Behind The Spotlight: Mallika Malhotra

Hey, welcome! Happy afternoon! Welcome to Behind the Spotlight, where I bring you the best and the brightest friends of mine who really are really adding to the life of the digital business opportunity— a digital business owner. Today we have Malika. Here she comes. Let's see, I'm going to bring her up. She's got a request to come on up. There she goes. Oop, as a moderator. There we go. The only thing with these Instagram Lives is that sometimes it's hard to get the other person on if Instagram does not want to cooperate. There she comes. There she is.

Ah, it worked. I never know if it's gonna work.

Sometimes I'm like, really? Can you just help me out today? I want to talk to Malika all about branding and see what's going on in Maine with her. How are you today?

I'm so good. Is today your birthday?

It was yesterday. It was yesterday.

Happy birthday.

Thank you. Thank you. I actually got my birthday present this morning. I got a YSL fanny pack to wear. I know. You know I love those. Yeah, I was so excited. I did a video about it this morning. I came down to my desk and it was just like on my desk. And he's like, we're celebrating all week. You know, it's the first birthday that my kids really aren't home. So he's just being extra soft with me.

Yeah. Well, it's good. He's a good husband. He knows he needs to treat you like the queen you are.

Yeah, no, he is. We actually went out for dinner last night to a restaurant that I had been in the opening to in Newark. And it's beautiful. It's a very cool space.

The food was so bad.

Oh, no. I'm not like this. You know me. Like, I don't send things back. I had to— I was like— she came over. She's like, how is it? I'm like, I can't even—

Oh my god. What kind of food was it?

Like, Asian-inspired. It was like ramen that I was having. It wasn't like— but I don't know what they did in the kitchen. It just wasn't good. They were great. They handled it really nicely. But tonight, I think we're going to go somewhere else for dinner.

Yeah. It's funny how it changes, right, when it's just you and your spouse. The kids aren't there. Like, now my party of 5 went to a party of 3. We just went on vacation, and it's like a different dynamic.

I don't like it.

I don't like it either. I don't like it. You know what it is? It's like creating these new memories without the other ones. And they're creating memories without us, and that's kind of heartbreaking.

I just got the chills when you said that. Like, I got the chills. Because they are— because my older one is an Olympic weightlifter. And he's flying right now to Ohio because he has his competition on Friday.

And—

That's exciting. Yeah, it's a national competition, but it's also the first one that I'm not gonna be at.

So it feels a little sticky. Yeah, that's hard. Yeah, I know. Grown and flown, as they say.

I know, grown and flown. Okay, let's get down to brass tacks. Let's talk about business. I didn't get to introduce you yet, but you are the brand and my brand CEO, an award-winning brand strategist, mentor, and speaker. I knew, I actually don't think I knew how you worked in corporate advertising for like L'Oreal and Oil of Olay, two brands I actually still use. And now you help entrepreneurs get clear on their message, define their power, become thought experts. And what I love about your brand and your business is that people work with you over and over and over again.

Yes, I love that too, 'cause it makes my job easier because I've been with them for so long and I'm so invested. In them. But thank you, thank you for the opportunity to chat with you today here.

Of course, of course. We are, for those that don't know, we are actually friends. We actually lived very close to each other and got to spend time with each other when you still did everything in person, when this wasn't even a thing yet. It won't age us, but for a while now. But talking about branding, I'm really curious for people that are listening that they're like, well, I have a brand, but they don't understand that it's about the brand work and upleveling your brand as you create the business. Can we talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, so like some people say, oh, I have a brand, and they're talking about their logo and they're talking about their colors, right? Where, while that is important, because I don't want to like piss off my web designer friends and brand designer friends, it's so much more than that. It is the story and the essence beyond the colors and the fonts and all of the pretty things. And you know, you're— those things aren't going to work well for you unless you have a sound, strong foundation. And so It's doing a lot of that inner work where you're asking yourself those thought-provoking questions of, you know, what do I stand for? What am I putting a stake in the ground for? What do I hate about my industry that I'm trying to change? How am I different than all of the other people that are in my competitive market? Who am I meant to work with? And you're not meant to work with everybody. You're meant to work with a specific set certain specific target. And then lastly, a question that's gonna help you build your brand, especially something that's sustainable over time is, you know, what do I wanna be known for in terms of the transformation and the results? Not the features and the functions, because we all know it's the same thing that everybody else is doing. We all have one-on-one calls. We all have a library of assets, right?

All the stuff.

But like, what is it that changed? How are we making a difference? How are we making people think differently? That's all part of it. Part of your brand.

