Guest star TaRhonda Harvey, YOUR STRATEGIC BRAND AUTHORITY

Oh, there we go. Hi everyone, I am so excited. So I am live with my new friend Taronda Harvey. We are here just to talk strategic business branding. And so a very, very exciting because, Taronda, I love your website, by the way, tarondaharvey.com.

Thank you.

It's a great site. You have a lot to offer. So tell me, tell me about growing up. At what point did you know that you had a gift for strategic branding?

So first of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity and for inviting me on your platform for us to talk about strategic branding. I think this is like a perfect time with the times that we're in. I think a lot of, especially now, people are trying to figure out, especially when you're in business, what's the next steps, or even those that are even thinking about starting a business. It's okay, well, how do I start? You know, so I think this is definitely a great topic. So I want to thank you for, for allowing me to be on your platform.

Well, thank you. I am honored to have you on my platform.

Yes. So, um, to answer your question, I actually— I've been in technology for over 20-some-odd years, so From the time that I was in high school, I've been always in IT working with computers, everything. I actually started off learning how to take apart a computer and putting it back together.

Wow.

Yeah, so that, that was how it started. And then I started working for a Fortune 500 company where I was a senior business systems analyst. And just during that process, you meet different people. Uh, you, you're working with developers, so, you know, you're coming up with ideas, you're gathering requirements from clients and, and figuring out, hey, what's the best way to put together a software and application, whatever they may need, in order for their process to go smoother. So in that period of learning and, and working with clients and business analysis, it put me in the mind like, okay, well, we're doing this for clients at a higher scale, looking at it from a corporate standpoint, but individually we need to do the same thing. Because every day that we step out, what are we doing? We're, we're branding ourselves, right? And we are In some way, shape, or form, we're communicating about ourselves when we— every time we walk out of the door. So that's what piqued my interest. Like, okay, you know, this is, this is interesting. I need to learn more about this. So it really started— I started the business, uh, probably about— it's been over 10 years now, actually. It's been over 10 years. Yeah.

So that's why you build websites too. So you have something that a lot of people don't have, almost like a— like, I liken it to filing for 6 months in a business and you just know everything about that business from the ground up. You've got that same kind of knowledge.

Correct. Correct. And that's, I think, what makes me a little bit different as well, is because I can help you in terms of starting your business, but then at the same time, when it, when it boils down to, okay, how do I market it? How do I brand it? Versus you going to someone else, you can actually stay with me and I can help with the branding piece as well.

I love it. So I, by the way, I work for Halo Branded Solutions, so I'm an independent contractor. I've been in the promotional products business for over 35 years.

Oh wow.

And love it because we, a company's branded logo and design, look at the overall picture of what that company wants to do and then match it up with the correct promotional product that can allow them, whether it's direct mail or trade show giveaway or holiday gift or rewards and incentive. So I'd like an offshoot of what you do.

Yes, yes. Look, after I'm done with my part, I pass them over to you.

Exactly. I have a question.

Yes.

And this is by no means— whoever's listening to this, I don't want anyone to think that I'm like not being nice, but like I know someone who always has a hashtag building my brand. Even— oh, can you hear me?

Uh-huh, I can hear you.

When they have a hat made, so everything is hashtag build my brand. But it's just like if you're walking your dog, it's not really building your brand. Or if you go visit someplace, it's not building your brand. So can you explain better how you could really build your brand without— because the hashtag doesn't say it. There should be a little quote like, just because you hashtag it doesn't mean it's real, right? So what, how would we suggest to this person that just because they hashtag build my brand, that's not necessarily building your brand?

So one of the things, like I said earlier, when we walk out of the door, we're really branding ourselves at that very moment, especially now. And I'll use social media, uh, as for the example, social media right now, because a lot of people are working from home or on— or unfortunately not working. So a lot of times now, social media is definitely at a high. right? So one of the things that you can do in terms of building your brand is having a— one, you know, you have your personal page, but if you do have a business, also have a business page. And what people don't understand is that what I tell my clients is that people buy from people who they trust, right? So when you're putting your post and everything out there at that very moment, people are interviewing you and you don't even know it.

