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EP.73: Beyond the Bio: Craft a Brand Story That Resonates | The Ambitious Podcast · Ambitious Podcast

0:00
No one remembers your brand because you don't make them feel
0:03
anything. Brand really ultimately allows
0:06
us to bypass logistical resistance.
0:09
If you don't have brands, the only thing that I'm going to
0:11
evaluate on is do I like your coffee?
0:14
And if I don't like your coffee, I'm moving on.
0:16
Because you don't have a brand for people to connect with or
0:19
story for people to connect with.
0:21
To be honest, you just become another service, another offer,
0:24
another deliverable for somebody to invest in, ultimately lacking
0:28
the ability to be remembered. People want to buy from things
0:31
that feel familiar and feel consistent.
0:33
And so if you're constantly changing, you're not going to
0:35
create that connection, that memory, that community, that
0:39
emotional aspect that really is required for somebody to be part
0:42
of your brand long term. Hello and welcome back to
0:46
Ambitious. I am really excited to dive in
0:48
today because we're talking about all things brand stories
0:51
and you and I both know a lot of different brands where we're
0:55
very familiar with their brand story, you know, shoes.
0:58
And then there's something like Nike, you know, you know an
1:02
average computer that you see at the store, but you always know
1:05
an Apple computer when you see one or an Apple product.
1:08
That is the power and the significance of a brand and why
1:12
as businesses, we need to be spending time and intention and
1:17
strategy and focus on understanding our brands and
1:20
most specifically which we're going to dive really
1:21
specifically into today. Brand stories and brand stories
1:26
are significant for so many different reasons and they play
1:29
so many different roles within our business.
1:32
But ultimately the thing that we know about brand is that brand
1:36
really ultimately allows us to bypass logistical resistance.
1:42
So when we, for example, are going in to buy, let's just say
1:46
a coffee and let's say an average coffee, if we go to, you
1:51
know, a Dunkin' Donuts, if we go to an average place, an average
1:55
coffee is going to cost us around 2 to $3.
1:57
So we want to ask ourselves, how is it possible that we will
2:00
drive sometimes an extra 10 minutes to get a Starbucks or an
2:03
extra, you know, couple blocks to be able to just get a
2:06
Starbucks coffee. And that Starbucks coffee that
2:08
we get is often times five, 6-7 dollars depending on how bougie
2:13
your coffee is. That coffee is something that
2:16
we're not only spending extra time and effort to go get
2:20
sometimes so out of our way even though there's 15 coffee shops
2:22
on the way, but also when we get there, we're willing to spend
2:25
sometimes twice to three times what we would at a standard
2:28
coffee shop. So why do we do that?
2:31
It's not the product. You and I both know if you've
2:33
tasted a Starbucks coffee that it's not exactly like their
2:35
beans or their milk is any different than any other coffee
2:38
shop on route to the Starbucks. The reality is the reason we're
2:42
buying a Starbucks is because of the brand.
2:44
We're buying it because of the the feeling that we associate
2:46
holding that cup with that logo. For some of us, a ritual that
2:50
happens around our coffee. There's not an emotional
2:53
experience and a connection that happens when we drive through
2:55
that drive through and we get that custom order that only they
2:59
seem to be able to understand or know.
3:01
There's a familiarity with it because of all the years of how
3:04
much they've grown and deep in our connection with the brand.
3:07
There's so many layers to it. And so the thing that I, I think
3:10
is important for us to acknowledge first is that a lot
3:12
of what we think are our logistical decision making
3:15
around where we invest our money or around how we spend our money
3:19
is oftentimes not as logistical as we think.
3:21
There's often a lot of brand connection.
3:23
That is the reason that you're wearing the shirt that you're
3:26
wearing right now. It's the reason that you have on
3:29
the shoes that you had on today. It's the reason that you're
3:32
listening to this on the specific device and the brand
3:35
that you're listening to. And even the headphones maybe
3:38
that you have in right now, there's a reason you have those
3:40
headphones in and not any random pair of headphones from any
3:43
store that's brand. And so we as businesses see day
3:48
and day of the significance of what brand does for us as
3:51
consumers and how we participate within it.
3:53
So what I want to do is I want to flip it to the other side and
3:56
allow this to be an opportunity for us to see how can we be
4:00
better with brand. How can we understand the
4:03
strategy and the underbelly of why brands are able to be so
4:07
impactful in this way and how can we get our little slice of
4:11
that pie. And by that I mean, how can we
4:14
help you to allow you and your brand to have its own story and
4:18
its own impact and its own connection with the people who
4:21
consume you, your marketing, your products or your services?
4:33
So with this, I want to go a little bit into, you know, the
4:36
significance. You guys know that I'm a data
4:39
nerd and I'm somebody who the reason, by the way, I just want
4:42
to give context of why I love data.
4:44
Data is not because like, I just like like numbers.
4:46
It's about the fact that I like for me personally, I really
4:50
value the ability to validate my thoughts, beliefs, opinions or
4:55
behaviors. I like to be able to understand
4:59
the context as to why something is significant.
5:02
So I'm not I'm not sure for you, but when someone says to me you
5:05
should do blank, I'm like, why? Like my first question, and
5:08
maybe it's a little rebel in me, but I always never really feel
5:12
like something lands for me until I have evidence to say
5:14
that it's worthy of my attention or that it's worthy of my
5:18
effort. So when we say, you know, brand
5:20
is important and brand is important, you can say yeah,
5:22
yeah, OK. Well, marketing is important,
5:23
sales is important, right? You know, team leadership, offer
5:27
development is important. What's to say that, you know,
5:29
there's a massive significance around brand?
5:32
Well, brand actually has the ability.
