Do You Have A Brand Clarity Guide?

Do you have a Brand Clarity Guide?

    Every single day your small business is faced with the daunting task of reaching out and grabbing attention, visually stimulating people, and captivating them! However, you can’t communicate well (visually, emotionally, or using any other sense) if you haven’t developed your brand clarity.   Brand clarity is difficult to describe because it’s not necessarily a tangible thing you can look at and touch unless you create a guide. This guide is an organized understanding of what your business does, how and why it does it, what your business wants to be known for with dozens of brand elements to help represent those ideas. Brand elements are things like: style, colors, textures, graphics, photos, messaging and fonts that work TOGETHER to create one digital atmosphere and one CRYSTAL CLEAR experience.

GETTING STARTED

  I want to stress that deciding on which of these elements to use is a process, and since no two businesses are exactly the same, no two business identities are either. Finding multiple elements that work together to enhance the effectiveness of your business identity requires research and creative direction otherwise known as Brand Strategy. Everything we discover and develop throughout the brand strategy process is explained thoroughly in the Brand Clarity Guide. The old method of just choosing elements because they look nice, or because they meet the personal preference of the person in charge of those decisions (usually the business owner) is disappearing altogether because that method is just not effective.

Brand discovery specifically aims to enhance the brand experience a business offers, but not without first understanding:

• what the business wants to accomplish

• how the business operates

• what inconsistencies and discrepancies that are contributing to an unclear experience

• what they need to create for their client

• what that client really needs from that business.

This is where the focus shifts to designing a business experience from the inside out. I always want to know what makes a business tick, so I often take an immersive look at the things that drive business reputation like:

• Customer service and client experience

• Customization

• Messaging and copy

• Value

• Brand culture and core principles

• Mission statement

• Standards of operations

• Visual merchandising and interior decorating (for brick and mortar stores)

THIS IS WHERE I MENTION YOUR AUDIENCE 1 MILLION TIMES

  Then and only then can we move on to researching this audience, who they are, and how we can make them feel extraordinary.

  The audience holds a lot of control over your business success, so impressing them with a thoughtful experience rather than a flashy one is becoming more and more essential. The online business world is a competitive frontier with nearly every business having a website. It’s just not enough anymore. It’s important to have a site, but to also have one that is strategically created to speak to each sense and need of your intended target audience. This is only one of many reasons thoughtful sensual design is the most effective and should always start with brand clarity discovery.

NOT THAT KIND OF SENSUAL

   sen • su • al  adjective : relating to or consisting in the gratification of the     senses.

  The human condition and experience is best gratified when indulged by a thoroughly pleasing experience. I define a thorough, thoughtful and useful brand experience as one that can effectively make someone feel well cared for and valued. Imagine walking into a space and feeling like it was designed just for you and how exhilarating that would be. Imagine feeling completely understood and catered to. You can offer that to your audience online by:

• taking the necessary time to understand the needs and emotions of your community and

• Understanding how best to communicate with them through all the senses in a digital space

• Deciding how you want to represent your business and tell an important story.  

  To create an emotionally impactful experience is to create a memorable one. As a brand strategist I don’t want to create businesses that just look nice, it’s much more effective to create a business that feels amazing, and becomes something people

• remember

• WANT to talk about

• want to return to

You might be wondering Why? Business success isn’t the responsibility of a brand strategist. And my response is simple: shouldn’t it be? Branding should be able to help your business grow because if should be helping you better communicate!

THE FUN PART

   Once there is a crystal clear framework for how a business operates  we can move on to the creative side of branding that most people are more familiar with. However, we’re still not jumping into creating a logo or a website just yet. There’s so much to decide before we can get to that.  The creative process includes selecting colors, materials, textures, shapes, patterns, creative direction, visuals, marketing, social media content, photoshoot concepts, props, digital graphics, and fonts. And the BEST PART is it’s all selected for a reason beyond just looking nice or trendy. It all serves a USEFUL purpose in expanding the experience it aims to offer.

This is NOT where we just throw together some visuals in a mood board and call it a day, although most DIY branding is exactly that. Literally anyone can make a moodboard and spend a few hours on Pinterest, but that doesn’t mean it makes any sense or that it will work.

 It’s worth a giggle for me when people think branding is just a mood board, or just a logo, but it’s not their fault.  DIY branding directives are giving a false sense of security. A moodboard isn’t anything without answers to the proper questions and a branding professional is there to help answer them. It’s more important to focus on the actual mood first before you get to any visuals, but that almost always gets lost in translation for someone inexperienced. It’s super important to understand why setting or evoking a particular mood is important to your business, and the intended audience because it gives purpose to each creative decision, which helps you clearly communicate.

PERKS OF THE GUIDE

A Brand Clarity guide outlines all of these aspects and elements so a business can reference it any time it needs.  When I create these guides in my process that Brand Clarity Guide looks like a 3-5 page PDF file. A Brand Clarity Guide helps the business stay consistent and cohesive. It helps to maintain the original integrity of the intended brand and holds future creative decisions accountable for meeting the original objectives. It also helps the design process. It helps your designer deliver a website and logo that fits the needs of your business and audience, and it cuts down on lengthy resubmissions which can make creating an effective website or logo take much longer. Last, The Brand Clarity Guide helps you to maintain your brand long term and continue to create content for marketing on social media and other online advertising in a consistently recognizable and captivating way!

Now that you know what you didn’t know before I have some important questions for you: If you don’t have a Brand Clarity Guide what is holding your brand consistency together? How are you creating content that spreads your message and reflects your values? How are you reaching your people, and growing your business reputation? How do you plan to establish your recognition going forward?

If you’re really in need of an effective brand reputation that helps you more clearly speak to your audience I would love to chat!

