All of branding can be broken down into two phases: first, define your brand, then apply it and market your business. In this short episode, I dive into the questions of The Brandscaping Method you need to answer in each phase.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* Starting scrappy or bootstrapping, in the beginning, means you’ll develop your brand messaging over time

* The two phases of building a wildly successful brand

* How I developed my “signature process,” The Brandscaping Method

* The first phase of building your brand covers all the thinking things

* The second phase covers all the doing things

* Why people buy you instead of your offers

* Authentic consistency and mastering your message

* The five things you need to know about your marketing foundation

* Why you need to put your marketing foundation together with your brand foundation

QUOTABLES:

“It’s a rare, rare thing to start a business and immediately have brand direction. You have to get in the weeds and feel out your processes and methods.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“The first phase of defining your brand includes all of the thinking things: from a-ha moments to brand positioning.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“It isn’t a coach people want. It’s a confident leader they can believe in.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“Those who are in demand all have clearly-defined processes… they are incredibly consistent in their messaging.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

* The Perils of Starting Scrappy

* The Brandscaping Method

* The Show-Up System

* Intentional Business Application

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For over a decade, the most popular list-building advice from experts has told you to create a lead magnet or freebie to attract subscribers. What if this advice is actually hurting you and killing your KLT factor? In this episode I talk about three things that your sales funnel can do to BUILD your brand and grow your Know, Like & Trust factor.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* The three things you need to understand about building a brand before we cover building one with your sales funnel

* I cover what a sales funnel is

* Why bro marketers gave funnels a bad rep, and also what they got right

* What your client journey and sales funnel have in common

* Why I don’t like the term “pipeline”

* Why focusing only on people who buy right now will cannibalize your business

* The importance of nurturing

* The three ways to (easily) build your brand in your sales funnel

* Why most freebies suck

* The magic number threshold your freebie needs to be worth to make it worth it

* Some examples of platform content for individual businesses

* The massive amount of business you’ll miss out on if you’re only selling to people “right now”

QUOTABLES:

“A funnel is simply a way to attract interest and attention to what you do and then guide those prospects to buying.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“If I can get the same five tips on your freebie that I can get by googling without sharing my email address, you have a big problem.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“Give me something useful! Give me something that comes from YOUR brain and tells me why I should trust YOU over google!” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“If you look at your freebie and can’t honestly say you’d charge at least $50 for it, you may as well not have one at all. You are damaging your KLT factor if it’s a half-hearted attempt ‘just to get it out there.'” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“Your platform content should meet your clients where they are at right now, introduce the problem to them and shift their belief around the subject.” – @britneygardner

Rita Barry, professed numbers and data geek, talks about numbers as they relate to your marketing decisions whether it’s paid traffic or not.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* Rita gives her take on numbers and why they’re important

* The three stages of a marketing funnel

* We talk about the world of FB ads and how they’re deceivingly simple to start but require a lot of different skills to really thrive

* Why even with a long history as an agency owner, even Rita is surprised by some ads that take off

* Anecdotes and outliers aren’t good data for making marketing decisions

* Why an expensive cost per lead matters to one business but not another

* We talk about expectation setting, especially as it relates to differences between in-person and online businesses

* At the beginning of her business, Rita didn’t understand the correlation between projecting revenue goals and outline a marketing plan to get there–and now she sees it’s all about knowing the numbers

* Rita’s take on the beauty of marketing being both art and science

* The benchmarks service providers and course creators need to know for conversion rates

QUOTABLES:

“The better you know your numbers, the better you can run paid traffic. And often if you’re running paid traffic and you don’t know your numbers, a lot of the improvements come from optimizing your numbers.” – Rita BarryClick To Tweet

“When I say marketing funnel I’m really talking about the whole customer journey that people have getting to know you.” – Rita BarryClick To Tweet

“The part about Facebook ads that’s so deceiving is that it looks easy…but it can be really challenging between the graphic, copywriting and data side as they are skill sets that don’t often live together in a human.” – Rita BarryClick To Tweet

“Facebook ads don’t really work unless your business and marketing work.” – Rita BarryClick To Tweet

“The trends and the patterns over time are infinitely more important than the high days and low days [in your analytics.]” – Rita Barry

They say it’s all about who you know, not what you know. But sometimes it IS about what you know–and knowing which questions you need to be asking to get yourself ahead. In this special anniversary episode, we ask five experts the one question they wished their clients asked more often to get the most benefit out of their services. If you’re hiring team members or freelancers to further your business, this is a can’t-miss episode.

