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Welcome to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul with me Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert. This podcast is for you if you are an online entrepreneur who is looking to simplify their business to scale.  On this podcast you can expect to hear regular talk about wealth, about selling and about wellbeing. Because I believe these three core fundamental things are pivotal to your growth moving forward.

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Hello and welcome to make more money without selling your soul with myself Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert and business mentor.

And today, I want to talk to you about why your brand should be an afterthought. So, there’s a few things here right like, firstly, do you know what brand is? Do you know what I’m talking about? I should probably add some kind of personal context here, I grew up with a graphic designer as a mother. In fact, more than that she owned her own graphic design agency. So I have a huge appreciation for brand. And when I’m talking about brand, I’m talking about more than fonts and brand colours and brand photography and all the things that go with it when one thinks about what their brand and digital presence is going to look like online. But specifically right now I’m talking about hiring a graphic designer for your business. Okay, this is what I’m talking about when I’m talking about why your brand or where your brand should be an afterthought. And it does feel a bit controversial, a bit against the grain saying this, what was my background and appreciation in graphic design. And the fact that I have to admit, I think the very first few 100 pounds I ever made in business, I quickly reinvested in getting some business cards, I mean, he uses those anymore, getting a beautiful logo and getting a gorgeous website designed. And it really made me feel like I was legitimate, like I was the real deal. Like people should be taking me seriously, I’ve got a website. And you know, so in many ways, psychologically, it helped. However, what I will also say is that I launched my business in 2020. And since then, I think I’ve rebranded three times three times in three years. I mean, that’s a lot, right. The last one was by far the largest investment. And to be honest with you, I’m already considering another rebrand. So that will be four times in three years, four times. Now, here’s another really important thing to say. It has absolutely nothing to do the quality of the graphic designers I’ve worked with. So far, they have been incredible, really, really, really good at what they do, I have a real knack for choosing great graphic designers, and they are all excellent, I recommend both of them. However, what has happened to me is what I see happening to a lot of other business owners, and what could possibly happen to you. So I guess this is why I’m coming on with my experience in the hope that it will help others save some money and do things in a more simple way. Because as you know when I biggest philosophies is about how to keep things simple in business. Because as you’ve probably gathered by now, if you’re an online business owner, there’s a lot of things to be thinking about, right? There’s a lot of things to be investing in every single day, really one of the most pertinent questions we can be asking ourselves is how are we using our time? And are we focusing on those needle moving tasks? And on top of that, when we make investments, again, it’s recognising are we investing in what matters right now. And I’m sharing this with you because quite frankly, very often early on in business, branding is not what matters.

And I say this, like I say with the highest level of reverence for what branding is. And you’ll understand more shortly. So here’s a few things to understand about when we start an online business. Like I say there’s so many things we can be thinking about investing in, whether it’s a mentor or a coach, getting a website 100% a good idea. We definitely want websites, we definitely want to be building up that SEO, which also then means we need to be thinking about where we’re creating time to create content for that SEO. There’s so many things. So let’s talk more about what’s available to us when we start our business. Well, there’s Canva, right? There’s Canva and there is Creative Market. I’m a huge fan of Creative Market, I’ve found so much inspiration going through that. And now, I’m not saying anyone who can access these tools now suddenly qualifies as a graphic designer, they most certainly do not. Will it be the brand that stays your brand for the rest of your career? almost definitely not, you know. But in the early stages when we’re getting started, I can tell you something for nothing. People are not gonna hire you off the back of how much money you spent on your logo. They really won’t care whether it’s Don’t Canberra or not. Now I know it serves some graphic designers to remind people that if you create a logo on Canva, it’s going to look like a lot of other people, you know what, when you start out in business, most of the time, you sound a lot like a lot of other people as well. And you know what’s gonna hold you back more, it’s gonna be you sounding a lot more like a lot of other people than it will be looking like a lot of other people. Your logo is one tiny piece of the puzzle, okay? So while it’s really fun to invest in a graphic designer, and have your logo done, you can just get a nice font, and have your name and that font to begin with. And like I say, it will not be the difference, okay, it will not. And I say this as someone who has invested in these things, and yes, it was fun.