Scaling Your Business with Brand Reputation

  When we think about up-leveling or scaling our business we tend to make a giant list of things we want to improve. We might consider our branding and question if it's time to rebrand, but most business owners don't consider that at all. They jump into the measurable things like growing their social media followers, you tube subscribers, or email list and I truly wish it was just that easy.  We absolutely CAN wake up one day, decide we're not satisfied with where we are in our business, and take the drastic and necessary steps to make it start pouring in more money, but it should always come with a plan.  If you've ever tried to rebrand or scale your business on your own you probably know what I'm talking about. There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (oh, the tears) and it's not something to just decide and start doing on a whim. That's not to say that scaling doesn't work. Of course it does, but you have to have a plan. If you haven't yet decided how to scale or improve your business so that it converts more traffic into dollars you should know what the rest of us have all experienced; it ain't easy. More importantly there's no formula for getting it right for every business, but the experts don't often tell you that. There is however, a way to go about scaling that is most efficient and less likely to result in a nervous breakdown, and that's what I want to share with you today!  

    The top things people say they want to improve besides the few I mentioned above (social media followers, and email subscribers) are: SEO, marketing and Facebook ads, creating content, copy, and building a 6 figure business. Now, let's explore WHY people want those things. Well, first because they want to earn more money, and next because they want to get the word out about their business, and marketing your business online is the fastest way to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time. It's a numbers game for sure because logically if you're business comes in contact with 100 more people at least 10 of them will take a look at your site. The problem is we're not targeting "people", we're targeting YOUR PEOPLE and we don't just want to drive them to your site and say good day. You need them to become a client or customer. You need them to purchase and come back again so you can get to that other goal of 5, 6, or 7 figures.

Here is where your reputation comes in: If you want to build buzz around your business you have to develop and effectively memorable brand experience by catering to the needs, wants and emotional state of your audience; making their day brighter and more enjoyable in some way will most certainly encourage  them to transition from a looker to a buyer. BUT you should know: it doesn't happen overnight. Next, you have to build up your brand identity and know what you stand for.

What are the three things you want your business to be known for? If you need some examples peep my Instagram story about the 3 things I want my business to be known for and why. You can find it in my stories highlights under Strategy. After you have that all considered and outlined, you have to know where you're going. What goals do you have in mind? Both long term and short term?

GET SPECIFIC! The goals I listed above are much too vague and essentially set you up to fail from the start. How many followers do you want? How many more email subscribers? How much more money per week, per month, etc. Not to mention that when you have a fantastic brand experience that makes people feel amazing (informed, motivated, confident) the followers, the opt-ins and the money will come anyway! Specific mini goals are essential to tracking progress and reworking a game plan if you're not hitting those smaller goals, and your branding ties everything together, works for you even when you're not actively online, and maintains consistency!

 So now that we're clear that you can't build a reputation without starting with a defined brand experience and a memorable business identity lets move on to BUILDING BUZZ!

  You have to show up. Far too many people are trying to automate their business much too soon. You have to be present to cultivate loyalty, earn trust, and nurture the community you're building. Mass emails, funnels, opt-in pop ups all have a cold and impersonal feel to them that blatantly shouts "I'm more interested in the dollars than the connection", and when you make your audience feel like nothing but a number that can backfire. 

Next, you have to SHARE YOUR VISION! I've said this before. If it doesn't sound familiar just take a look at my last blog post. If you have goals, and you're relying on your audience to help get you there, you have to take them along. You have to let them know what they're helping you to accomplish. Building a following that totally supports and encourages you comes from being transparent, genuine and from offering those same things back!

If you're still unsure of where to start, download this simple worksheet that will help you outline your reputation and message!

 Once you're super clear on all of the above you can really start planning products and services. I always like to plan 3 at a time. One small offer, one medium offer, and one large offer. Take a look at all that you want to accomplish, the value you're currently offering your audience, and what they need most from you and brain storm offers that will meet everything on your list! Then it's time to get into creation mode! Scaling and up leveling certainly isn't easy or fast, but it's fun and so doable with the right plan.

Once you have a widely respected reputation you can start collaborating, outsourcing, trading services, influencing, and getting featured which all brings those eyes you want on your business!

Join me back on Instagram to continue this weekly topic on building a reputation, and how that reputation helps you grow your business!

A CLEAR BRAND VISION

     I tell my clients, and my social media followers to always have a vision. It’s one of the staples of my foundation setting method. Once we get a solid vision with goals and dreams and aspirations I tell my client to share it! SHARE YOUR VISION! Get your audience on board. They can’t help you achieve your goals, truly support you and everything your business stands for if they don’t really know what you’re working on or working toward. I know how daunting this is, and how vulnerable it makes us, but it’s liberating to just rip that curtain down and get really fucking honest. Sadly, I haven’t followed my own advice. For a long time I thought that what I wanted and what I was trying to accomplish was obvious and that saying so would be pretty redundant. BUT over the last few weeks, I’ve come to realize that I DO need to just strip it down and share. So here’s my superhuman, big fucking vision! Let me walk you through the steps of sharing your own vulnerability while I share my own! This is my digital outstretched hand, ready to hold yours!

1. WHY IS YOUR BUSINESS IMPORTANT TO YOU?
      There’s a lot of small business owners out there RIGHT NOW capable of incredibly life changing, life saving, and world shifting things! We all have a purpose and a dream and it’s important to me that more people get to serve their purpose and realize their dreams! It’s important to me that their business is successful because that means their gifts are being shared with the world and they’re fulfilling their destiny and making a living off their God given talents!! BUT, and this is a really big but there are also a lot of business owners out there right now that aren’t representing themselves in the best way possible. It’s not due to negligence, or intentional at all. They just don’t know what they don’t know. There is a method to the madness. There are specific ways to go about creating a brand identity that will help:

• Build brand awareness

• Grow your brand recognition

• Cultivate brand loyalty

    AKA make money, build a successful business, and grow a loyal community.  Without  the right knowledge these businesses are going about branding the wrong way and they’re not connecting with their audience. My business helps refine their brand identities and pull in that target market.

