Why Brand Follows You Everywhere

Why A Logo Is Not A Brand

The Real Definition Of Brand

Trust Is Built In Daily Moments

Define It On Purpose And Align

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Well, hello, this is Kimberly. It's episode 343, and I'm so glad you are here today because we're talking about the big question. What actually is your brand? Have you thought about it? And do you realize that you actually want to be building a brand and not just a business like a drive-thru business where people get something once and they're gone? You want a brand that has loyal customers, that has raving fans, and that people want to give you money for what you offer, right? But you can't do that if you don't actually build a solid brand. So we're going to talk about it. We're talking about the misconceptions, and we're going to talk about what your brand really is. So you can get out there and conquer the world with your awesome business. If you are new here, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's going to help you along your business journey or maybe your podcasting journey as well, whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, there's episodes and information here to help you. I've got all kinds of help too on my website, Kimberleybrock.com, steps for starting your business, things to think through if you want a profitable podcast and all that kind of stuff. So make sure you check it out. Links are down below. And if you've been listening a while, make sure, if you can, please, you rate this podcast. You can hit five stars and give it a five star rating. And also leave a written review if you never have. Here's why written reviews are important. Number one, I see them and I read every single one of them, and they make me so happy. They're a small favor that you can do for me for producing this podcast for you. All I want to know is that what I'm sharing is actually helping you. So when you give it a rating, it helps the rankings and people that Apple and Spotify show this podcast to because it will show it to more people like us who just want to make money doing what we love. So that is much appreciated. Okay, well, that's it. On to the episode. Today's conversation is really important. And if you are in the middle of building your business right now, like you're trying to grow it or your podcast, or maybe you're even thinking about building a business or a podcast, know that your brand is one of the most important things that you have. It is everything that it's going to follow you. And you can create a bad brand image, and people won't buy. I want to help you build a brand that is built around your values and is intentional. It's what you want it to be so that you can build that loyal fan base and have people referring you to other people and you have business just coming in, and people just are loyal and keep coming back, and it makes all your marketing easy. It makes your life so much easier, so much less stressful because you've got a solid brand to rely on, right? It's just like, think about it. Did you ever date somebody in high school and they didn't really have the best image? And you were scared to tell your parents that you were going to go on a date with this person because you knew the image wasn't exactly pristine, or maybe you were just gonna go hang out with them. This person was your friend, but didn't have a good image, right? Brand is part of it. You have to think about this. And in today's world, especially, you're actually building a personal brand as well, because maybe you have this business for a while and you expand it or you sell it and you go into something else or you pivot. Your brand will follow you. Like the brand of you and everything that you offered will follow you. It's just like if you're in the corporate world and you have a job, right? Your reputation and your brand follows you. If someone wants to is looking to hire somebody and your friend recommends you, your brand is following you, right? You you do have to kind of prove your brand again when you get rehired by another company, but your brand is all also always following you. And it's the same with your business. So let's talk about this. So, first here, let's talk about what a brand is not. Okay. Now, oftentimes I will find new business owners get started and they will spend thousands and thousands on a logo, okay, and maybe a tagline. And I do think those are great, but they are actually supporting a brand that has already been established. And if you're doing the logo first and the tagline first, it's hard because what are you basing that on, right? Do you really have a full brand strategy? Do you already have proof of what you're doing? Or do you know specifically the intention of your business and the branding of you and how you come off? I think it's hard. I think it's hard right away to do a brand like a logo, like a like a graphics brand, like all your visual brand, right? That's what I'd like to think. Like when you hire a logo designer or someone like that, I think we need a basic logo when we start. We need something to get started. And I think you should give it due diligence in the beginning. But I'm going to say this, especially if you're brand new, spending an exorbitant amount of money on that right in the beginning, right before you even start your business is not the best investment of your money and your time right now. What I would say is try to make something on Canva or try to get someone you know to help you to get something basic. Unless, okay, there is a caveat. If you have a luxury brand, a high-end brand, and you really need a professional brand, I would come out of the gate. If you're building a store, a physical storefront, I would have really good branding, right? But for a lot of you that have online