And yes, it was nice. And yes, it was meaningful. But did I need to spend my money that No. And what I know to be true, in terms of the people I’ve supported over the past few years is sometimes an extra 400 500 pounds, really makes a big difference to their bottom line. I’ve always been quite fortunate in my business, that there’s usually been enough that I could have afforded to have done that no could afford to spend on a graphic designer, where it wasn’t necessarily the best investment. But I know for some people, it’s a decision between well, do I book that weekend away, or hire that graphic designer? Or do I hire that business coach or that course that I think is going to really help me with knowledge around things that I really need right now, all of those instances, I would always say no, just forget about the logo for now, once you have a profitable business, then it becomes a much easier decision to invest in a graphic designer to invest in that logo, then it will be a no brainer decision, where you won’t even need to listen to this podcast, because it’s already so obvious that it’s a great idea to hire a graphic designer, but really early on, you really don’t need to. And when I say really early on, I mean even in within the first year or two of business, nobody cares as much as you do about what your logo looks like. And it goes the same for brand colours, you know, with some basic guidelines around what your brand colours should be in terms of please don’t have 20, it’s just going to overwhelm people. But when you know the main premises of a neutral colour, a dark colour, a bright colour and a few others. Again, it’s relatively hard to mess up. And things like Creative Market make it significantly easier to do what you need to do. Because quite frankly, at this stage, you’re not trying to create a global brand, a brand that stands out from everyone else, you just want to look professional. And those bits of software allow you to do that with absolute ease. And even though there might be somebody else somewhere that perhaps has bought the same package. It’s highly unlikely you’re going to be standing next to them anytime soon. Okay, so you really don’t need to worry about it. And why am I saying all of this, I’m sharing all of this, because your brand won’t be the thing that gets you to offer six figures a year, it will be you, it will be visibility, it’ll be your offer.

There’ll be how well you understand your dream client. It’ll be all the conversations you’re having. So sometimes these exercises like getting a brand can just be something that distracts us something that for a moment, we feel like oh, in the same way that wearing a nice dress to a party will be the kind of deciding factor and how good that party is, and what a great night we’re gonna have. Yeah, it might temporarily give us a little boost of confidence as we walk through the doors of that party. But ultimately, the party is the party. And the really important piece here. This is what it really all boils down to, you are going to evolve so, so much. I am starting to recognise the phases that online business owners go through. And that in the early stages, we all get really excited to do our first headshots or brand photoshoot, you know, we all kind of go through the whole, like, how do I differentiate myself? How do I show my personality. But ultimately, it all looks quite samey. It’s all something that lots of other people are doing as well. So you’ll see that with brand photography, you’ll see that with brands, you’ll see huge kind of repetition in the online space of what people are doing. So while you’re hiring someone to do something unique, chances are it ends up looking a lot like what a lot of other people are doing as well anyway. And what feels really exciting at the beginning quickly feels boring. So there’s definitely a lot of kind of maturity that happens as you go through online business and you try a few things emphasise and you start to recognise what feels good, what doesn’t feel good. And more importantly, what you start to recognise as your brand is so much more than the fonts you buy. It’s so much more than the colours that you choose.

Ultimately, your brand, is what you’re embodying. And the more clearly you can communicate your personality, your unique blueprint in business via your brand, the harder it’s going to work for you. But you’ll probably only get a sense of that when you’ve worked with enough clients to understand what it is that’s unique about working with you. For example, I make really silly jokes all the time and I didn’t really realise it’s kind of probably my way of getting people out of their heads and into their bodies and helping them to enjoy the process of strategizing their business. And it took two or three clients saying there’s like joyfulness and wit about how you support clients. That doesn’t really Did he come across in your brand, I mean, they didn’t necessarily even referenced my brand. But they’d say, Oh, I didn’t expect this about working with you. But it’s really fun. And so there were moments like that in terms of my journey with my brand where I recognised Oh, I’m really missing out here on something that is an important piece as to why people like working with me. So all of that kind of feedback is invaluable to help you understand what makes working with you differently. But like many things in life, you’ve got to go and do the damn thing. First, before you’re going to start to understand what those things are. People may say to you in the early stages, what makes you different, what makes your client different. But if you’re having to go too far into your head, and guessing versus actually talking from experience, than already, you’re not in a position to be thinking about your brand. This should be from lived experience. This should be from you knowing in your bones, that there’s a certain way that you like to shop and do things that you want your brand to represent. And if you don’t know that, then it’s not the time to be investing in your brand. It can be taking the many other far more affordable routes, which, like I say, are equally effective for where you’re at in your business right now. So when should you be thinking about your brand? Well, as I kind of slightly referenced earlier, it should be around the basis of you do have that experience, you’re really clear on what your strength Your strength is. You don’t just have a niche, you have a sub niche. When people ask what it is that you do, you’re not just talking about what’s on the tin, you know how you do it, you know why you do it, you know why your clients love to work with you, you know, what makes you different, you know, what makes you different from your competitors, and why people continually come back to work with you.