 Being an entrepreneur is super important to me because I want to live a life of freedom like all of you. I truly enjoy working for myself, spending time with my children and watching them grow. I want to do things on my terms when I want, how I want, and where I want. I’m really not obsessed with money, but I am obsessed with it creating the financial freedom that would allow me to enjoy life on my terms. And I don’t feel bad about saying that what so ever. Why should I feel bad for wanting a life of abundance? Thoughts become things and I’d rather live a life of positive energy and endless possibility, and I want that for every single one of us. I believe if we each got more honest about what goals we have both professionally and personally we CAN  be an unstoppable force.

2. WHY DID YOU START?
   Let me back pedal  a little. This didn’t start as a branding business. This didn’t even start as a business at all. It started as a New Years resolution to be more creative and in finding my creativity and managing another unrelated small business  I found I had quite an eye and the experience to help other small businesses succeed!
   In the beginning of this creative new years resolution,  I participated in some business development training that had me imagining what my next few goals were and here’s what I had listed:

    * visual strategy
    * build a supportive resourceful community.
    * help create and lead more leaders
    * conference calls with group accountability and strategy discussions
    * branding parties, empowerment celebrations, success soirées
    * creative digital studio space for creatives and influencers to get branding help in person, co-work and attend think tank discussions.
    
  3. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

Somewhere along the way it was made clear to me that this formula wasn’t desired and I chopped my plan up into micro pieces which inevitably lead to burnout. I found myself doing almost none of what I said I wanted to do at the very beginning. Sure, I had expanded and I’m now offering some KICKASS branding development and strategy, but that’s where it began and ended. I decided it was time to re-evaluate my vision, and here’s what happened!  2018 started with an amazing KA-POW, and has been nothing short of fabulous and reflective. I may have very well learned more in these first two months of 2018 than I did in all of 2017 just by doing a few things differently.
   • I unapologetically charged my worth
   • I welcomed positivity and prioritized up leveling to higher frequency vibe
   • I became the encouraging voice I was missing in my own life
   • I worked less and made substantially more with longer quality projects
   • I had dozens of incredibly encouraging and positive messages and emails from complete strangers who are now people I consider HHS community members.

4. SO NOW WHAT?
Something was still missing and that’s when I decided to revisit my ORIGINAL VISION and I’m following my own advice to share it loud, share it proud!  

• I’m tired of seeing the same thing everywhere. This was the driving force behind that New Years resolution two years ago!

• I want us to succeed together. I don’t just want to march clients in and out like cattle. I want long term working relationships, so I can be there when there’s hiccups, and when there’s excuses to overcome! Your success is my success. I want to make sure we don’t just set a plan, but that we stick to it, that we conquer our goals.

• I like group settings and how the collection is always stronger together than individually.

• I want to surround myself with the most positive, inspirational, interesting, worldly, creative, successful, charismatic people, and all those destined to be such things and more. People that want it bad like I do. Creatives who have personal dreams of collaboration and connection, who want to influence not for the popularity but for the actual impact. People that want to use their voice and their leverage for good and create change!

• I want us all to be toasting to epic sales quarters and lofty donations!

5. SPEAK FROM THE HEART
   Dear difference makers and  problem solvers, you are my people. You have a gift and I want to help you to share it with the world as much as I want to share mine with you. You simply aren’t fulfilling your highest potential if you’re just getting by, doubting, procrastinating, going through the motions but never really seeing progress or making changes. My vision for this business has always been one of community and that is why this old concept kind of hit me like a freight train. Seriously, it blew me away and I resisted it for days, looked for dozens of excuses not to explore it because it’s scary, and different, and epic, and I didn’t know exactly HOW! There was one thing that made me know it was right even though the how wasn’t worked out just yet. One glaringly obvious thing I couldn’t avoid. That was how good it felt to think about this becoming a reality. I know you’re familiar with that feeling. I know you enjoy that flutter and excitement when you think about the future.

6. WHAT’S THE BIG THOUGHT YOU WANT TO LEAVE PEOPLE WITH?

Having a business that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside has always been one of my top priorities for myself and for all of my client's and community members.
    We are all in the business of people, and understanding our people is a variable that a lot of us miss not only in the branding process, but in our business processes. We need people to need us. That’s the most exhilarating and terrifying thing about entrepreneurship. And here’s the even crazier part... you CAN do it, but that means betting on yourself. When did betting on ourselves get so God damn scary that we’ve decide building a fortress of excuses for not becoming the best version of ourselves, let alone allowing our businesses to thrive has become the norm?
    Obviously, this has become so much bigger than branding, so I’ll reel it in.  Branding, brand identity and strategy are still at the forefront of my focus. Those are my strengths and my skills. It has been made clear to me, however, that I need to fuse that together and create the digital space that is missing in our industry. One that helps us:
     • celebrate ourselves and our accomplishments and ENJOY IT
     • encourage positive thinking around abundance and financial freedom.
     • build intentional and effective brands that speak to our people and improve their lives, thus improving ours.
     • realize our full potential and our gifts.
     • overcome fear on repeat

     • find our brand clarity, our voice, our worth and most importantly our positivity
     • set a concrete brand foundation, SHARE OUR VISION, and cultivate brand loyalty

7. INVITE YOUR READERS ALONG!

So that’s my vision. That’s what I’m working on. As of right this moment it doesn’t have a name or a launch date, although once I’m set on something I’m pretty quick at making it happen! If you’d like to be a part of this new community, and have enough courage to commit to this program for at least six months, send me an email! I’d love to hear your vision too and how you think this new exciting adventure could help your business!

UPDATE: The vision is now LIVE and available for you all! Just click here.
   

WHY DOES YOUR BRAND LOOK THE WAY IT DOES?

How lame is it exactly to write a blog for the sole purpose of CELEBRATING!?  Lame or not this bitch of a blog is informative AS FUCK, and if you don’t cruise on out of here on the back of a floating unicorn I owe you an ice cream!