That's a great way to put it. Yeah. I'm so sorry. This BeLive, this company, this app, they're like backwards a little bit. So I can hear you great. You're not matching up to what you're saying.

Okay.

It's like a bad dub movie, right? Back in like— But you sound great. So we'll go with that because that's okay for this company.

Yeah.

So you're right.

So you're right. So people are interviewing you at that very moment. You know, one of the things I know for me, because I have multiple pages, so I have the Taronda D. Harvey, which is like my personal page with friends, family, people I connect with. And then I have Taronda Harvey. That is the public page. Which is my personal brand, and then Comille Global, that is the company Facebook page. So for me, a lot of my clients come from the Taronda D. Harvey and the Taronda Harvey because— I know that sounds so funny, it's like it's the same person— but people get the opportunity to one, see the goofy side of me because a lot of times people feel like when you're a business owner, like, that you can't be goofy, you can't be funny, you can't tell jokes. Like, who wants to work with someone who's like stiff, right? So people want to work with people that they feel they can relate to. So at that very moment, I mean, there are some people who've been following me for years and then just now started, like, working with me. And they're like, oh, you know, I've been following you for years, so I see what you've been doing. So that's why a lot of times I tell people, what you put out there on social media can either help your business or it can hurt your business. Because I've also heard people say, hey, I went on this person's page and they were talking about this, and they were talking— I don't want to work with anyone like that. You know, so a lot of times people don't know that when you're putting yourself out there, people are interviewing you, people are watching you. You never know where that— that's how you and I met, right?

You and I, are you on LinkedIn? Right. I think on LinkedIn.

Correct.

Yep, LinkedIn. So are you saying— so I'm gonna assume that you're saying political, keep your politics off, correct?

Or if you want to do that, put that on the, on the, on the private page.

Put that on the front. You say private, can we talk about this? When you say private, do you mean that you've got it locked down private? You, you're, you know, nobody's like able to really Because I myself have snoozed and, um, and, and have said to myself, oh, I will not do business with this person because I don't align with how they feel politically, right? And also, and also during COVID when COVID-19 first started, I, I, uh, so I'm a very positive person, so I don't think that everyone is is out to tell me some big lie or that there's a big controversy or conspiracy. I'm not a conspiracy person, right? So, so I was really kind of disappointed in a lot of businesses that said, well, we're open, we don't— nothing's going to bother us, we're here, it's only a flu. And so I don't even know what they're doing now because I dropped them because I thought, no, that's just— doesn't align with who I am. So you're right. Even myself, I am going to judge how you are with what you do and see if it aligns with me.

Correct. Correct. And when you have sensitive subjects such as that, where it may be COVID or political or whatever it may be, at some point you do have to show empathy and sympathy. To people. And that's what I think a lot of times people forget. I think even a lot of times, I think people who are looking for business owners, especially small business owners. So like right now you have where there are a lot of small business owners that unfortunately cannot move forward in their business due to social distancing. I have clients right now that unfortunately cannot move forward with their business because of that, because of COVID So you have where those that may need their services or people who are just saying, hey, I'm only going to take X amount of number of clients for this day. People have to be sensitive to that. So it goes both ways. It goes both ways. You know, as a business owner, you know, we have to be protective, you know, of ourselves. I know when this first started, a lot of my business consulting was already via Zoom, or, uh, pretty much I was using Zoom. But especially once this started, oh, it was strictly— we're just doing online, you know, uh, consultation. But even before then, you have a lot of people who want that face-to-face.

That's so true. Now everyone loves, uh, Zoom. It's funny, I actually— so I, I'm a graduate of the Protocol School of Washington, so I had some fun doing those on what And that was, that was a lot of fun. And even now, isn't it crazy that people still won't mute themselves when they are not talking? I don't get it.

I don't get it. I don't get it.

