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Branding for Business Success: Build a Memorable and Impactful Brand
In this episode, Dani discusses the importance of branding for business success, emphasizing that a brand is more than just a logo or visuals. She highlights the need for clarity, alignment, and authenticity in branding, and how personal experiences can shape a brand's message. Dani encourages listeners to identify their ideal clients and to share their unique stories to create a memorable impact. The conversation also touches on the strategic role of branding in sales and systems, urging entrepreneurs to be intentional in their branding efforts.
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Podcast created by Dani Louise Smith, the Queen of Business Organisation using Riverside and captivate.fm
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to this episode where we're talking branding for business success.
Speaker A:Because I want you to come away from this and build a memorable, memorable and impactful brand.
Speaker A:Now, I do realize that I have been talking for the last half hour and as I continue recording podcast episodes, I'm probably gonna start losing my voice because that is what happens.
Speaker A:Eight Drive me insane.
Speaker A:But it does.
Speaker A:I guess no one gives you this warning label that when you do these kind of things, when you do this kind of job, that you potentially, you're going to end up with laryngitis, you're going to lose your voice on a regular occasion.
Speaker A:Like, we know this happens to singers.
Speaker A:We know, we know that it does.
Speaker A:We know that they end up with throat infections because they're practicing.
Speaker A:Like they do more than us, right?
Speaker A:They do so much more than us.
Speaker A:But they, they sing a lot.
Speaker A:They have to do their vocal warm ups.
Speaker A:I don't really know because I don't know anything about that world, but we are a little bit one in the same because we talk a lot as a business coach, as a coach in general with our clients in whatever instance that may look like.
Speaker A:We go to networking events where I don't know about you, but I talk a lot, we record podcast episodes, we go live, we're talking all the time, just.
Speaker A:And it does have an impact on our voice.
Speaker A:But hey ho, we do what we do because we love it.
Speaker A:And I definitely do love it.
Speaker A:So today I want to talk to you about branding for business success, specifically building a memorable and impact, impactful brand.
Speaker A:Because if you're, if your brand is not memorable, then how is anyone going to remember to come to you?
Speaker A:How is anyone gonna know who, who you are, what you do, that you are the person to come to?
Speaker A:And this is so, so important.
Speaker A:So I want you to think about your brand as more than just a logo, as more than just the tagline, as more than just colors and shapes and those visuals.
Speaker A:Because it is so much more than that.
Speaker A:So, so, so much more than that.
Speaker A:So I want you to be mindful of that.
Speaker A:Think of your brand as a story, as a mission, as opinions, as thoughts that are unique to you and yours.
Speaker A:And when we, when it comes to building a brand, I think a lot of the time this part of the process gets missed.
Speaker A:And actually we need to spend some time working on this and doing this.
Speaker A:And this is something that in the past, as I fell into business, I didn't do, I didn't like, I didn't spend enough time on it.
Speaker A:It kind of came later on in the journey.
Speaker A:And I feel this happens for most of us because I don't think we actually wake up one day and just go, I'm gonna start a business.
Speaker A:Some of you might, and that's okay.
Speaker A:And so we then go and find, you know, a process.
Speaker A:We find out what we need to do for that, and we.
Speaker A:And we follow that.
Speaker A:But in other ways, we might fall into business by accident.
Speaker A:So when I did this, like, I'm set in the process of setting up my networking business.
Speaker A:And with doing that, I did this work.
Speaker A:I sat down and thought, you know, what do I want my brand to represent?
Speaker A:What's the mission?
Speaker A:What's the voice?
Speaker A:What's the story behind it?
Speaker A:And I did this work first, before I did anything.
Speaker A:And it's interesting what's happened, because as I am now marketing this and as I'm now getting this out there, all I've done is I've built a website that has got the services on there, and I'm doing a free networking week, and people can come to that and they can join it in.
Speaker A:There's 10 networking events for free.
Speaker A:If you want to check it out, I will link it in the show notes for you so you can go have a look at that business.
Speaker A:But basically what's happening is I've had so much feedback on this.
Speaker A:Like, I've had messages interested in leader positions as I'm hiring leaders, and they're like, can I have a conversation with this, with you about this?
