Episode 1
Breaking Down the Difference Between Branding, Marketing, and Advertising
Season Two of Unfuck My Business is sponsored by Seide Realty. If you're moving to Florida, Kathleen and her team will unfuck your real estate experience. Learn more at whystpete.com
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About This Episode:
On this episode of Unfuck My Business, our team explores the ins and outs of building a successful brand and marketing strategy. From understanding the different layers of a brand's subculture to leveraging the five types of people in building a community, our guest takes us through the critical components of brand development. We also discuss the double-tap advertising method and the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Additionally, we explore the importance of being authentic in your business and building a distinct brand. This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and those working in corporate settings who want to master their marketing and build a successful business.
- Importance of having the right people in the focus of building a community
- A brand's subculture and multiple layers lead to a growing community with shared values and language
- Guerrilla marketing based on shared value, language, and communication
- Understanding oneself and identifying strengths in building a community
- Five forms of people: educator, energizer, engager, doer, or director
- A brand is not just the logo and aesthetics but also includes quality and engagement of service
- Customer feedback is crucial for brand development
- Effective brand development involves creating conversation and connecting with a customer's dialogue
- Placeholder brand can be created, but true development is necessary afterward
- Branding involves much more than aesthetics and is not a quick process
- Importance of authenticity and understanding oneself in building a brand
- Starting with branding and building out marketing and advertising can lead to success
- Clarity in branding, marketing, and advertising messages is important for speaking clearly to your ideal audience
- Understanding unique value and contribution is crucial for building a brand in any setting
- Attracting the right audience through niche and specific specialties
- The difference between branding, marketing, and advertising
- Branding focuses on identity, strategy, and tactics while marketing is about engagement, connecting, and developing a conversation
- Advertising creates awareness and entices people and all three tiers work together to drive sales
- Importance of repetition and clear messaging in advertising and marketing
- Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing
- Double tap method and brand allies can generate word-of-mouth marketing
- Reducing steps and friction in the sales process to lead to more sales
- Clear and repetitive messaging is necessary to capture attention
- Negative impression and harm on brand created by “numbers game” approach to generating leads
- Staying true to oneself, creating contrast, and staying distinct are essential aspects of building a brand.
In This Episode:
Robyn Sayles, Shea Jeffers
About Our Guest(s):
Shea is a brand strategist and business catalyst specializing in connecting the dots between problems, opportunities, and strategy. Owner of Stratgix Consulting and Co-Owner of the Keystone Mastermind Alliance. He provides perspective and context that burns away the "fog of business" and allows businesses to develop and focus on solutions customized for their distinct world.
Connect with Shea here:
- Https://www.StraTgixConsulting.com/SJ
- LinkedIn: www.LinkedIn.com/SheaJeffers
- IG/FB: Stratgix
- FB: CatalystToSuccess-Shea Jeffers
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Mentioned In The Show:
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A rough transcript is provided for your convenience. It’s not perfect because we want to spend our time unfucking your business, not unfucking this transcript. 🤘
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Transcript
Hi, my name is Siobhan and you're watching Disney Channel.
Speaker:What? That's not what this is.
Speaker:Fuck. Alright, alright. How about this?
Speaker:What's up on fuckers? This is Siobhan Colleen from Industry Explorers.
Speaker:You're listening to unfuck my business.
Speaker:No bullshit advice for business owners who want to be resilient as fuck
Speaker:without any further a fuck a dude ado, here are your hosts.
Speaker:Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Unfuck my business
Speaker:show. I am Robyn Sales and
Speaker:I'm going to be leading the conversation today with one of my favorite people
Speaker:that I get to nerd out with about all things
Speaker:branding, marketing, advertising, and the impact that
Speaker:that has on your business. My friend, Shay Jeffers.
Speaker:Shay, say hello to everybody. What's up, people? How are you all doing today?
Speaker:So, Shay, we are going to dissect
Speaker:and pull apart what tends to get all
Speaker:clumped together, which is the concept of marketing
Speaker:and advertising.
Speaker:Yeah, and I think I talk a lot about
Speaker:the idea of commoditization. So especially
Speaker:in the branding space, getting a good, solid brand helps you differentiate
Speaker:yourself, set yourself apart from the pack and remove yourself
Speaker:from being potentially commoditized. So I think specifically about
Speaker:real estate agents. That's my favorite example. There are so many real
Speaker:estate agents that it could be really easy for consumers to go,
Speaker:well, all real estate agents do the same thing. And so it's the
Speaker:real estate agent who has to take charge of that narrative and go,
Speaker:no, we're not all the same. Here's. How I'm different. Right? And so when
Speaker:a marketplace becomes saturated, when a concept becomes
Speaker:overly used, that's when it becomes commoditized.
Speaker:And so I very much feel in the wake of
Speaker:instagram and influencers, the concept of marketing
Speaker:has been commoditized, if you will.
Speaker:And people have a sort of general sense of what marketing is,
Speaker:but they tend to lump a lot of things in there and they don't realize
Speaker:that there are different facets of marketing, there's different subsets of
Speaker:marketing. And there actually is a hierarchy of
Speaker:branding, marketing and advertising that need to be deployed at
Speaker:the right place and the right time. And you have the
Speaker:way you sort of conceptualize stuff and
Speaker:break it down for people I really appreciate because you come up with these things
Speaker:that are really easy for people to follow. So I want you to talk through
Speaker:what you've determined and help people understand
Speaker:the hierarchy of branding versus marketing versus advertising.
