Latest / The Brand Bitch™ Podcast / Ep. 07 | Your Brand Has a Front End But Does It Have a Back End?
Transcript
- Cat Fisfis: Your brand can look like a million dollars on Instagram, yet still be held together with a Google Doc, 47 browsers, several sticky notes, and a prayer or two. And listen, I love a beautiful brand. Y'all know I do. I come from fashion. I believe in presentation. I believe in aesthetics. I believe in how your brand looks, even more so how it feels. That matters. But here's what I've learned: looking like you're ready to scale and actually being built to scale are two very different things. Because what happens when someone actually wants to buy? When someone wants to work with you, when the inquiry comes in, when someone clicks the link. When someone purchases, when someone needs support? Does someone know what they should do next? Does your business know what to do next? Or does every single thing rely on you remembering what and how to do it? And while we're at it, does your AI actually understand your business? Or are you reintroducing yourself? Every time you open Chat GPT or Claude with a new conversation. Because that shit's exhausting. We spend so much time building what people see on the outside. And sometimes, well, a lot of time, not nearly enough time building what's underneath of it. Your brand might be dressed for the runway, but is the business behind it ready for that spotlight? And that's what we're getting into today. Welcome back to the Brand Bitch Podcast. I'm Kat, and around here, we are not interested in building brands that are just visible. We are building brands that people recognize. They remember, they trust, they buy from. And today I want to talk about something that I see happening with founders all the time. We're obsessed with the front end. The logo, the colors, the magical aesthetics, the website, the Instagram grid. The content calendar, the next reel, the next launch graphic, the next upgrade. And don't get me wrong, if you've been around for a minute, you know I love all of those things. I could spend an entire afternoon talking about typography and creative direction and visual storytelling and how a brand makes someone feel. But here's the thing: your front end creates the expectation. Your back end They have to deliver on it. And yes, I hear the giggles when I say backend. I want you to think about it for a second. Your brand might communicate luxury. It might communicate ease and authority. It might communicate a premium, highly personalized experience. But what happens when someone gets behind the curtain? Are they experiencing those things? Or are they getting confusing emails, missed follow-ups, broken links, inconsistent messaging, and a client experience that feels completely different from the brand that actually attracted them? That disconnect matters. And I think it's one of the most overlooked pieces of brand strategy. A brand isn't just what somebody sees before they buy. It's what happens with the experience after they say yes. And if those two things don't match, that's a brand problem, not just an operations problem. You see, everything goes back to one another. Think about it compared to the fashion world, the retail world. Yes, I'm comparing everything to that because that's where I came from. Think about a beautifully styled storefront, a big holiday or Black Friday campaign going on. You walk in the door expecting a certain expectation, right? the windows of the Sax Fifth Avenue, Fifth Avenue location in Manhattan just scream luxury and amazing experience and a holiday and high-end and class. Imagine if you walked through those front doors and it was a very different experience. The fitting room was a mess. There was a line out wrapped around the corner at checkout. The person behind the checkout had no clue what the hell she was doing. Nobody asked for a receipt. They didn't walk around the desk and hand you personally your bag. You see, a window display gets somebody to walk in the door, but the experience inside determines whether or not that client returns. It's just like your brand. Here's how want you to think about this. Every single touch point in your business is communicating something about your brand. Your Instagram bio, your website, your emails, your sales page, your checkout process, the emails they receive after the checkout process, the onboarding, the follow-up. Are they inside a community when they join a program? Even the way you handle a question or a problem. inside the space. All of it matters. intentionally designing those experiences or not, your audience forms an opinion about you. That's perception. If you've listened to any previous episodes, you already know how much I talk about the relationship between visibility and perception and recognition and demand. But I want to give you another layer. Now that I'm caffeinated, perception doesn't stop when someone becomes a customer. And actually, I would put money on the fact that it matters even more. Because now they're no longer deciding whether or not to believe in your brand. They're experiencing whether your brand lives up to what's promised. So let's just say you're a coach or a service provider, right? Your website says that working with you is seamless and high touch and supportive. Fantastic. Love that. But when someone purchases, They have no idea what to do next. They don't know where to find their materials. They don't know what their login is. Do they have anything to log into? They have no clue when they'll hear from you. They don't know how to get support. They left wondering their payment did it even go through? That's not the experience that you sold them. And I don't say that to shame anybody. I say it because that is real. I've built businesses, I've changed platforms multiple times. Both things. I've had workflows that need fixing, links that didn't actually link to what they needed to, and that's okay. I know what it's like to be building the plane while you're flying it. But at some point, You have to stop treating systems behind our businesses like an afterthought. Because your systems aren't separate from your brand experience. They're part of how your brand delivers on its promises. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about branding is that it only happens in marketing. The branding is the stuff that we put out into the world that attract people. Yeah, that's part of it. But it's also the consistency that someone experiences once they're inside your world. Does the messaging stay consistent? The level of care? The experience? Is it intentionally felt? Does your business operate in a way that reinforces what you want to be known for? Because here's the thing. What happens when it does? People trust you more. Not just because they say you're organized, not just because your website looks beautiful and professional, or you have a beautifully gorgeous brand identity. I love that. However, it is because every single interaction reinforces that perception. And that consistency creates confidence. It makes people feel like they're in the right place. It gives them a reason to stay, to stick around, to return, or hey, refer a friend to come over to you. It's a reason to keep buying. Recognition might get you remembered, but the experience behind your brand helps determine whether people stay or not. And that's why I think we need to talk about systems a little bit differently. Not as boring admin work, not as something you'll eventually get to when your business is bigger, but as something part of the infrastructure that allows your brand to grow and thrive. We're gonna take a quick little commercial break. If you can see me on YouTube, you see my air quotes. If not, just imagine throw your hands up, right? This one is actually very, very relevant to what we're talking about today. Because I can't sit here and tell you how important the back end of your business is without talking about one of the platforms I use to run mine daily, multiple times a day. And that's Hey Clients. If you've been around for a while, you know that I use Hey Clients as my CRM. And I don't use it to just store contacts. I'm talking email marketing, workflows, automations, funnels, contact management, the systems that help keep things moving behind the scenes. Because when someone signs up for something, joins a list, registers for a training, or enters a funnel in any way, any of my programs, I want to make sure that that process Helps me deliver the right next step. Because I don't want my business depending on me remembering every single little thing. Cause I won't. ADHD brain here. And I definitely don't want to build a brand that looks polished on the outside, but feels chaotic on the inside. Now, no CRM is going to magically build your business for you. Wanna just make that part clear. You still have to decide what kind of experience you want to create. But having the right systems in place can make that experience so much easier to deliver consistently. And that's why I use Hay Clients as part of my own business infrastructure. If you're looking for a CRM to help organize your marketing, your automations, your funnels, your client communication, I've included my Hay Clients link in the show notes. Quick disclosure: I do earn a commission if you sign up through my link. Okay, commercial breakover. Let's get back into it. Now, here's where I want this conversation to go just a little bit deeper. Because when I talk about the back end of your business, I'm actually talking about two very different things. The first is your operational infrastructure. That's your CRM, your workflows, your automations, your onboarding, your delivery process, your customer communication. It's the system that helps your business function. And the second is your brand intelligence. Now, these are equally important, guys. Equally important. Your intelligence is what we started getting into in episode six. Your identity, your positioning, your offers, your audience, your point of view, your voice, your proof. The strategic information that tells your business how to think, communicate, and show up. Because you can have the most sophisticated CRM in the world, but if your messaging is unclear, your automations are just delivering unclear messaging more efficiently. You can have the most advanced AI tools. But if your brand positioning isn't defined, you're still asking those tools to figure out who the hell you are. That's the distinction. Your operational systems help your business execute. Your brand intelligence gives that execution direction. Yes, you need both. Like my magic fingers. Again, if you're not in YouTube, you are not getting the full visual experience here. You need to know what your brand stands for. And you need the infrastructure to deliver it. Okay, let's talk AI for a second, because I am genuinely excited about what AI can do for entrepreneurs. However, I am seeing people make the same mistake with AI that they make with content. They start with a tool before they've actually done the thinking, let alone their strategic thinking. They open up ChatGPT, ask it to write an email, or a sales page, or content calendar, or develop an entire marketing campaign. And yeah, if you're new to AI, it can do all that shit. And more. First question I want to ask is based on what? What positioning? What audience? What beliefs? What offers? What messaging? What's the customer journey? Because if none of that has been defined, AI has to make assumptions. Sometimes they sound pretty damn good. But that's what makes it tricky. You can get a beautifully polished professional-sounding copy. From AI, and still have no fucking clue what their strategic differentiation is. Just because the content sounds good doesn't mean it's building your brand. Mm-hmm. I'm just sit with that one for a minute. Because that is important. The goal isn't to use AI to create more content. It's to use it to help communicate the right things to the right people in a way that reinforces what you want to become known for. And that requires clarity. Not another prompt pack. Not another AI tool. Clarity. The same two people So for example, you can have two coaches selling the same program. Put into their AI a prompt of build me out five static posts complete with copy on the post, captions, tags, all SEO optimized for X offer. Okay. You have the first one. They get the five static posts. Great. Cool. They sp put it out into the world. They get some views. They get a couple likes. Okay, cool. It looks pretty. Looks polished. Professional. Then you have the second one who puts the exact same prompt into her AI. However, her AI is not just pulling stuff out of thin air. She is pulling from the brain that was built into her prior. It houses her positioning, her voice, her offers, any testimonials she has in there from previous offers that could go with it, any before and after stories. Her thoughts that she's become recognizable for. Or her thoughts that she wants to become known for. So that AI system spits out the same five static caro static carousels. Ha ha! Static posts. But those, those get comments of wait