5:35
There was a stat that showed that it increases conversion
5:37
rates by 30%. So brands that employed having
5:40
effective storytelling of their brand story had the ability on
5:44
average to boost conversion rates inside their business of
5:48
up to 30 percent, 30%. So even that alone is going to
5:53
show you the significance. If you're somebody just like
5:56
myself who's wanting to make more sales within your business
5:59
in the next 369, you know, nine months in your business, in the
6:03
next three to five years in your business, brand is something
6:06
that you need to be focused on. It can no longer be a side thing
6:10
or a, if I could put a candidly 1/2 assed effort when you're
6:14
thinking about how you show up as a brand.
6:16
There's also a really interesting stat that showed 15%
6:18
of consumers would make an immediate purchase if they felt
6:23
that they resonated with the brand story.
6:25
So there's also this instant purchase influence happening,
6:28
meaning you land on someone's profile IEU, it could be your
6:33
Instagram, it could be your website, it could be really
6:35
anything. And we're going to talk also
6:36
today about where you should be placing your brand story.
6:39
But when you see someone's brand and you resonate with it, it has
6:44
the ability to cause you to act very quickly.
6:47
It has the ability to cause you to take action.
6:50
And so that's something that for you and I as business owners,
6:53
what more could we want? We could increase our
6:56
conversions by 30% and we could also have, as a result of our
6:59
brand, 15% of consumers moving almost instantly upon
7:04
discovering us. So like, what more could we ask
7:07
for as businesses? And so the question is not
7:10
really a matter of whether brand stories are impactful or whether
7:13
they have a impact on the business.
7:16
It's really a matter of, OK, great.
7:17
Well, we know that that's to be true.
7:19
There's stats to to prove it. There's brands that we know and
7:23
we connect with and that we purchase from everyday.
7:25
So that shows us how much brand really does have a power within
7:28
our lives. But the question is why are we
7:31
not doing it? Why are we not integrating
7:33
brand? And you know, if we don't, what
7:37
are we losing? So let's just say you decided to
7:39
move forward after today and you said, OK, I'm just going to keep
7:42
doing what I'm doing. What does that really do to your
7:46
business and to your current brand?
7:47
And so I want to break down as well some things that I often
7:50
see where people really have a disconnect when it comes to
7:52
their brand and their brand story.
7:54
So one is lacking by not having a brand story and not having it
7:58
done effectively within your marketing, you really are
8:00
lacking emotional connection. So really what happens is
8:04
because you don't have a a brand for people to connect with or a
8:08
story for people to connect with, to be honest, you just
8:11
become another service, another offer, another deliverable for
8:14
somebody to invest in. And it no longer really becomes
8:18
about anything other than, for example, to our earlier note,
8:21
just the coffee. If you don't have brands, the
8:23
only thing that I'm going to evaluate on is do I like your
8:26
coffee? And if I don't like your coffee,
8:28
I'm moving on, right? Or if I'm going just based off
8:31
of where's the closest coffee, I'm not looking at brand, which
8:34
is the difference of whether I drive an extra 10 minutes to get
8:37
yours versus the one that's on route.
8:39
So without brand, I'm going to the closest coffee shop.
8:42
I'm going to the only coffee shop that has the milk that I
8:45
need. And that's it.
8:46
It's very much moving it into the logistical bucket versus an
8:50
emotional bucket of why we invest into certain people.
8:54
And So what ends up happening is especially when you have a lack
8:58
of emotional connection with lacking brand story, you really
9:02
will see this show in your business when people are doing a
9:05
lot of price comparison, they're doing a lot of deliverable
9:08
comparison. So you might have, you know,
9:11
people who price shop and they'll say, you know, I'm
9:14
looking at you in addition to X other services.
9:17
And again, that's pretty typical.
9:18
That's pretty normal for people to price shop.
9:20
But the thing that's happening is they're not evaluating you on
9:24
literally anything else other than the fact that you have
9:28
certain deliverables and certain price points.
9:30
Only if they resonate with those will they ultimately invest with
9:33
you. And so it means that all the
9:35
emphasis of you and your business is being entirely put
9:38
on your pricing and entirely put on your deliverables.
9:42
So we know that people buy based on emotion, but they justify
9:48
with their logic. So if we know that people buy
9:52
with emotion, but they justify with their logic.
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If you're lacking a brand story, there is no emotion for them to
9:59
connect with to be the reason they buy.
10:01
So instead they buy with all logic because they don't have
10:06
anything else to anchor into. And what we know is that is not
10:09
necessarily going to give you the conversions that you're
10:11
looking for in your business. So you lack emotional connection
10:15
by not having a brand story that's established and
10:17
consistent. And so you're going to have a
10:20
lot of nuts and bolts type buyers because there's really
10:24
not anything else for them to anchor into and you will see it
10:26
negatively impact your conversions.
10:29
Now the thing that I find the most impactful about brands and
10:32
the impact of brand stories is the fact that they're an anchor.
10:37
So I don't know if you've seen this commercial, I can't imagine
10:40
you haven't. Old Spice, they have those
10:42
commercials right where we have the half horse, half man.
10:47
Those commercials are something that you and I, even as I say
10:51
this, I'm sure you be like, Oh yeah, I remember those
10:53
commercials or Coca-Cola, right when we were at least for
10:56
myself, I'll speak for myself. I'm 32.
10:58
When I was young, they had those commercials of the polar bears
11:02
and the Coca-Cola commercial, right?
11:05
That's something that is a memorable brand.
11:07
We know that Coca-Cola for the longest time has been doing
11:10
almost like these little storytelling advertisements or
11:12
these storytelling type commercials and their brand and
11:16
all their marketing has been centered around that.
11:18
Now the story that they tell evolves, but we know that their
11:20
commercials are always stories. The other, you know, example
11:24
would be, for example, for Old Spice.
11:26
Old Spice always has these kind of like really out there, you
11:29
know, very, very creative, almost abstract type of
11:33
commercials and advertisements. So because of that, what we see
11:37
is that there's a story and an emotion that we automatically
11:41
associate with those brands. So here's the thing, I can
11:45
mention those to you right now and you can recall that off the
11:48
top of your head, right? It's a memorable experience.