Speaker:Yeah, and this really came from the need of when
Speaker:I first really stepped into from just being designer or creative
Speaker:to an actual strategist and helping people craft these things. So when they gave me
Speaker:a product just to create they're like specific
Speaker:needs, I'm actually fulfilling a specific need, just like not just giving gobligook.
Speaker:And the big part of that was helping people break down and break
Speaker:away from, oh, you're just a marketing guy, or I just want
Speaker:some marketing and so three tiers, and he starts
Speaker:on the top, which is more focused, and that's where your brand is.
Speaker:If you look through the lens, it's like looking through the lens of a camera.
Speaker:You look through the focal lens and the most focal point is in the middle
Speaker:and it just gets broader and broader as you go out. So you go from
Speaker:branding, which is super focused, to marketing, which is not as focused, but still
Speaker:specific, and in advertising, which is just straight out open to
Speaker:the masses. So with branding is all about your identity, strategy and tactics that
Speaker:you implement through your marketing, which is about engagement,
Speaker:connecting, developing a conversation. Because marketing
Speaker:is that one to one engagement and that one to one engagement can
Speaker:be you literally with one to one person or just with a very select group
Speaker:of individuals. And then advertising is about enticing people
Speaker:to you, creating more awareness around your product or service,
Speaker:giving out information so then they have the knowledge so that
Speaker:when they get engaged with a conversation with you, they can truly understand your
Speaker:brand. So it works both equals from broad to focus
Speaker:and focus to broad back and forth. And it's all about getting the sales,
Speaker:to be honest with you. Absolutely. So I was actually just in
Speaker:a conversation yesterday where we were nerding out about the topic of
Speaker:branding and marketing and advertising and sales and how they all should be
Speaker:connected. And unfortunately, in many companies, they operate in separate
Speaker:silos. So I want to give a quick
Speaker:call out to Heather Campbell, who runs Double Dutch Creative
Speaker:in Denver. Heather and I particularly were nerding out over
Speaker:some concepts, and she gave a sentence which I think
Speaker:sums it up so clearly she said, marketing is the path
Speaker:to the transaction, right? And so if we use
Speaker:your lens idea there, the advertising is drawing
Speaker:people in, the advertising is getting the attention,
Speaker:but it's the marketing that more intimate back
Speaker:and forth that should be the path to the transaction.
Speaker:The thing that makes people go, yes, I need to purchase this
Speaker:particular product or service. And I don't know about you, but I
Speaker:see it all the time where people start on the wrong step,
Speaker:right? How many times does somebody come to you and gone, well, I'm thinking about
Speaker:doing some Facebook advertising. To whom?
Speaker:What conversation are you creating? What are you going to be talking about other
Speaker:than here's a price and here's a product or service?
Speaker:I was at a training once where the guy was talking about digital marketing automation
Speaker:in specific, and he, same as
Speaker:us, gets those same questions about Facebook advertising. And he's like,
Speaker:okay, so here's what you do. If you don't already have a clear
Speaker:conversation with a warm audience in mind for that Facebook advertising,
Speaker:what you want to do is go walk into the bathroom, take your wallet
Speaker:out of your pocket, and just dump it out over into the toilet
Speaker:bowl because that's what you're doing. It's just flushing your money down the
Speaker:toilet if you don't truly understand who you're targeting
Speaker:with this Facebook advertising, the other thing I hear all the time is,
Speaker:oh, I need a logo, or I need a website. And on our
Speaker:community calls, we have people coming to us for that all the time.
Speaker:Like, oh, I need a website.
Speaker:Have you made a sale? Has your product
Speaker:or service been validated at all? Do you know if anybody even wants this
Speaker:right? Yes, an ask coming.
Speaker:Yeah. So they jump to logo. Well, your pretty logo doesn't
Speaker:mean anything if it doesn't resonate with the audience
Speaker:who actually needs your help and needs your product and
Speaker:service. So when somebody comes to you, if I was a client and I came
Speaker:to you and I was like, yes, I need a logo,
Speaker:right? How do you sort of back somebody through that
Speaker:thinking to get them to start where you know they actually need
Speaker:to start? Well, I cut to the
Speaker:chase. Very simply, your brand is not your logo. First and foremost.
Speaker:That is the first thing I always get people to say to
Speaker:understand is the aesthetics of your business does not trump the
Speaker:actual quality and engagement of your service. And so
Speaker:it is asking those questions like you touched on earlier. It's like,
Speaker:okay, so what have you sold? What have
Speaker:you put out there and gotten feedback on? Because a big aspect of
Speaker:brand development is customer feedback. It's all good and well
Speaker:to have an idea in your head of what you want it to look like,
Speaker:but it doesn't matter if that does not actually create
Speaker:a conversation or fulfill a conversation that people are naturally
Speaker:having as they walk down the street in themselves. So a brand is
Speaker:most effective when somebody has a running dialogue in
Speaker:their head and they see an image. In terms of the
Speaker:aesthetics of your business, they see that image and it connects with that running
Speaker:dialogue. So without understanding that customer and
Speaker:that dialogue that's going on in their head, that conversation that you're trying to create
Speaker:and be a part of, we'll create a placeholder
Speaker:brand, get some feedback, and then do this true development
Speaker:afterwards. Brand development is not a
Speaker:30 minutes, hey, I slapped together this
Speaker:square and this triangle, and I made it look pretty. And then now
Speaker:we have a brand that's going to make thousands and thousands of dollars of sales.