Recently, I gave my most OUTRAGEOUSLY successful and intensive package a huge refresh. It was time to kick things up a notch, and I genuinely wanted to spend more time with my client's helping them through the first three months of a new brand or rebrand launch, instead of  giving them their guide and wishing them good luck. The package I’m talking about is POWER BRAND and yes I’m YELLING! I’m feeling kind of super loud and proud lately. It’s no small feat to make an earth shattering package and then make it even better, but here we are! Sometimes reality is even better than my day dreams and I have to pinch myself. Do you have days like that? Do you wish you could have more? I wish that for you too! I am absolutely biased to this process not only because it’s my livelihood, but because I am now more convinced than ever that this is what I am meant to do. My process is like no other. To get specific, that calling is to help more businesses succeed, but in order to make that more of a reality I knew I had to repackage power brand to be something that just can’t be fucked with. That’s right. It’s unfuckwithable. Let’s get to it, shall we?

What I really want to ask you is....

Why does your brand look the way it does?

No, wait, let's back up. What even is a brand?

There’s a lot of different answers to this question, and none of them are really wrong. Some people will tell you that your brand is what people are saying about your business amongst each other. Some people will say your brand is your business name and logo. I say your brand is all of the above but most importantly it is all the ways your business offers an experience and then all the ways it delivers that experience and makes  lasting impression for good, for bad, or somewhere in between. Branding isn’t just something to look at. It’s something to feel.

I know that sounds super  cheesy, but it’s TRUE. Think about it. What makes people want to even talk about your business positively or negatively to begin with? Their experience or impression! What makes you want to talk about or share other people’s businesses? Your impression or experience, good or bad! What makes people want to chat about OTHER people? It’s not usually all the cool stuff they have, but how that person has touched their life in one way or another. At funerals you don’t hear people talking about Bob with the really nice yacht. You hear people talking about Bob the inspiring football coach, the proud father, the humanitarian. IMPACT!

                 Back to your brand for a moment….

If you’re worried that your brand was built all wrong, don’t worry it’s not as far out of your reach as you think.  You can STILL create the atmosphere that best suits good feelings, and you can build a standard for service that prioritizes satisfaction, but you need a Powerful Brand and that means you need a powerful strategy.

So I’ll ask again; why does your brand look the way that it does?

The experts want to make marketing and branding sound super complicated, but we all really want ONE thing; a happy and loyal customer. And if they’re not a customer yet we want our business to create a lasting impression that make  them want to return and bring their friends. We want to make people feel good BEYOND just feeling good about our business, but feeling like our business has made them better. Building connections is valuable to you AND your audience. Those relationships you build are going to help you grow your business, and you get the chance to not just make some money but to make a difference in people’s lives.

HOWEVER, branding hasn’t been done this way very often or for very long, and it has taken quite a long time to see the industry changing. Like any invention the concepts that drive my personal brand strategy methods came from oversight. There were obviously missing pieces in the way small business owners were representing themselves online and I knew that I could help them sort it all out. This was brand strategy as it had been for decades (in the corporate world), but shifting and evolving to what it also needed to be going forward for small businesses. It appeared from the outside that websites were being built with little to no reason or purpose, and it was preventing businesses from gaining any kind of momentum. Let’s actually talk about that. How there are millions of small businesses online, DIY-ing themselves into closing because they just don’t know how to make a marketing graphic look polished and professional. They just don’t know their social media photos are grainy in poor lighting. They just don’t know their logo totally clashes with their website. They don’t realize they’re lacking structure, substance, or context. This is where brand strategy comes in and fixes all these things.

          It isn’t twenty people in a room making decisions between cerulean blue and violet. It’s just me and you, but we’re still making those same important decisions for the same important reasons!

But why does any of that matter?

Well, for starters people are spending more time getting to know brands in this digital age than ever before. They’re spending more time online, and more time on social media. Consumers are more calculated and careful about where they spend their money and who they’re spending their money with. Every small business that wants to be taken seriously has a website these days, and there’s more content to consume than ever. Frankly, people are sick of being sold to and they want to know or feel something that isn’t just a cold and impersonal commercial. Consumers aren’t making large impulse buys from brands they don’t know or feel comfortable with. You need to reach out and pull them in! Getting their attention and silencing the noise is only half the battle.

So then why are we not making more calculated decisions when it comes to why our brand looks the way that it does, how it operates, when it operates, why it operates the way it does?  Because there’s not many people telling you to do any of it differently. This really isn’t any fault of web designers. They want to build a site and they expect you to come prepared with ideas for how it should look - its not their problem if it helps you accurately represent your business, or if it converts lookers into buyers. That’s not their job. Their job is to make it look professional. PERIOD. Unfortunately that’s not the world we live in anymore. PROFESSIONAL ISN’T ENOUGH! It could look professional AF and still be TOTALLY WRONG. And this is me rolling my eyes at anyone out there telling you that I’m just making you second guess yourself. THAT IS NOT MY INTENTION! My intention is to shake you and say I WANT YOU TO WIN and your website and your entire brand identity could be holding you back. COULD BE. That doesn’t mean it definitely is or it definitely isn’t. I’m literally one click and an email away and I’d happy to give you my honest assessment!

   So this power brand thing is a pretty big fucking deal?

YASSS, GIRL. YASSS! Brand strategy was already gaining a ton of momentum (thanks in large part to my non stop commitment and the amazing things it can do) when my OG Power Brand package was released last year. The goal was to bring businesses beyond their logo to the epicenter of their client experience,  and reverse engineer their brand to systematically reach out and connect with impact. We’re not just talking color theory and creative direction although that is a huge part, we’re talking about every minor client touchpoint in your business and figuring out how to  ENHANCE a memorable experience for them. Memorable experiences that make them feel good will bring you repeat business. It will grow your brand awareness and brand recognition! You will flourish. The only criteria is that you have to be in the business of genuinely wanting to make people’s lives better in some way!

So maybe you don’t know why your brand looks the way that it does, but that’s okay! We can work on it together! Think about how much easier creating your logo, your website, or even your social media content will be once you have every single part of your brand experience outlined for you in a guide you can send to anyone with just a  few clicks!

