2:23] Taupe. And Rebecca and I were just having this conversation at some point because I thought that I had a brand. And Rebecca just said something offhandedly like, if I rebranded you, I know exactly what colors I would use. And I was like, wait, what? My brand colors are not right? And so what are they? And I asked her and she was like, well, they would be super bright, right? Poppy colors. And I was taken aback by that because everything in my life was very neutral. Even like the clothes in my closet, everything was these earthy tones, like peach, not really peach, like terracotta, greens, tans, brown, black, very neutral. But I knew, and I've always known that I love color. And like, you could see it in my home decor. You could see in the clothes and I was wearing this like sort of bland color scheme. And Rebecca was like, that is not it for you. So I like caught this vision when she said that, when I realized that the way that I have been representing myself on Instagram isn't who I really am.
[3:29] And so of course I ended up hiring her to rebrand me. And I don't necessarily think that you need to go hire a brand designer today after listening to this episode, especially if you're not making consistent sales yet. But when you do start making money, I do think that it's worth investing in a brand designer who's an expert, who knows what they're doing, who knows what the landscape looks like so well that she can make your brand so different from everyone else's with the color scheme, with the vibes, with the textures, with the fonts, all the things. But I want to talk to you today about some things that you can start implementing right now, whether you have your quote unquote brand, or if you haven't, or if you don't yet, maybe you have a DIY brand that you've created on your own. Hopefully you do. If you don't, that's your homework assignment to go on Etsy, go on Creative Market and buy some branding templates, go on Pinterest and pick some colors. But the really cool thing about personal branding versus a big, huge brand that we're all familiar with, like the one that I mentioned before, Coca-Cola, Google, is that, let's say Coca-Cola, for example, that brand is totally made up. There's the red, the black, the script font. And the purpose of it all is to sell the product, which if it's brown liquid, right?
[4:40] Right? Like it comes in a bottle or a can. But the cool thing about a personal brand is that the thing that it's helping to sell is you, your expertise, your brain, your genius, your experience, your thoughts, your words, your ideas, your one in eight billion-ness, your love, your compassion. So I really love this topic of personal branding because it's like the intersection of art and science. It's like a crossroads between creativity and strategy, which is my favorite place to hang out. So this is why you need to start calling yourself a personal brand and identifying yourself as a personal brand and owning it and implementing it in your content, in your stories, in your posts, in your reels, in your emails, on your website. You need to identify and call yourself a personal brand. One, because it will make you stand out because if you're a coach or a service provider or a course creator, there's probably a large number of other people doing what you do. And so you can help yourself stand out by having a clear brand. You can also make yourself more recognizable when people see your content in their email inbox. When they see it come through their Instagram feed, they know instantly that it's you. The third reason that I love the most is that I think it's easier or faster master to attract or repel people.
[6:08] There are definitely people who, you know, mentors, coaches who I have followed before and I really resonate with some of the things that they teach, but their brand is so not like me. I'll explain more in just a minute that it's kind of like I feel weird following you because you and I are so different. On the contrary though, there are people who I follow and their personal brand is so similar to mine that it feels like, okay, we can hang out it together.
[6:33] We can hang out in the same room. We have a lot in common. So today I want to tell you about four non-negotiables for your personal brand that you either can begin implementing, or maybe you already have been implementing and you want to implement more deeply. So the first thing is that you need to get clear on your identity as a leader.
[6:54] If you are a personal brand, you don't have any products to hide behind. You don't have any offers to hide behind. It is you, girl. And you are our thought leader. You are our authority figure. You are someone worth listening to. You are someone who has something interesting to say. And so I hereby dub thee, again, officially qualified to be a leader in this space. We need you. you the women who are following you need your words need your empathy need your love need your thoughts and so i want to talk a little bit though about like what does it actually mean to be a leader because it's cool to be a thought leader cool to be a leader on instagram but like what does that even mean well when i think about it this way i think of a leader as someone who is moving people in a certain direction which is what we need to figure out what that direction is for you. So some questions. What does your brand stand for? What are some changes that you love to help people implement in their lives or in their businesses or in their families? What are some transformations that you love to help them create? What is your mission? What is something that you love to help people change in their lives?