Speaker:But you're not saying anything, right?
Speaker:I love one of my favorite
Speaker:pet peeves is there's so many
Speaker:services out there that are offering, like, do it yourself logo
Speaker:creation. My inhale exhale.
Speaker:Yes. I was having a chat about the
Speaker:commoditization of brand, and that's another thing
Speaker:that kind of drove my desire to break this down because the
Speaker:conversation was being commoditized. It was really becoming
Speaker:so overly simplified and AI driven
Speaker:where, oh yes, go to Wix and they'll easily
Speaker:match. I cringe at that commercial where he's like,
Speaker:oh yeah, I want this brand to be more organic and
Speaker:natural, so I'm going to bring a mountain in it's like organic
Speaker:and natural to who? To a
Speaker:techie. Something that is more of
Speaker:a chemical symbol or whatever can be just as organic and real to them
Speaker:as some nature feel. So it
Speaker:really drives me nuts. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit
Speaker:about how marketing and advertising
Speaker:should work together. Right. So if marketing
Speaker:is a more intimate you've now
Speaker:come into focus, you're in the inner circle, right.
Speaker:You're thinking about, I think I want to work with this person. I think I
Speaker:want to buy this product. If that's that type of conversation,
Speaker:then how does that relate to advertising being more
Speaker:of the town crier bullhorn? Like, hey, we have this thing
Speaker:over here. Where do you see those two things?
Speaker:Collaborating and working together best and most effective. All right,
Speaker:so we always say that the best form of marketing is
Speaker:word of mouth. That's the most engaging, the most
Speaker:powerful, actual sales driving thing.
Speaker:But the only way to get that is through brand allies, right? So this
Speaker:whole idea of the double tap method, where you have the advertising and marketing
Speaker:working in tandem, the advertising so, like you said,
Speaker:they're close to purchasing. They engage in that marketing conversation
Speaker:with you. But if you are not consistently
Speaker:advertising where you are making a general offer and
Speaker:presenting you your product or service to the world that is available at
Speaker:this time, at this pricing, or at this is
Speaker:how you get it you'll miss that sale because you
Speaker:will miss the double tap because you only go in one side of the fence.
Speaker:So they're having that one on one conversation, but they never know when
Speaker:they could buy or when they should buy or how they could buy. And that's
Speaker:what all advertising does, is it tells you, hey,
Speaker:you're driving down the road, right? And I use the restaurant metaphor.
Speaker:You're driving down the road and you start to
Speaker:get hungry, and there's tons
Speaker:of restaurants on the side of the road and you see a bunch of signs.
Speaker:They all have their marketing. They all have their branding because they're different colors and
Speaker:they're different shapes and size or whatever. And they have their marketing,
Speaker:which is saying, hey, we have food available for you at this
Speaker:particular time. But if they say, hey, we are selling two for one burgers.
Speaker:Now you're combining the marketing conversation that's went on
Speaker:with the immediate need in advertising, and that's a double tap as
Speaker:sold. Sorry, go for it. Another piece of that is that brand ally
Speaker:in the car with you that says, oh, I want to go to this restaurant
Speaker:because I was there last week. And that's the word of mouth. There it goes.
Speaker:And that's how you bring it all together, folks. Boom.
Speaker:I was trying to think of another way to say it, but I'm just going
Speaker:to use the quote that pops into my head. It's a little controversial and I
Speaker:don't mean it necessarily in the way it was intended, but this is something that
Speaker:I think of as an underlying subtext, especially when you're writing copy and
Speaker:you're trying to create messages for folks. You cannot
Speaker:over explain it. When we're talking about
Speaker:marketing and advertising, so every entrepreneur,
Speaker:solopreneur, small business that's worried about being repetitive
Speaker:on social media or being repetitive in their marketing,
Speaker:that's what you're supposed to do.
Speaker:Repetition builds reputation and you cannot over explain
Speaker:it or oversimplify it. Part of this is
Speaker:the experience, right? And so when you talk about that double tap effect,
Speaker:part of the reason why that's effective is because they've not only told
Speaker:you what they have, but how you can get it.
Speaker:And we tend to think that, like, oh, people know that they can pull off
Speaker:the highway and go through the drive through and get our burgers. We just have
Speaker:to tell them they're two for one. No,
Speaker:that's why billboards say, get off at exit 27,
Speaker:turn to the right and come through our drive through. Because especially when
Speaker:people are in a space when they're making like a car trip on a highway,
Speaker:you get like zombie brain and you kind of forget how to process
Speaker:things. Things that seem obvious are not always obvious in
Speaker:the moment and so you have to over explain
Speaker:it. And so the quote that I use all the time that kind of
Speaker:stays in the back of my head to remind me to make sure
Speaker:that these messages are simple and are repetitive and do
Speaker:explain is individuals are smart,
Speaker:but people are stupid.