businesses, I think honestly, you can get away with something right now that's not tens of thousands of dollars. And then I think as you build your brand, even within that year, you can probably then move on to getting a really good visual brand of everything. Okay. So when I started my business here, 2019, I did pay someone to help me with my website, kind of figure out my general brand strategy and a logo. And it was very simple. It still cost a little bit, but it was nice because she was building out my website and doing out my stuff. And I was very happy to spend that money. Since then, in fact, recently I'm working with a branding company and I'm spending more to just really look at my brand strategy and give me some more graphics and things that I need. We're kind of tweaking my colors, and I love it. It's kind of like when you get a new outfit or a haircut or a bed spread, like it's aligning everything with the visual look, right? Everything that I've stood for, everything in my brand, all the reviews of what people have said about me, all the visions that I have for how I want to help people, all that is coming together for that brand strategy. And voila, you will have the visual brand. Okay. So it warrants this right now for me. Like I could have done this years ago as well, even though I did do it in 2019. I could have really focused more on that, but I didn't. I was trying to build my business, build my podcast, right? Because I know that the real brand of my business is not all those visual things. I've got to have a solid, solid brand strategy, reputation, and vision for what I'm doing, right? Okay. So your brand is not your visual brand. I know we want to think it's our fonts and our colors and our Instagram grid, right? To make sure that it all looks pristine. I think that's all good. And I do. I think that's great. Have colors you like, have fonts you like, have an Instagram grid, but realize that your character and other things are what are building your brand. This isn't actually your brand. This is important, but it's not actually your brand, right? And your brand is not um, you know, just like a tagline. I think a tagline is important. I love taglines. I tell people all the time, you're just getting started. Like I sign notes like that to people, like you're just getting started, my friend, because obviously the play on my podcast, which is she's just getting started, right? But that is part of my brand, but that is not actually my brand. Like I could change my logo, I could change my colors, I could change all of that. It's not really going to affect my brand. So that's what I want you to realize, right? I mean, you could it could be our argued that it does. It affects the aesthetics of what I have, but actually the reputation, the real core of what a brand is, is not going to change because I change my logo. Because I changed my logo, I'm all of a sudden soon not gonna get a million more dollars in sales. Okay. It's the truth. I'm not. Now, it may help me to show up confidently and to portray a better message. And maybe then I can make more money, but it's not because I did that, right? So let's move into this now. What is a brand actually? Okay. And I think Jeff Bezos said it best. Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. That is your brand. So see why I said if I change my logo or my colors, it's not really gonna affect what people say about you, right? Or say about me, right? Your brand is what people feel when they're around you, when you help them, when you interact with them, when they see a video of you, when they meet you in person, when they hear you on a podcast. And yes, your website will give them that feel, the colors, the tone, the photos. So visual brand is important, but that's just like the first thing, right? You go to buy something, we all know there's a lot of scams on the internet and they can have the coolest website ever. But we check out and we realize the product never shipped. It was all a big scam. Like my son bought something for some equipment that he had for like fence staining or power washing. And he ordered the part on some other website that was cheaper than Amazon or wherever. And right at the end, it said, Thank you for your order. Um, the overnight shipping will be$500 or something like that. And he like completely freaked out. It was like$500? What is this scam place? And had to freeze his credit card, try to get the order canceled. It was like a huge mess, right? But it looked reliable. So looks can be deceiving, and no one anymore trusts anything online, right? They trust actual interaction with you, the way you talk to them, how you respond to them, how you write an email, how you write on Instagram, how you deliver the product. Does your product live up to the claims? Does your service live up to the claim? When something goes wrong, do you fix it or do you not fix it? Do you go A-WOL? That is your brand. Is this making more sense as I'm talking through this? That that is actually your brand. It's your character. Again, let's go back to dating or friend groups, right? Some friend groups are brand, or some friend groups or boyfriends or girlfriends, don't have the best reputation. Their brand is actually not great, right? And I think we'd all prefer to be affiliated with people that have a good like brand. And everyone now has a personal brand. You have to face it. Okay. So we know what a brand isn't. It isn't just your fonts and your colors and your logo and your tagline, right? And a great website. Because even if you change that, you can still be getting business. It doesn't affect how people think of you. That is what your brand actually is. Is people talking about you, sharing you with other people, wanting to keep buying from you. That is your brand. Okay. What do they say to people