The Brandsmith

This episode is dedicated to telling you about something really cool I’m doing in October — a free event that's all about embracing the power of values in your business. So, grab your favourite bevvie, get comfy, and tune in to hear what this is all about.

Episode links:

• The Brand values, not bland values! roundtable
• Eli Trier

My friend Jennifer shares all her best tips for building thriving and engaged communities — you really don’t want to miss this!

In the world of online business, it seems like everyone has a community — whether it's paid or it's free — tied to their brand, which isn't really surprising at all, considering it's a pretty effective way of encouraging deeper relationships with the people you want to impact. But anyone who's ever tried knows that there's more to building a thriving and engaged community than simply setting up a free Facebook group and waiting for people to join and start connecting with each other and with your brand. I've seen so many communities go absolutely tits up. So where do we go wrong, and how can we fix it? I've got the perfect guest to help us sort all this out:

Jennifer Battle is an online CEO, business strategist, and founder of the mastermind community Success Revolution Society. She's been around the professional streets for more than 20 years now, and she's truly mastered the art of developing meaningful connections in business. Today, her work focuses on helping entrepreneurs build values aligned and profitable networks and communities so that they can experience success on their own terms, surrounded by people who bring them joy. In today's episode, Jennifer shares with us the secrets behind creating a positive and profitable community culture.

TL;DR — episode links:

• Jennifer’s website
• Connect with Jennifer on Instagram
• Jennifer’s amazing mastermind community, Success Revolution Society (I’m in there!)
• The Unf*kwitable podcast (launches September 12th 2023)

Welcome to another episode of Brand it! — where today I am joined by Laura Robinson of Worditude.

Laura is a marketing mentor for people who sell their expertise online as 1:1 services, courses, memberships and programmes. She has business, marketing and copywriting qualifications up the wazoo, and she especially loves to apply her 20+ years of experience working with people who want a comfy business — one that brings in the money they want and need, in a way that comfortably fits with whatever Life Stuff they've got going on.

Having spent years berating herself for making slow progress, not keeping up, falling behind people who started out at the same time as her, Laura realised she’s actually pretty freaking amazing for sticking with it, and growing her business slowly but surely each year.

In this episode Laura and I celebrate how awesome it is to have Life Stuff going on, and still be building a business anyway — especially when a whole lot of business advice is actually not that useful for us.

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Worditude website
• Connect with Laura on Instagram
• Laura's collection of FREE resources (includes a sales page template, free lessons on aligned persuasion and marketing messaging, and a whole bunch of useful blog posts!)

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed for Authority Magazine’s series about how to create a trusted, believable, and beloved brand. (Also: can we take a moment to acknowledge that for all of about ten minutes I got to share screen real-estate with Seth Godin?!)

So in case you missed it, or you prefer to listen rather than read, I’ve recorded it and turned it into this podcast episode!

I’m not gonna lie, this is going to feel a bit weird, because I’ll be pretending to be both the interviewer and the interviewee. But here we go!

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Read the original article on Authority Magazine
• Free micro course: Brand values, not bland values!

People + brands mentioned in the episode:

• Randi Buckley
• Slow Business Adventure
• Talormade
• Dana James Mwangi
• Chris Do
• Seth Godin

A bit of a rare occurrence today: I don’t often have a guest return to the podcast for a second interview. In fact, I think it’s only happened once before!

But when my friend Petra Fisher messaged me to say basically:

“Hey, I had a ball when I was a guest last time — my focus has shifted a bit now and I talk even more about values and purpose, would you have me back for a second round as YOU seem to be going more and more in that direction as well?”

...I needed all of two seconds to ponder on this before I answered HECK yeah, I'd love to have you back on the show!

Let me introduce you to Petra: A “cranky old fuddy-duddy who claims to know shitloads about Linkedin” — those are her words, not mine! It’s how her Linkedin bio starts.

You can probably already tell that Petra is a LinkedIn trainer with a twist. She's not really fussed about pleasing the algorithm. Instead, she shows you how to attract your dream clients: those who match your values, personality & fees!

Oh yes, my cuppa tea indeed! Which is perfect, since the one thing Petra does every day, all day, is drink tea. It’s brilliant really, she’s made her tea-drinking part of her brand — and a very memorable part too. Pure genius, if you ask me! Petra doesn’t work as hard as she would like, as she often ends up stuck under the cat, and given the housing shortage, she’s not holding her breath for the young adult daughter to move out, so she made sure her online business allows her to travel and work instead.

Intrigued? Grab a cuppa and join me as I welcome Petra back for a chat about how to stop being intimidated by Linkedin, and instead make it enjoyable and profitable.

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Connect with Petra — on Linkedin of course! Where else?!
• Grab Petra's free checklist
• The study that revealed that a whopping 82% of consumers want a brand’s values to align with their own

—Oh, you’re so creative, can you just whip up this [pretty design] for me?

—If you can just play around with some sketches, it probably won’t take you long!

—You work in marketing, right?

—I need someone to draw this for me, and I know you’re into artsy stuff so…

The other day, as I was chatting with a potential client, it dawned on me that; to someone who isn’t in my line of business; branding, design, and marketing, even art — anything labelled “creative industry” really — might all seem like one big, slightly confusing, mess.