                          BUT LET'S GET BACK TO DREAMING OUT LOUD, SHALL WE?

               The things that keep me up at night are the number of businesses I haven’t yet reached, and how much of a difference I know brand strategy can make for them. Maybe that’s you. I want to see you realize dreams you didn’t even know you had. I want you to share in those pinch me type instances. I want to put in the work and reap the great rewards and I want that for my clients as well.  This is why I knew I had to change Power Brand  to a 90 day program. Brand strategy is action and then it’s  reaction, so I wanted to spend more time with each client editing and adjusting things as results finally started rolling in.  I didn’t want them to feel stuck or lost after undergoing such a major shift in their business!  I would absolutely LOVE to hear the dreams you have for your business, and I’d love to tell you how we can work towards making them a reality! CHEERS TO YOU, THIS BRAND NEW PROGRAM AND THE ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES!

TIPS FROM AN EXPERT FAILURE!

WARNING! IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY FOUL LANGUAGE, THIS ONE ISNT FOR YOU. ONWARD.

         Like almost every other business owner on earth I’m reflecting on this past year in business and planning for the new one. 2017 was a year of Phoenix-ing the fuck out of my business. Rising from the ashes each time a little more pissed and jaded, but somehow more determined than before.  Stubborn is as stubborn does, I guess.  Im kind of laughing at myself now think how I was envisioning a much smoother ride last January.   I did have clearer vision, focus and all the ambition in the world, but that still didn’t stop me from belly flopping in the shallow end of business ownership on occasion. That’s right. I had some failures. 

But just because I had some failures doesn’t mean I am a failure. Each time I failed, my business changed a little. It improved. Without failur my business would not work like it does now. While we all aspire to be that person who lucks into a successful business model on the first try and magically starts crushing every financial expectation, I think deep down we know that’s not realistic. Hope for the best, brace for the worst? No. First, I do not hope. Hope is not a strategy. Actually it’s the most non strategy there ever was because it doesn’t specify any tangible action or reaction. Hoping, wishing, and praying need to be done in unison with taking action. There is no part of any strategy that will help you accomplish your goals or fix problems by sitting back and crossing your fingers.  
    So here we are, right at the ass end of 2017 and ready to hit the restart button. How can we do better? Well, first we should learn how to fail! In my opinion there is a better way to fail and it starts with looking at failure as a positive thing. Nothing brings about needed change like failure and the sooner we accept and embrace failure for all the good things it brings us, the better off we will be. Here are just some of the things I think make failing so awesome. 

COMMITMENT
How committed are you to the following: 
your plan? 
That plan’s timeline? 
Your clients?
 Their satisfaction? 
To quality?
 To your employees?
 To yourself? 

When we fail to make commitments we fail to really nail down our objective, and if there’s no objective there is no blue print for how to accomplish it. This is where things get awfully wibbely wobbly and fall apart. Failure is eminent, and again your commitment will be challenged. Let’s use  mission statements as an example. From my experience working with clients there’s often not a huge amount of time or energy spent on whipping up a mission statement. Probably due to their shitty title. No one knows what the fuck a mission is or why it’s important. A mission is literally your businesses commitment and something to fall back on when you need direction. Your mission statement helps you to remain consistent, and it helps your audience understand what is important to you and how you’re working toward those values every single day. Ok back to commitment. 

Now that you’ve experienced some kind of failure and you know what doesn’t work, how committed are you to: 
Fixing it? 
Starting again?
Admitting defeat and what brought you there?

OWNERSHIP
Own it. If you fuck it up, own it. If someone on your team fucked something up on your watch,  YOU need to own it. After all their hiring and training falls squarely on your shoulders.  Take ownership of  failure and then take ownership of improvement. Take responsibility for holding others and yourself accountable. If you suck at self accountability find a mentor or an accountability group. Learn and grow from the knowledge you need to own the shit out of your results every single day.  We live in an excuse ridden era where we’d rather point the blame on anything or anyone other than ourselves. I’ve blogged and facebooked about this before, but this a great opportunity to revisit this amazing question! 

WHAT IS YOUR BUT? ....Yeah, you heard me. What is that thing you say “ I really wanted to do this BUT......” fill in any excuse you can think of here. The hard hitting truth is you’re either going to make an excuse or you’re going to execute. It’s really that simple. Not everything is easy, but we make excuses as a surival instinct to talk ourselves away from things that make us nervous. It’s really fight or flight and 110% all mental. There’s always a way, you just need to realize no one can do it but you and you need to do both of these things COMMIT and OWN the shit out of it. 

CHALLENGE
Challenge what you know, and challenge  industry standards. There are so many different ways to arrive at the same answer. Challenge your failure. How can it make you a bigger and better person? How did this failure teach you something? Failure doesn’t make your vision or your objective wrong, it makes the plan for achieving them better. There are infinite ways to refine a plan until it works, but you must be willing to challenge yourself not to give up too quickly. Challenge what you know and what you don’t. Challenge yourself to push on even through the set backs. 

PATIENCE
Rushing into anything  almost guarantees an incredibly high failure rate. Don’t forget to plan. Don’t forget structure. Don’t forget that YOU need a system. That system doesn’t have to look anything like anyone else’s, but it does have to keep you from distractions, and skipping important steps in achieving your goal! Be patient and forgiving of yourself. You don’t know what you don’t know, but don’t worry..you WILL find out as soon as you’re in a situation that requires expertise you simply don’t possess. Prioritize quality over quantity. Do not learn on the clients dime. They deserve a fully equipped and knowledgable professional and you need to do a quality jobs. Don’t rush into work you aren’t qualified to do just for the sake of earning a paycheck. Patience doesn’t pay the bills in the now, but it will in the long run when you take the time to really specify the who, what, when, where and why of your business. 