[8:09] In my opinion, all of those things are things that you could qualify under movements that you are trying to create for the women in your audience. So some movements that I have had that I currently have and have had in the past is helping women grow businesses without killing themselves, without bringing themselves out, without neglecting their families or their fitness or their faith, that all of those things get to come along with you during the journey, even in the early days of building your business. Because we've all heard the stories of the startup guys and girls who, you know, like for For the first couple of years, we're sleeping in their offices. They had a mattress in their office. They slept for four hours. Then they got back on their computer. We've all heard those stories of the hustle. That can be a brand. But if you resonate with the way I teach, that probably doesn't resonate for you. And so what is the mission? Where are you trying to guide the people in your audience to? What result are you trying to help them create? What change are you trying to help them experience or transformation?
[9:11] Another question is, what's your unique selling proposition? What's something that you offer that's different than anyone else out there? So one example for me is that I am a coach and I love to help people with their mindsets like all coaches do. do, but I also have a lot of very valuable business experience under my belt. And randomly, all of my business experience happens to be in a lot of different areas. I have experience selling services like floral design. That was my very first business that I created that didn't hit six figures, but probably could have if I'd known what I was doing.
[9:43] My second business was my product business that hit six figures pretty quickly. And my third business was my Etsy seller our goldmine course and my fourth business is this one that you are currently listening to right now myself as a business coach as a mentor as a leader so what's your unique selling proposition if mine is that i have grown and built a wide variety of businesses and i have a lot of different experience i can speak to what's that for you what do you have unique random experience in And what's your zone of genius? So once we get clear on you really owning that you are a leader and that you were meant to be, I think that if you're listening to this episode, that resonates for you. Because I have coached people before who don't want to be a leader. They just want to sell products on Etsy and they're totally cool with that. And they're totally happy with that. And I'm happy for them. And I love that. And I think that's amazing. But if you're listening to this episode, it probably resonates to you that you want to to be identified as a leader and you want people to see you that way. So once you've really owned that desire, then we can play around with getting clear on where you want to take your audience.
[10:52] Again, I love talking about this personal brand stuff because everything comes back to the intention of creating trust and connection with people in your audience. That used to feel so hard in the older days. In the early days of business, I was just like, really? Can it really be that simple that people buy from you when they trust me and feel a connection to me? But now it's like, that's the place where I love to hang out. I love to serve people with my free content so deeply that they do feel like they can trust me and they see me be vulnerable and they see me be raw and they see me talk about the things that are really hard about business and they see me talk about the successes I'm creating for myself, for my clients. I think it's pretty easy actually to get people to trust you if you're willing
[11:37] to be vulnerable and authentic. And it's definitely probably easy for you to connect with people because I guarantee that you have other relationships in your lives that feel very easy to connect. I guarantee you you have other people in your lives that feel very easy to connect to. If you have a spouse, if you have children, if you have parents, if you have siblings, if you have cousins, if you have best girlfriends, it's probably really easy for you to connect with all of those people. And it's actually really not that different to create connections with people in your audience. For me, it looks like having lots of conversations. It looks like asking lots of questions. It looks like giving them opportunities to get into my world, to chat with me, either via DM or Voxer, get in my Zoom room.
[12:18] Lots of different ways that I can provide opportunities for people to connect with me. I also just love to pour very intentionally into the free content that I provide on Instagram, on my podcast, in the freebies. And.