11:51
Another one, again with Starbucks is their holiday
11:53
drinks. Their holiday drinks where they
11:54
come out with that new fun cup around the holidays every
11:56
Christmas. That is a memory that a lot of
11:59
us, we're excited for those cups.
12:01
We're excited for the menu. It is something that is
12:03
memorable to us. The thing that I also see is
12:07
that because people lack brand, they also are ultimately lacking
12:12
the ability to be remembered. No one remembers your brand
12:16
because you don't make them feel anything.
12:19
So we remember these commercials, we remember these
12:23
brands, we remember these brand moments because they are
12:25
memorable. And ultimately what makes them
12:28
memorable is the emotion that we create and connect with from
12:31
them. So when you have no story as a
12:35
brand, you really have no memory anchor.
12:37
There's nothing for us to anchor on to, to be the recall point of
12:41
why we remember you specifically out of everybody else.
12:45
So if you don't, for example, have again, memory, what this
12:48
turns into is people, for example, scrolling on Instagram
12:52
or scrolling on TikTok or scrolling on LinkedIn and not
12:54
really remembering you once they scroll past your post or you
12:58
know, even when someone's trying to refer you.
13:00
If I want to refer you, I'm going to find it more difficult
13:03
to refer you because I don't really know what to reference
13:06
you around. I don't really know what I'm
13:08
referring you for or how I'm referring you because I don't
13:11
have a story to tell, right? So it's really difficult for me
13:14
to even explain to somebody else potentially why they should work
13:17
with you. And the other thing we see is
13:20
that you will significantly blend in to other people within
13:23
your industry. You're going to just be known as
13:26
one of the bunch of the person who does the same old say, you
13:29
know, day in, day out as everyone else within your
13:32
industry. So again, there's really this
13:34
lack of ability for you to stand out amongst the masses and
13:37
that's because you don't have a brand story presence.
13:41
Now, as we kind of nodded to you as well, this does correlate to
13:44
sales. So there definitely is a a
13:46
correlation between not having a story and not being able to have
13:49
the sales and the conversion rates that are possible for you
13:52
and for your business. So you're going to feel like
13:55
sales calls are feeling like they're over pitched, they're
13:59
overselling. You're almost feeling like you
14:00
have to sell yourself to somebody that you're getting on
14:02
the phone with because they're not pre sold on you before
14:05
coming in. And what ends up happening is
14:08
you're selling a lot of your features and your discounts.
14:11
You're selling potentially, you know, the type of deliverables
14:14
they get when they work with you.
14:15
You're selling the the price points that you're at in
14:19
comparison to your competitors. You're kind of always having to
14:22
value stack and kind of position why specifically somebody should
14:27
work with you because you don't have anything other than your
14:29
offers to really lean on. And so this really does, as we
14:33
see, infiltrate so many different areas of the business.
14:35
And another area which is huge is marketing.
14:38
And I see this a lot with clients around marketing and
14:40
messaging. When someone is not clear on
14:43
their brand, there's a lot of flip flopping in messaging.
14:46
There's a lot of, you know, back and forth when it comes to even
14:48
their content. On a Tuesday, they'll be saying
14:50
one thing, on a Thursday, they'll be saying another thing.
14:53
And some people say, you know, Oh, well, isn't that marketing
14:56
or isn't that content? It is marketing because it
14:59
obviously is the message that you're sending to your audience.
15:01
But here's the thing, your content and your marketing
15:06
landing with somebody is the delivery.
15:10
But the reality is the messaging of what you're saying needs to
15:13
be consistent all the time. So you can't flip flop.
15:17
You can't be a brand who's like, I'm all purple and then on
15:20
Thursday I'm all green and then on Saturday I'm all yellow.
15:23
Like we need some consistency. And So what I find is then when
15:27
I go through someone's content and to be totally honest with
15:30
you, I can tell by looking at your marketing and your
15:34
messaging and going through your social media or going through
15:37
your website. If you know your brand.
15:40
Because if you are saying something different on a Tuesday
15:43
than the Thursday, just because you're like, what can I say in
15:46
this thing to get somebody to move?
15:48
While you might think, OK, great, it's going to get me a
15:50
quick sale or a quick inquiry or a quick DM, What it's really
15:53
doing is it's killing your ability to build brand.
15:55
You are a transaction business. And it's because people want to
16:00
buy from things that feel familiar and feel consistent.
16:03
And so if you're constantly changing, you're not going to
16:05
create that again, connection, that memory, that community,
16:09
that emotional aspect that really is required for somebody
16:13
to be part of your brand long term.
16:15
So it really will show when people like, I'm struggling to
16:18
know what to say. I'm struggling to know what to
16:20
post. I, I don't really necessarily,
16:23
you know, know how to make this marketing feel structured.
16:25
Everything I do feels very scattered.
16:28
And most importantly, and this is something that I ask people
16:31
is like, does your audience know what you stand for?
16:33
So if I asked you right now, if I pulled and I took, let's just
16:37
say 20 people from your audience right now and I put them in A
16:40
room, would you say confidently that those 20 people would know
16:46
who you were, what you stood for, what you stood against, and
16:50
specifically how you helped to fix it?
16:54
If those 20 people don't know who you are, what you stand for,
16:57
what you're against, and how you would fix it, it means you don't
17:01
have brand. It means you have transaction,
17:04
you have marketing, you have conversion, you have, you know,
17:06
quick sale, quick transaction, quick DM from someone and
17:10
listen, you can play that game. If you want to play that game,
17:13
go ahead. But you are making your business
17:16
scaling 15 times harder than it needs to be.
17:19
Because if you had brand, people will come to you and you will be
17:23
a magnet for these people and these conversions and this
17:26
marketing versus you having to constantly push and push and
17:30
push for the sales that you need to continue to grow the
17:33
business. So I also want to share a little
17:36
bit of how this will show up behind the scenes because this
17:39
is something that I faced and I'll just, I'll share a little
17:41
story around this as well. You will start to attract the
17:43
wrong clients. So when you are someone as a
17:46
brand who doesn't know really who you are and what you stand
17:50
for yet and again, that that distinguishing line between what
17:53
you believe and what you're what you're against, you're often
17:56
going to have people inquiring who are really not aligned.
