When you create a brand strategy, especially for a small business owner or solopreneur, you have the opportunity to infuse more of yourself and more of what you care about and what you stand for or what you stand against into your business that creates meaning and fulfillment. Today we're going to do the three, two, one of why you, as a small business owner or solopreneur, need to build a brand strategy.
So of course, this is my absolute favorite topic and I cannot wait to get started with you. When I do a three, two, one, it's just a really quick three tips, maybe two actions, one inspiring story or some kind of combination of that, just to give you like a real quick, I don't know, inspiration, win. Learning, education. Something that you could take forward into your day, that you can think about and that may inspire you to make some serious changes in your business. Sometimes it's like literally the smallest tweak that can make the biggest difference in your business.
So let's get started. The three, two, one on why you need to create a brand strategy. So I'm going to start with three reasons why a brand strategy would be important to you as a small business owner or solopreneur. Number one, and this is the big one, clarity. There are so many small businesses, small business owners that I talk to that come to me because they're like, I don't know what to say.
I don't know how to do my marketing. I don't know how I stand out. I just don't know what to do. I'm trying everything. I'm actually doing work, I'm doing marketing, I'm doing social media, but nothing's really sticking.
That's because you don't have clarity when you create a brand strategy, which of course is your opportunity to shape the perception of your brand or your business for your ideal customers. So a brand strategy is all about deciding what you want your, your reputation to be, what you want that perception of your business to be that is going to be meaningful and resonate with your ideal clients. You decide and you create a strategy that clarifies that for yourself. So that when you go to market, when you do your marketing, when you do your social media posts, or when you create your signs, your logo, your email, marketing, whatever, you know who you are, you know why they want to work with you, you know how you stand out amongst the competition, you know what promises you're making to your clients, you know how to show up, you know what the personality will be, the voice, the look, the tone all of that, that is all part of defining your brand strategy. So the reason you'd want to do that is one, it will give you clarity.
So when you take the time to define that, all of a sudden the light bulb goes off and you get clarity. And it makes it so easy to say, yes, this is a good idea, yes, this is a good email, yes, this is a good social media post, or no, it needs to be tweaked, needs to be scrapped. It's not doing what we need it to do. And when you take that time to build that brand strategy, you're also building an understanding of your customer base, your ideal customers, the market segment that you're working within and how you are positioning yourselves in the hearts and minds of those customers. So all of that is done when you create a brand strategy that's powerful, powerful information for you to then go forward.
The alternative is what I like to call octopus marketing. And that's literally when you are just trying everything. Your messaging is all over the place. Or maybe you're just like telling people what you sell, but you're like putting it out there in all these different ways. And maybe those ways aren't the ways that your ideal customers are going to see them.
And you're not resonating, you're not creating any meaning or depth, right? Because you haven't taken that time. You, as the business owner, as the solopreneur, it is absolutely 100%, 100% your job to make it easy for your customers to choose you. And if you have no clarity on who you are, what you stand for, how you're going to market, who your customers are, what they need, the promises that you're going to make, then it's just not going to work. So clarity, that is the number one.
Number two is meaning. When you create a brand strategy, especially a small business owner or solopreneur, you have the opportunity to infuse more of yourself and more of what you care about and what you stand for or what you stand against into your business, that creates meaning and fulfillment. When I work with my clients, we spend a ton of time on what is your brand purpose, right? Like what is that contribution that you're going to make? Because your business exists and we want that brand purpose to not only match up, right, with what you're selling or what you do in some way, which is what people usually think, but it needs to match up with what's in here, it needs to match up with what's in your heart so that you can go to business go.
Go to business. Do your business. No, don't do your business. So you can go to work every day and your employees can go to work every day feeling super fulfilled. Not only about the good that you're doing for your customers through your business, meaning your core offer, service, product, right.
But also the extended good that you're doing for the community, the world, society, the environment, wherever your heart calls you to be. And when you build a strong brand strategy, specifically a brand worth loving, which is what I generally teach, but that the inclusion of brand purpose, authenticity and inspiration, that's what makes it a brand worth loving. So you want to include that in your brand, but when you do that, you get that strong fulfillment. The benefit of that is a couple of things. One, you feel good about what you're doing, right?
And so you will market it more consistently. And consistency really is the key to all success, don't you think? Like, what successes do we have that consistency isn't part of? Like, I'm on a weight loss journey, a health journey. I was on a journey last year to climb the Inca trail in Peru.