[12:31] Workbooks and workshops that I create and offer to people, all of that is for the intention of genuinely serving and helping. And so it makes it really easy to feel like I can build authentic trust and connection with my audience. And hopefully it does for you too when you lean into it from that angle. So the second non-negotiable that I want to talk about is the vibe or basically the feeling that your content or your paid offers creates for people. So let's talk about some examples. If it's feeling hard for you to wrap your mind around the vibe, I don't know about you, but I love the feeling of going to Lululemon and buying a new pair of leggings. I honestly don't very often because I have so many now and I just collect them and wear them until they fall into shreds. But I love that feeling. And, you know, I don't even, I mean, I do think about the price point because we all know what the price point is, right? But like, it's not the reason I intentionally go buy a Lululemon pair of leggings because I want to have that little logo showing on my back, right? When I go to the gym. I mean, I genuinely do love the quality too, but I love the feeling when I pull them on every day. There is a lifestyle. There is an identity that I connect with every single time I pull on a pair of leggings. Same is true when I open my MacBook. I remember when I bought my first MacBook, book and like pulled it out of the box and was like, I am now awesome.
[13:59] Joking, but like you can create that kind of feeling for people in your free content and in your paid offers too. When they see you marketing your group coaching offer and they see you connecting it to this really aspirational, yummy, like just so good for the soul vibe, of course she's going to want to be there and be in that room. I want you to think about picking up a drink from your favorite drink place. That's my favorite pick-me-up. Whether it's a Diet Coke from So Delicious, that's my favorite drink place. All my Utah girls know what I'm talking about. I love the feeling of like.
[14:34] Going through the drive-thru. I usually have my sunglasses on. Usually sometimes my kids are in the car with me and we get a little cookie. And it's this whole experience, even though it's literally just a Diet Coke or whatever, right? But it's a feeling that I am after. There's an emotion that's connected to it for me that's very positive and happy and it feels good and it tastes good. And like the, again, we could talk about the branding of the drink places too, right? I also love to go get a hot chocolate from Starbucks. When I pick up my hot chocolate from Starbucks, I feel like yummy and cozy. And I feel like a little bit, I don't even know how to explain the vibe that I feel from Starbucks, but it's like, it feels elevated. It feels fancy. It feels a little bit luxurious because I just paid five bucks for a hot chocolate, right?
[15:19] I already think about the vibe of walking down downtown Disney. There's a very specific vibe, right? There's the sounds, the music, there's the smells, there's the people all around you. There's the visuals of, of you know whatever the scenery is that you're looking at another one that I thought of is I have a Patagonia coat that I bought like four years ago and it looks like it did the day that I bought it which is why I am now a huge fan of Patagonia but I remember when I bought it I don't think I'd ever spent that much money on an article of clothing for myself before and I really I'd always loved the brand Patagonia I'd never owned anything before and I've I remember going with Nate to like buy this coat. Winter was coming and I wanted it to be nice. I really wanted it to last for a long time. And I literally cried on our way out to the parking lot. One, because I felt like a tiny bit, I felt like this weird feeling of like, I don't deserve this.
[16:13] And Nate was very sweet and supported me through like, babe, this is not a big deal, but it was to me. And so I now have very attached emotions to the brand Patagonia and I love my coat and I still wear it basically every day in the winter. Other brands, Chick-fil-A, obviously you guys all know I love. Another super interesting one, I had a conversation with my husband Nate the other day about the brand of energy drinks.
[16:38] Neither of us are huge energy drinkers. I think I've drank like a third of two energy drinks that I like sipped off of Nate's in my entire life. But we had this conversation about like, there's a very specific vibe around all energy drinks. And I feel like when I see someone drinking them, it's like my brain instantly connects them to like tough, intense, super hardworking person. All the brands of energy drinks I can think of are like liquid death. And there's like blood dripping and black and dark green, right? It's like a very specific vibe. And honestly, like the vibe doesn't feel like it's for me. I was telling Nate, if they made like this cute little energy drink that was like bubblegum pink or like neon yellow, I would probably buy it and drink it and I would probably love it. But I feel so weird holding a monster. It's like, this is not me. So anyways, I digress. I want you to think about how you want the people in your community to feel. What vibe do you want them to get, like I said, from your content, from your paid offers, from the freebie that they download from you, from the podcast that they listen to, when you really can identify the feeling that you you want people to have,
[17:51] it will help you create that content with so much clarity. So let me give you a few examples that I've seen, especially in the coaching and service industry. So one is a.