17:59
Like you're having people reaching out to you that you're
18:01
like, this is not the kind of client that I want to work with.
18:04
This is not the type of person that I want to support.
18:06
Or you'll have even clients who maybe they got through the sales
18:10
process, they got through the inquiry process, but once they
18:12
started working with you, you were like, OK, this person does
18:15
not fit the values or like the kind of overview of the type of
18:19
person that I love to support. And so with this, they might
18:23
push your boundaries. They might be constantly looking
18:25
for extra deliverables, extra value, extra bonuses, or they're
18:31
just like not committed, they're not connected.
18:34
They're not really somebody who I would say like leans in to
18:39
your support in what you do. And so I actually had this to be
18:43
honest, within my business. So I actually the early stages
18:46
of my business have gone through a variety of variations and kind
18:51
of like versions of Kate, if you will, because when I first
18:54
started my business, like I was constantly what I would refer at
18:57
that time to like bubble gum Kate.
18:59
So I'm not somebody who, if you guys watch any of the podcast,
19:03
you'll notice I'm often wearing Gray, white, black, like
19:06
neutrals. I wear those day in, day out.
19:08
I am not a color person like you.
19:10
You don't want any color in my home like you.
19:12
Anything that I own or do is neutral.
19:14
And when I first started, I was, OK, I want to connect my
19:18
marketing with women. Granted, at the beginning of my
19:20
business, I didn't know anything about brand and I didn't know
19:22
anything about marketing. I just was like, OK, we're going
19:25
to post on social media and we're going to figure it out
19:26
later. So I did exactly that.
19:28
So I posted on social media. I started to get content out and
19:32
it was just, it was what the influencers were doing at the
19:35
time, to be honest with you. It was, you know, big smiles and
19:39
posing and, you know, a lot of like color and dresses and
19:43
movement and whatever. And again, there's nothing wrong
19:45
with that, but it just wasn't me.
19:47
So I was like, OK, this does not.
19:49
This is not even who I am. Like, this is literally an
19:52
avatar. Like, this is a character.
19:54
It's not me. And so I knew that I couldn't
19:56
maintain that because it was just not who I actually was.
19:59
And I was trying to play a part in the belief that that would
20:01
make me successful. So I was OK, back to the drawing
20:05
board. I was like, I really want to
20:06
outline who am I? So I started with that question,
20:09
who am I? And I was like, OK, I'm
20:10
neutrals. I love, you know, getting
20:12
dressed up. I love hair and makeup.
20:14
So I wanted to share that on my socials.
20:18
So I did, but the problem was I went way too far in the other
20:22
direction. So I was still a character, but
20:25
I was just a more Kate character that I was anything else, but
20:30
still wasn't really Kate. It was still Kate presenting as
20:32
this character of what I believed was what I needed to be
20:35
to be successful. So the tricky part became it
20:39
brought success. So that character brand, that
20:42
person that I was, it was very polished.
20:46
It was super curated. It was not vulnerable at all.
20:49
I almost kind of gave like luxury robot is how I would
20:52
think about it. And it was very disconnected, if
20:56
I could put it that way. And the hard part was it's it
21:00
actually brought in a good amount of clients like it.
21:02
It really did a good job in bringing in people.
21:05
The problem was we would get people inquiring that we're not
21:11
the kind of person that I was. So I, you know, if I could give
21:15
a synopsis of, OK, well, what's the difference?
21:18
I would myself, as well as every single person on my team is very
21:21
heart centered. You know, we all have a little
21:23
spice in us, but we're very sweet people.
21:25
We all are very data and structure driven, strategy
21:29
driven, but we also have this like soft spot to us where we
21:32
just, we love to be able to connect with people and be open
21:34
and be vulnerable. And what I realized was that I
21:38
was attracting people who were just hiring me based off the
21:41
vibe that I was giving, meaning they were coming in being like,
21:45
get me rich quick. How fast can you make me money
21:48
in the next, you know, can you make me a 7 figure business
21:50
owner in the next 90 days, which technically I have done with
21:53
someone before, but that's not anything that I would ever
21:55
usually market. And like, not somebody would
21:57
ever want to promise somebody, even though we have done it,
21:59
which is super cool. And so I had all this marketing
22:01
going out and I had these inquiries coming in and our, our
22:04
head of OPS, Kelsey, we always joke about it because she has
22:07
such a good radar for this. And so she was doing calls for
22:11
the people that we're inquiring, and she's like, Kate, I don't
22:13
know about this one. And I was like, yeah, yeah,
22:16
yeah, bring her in, Bring her in.
22:17
And every single person that she flagged for me that she was
22:20
like, Kate, I think this person's going to be a problem
22:22
ended up being a problem. And So what it started to show
22:26
was that the marketing was really bringing in unaligned
22:28
people and it wasn't their fault.
22:30
They were a certain kind of high ego, not nice, very money
22:35
driven, kind of just very unaligned to be honest.
22:38
So not who I am that I realized it's not their fault.
22:44
Like my marketing is the issue, my brand is the issue.
22:48
My brand is the poster board of what I am telling my audience my
22:52
values are. And at the time my poster board
22:55
of my values was not actually what my values were.
22:58
It's what I believed my marketing and brand needed to be
23:02
in order for my business to scale.
23:04
And the hard part was it brought in people, but it brought in the
23:07
wrong people. So there's also this fine line
23:11
that very few people talk about in scaling businesses, which is
23:14
the fact that there's a difference between getting sales
23:17
versus getting the right sales. There's a difference between
23:19
getting leads versus getting the right leads.
23:21
I'll be really honest with you. I could sign a lot of unaligned
23:25
clients if I wanted to, but I don't want those people in my
23:29
world anymore. I don't want certain types of
23:32
avatars or values within my world.
