Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Building an Iconic Brand with Brandi Mitchell

Transcript

Building an Iconic Brand with Brandi Mitchell · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  And so for a lot of us, especially people that are hard workers, we're so busy in the work
• 0:05
  that we're like, oh, I don't want to shine.
• 0:07
  I'm just busy.
• 0:08
  I just wanna do the work, but you don't realize that your voice is the exact voice that needs
• 0:13
  to come forward.
• 0:14
  Like, we need your voice.
• 0:16
  We need your expertise, your sensibility.
• 0:19
  We don't need the copy and pasters.
• 0:21
  We need the people.
• 0:23
  Who are legitimately, they have skin in the game, and they are really here on a mission to
• 0:29
  do exactly what they said that they're gonna
• 0:31
  do.
• 0:33
  3210 ignition.
• 0:36
  Lift off Ending small business failure.
• 0:43
  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number one small business spurt, Melinda
• 0:49
  Emerson.
• 0:50
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:54
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 0:58
  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
• 1:05
  Hi, everyone.
• 1:06
  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
• 1:08
  America's number one small business expert, and I'm excited to welcome you to another edition
• 1:14
  of the small biz chat podcast.
• 1:17
  We have an amazing show in store for you today.
• 1:20
  And if you wanna know how to build an iconic brand.
• 1:25
  I have the brand producer in the house, and she is gonna give us her insights and system on how
• 1:32
  to go about building an iconic brand if you are an expert.
• 1:37
  And, you know, a lot of people throw around this term branding, but we are gonna talk about
• 1:42
  If you are an expert, if you are a coach and you want to build a powerful brand, we're gonna
• 1:48
  talk about exactly how to do that.
• 1:51
  Now here on the small bizstep podcast, our mission is to end small business failure.
• 1:57
  We are a peer to peer mentorship And we bring in expert from different angles to give you
• 2:03
  advice.
• 2:03
  And the goal is always to help you take your business to the next level.
• 2:09
  Now the small biz chat podcast can be seen on my small biz lady Facebook page and it can also
• 2:15
  be seen on my small business lady YouTube channel.
• 2:18
  So if you're watching us, please leave a comment please subscribe to my channel and, of
• 2:24
  course, share it with others so that other people can get the benefit of all of this
• 2:29
  expertise that right now you do not have to pay for.
• 2:33
  So with that, I am so excited to introduce today's guest Her name is Brandy Mitchell, and
• 2:39
  she is known as the brand producer for her creative ability to fuse entertainment, getting
• 2:45
  inspiration and storytelling into a bankable brand as president of Carol's media She is the
• 2:53
  secret sauce that the nation's top 2 percent of experts, entrepreneurs, consultants, and
• 2:57
  coaches choose when they're looking to build an iconic brand up level their positioning and
• 3:03
  build powerful packaging that elevates their visibility.
• 3:07
  She is the founder of the producer owned brand method a four time author and filmmaker.
• 3:12
  For more information, you can head over to brandymitchall.com.
• 3:17
  Brandy, welcome to the small business chat podcast.
• 3:21
  Thank you for having me.
• 3:23
  Oh my gosh.
• 3:23
  I've known you for forever, but other people don't know you.
• 3:26
  So I wanna hear your backstory.
• 3:30
  How did you get started in business?
• 3:33
  You know, so I started off.
• 3:35
  I spent about 22 years as a celebrity makeup and hair artist, and my job was to groom and
• 3:41
  protect the the visual brands of, you know, the top top, actors and singers and performers.
• 3:50
  And I found something very interesting in that and being in that sacred space that it was so
• 3:55
  it was such a curated experience why we fell in love with them.
• 4:00
  Right?
• 4:00
  And so as I started progressing through, and and I started evolving, I think, as a business
• 4:07
  person, I started having more of a desire to, 1st of all, make my own brand.
• 4:14
  So I started writing books.
• 4:16
  And in the process of doing that, I entered into the personal development space.
• 4:21
  My son at the time was young, and and traveling and touring.
• 4:25
  And even though Beyonce was beautiful, that whole tour light did not match up with my young
• 4:32
  son at the time.