HUMILITY
Accept and admit defeat. Ask for help! Outsource those things you don’t know how to do, don’t want to do, or those things you are just shitty at doing. Be honest with yourself and own your strengths and opportunities. The more focused you can be on the things you’re good at it and love to do the better you will be. The support is out there just waiting for you to ask for it. Unfortunately not everything in business is a DIY project. Leave the DIY to pillow making, and decorations. We’ve all seen those Pinterest cupcake fails. There are just as many business related Pinterest fails, but snapping a photo of those issues are generally closely guarded secrets and in the moment, probably not very funny to us.... maybe this should be thing?!  

TRANSPARENCY
Fake it till you make it no more! Fail the shit out of something and then come clean. Share the story. Share your missteps and the learning experiences. It just might help someone else, or shed a very much needed light on the topic of business failures. One mishap isn’t going to sink your business, but you would be surprised how many people walk away without ever realizing their potential all because they felt they were struggling alone. Without candidly sharing their hardship with anyone they were unable to get the support and encouragement they needed. Not to mention the help they needed to right their wrongs. 

HONESTY
Get real. Like, really real. Especially with yourself on your strengths and weaknesses. Make a plan for improving the things you care to do better. Be honest with your employees and your clients. Admit when you’ve fudged it up. You’re human.  Making mistakes is very, very common. Take responsibility instead of deflecting blame or making excuses. Is this sounding familiar yet?! When it comes to failures it is so much easier to point the finger, but that doesn’t help us grow. It’s super hard to take the reason you’d like to blame the failure on and then there’s usually the real reason somewhere under that…pointing right back in your direction. 

    So what does this all have to do with branding? And my answer really isn’t any different than the answers I’ve given in the past. This all has EVERYTHING to do with branding. Every decision you make impacts client experience, and your brand identity, which is how people feel, and view your business. When we try to sweep failure under the rug there’s just a huge lump under the rug for us to keep tripping over. Using it to our advantage by growing and learning from it helps us to architect a better brand that strategically understand our clients needs better, and helps our business efficiently rise to the occasion. 
    Think of a flower for a moment. Pretty and conspicuous on the outside, but flowers have stems and roots that keep them alive, and although not as pretty are still essential to its existence. Branding your business internally might be more important in 2018 than it ever has. The need for small business branding to be more sensual and intimate increases daily. People want to know the business they’re supporting better than they ever did before. They want to support businesses that matter to them. They want to feel connected and invested in a part of your story, and the very first step to all of that is knowing how to fail and what do when it happens! 

Brand Sense 101

It's 1:39 pm and I'm sitting down to write this blog. The baby has already been asleep for thirty minutes so I'm on borrowed time, but I have a really great idea all organized in a notepad to my left, so I should be able to type this up in no time.

Then an email notification comes up across my screen. I must read it. It's from a potential client. I have spoken with this person a few times about their brand and it looks like they're getting ready to make those hard decisions.

 "What should I offer to those new clients? What [do] I want to really do? Now [that I'm established] I can choose, right? Which is the market that I should target? At the moment my work is [in] high end luxury. Should I go the same path? I know my abilities, I know that I am a creative person able to do different disciplines, but If I want to get to the next stage I need to become specific.. I need to know which path to follow, which are my services,  etc..." she writes.

  I smile. I'm rolling up my sleeves getting ready to answer her, but now I'm maybe thinking I should just email her the link to this blog when it's finished. Hold my drink.

If you're wondering where the hell I've been lately I have about a dozen terrible excuses, with the obvious cherry-on-top answer "I've been busy", but really I've been exploring and researching! I had already made changes to my brand strategy process for 2018 with a detailed focus on MISSION, MESSAGE, and VISION; 3 components that I strongly feel shape brand culture and brand experience. These three words allowed me to create a fundamental foundation setting process that will kick start every brand strategy I produce going forward. Up until a few days ago I was all ready to tie everything up and start planning for 2018. I didn't realize I'd have another huge wave of inspiration and that everything I knew was about to get EVEN BETTER!

So I've been considering different ways to encourage behavior and enhance experiences, and the best way to do both of those things simultaneously is by appealing to the senses. Stimulating the right sense in someone can positively impact their emotions, their impression, and their memory. Knowing how people respond to different stimuli can help us to create environments that make them feel a certain way.

Long story short: we discover and understand everything through our senses.

Brand strategy has the ability to positively manipulate an environment or a presence. That manipulation comes from a number of different needs that must be met to move forward and create relationships. They are:

1. Your need as a business owner to create an accurate and genuine experience for your audience.

2. Their need to understand what your business is about and if it can help them.

3. Your need for your brand to positively impact their opinion, stick out in their mind the next time they (or someone they know) need you.

4. Their need to use and benefit from your product or service.

Back to that email for a minute. Its not uncommon to forget the human experience- usually our own -when it comes to planning out a business model. What do we WANT to offer? What brings us joy and feeds our soul? How can we be that person or presence that offers soul filling joy to others? At the root of our why we're not considering target market as much as we're thinking about making connections. If this client has luxury experience then yes absolutely stay there, as long as you enjoy it. Next, what are you supplying that makes a difference? What do people in this market need? How can we make their lives better?

More importantly why do we need to write rules for ourselves? Why are we putting ourselves in box before we've even started? If we decide on services before we brand they could be completely different by the end. 

OK so now I've probably created more questions than offered answers, but if YOU don't know I definitely don't know. The good news is I have a really REFRESHING place to start! It starts with PEOPLE, their behavior, understanding what they need and want, how to make them happy, and building a brand around those visions. Then we tell an amazing story about the business, make creative decisions that help represent it's values and enhance that one of a kind brand experience.

Close your eyes and think about how you can make your audience feel better cared for and understood in a tangible way. That means constructing spaces (yes, even the digital kind) that speak to all the senses and encourage whichever behavior and experience you'd like to create. This one additional step in my process takes development and discovery so far past imaginations potential. There are so many great concepts bubbling to the surface once you breakdown an experience into the different ways various materials (hint: not just visual) make us feel, and how we  perceive and consume content.

I'm thrilled that this has come full circle and that all strategy sessions next year will include this process!