[18:02] Who I would identify as authentic slash empathetic. Usually they're super relatable and sincere. They show understanding and concern for their audience. They connect with their audience on an emotional level. They're super connected to their needs and concerns. This one resonates for me. I definitely am an empathetic leader. Another vibe could be like playful slash witty slash funny. If you're someone who identifies as being super humorous or lighthearted and you like injecting all of that into your content, or you like talking about topics that are like witty analogies, creative metaphors, or even satire to talk about your offers, that might resonate for you.
[18:42] Another one is provocative, or maybe even a little bit rebellious. These are the leaders who I think of who are constantly challenging the status quo, sometimes in controversial ways. They like to spark debate. They like to have discussions. They like to question widely accepted norms and encourage us to think critically and maybe even sometimes disrupt some of the mainstream practices that we've all become used to.
[19:07] There are a handful of mentors who I followed at some point who I think of when I think of like provocative slash rebellious. And for whatever reason, all of them happened to be taking their brand photos and lingerie recently.
[19:22] And like, I don't want to talk down or like negatively about this at all, because I have no problem with people taking like owning their brand very specifically, but it's just so not me. Right. If you guys think about me having my photo shoot at lingerie, it's just like not a match. Right. If I ever did something like that, it would be as a joke. Absolutely. I would never do that. And like seriously post myself in lingerie photos. But like I said, no shade to those who do, because I think it's amazing when you own that that's your brand, the rebellious, the provocative one, the one who is challenging the status quo. But this is where I was talking before about how when you do lean into this really clearly, it can help. It can help attract people who get you and it can help repel people who don't get you, which is a really good thing. Because if you are someone who serves your clients on a really deep level and you want to serve a lot of them, you probably want those people to think similarly to the way that you do and to resonate for the way that you talk about things. And so I don't really find myself investing in programs from these ladies, although again, nothing against lingerie, but it's just like, I can just tell that our vibes are super different and that's totally cool. It just helps me know more clearly if we're going to get along or not. And that's a really good thing. Another one could be like a minimalist vibe where your approach is very simplistic.
[20:46] Your focus is on clarity, and you emphasize minimalism in your messaging and in your content, and you're able to make really complex ideas very digestible in a really clean, elegant way. I really admire people who have a minimalist aesthetic because I love to look
[21:05] at it. It's just not my aesthetic, right? Which leads me to non-negotiable number three. Let's talk about the aesthetics. Basically, the aesthetic is just the visual representation of the vibe and sometimes it's funny to me how this one gets like muddy in my brain sometimes, but it's like the whole point of the Instagram app that I use for 99.9% of my marketing, maybe not that much, let's say, let's say 85% because I do send a lot of emails that I use for so much of my marketing was designed to be a visual platform.
[21:39] And yet in my business experience, it's, it feels not that way anymore. And so I think that's the best way I can explain it is if you reposition the purpose of your content to be visual first instead of textual first, this will help clarify it. So if you think about your content from a visual first perspective, it will help you be a little bit more intentional about the colors that you pick, about the fonts that you pick, about the background images that you use. So I have found myself becoming friends with Pinterest again. I use Pinterest a lot in the last like six months, like a lot. And I would recommend it for you too. And I use Pinterest mostly to like, I create vibe boards or mood boards, which I'll talk about just a little bit here in a minute. But for every single one of my offers, I create a board where I collect images that capture the vibe that I want people who come into the program to experience and also the people who don't come in. I love creating that experience for people just as they're consuming my marketing, right? And so.
