MOUDLE 5: PERSONAL BRAND

Really want to be thinking about is kind of stepping into this, building a personal brand, understanding who you are, crafting your business, not just your offer, but crafting your business mission, vision, statements, your tone of voice, your aesthetics, and really thinking about who you are as a brand.

Right.

Because at the moment we've been focusing on the offers and what we want to think about is a little bit more around reviewing the brand elements, really understanding what that looks like, and then we're going to be looking at a little bit more Cool. How. How does that show up in terms of social media and how does that show up in terms of the brand essence that we want to kind of share a little bit more? Okay, so what I'm going to do is, first of all, I'm just going to share with you a little bit about how I built my brand, because I kind of feel like actually starting with an example is going to kind of be the easiest way. So when I first started kind of building my brand, it was very like, girl next door. It was very nicey, nicey. It was very, like, mindset focused. It was very sweet. That's kind of how I explain, explain, like, where my brand started from. And the reason I say it was sweet, it was because I didn't want to upset anyone. I didn't want to offend anyone. I didn't want to be too bold because I was still in corporate and I was worried that my employer would be like. That doesn't really go with the ethos of, like, who we are as a business. Right. So if you are a 9 to 5, that is still that mindset. However, there is also the element of you can give your opinion in a really nice way. You can share what you need to share in a really, really n nice way and also have visions for where that brand is gonna go once you've left your nine to five or once you're like really, really fully in or once you're able to hold that level and that version.

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So if we think back to my old, to my old Instagram, my old website, my old branding, it was very nicey, nicey. It was very sweet. You can get a promotion, you can get a pay rise. You're good enough. It was very, like, gentle, right? If you now go to, like, my Instagram or my website, it's like, shut the up. We're doing this. Stop making exc. Why are you not doing that? Come on, let's move, move, move. Like, it's really evolved and changed, right? But that brand and that vision and the company has evolved as I have evolved.

Right.

I was not able to hold the space of get your shit together. Get and be in the space of I don't care if people don't like me. I don't care if people think I'm too much. I wasn't in that space to hold that. And a lot of the time, we build brands where we think they should be. And of course, you want to stretch ourselves and kind of be in a place that feels a little bit uncomfortable. We also want to be able to show up as that version of us every single day. We want to be able to show up as, like, if you want to go down, like, the. No loud. This. We want to be able to show up as that every single day, not just on the days when we feel like it.

Right.

That's the big difference is we need to be able to hold that energy of who we are and what we do. Okay? So that's kind of like how mine started off, and mine has evolved over times when we're thinking about a brand, it's way more than just like, logos and colors and, like, all of those really nice aesthetic pieces, Right? Of course, that is so important, but that's not going to be the reason that someone works with you. Someone isn't coming to work with you because they think your logo is pretty or they think your, like, blue coloring is really nice. They're not coming to work with you. They are coming to work with you for an experience and the experience that they've had with your business so far. So it's your values, it's your voice, it's your impact, it's the things that you're sharing. It's really setting that foundation that makes them feel something when they look at your brand.

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So if we think about really, really big brands and companies, if we think about, like, McDonald's, for example, right. For me, McDonald's represents being hungover. It represents long car journeys. It represents quick fast food.

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That's my experience. Experience with McDonald's. Some other people's experiences may be I take my kids there once a week, and it's really fun. Think when I was younger, McDonald's used to represent. My dad used to take us to the. To the McDonald's on the Kings Road in Chelsea in London. And every Saturday, we would go for pancakes. So that for me, was my experience growing up as McDonald's. As I got older, my interaction and my experience with them went from Sunday, Saturday pancakes with my dad to I'm hungover.