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO POWERFUL BRANDING

  THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO POWERFUL BRANDING!

    Enough is enough. When it comes to branding we’re concerned with all the wrong things. Branding with power is to brand with confidence and intention. Let’s cut out all the guesswork, and get back to the real priority; making connections and making money. See, it’s not about the intricate details you might think are important. It’s not a matter of choosing between how a twig and a leaf might look next to your logo, but rather deciding which market prefers twigs over leaves, and which demographic is drawn in by foliage to begin with.

     It’s about STRATEGY. STRATEGY. STRATEGY. I can’t say that enough. We’re no longer blindly trusting our designers to close their eyes and pick an aesthetic in the dark without background information and research. Or else we’ll find ourselves rebranding at a cost fairly quickly.

  Powerful branding has to make sense.  “Does it make sense” is THE. MOST. ASKED. QUESTION. I get. DAILY.

Okay, so here's my big idea: along with making sense we might soon learn to be more concerned with WHY we want and need things to make sense, and then HOW to actually maintain that long term. Here's what you need to know and how to shift your perception.

    Why you WANT your website to make sense:

• You want to look professional and make a lasting first impression.

• You want to appeal to your ideal client

• You want to book or sell more work.

Why you NEED your website to make sense:

• Your who, what, why needs to be instantly available because you have a limited number of seconds to convey your message

• A clear message converts clicks and opt ins.

• Building a connection also builds a loyal client.

• You need your audience to feel informed and impressed

• You need that impression to drive them to make a purchase

• You need to create an experience that is memorable and helps your audience feel appreciated and valued

• You need an informed audience

Why you WANT your Instagram to make sense:

• You want your feed to look full and impactful

• You want more followers

• You want more engagement

• You want to convert more paid work from the platform

Why you NEED your Instagram to make sense:

• You need your brand to be instantly recognizable and pull in your target audience.

• You need your social media presence to work as extension of your website-no discrepancies or hiccups.

• First impressions and quality are important to people. Instagram can be a HUGE website traffic driver if you can make a great first impression with quality.

• In order to earn , yes, EARN your followers trust and loyalty you must be worth something to them. You need to teach them something, show them something, stick out in their mind for something.

• Your feed works (if you plan for it to) as a moodboard that can tell your audience a whole lot in a short few moments, which makes a bigger impact and your account more memorable.

• You need followers to return, tell their friends, and refer you!  

• You need to convert those followers into paying clients and customers.

So as you can see the need vs the want is very different, and we’re potentially wasting a whole lot of time worrying ourselves about all the wrong things. This is exactly why I created Power Brand.

     We’re changing the game on how women run businesses, where they run them from and what they look like. We need to change the way we're branding and strategizing to keep pace with this new ecosystem! And while we're very busy bossing it up in our pajamas, paving unknown paths for future women entrepreneurs we're still struggling with our brand consistency! We no longer have to wear a power suit, but our business still absolutely needs one!

       SO HERE'S WHAT TO DO!

•        Separate your goals- there’s tasking and there’s selling. They need to be totally separated in how you approach them First, because selling should always take first priority and second because we’re going about doing both responsibilities with less efficiency than we could. If you need some help organizing your to do list so you can spend more time following leads and closing sales,  there’s a guide in my shop. Just click here.

• Look back through the needs vs wants checklist above and audit yourself. What’s working? What isn’t? Are you creating content and updates based on needs or wants? Adjust accordingly.

• Set new goals based on JUST the needs. How will you impact sales? How can you build trust and loyalty? How can you build a community? Think of some extra special offers that will knock your audience's socks off.

TA-DA! You’ve laid the framework for a new and improved POWER BRAND. Branding with powerful impact and intention! If you need any special assistance you know how to contact me! I’m always available to answer your questions!

EVERY SINGLE THING Branding Does For Your Business

I recently polled my follower community on Instagram and it turns out there's a lot of misconceptions on what branding actually does for our business.

 "Isn't that when you choose colors and make a mood board", someone asked and of course my answer is sure, but that's only one small fraction ( and yes,  probably the most fun part) of the branding process. Branding is more of a give and take. It's a WHOLE LOT of market research and strategy, and when done right will bring in amazing results.

    I like to call this give and take "Offers and Returns" - When you offer the right things to the right people the return is more business, better business, and growth. All of these offerings are controlled in part by your branding and your brand strategy. Take a look below and see how every branded feature or element we offer secures a return that helps us build our business!

If you're feeling overwhelmed, don't! In order to accurately explain all the things branding does we have to talk about all the things we try to avoid,  like getting organized, intentional, and sometimes we delay paying a professional to come in and do a quality job because we fail to see the whole picture. If you're just looking at branding from a colors, logos and fonts perspective you'll quickly talk yourself out of investing in branding. On the surface they seem like a petty thing to be worried about, but branding is very detailed and has an incredibly complex influence on your results.  We also have to talk about making all of these different arms of a full branded machine make complete sense. It's tricky, but again there's no need to be overwhelmed. I'll break it down for you!

Branding is all the ways you appear; to the eye and to the public opinion of your audience. There's a lot of things you cannot control in business, but branding puts a lot of that control back in your hands if you use it correctly. It allows you to create an identity that gently guides people to feel exactly how you want them to feel and know exactly what you want them to know. That control is INVALUABLE. We all want to make a good impression personally. You should want that same thing for your business. We're not talking about shaping and manipulating every opinion out there- you can't please everyone, nor should you be trying to. Instead, we need to have a really focused scope of who our business is for, who we're talking to and how we want to appeal to them. This requires a bit of research and adjustments as we get to know our audience better. That's right. Branding is not a one and done practice. It requires maintenance.

In order to make all of these branding elements and variables make sense together you have to start with a clean slate.  That doesn't mean go and delete everything and start over. It simply means you need to sit down and get really reflective and honest with yourself. Do you have the abilities to take on all of the necessary tasks to do this the right way? Have you done a good job setting yourself up for success in the past by

• Deciding what you stand for and what takes priority?
• Staying on brand with original content and updating that content consistently?
• Deciding on your brand culture- how you want to run your business and what values you consider most important?
• Deciding what your five year plan is and holding yourself accountable to achieving small goals as you go forward?