All of those things that I wanted to do even outside of my business required me to be consistent with my actions to get there. So for small business owners and solopreneurs, one of the things that we really struggle with is consistency in our marketing. And some of the time it's because of lack of time. And that's a whole other topic for another day. But some of the time it's because we just don't feel good about how we're marketing.
You know, there's this perception of marketing. I don't know if you have it or not, but there's this perception of marketing that, you know, it's salesy, it's pushy, it's sleazy. And you know what? It absolutely can be. But your marketing doesn't have to be.
You can be the different kind of marketer who actually markets something from here, from your heart, because you build that into your brand. So that's number two. That's number two reason why you absolutely should create a brand strategy. The number three reason is ease. Don't we want to make life easier for ourselves?
I absolutely 100,000% would like to make the marketing of my business easier. And yeah, we can rely on AI tools, yes, we can hire people to help us, we can do all that stuff. But if we don't know what our brand is, what our key messaging is going to be, how we stand out, the reputation we're trying to build all of that is for not. All of that is for not. So once you get the information, the strategy in place for your brand, it becomes a lot easier to market because you actually know who you're talking to, know how you stand out, know what you're going to say, know the promise, know what is going to, it's going to like pull people towards your business because they are in line or on the same vibration as your brand.
Right. It's way, way easier to market when you have all of that information. So if you want to make your marketing easier, don't try to make it easier by simplifying your processes. Only make it easier by building the strategic foundation for your brand. Got to know, you've got to have that clarity.
And that clarity makes it easier to market your business. So the three reasons to create a brand strategy that I talked about today, there are more is clarity. Meaning and fulfillment. Right? Meaning and fulfillment.
It's like that impact and then ease, make it easier to actually do the marketing. Two things that you can do right away, two things you can do today. So obviously building a brand strategy is not so easy that it can be done overnight. Right. Generally when I work with my clients, we take like eight to twelve weeks to build this brand strategy because we are really peeling back the layers.
One, for the part of the brand that is going to be a reflection of the business owner and then two for the part of the brand that is going to be truly appealing and meaningful to your customers. And then three, how are you going to stand out amongst the competition? So there's a lot of research that takes place. There's a lot of introspection that takes place and exploration that takes place. Right.
And a lot of concrete decisions that need to be made. And so we generally take, you know, 812 weeks to do that. But, but there's some things that you can do today to get closer to figuring out what your brand will look like tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. I mean, we don't create a brand for a day. A brand strategy is that long term enduring strategy that rarely ever changes, right?
It may evolve depending on societal and cultural trends or things that happen in the world. It might have to evolve, but generally this is a long term strategic decision. So you only have to do it once. So giving you tips that you can do right away is kind of hard. But one of them is the better you know, your customers, like really know them, know why they choose you, why do they pick you?
Why specifically you? Your business. Right. Understanding, you know, who they are. Not just like they're women, you know, middle aged women.
No, no. Who are they in their heart? What do they fill their days with? What are they doing? Doing some primary research on who your customers are.
Even just by asking them questions about yourself themselves. That will help you in your marketing and that will help you in defining your brand strategy. It will help you kind of immediately. Right. But you can't define your brand strategy by just talking to your customers.
You need to take a systematic approach to that. If you are interested in learning how to build like a buyer Persona, for instance, which is like a representation of your most ideal customers. I have a course for that. You can go on my website, check that out. But today, I'm just saying, talk to your clients.
Understand why they picked you specifically. The other thing you can do today is to start believing your business is your legacy. And what I mean by that is that whatever you are able to do and create with this business, when you have this influence and you have this push to create something that can be longer lasting than you, that can be longer lasting, the impact that you can make can be longer lasting than the business itself. And so you, I want you to kind of start to believe that, you know, what you're creating is not just a product or service or a way to pay your bills. I want you to start dreaming about what do you want to be known for?
You, the business owner, be solopreneur, Georgette, molly, Tom, you, you, what do you want to be known for? What contribution do you want to make? And when you kind of wrap your head around the fact that you can simultaneously create a business that is profitable, making you money, doing the economic things that you need it to do, but simultaneously going out with a message of hope, inspiration, kindness, whatever it is that really means something to you, you can pull that into your business. So I think the first step is really to truly believe that your business is more than what you sell. And when you believe that, and then you take the journey to create your brand strategy, you're going to come up with something way more inspiring, way more fulfilling, way more you, and it's going to touch your heart.