* How this episode came about after I sat frustrated in a Q&A with a successful man, because other attendees were asking superficial questions instead of meaty, move-the-needle questions

* Digital marketing strategist Reland Logan’s VIP question

* Jess Freeman’s question about websites

* John DeMato’s question about creating emotional connection

* Melva Robertson talks about truly embracing authenticity

* A brand strategist’s most important question – all about attracting perfect-match clients.

It is so much easier to hire the right freelancer or right person for your team when you’re asking the right questions.Click To Tweet

Setting up an ad campaign is great, but it only works as well as what’s happening once you generate that customer–and that’s not your ads person’s responsibility, it’s your responsibility. – @mktggrayClick To Tweet

You need a digital introduction in a way that inspires them to read what you wrote. -@dematophotoClick To Tweet

We live in a society where everything is a replica of what someone else has done so it’s really hard to embrace your authenticity. -@WriteMediaPRClick To Tweet

If everyone’s doing the same thing, no one stands out. Those are the ones who will be remembered. -@WriteMediaPRClick To Tweet

If you want to know the one thing that’s most important to attract the kinds of clients you desire, you need to define your brand foundation at a deep, authentic level.

Podcast visibility expert (and hater of robotic pitches) Angie Trueblood and I talk about using podcasts as a strategy to build your personal brand.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* How Angie found herself in the podcast business by leaning into her strengths

* Why you can really damage your brand by not pitching yourself in an aligned way

* The key things you should include in a podcast pitch so both you and the host benefit

* Why trying to get on competitors’ podcasts is a bad idea

* How to make it really easy for a podcast host to book you onto their show

* Once you learn how to effectively pitch a podcast, you can apply it to other visibility avenues.

* Avoiding presumptive language and giving the reader an out

* Angie’s go-to ways to find podcasts in the chosen niche

QUOTABLES:

“Any outreach you do on behalf of your business needs to be considered as a part of your brand.” – Angie TruebloodClick To Tweet

“Identify complementary businesses–I call that the tipping point, when you look at your ideal client, what’s the tipping point of when they’re looking to hire you and who else are they looking to hire at that time.” – Angie TruebloodClick To Tweet

“You need to connect the dots for the podcast host. It should be really easy for that host to read the email and decide if it’s a good fit or not a good fit.” – Angie TruebloodClick To Tweet

“You can take the bones of any sort of visibility outreach and apply it to a ton of different types of mediums.” – Angie TruebloodClick To Tweet

MORE ON ANGIE:

Website | Instagram

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

* Roadmap for Podcast Pitching Success

* Go Pitch Yourself Podcast

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Memes, the great social equalizer, have a ton of hidden business and branding lessons.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* Why memes are both relevant and connective

* The guac is extra, but so am I

* I don’t know how to explain that you should care about other people

* I don’t know why I’m not losing weight

* A content creation hack

* How to connect and convert with your audience

QUOTABLES:

“Memes bring us together socially and potentially bring levity to dark and heavy topics.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“It’s that extra–the guac–that’s really going to move the needle forward in your business.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“When you really, truly care about your audience, it’s easy to make products they not only need but want.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“Content creation only seems overwhelming when you’re not doing it.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

* Blcksmth’s meme

* Huff Post article on Meme #2

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TO BUILD YOUR BRAND:

Britney has a variety of

Brand strategist Marietta Gentles Crawford and I talk about the major do’s and don’t’s of LinkedIn personal branding, especially after you’ve done the basics of setting up your profile for connection.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* Mari acknowledges our overwhelm being on every platform and suggests if you’re going to use LinkedIn, give it a real try for 60-90 days

* What you should do after the basics of getting your profile set up

* To extend a personal invitation or not? Mari weighs in.