• 4:33
  So I transitioned into personal development, and I started taking people who I felt, I
• 4:38
  called them my everyday celebrities.
• 4:40
  I would take the the the nation's top speakers and and consultants, and I would make them the
• 4:45
  celebrity of their industry, meaning that I would help them have a very, you know, resolute
• 4:51
  cohesive brand.
• 4:52
  So it started off with the, you know, visual branding, and it morphed into, okay, well, what
• 4:58
  else do they need?
• 4:59
  Because in the process, what I was doing was I was producing photo shoots.
• 5:03
  I was facilitating their websites and I was doing all these things that started becoming
• 5:08
  this kind of 360 degree, producing experience, which is how I started being named the brand
• 5:16
  producer because that was the closest thing that I could say that I was doing.
• 5:20
  I was telling the story of these people's brands.
• 5:23
  And I was doing it in a way that it would uplevel them and and really give them a a very
• 5:30
  strong brand.
• 5:30
  So that's basically how the brand producer and what I do now came into being.
• 5:36
  So, you know, how did you narrow down that of sort of like the coaches, consultants, you
• 5:43
  know, subject matter expert people that wanted I mean, because this was pre Instagram, right?
• 5:48
  This was before everybody was friend me, follow me.
• 5:51
  Right?
• 5:51
  You know?
• 5:52
  So how did you decide that that that was the niche you wanted to pursue?
• 5:57
  It's interesting because I didn't really go out.
• 6:00
  I didn't seek it out.
• 6:01
  What happened was I wrote a book and I had self published a book.
• 6:06
  And I was working with talent on this show.
• 6:09
  They were they were all the subject matter experts.
• 6:11
  Right?
• 6:12
  And they were they were like, kinda giving me this coaching on what I had to do to really
• 6:17
  kinda shine seeing that I was publishing in myself.
• 6:20
  So I kinda made my my way into that industry.
• 6:25
  And when I came into that industry, interesting enough, the the title of the book was about
• 6:31
  blended families.
• 6:32
  Right?
• 6:32
  So it had nothing to do with beauty.
• 6:34
  When I got into, speaking, however, people kept going back over to the whole image and beauty.
• 6:43
  Like, they would not let go of it.
• 6:44
  And so I thought okay, why don't I just kinda combine the two worlds together?
• 6:48
  And I I wish I could say it was a strategic plan.
• 6:51
  It wasn't, but it was about I saw myself entering that world.
• 6:55
  And once I got into that world, I realized, like, we are the people that have to represent
• 6:59
  our brand 247.
• 7:01
  And who else would be the better, you know, customer and client than to people who have to
• 7:08
  support, you know, you know, represent their own businesses.
• 7:11
  So it kinda was this thing I really honestly fell into this world.
• 7:15
  And now, you know, I'm so excited because I just believe that there are so many talented
• 7:20
  people that sometimes get passed over because they're not packaging position properly.
• 7:26
  So that's my that's my that's my passion.
• 7:29
  And and that's and that is a beautiful segue into my next question because I wanted to ask
• 7:35
  you, what is the number one tip you would give to someone who is a an expert but wants to
• 7:42
  elevate to an iconic brand.
• 7:44
  What's the first thing they need to do?
• 7:46
  The first thing they need to do is I've always take inventory.
• 7:50
  I do it for myself personally, and I'll only teach what I do, Greg, And so I always take
• 7:55
  this inventory, and I look to see, am I playing as big as I possibly can?
• 8:01
  And what does that mean?
• 8:02
  I look.
• 8:02
  I do a self assessment, which usually is like a a whole whole, thing within itself.
• 8:11
  It's the visual and my playing and my representing myself the best at the highest
• 8:15
  level inside of my industry Whoever is at the top of their game in that industry, I usually
• 8:21
  look and do my research, and then I say, well, how do you compare inside of that?
• 8:24
  What's different about you?
• 8:27
  I think about I take inventory in stock, you know, of the client's expertise.
• 8:33
  Okay.
• 8:33
  Are you properly talking about all the things that you've done.
• 8:36
  Are you really showing your genius and then position them at the highest level possible?
• 8:42
  And that looks like I always say it's like the 2.0 version of you.