list or an immediate DM, or shares on top of those likes. Those get conversations. Those get enrollments. Those get ads to the email list. Exact same prompt, but you've got one that's literally pulling shit out of thin air because they're guessing. Girlfriend over here did not give her AI any context. Girlfriend over here. Woo! She built an entire brand in her AI. So this one knows what's up. Same topic, same offer, coming from a very defined point of view in two different ways. You tell me which one you'd rather have. So I want you to imagine when all of this starts working together. Your brand identity is clear, your positioning is clear, you know who you're talking to, you know what you believe, what they believe, you know what you're selling, you know the transformation your client is going to get when they purchase that offer. the experience you want people to have when they work with you. And you know what? Your content is reinforcing that because your AI understands those things. Your CRM is helping deliver that experience. Your onboarding, whoo, it supports the promise that you just sold. Your communication is staying consistent. And your customer journey actually makes sense. So now we're not just talking about a pretty brand. We're talking about a business with an intentional foundation. A business that can become more recognizable because it's communicating consistently. A business that can build trust because its experience reinforces its message. A business that has more room to grow because every little action doesn't have to happen manually. And listen, not saying it's gonna be perfect. Absolutely not. Our systems are going to evolve. Your offers are going to evolve. Your business is gonna change. Shit, we're in October. My business does not look the same in October that it did in July or February. Ho or October of last year, don't even get me started. But you need to stop waiting until everything feels chaotic to start building the right foundation. You don't build the back because your business is already huge. You build it because you want your business to support that growth sustainably. That is the shift. Okay, speaking of building the intelligence behind your brand, I have something very exciting happening this week. Halloween. It's one of my all-time favorite holidays. So, on Halloween this year, October 31st, your AI brand bestie is officially dropping. Woo! You guys, I have been so excited to bring this to life because this has been something I've been thinking about for a very long time. I've watched entrepreneur after entrepreneur use AI. I've used it in my own business. And yes, I was one of those that a couple years ago was like, nope, I will never use AI. This is ridiculous. robots are gonna take over the world. What happened to human interaction? Like I said, we all evolve, right? I've watched people collect the prompts, test the tools, try to figure out why their generated content still doesn't sound like them. And I kept coming back to the same thing. Your AI is only as smart as the brand behind it. So instead of creating another content prompt pack, like every other coach and influencer under the sun, I wanted to help you build the intelligence that your AI actually needs. Your identity, your positioning, your audience, your offers, your beliefs, your point of view, your messaging. And before you ask, if you don't have any offers, that's actually gonna make your life a lot easier because you're gonna build all this first. And honestly, I want you to message me or DM me or tag me or whatever when you come up with your offers after building out your AI brand bestie. Because you will. I've had community members use this program when we called it something else over this summer, which is actually what made me as intentional as I am right now to get this out into the world for the rest of you that are not necessarily in the brand bitch community yet. There were several that put all of this into play and were literally able to come up with their offers so much more seamlessly and so much more intentionally because they could get out of their brain what they needed to, get it into their AI system and have it spit back to them their own thoughts, but in a more collected way. It's the information that makes the brand yours. So when you sit down to use AI, you're not starting from scratch. You're not asking it to invent who you are. You already told it who you are. Your AI is now given a strategic foundation to work from. That is exactly where your AI brand bestie comes from. She's your brain. Your brand. Your AI bestie. An AI business partner that actually understands. Who would have thought? I cannot wait for you guys to experience what we're building here behind the scenes. So if you're listening before Halloween, I want you to head to the show notes and get yourself on the wait list to be the first to hear when it drops. If you're listening after launch, you'll find the current details through the same link. Because I want you to stop feeling like you have to explain your entire business every time you open Chat GPT. And start using AI to actually support the brand that you're intentionally building. So here's what I want you to take away from today's episode. Your brand is more than what people say. It's what they experience, it's what they remember, it's what they associate with you, your name. It's how your business communicates. It's how your systems support your customers. It's the strategy behind your content. The intelligence behind your AI. It's the consistency between what you promise and what you actually deliver. And if you've been spending all your time in the front to look incredible, I want you to ask yourself a question. Is the business behind my brand built to support the experience that I'm selling? Not just today, but as I grow, as more people find me, as they join me, as they buy from me, as I evolve. 'Cause that's where the next level of your brand gets built. Not just in what the world sees, but in everything supporting it behind the scenes. Because yeah, your brand can be dressed for the runway. But the business behind it needs to be ready for that spotlight too. If this episode made you rethink what's happening behind the scenes in your business, share it with another founder who needs to hear it. Subscribe to the Brand Bitch Podcast, and make sure you check the show notes for Hey Clients and the Halloween launch of your AI brand vestie. I will see you next week. And until then, stop building a brand that just looks the part. Build one that actually delivers on it.