Speaker:Right? Especially when you're in this sort of
Speaker:I'm one of thousands of cars that are driving on the highway. If we
Speaker:continue with your restaurant billboard example, right? Do you know what it's like
Speaker:when all of a sudden you've driven 20 miles and you don't remember
Speaker:the last time you looked at a sign or paid attention to where
Speaker:you actually are? Right? So just having a billboard that
Speaker:says, we've got juicy, delicious hamburgers isn't enough. Like,
Speaker:you literally have to help my brain remember how to go purchase
Speaker:a juicy, delicious hamburger and how much it costs, right?
Speaker:And that all sounds ridiculous, but if
Speaker:you take a minute to think about where your customers
Speaker:are and what's happening for them at the moment they encounter
Speaker:that bit of advertising, or by the time they come to you for the
Speaker:more direct marketing, then you'll realize how important it is
Speaker:to be beyond clear. You cannot
Speaker:oversimplify it. You cannot over explain it. It's all
Speaker:necessary. Without that continuous
Speaker:explanation, that continuous presence, you start to have this roller coaster in
Speaker:your business or your sales, and sometimes it's
Speaker:easy to get locked into one or one aspect of
Speaker:these three disciplines or the other. So, like, focusing on your branding,
Speaker:but not having the marketing or advertising to maintain your presence
Speaker:and the ongoing conversation about your brand.
Speaker:Or you're focusing on the advertising, but you never say anything of
Speaker:substance. So people start to tune out because it's
Speaker:just noise. It just becomes white noise in the background. Or you're so honed in
Speaker:on your marketing and you're having that conversation. You're so engaged. I engage
Speaker:with everybody. I'm so good at engagement and building a community. And then people's
Speaker:like, so what are you selling? Or when can I buy it?
Speaker:So that's what I say, making sure all these three things are continuously
Speaker:engaged. And I think we all I'm sure
Speaker:you've been there at points in your business as well, but even those
Speaker:of us who do this for a living, we have to keep learning this stuff
Speaker:as well. Recently, we learned
Speaker:yeah. Right. So I think about the evolution of my own website.
Speaker:I had this website that looked great and was very clever and
Speaker:people but here's what would happen. People would come to me and go, oh,
Speaker:Robin, I love your website, it's so fun. But I'm still not entirely
Speaker:sure what you do then.
Speaker:It's not working. Right? If you love my website
Speaker:but you don't understand what I do, then my website is broken. It's not working.
Speaker:It's only performing a part of its job. And so
Speaker:to reinforce the point I was making just a minute ago, something that
Speaker:I had to learn personally was you have to sacrifice cleverness
Speaker:for clarity. So I had buttons
Speaker:on my website to schedule a call that would be like,
Speaker:Launch a call, because my business is called Launching Your Success.
Speaker:And that's actually too clever. People were not
Speaker:sure if they should push the button because they weren't sure what was going to
Speaker:happen when they pushed the button. Right? And so the button literally has
Speaker:to say, Click here to schedule a call because
Speaker:it said Launch a call. What we did is, when we started investigating,
Speaker:we realized people thought launch a call meant a phone call was
Speaker:going to dial and start right there in that moment.
Speaker:Yeah. And so that's why they weren't pushing the button. Right.
Speaker:So my cleverness of trying to tie in all the wording
Speaker:to my branding was actually causing people to not
Speaker:take an action that they would normally take. Smart for
Speaker:your own good. Well, too clever.
Speaker:Which, go look at my report cards from school and you'll see that's been
Speaker:my problem my whole life.
Speaker:I still have to keep going. Okay,
Speaker:what do we really need to say here? And I
Speaker:do think you can balance that, too, because there are some brands where
Speaker:you do want some of that cleverness and craftiness to be there as part
Speaker:of the messaging and be there as part of the marketing. Or I think about
Speaker:some clients I have where they've cultivated very specific language
Speaker:because of the industry and things that they're in. And I don't just mean
Speaker:jargon, but like there are certain industries where there's a way in
Speaker:which people speak within that community and within that
Speaker:industry. Right? And you want that to be there. But when
Speaker:it comes time to pushing a button, taking an
Speaker:action, you want the cleverness to lead up to
Speaker:the action, but you want the action to be very super clear.
Speaker:Click here to schedule a call.
Speaker:I can use all my fun, clever language to lead up to
Speaker:that button, but the button needs to be super clear. Click here to
Speaker:sign up for our email list. Like, you have
Speaker:to tell them exactly what's going to happen the minute they click that button.
Speaker:And so it's hard sometimes to turn
Speaker:that mirror back on ourselves. And you need that outside help and that
Speaker:outside influence sometimes to help you realize
Speaker:where you've overcomplicated things in your own messaging and
Speaker:in your own branding and marketing. Very true.
Speaker:And like you said, you didn't add advertising to that piece. You just said branding
Speaker:and marketing and you didn't talk about advertising because that clarity is the most important
Speaker:part of advertising. The best jokes have the simplest punchlines.
Speaker:She's like one word, three words, and then she did it.
Speaker:And then everybody's bossing to laugh because that punchline
Speaker:was just everybody understood it. And another thing is making sure that it's
Speaker:accessible, properly accessible, making sure that you're projecting
Speaker:that message correctly across the whole spectrum.
Speaker:Yeah, those things. And we have to remember you've
Speaker:talked around this, but I think I want to be super clear for
Speaker:people who are listening that you do have to actually ask
Speaker:for the sale.