Speaker A:I'm interested.
Speaker A:I've had calls about it, and it's interesting, the feedback I've had.
Speaker A:Like, people are saying you thought of everything.
Speaker A:Like, I don't have many questions because you thought of everything.
Speaker A:And this is because I knew in my heart what I wanted to do and I was in alignment with it.
Speaker A:So alignment is a massive part of your branding.
Speaker A:Definitely.
Speaker A:Like, the things you're saying, the message that you're putting out there, the.
Speaker A:The visual that you're putting out there, it's got to be right for you.
Speaker A:It's got to align with you first and foremost.
Speaker A:But I did that.
Speaker A:I had that, and then I sat down and actually did a marketing brief, filled it in.
Speaker A:Like, who's my ideal client?
Speaker A:Why is this different?
Speaker A:So the networking events, like, I really, really nailed my usp, what the story was, what we were all about.
Speaker A:And I worked on that first before, and I did anything.
Speaker A:The only thing I had done before was I paid for someone to do a logo design for me, told her What I wanted had the.
Speaker A:Had the colors.
Speaker A:I knew what colors I wanted to do.
Speaker A:Gave her that brief, and she nailed it.
Speaker A:I loved it, like, first time as well.
Speaker A:She nailed it.
Speaker A:Was Carly Murphy at Maybelle, also known as mom to be a.
Speaker A:Which is a business teaching Virginia mums to become VAs and start their own business.
Speaker A:So I, I got her to do that.
Speaker A:And I loved it, absolutely fell in love with it.
Speaker A:And other than that, I'd done nothing.
Speaker A:And it's so, so important to start there and nail this thing, because if you nail this and it's all about having clarity, it's everything you need to leave with clarity and intention and follow your gut and your alignment, have that, follow your intuition, have that alignment, have clarity.
Speaker A:Then oops, just knocked me mic over.
Speaker A:And then, then take the action.
Speaker A:So really important to do that.
Speaker A:So what you can do is spend some time, sit with that first before you take any action.
Speaker A:And I do get it.
Speaker A:I do get the excitement of just wanting to go and do the thing.
Speaker A:I completely understand that.
Speaker A:And I understand that this takes time as well.
Speaker A:But I guarantee that if you spend the time sitting with this and doing this, it's going to be well worth it.
Speaker A:Because the results, the outcome that you get in the end of spending yourself, spending that time with yourself, asking the questions about your brand, like, what you stand for, who is this for?
Speaker A:Like, who do you want to work with?
Speaker A:What's your mission?
Speaker A:What's your brand story?
Speaker A:They're just some basics, like what's unique about you as well.
Speaker A:Spending some time and answering those questions, finding the clarity within you.
Speaker A:Because if you've got the clarity, then you can put that into your content, have that message out there on your website, on your blogs, on your podcast, wherever it needs to go.
Speaker A:And so what will happen is, is other people be clear about what you're about as well.
Speaker A:They will understand that.
Speaker A:They'll get that.
Speaker A:They'll start seeing that message.
Speaker A:So you can share it with the word world and you can make that impact.
Speaker A:It makes a huge difference.
Speaker A:So in saying that, like, go spend some time on your branding, like, even if you've done this work before, it always pays off to revisit it.
Speaker A:Are you due a brand?
Speaker A:Revisit a brand.
Speaker A:Glow up.
Speaker A:I need to stop knocking my mic.
Speaker A:I'm terrible because I can't sit still.
Speaker A:So, yeah, do you need a brand?
Speaker A:Glow up.
Speaker A:Go and look at that.
Speaker A:And it is something I do or have done again and again and again as my business grows.
Speaker A:Like, if you've Seen me from the beginning.
Speaker A:You will see.
Speaker A:You'll have seen this.
Speaker A:My colors have changed slightly as I've kind of up leveled.
Speaker A:My content has massively changed as I've up leveled.
Speaker A: I hired this year, I started: Speaker A:I have them for 12 hours this year.
Speaker A:So Becky at Barrel of Photos, I have her a session every month for an hour.
Speaker A:And Zoe at Zoe Kendall creative, I have 12 hours and I can just use them throughout the year.
Speaker A:So we are about to do our first session in a week.