All right. So I don't get it. Taronda, I have a, I have something personal. And so I have a couple of questions if you don't mind my asking, and I'm going to be candid and upfront. So I worked very hard. I left the family business in the promotional products industry. And I moved to Tucson, Arizona to get away, and I started promoindustry.guru, which was a website where I did, um, curated news for the industry, the logo industry. I wasn't selling products, but I was in the industry. Then I opened up promoproducts.guru, and I use that as my, uh, as my page and everything I do. And If you Google promo products and guru, 3 words, I pop up all over the place because I've worked really, really hard. I average that my own marketing that I give to myself is estimated probably about $70,000 because I do it all myself. I don't have anyone helping me because I, I struggle, so I do it all myself.

Correct.

So I, my, my family business I left, my family business, my parents passed away. They were very, very happy that I went to Halo, which is like the second largest distributor in the United States. And my family business was very, very small.

Okay.

And all of a sudden now, so, you know, there's the estate, the will, all those like family matters. But my brothers opened up promoproductsguru.com and opened up an email address under that Adrian@promoproductsguru.com. So they really took my name. And then when you open it though, but the weird thing is this is when you, when you go on to promoproductsguru.com, it goes to their page. So people are like, people that know me are like kind of like, ooh, like why are your brothers doing that? Why don't they just take it down? Why would they do that? And I found it out, weirdly enough, I found it out because they used it in their Facebook post with my email that at first I thought was wrong, but now— and I got them to take it down because I thought that it was a hacker. I thought someone hacked in. Then when I asked them, they said it was me doing it. And then one brother who, uh, I have a brother who just— they've had it for a couple months. I think he was probably upset that I didn't know it. Like, you know, the troublemaker brother you have that always wants to be sick. So just having it out there wasn't enough for him. Just having the site didn't give him any excitement. So he calls, right? Tells me to think of a number between 199 and 999 and then email it to adrian@promoproducstguru.com. And then over the phone, he shares that he got that email, which really was like, whoa, one thing is stealing a— like taking a website name, which is trademarked.

Right.

The other one is using my name so that people really think, oh my gosh, that's her name. What, what, what, what would I— what should I do? Like, I already invested so much in Promo Products Guru, um, and I already had to make an announcement to let people know because I felt like, what if Walmart got spammed by Target and you thought every time you shopped at Walmart was really Target? Don't we know the people But what else? I'm going to be quiet now. What else would you recommend for me to do so that people know that I'm the only PromoProducts.guru?

So I think one of the first things, I think anytime that you want to start a business, for me, I would purchase every domain, right? Domain may cost $12, $13, at the most $20 a year, right? So do, you know, www.blahblahblah.com, www.blahblahblah.net, like grab all of those URLs because even if you don't use it at that point of time, you could actually do it where, say, your.com can actually redirect to the.net, or your.net can redirect to the.com. So you're still using it, and that way no one has the opportunity to go out there and try to grab it. That would be the first thing. The second thing is when you are promoting your business or any type of marketing materials that you have, make sure that you put your web address on there. And I see that a lot of people don't do that. So in your post, when you're doing your, like, a Facebook post or a social media post, you know, whether you're giving out a tip or you're saying, hey, this is the new product that just came out this week, check us out at www.promoproducts.guru. Make sure that you always put your website address. Because when you do that, those people who are looking at your post, they're going to know your website because you're constantly promoting it all the time. So that's just like two, I would say, of the main tips that I would give.

That's good. So I kind of, I kind of didn't do that because I never thought— yeah, I just didn't do it. I remember looking at it but thinking, no, I'm promoproducts.guru. Because you can keep going on and on. It's crazy. There's so many.

There's so many. It is. It is. But at least cover the bases.

But what does that look like for this company, the company that actually, you know, a $22 million company going after a little teeny seed of a little Adrian business? What does that look like?

Right. So I know that, you know, when you're a small business, there are certain things that you may can't financially afford. I know one of the things that I did when I started my business was for me to connect with an intellectual property attorney. So that was one of the first things that I did. Even if you, you know, go out and find one and maybe just do a consultation with one, just so that you know what are some ways that you can protect yourself before putting your product out there.