Speaker:You do have to actually say, and this is how much it
Speaker:costs to buy. Do you want to sign up right now? I'd love to
Speaker:get you started. Can you start today?
Speaker:And I could go down a whole rabbit hole about closing techniques
Speaker:from a sales training perspective and a soft close and a hard close and
Speaker:an assumptive close, and there's all these different ways that you can
Speaker:approach it. But ideally it should sound authentic, it should
Speaker:sound natural, it should sound intentional,
Speaker:but we do have to actually ask for the sale and tell people
Speaker:how they can purchase the thing and buy from us. You and
Speaker:I have a mutual friend, Liz.
Speaker:Hi, Liz. And she at one networking
Speaker:event, she made a very good point, which is reducing
Speaker:the steps and reducing the friction in that sales process
Speaker:which it's tied. Right. So if
Speaker:the advertising is leading to the marketing, which is leading to the transaction
Speaker:leading to the sale right. We want to reduce the friction points
Speaker:in that and make it as easy as possible for them to click the
Speaker:button to buy or to sign up or whatever it is we want them to
Speaker:do. And so she made a very good point, which felt
Speaker:like a punch in the gut at the time, but has stuck with
Speaker:me, which was, you should always be
Speaker:ready to take the sale. Like, if we're having a
Speaker:great conversation here in this moment, and I
Speaker:want to buy right now. If I'm ready, I want to
Speaker:buy right now. Don't make me wait. Because my sales
Speaker:process at the time was like, great. I'm so happy you're interested.
Speaker:I'll send you an email when I get back to my office. And then you
Speaker:have to click the link, and then you have to fill up the form,
Speaker:and then you can purchase the thing. There was, like, five steps that
Speaker:involved waiting until I got home, right? And she's like, no, you need to
Speaker:have the little thing in your bag. You need to plug it into your phone.
Speaker:You need to check my credit card, and I need to be able to buy
Speaker:from you right now, capture the interest in that split second.
Speaker:PayPal me. Strategics.
Speaker:S-T-O-H-D-I-X. It's just that simple. Like,
Speaker:having those links in the email in hand, on hand,
Speaker:ready to go. Yes. I have stuff
Speaker:that I keep on a Notes app, right?
Speaker:Maybe I don't have the dongle or on my new phone, the dongle doesn't
Speaker:fit. Right? I would need an adapter. So having a customized link,
Speaker:and I go, Great, I'm so excited. Here, I just texted
Speaker:you to the link. You can click it and sign up and complete the purchase
Speaker:right now. Right? So having those things so that
Speaker:the friction is minimized and making the information available,
Speaker:we had I don't know if you were on that call, but in one of
Speaker:our Tuesday night community calls, we had somebody who was kind of
Speaker:talking us through their new business thing, and we were all
Speaker:like, great, send me a brochure. Send me to a website. And she didn't
Speaker:have it. And it turned out that there was a valid
Speaker:reason why she didn't have it. It was new, new, and that
Speaker:stuff was still being built. But if you're going to
Speaker:start talking about it, then you need to be prepared with the things that,
Speaker:you know, people are going to ask for. And so I think she lost
Speaker:interest because so many of us were like, send me a one sheet.
Speaker:Send me a brochure, send me to a website. And she didn't have anything that
Speaker:she could point us to that was hers.
Speaker:Right? And so I think even if it's not
Speaker:a sale directly, just when someone's curious
Speaker:and wants to know more, you need to have a place ready
Speaker:to go to send them to learn more. Never be
Speaker:a dead end. Yeah, never be a dead end or never be sure.
Speaker:I'll email that to you when I get back to the office.
Speaker:Right? Once you have done the right storytelling
Speaker:and engagement, and you build up all that energy, that energy,
Speaker:the amount of effort think about it, the amount of effort it took to build
Speaker:up that momentum. You're grinding and you're pushing
Speaker:this rock up the top of this mountain, and you get to the
Speaker:top of the mountain finally, and they say, hey, I'm ready. And you don't have
Speaker:anything to keep them or get them over the cusp,
Speaker:it's immediately rolling right back to the mountain, usually right over you.
Speaker:So it's definitely a good thing to have on
Speaker:hand. Such a great metaphor. And so we've talked about how
Speaker:our experience, particularly, has been people not understanding
Speaker:that you can't jump straight to advertising. You can't even
Speaker:jump straight to marketing. You have to start with the brand.
Speaker:And so I know that I have things that I, like, will get on a
Speaker:soapbox at the drop of the hat and chirp about when it comes to branding.
Speaker:But what are your soapbox things? Like, if people take nothing
Speaker:else away from this conversation today, Shay, what's the thing you want
Speaker:them to understand about where they need to start
Speaker:or what their brand needs to start with?
Speaker:So especially if okay, let's say we're all in, quote unquote,
Speaker:in business, right? Guess what? There's literally only
Speaker:one you in business. So don't forget the
Speaker:you in that. That is my
Speaker:my primary thing. You need to brand beyond your logo. You need to go beyond
Speaker:the aesthetics. You need to maintain who you are
Speaker:in your organization and what it means, because that trickles down.
Speaker:Whether you think that you have salespeople or whatever in front of
Speaker:you, they all take leadership from you.
Speaker:They all take messaging from you. It all starts from
Speaker:the you. So don't forget the you. Make sure that you're distinct.