23:35
And so because of that, I really am intentional about what I put
23:38
in my brand because I only want to call them people and have a
23:41
community of people that have similar values, which are the
23:44
base of it is really heart and care and consideration and
23:48
vulnerability, but also power and strength and work ethic and
23:52
all of that combined. So how do we do this right?
23:55
How do we make sure that we get people emotionally connected to
23:59
us? How do we help to increase our
24:01
sales and conversions? How do we make sure that we're
24:03
getting the right clients coming into our world?
24:05
How do we have something memorable?
24:07
And that's where having a story brand comes in.
24:10
Now I want to give credit where credit is due.
24:12
What I'm about to unpack for you is something that has been
24:15
really impactful for me, and that is Donald Miller's.
24:19
This is from his book. So he's the author of building a
24:22
story brand. I really, really recommend if
24:25
you have not yet, please go to your Amazon later today and add
24:29
this. And you know, this will be
24:31
something that we'll make a note of in our book list inside the
24:33
ambitious network. We actually have a book
24:35
recommendation list inside. So by the way, if you're not in
24:38
the ambitious network, just message me the word ambitious on
24:40
Instagram. I'm happy to add you, but we
24:42
have a, a kind of like a book list or a book area in there.
24:46
And this is one of the books that I really recommend, which
24:48
is called Building a Story Brand.
24:50
And the author is Donald Miller. I'm going to unpack for you
24:53
right now his seven part story brand framework.
24:57
And this is something that I have been using in my business
25:00
in many different areas. And I'll break those down on
25:02
where you should put this as well.
25:04
But this is different than what most of us will know or what you
25:08
might be familiar with as the hero's journey, the hero's
25:12
journey. The tricky part is with the
25:14
hero's journey, it makes you the hero of their story.
25:19
And the thing that is really the biggest differentiator around
25:23
Donald Miller's approach is that his belief is that you really
25:27
cannot have a brand when you're making yourself the hero versus
25:31
if you make your client and the individual who's consuming you
25:34
or buying from you or investing with you, they need to be the
25:37
hero. So the thing most brands and
25:40
businesses do, and what Donald Miller notes is that you cannot
25:45
be the hero of your ideal client's journey.
25:49
And this is something that I see so many businesses do wrong.
25:54
Instead of trying to use their brand to empower the individual,
25:58
to get the individual activated, to get them connected, they're
26:01
like, look how great I am. I'm going to do this for you.
26:03
I'm going to do this for you. I'm going to get you this
26:05
result. I'm going to get you here.
26:07
And all you're doing is making yourself the hero of their story
26:11
instead of making them the hero of their own story because of
26:14
your support. So this distinction is really
26:18
important, which is why I'm a big fan of Donald Miller's
26:20
approach. So Donald Miller, the seven
26:23
steps are, I'm going to list them out quickly in case you're
26:25
somebody who's like me who takes notes on things.
26:27
Step one and phase one is the character. 2 is the problem, 3
26:32
is the guide, 4 is who the person who gives them a plan, 5
26:37
is calls them to action, 6 is that helps them to avoid
26:41
failure, and seven is ending a success.
26:44
And I'm going to break this down for you.
26:45
OK, so step one, your client wants something, so you need to
26:51
get an understanding of who is the character within your story.
26:56
So who is the individual? OK, so I'm going to give you
26:59
some things to consider here. The hero.
27:01
The simple question here is who do you help?
27:04
So the character is who is the person that you are helping?
27:08
Who is your ideal client basically.
27:10
So you can even look at kind of something to consider as a
27:12
phrase, I help this ideal client who wants to achieve X goal.
27:18
OK, so we need to have clarity of who is the character, who is
27:22
the ideal client. That's like step one.
27:25
Now Step 2 is understanding they obviously have a problem.
27:30
So a character has a problem is Step 2, which means they face a
27:35
either external, internal, or philosophical problem.
27:40
OK, so I'm going to give you a prompt for this one as well.
27:43
Really the basis of the problem aspect is what are they
27:46
struggling with? So a phrase to think about is
27:49
they are stuck with X thing and they're feeling what?
27:53
OK, so they're stuck with X pain point and they feel what
27:58
emotion. OK, so that's the problem.
28:02
The problem is and the hero are something that many brands like
28:05
yourself are very familiar with. I know who who I'm talking to
28:08
and I know who I'm helping. Now the third step, again, this
28:12
is kind of like a flow, right? So a character number one has a
28:16
problem #2 and then Step 3 is meets a guide, and that guide is
28:23
you. OK, so when they meet a guide,
28:26
what you want to ask yourself is why are you the one to help?
28:33
OK, so another prompt around this being, you know, I've been
28:37
through it and I know what it's like to do blank, right?
28:41
I know what it's like to have X experience or whatever the
28:43
relevant experience is. Why are you the one to help?
28:47
And this one is really powerful because I find that a lot of
28:50
brands don't really know how to answer that question.
28:53
Why of everyone who does what you do, are you specifically as
28:58
a brand, the one that I should be going with?
29:00
Why are you specifically as a brand, the one that I should be
29:03
investing with? Why are you?
29:06
Why are you specifically the person to help me?
29:08
And if you can't answer that other than I really care about
29:13
my clients, we give really great service.
29:16
We really go above and beyond, you know, it's, it's like our
29:19
clients are family that's all about the service and the
29:22
delivery. And so it's really, in my
29:25
opinion, very important for you to understand what is the
29:27
distinction about the significance of me as a guide?
29:32
What's the significance around me as the person to be the one
29:36
to help them? Why am I the person to help them
29:40
through this? OK, so it's about a character,
29:43
one who has a problem, which is 2 and meets a guide, which is
29:47
you now #4 is who then gives them a plan.
29:52
And this is where you're going to hear me talk about the
29:55
method, the framework, the approach.
29:58
One of the things that I talk about a lot is signature
30:00
frameworks. I literally for every client,
30:03
build everything into a framework, everything into a
30:05
method, a system, a step, a criteria, a model.