Speaker A:Can't wait for that.
Speaker A:And we're doing it over two hours and I'll probably take a few hours everything every few months because we get loads of content and so I up leveled with that.
Speaker A:So when I did that up level, my colors changed slightly and my message has changed a lot.
Speaker A:This is because I checked in with myself, like who do I actually want to be speaking to?
Speaker A:And the more you do this work as well, the more you do find your niche down you more you find like as you've been practicing your business, you get to connect with the people who you really want to connect with.
Speaker A:And you think, I want more of that.
Speaker A:This is where the whole idea of the dreamy clients come in.
Speaker A:Because you think, you know, I love working with this kind of person.
Speaker A:I want to help more of that person.
Speaker A:And this is exactly what happened for me.
Speaker A:I realized in the past six months that I want to work with more mums, more women that are like me that have this chaotic circumstances, this challenging circumstances in their life, but they want to create a life that's extraordinary regardless.
Speaker A:So we like.
Speaker A:For example, I can't change the fact that my son is, is autistic.
Speaker A:He's recently been diagnosed potentially.
Speaker A:My oldest is autistic and has ADHD myself.
Speaker A:And my husband's about to do his assessment tomorrow.
Speaker A:And so we.
Speaker A:I can't change any of that.
Speaker A:I can't change that my husband has disabilities.
Speaker A:I can't change the struggles that we face on a daily basis.
Speaker A:We know and we expect that my son's going to refuse to go into school.
Speaker A:He's going to have meltdowns, he might get sent home from school, he gets excluded.
Speaker A:Most recent one was a suspension, which was a shock, but it happened.
Speaker A:And I can't change that.
Speaker A:It's not within my control, within reason because I am always doing work on that to help my family and to help myself.
Speaker A:Like even my health.
Speaker A:Like some things we can change.
Speaker A:And so we do focus on things we can change and do something about it.
Speaker A:Such as my health, such as supporting my family.
Speaker A:After many things, more than most, I believe parent courses.
Speaker A:I've worked with a parent coach, I've worked with Senko, I've worked with the local cluster.
Speaker A:I've done all of these things to help my family.
Speaker A:And I truly believe that at the forefront of that, like that has been a journey I needed to go on to actually connect with.
Speaker A:Why am I doing this?
Speaker A:Like, who do I want to help?
Speaker A:I actually want to help other women like me because I might not have it easy, but actually have it easier than most because of my unique ability to be organized, to be prepared, and the marketing and business skills that I have that others necessarily don't have or maybe they don't take in as easy.
Speaker A:I'm obsessed with business.
Speaker A:And when you, when you're obsessed with something, as a neurodiverse person, you remember the things that you enjoy, you remember what you're obsessed with.
Speaker A:Anything else just, it's filtered through, it just trickles away.
Speaker A:Goodbye, see you later.
Speaker A:And that's exactly what happens to me too.
Speaker A:When it comes to things like cooking or what do I enjoy, what do I really not enjoy?
Speaker A:Football, sports, not got a clue.
Speaker A:But when it comes to things like business, I, I focus on it.
Speaker A:I love it, I want to do it all the time.
Speaker A:And so obviously it is a detrimental sometimes, but I love it and so I hold on to that.
Speaker A:And some people may not be interested in business in terms of like the actual aspects of it, the market and the branding, the messaging, but they know they need it.
Speaker A:Then you know, you need a strategy, you know you need to make money, you need to make sales, you need to sign more clients.
Speaker A:So you come to someone like me who can support you with that.
Speaker A:But this journey has shown me exactly who I want to work with and who I want to help.
Speaker A:So it's really interesting.
Speaker A:So, so think about that as well with your own branding and nailing that.
Speaker A:Think about who it is you want to connect with and think about the journey that you've had so far, obviously in relation to what you sell.
Speaker A:So if I was selling a health related product, I think about my own journey with my health and how that brings me to want to connect with people like me if I want to.
Speaker A:Sometimes you don't want to and that's okay too.
Speaker A:But I'd think about because of that, who I want to work with.
Speaker A:Because actually that part, your story, it becomes the reason you make an impact, it becomes memorable.
Speaker A:It Becomes the reason that people connect with you over anyone else.