• 8:46
  You know, how they keep selling us different phones.
• 8:48
  Right?
• 8:48
  And they're like, yeah, get the the 2.0 version.
• 8:50
  I always say like, we gotta put you at the 2.0 version of you, because usually if you're
• 8:56
  living and you're breathing, you're serving client and clients you're growing.
• 9:00
  You're evolving.
• 9:01
  And sometimes the way that you package yourself and what you're doing is antiquated.
• 9:05
  So it's not for that new season.
• 9:07
  So positioning is all about how do I look at what I'm doing and position myself as my
• 9:12
  highest self?
• 9:14
  I love it.
• 9:14
  So talk about I know you have a proprietary program.
• 9:18
  You call it to produce your own brand method.
• 9:22
  What are the sort of like the steps in that?
• 9:24
  Is it more like what you were just talking about?
• 9:26
  Yeah.
• 9:27
  It's it's, you know, it's a it's a 6 step system.
• 9:29
  It spells out produce, and first one is position.
• 9:32
  The first thing you do is you wanna position yourself as the at the highest.
• 9:36
  So we just talked about that.
• 9:37
  The second one is realigning with what your purpose is.
• 9:41
  The people that you're meant to serve, the the the mission that you actually have, why you
• 9:47
  started your business, you know, why you decided to have this message as an expert
• 9:52
  realigning with that because oftentimes we get caught up in the minutia of life.
• 9:57
  And we sometimes disconnect from the exact reason why we're supposed to be doing what
• 10:03
  we're doing.
• 10:04
  And we can that disconnect can, get us off balance.
• 10:08
  We can find ourselves servicing clients sometimes that, you know, maybe they are paying
• 10:14
  us our worth Right?
• 10:16
  We're out of alignment there.
• 10:17
  We can find ourselves doing or saying yes to things that we probably should be saying no to
• 10:21
  at this point in our career.
• 10:23
  And so when you tap back in to your original reason and you realign and recalibrate with
• 10:30
  what that is, it really allows you to be able to focus only on those things that are gonna
• 10:37
  help to fortify what you're a reasonable your your original reason for saying yes was.
• 10:43
  So realign is the 2nd step.
• 10:44
  And then the 3rd step is 6 of them, but the 3rd step is, you're o having a overall aligned
• 10:52
  presence.
• 10:53
  And what that means is that oftentimes what I see is that people will have one area in their
• 10:58
  brand really, really good.
• 11:00
  You know, they'll do very good.
• 11:01
  And another part will be completely out of alignment.
• 11:05
  Meaning that you can have someone that's completely brilliant, you know, in person.
• 11:10
  And then you go to their website and they have typos on your website.
• 11:14
  Oh, antiquated pictures.
• 11:15
  It doesn't speak to any of the things that they're doing currently.
• 11:19
  And so having an overall aligned presence where you're really taking assessment of all those
• 11:24
  things and making sure they're in line with the message that's coming out of your mouth, the
• 11:29
  positioning that you wanna also have, with your clients as well.
• 11:33
  I love it.
• 11:34
  I love it.
• 11:35
  And so how important is it for you to have team.
• 11:39
  Like, when you're trying to uplevel your brand, who would who are the people you need around
• 11:44
  you to help you?
• 11:46
  Yeah.
• 11:46
  You well, you definitely don't need yes people.
• 11:48
  You need to in my opinion, you need people to have a little bit of that are visionaries.
• 11:53
  Meaning that.
• 11:54
  And the end, they are resolute, and they are team you, meaning that they have really bought
• 12:00
  into the things your mission they see you in the proper light, and they're always thinking
• 12:06
  about how can I elevate them?
• 12:08
  So they're not just a copy expert, you know, someone that writes your copy.
• 12:11
  There's somebody is somebody that is really in alignment with the message and what you wanna
• 12:16
  communicate and they write that way so that they model who you are.
• 12:21
  So having a good team in terms of, you know, when you talk about visually, you wanna have
• 12:26
  great glam squad, right?
• 12:28
  You wanna have people that keep you on point you know, whether it's your wardrobe, it's your
• 12:32
  makeup, your hair, your skin care, your nutrition, all those things because as business
• 12:37
  owners, we have to feel good inside of our army in order to be able to serve humanity.