[22:42] You can actually create a collection of images that capture that feeling and then use it in your content. Use it in your posts. Use it as the background in your stories. Use it as B-roll for your reels. I also think that you can create an aesthetic with the words that you say too, because although they are words on the page that people are going to read, yes, there's actually an appearance of the words on the page, right? So like I said before, the colors of the words on the, the, let's just talk about Instagram stories super specifically, because this is where I find myself doing this most frequently, but the colors of the text on my Instagram stories, the font that I choose for my Instagram stories, but also what I choose to say on my Instagram stories and the link of the phrases. So something that I've been really playing with very intentionally recently is saying less, saying like super short phrases to try to capture what I mean and letting the picture speak more than the words or not saying anything or making the text super small or, you know, playing around with different ways of arranging the text so that the text is not the main focus. It's just like the supporting content and the image is the main focus, which is so different from the way that I used to market not that long ago, which was very text heavy, right? And so this just feels like so much more fun.
[24:02] It feels like this is how Instagram was supposed to be. And I love that it challenges my creativity to find new ways to capture what
[24:10] I'm trying to say without really saying that much.
[24:13] The fourth non-negotiable is you embodying your brand, basically walking the walk. When your personal brand is so uniquely you.
[24:26] The really cool advantage is that you basically create a business that is impossible to rip off. It is impossible to replicate. And I honestly don't even really think about people ripping off my business at all anymore. But maybe it's because I have a personal brand. Because I know they can't just like take photos of me and start marketing with my face places, right? Or they can't replicate the way that I say things. You could probably get pretty close to it. But it feels is really cool that genuinely my business is one in eight billion. There is no other business like it. There is no one else doing what I'm doing exactly the way that I do it for the purpose that I'm doing it. I also want you to think about with embodying your brand, what actions are you taking that don't currently align with your brand? So let me give you some examples. If you're listening to this podcast, it probably resonates for you that you want to be seen as an elite level level coach or service provider or educator. You want to be like the best of the best and you want people to talk about you behind your back and be like, okay, you've got to go follow so-and-so because she is so good at this and she's like a genius. You want people to say you've got to follow her content because she knows what she's talking about and she can really help you solve fill in the blank with whatever problem you solve. So if that's how you want to be seen, that's how you want to be talked about, a couple of questions.
[25:49] First, do your prices reflect the direction that you want to go and the type of clients that you want to serve? Or do they need to be elevated? Are the offers that you're creating, do they feel like elite level inside of you when you create them? Or do they feel like beginner level? No shame if they feel like beginner level. It's just good to know so you can know exactly what you want to play with next. If you you want to be seen as the number one social media manager or photographer or brand designer or website designer, some questions.
[26:19] Are you speaking as if you are already the number one in your content? I want you to claim your authority. I want you to like take the mic. I want you to talk to us like you're the only one that we should be hearing from right now. And if that doesn't feel like the way that you've been coming through in your content, maybe you feel like you've been leaning back a little bit or not being fully authentic or you feel a little bit shy about being the best of the best. Again, just really good to be aware of because that shows us exactly where we need to play with. Because if it feels not true to you that you're the best of the best, that shows me exactly where we need to play with your identity work. That shows me exactly where we can refine or play with or soften the self-doubt that you're feeling because you probably are the number one social media manager or brand designer or website designer or photographer. And so I'm just giving you permission to own it and start acting like it and talking like it. So let me give you some examples from my own brand and business. I want to have seven-figure years in my business. So if that's true, if I want to have a seven-figure business, what actions am I taking that don't currently align with that vision? A really interesting one that came through for me recently was that I should be networking a lot more.
[27:36] Networking is something that I've always kind of thought like, it's a nice to have, but it's not a need to have, which it doesn't really matter. But I do think that someone who is a seven-figure business owner is very well connected. So I started going to a lot more lunches recently. I go to a lot more networking events. I'm still very choosy about which events I go to. I'm very choosy about which mentors I choose to work with and which rooms I choose to put myself in and which rooms, which people I try to rub shoulders with. Another one is that I want to write a book someday. So if I want to be someone who writes books, then I should probably be writing like a lot. So I started implementing these morning pages that I learned from the Julia Cameron book, The Artist's Way. So basically every single day I am in my Google Doc. It's just like this long, eternal Google Doc that I actually started years ago. Writing, just typing, just getting words out of my head onto a piece of paper. Will I ever turn into a book? I don't know. What will the book be about? out. I'm not quite sure yet, but I know that I will have one one day. I want to speak on stages.