Speaker A:So I want you to think about that as well in terms of what you do, in terms of how you become memorable and how you impact people, people with your brand, other ways we can do this.
Speaker A:I definitely say, be authentic.
Speaker A:Be yourself.
Speaker A:Don't be afraid to share your opinions.
Speaker A:Don't be afraid to share your thoughts.
Speaker A:This was.
Speaker A:This is something that after nearly 11 years in business, this year, you'd have thought comes naturally.
Speaker A:Like, people see me all the time.
Speaker A:I think, oh, my God, she's super confident.
Speaker A:But I'm gonna let you into a little secret.
Speaker A:Like, I am not always confident.
Speaker A:There's still things that have to do that push me out my comfort zone.
Speaker A:They're just on a completely different level to when I was starting out.
Speaker A:When I was starting out, it was going live on social media.
Speaker A:Hated it.
Speaker A:Now I love it.
Speaker A:These days, it's paying six grand for a venue for an event, which makes me go, ah, because I needed.
Speaker A:I needed 50 of the invoice up front.
Speaker A:I did barter and say, can I pay 25?
Speaker A:And I got that.
Speaker A:Like, you don't ask, you don't get.
Speaker A:So never be afraid to ask.
Speaker A:Have the confidence, have the courage to ask for what you want and to put that out there in business.
Speaker A:Like, when it comes to something like paying for an event, but also when it comes to producing content.
Speaker A:When it comes to marketing and putting your brand out there for awareness, have the confidence, have the courage to say what you want to say, to ask what you want to ask, and to connect with the people that you want to connect with, because this will have you be memorable.
Speaker A:And sometimes it's in a positive way.
Speaker A:Sometimes it's not.
Speaker A:The reason I've been scared to do this is because their opinions that I'll happily share with my parents, my sisters, my best friends, or my husband or my children.
Speaker A:But to share them with anyone outside of our circle feels a bit scary.
Speaker A:Because I'm always like, what if people judge me?
Speaker A:What if someone disagrees?
Speaker A:But the thing is, not everybody's gonna like what you're saying.
Speaker A:There will be someone that disagrees.
Speaker A:But if you've worked on building a community of people that are cheerleading you, that are raising you up as I have done, then it's.
Speaker A:It's less likely that those people are going to disagree.
Speaker A:Or they might disagree.
Speaker A:They just might not say it because they know that lots of people would advocate for you.
Speaker A:So you are kind of safe in that.
Speaker A:If you've built a community however, in doing that, we have to say things that rock the boat sometimes.
Speaker A:Anyway, so my thing that I was scared to say, my voice is going, there we go.
Speaker A:The thing that I was scared to say was that we should strive for more than what the government can give us.
Speaker A:And this came from a realization over the last few years, but I've only just started talking about it, was that it's easy to play small.
Speaker A:I remember being sat in a room.
Speaker A:I went to a mastermind day with another coach and in the room, one of the girls at that table burst out into tears because she realized that she was on benefits.
Speaker A:And while she was on her benefits, there was no push for her to earn more, to do more.
Speaker A:And this is why she stayed stuck, because she had a safety net.
Speaker A:And I guarantee if you take away that safety net, you will go so much further forward because you've got no choice.
Speaker A:And this is true.
Speaker A: ct thing happen to me back in: Speaker A:My daughter was six months old.
Speaker A:Six months previous to that, we had lost everything.
Speaker A:Like, we'd had to live off our savings because we lost any benefits we were on.
Speaker A:I wasn't in work, I just had the business.
Speaker A:Not even this business, it was my old business.
Speaker A:And at the that point, I was making no money.
Speaker A:I'd been in this game for years and I was like, I'm not, I'm not making any money.
Speaker A:My husband, Pip, got taken off of him.
Speaker A:We lost carers allowance.
Speaker A:We lost everything overnight, pretty much.
Speaker A:You was horrendous.
Speaker A:It was awful.
Speaker A:One of the most stressful years of our life.
Speaker A:And that was before we hit lockdown.
Speaker A:And so when that happened, I ended up applying for a job because I no longer had a safety net.
Speaker A:So I had to take action.