• 12:43
  Right?
• 12:44
  And then you also wanna have other people, you know, depending on your business, you wanna
• 12:48
  have other team members that help to assist to push your brand forward.
• 12:52
  I always say have a few visionary people who can think out the box and see steps ahead of
• 12:59
  you to be able to say, hey, have you thought about trying this, or what about pushing your
• 13:06
  business this particular direction.
• 13:07
  So having, having, a team of people who are all yes people, but they're visionary thinkers, I
• 13:14
  think that that's very important too.
• 13:17
  Now I know that one of the things that you've created is called a brand U mentury, and I
• 13:22
  really want you to explain to my audience what that is and how you build that.
• 13:27
  Absolutely.
• 13:28
  So Brandy Menerey is telling the story of your brand in documentary format.
• 13:33
  I am a documentary filmmaker as well.
• 13:35
  And when I did my first documentary, I just saw the amount a transformation that happened
• 13:42
  within 90 minutes.
• 13:43
  It was remarkable, the things that happened within that 90 minutes.
• 13:47
  And so I thought I said, wow, what if you could create documentaries based on people's brands
• 13:54
  that help to tell their story?
• 13:55
  Because people are gonna they're gonna connect with you based on your story.
• 14:00
  They respect you based on your journey.
• 14:02
  If you can do that in a way, that you really connect with them, then when you go to make a
• 14:08
  offer or you ask them to join your community, it's pretty much a done deal because they have
• 14:12
  already identified followed you, they know you, they trust you, they like you.
• 14:17
  So brand new memory has been masterfully done, It's a it's a proprietary system that I create,
• 14:23
  and I also teach, to show people how to capture the essence of all of their life stories and
• 14:29
  make them turn them into different acts so that they are able to connect to their audience.
• 14:35
  And the the audience members are actually driven to a call to action.
• 14:41
  So it's always connected to a product, a service, etcetera, event that's going on.
• 14:47
  And so it's a very brilliant way of being able to enroll people into your to your mission.
• 14:53
  And they don't even realize, like, wow, I'm just falling in love with the person.
• 14:57
  So it's a proprietary system that I created that I had been utilizing for years.
• 15:01
  So I put just put system in order to.
• 15:05
  I love it.
• 15:05
  I love it.
• 15:07
  So tell me, how important is the messaging though?
• 15:11
  Cause it's like, You can I can tell you that I'm America's number 1 small business expert,
• 15:18
  but you got to prove that?
• 15:20
  Right.
• 15:20
  You know what I mean?
• 15:21
  You can't just be out here saying stuff without the the social proof or the the receipts, if
• 15:26
  you will, to throw down on the table.
• 15:29
  And I think what I see a lot happening now is that everybody and their mama wants to be a
• 15:34
  influencer or something on the gram.
• 15:37
  Right?
• 15:37
  And so how do you how do you there's so much noise out here now.
• 15:43
  There's so many experts, and they're not even selling you on their expertise.
• 15:47
  They're selling you on their lifestyle.
• 15:49
  Like, you wanna drive the car that they drive or pretend to be on private jets like they did.
• 15:56
  They paid somebody that worked at the airport so they can stand in front of this jet and take
• 16:00
  a picture Right.
• 16:01
  And I mean, this is the stuff people are doing to look like they are successful.
• 16:07
  So now that we have a generation of people who are into that, who who that appeals to them,
• 16:14
  how do you if you are a legit expert with legit content, how do you still how do you get
• 16:22
  noticed in this environment, which has become frankly so shallow?
• 16:28
  Absolutely.
• 16:28
  You know, the biggest thing is, and I wanna commend you on on your resilience of what you
• 16:33
  have maintained because you were doing this long before anybody think about it, but you
• 16:37
  were opening up your you opened up your mouth and you were demonstrating your expertise.
• 16:42
  You were brilliant at demonstrating your expertise.
• 16:46
  And so what happens is that I one of my missions is to take the voices that have all of
• 16:52
  the knowledge and and and usher them in to this age where they're they're having more
• 16:58
  conversations because what happens is just reality TV.