about you? And if if you're listening carefully, you realize that you may not have had direct control over what people say about you. Now, you did have control with how you dealt with your customers, how you, you know, shipped your product or how you offered your product or service, how polite you were, how responsive you were. That's actually the brand part that you have control of. And then what I would say is you do have control of how you make people feel visually. So now, after you're helping people and you're intentionally creating this brand, you have social proof, you have reviews, you can see now what your brand is. I think a lot of times from at the very beginning, it's hard to know what your brand actually is. So, what do you do? You go forward. You just start, you put your best foot forward right now, you get a logo. Maybe it's someone on Fiverr or Upwork or a friend that you know, or you can do it on Canva or whatever. And or you can hire someone, get if you pay somebody to do it. I just wouldn't go all out in the very beginning unless you have a very, very, very clear vision right away before you even start. You have a literal vision in your mind and you want it to look like Tiffany's or Nordstrom or something like that. Like you already know and you can hire someone to build that out. For most people that have come to me starting their business, I usually say, let's get a good logo, let's get something decent. Don't spend 10 or 20 grand on it yet. Like wait until you want to really build out your brand when you get social proof, when your business is going and you can invest more. I did that with mine right here. Right? Right. So you can do that. So remember, your brand is how you show up every day. Your values, whether you name them or not, people are going to know your consistency, your story, everything about you, what you believe in, that is your brand. And your character, I would say, is the number one thing. Do you follow through? Are you honest? Do you right the wrongs, right? Do you, if something goes bad, do you own up to it? That is your brand. Did this kind of open your eyes? That it's not just these things that we try to like put forth, like with our logo and our fonts. I think these are all important and I cannot wait until I get my new ones here over the next weeks. But realizing when especially when you're in the beginning of your business, that your brand is what you are intentionally building with your character. So be purposeful. Be intentional. Think about every interaction that you're having with people. Think about how you talk to them, your manners, everything, and your follow-through on everything. Y'all, this is your brand. It's what people say when you're not around. What would they say if they knew you were about to walk in the room and someone who'd done business with you and they're like, oh, so-and-so showing up? Uh, and they're talking about you. And they say, for example, if you're a female, she's super nice, she's hilarious, and she does a fantastic job at home decorating. She's awesome. She's reasonably priced, yet she does a really good job. That is your brand. Right? You didn't tell them to say that, but your character and everything before caused them to say that. Does that make sense? So, everybody today, I want you to sit with what your brand is now or what you want it to be. Like, really sit with it for a minute. If you need to write it down in a journal, like what is your brand? If you don't know, ask a past client. If you don't know, and like you're just starting a business and ask someone, tell me about what you think of my personal brand with this business and what I would represent, right? Because some people are serious, some people are casual, some people are this, some people believe in that, right? And we don't want to get into politics and all the stuff like that, but definitely sharing your values is a great thing, right? So how do you want them to feel? How do you want them to feel? And when you do get your visual brand going, your logo, your colors, your content, all your stuff, is it aligning with how you want people to feel? You've just you've got to do the strategy work before you can do all the logos and colors and all that stuff, I believe, in the beginning of your business. You really got to be digging into that. So if you feel that your brand is muddy or inconsistent or it's just not connecting, go back to that. Go back to that question. What would people say when I'm not around? What is my brand? What have I been intentionally doing? And if you need help looking at like, what's going to be my strategy for my business? Like, kind of how am I going to position myself and how do I see myself? And you need help with this. I do offer one-on-one coaching. I do power hours, and I can really look at everything that you're doing, everything you represent and all of that, and really help you craft that and look at how you want to position your brand and how you want to be seen, because you can only control so much, but what you can control, you need to control how you talk to people, what you do, all that good stuff. And then what people say about you is going to be the proof that's in the pudding. It's going to be is that exactly what you set out to do? And my hope is that it is because you're living up to that and you're creating everything in alignment. So I hope that makes sense. I'm so proud of you. I'm so in awe of you that you're doing this and moving forward with your dream. I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. So that's it. Y'all have a great day.

Closing And Where To Go Next

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Until next time. Bye. Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this a lot. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.