Speaker A:And I applied for this job, ended up working within the nhs, but also because of that shock to the system, I started working on my business.
Speaker A: And lo and behold, in: Speaker A:Lockdown was like a make a break, depending on, on what business you had and how you tackled that.
Speaker A:But I just went out there and talked about what I was doing.
Speaker A:I shared, I created that brand awareness, I shared my mission.
Speaker A:In fact, what it was was it was the brand message.
Speaker A:What made me memorable and what built a connection and it created an impact was I shared that I wanted to help people who couldn't be with their loved ones connect with them.
Speaker A:By making these keepsakes, people were losing family members or people were unable to see family members and these keeps, it, keepsakes were massively, massively beneficial to them.
Speaker A:And I did have to have like some kind of process to keep things safe because of social distancing and I did all that.
Speaker A:But it was a game changer and my business blew up in a matter of months.
Speaker A: Christmas: Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I was fully booked months in advance and that created a whole new problem, which is for another episode.
Speaker A:And then I started this business.
Speaker A:I wanted to teach people what I'd done and part of that was my brand message, it was my story and sharing that I was a mum working from home, working whilst working alongside the nhs, that I completely understood that people were alone, that I was still going out to work every day.
Speaker A:And I knew that people wanted to connect with each other, I knew that people wanted to capture these memories and I shared that and, and it hit home with people, it created an impact.
Speaker A:So you definitely want to be telling stories, you want to be sharing your journey, you want to create that community, create that impact and connect with people to succeed in your business.
Speaker A:Because that is what branding is all about.
Speaker A:It's having that message, that strong message that communicate with people so that they can remember who you are.
Speaker A:They've got to have an awareness of your brand.
Speaker A:You've got to build the desire in people to do something.
Speaker A:So how can your business do that?
Speaker A:I'd love you to come away from this episode thinking about that.
Speaker A:So my final thoughts around strategy, sales and systems, some branding for your strategy.
Speaker A:I'm going to say that branding strategically comes into everything that you do, every action you take.
Speaker A:Because when you're writing an email, writing a social media post, when you're talking at a networking event, when you're speaking as a guest speaker somewhere, when you're on a podcast, wherever you are, the strategic part of branding is remembering your actual brand and sharing your story.
Speaker A:Remember your brand message, be memorable, be impactful.
Speaker A:In terms of sales, again, it comes into sales.
Speaker A:It's all about communicating your message, your story and having that impact on people.
Speaker A:So do that to sell as well.
Speaker A:You can literally share a story about from point A to point B.
Speaker A:This is where I were, this is where I am now.
Speaker A:And then call to action, if you want this, come and work with me.
Speaker A:It's as simple as that.
Speaker A:It gets to me.
Speaker A:As simple as that.
Speaker A:And then finally, branding in terms of systems, the systems that I would recommend you have for your branding is definitely have a marketing brief.
Speaker A:I teach this within my foundations program and within organize and optimize so definitely have a marketing brief.
Speaker A:Definitely have.
Speaker A:I have a document that I've called Marketing Messaging and I've sat and mapped out like it's pretty much just who I am, what I do and who it's for.
Speaker A:But then I took that one step further and I mapped out like my primary message, my secondary messaging and my tertiary messaging.
Speaker A:Definitely spend some time working on those.
Speaker A:And again, I created a document and I teach this these in my programs.
Speaker A:But definitely that's a system I've had that is massively effective.
Speaker A:And the moment I created that and started implementing that, started making more money, I started getting more sales.
Speaker A:So that's a system that I definitely recommend that you have in place.
Speaker A:So if you want to get your hands on that, you know what to do, come and speak to me and I'll sort you.
Speaker A:I'll sort you out.
Speaker A:I'll sort you out.
Speaker A:So yeah, there you go.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's what I want you to think about.
Speaker A:I want you to think about all of that.
Speaker A:When it comes to building and starting and growing a successful brand business, whatever it is that you're building, be memorable and be impactful.
Speaker A:Remember, please to Follow Subscribe Rate the show, share it with anyone that you feel would benefit because I would be massively, massively grateful.
Speaker A:And I'll true you truly, truly, truly appreciate it.
Speaker A:And I'll see you in the next episode.