Interesting. I did talk to attorney and they are sending a cease and desist because— yeah, because it is— because in essence it is my trademark. And so they're infringing on my trademark.

Exactly. And that's where I see a lot of businesses that start off, they don't have that. They promote, promote, promote their business, but there's no trademark. To it, and then someone goes and steals it. And then now, you know, now you're having to find an attorney, do all of these letters, spend unnecessary money that you have to. So that's just one of the things, like with my clients, I say, hey, if your top 5 things that you need when you first start a business, just have even, like I said, even if you just get a 30-minute consultation or something, just speak with first an intellectual property and trademark attorney, just so that you have, just so that you have an idea of what you need to protect yourself.

Good advice. Wait, would you share the top 5, all of them?

So top 5, so the first one I would say is Well, I won't say in any order because it all depends, right? So have some sort of either accountant or have an accounting tool. So whether you go out and find a person who's going to do your financial bookings for you, or you actually find a tool out there where you're able to figure out your profits and your losses. Whether that may be FreshBooks, QuickBooks, there's so many out there, you know, but just pick one of those for your business. I would say a business coach or a consultant, and that way when you're coming in, you have an understanding and someone can guide you. You know, one of the things I think that makes it easier for people is for you to talk to someone who's already done this before, right? Why have to go reinvent the wheel when there's people out here who have done it before? Find someone who may be in your industry. If you're someone who are in the promotional products, Maybe they can reach out to you, Adrian. You see what I mean? So that you can kind of guide them and say, hey, this is one of the mistakes that I made that now I wish I would have— if I had someone to, to mentor me in the beginning, I would have done X, Y, and Z instead of this way. So finding a, a business, uh, consultant or a coach. I would also say in terms of getting yourself out there in the digital world, whether that is a website or social media. So, so get one of the two or both because they're both— they both do two different things. But make sure that from the website perspective, at least you have something out there that if people have questions, if people want to find out what services you provide, you at least have a website out there. I tell a lot of people initially, people think I need a website. People feel like, oh, I need 5 pages. I need the home, the about, the services, the contact. I need a gallery. I need this. When you're starting off, a lot of times you don't need all of that. You could really just get away with one page that has information about your business, the services that you provide, and how people can contact you. And you can always expand that website out. You don't have to go out and spend thousands and thousands of dollars from the get-go. Start with something small. And then just build your way up. Because as your website gets out there, people are going to ask you questions. And at that point, you can say, oh, you know what, I've had 10 people to ask me a question about, uh, you know, what's my process to work with, you know, what's the process for me to be able to work with you? Okay, maybe I need to create a page on how to work with me, or what's the process to work with me. It may be filling out a form with just some information that I can get back with you. But as your website gets out there, you'll know what you need to add to it. Um, and then the other one is an intellectual property and trademark attorney, because as you put products out there, as you put your services out there, Unfortunately, you have people that are going to steal your information. I've seen some people steal people's content just like that. Just steal it like it's no problem. Yeah. So you want to just make sure what are some of the things that you can have to cover yourself. Um, when you are putting things out there on social media, if it's a product and you have your logo, watermark your logo on that social media post. Because a lot of times what people are doing now is they see this product and they say, oh, I'm selling this same product, I'm gonna steal this. You know, if your logo's on there, how can they do that? Smart. And then I would say the last one would be a photographer, if you can, because I think every business owner should have some professional pictures.

Oh, you mean like headshots?

Headshots, or just some action shots, just some professional pictures. No selfies in the car. So when people are asking you I don't get it.

Exactly.

So when people ask you or say, hey, you know, I want you to be on the podcast, I want you to do this, you're ready. You already have your picture already. If they say, hey, I need a headshot, you already have the headshot. You're not having to go out now scrambling, trying to find a photographer to take a picture. You know, just, just be prepared. So those are, I would say, the top 5. I might say 5 or 6. But the top things that you need when you're starting a business.

Thank you. I have to say, I love your photos on your site and I love you in blue. Really, really beautiful. I enjoyed that because more action, you got your smiling looking down. I really love that. Oh, and I don't know if you know this, but I am actually a SCORE certified mentor.