30:10
There's always something that needs to be created.
30:12
And again, this creates a natural distinction around how
30:16
you do what you do. And I will be honest, there's a
30:19
lot of brands that I start with who don't have a process, you
30:24
don't have a framework, you don't have anything for me to
30:27
latch onto other than just listing out all the stuff that
30:31
you would do with me as a client.
30:32
And it's part of why it's very difficult for somebody to latch
30:37
on to you and to your brand. So really this is asking
30:41
yourself, what is your process? What is your framework?
30:45
What is your methodology? And it could be, you know, we
30:48
walk you through X steps, we help you to focus on X
30:51
principles. So for example, for myself, to
30:54
give you a tangible example, we have and we teach our scaling
30:58
clients scaling principles, which basically means that we're
31:02
helping you to understand the principle so that you're not
31:04
just learning tactics. We teach you the principle so
31:06
you'll always know what the tactic is, no matter what's
31:09
coming up in your business. So we do this in a couple core
31:12
areas, which is attract how to get people to have their eyes on
31:16
you and your brand and bring people to the storefront of your
31:18
business. Two, to allow people to convert
31:22
consistently through a streamlined process to get them
31:25
through to have rinse and repeat sales.
31:27
Third, into your offer, which is delivery to allow you consistent
31:31
delivery for high retention, high referrals and great success
31:34
with clients that helps you to build scales and retention long
31:37
term. And then we have Automate, which
31:39
is building in your systems and allowing you to buy back your
31:41
time by introducing systems, processes and automation.
31:45
And then we have expand, which is allowing you to expand the
31:47
business to the next level by getting people who can do things
31:51
outside of yourself and building up other people to help you
31:54
build up the business. So attracts convert, deliver,
31:57
automate and expand. So those are the five core
32:00
pillars of our framework. And within each we have core
32:02
principles that you need to learn and know in order to be
32:04
able to scale your business. So that's our framework, that's
32:07
our approach, right? So what we want to be able to
32:11
explain. And when someone says, for
32:12
example, for me, you know, if I join your accelerator
32:15
mastermind, what am I going to learn?
32:17
What are you going to teach me? And I could go through, you
32:19
know, I can teach you funnels and I can teach you, you know,
32:22
marketing messaging, I can teach you brand development, I can
32:24
teach you delegation, I can teach you systems, processes,
32:26
automation. I can teach, you know, all these
32:28
things. But those are not outcomes,
32:30
they're not a process. It's not a structure.
32:32
It's just me listing random things that I do with clients.
32:36
Instead, we want to put this into an actual process.
32:38
We want to put into a framework that someone feels like they
32:40
could visually see and wrap their mind around.
32:43
OK, so remember, we've got a character who has a problem, who
32:47
meets a guide, who gives them the plan.
32:49
And your plan is your process framework, methodology, or
32:52
approach. And with that plan, you call
32:56
them to action, OK, so this is where your action is required.
33:03
So if nothing changes, where will they stay?
33:06
And with this, what is the risk if they do not act, What is
33:12
possible if they do take action, if they do actually do what
33:16
they're supposed to do in this process And in your framework,
33:19
what is possible if they take action?
33:21
And then also what is possible or what is likely if they don't
33:25
take action, if they don't do what they need to be doing, OK,
33:30
now it should help them to avoid failure.
33:34
So what is the cost of not solving the problem?
33:39
OK, so there's two sides. You'll see here we've got a lens
33:43
of the success, meaning if you do take action on this thing
33:48
where you're going to be. And there's also the other side,
33:51
which is the cost. What would it cost you by not
33:53
doing anything? That's both those sides.
33:56
And you'll hear me talk about a lot about this in marketing.
33:58
When I teach marketing, there's two things that people look at
34:02
as the triggers of what caused them to move.
34:03
There's impact, which is they move because they're so excited
34:08
about the positive domino that is possible upon action.
34:12
And then there's implication, which is what is the implication
34:16
to the individual going to be if they don't do something?
34:19
So there's always in marketing, there's two sides.
34:21
There's the positive of what's possible and then negative if
34:25
they do nothing. And so both of those are
34:28
powerful in all marketing. And also as a brand.
34:31
There's two ways people are motivated and it's not always by
34:34
the dream and it's not always by pain, which is why we need to
34:37
have both of those within every brand and in all messaging.
34:40
And lastly, you need to have an actual call to action.
34:44
So before again, we talked about the fact that, you know, we have
34:48
obviously like this invitation, but we also want to say, OK,
34:51
well, how do they get that? What do they do with you?
34:53
What do they invest in? What do they take the next step
34:55
in in order to see that transformation?
34:57
So when you do this, it really will prove to your audience that
35:01
you understand deeply their problem because you've been
35:06
there, you get it, You get what they're feeling, you get what
35:09
they're thinking, you get what they're struggling with.
35:11
It also shows that you have an intentional method, an
35:15
intentional solution or framework that's going to help
35:17
them to move past that and to overcome it.
35:20
And most importantly, it's not saying that you're going to save
35:24
them, it's saying you're going to guide them.
35:26
And I think that that's the biggest distinction.
35:29
In my opinion. The distinction is the fact that
35:32
a good brand will allow themselves to be the guiding
35:35
light, but they won't allow themselves to be the hero
35:38
specifically. And I think that that's a very
35:40
important distinction for all brands to master.
35:43
Because when you make yourself again the hero of someone's
35:45
story, you're taking their power away from being the hero of
35:48
their own journey. So I'm going to just kind of
35:51
highlight them again really quickly.
35:52
Again, Donald Miller's seven part story brand framework is
35:56
about a character number one, who has a problem #2 who meets a
36:02
guide #3 who 4 gives them a plan, who 5 calls them to
36:08
action, who's 6 helps them to avoid failure, and who's 7 helps
36:13
them to end in success. OK, so those are the seven
36:17
parts. And again, this is something
36:18
that if you are like, Oh my gosh, I feel like I want to just
36:20
like dive into this. I really, really recommend
36:23
getting his book Building a Story Brand.