When you know those things, you will create a much stronger brand, a brand that will truly stand the test of time, and not be one of those ones that needs updating again, in a year’s time because it no longer feels true. Okay, so that’s point number one. Secondly, if you find yourself regularly attracting clients who are not aligned to the kind of work that you do, or the way you like to do work, to be honest with you, about says do with your brand, that’s also a messaging thing, but it definitely is also firmly rooted in brand positioning. So for example, if like me, you make really crass, sometimes quite saucy jokes, and you’re attracting very straight laced people who get really repelled by that way of behaving and being, then that would imply there’s perhaps something a bit too straight laced and sensible about your branding and your messaging, which is inviting those people in. And you know, you’re basically not bringing enough yourself to the table. And what a shame, because who doesn’t love a saucy and crass jokes thrown in the mix occasionally. So this is where we get to tighten things up. And like I say, it’s not as simple as that one font or that one colour will make the difference. It is about brand positioning as a whole. It’s understanding what your special sauce is, and serving it up not just from the perspective of your images, and your fonts and colours and your general kind of the vibe that people get when they come into your world, but also the words that you use, and it’s all summarised together. And thirdly, one of the really important things about branding, when it really comes into its own is, once you have figured out who you love working with, once you’re really clear on your values, once you’re really clear on what your special sauce is, once you have a business that you can just imagine scaling and growing year upon year, then you want to make sure that you’re standing out from everyone else, you don’t want to have a brand that just looks the same as everyone else.

You want a brand that really enthusiastically communicates who and what you are your mission, visions and values. And that’s when investing in a brand strategist and a graphic designer is a really wise thing. So these are the kind of moments where you recognise that having a strong brand is going to be really influential to helping you stand out and be memorable. You know, helping you be the person that when someone thinks about whatever profession you’re in your face crops up for them. So I kind of wanted to kind of finish with something here, which I feel is a really nice analogy, which I wish I had thought about more when I first started thinking about branded my business. And it actually comes back to one of the first learnings I ever had when I worked in hospitality. And that was when I worked in a restaurant that operations manager came in and he said to me, Polly, people don’t pay to eat here. They pay for an experience. And it’s exactly the same when somebody chooses to work with you. They’re not coming to you for your specific expertise and knowledge, but they’re coming for the experience. There’s something about the way you deliver that expertise, how you share that knowledge, which will really speak to them. So if I’m going to take this restaurant kind of analogy a bit further. Here’s something that I woke up thinking about this morning. I was thinking if we were to think about our brand, our business as if it were a cafe, or a bar, or a restaurant, or a music venue Any kind of hospitality venue you can think of? It’s such a useful way to think about your brand. Are you exclusive? Are you hidden Up high? Down some back street? Are you like a speakeasy? Like how is it that people are discovering you? What’s the experience? And then they walk through the doors? What are the colours on the wall? What musics playing? How is the host greeting people? Is there someone greeting people? Is it warm and nurturing? Is it cool? Is it elusive? Is it slightly aloof? Is it super boundary? There’s about three people you have to get through till you get to the big mafia boss at the back playing with all his friends, like what’s the experience? What kind of clientele? Have you gotten this hospitality venue of yours? Why are they choosing to come to your hospitality venue?

So I know these might all seem slightly strange questions. But if you’re visual like me, it’s just a useful exercise to kind of get clear on what is the experience people are having. Because as we all know, it’s experiences that create emotions, and it’s the emotions we remember the feeling we have. So similarly, when you look at absolutely everything you do in your business, from your newsletters, to your website, to the kind of social content you share, what is the experience you’re sharing with people, if you always bear this in mind, whether or not you’re investing in a kind of brand strategist, you are going to have so much more congruency in how you show up. And you will create something unique that people will remember you for and come back for. And then later on. Once that’s really working nicely for you, and you’re making all the money, you can invest in your most absolute favourite branding graphic designer ever.

So there we have it, guys, I hope that was really helpful. I hope that saved you some money. I hope it’s given you some useful food for thought when you think about when and where would be the best time to invest in branding your business. And yeah, if it’s brought up anything useful, I always like to hear about it, pop on over to Polly Labriola and share your thoughts. In the meantime, if you are interested in creating your own unique signature offer, I have currently a beautiful workshop that I ran a couple of days ago that you can still get to listen to the recording of that you can get with the link below this podcast, do go check it out. It’s really really powerful. It’s the first workshop of its kind and I will be running these kinds of workshops monthly. So if you’d like to get a taste of what it’s like to be mentored by me what it’s like to receive some business coaching, what it’s like for me to answer your big, deep dark questions around your business, then please go check it out. It’s only 30 minutes long. You can watch it on double speed, 15 minutes of your time and so much value to gain. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Next week I’m going to be talking about how to become fully booked with your one to one services. There we have it see you then and thank you for listening