Of course, listening to you, I'm like, okay, what am I doing? Like, I know something that I haven't been doing a great job at is talking about how I'm a former TV producer and how I— right, I know, I know. Well, I was on a call with somebody, uh, actually did— I did a talk for, uh, Lady— but Lady B and Co. And Mariana, who's the video— she's a video, uh, expert. She teaches you how to make personal brand videos for your company. She was like, I didn't know you were a person, you were a former TV producer. I'm like, how did you not know? Like, you consume so much. As Susan said, I didn't know that either.

So these are people in your immediate network. And so again, part of your red flag, yes, part of your branding, like step number 1 is what I call your brand resume, right? Writing everything down that you've done, personal, professional experiences, and then combing through it to see what will I leverage to help differentiate my brand now. So why wouldn't you?

I used to be like megaphoning that. Well, I used to. I think I used to, and I kind of just kind of got away from it third and fourth quarter because I went back and looked at my assets from this time last year, and it was a big piece of it. So you will see, if you pay attention next week, it's all former TV producer, TV producer, TV producer. But besides the coming away from one of the biggest differentiators, what's like a big mistake that you see people making before they come to you?

Well, I see them jump into the expressions of their brand. They're jumping into developing the website. They're jumping into brand photography and hiring the copywriter, all kind of the sexy, fun, creative parts of building a business. And yet they have not asked themselves the thought-provoking questions to develop the soul of their brand. And so then they find out after they've hired all those people and they have all those assets, that then they're going to shift again. They're going to change again because because they didn't have the foundation. And so the first thing you need to do is to really develop the story, the brand first, and then you can invest in all the other things. And you'll find that whenever you have those brand photos or the copywriting, it will take you for longer because you did the work up front. So many people skip that step and they go straight. Another big mistake is your brand is boring AF. It is vanilla. Right? You have, not yours, but many people because they wanna play it safe. They don't wanna rock the boat. They wanna appeal and please everyone. And I'm here to tell you, like, you don't wanna appease and please everyone. You actually wanna repel people. You actually wanna piss people off in order to attract the right client. And so stop creating a generic watered-down brand and actually go in and like go into your passions, go into your perspective or point of view. Do you have thought leadership? Bake that into your business and it will help you differentiate.

It's so— I love what you're saying because I actually, a friend of mine asked me to look at her landing page recently and I read the whole thing and my response to her was like, you're nowhere in this. I don't know anything about you. I think too often, and I made the same mistake, is that we just think our audience knows who we are, right? And we're not thinking from a cold perspective. If somebody just comes in now, what are they seeing and how am I keeping them in the fold so that they understand? Even like, I don't drink coffee, right? It doesn't need to be something about my business. It could be something about me or I have two pit bulls or like whatever the thing is.

Right.

But I think that people want to be— right, we all want to be liked so people look more into what we're doing. But I'm with you because we're from— because I'm from Jersey, right? I don't want you to like me, right? I want you to be in on me or out on— out of me, but understanding who I am and what my differentiator is. In the business. So, you know, I know you talk a lot about niche or niche, however you say it, you know, and people are scared of that. You, if you get that information or that feedback a lot, talk a little bit about why it's important.

It's very controversial. People like have like a real like visceral response, like, I can't do it, I don't want to do it, how are you limiting me? I mean, it is a strategy.

At the end of the day, it's your business, whatever you decide to do.

But what I would say from my experience, from what I've learned after being an entrepreneur for over 2 decades, is we can't be all things to all people. We do not have the resources. We do not have the time. We don't have the energy to try to be a Jane of all trades and to deliver it well and efficiently and effectively. Instead of playing in this blue, you know, the red ocean, sorry, where everybody— it's like a bloodbath and you're competing, and then people are then just only looking at price. What I'm saying is niche down, find your specialty, your area of expertise, own it, one lane. Yeah, find your audience, a specific audience, not a broad mainstream, but something more specific, and put a stake in the ground. Find what makes you different. Look at your testimonials, ask your audience, your community, why did you choose me over someone else? Find your solution. Do you do things a different way? Are you a web designer that only does WordPress? Are you a copywriter that offers your services in a VIP one-day quick turnaround? What's your solution? And when you look at those four pieces and you put it together, that's your niche. That's your niche. That's what you can own in the marketplace, and that will help you stand out, and that will help you grow your business faster. I mean, think about it, like when you're at a networking event and, you know, it makes me crazy, someone stands up and she says, you know, hi, my name is Malika and I'm a I'm a branding person. I can help everyone and anyone to help them with their brand. Am I a web designer, a logo designer, a strategist? Am I, you know, do I specialize in sales? Like, it's too broad. Instead, you know, I would say I'm, you know, Malika Malhotra. I'm the brand CEO. I work with female entrepreneurs who feel like invisible experts, and I help them build their niche to become the go-to expert. So instead I'm painting a picture, right?

Yeah.

That allows you to say, yes, I need that, or actually I'm gonna remember her to refer her to someone else down the line because it's so specific that I know that I'll be able to send people her way.