Speaker:Make sure that you are creating contrast with
Speaker:the world around you. That contrast is what allows you to then be different.
Speaker:So a bunch of pebbles at a beach,
Speaker:you see black pebbles, you see the white one, or vice versa.
Speaker:It's whatever. A bunch of pigeons, the pigeon that is oddly colored in some
Speaker:weird way, that's what you see Robin, her red hair, you see
Speaker:her, it stands out. That it's to her. It's to you in
Speaker:her organization, in her business, in what she does. Don't ever forget that.
Speaker:That's the most important part of me. I believe in building a brand.
Speaker:What people listening to this can't see right now is the minute you're like,
Speaker:don't forget you, I'm literally, like, spazzing out over here on my end of
Speaker:the camera. Like, yes,
Speaker:cannot enthusiastically support
Speaker:and encourage that enough. And I think
Speaker:understanding that, it really does start from you.
Speaker:And let's talk about folks who are entrepreneurs for
Speaker:a moment. All of this applies whether you're running your
Speaker:own business, you're a part of somebody else's small business, or you're
Speaker:a part of a larger machine in a corporate setting,
Speaker:right? The way to get ahead, the way to get
Speaker:better at whatever it is you're doing, is to understand who
Speaker:you are, how you work best, and what is the
Speaker:unique and intrinsic value that only you can provide within
Speaker:that situation. The better you understand that, the better you're
Speaker:going to be at representing your company, at representing the product or
Speaker:service you're trying to sell. So I would say that that bit
Speaker:of advice is not only critical,
Speaker:like not just important, it's fucking critical from a brand
Speaker:perspective when you're trying to build a brand for your product,
Speaker:for your business, for your service. But that bit of advice is also
Speaker:applicable in just building your own personal brand
Speaker:within anything that you're doing. If you're
Speaker:trying to cultivate thought leadership if you want to get out on the speaking circuit,
Speaker:if you want to be known as the expert for a certain thing,
Speaker:if you want to be the go to person for something within your organization.
Speaker:If you're trying to pivot from one area of your organization
Speaker:to another, really, truly starting with you
Speaker:and understanding what that value is and what you can
Speaker:contribute is so critical. And then I think
Speaker:what I'll add to that, the other side of that coin is once you're
Speaker:really clear on who you are and how it impacts your
Speaker:brand, understanding why people are
Speaker:drawn to that and why people need that,
Speaker:right? And so, as Shay said,
Speaker:you're the only you in business and I don't
Speaker:care. This is my favorite joke to make when
Speaker:I'm giving speeches and stuff is like,
Speaker:I don't care how weird,
Speaker:subversive, ultra niche or
Speaker:bizarre your particular specialty is, I can guarantee you
Speaker:there's at least a dozen people on Google right now looking
Speaker:for exactly who you are and what you do. And the only
Speaker:reason that they haven't found you yet is because you haven't figured
Speaker:out how to clearly explain I'm the one who does
Speaker:these things, right? Yeah. I'm the one who can
Speaker:provide this. And so we've
Speaker:talked about understanding who you're talking to from a
Speaker:marketing and advertising perspective. But I think that starts with
Speaker:the brand and not only understanding yourself, but understanding who's
Speaker:naturally going to be drawn to that, right? Because it's not I
Speaker:don't know about you, but for my brand, my ideal client is not other people
Speaker:like me. I'm not working with
Speaker:other people like me. People are coming to me because of
Speaker:these things that I do and have and I'm
Speaker:filling a gap or I'm providing something that's not already there.
Speaker:Right? And so it's one thing to
Speaker:understand who I am, but then if I don't understand why
Speaker:people would be drawn to that, I'm going to aim
Speaker:my marketing and advertising in the wrong direction.
Speaker:Right? So I don't want to aim my marketing and advertising towards people
Speaker:like me. I want to aim my marketing. And advertising towards the people who
Speaker:are looking for people like me. Yes, you want to have the right
Speaker:people, in your viewfinder. Taking it back to the idea of the camera lens and
Speaker:the focal point and all kind of stuff. You want to have the right scene
Speaker:in focus. I love that part
Speaker:about that there's at least a dozen people, and to me, I would say
Speaker:there's at least 1000 people. And the way this works because your
Speaker:brand has a subculture and that subculture
Speaker:has another subculture on top of it. So I definitely believe in the whole idea
Speaker:of the thousand community and
Speaker:developing that organic sense of who you are,
Speaker:getting that out to ten people, and then those ten people into ten
Speaker:more people. And now you have a growing and growing, growing group of
Speaker:individuals that are focused on a similar shared
Speaker:value, and they want to be part of a community to share the language.
Speaker:I think Cenks was talking about it last time in guerrilla marketing was shared
Speaker:value, shared language, shared shared forms of communication.
Speaker:And that's where you kind of start from in terms of finding those
Speaker:individuals that are not like you,
Speaker:but need your services to fill the gap. Once you understand
Speaker:yourself, you can then take a glimpse at what
Speaker:things you aren't. And then once you understand what you aren't,
Speaker:combine those and then find the overlapping areas
Speaker:where you can fit in to improve
Speaker:those things for other individuals. So I have five forms
Speaker:of people that they can use. You can be an educator, you can be
Speaker:energizer, you can be an engager doer
Speaker:or somebody who likes to put out directions. You're one of those five things.
