How to Create an Elevator Pitch & a Bonus Personal Brand Strategy Session

Learn How to Create Your Elevator Pitch and Hear an Example of a Personal Brand Strategy Session for a Multi-Passionate Entrepreneur   Brand strategy.   It is the cornerstone of building a brand and business whether you are a small company, corporation, product business, or entrepreneur.   Your story and how you use it to differentiate yourself is what ultimately, determines the depth of your connection with your ideal audience. Sarah Braud shares a love for brand strategy with me.   Although we work in different ways with different client types, our end goal is to support our clients in building brands for success. About Sarah Sarah Braud is a writer, brand marketing consultant, and keynote speaker who loves talking about how entrepreneurs and leaders can use storytelling devices to connect with audiences.  Her writing has been published in a variety of online publications, including Art House America, Hippocampus, Numero Cinq, and Hungry Mountain. Sarah is most proud of her scripts, many of which have been produced by Nadus Films.   She also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University in their English Language learning Program.   From there, she went back to school to get a master's in creative writing.   When money wasn’t readily available as a creative writer, Sarah went into social media marketing.  Instead of focusing on analytics, she wanted to focus on branding and storytelling so she sold her business and started another to focus on brand marketing strategy. Collaboration over Competition There is no benefit to getting caught up in the competition between two businesses.  Instead, when people work together to collaborate, they can take their efforts to the next level and help more people.  Likewise, the phrase community over competition applies to the conversation with Sarah. We are all better off when supporting each other versus comparing and competing. The Story Brand Sarah is a firm believer in Don Miller’s “The Story Brand”.   She believes in the concept that your client is the hero and you are not.   Likewise, storytelling helps clients' brains rest and focus on what problem you will solve for them and helps them find clarity. When applying brand strategy, it really isn’t your story you are telling, it’s your customer’s story.  You are coming alongside your client to help them and solve their problem.  Similarly, our brands are not about us they are about what others think of us.   Above all, brands are about differentiation and that is where stories come in to help us connect and build relationships. Authenticity is Key for a Good Brand Strategy People can tell when others are telling their stories to bolster themselves or whether they are telling their own stories to serve others.  Your brand story can include your own personal story, but if your motivation is to serve your client by telling your story, people will be drawn to you.   You want to use your story to connect with others and serve customers.  The key is to serve others. Using Brand Strategy and Storytelling to Create a Tagline The tagline is your one-liner.   It is an inspiring way to express your aspirational identity.  Telling what it is that your customer will feel or the transformational story your client will feel.  Think of Nike and “Just Do It”.  It is about connecting with the clients’ inner self.  Above all, a tagline is a way to connect emotionally with your ideal audience. Using Brand Strategy and Storytelling to Create an Elevator Pitch Your elevator pitch is a micro-story.  The idea behind it is that if you get on an elevator, you only have 30 seconds, the time between floors 1 and 3 to tell your story.  It is condensing your story to the most important elements. There are three parts to your elevator pitch or any story: The problem – tell the problem you are solving. How you will solve the problem. What happens once the problem is solved. Problem, Solution, Results! This template can be used for doing case studies, product descriptions, and almost anything you do in copywriting. Writing Scripts for Films Nadus Films makes films to help people make a difference, primarily working with non-profit organizations.  Sarah has helped with writing scripts and creating the narratives for the films.  She also helps build storyboards for projects. Using and Creating Story Boards To Build Your Brand Strategy Take parts of a story using Don Miller’s 7-part story building framework. Create a document that pieces out the different parts of the story.  Through using this process, Sarah has created her own framework called the non-profit narrative.  Visually block out the parts of the story you want to show. Example of the film on Sarah’s website for Scarlet Hope in Louisville, Kentucky. N – Name Name your target audience, their age, background, goals, and dreams A – Adversity The problem they are experiencing.  Show how the problem is being amplified so show the statistics, political climate, context, and added complications that make adversity even harder. R- Reason What is your philosophy and mission statement – your “why” A – Achievement Demonstrate you are a trustworthy partner. Success stories, partners, etc. T – Tactic What is the plan, how will you serve this population to create change? I – Invitation or call to action How can your audience help? What can they do, what is the next step they can take; become an ambassador, donate, or volunteer? V – Vision What does transformation look like?  What does the other side of the journey look for? E – Extended metaphor Clues to details for the story. Symbols, objects, animals, etc. that demonstrate your work. Mini Personal Brand Strategy Coaching Session How do you create a personal brand when you are a multi-passionate entrepreneur? Sarah has her brand marketing clients, an online course that teaches her NARATIVE Framework, and how non-profits can tell their stories using film, and she has her own creative writing. The question is: How can Sarah create a brand strategy for all of these things with one message? It is very hard to narrow focus as a multi-passionate person. Think of your personal brand as an hourglass.  All of our ideas and goals and dreams are at the top of the hourglass.  Where the hourglass narrows, that is where we begin to focus. At this point, we want to look at our values, visions, and passions.  Ask yourself what really fuels you and what your visions are. Make a list of your values, visions, and passions.   What items in the three columns mirror each other or feel like a marriage?  What is the common thread? Now the hourglass begins to open back up. Think of it as a flow-chart. Sarah, the personal brand is at the top. The buckets of her business fall underneath Sarah as the overarching brand.  But the common thread is storytelling.   Now Sarah shares with her audience on all of her platforms that she uses storytelling to help her clients find clarity, spark interest, and attract more clients. Sarah will now begin to describe herself as a storyteller.  No matter which bucket of work Sarah is doing, she is using creative writing and storytelling to serve others. Now that Sarah has identified that her personal brand is herself and her gift of being a storyteller, she can create consistent and cohesive content to tell her audience what she does. Sarah can now begin to share content across all of her platforms from her website to her social media pages and all of the content will refer to her as a creative storyteller and using stories to solve problems for her clients. Sarah’s favorite phrase: You can’t read the label from inside the bottle.  She is referring to the fact that we all need outside help once in a while to achieve clarity and further our business. Keep a Breast In February of 2020, just before the Covid pandemic hit the United States.  Sarah is very fortunate that she was diagnosed with stage 1A cancer and even though it was an aggressive form of breast cancer, it was diagnosed early and Sarah didn’t have to go through chemotherapy and radiation.  She had a double mastectomy in March and reconstruction surgery in June. Sarah’s advice is that early detection can save your life.   She is now working with a non-profit organization, Keep a Breast, that promotes early detection.   Keep a Breast has an app that reminds young women to do monthly breast exams. Sarah offers a free clarity and connection website audit that you can access here:   https://mailchi.mp/5f5882378c44/cc   Learn more about Sarah and connect with her: Website: https://www.braudcreative.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/braudknows Facebook: www.facebook.com/braudcreative Instagram: instagram.com/braudcreative LinkedIn: linkedin.com/sarah-braud Learn more about your host, Robyn Graham, click HERE. To learn about The Brand Marketing Insider by Robyn Graham, click HERE. Join the Brand Marketing Insider Facebook Group HERE. Book a Brand Marketing Strategy Session HERE. Ask Me Anything HERE. Connect with me, Robyn Graham: Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Pinterest