Okay.

We're not coaches. Coaches, but we are available. And there's a SCORE in pretty much every office, but now with Zoom, we're all able to, um, so, you know, whoever has— if you have a need for a subject market expert, SCORE is out there. You can go to score.org, put— find a mentor, put in what you need. And so I mentor in the promotional products industry with supplier and distributors through SCORE, and it's just a— it's, it's a great It's a great, uh, business— oh my God, my words are not going as right as I would like them to be— but it's a great resource. And we have workshops, we have all kinds of different, you know, business offerings that we have. The website has business templates, but you can look at a business plan, it doesn't mean that it makes it easy. So you really want to work. A mentor doesn't do your homework for you. We're not a coach. We just help you to navigate the waters. Often you still need to have a business coach to go with that. Correct. But it's really fun. Do you have, do you have a few minutes to tell us about your most glorious client? Like one that you feel like if someone had to say the one that really you're so proud of, your baby that you, that's now grown up, would you share that?

Hmm. Let me see without saying any names. No.

I don't have any sponsors.

You know what? Honestly, and I'm not saying this because anyone who knows me knows that I am— I just come out and say it. But so what I'm about to say is I'm really being genuine. But when I tell you all of my clients, I am sincerely proud of. I have seen each of them, and they're all in various industries, but I've seen them from when they came to me, whether it was they had an idea and said, okay, hey, let's come up with a strategy how we're going to do this, and to see it just blossom, it's like, wow. I know one of my clients we had a business strategy session and we were talking. I was like, okay, what about if you did this box?

What if you did this?

And then we were like, okay, this may work. And it was so funny because for my birthday she actually did the box for me. So I was the first— I was like the first one to see it.

And I was like, oh my gosh, I love it. I love it.

And from that, and from that moment, yeah. And from that moment, it has just been great for her. But all of my clients, just to see them, whether they are winning awards, whether they are being published in articles, whether they have just grown from the time that we've met up until now, the confidence that a lot of them have now, you know, because when you're first starting off in your business, I don't care what anybody will say, and even with myself, if it's something that I'm just putting out, or I'm like, oh, I have an idea, and I'm like, but is this going to work? It doesn't matter how many years you've been in business, you're still going to have a fear of putting something new out. You just have— it's just a natural thing because you don't know whether or not people are going to take to it. People may say, oh God, that just sucks. What did she think with putting that out there? But just to see from my clients the confidence that they've built to say, I'm going to try this. If it fails, it fails. If it blows up, it blows up. But just to see that confidence and for us to not only be clients, but we also have that friendship where if it's something that, you know, I'm like, oh, I don't know, no one gets offensive. You know, we know that it is clearly— all of my clients know that we are— that I am clearly there for them and want to see them, see them grow. But I'm proud of all of them. I mean, I can't— I love— there's not one. Yeah, that's okay.

I love that answer. That was a beautiful answer. And I do think that the reality of life. You know, we— I, I, I don't know, I think even growing up in the business, in family business, I, I never minded saying that I made a mistake. Some people can never— they never want to admit that's wrong or that they make a mistake. And so starting Candid Conversations was something that I wanted to do for years, but finally when COVID hit, I thought to myself, you know what, you make mistakes all the time, and Sometimes I got the dog poops and I got to run and pick it up. And as long as I have this and it's real and natural and there's no rehearsal, no script, no, no, no talk of religion or politics too, right? But that I can do this and reach out to people and just have candid conversations. And if I make mistakes or someone doesn't like me, I have to be okay with that. And it really has helped my own credibility. Like, I'm learning more about myself. All right, so now I'm going to let you go in a minute, but I want to ask you this.

Yes.

Because what you do is always hard to kind of put it in a couple sentences. So the old, I'm on the elevator and I see you and I tell myself, I'm going to look at you and we'll say, you're beautiful. What do you do for a living? And what's that answer?