It is, I think it's really important. I've been in those rooms too and you're like, please God. You know what actually I've been saying lately is like, I do a lot of really fun things and people are like, really? What kind of fun things? And I was like, oh, like I just said that one day. Somebody said, somebody said to me, you do a lot of fun things. And I was like, I'm going to try that. People ask me so many more questions when I say that instead. Wow. They're like, what does that mean? Fun?

Because they're curious, right?

They're getting—

they're curious.

I teach people PR. They're like, well, I don't— that's not interesting, right? If I'm the founder of the Fame Formula that helps support business owners in not only earning media but making money from it, then people are like, oh, That's a big difference. But I, you know, and I think there's a, actually I was on a call before this with a woman that is creating, um, a core, a program for people who want to be speakers. And she said to me, what term do you identify with? Do you identify with digital creator or thought leader or small business owner? And I was like, if you say digital, digital to me, then I know you're talking to me. 'Cause I think too often people are like, right, I talked to experts. Well, what kind of experts?

Right. Yeah.

And what kind of— go ahead.

You need to be specific. Otherwise, if there's no context, it is a guessing game. And a confused mind never buys. So what we're trying to do is to make it crystal clear and what I call a bullseye brand, which you have a bullseye in the middle that says, This is who I work with, this is how I help them, this is how I help them. Now, there are rings around the bullseye, so yes, you might be able to work with other people, because that's the biggest question. How am I able to work with anyone else? Yes, it's up to you, but it allows you to focus and contain your energy and create a sustainable business rather than being all over the place, scattered, multiple messages for multiple audiences. And I'm so passionate about this because I've been there. I've had that business, the junk drawer business, and it's no fun. You don't feel good about yourself because you don't feel like a specialist. Your audience doesn't trust you because they see you doing a million things, and it's not sustainable. You get— you're on the road to burnout for sure.

No, but I know in your mastermind you're really helping women come from that into really understanding what their niche is, why it's important, what their brand is. What are you seeing as the biggest transformation in your mastermind? It's called the Brand Breakthrough Mastermind, by the way. So if you're listening to my girl and you're like, you know what, I don't do any of that. I, I'm either like, Malika, I think we need a one-on-one call. So I make sure that I'm doing the right thing. But what are you seeing? Like, what's the biggest transformations for people?

Yeah, I think it's the simplification and this permission that you don't have to do all the things and that you can actually lean into what you're already passionate about, what you're already good at, what you're already doing with most of your clients. Because it's not like you're picking your niche out of the air. It's all based on data. It's all based on the intel of what you've already been doing. It's just a matter of committing and owning it rather than trying to appeal and appease everyone. So when I work with my clients and we look at the data and I can see it, But they can't because they're in the weeds, right? And they want, they're under the stress of, I want business, I need to help everyone, and how I can't get rid of that offer because what if somebody in 10 years comes to buy that, right? Instead, we're simplifying, right? Maybe it's one audience, one problem, one solution, one area of expertise, one transformation. Maybe it's one offer. And then it's like this freedom, it's liberating.

100%.

It just makes marketing easier, it makes selling easier, it makes you rinse and repeat in that one area over and over so that you are a master at what you're doing. So I think with my clients, what I'm seeing as we're going through the process, and it is a process, that's why my program is 4 months long, you know, it's mindset, it's actual strategy, it's then messaging, it's then visibility, it's then, deliver the deliverable and kind of hit all those pieces to kind of get you to becoming that go-to expert.

And it's so important to have that support. I think sometimes when we're starting out in business, we're like, well, we can, I can figure it out from YouTube and I can figure and I can kind of like mash it together. But making that real investment in somebody who's actually gonna look at your business is usually what my clients want as well. And I think when people get into programs that are about holding your hand, looking at your business and not these big groups that are, you're just another number. There's a big difference in that. And do you see that there is a trend towards people working with business owners like us versus those big groups right now?

I mean, I hope so. I mean, you and I have been in the business forever and we obviously were friends and we're also in our own masterminds. We talk about these things all the time. We've been in those big programs where you feel like a number. And where you, you probably joined because of the face of the brand with who you thought you were gonna work with. And then little did you know, there are all these other junior coaches who might be more at our level. And you're like, what did I just spend 5 or 6 figures in? And so those are the experiences that I've been through, that you've been through, that help kind of help us figure out the programs that we wanna deliver and make sure that people feel seen and heard. And there's a sense of belonging and that they have access Not that we don't have boundaries, we all need boundaries. We all need to empower our clients and not take responsibility for their results. But we also want to create containers where they feel like they can thrive. They have someone that is cheerleading them on, that's giving them strategies and shortcuts and sharing experience. And I've had that in some programs and it's been a game changer. Instead of feeling like I'm number 51 on the hot seat, and everyone is exhausted and no one's going to pay attention to my issue that at hand, right?