Okay, so those are the two actions. So one, talk to your customers, get to know your customers. And two, start believing that your business is so much more than the products and services that you sell. And then I thought I would give you the one today as an inspiring example. I love examples.
So if you guys haven't checked out my book, brand worth loving, I actually lay out the exact method that I use with my clients on a one on one basis and also through all my group programs, step by step, how to build a brand strategy that is meaningful and authentic and inspiring and stands out and perfectly suited for small business owners and solopreneurs. Right. And so, but within that book, I've got all these examples of my customers, and I want to talk about Crispin Jensen, who is the client that I had that actually wrote the forward for the book. And this is an inspiring story about what a brand can do and how a brand can change everything. So here I go.
So if you want to hear it in her words, get the book, read the forward, and then you can kind of get her side of the story. But my side of the story is that, so Kristen, she's like this spirited, like, feisty go getter. And she was probably one of the most critical clients that I've ever had. She wasn't sure if she needed to build a brand strategy or if she maybe already had one because she had been in business a couple years. Her business was doing well.
Her business is training, first aid training. So people who needed to be first aid certified would go to her. She would run the class, they would get a certificate, and off they'd go to work and say, hey, here's my certificate. Now I can continue with my job. So that was what she did.
First aid trainer. She was a solopreneur, a single mom, and actually, she wasn't a solopreneur. She was more of a small business owner. She had a couple employees at that time. So we meet at a coffee shop, and she is just like, mm hmm.
Kind of standoffish. I'm so intimidated because that was the first time that I had a client that wasn't, like, so excited to work with me. She was like, I'm doing this, but I don't know if I'd need it. What happened through the process was we discovered that her marketing, the way she was going to market with her business, was very formal, was formal and super professional, which was not at all like her. She's not a formal person.
She has got layers and layers and depth and depth, and she's this funny, kind of like laid back, but not laid back, just fun, funny, witty kind of person. And so she said, and I don't do this for all clients, but this was at the onset of my business, and I'm giving this example so I can tell you what that brand did for her. So it's been four or five years now. And so where she started to where she is actually going to end up or where she is now and to what she's striving to do. So what I did is I went to one of her classes.
So I decided, well, she actually said, she said, you are not going to be able to help me unless you see a class, which is not good, right? Because for me to understand her brand and her business, I had to go to a class. I had to buy it right now, she gave it to me for free. But imagine you're a customer, right? Like, you don't get the business.
You don't understand what she's trying to do. You don't get her unless you buy it first. See how that doesn't make sense? So her marketing was not a reflection at all of what she was trying to accomplish and who she was. So I go to the class, and she is hilarious.
Like, the people in the class are laughing. They're having a great time. She had, like, theatrical makeup. She was, like, making people look like they were, like, seriously injured and then having people work on it. She had people, like, running around.
People were connecting with her. And so much so that after the break, a bunch of them came back and gave her candy because she said she liked candy. And. And then she was throwing it at them. Like, it was just, like, really fun, right?
And typically first aid classes, not really fun, right? A lot of PowerPoint, a lot of, like, lecturing, a lot of, like, crazy eyes just staring or half shut because you're bored to death. So her class was very different. And then you go and look at her marketing, and it was very formal, very serious. Not at all.
Not at all. So that was a really good eye opener for me as we started to create the brand. And so we created the brand and we created the purpose of the brand. So we, we took the time to get to know who she was, found out, you know, she really believed in second chances. And so we built that in and then found out, you know, some of the stats in the industry were pretty dismal in terms of survival rates of heart attack, people who have a heart attack.
So in Canada at that time, the survival rates were less than 10%. So if you had a heart attack outside of a hospital, you had less than a 10% chance to survive. Like, that's not very good considering all the people who actually need to take first aid training and learn CPR. Anyway, she was saying that there was some states or counties and some states that had, like, 50% survival rate and to her. That just, like, made no sense.
Right. It makes no sense that there's some places that can save half the people and some places that can save one out of ten. And so as we started talking and doing the work, we really figured out that her purpose with her business was to change. That was to be able to save one out of two instead of one out of ten. So there's so many things that go into doing that.