36:25
And also a little side note because this is something that I
36:27
always pass along to clients. I'm a big fan of When you feel
36:30
like you want to or someone makes their book recommendation
36:32
to you and you're like, I feel like I have this list of like 25
36:35
books that I want to read or that I could read, but I haven't
36:39
had a lot of time to read necessarily.
36:41
And So what I do is I will put the title of the book in and I
36:44
will ask it to give me the Kohl's notes, like the summary
36:47
of the core talking points within that.
36:49
And I ask it to pull forward any frameworks or structures or
36:53
methods that are taught inside. I ask it to pull forward any
36:57
symptoms that I'm struggling with this topic and most
37:00
importantly, the outcomes of what's possible.
37:02
Should I take action on it. And you can even ask it for
37:05
examples if you'd like as well. This is kind of a, some people
37:08
that I know and also that I look up to, they will skim books.
37:12
So they'll just kind of buy the book and skim through it.
37:15
Some people I know listen to them on audiobooks on super fast
37:18
speed. For myself, I, if I really enjoy
37:22
a book, we'll go back and actually read the book itself.
37:24
But nine times out of 10, I find myself using AI to skim it, give
37:29
me the framework, and then I'm like, OK, that got my attention.
37:32
Then I go take that and I go into the book and I really get
37:35
the deep, deep explanation of that piece of the book.
37:38
So really just as a little side hack for everybody.
37:41
Something that could be supported for you.
37:42
Now, where do we use this right? So we, we know the impact of
37:47
building a brand. We know the mistakes and what's
37:49
causing things to happen in our business because we don't have
37:52
that established. And now we want to look at, OK,
37:55
well, we know what the brand framework is.
37:57
Where do I put this? Like where is this supposed to
37:59
go? How do I know where I place this
38:02
within my, my brand or my business?
38:03
So I want to kind of outline those places #1 area is going to
38:06
be your website. Your website.
38:08
You should have this a little piece of your bio and your story
38:12
on your about page. You should have your homepage
38:15
have something on it, and you should also have a sales page.
38:18
On every sales page you need a story.
38:20
Now this is one that I want to add some specificity to out of
38:23
all the things I'm going to explain.
38:24
Your bio is not the same as your brand story.
38:29
OK, So you will note even if you go to my website, if you go to
38:33
my website, there's an about page about me.
38:36
You will see the timeline of my story on my on my website.
38:42
That is my bio, which basically means who the heck is Kate and
38:46
what is her journey and what has she done?
38:48
That is very different than my brand story, which means what
38:51
I'm really here to do. And also again, who am I the
38:55
guide for? Who have I created what I've
38:57
created for? What is the offer?
38:59
What will success look like? That all that messaging is very
39:02
different than what my actual timeline and bio is.
39:05
And often time what I see on websites is people will be like,
39:07
you know, I went to school and I got this degree and guess what?
39:11
We're right back at, you know, you making yourself the hero of
39:14
someone's journey and how great you are.
39:17
And The thing is, we want to remember that when someone's
39:19
thinking about investing or when someone's thinking about buying,
39:22
they want to know that we know what we're doing.
39:24
Obviously they want to know that we have credentials, but
39:26
frankly, they don't care about your bio.
39:29
They don't care about, you know, all the timeline of all these
39:32
things. That's not the basis of where
39:34
they're making their decision. Yes, they may use it to validate
39:38
who you are and that you have credentials, but other than
39:41
that, they want to know how you're going to help them.
39:44
So my recommendation is around the about page of a website.
39:47
You should have both. You should have the overview of
39:49
your credentials, meaning a quick summary of your timeline.
39:52
But that alone is not enough. You need to also have a brand
39:56
story, meaning how you specifically help people with X
39:59
problem with what kind of process to achieve what.
40:02
Now this is also really important on the homepage.
40:05
I recommend people again not having your bio but having your
40:07
brand story on your homepage. A small little area that says go
40:11
to the about page for more. And you also need this on sales
40:14
pages. But here's the thing, you will
40:16
notice that the brand story that you have changes for every sales
40:21
page. So this is not a matter of like
40:23
your bio being copy pasted on every sales page that you have.
40:27
And I'll tell you why. Remember, we have to think of
40:30
the character. So when people have different
40:32
offerings or they have like a mastermind or they have a course
40:35
or they have something, right? If I have a program A that is
40:39
super, super focused on speaking to beginners, and then I have
40:42
program B that is really focused on speaking to scaling people,
40:46
the characters are different. So if I just talk about, you
40:50
know, again, what's their problem?
40:52
The problem with the beginner business is not the same as the
40:54
problem with that of a scaling business.
40:56
So it's important that we give context to the kind of person
41:00
we're speaking to on the actual sales page.
41:03
So what this means is you should have a revised like a small
41:08
edited brand story section to each of your sales pages because
41:14
that really is what's going to allow someone to see
41:16
specifically how you would help them around that offer.
41:20
OK, now we know at the website we need about page, we need
41:24
homepage, we need sales page. We also want to look at social
41:27
media. So you'll see for example, on my
41:28
highlights, I have a story there around my brand.
41:32
You can also do reels around this.
41:34
I do these probably once every three months at least, like on
41:37
my story. And again, my story, it's not
41:40
timeline, it's the actual story of the evolution based on this
41:43
seven part framework. And I also have this as an
41:47
ongoing, you know, piece of content that I really do in a
41:50
lot of different forums. So, you know, this is something
41:53
that you can integrate in a lot of different pieces that you
41:55
create. But even for me, I had a power
41:57
of the pivot episode. It's one of our earlier parts of
42:00
this podcast. And that was really talking
42:02
about the journey. It wasn't really a timeline
42:05
thing. It wasn't like, you know, in
42:06
2020, I did blank like it was about where was I like what was
42:12
the character and what did I have to overcome and what what
42:14
did I almost, you know, risk or cost myself by not doing
42:18
something like all of that is what you're going to start to
42:20
find inside. And also e-mail marketing.