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Like, my experience with them changed. But what we've got to think about is it's their values. Do we agree with their values? Do we like what they represent? Do we like what they're offering us? Do we like what they're giving us? Yeah, the golden arches and the red coloring is really nice. But it's not what makes us buy from them, right? It's the brand, it's the whole experience. So what we want to be thinking about is when you're thinking about these big brands and these brands that you consume every single day, we. What makes you feel that you want to continue buying from them? Do they make you feel a certain way? Are there certain memories from them? Do they trigger certain things? You know, if we think about these super aesthetic brands like that have this like cream colored packaging and like, you know, the ones that have like really nice white writing and like they use this really light green and it feels very like. Oh, it feels very luxury, but very like, simple. Or you go into a Pilates studio, right, and it's like, it smells good and the reformers are like this beige, beautiful color. Or you go to like the leisure center down the road and it's a bunch of like kind of mats on the floor that are kind of like half ripped and stuff, right? It's the same workout, but it's the experience that you're getting, right? And one of the things that I always say to people is it's not necessarily the women who, or the men or anyone who's starting a business that's the best at delivering that, right? We, we've all seen those people who have like, amazing offerings, like, you know, those, like acupuncturists, like those massage places or those nail places that you like, love to go to, but their branding is like hideous. And they don't even have an Instagram or anything. They've built that on reputation, right? They've built that on referrals because they're so good at what they do. Now, can you imagine if they were good at marketing and they were good at branding, their business would 10x100x literally overnight. But the reason that they're still in this kind of small space is because they don't know how to brand and market them themselves. And that's, for me, the biggest difference between someone who has a really, really good business and someone who has a good offering but not a good business, right? So we want to be thinking about is the mission and the vision, right? And these are the two foundations that I always start With So at this, at this time we've been very, very macro looking at, Sorry, very, very micro looking at the MVP and the offer. Now I want you to go macro and I want you to think about the mission behind your business. So your mission is the purpose behind your business, right? It's what you do, it's how you serve, it's how you serve them. It's how you serve your clients, right? So as I said at the moment we've been very micro looking at the MVPs, looking at the small offerings, looking at your offer as a whole. What we need to think about now is the long term and how we see your business going. So what we want to think about is, and we've kind of done a few of these statements as I said, for the offers. But what we want to be thinking about is we help X do what so they can get the result or impact. I'm just going to type this in the chat for you, okay? So we help whoever it is do something, do what so they can get the result or impact. Okay? So for example, my brand would be I help. And the who is high level women do, which is escape the 9 to 5 and build businesses so that they can, which is the result out earn their salaries with freedom, ease and impact.

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I'm just going to type this in the chat for you. I've written this out here. So this is different to what we spoke about, the specific offer, right? The specific offer is fixing one specific problem. This is who you help as a whole. What this would then have, it would then have my micro offers, it would then have my bigger offers. It would then be like this program is going to help you take your 9 to 5 skills and start a business. This program is going to help you sign your first client. This program is going to help new note. So that's more specific. This is more high level. And again, Emma, you may have two of these, right? You may have two because you've got two sides of the business, which is absolutely fine. I have two of them as well. But this is what I'm talking about, the coaching side, right? So when we think about this, I want you to think about who are you helping, what do you help them do and what's the impact of your work? For every single offer that you are giving, what is the impact of your work regardless of which specific offer it is? Okay? Now what we want to be thinking about is the vision statement, which I always think of as like the future statement.

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So your vision is where your brand is going the bigger picture, the transformation you're creating in your industry, the community, in, in the world, like everything that you're doing, right? So for example, this is more, I envision a world where. And then it's the big transformational impact. Okay, so probably not a great example, but I'll use them. Tesla, right? Tesla's vision statement is to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles.

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That is what their vision is. But if we think about, for example, like a mission, Nike's mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world, right? That's like what they want to do. But the vision is the transformation. It's the bigger thing. It's like what is this huge thing that we're doing? Okay, so for example, mine would be, I envision a world where ambitious women no longer feel trapped in unfulfilling jobs, but instead confidently build businesses that create wealth, freedom and impact.

Right.

I'm just going to share that with you because what we want to be thinking about is when we're first starting a business or when we're shifting a business or when we're doing that, we can think really small, right? We can think about just the women. Oh, what's going on here? We can think about just the women in our community. Like, I want mums to feel, I want moms to feel inspired. I want moms to feel excited. I want moms to feel happy. Great. Like, that's amazing. And that's like more thinking about short term, what we want. But it's like if you're thinking about all the mums, it's like, I want a world where every single mom no longer feels guilty and feels empowered with the decisions that they have to make. Feels inspired, feels great every single day wherever they are in their postpartum journey, right? That's the big, big vision that we want to be thinking about. And this is really going to start the foundations of thinking about what is the long term impact of your business and what change do you want to see either in the industry, in the community, in that network? Like, what do you want to see with women? What do you want to see with moms? Like even Emma Cooper, like, who I know is going to watch this back. Like, we want to see a world where movement is used as medicine. We want to see a world where every single person, regardless of whether they're good or not at dancing, can get and move and feel great in their own body, right? So this is what we really want to think of is what is that mission, which is the now statement, and what is the vision, which is the future statement? Does that make sense, those two things? Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool, Perfect. So once we've done those, what we then want to think about is the tone of voice and we kind of touched on that briefly. But this is how your brand sounds. The tone of voice is like the personality behind everything that you're going to do. It needs to be consistent across your website, your emails, your social, your marketing materials.

Right.