For me, it's about growth. Like, I'm not going to grow in that program. But if I'm number 4 in the hot seat and you're like, Beth, you said that last week, like, let's move, right? Because I know part of what we both do is kind of push people outside their comfort zone, right? Because if— right, because you stay in there. And I think when you have those bigger programs and you're not looking for a thought leader who's expert in their field and you're looking for just to be a part of something, you're not gonna move your business forward if you're not gonna transform and move.

Right, you want to challenge your clients, right? Sometimes they need to hear things that they don't want to hear, and that's our job as a coach and a mentor, is to help them think differently so that they can take the proper action in their business. And so to me, that work is done much easier in a smaller container.

Yeah, I feel the same way. And I have one signature offer. That's all I'm offering. When I, when I went down to that, not having all the things and being confusing, but also understanding exactly who I was talking to. And when I spoke just to that person in my copy, guess what? Those people showed up versus the people who can't pay me or don't show up or want to leave a program because they don't have time or they didn't know what they were getting themselves into because they actually weren't the right people. Because I'm hearing a lot from my clients, like, well, like, you know, I filled my program, but only 6 people do anything.

Right.

You know, is it that you're bringing in the wrong people? Is it that you're— the way that you're teaching them isn't getting people across? I think that that's a big question that people have in small groups, is like, how am I going to move together as a group? And that's something I think that we both do in ours. It's about moving everybody along so nobody gets left behind, like they do in those big groups. Right.

And it's important. And that's why, like, I have found the mastermind format versus a group program where you might have modules or like linear type of curriculum is harder because if few people fall off and they can't catch up, it changes the dynamic of the group. Whereas in a mastermind, why I'm so passionate about masterminds is people come to the table with what they need at that moment. So you get real answers to real problems in real time. And everyone can learn because it's a collective and you have a mentor that's facilitating and offering her expertise. And so I think masterminds, in my experience doing them for the last 3 years, has been the way that people get faster results. They feel supported, they get community, and they get all the good things. Right. So yeah, a lot of it is that accountability. It is having, Creating the space, the safe space, and also having criteria before you let them come into the program to make sure that they're a good fit. Are you asking them the right questions to make sure that they're going to participate at the level that you want them to be in? Right.

Are you talking— so I talk to anyone who applies for my programs. I talk to them. I look online. I see who they are because I want to create that right group. I know you do the same kind of thing too. You're like, you wanna create a group that's gonna work together and that will challenge each other and that'll move. And that's why I think, so it just makes me think, you know, my launch is coming up next week. You know, I'm starting with my stuff that's coming out for the Fame Lab next week, but now I'm like, I was calling it a mentorship, maybe I need to call it a mastermind. So you gave me a lot to think about today as well.

What I call it is I have a mastermind where I offer personalized mentorship. So you can borrow that.

We'll have to talk about it. We'll talk about it. So, wait, a mastermind that offers personal mentorship. I like that a lot. Okay, I'm gonna go work on my landing page next. Anyway, talk to me a little bit more about the Brand Breakthrough Mastermind, and those that are watching, if they're interested, because you've all fallen in love with my friend Malika right now, talk a little bit about how they can sign up and what they'll glean from it.

Yes, thank you. So right now I'm in a session right now. It's a 4-month container. The next one happens in September. So a great way to, after summer, when you're ready to, crank it up again, back to school energy. We will work on your brand for the 4 months, but again, it is a small container. What we really try to do is to develop your brand, create a story that's sticky, that's sharp, so that you get to be seen as the go-to in your industry and that you have all the assets that you need. Is it a framework? Is it your signature talk? Is it your signature offer? Have you defined your niche? Can we go even more focused in your industry so that it's easy for people to find you. So messaging is a big thing. Visibility, are you getting on podcasts? Are you speaking? You know, those are great. Are you networking? Those are great ways to build your brand. So, you know, a lot of these things feel confusing, like what do I do first? What do I do second? And so in this container, because it's small, I can guide my clients with whatever they need in their season of business to that next best step, to create that momentum. So by the end of 4 months, they feel like their message is clear, they have the confidence to share it, and they have some of these assets that are gonna help them attract new clients.

So if you've been listening to Malika and understand that your brand is not where you want it to be and she's your person, go find, go follow her. All of her information will be in the caption. Malika, once again, thank you for being on Behind the Spotlight. Thank you for always supporting supporting me and being my friend. I love you.

Yes, I love you too. Thank you so much for having me here. It's been fun.

Thanks everyone for coming to another episode of Behind the Spotlight. Remember, you can go to my link in bio and download the 5 Proven Subject Lines That'll Get You Booked on Your Next Podcast. Malika said visibility, you know you need it. Thanks so much. Talk to you soon.

Bye.