42:22
We see this in things like the welcome sequence when someone
42:25
joins your world and starts to, you know, add themselves to your
42:29
e-mail list. You will see this always in
42:31
launch emails when you're sending a launch e-mail, there's
42:34
usually something in your launch emails about you as the
42:37
facilitator or the person who's actually running or operating
42:41
the offering. You also will have us a lot in
42:43
newsletters when you send newsletters to your audience
42:45
through e-mail. And again, even, you know,
42:48
listening to this podcast. If you have a podcast and you
42:50
have a podcast intro and you're introing yourself as a host, you
42:55
need to be able to explain your brand story.
42:57
If you are someone who's going on podcasts, if you are having
43:00
the goal of being on podcasts as a guest, that is also something
43:04
that you want to make sure that you have clarity around, which
43:07
is how do you explain your story and use this seven part
43:12
framework to explain it without just being like, yeah, you know,
43:14
I start, I was here and then I was here and then I did this and
43:18
it's all timeline. It's like these these series of
43:20
events is how people explain their story instead of actually
43:23
explaining their brand through the story.
43:27
Now, obviously this is something you'll see in even in sales.
43:29
So if you're doing like discovery calls kind of teaching
43:32
and talking a little bit about yourself in your bio.
43:34
If this happens at live events, it also is infused into, you
43:39
know, so many different things that you do as well into the
43:41
names that you have of your offerings of your brand of
43:45
things that you create. It goes into the visuals that
43:48
you use. It goes into so many different
43:50
things. So if after listening to this,
43:52
you're feeling like, OK, I know listening to this, I need to
43:55
start taking my brand more seriously and I need to put this
43:57
brand story in more places, Here's my advice to you.
44:01
I would personally take this seven part framework.
44:04
Again, whether you want to read the book or however you want to
44:07
kind of go deeper into this, I would take the seven part
44:10
framework. And what I would do is I would
44:12
have it provide you questions that allow you to unpack where
44:19
you need to fill in each of the blanks.
44:20
OK, the one beautiful thing about AI is that AI can really
44:25
help us with getting the the wheels turning around
44:28
integration. So if you are somebody who feels
44:31
like, OK, this framework feels like I get it, but I don't know
44:34
that I could take that and put it right onto social media or
44:37
right into a newsletter. My recommendation is to
44:39
literally use AI as your best friend for this.
44:42
Go through the book or again if you want to use my prompt of the
44:46
of the skimming, insert the seven part framework into AI and
44:51
ask it to give you prompts and work with it to build this out.
44:55
Once you have these seven parts of your story, then what you
44:59
will do is you will have that, print it, write it, pin it, save
45:03
it. And I want you to start getting
45:05
in the reps of that. Get into the reps of saying it
45:08
on a podcast, get into the reps of saying it on a sales call.
45:11
Put the reps in. By doing so on social media,
45:14
putting in the reps of doing it over and over again is going to
45:17
make it easier. You when you're asked to quickly
45:21
come up on stage at an event or someone invites you on a
45:24
podcast, you won't always have your script of your, you know,
45:29
brand story there. This is something that my goal
45:32
for you is number 1, to establish it, but #2 to live it,
45:36
to breathe it. Because when you do, you are a
45:39
walking billboard for your brand every single day.
45:43
And so instead of it being the story you tell, it can actually
45:47
start to become something you embody.
45:49
And that's really the deepest level of brand is when you're
45:52
not really at this place where you're, you know, trying to
45:55
think of all these pieces and you're trying to, you know, get
45:59
all of the strategy present in a given moment.
46:01
For me, the thing that I have found has been the most powerful
46:04
thing around understanding brand and brand strategy is that when
46:08
you understand brand and brand strategy, you will start to get
46:11
clarity on you, who you are and the underbelly of what you're
46:15
creating. And when that happens, you can
46:17
take that clarity and put that into everything that you touch,
46:20
everything you create. It will start to become so
46:23
second nature to you that it will become less, a lot less of
46:29
an added effort the longer that you're in business.
46:32
So now if someone asked me my story on a podcast, I can just
46:34
riff it off versus outlining the timeline, right?
46:38
I know this story arc. And because of that, I can kind
46:41
of use this structure to be the basis of how I explain my story
46:45
anywhere, anytime in any moment. So that is what your homework is
46:49
for you. I would love for you to dive
46:51
into this framework, the seven part series.
46:54
And I also would love for you as an action to say, OK, I'm going
46:57
to take this and I'm going to outline my story.
47:00
I'm going to get really clear on who I am and how I want to
47:02
communicate this in an intentional way that builds
47:05
brand and doesn't just tell people my bio.
47:07
Because we want to remember having people know your bio is
47:10
not the same as people having an understanding of your brand, who
47:13
you are, what you stand for and how you're going to help the
47:16
person who's listening to you or consuming you.
47:18
So I hope today was helpful for you.
47:20
This, I know, was almost like a little brand story master class.
47:23
So if you are somebody who's like, I'm inspired, but I'm a
47:26
teensy bit overwhelmed, my recommendation to you is go back
47:29
to this, go back through this, go to the framework, sit with
47:32
this, go to ChatGPT, get the wheels turning.
47:36
This is not a one and done. This is you taking the
47:39
commitment to say, I am deciding that I'm not just going to be
47:42
another bio on Instagram. I'm not just going to be another
47:44
biography on an about page. I want to build a brand, I want
47:49
to build a Starbucks, I want to build a Nike.
47:52
I want to build something that people remember, something that
47:55
people are excited by, and something that people can't wait
47:58
to consume, something that they have an emotional connection
48:01
with. And that's 1000% possible for
48:03
you. But it starts here.
48:05
It starts with putting these pieces into action.
48:07
So, so hope that today was helpful for you and I cannot
48:10
wait to see in the next episode. And, as always, stay ambitious.