I always say this to people, which is really funny. Like, think about the online version of you versus the offline version of you.

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I used to be so, like, if you had seen me in my like 9 to 5 job, I was like super corporate. This, this, that. Like, I was so loud and I was so bold. And then I wrote emails like I was this really quiet, tiny little mouse. Like, and if I read my emails I was like, that is not me. Like, why am I so okay in corporate being this loud? Like, loud voice, confident. But then when it comes to writing emails, I write like I'm scared. I wrote like I was scared of people to see me.

Right.

So what we want to think about is offline online and emails and social medias and stories and marketing materials, whatever that looks like. What is your tone of voice? Right, so what we want to be thinking about is choosing three words that describe you and your brand's personality. So for example, like I probably say mine is like confident, direct and empowering, right? Like I would say mine's confident, direct and empowering. Yours could be playful, witty, approachable. You want something that's a little bit softer but a bit more fun. It could be something that's like, if you're creating a really luxury, high end product, it could be luxurious, sophisticated, exclusive. So it's really thinking about, like, what are those three words? If someone was to describe your business and your brand, what would that look like? What would you want them to describe to someone who doesn't know you, doesn't know your brand, doesn't know your business, how would you like them to describe it? And that's what we want to think about. So choosing those three words that we want to do. Okay, the second thing is thinking about what do you want people to feel when they read your content? Do you want them to feel inspired? Do you want them to feel challenged? Do you want them to feel safe? Do you want them to feel happy? Happy? Do you want them to feel included, less lonely? Like it's really thinking about what you want people to feel. So, for example, in my business, I want people to feel slightly challenged, slash triggered. And I want them to feel empowered, right? I want them to feel like, no, I really need to get my shit together. I really, really, really need to get my shit together. So I'll give you a really, really good example of this. I don't know if any of you are on TikTok, but there's this thing at the moment called Skinny Talk, okay? Where it's like, these girls who talk about staying fit and staying skinny and, like, okay, there's like a whole different conversation around that. But a lot of the comments are, this is so mean. You can't be telling people that they need to lose weight. You can't be calling people out, like, everyone should be happy. And what a lot of these girls and a lot of these influencers who I've, like, been studying, I say over the last few weeks are like, but if you don't like it, you don't have to do it, right? And your content isn't for everyone. That's one thing you've got to remember. Like, these girls who were creating these Skinny Talk accounts who were like, you don't need to eat everything at the buffet breakfast, right? These girls are coming on and saying, this is really mean. This is calling people out. We should be able to eat whatever we want. Yeah, you should. And if you are happy, don't change, right? If you are happy, do not change. And what you've got to realize is some of your content or some of your information is not going to land with everyone. Like, it's not. And once you accept that that is okay. That's when you're able to step into okay, but who do I want it to land with? How do I want it to sound? Do I want it to sound a little bit like, come on, girls, get your shit together. Do I want it to sound like. Do I want it to sound comforting? Do I want it to be for the mum who's like, I really, really needed to hear that. But, like, now I need some tough love. Like, is there a blend? Is there a blend of, like, softness? But it meets tough love of like, you've been saying this since you're now in your third child. You've been saying you want to make change. Like, what are we going to do this time? Like, you are still, you are worthy of xy, but you've got to make change, right? So you've got to be thinking about, like, how do you want that language to land and looking back at skinny, and I encourage you to go look at it. It's a really interesting. It's a really interesting thing that's going online. Whether you. Whether we agree with body positivity not is a completely different conversation, but the thing around it is where people are saying, you can't say this. This is triggering people. And actually there's a lot of women on there that are like, but I need this tough love. Like, I need. The tough love of intuitive eating has made me put on weight.

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The intuit, the body positivity movement of treat yourself. Like, there's some stuff on there that's like really harsh. But there are also women on there that are like, I need to hear this. Like, I need someone to call me out on my shit. And then there are some other women on there that are like, this is triggering me. I really don't like this. This is not how I like to think about losing weight. Cool. Then that's not the right community for you. And that's okay. Like, and that's okay. As long as we are able to identify who our ideal client is and what they want through our brand voice, through our messaging and what they need to hear. And you are able to hold that. Cool. I want people to feel safe. I want people to feel challenged. But as long as you're able to hold that and align with this, with the, with how you want people to feel and the tones, then that's absolutely fine. But it has to be super aligned to you. Does that make sense? Any questions on that at all? No, all good. Perfect. Cool. So one thing we want to think about as well is like, what are some big do's and don'ts for your voice?