You know what? So, you know, you're supposed to have this 30-second elevator pitch. I think I've changed mine so many times. I have changed it so many times that it's— so now it— because I do different things, it's kind of like hard to put it all in one bubble. Um, but the latest one that I actually came out with, and I have not shared it yet because it's kind of like a different direction that I am going into, But I would say that, and I wrote it down, so it is— but I'm going to think of off the top of my head. So what I would say is that I teach entrepreneurs. I'm going to make sure I get this right, because when I tell you I just came up with this, like, last week, this is like last week. So it's interesting that you asked me this. So I teach entrepreneurs to— hold on, wait, because I don't want to mess this up. Wait, wait, wait, I love it.

No, take your time.

All right, look, I am going to find this because I don't want to mess it up, because I thought it was like the thing of sliced bread that I came up with, and I do not want to mess up. Oh, here we go, here it is. Okay, so My new tagline is, I help business owners clock out of part-time entrepreneurship into a full-time brand.

I love it. Is that it? And it's perfect.

That was it.

The clock out. What made you think of clock out?

You know what? Because I think one of the things in, in if you remember us talking in the beginning, we talked about how people come to you, come to those that they trust. So for me, I feel like I was once in corporate America, was there for almost 14 years with the same company, and, and I left. So for me, I feel like although I was still working my business, it's now— that's my full-time thing now. Like, I don't have— I'm not in corporate anymore. So for me, I feel like, okay, I have clocked out of the part-time entrepreneurship, and now I'm into full entrepreneurship because it's two different I don't care what people say, it is too different. Your mindset has to change. Your mind— your mindset has to change because a lot of times what I see, um, individual— and, and I was the same way when I worked, uh, my 9 to 5. If you had a client and a client said, oh, well, you know, um, I want to do this project, but 'But maybe financially I can't pay the whole thing. Would you mind if I pay half?' Okay, my process that I wrote down says, 'Okay, 100%.' But I'm like, 'No, don't worry about it yet. You can pay the— you can pay the half.' Why was I thinking that way? Because I knew I was going to be getting another paycheck from the full-time job. You see what I mean? So sometimes when we have other, uh, sources of income coming in that we know we're getting, sometimes we become lax on our own business. And I know that that was something, like I said, that I did. I would change my process for different people, and then in the end I'm like, why did I do this? Like, I was making it harder for myself versus me just saying stick with your process. If you stick with the process, you won't have to— you won't have to get irritated or why this happened, why this happened. Stick with your process that you put together.

That is such great— that is such fantastic advice. And I belong to, um, one of those groups like Entrepreneur Woman Helping Entrepreneur, and I think that that has to be said a lot because so many women are nervous and don't have a lot of business, and so they will get run over often by someone that's a little bit stronger than they are and can take advantage. So that is really great advice. I am so glad that we had a chance to do this.

I know.

You're just in West Palm Beach.

Yeah.

Next time in the area, you're not that far away, and I want to go see the— do you go over to the Your safari place, what is that called?

Lion Country?

Well, yeah, they're social distancing. They probably are doing great in business now, probably, because I—

right, like, the last time I went might have been 3 years ago. I went there one time for, uh, my birthday because surprisingly I haven't I had not gone there, so I was like, oh, I just want to do something different. And then, you know, just driving and seeing like the animals. I was fine until they started coming up to the cars, then I was like, wait, hold on now. And wait, what's the speed limit you said I got to go? But I'm seeing this, uh, this animal coming to my car. It was fun down there, and I used to take the boat.

I used to take that little red boat or the Celebration Line that they had there.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they've grown, they've, they've grown a lot.

It's a lot of new things here now, so I, I totally understand that a lot of West Palm Beach is definitely back on track. It looks— it's beautiful. Yeah, and if you come up to Daytona, you're gonna look me up Yeah, yeah, look, when we all can travel again, I would love that. So, Toronto, thank you so much. Have a great rest of the day and week, and thank you so much. Your advice was really spot on. I really enjoyed this.

Yes, likewise. Thank you again.

Have a great rest of the day. Thank you. All right, bye-bye.

All right, that was great.