I mention all of this because if you're just winging it, and your identity or messaging doesn't make any sense your audience will pick up on that, which will make them hesitate to do business with you.

So here are my solutions:

• Decide now and set yourself up for success.
• What are your core values and the foundation for which you set your entire business?
• What is your mission statement /  your commitment to yourself and your clients?
• How do you want people to feel about your business?
• Know your pricing
• know your order of operations
• have every system organized and in place

I say those last three things because rushing on policy and procedure always leads to making rushed decisions that lack quality and don't always reflect the brand culture you want to be known for.

• Creativity and originality always win

The entire point of branding is to set yourself apart and stamp your business name in the corner of your industry. If you aren't branding with creativity and original ideas you run the risk of blending in and lacking any discernible qualities. You want to stick out in the minds of your audience in all the right ways. Branding can ABSOLUTELY do this for you, but just like most other things the process isn't as sexy as it looks on the outside.

When done right branding should;

• Turn heads
• Captivate your audience
• Drive traffic to your website
• Convert that traffic to Opt-ins and sales

So besides how your business looks there's the strategy of it all. Making your audience feel appreciated, valued, and informed are great ways to earn their trust and respect. Then and only then can you earn their money. Branding reinforces your identity, your messaging, your culture and helps people recognize your business. Again, when done correctly allows your business to grow!

I know it's easy to get distracted by colors and pretty mood boards, but planning and strategy are actually the fundamental backbone of branding.  Strategy and Planning are branding insurance policies. They make sure everything that you do is a direct reflection of your brand culture( those values and commitments I mentioned earlier) will directly impact your growth. Then colors and mood create the atmosphere that best suits both your story and your audience which opens up a dialogue.

So if you really want to know what does branding do....maybe I'm a bit bios, but I think I've given quite a bit of proof that it does everything!

Preparing for a 4 Square Instagram Grid

      I know almost every feed curating business owner is collectively losing their mind knowing all their hard work might soon be totally undone by Instagram IF they launch a 4 square grid. A susual I’m trying to look at this thing in a positive way. I have no idea what Instagram’s reasoning for going to 4 squares is, BUT I have less than zero control over it so it makes no sense to be wasting valuable time griping about it.

Here are my tips for surviving the transition!
Like any prepubescent, your feed will inevitably go through an awkward stage, but if you’re proactive you can get things back on track quickly. Here’s how:

PREPARE OW!

Are you wondering what your feed will look like after the shift? Follow these steps to see for yourself!

1. Take a screenshot of your feed. Scroll down to the next 9 and take another.
2. Print out those screen shots.
3. Number your photos 1-4 and then repeat

All the 1’s will be together in a straight line right on top of each other. Same for the 2’s , 3’s, 4’s. This is what your Instagram would look like if the shift happened right now.

The absolute BEST thing about a curated feed is staggered content that separates similar colors from running into each other. With this shift I’m sure you’ll find a whole lot of that exact thing happening! YIKES. I know, I hate it too. So to avoid this from happening whenever the shift DOES occur we need to start planning for it .It’s definitely not as difficult as it might seem. I know our feed planning apps are rushing to help, but in the meantime I’ve created a quick and easy guide for 4 SQUARE FEED PLANNING!

    So now let’s discuss why this is a good thing. More content in the same amount of space means smaller photos, but higher impact. The more content someone can see at one time (presuming your content is high quality and valuable) can do nothing but good things for your business!! We’re talking less scrolling but more to look at. We’re giving a person more content over the same amount of time, which could make all the difference in peaking their interest in your business! They get the opportunity to see more of your content without lifting a finger giving you more opportunity to convert interest into action.

This will definitely encourage more organic engagement, and more engagement will boost your visibility!

ALL GOOD THINGS!

So are you feeling a little better about the 4 squares?! I know I am!

The Game Changer Guide to Branding

  In case you don't know me, I'm a forward thinker. I'm always "what's next"-ing myself and my colleagues, looking beyond the realm of what's trending to what's up and coming. That is the backbone of what launched this business, and what brought me here today to write this blog.

I've been thinking a lot about the brand strategy side of my business. I've been doing a lot of behind the scenes work and I've been left wondering what is branding without the proper strategies, outlines, and maintenance a business needs to effectively impact a clients perception, emotion and loyalty?  Three things that are vital to repeat business and growth.

Let me be more specific. I'm talking about influencing action through creative decisions.  I'm also talking marketing initiatives, content ( both visual and text), valuable offerings, community building incentives and projects, email newsletters, customer service and any other single thing, a business owner does, to impact a clients opinion. Imagine never having to worry about finding your audience again because they're already impatiently waiting for your next move.

So now we're talking a whole lot more than logos and fonts, right?

I've been pulled to share more valuable information, and I want to really focus on educating and coaching more small business owners. So every week I am going to put out a Game Changer Guide to one branding task. Sometimes they'll be free, and other more in depth offerings will be up for purchase in the shop! 

Hooray House was founded on the idea of celebrating every business and it's originality, by helping biz owners like you, find their magic. This magic is the difference maker and the game changer. This magic is the strategy behind the pretty colors and the flashy photos. I have a very comprehensive method that challenges my clients to define what makes their business so special. Together we architect their business empire to effectively provide a brand experience that builds community and converts sales.

The atmosphere.

The experience.

The offerings.

The personality.

The culture.

The identity.

Branding isn't something you do once and forget. It requires near constant maintenance to upkeep and enforce the culture and values you first outlined when you started.   In an effort to more adequately explain the importance of these tasks I'm relaunching my blog! HOORAY! The Game Changer doesn't officially kick off till next week, but in the mean time I have an exciting offer. Today is the last day to get your hands on Brand with a Plan for the month of September! Stay tuned for more exciting news, information and opportunities to grow your business with me!