Speaker:And me, I'm an educator and an energizer. I like following,
Speaker:I like helping, supporting causes, and I'm always out educating you. Find those
Speaker:things that you are and you leverage those strengths.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to leverage your strengths. Absolutely leverage
Speaker:your strengths. I'm a big believer in screw your weaknesses,
Speaker:their weaknesses for a reason. Don't waste your time trying to improve the
Speaker:areas where you're weak. Like no,
Speaker:hire somebody, find a system, find a software
Speaker:that does those things if they have to be done in your business. And we
Speaker:all have those things that have to be done in our business that don't
Speaker:float our boat. So be smart about how you leverage your time,
Speaker:because that's going to allow you to do exactly what Shay said, which is leverage
Speaker:your strengths. Right? So find out the things that you are and the role
Speaker:that you can fulfill for the people who are looking for you and
Speaker:focus on that and don't waste time trying to figure out how
Speaker:to be better at things that you're not good at. Right?
Speaker:And let's bring this back around because something just connected
Speaker:in my head. Shay, let's bring this back around to
Speaker:marketing and advertising. There's a lot
Speaker:of when we go back to the concept of marketing and
Speaker:advertising being heavily and branding even being heavily commoditized. Right now.
Speaker:There's a lot of people pitching scripts, pitching funnels,
Speaker:pitching swipe copy right here,
Speaker:use my swipe email copy here. Use this funnel that
Speaker:I've already built. Oh, here. All you need to do is follow this pattern
Speaker:for your email onboarding. Right. What is
Speaker:the biggest problem with that? It's not you.
Speaker:It's not going
Speaker:to say you can start because if it gets helps you
Speaker:get rid of the blank page problem, that's fine. But you
Speaker:have to then take this stuff and test it
Speaker:and get feedback and get data like we talked about and start
Speaker:to learn your way of speaking. You have your own way of talking
Speaker:so far in your life. You've gained friends and community
Speaker:by speaking a certain way, by having a certain language.
Speaker:Don't diminish that. If you talk with big words,
Speaker:talk with big words. There are people who want that
Speaker:from you. If you talk like you're
Speaker:just a bloke from Australia, talk like that,
Speaker:it's just your thing. It's going
Speaker:to resonate with the people that is going to gain the most value from
Speaker:you and the people that you can then generate the most feedback,
Speaker:the most community, the most value, the most
Speaker:connectivity, all with you have to start speaking your language.
Speaker:Yeah, 1000%.
Speaker:And I love the idea of if you are facing that sort
Speaker:of blank page, use these things that are
Speaker:out there abundantly at the moment, but use it
Speaker:as a starting off point. Don't just copy paste and go
Speaker:because let me tell you, especially right now, consumers are
Speaker:pretty fucking savvy and they can smell a formula and they
Speaker:can smell a funnel from a mile away. Like, look,
Speaker:no shade to click funnels. But when you send me to a
Speaker:link, I can tell in about 3 seconds if it's ClickFunnels,
Speaker:right? And so if you haven't taken
Speaker:the time to customize the fuck out of that and really
Speaker:make it your brand, if I've ever been through ClickFunnels,
Speaker:or if I have any familiarity with it, I'm going to sniff out ClickFunnels in
Speaker:about 3 seconds. Right. And positively
Speaker:or negatively, that's going to impact my impression of you
Speaker:and your brand. Right. If you went to a
Speaker:LinkedIn lead generation course and are copying and
Speaker:pasting their DM things to send me a DM
Speaker:in LinkedIn and I've already gotten four of those from
Speaker:other people who graduated from the same course that you did,
Speaker:guess what? That's going to impact how I view you and
Speaker:your brand. Because you can't even fucking take the time to
Speaker:make it sound like you right. Hi,
Speaker:Shea. I read your profile and I've seen that you've had
Speaker:a great journey just like me. I'm looting
Speaker:to the area. I just want to get to connect with you. I don't even
Speaker:have a journey on my profile. Like, what are you talking about.
Speaker:Or we all like the MLM situation where
Speaker:you're walking down the street or you're in the grocery store and it's like,
Speaker:hi, so are you in the market for new income
Speaker:or new opportunities? No, I'm not.
Speaker:I've been down their throat. I know exactly where this is going to end.
Speaker:I'm cool. Goodbye. And here's the thing.
Speaker:I wish there was a way that I could tell, god, this is going to
Speaker:make me sound like an asshole, but I'm going to say it anyways. I wish
Speaker:there was a way that I could tell LinkedIn. Like, I don't need any
Speaker:more bropreneur. LinkedIn lead generation people,
Speaker:so please stop showing them my profile as someone
Speaker:that they should connect with, right? I don't need
Speaker:any more of them. And then I really want to respond to these
Speaker:guys. Like, the whole reason you found me proves
Speaker:that I don't need your lead generation
Speaker:bullshit tactics, right? I showed up on
Speaker:your page, dude. You're reaching out to me. Clearly my shit is working
Speaker:that drives me crazy. So I think there's
Speaker:a lot of that. There's a lot of stuff out there that will tell you
Speaker:you just need to follow this process or follow this formula, or copy and copy
Speaker:and paste these emails that are guaranteed to work and guaranteed to get
Speaker:your results. And it is sort of that same MLM
Speaker:philosophy of being a numbers game. And if you want to play a numbers game,
Speaker:great, go for it. But just understand that everyone who's
Speaker:not one of the winning numbers in that numbers game now has a shitty impression
Speaker:of you.