[28:37] If I want to be a speaker one day, then I should probably have a podcast so that I can have a place to practice developing my thoughts and turning them into cohesive presentations. That was actually the reason at the beginning why I chose to launch a podcast. I'm sharing this in case there's anyone listening who's been on the fence about having one or not. If you can see yourself being someone who who talks a lot and has important things to say on a wide variety of topics, then approaching that question from how can I be most on brand? How can I be most authentic to my brand, my personal brand? I think approaching that question can bring through unique, interesting answers because when you approach it that way, it's like, of course I should have a podcast. And of course I would publish weekly because I'm also a writer, right? If I want to have a program like The Greenhouse that has thousands of women in it, then I should probably pour into the ones who are already in there so deeply that the greenhouse, my lowest ticket offer, changes their lives. And I should probably do that in a very in-person way. Insert this networking night that I've been working on and creating that you've seen me talk about that I feel like I've talked about so much. But I'm hosting an in-person networking night in two weeks.
[29:54] And really, when I got super honest with myself and it was like, if I want to have thousands of women in the greenhouse, then hosting an event like this is something that I would do and it would not be a big deal. So I just think this is so interesting how using your brand, using the mission that you want to create, using the leader who you want to become can provide answers about what you could be doing right now so that you can more authentically embody your brand. And now all of a sudden I have a podcast and I'm writing and I am going to lunches frequently and I'm joining groups frequently and I'm hosting in-person events. And none of those things have been on my radar for the last couple of years. Have been very focused on creating content and creating offers. But it's like, I know that the things I've done won't get me to where I want to go. And so it feels really exciting that while I'm leaning into creating a seven-figure personal brand, there's these new ideas coming through about how to do that. And they're very intuitive and clear and they feel very aligned. So to summarize, let's recap the four non-negotiables for personal brands. One, get clear, get honest with yourself about your identity as a leader. Second, figure out what your vibe is or what vibe you want to give.
[31:12] Third, elevate your aesthetics to match the vibe. And fourth, embody your brand. Walk the walk. Be a leader in your content. Be a leader in the quiet moments when no one is watching you. Be a leader in your home, with your husband, with your kids. Be a leader in your church or community service and I love the idea of having cohesive branding.
[31:37] Across all of these roles and responsibilities even though no one's probably going to see your color palette especially people at your church they're not going to be like oh yeah yep those colors are totally on brand for her they're not going to see the colors not going to see the fonts but they can and will capture your brand because it is so authentically you that you can't separate it from any part of your life and you become a leader in every area of your life. In my program, The Greenhouse, I teach more tactics and strategies about how to actually create and implement a personal brand without needing to go out and hire a brand designer tomorrow that the ladies inside The Greenhouse are going crazy for. One of them that I talked about is creating a vibe board and using Pinterest to help you elevate your aesthetics and your vibes. So spoiler alert, The Greenhouse is going to be opening for enrollment at the end of August, the last week of August. So make sure to go put yourself on the wait list so that you're the first to know when doors open. All right, that's all I have for you tonight, my friends. I hope you have an amazing week and I will see you right back here next Wednesday.
[32:38] Hey, I hope you loved this week's episode. If you did, I know you would love to be a member of my community, The Greenhouse. It's where I teach you how to build an amazing, fruitful life while you build an amazing, fruitful business. It is a movement for women who want to unsubscribe from the traditional success path that says that life has to be a struggle and instead learn how how good making more money can get, how fun marketing can be, and how much joy and presence you're capable of feeling as a woman and as a mother. Find out more and join at kaylenpriest.com slash greenhouse. And I'll see you there.
[33:18] Music.