Business strategy, brand strategy, brand identity, brand design, and marketing are all important components of a successful business. We all know that. And while they are related, each of these elements has a unique purpose and plays a distinct role in building your business.

So I thought: let me record a super quick guide to help you understand how these disciplines are connected, where they sit in relation to each other, and which of them I can actually help you with.

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Book a call with me
• Brand identity design — the full shebang!
• Brand Boost
• Brand it! strategy sessions

For this episode, I am joined by Rachael Cumberland-Dodd, an ex-corporate marketer turned niche-whisperer. She loves helping do-good business owners get to the heart of what they do, why they do it, and for whom, so they can market their mission with more ease, and less urgh!

Today, I’ve invited Rachael to share a conversation with me on a topic that sits right in the intersection of brand strategy and business strategy, and one that many people have strong opinions about how it “should” be done: defining your niche.

You know me, I don’t like “shoulds” — so I’m thrilled that we get to dive into a different, less rigid, way of doing things today, as Rachael shares her approach with us. And to quote Rachael:

"There's so much pressure to nail your niche, but what if your niche didn't need to be nailed — it just needed uncovering?"

Tune in to hear Rachael’s take on niching from within.

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Feed Marketing website
• Connect with Rachel on Instagram or Linkedin
• Book a free clarity call with Rachael
• Book a 90-minute 1:1 niche session
• Freebie: How to find and connect with your best-fit niche

In this episode, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Rachel Allen. 

Rachel is the owner of Bolt from the Blue Copywriting, where she and her team make words make money.

She loves mixing the neuroscience of communication with the art of great writing to create the words and strategies that make it possible for businesses to take the cap off their income, impact, and influence. Ultimately, all her work is in service of one simple mission: to write the words that bring great ideas into reality.

A little while back, Rachel wrote a series of three articles about the state of the online business world. They’re so good, I highly recommend you read them — in fact, I think they should be mandatory reading for every business owner out there!

Anyways, out of everything that Rachel wrote, six words really stood out for me. And by “stood out”, I mean: I couldn’t get them out of my head. They’re still there, they keep popping up in my mind almost daily — a sure sign of a true golden nugget!

Those words are: Human is the only move left. 

And that, my friend, is exactly what Rachel and I are going to dive deeper into in this episode — that also just happens to be the perfect follow-up to the last episode I dropped; about reclaiming authenticity.

I hope you enjoy this very human conversation!

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Bolt from the blue website
• Connect with Rachel on Instagram or Facebook
• Article 1: The big lie
• Article 2: The third wave of masculine marketing is here. It’s smart. It’s woke. And it’s horrifying
• Article 3: Human is the only move left
• Jonathan Stewart (Rachel mentions him)

Authenticity. It’s unfortunately become a bit of a buzzword in the branding world, and that is a pet peeve of mine!

Because so many companies have been misusing authenticity as a marketing gimmick to appeal to people’s yearning for something genuine, trustworthy, sincere products and experiences, “authentic” no longer carries the same meaning as it used to. 

So now, when a brand claims to be authentic, instead of leading to increased levels of trust — it often leads to scepticism and cynicism. That’s because we, as consumers, increasingly recognise that many brands use authenticity as a fancy facade to hide their true intentions. And those intentions are often focused on profit, profit and more profit, at any cost. As a result, these cynical brands have ruined authenticity for the rest of us, and it’s pissing me off big time!

Can we reverse this damage? I think we can, but it’s going to take some work. As human-centred brands, we need to take a different approach, one that prioritises authenticity in every aspect of our businesses — without shouting about it as if it’s a big deal. I mean, it kinda is a big deal, but really it should just be the norm. We shouldn’t have to question someone’s authenticity, but here we are.

Tune in to hear my take on this!

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Strategic brand design
• Brand Boost
• Brand it! strategy hours
• Book a free call
• Free five day micro course: Brand values, not bland values!

In this episode I want to dig deeper into a topic I emailed my list about a couple of weeks back, and I want to challenge you to ask yourself: are you falling into the trap of building a shallow brand?

I want to make it clear: I’m not implying that you, as a person, are shallow! Firstly: I don’t think you’d be listening to this podcast if you were, tbh. I would have scared you off a loooong time ago!

And secondly: even if you were, you wouldn't admit it, would you? I mean, who wants to be seen as someone lacking emotional or intellectual depth; that person who judges others on their looks, their job, their house, or how much money they have. Who is all-consumed with appearances, but flakey af when shit's about to get real. I’m not saying that at all.

Of course you're not shallow. But what about your brand?

I hate to tell you: If you are only focusing on the visual aspects of your brand, then… yes. Your brand is shallow.

 — But I want [my brand] to be so much more than just a pretty face! I hear you scream. Well, my friend, I want more for your brand too.

Tune in to hear about the pitfalls, and how to avoid them!

TL;DR — episode links:

• Shownotes
• Free brand audit checklist (PDF)
• Free five day micro course: Brand values, not bland values!
• Free brand perception survey (Google form)
• Brand it! strategy hours
• Strategic brand design
• Brand Boost
• Book a free call