• 17:01
  People tune into reality TV because they're watching the show.
• 17:05
  They get to know these people.
• 17:06
  These people become celebrities to them.
• 17:08
  So the goal for me is to take these people who have all this brilliant talent and make them
• 17:14
  talk more.
• 17:16
  Make them more visible because like I always tell people, when the Bentley parks next to the
• 17:23
  Chrysler 300, you're gonna tell which one is the Bentley and which one is the Christ of
• 17:28
  pediatric.
• 17:29
  It's gonna be very obvious.
• 17:30
  And in this I call it an instafamous world where people, you know, suddenly, it just
• 17:37
  suddenly know so much If you'll start having the experts really start talking and
• 17:43
  demonstrating more and telling more of their story, trust me, people will begin to listen,
• 17:48
  but first, we gotta get you visible.
• 17:51
  We gotta get you packaged.
• 17:52
  And and and and to for a lot of us, especially people that are hard workers, we're so busy in
• 17:57
  the work that we're like, oh, I don't wanna shine.
• 18:00
  I'm just busy.
• 18:01
  I just wanna do the work.
• 18:02
  But you don't realize that your voice is the exact voice that needs to come forward.
• 18:07
  Like, we need your voice.
• 18:09
  We need your expertise your sensibility.
• 18:12
  We don't need the copy and pasters.
• 18:14
  We need the people who are legitimately they have skin in the game and they are really here
• 18:21
  on a mission to do exactly what they said that they're gonna do.
• 18:25
  I love it.
• 18:26
  I love it.
• 18:26
  Last question.
• 18:27
  Tell me, what is the best business advice you've ever gotten.
• 18:32
  So this was back in my beauty days.
• 18:36
  Gentlemen by the name of John Atcheson, he was Camille Cosby's, hairstylist.
• 18:42
  And at the time, John Atcheson used charged $250 for a haircut.
• 18:46
  That was a whole lot.
• 18:47
  Still a whole lot now, but it was really a whole lot back then.
• 18:50
  He said to me, Always train with the best.
• 18:55
  And to me, that stuck out in my head.
• 18:57
  And so no matter what I was doing or, you know, how I was pivot I always would find whoever was
• 19:03
  at the very top of their game, and that would be the person that I would want to learn from
• 19:10
  annulate or get mentorship from.
• 19:13
  It was whoever was the best in that particular industry.
• 19:17
  That's what I would look for.
• 19:18
  And I think that just holding that mantra, always trained with the best was something that
• 19:24
  was, very critical to me.
• 19:25
  The second piece just got one more was for my grandma.
• 19:29
  And my grandma said, you have to look the part to play the role.
• 19:36
  And that stuck with me because I do believe that 50% of you entering into a conversation or
• 19:42
  getting a seat at the table has everything to do with how you just show up.
• 19:46
  I I couldn't agree with you more.
• 19:48
  I've always believed that you're selling this before you get to sell whatever you're talking
• 19:52
  about right here.
• 19:53
  So I I'm 100, 100 percent in agreement.
• 19:57
  Thank you so much.
• 19:58
  You have imparted so much wisdom on my audience today.
• 20:02
  And me, and I just appreciate you so much.
• 20:05
  And thank you to Brandy Mitchell, known as the brand producer for more information.
• 20:09
  Head over to Brandy Mitchell, dotcom.
• 20:12
  And thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small bridge chat podcast.
• 20:16
  If you're working on your digital marketing skills, Be sure to check out Small Busland
• 20:21
  University for the month of November.
• 20:23
  All of my online marketing courses are 50% off.
• 20:28
  All you have to do is use my code sbl50, and all of my courses are 50% off.
• 20:34
  And I never do this, so y'all better get on it.
• 20:37
  Okay?
• 20:38
  Now the mission of the small bitch chat podcast is to end small business failure.
• 20:43
  I'm Melinda Emerson, your host, I will leave you with this.
• 20:45
  You never lose in business.
• 20:47
  Either you win or you learn.
• 20:49
  God bless everybody.
• 20:53
  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 20:58
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join next Wednesday for more
• 21:03
  fantastic information and interviews.
• 21:06
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 21:10
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 21:14
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.