* What building a warm audience looks like on LinkedIn

* How to create a truly engaged network, even if it’s on the smaller side

* What NOT to do with new connections

* Why different LinkedIn “experts” have different approaches with you to use the platform

QUOTABLES:

“LinkedIn has been an amazing platform for me to write, attract clients, meet amazing people who refer me.” – @maribrands4youClick To Tweet

“To give LinkedIn a fair try, you do really need to commit to showing up on the platform.” – @maribrands4youClick To Tweet

“You can have this large network, but if it’s not filled with people who are engaged then that’s not going to give you the return you’re looking for.” – @maribrands4youClick To Tweet

“I talk about LinkedIn from a branding and human to human level, because that’s how I built my business and how I benefit from the platform.” – @maribrands4youClick To Tweet

“I don’t look at people as leads; I look at them as someone I want to help.” – @maribrands4youClick To Tweet

MORE ON MARI:

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

* LinkedIn Level Up: a personal branding...

How to design a system that works with YOUR unique way of doing business or alter someone else’s system to work for you.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* Solution-seeking when it comes to setting up systems in your business

* As business owners, we have to do things we don’t always like, so we may as well create an efficient system to get it done

* The heart of your brand messaging

* The questions you need to ask when you’re having trouble creating content for your business

* How to work with your rhythms to create epic content

* A personal story of my systems saving me

* What market research told me about my best clients’ needs

* Systems and feeling overwhelmed when trying to use someone else’s solution

* Next steps if content creation IS a system you’re trying to master

QUOTABLES:

“It’s time to design a system that works WHEN you’re in the flow and keeps the engine running when you’re not.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“Remember – your brand is what others think about you and what you stand for. You can’t control what they think, but you can help shape their perception of you.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“You’ve got to offer your audience something they want and don’t yet have or a solution to a problem they have and want to release.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“Why is writing content that simply tells what you stand for so hard? If it is, is it really what you stand for?” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“How CAN you make it work? How can you make your business more effective and life easier at the same time? That’s what being a solution-seeker asks.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

* 3 Things You Need to Know About Showing Up

* Social Post Formulas

Amanda J. Daley, a health coach and mentor for other health coaches to create thriving practices, tells us how to set apart our business online, use social media for its unique benefits and hone our message.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* The number one thing coaches need to get clear on

* Amanda likens talking about pain points to the idea that no one goes to a pharmacy to buy a health coaching pill; they buy a pill to fix a pain point

* How you can market to pain points without using fear and scare tactics

* Amanda’s take on using social media versus funnels and ads

* Why social media is the perfect place to hone your message and build your Know, Like & Trust factor

* Places like Instagram are great for creating real relationships and get over the sales sleaze feelings

* How important the target market is, but why you don’t want to get hung up on it

* Why getting wrapped up in stories and photos should be second to getting phone calls

* The real work of being in an online business

* Why we need to make use of the free online social media platforms while they’re available

QUOTABLES:

“Your ideal client is in pain on something… we all have struggles, we all have things that we want someone to help us with.” – @amandajanedaleyClick To Tweet

“It’s different than digging into their pain; it’s more about compassionately seeing where they’re struggling and offering them a way out.” – @amandajanedaleyClick To Tweet

“Practice your messaging. Put it out there and see if it’s resonating. We don’t have to sit at home and craft it and get it perfect. We can experiment.” – @amandajanedaleyClick To Tweet

“If we’re really honest, being seen and being heard is super scary. It’s one of the reasons that most people struggle when they start getting into business.” – @amandajanedaleyClick To Tweet

“People that succeed in online businesses are the ones that would do it without the money; it’s for passion, you’ve got that drive.” – @amandajanedaley

I talk about Muhammad Ali’s rise to greatness and apply it to brand and niche lessons every online biz owner needs to know.

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

* Why you can’t figure out how to communicate with your ideal client

* Ali’s story and the three points relevant to branding your business

* How to define your best client

* When rules don’t apply in marketing

* Making finger-pointy marketing

* How to know your niche

QUOTABLES:

“You can’t figure out how to communicate with your best client until you know who your best client IS.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“What if, instead of following a physical mold, you defined your best client with internal motivators?” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“How do you know if something is going to convert without copious amounts of time and money on testing? The answer: know your niche.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“If you want your business to stop feeling like a constant fight for relevance and a regular grind for clients, you have to know your best client intimately.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

“You have to know your client to nail your niche.” – @britneygardnerClick To Tweet

 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

* Know Your Niche workshop

* Ditch the Ideal Customer Avatar #077

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