But one of the things that we knew for sure is that there's no way she could do it as a solo trainer in small town in New Brunswick. Right. Then what happened was we decided that would be a big part of it. We called it lifestyle 50, meaning trying to get to the 50% mark in Canada of survival rate of out of hospital heart attack victims, I guess. And we added, we did her differentiator, which was that her business is fun and it's engaging.
It's like that fun. So we said, like onboarding, it's not. It's not boring. It's fun. So the whole experience was created on that.
We brought that into her marketing. We worked on her brand values. One of those values was trailblazing. She wanted to be a trailblazer in the industry. She wanted to be the person that helps to elevate the standards.
She wanted to be the person that changed the way this industry was being so stagnant, because that stat hadn't changed in over a decade. Right. So that trailblazing part. Anyways, fast forward. So she's got this rock solid brand.
She starts to implement it. She starts doing really well with it. And then Covid hit. Oh, that Covid. So immediately, the first aid industry is in danger.
Right. Because how can you practice first aid when you have to be 6ft away from somebody? Her brand was all about being hands on. Hands on. Right.
That was a brand promise. So we had to be hands on in a hands off time that makes any sense. So anyways, she went inward. She claims to have eaten a lot of ice cream, a lot of self pity. She lost a ton of business that had been booked once her brand had changed.
And for her, like, it was an immense amount of business lost in the first three months when people had to cancel all of their corporate training classes. Then she, you know, single mom, not bringing in money, and she decided that there's a way for her to take this and trailblaze through it. And so she started working on, how can we offer this with less hands on? How can we do it and still be fun and engaging? And she created one of the first hybrid first aid training programs and get it approved by the regulatory body in our area so that she could offer this program and people would still be able to get certificates.
So she did that. It took a long time. It took a lot of convincing. It took a lot of, like, back and forth, and, man, she pushed through and she was able to do it. And so she was then able to, like, start turning things around, fast forward, even a few more years or a year, I don't know.
She was talking to me and said, like, we need to figure out how are we going to move the needle here, right? So she wanted to start expanding into Canada. So now she is not a first aid trainer under another provider who, who offers certification. She's now a certificate person herself or a first aid provider, lifestyle training. And what that means is that she can offer certificates under her business name.
She's created this franchise model. Like, she has a rock solid brand that's doing well. Right? She's got the brand. So now she is creating a franchise model.
So she's got already one franchise, two franchises. I believe that's her home base location. So that's three locations for lifestyle. She's now approved to have more locations through the regulatory bodies in Alberta, Manitoba, Pei, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan. She doesn't have Ontario yet, but I'm sure it's coming.
So now she can start to, like, elevate the standards across the country. But that's what the brand did. It took her from just offering a really cool class that wasn't being marketed super well, not that it wasn't marketed well. They did the stuff. Right?
They did the stuff. They had a website. They had a good booking system. They were doing social media, they were doing ads. They were getting people aware.
But it wasn't as good as it could have been because the messaging wasn't resonating with the kind of people who would want to take this super fun, hands on, interactive class. And it was just putting her at the same me too level as everybody else. So it wasn't until she was able to really take that class and turn it into the brand so that people understood what they were getting before they got there that, you know, everything opened up for her. Yeah, Covid was definitely a catalyst. Right.
She had to get innovative, but she knew that's who she was, and so she was going to get there either way. She's a trailblazer. Right. And she figured that out through this process anyways. That's one example of what having a strong brand can do.
It gets you to look beyond the now, beyond the what do you. The ebbs and flows of small business ownership. Right. The push. And then like push marketing, push marketing, push.
And then trying to fulfill slumping in your marketing. Like it allows you to get beyond that. Because you can see the picture clearer of where you're going and you know why. And you know like the depth of the brand. And when you're going out there, you're going out with something that is unique and original and that people will really fall in love with.
So that is your one inspiring story. So be inspired by Crispin. Feel free to pick up the book brand worth loving. It is available on Amazon, all countries, I believe. And also if you live in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, it is available in, I think there's four, maybe eight different locations here.
So a couple chapters, Indigo's, a couple independents. It's on my website. So check it out. Actually, I'll put it in the show notes where you can physically go pick up a copy and then the direct link to get it on Amazon. Anyways, that's your three, two, one for today.
Hope you have a fabulous day. I love who you are. I love your courage to be an entrepreneur. And we'll talk to you soon. Our.