Speaker:If you're truly trying to cultivate a brand, then you don't want to create any
Speaker:opportunities for that, right? You want to
Speaker:be speaking directly to the people who are speaking
Speaker:your same language, who need what you have to say, and not just
Speaker:blanketing a whole list of folks and hoping that
Speaker:one person's going to go, okay, sure, and. That goes with a
Speaker:piece. Now, we've said that advertising goes to the masses,
Speaker:but that doesn't mean that your message is
Speaker:as broad as that. You still have to have that connected tissue
Speaker:of who you are and the way that you speak being presented through
Speaker:that advertising message, through that marketing conversation, through that branding
Speaker:presence. It is the same tone, the same language.
Speaker:That way, when they find that breadcrumb way on the outskirts of
Speaker:your advertising, they can follow it back to you. Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I just said you again, didn't I? So bringing that
Speaker:trail has to be consistent all the way through.
Speaker:I love it. Clearly, you and
Speaker:I could go on and on and on and on and on about
Speaker:this forever. And we
Speaker:both have some horror stories that we've touched on a little bit, but I'd love
Speaker:to hear if you could, before we wrap up here, do you have
Speaker:any examples of a success story of,
Speaker:like, when they came to me, it was like this.
Speaker:And here's what we work through and here's the results that they're getting.
Speaker:Now. Can you share, like, a quick case study with us of when you figure
Speaker:out how to do this and how to do it in the right order?
Speaker:This is what can happen? Yeah, actually it
Speaker:is a mutual friend, and I was happy to hear back that they took
Speaker:a general concept of messaging,
Speaker:of really leaning into their community and what a community
Speaker:means to them and how they speak to that community and making sure
Speaker:that they weren't afraid to share themselves with the community. They then
Speaker:took that and over the course of two years, doubled their business year
Speaker:after year. So the power of showcasing
Speaker:you, you will find the returns
Speaker:to be exponential. Because now people aren't just
Speaker:invested in your product or service, they are invested in
Speaker:you on a regular basis. Now you're in their head on a day to
Speaker:day and a moment to minimum basis. They're thinking of you. They're not just waiting
Speaker:to see the advertisement. They are now brand allies. They're speaking out
Speaker:about you and your organization and what you're accomplishing. And that's what
Speaker:they did the next two years. They just really took
Speaker:the time to express themselves, learn more about themselves and express it fully.
Speaker:And that doubled their revenue. Yeah. And I think
Speaker:so many folks out there right now need to hear that because there's
Speaker:so many folks who are thinking, well, I can't share that.
Speaker:I can't truly be myself. If I was truly myself, nobody would want
Speaker:to do business with me. No, dude, actually, probably two,
Speaker:three, four times as many people would want to do business with you if they
Speaker:really knew who you were. It's a bit of a paradox,
Speaker:but I think we just have to lean in. The more you lean into that
Speaker:paradox, the better it's going to be on behalf of your business.
Speaker:Oh, Shay, my friend, thank you so much. This has been so fun.
Speaker:I love sort of dissecting this. Thank you for
Speaker:crystallizing it in a way that I think people will easily be
Speaker:able to wrap their head around. I love the driving
Speaker:down the highway, restaurant billboard analogy. That's going to stick with
Speaker:me in particular. I think it's such a great way to explain the impact
Speaker:of this and how one thing connects to another.
Speaker:And I cannot reinforce enough that it all
Speaker:starts with you. You have to really understand who
Speaker:you are, how you add value, how you can be of service to people,
Speaker:the types of people you can be in service to. And then if you
Speaker:really get that right, if you get that core of your brand right and
Speaker:build out your marketing and your advertising from there,
Speaker:that's when the magic happens. That is when the magic happens,
Speaker:folks. So if you do nothing else,
Speaker:folks, please take some time today to think about where
Speaker:did I start? Did I start at the end and did I start with advertising?
Speaker:Did I start in the middle and I start with marketing, or did I start
Speaker:with branding? And even if you did start with your branding, is it truly
Speaker:clear? Have you taken the time to really understand who
Speaker:that ideal audience is and why they need you specifically?
Speaker:And how can you make your branding, your marketing, and your advertising
Speaker:messages speak more clearly to those folks? Take a
Speaker:few minutes today. Think about if you can get
Speaker:clarity in any of those areas. And if you have more questions,
Speaker:you can always email us. We love getting questions
Speaker:in from our community here at unfuckmybusiness,
Speaker:so you can email us at wtf@unfuckmybusiness.com.
Speaker:And we always love dissecting these things on
Speaker:our Tuesday night calls as well. So if you're not already in our
Speaker:Facebook community, click the link that's in the Show Notes. Get your ass in our
Speaker:Facebook community so that we can help you master your marketing
Speaker:along with everything else for your business. Shay, thank you so
Speaker:much for joining me today, and we will see you
Speaker:next Tuesday. Bye, y'all. Ciao.
Speaker:What the fuck are you waiting for? Take what you learned in this episode
Speaker:and do something with it. You'll find all the links and resources
Speaker:we talked about in our Show Notes for this episode. Go to unfuckmybusiness.com