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So for example, like, we want to be thinking about all the do's. Like bold statements, powerful language, like clear calls to action. Like, is that what your client needs? The majority of the time is if you are an authority in your space, you are going to want to be using bold statements, using powerful language, having clear course to action, asking people to do things, asking women to make these moves. However, that looks, what we don't want to be thinking about is like using corporate words, right? I hate corporate words. I used to use them so much because I thought it made me sound really clever. I used to use like really corporate language. And this is also when I was in a space of like, kind of dealing with corporate women, but like, kind of dealing, not dealing. And I was like, I kind of use like half corporate Words. And honestly, I'm going to send you some of my old emails that like an absolute mess because I didn't know who I was, I was talking to everyone and I was talking to no one, right? Because I would use like half corporate, half bold and then try and kind of retract some of it. Playing small, using small words, being so vague, like all of that kind of stuff. Regardless of what industry you're in, we need to be using bold statements, powerful language, clear calls to action. You are the authority and you are the person that people want to be working with, right? You are the person that people are going to go to. They don't want vague, they want answers, they want clear. They want what do I need to do? What is Emma telling me to do? What is Tiffany suggesting I do? What are her tips? What do I want to do? How do I do I need to save this? Like, how do I get to that place? And you need to become that person. Regardless of whether it's confident, direct, empowering, regardless of whatever your tone is, these things still need to be done. Okay, so I'm going to kind of give you like an example of my, of my, my business and my brand. So if I think about my tone, it's bold empowering and like no bullshit, right? So like bold empowering, no bullshit, or confident, direct empowering, all of those kind of works. The do's that I do in my tone of voice are I call out limiting beliefs, I challenge conventional, like nine to fives. I make it feel like a really personal pep talk. Like if you've watched any of my lives or my stories, I'm very much talking to you. It's very much an unscripted conversation that I'll always be having.

Right?

I don't ever sound like passive. I never over explain, I don't dilute the message. I'm very much straight to the point. Okay, so if we're thinking about your example brand, we want to be thinking about the tone, the do's and the don'ts. And every single time you are creating a piece of content, every single time you're writing an email, you're showing up online, whatever that looks like, you should be looking at this kind of sheet and thinking, does this tick all the boxes? Is this too fluffy? Is this too vague? Is it too passive? Or do I feel like I'm diluting the message? And sometimes when we're thinking about this, the more words we, we write, we're actually diluting it more.

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In a world where we want to over explain ourselves, give the most, do the most. Sometimes a really short, powerful email is actually really, really useful and actually gives us exactly what we need. So for example, that was, I got an email from another coach who I, who I absolutely love and she wrote a really, really small email, right? And it was so impactful. I'm going to read it out to you. It said, hey Emma, business coaching can be really expensive. One time I paid $12,000 for one hours of coaching. Why would anyone pay that? It's because of the ROI. I paid $12,000 and some of the work we did led to $500,000 months. So $12,000 to make $5,000 at $500,000 every single month, that's actually a steal. It's not about the dollars you're paying, it's about the dollars you're making. That was it. That was her email. And I like it like stopped me in my tracks and I was like, it's such a short email, but so impactful, like so impactful. Because it really hits with, okay, business coaching is expensive. She's not sugarcoating it. She's not lying, she's not coming on and saying, hey, so basically one time I paid $12,000. But like the reason it was such a good investment is because basically over six months I made $500,000 every single month. So if like, if you look at 500,000 and then this is like, no, she's not justifying. She's like, business coaching is really expensive. I pay $12,000 for an hour, I make $500,000 a month. Kind of a no brainer. Like she didn't sugarcoat it, fluff it, try and make it something that it wasn't. She made it really, really clear. And there was no like, please come and buy my program. It was like bam, this is it. And like that email's like, like stuck in my head and I was like, like she wrote this email. That's so simple but so on brand with her. So transparent. No, no fluff. And actually that's made me think about like, oh, I love the way that like she wrote that email, right? She's written some really long emails. She emails every single day. Like she's this great business coach, but she emails every single day. And most of the times I read them and I'm like, cool, that's interesting. That one really stopped me in my tracks because I was like, how can such a short email that says so little say so much? Something that says so little can say so much. So it's really important to think about. Like, we're not diluting the message that you're trying to say. Okay, so that's what we're thinking about with tone, with vision, with mission, thinking about the words, how that feels. Then we want to be thinking about the brand aesthetic, right? So I think I showed you before. Let me just log on to this quickly. What we want to be thinking about in terms of, like, brand aesthetic. Sorry. For some reason, my Instagram's locked me out. Okay, well, I will have to show you. I'll send screenshots to you guys. But if we think about Instagram, for example, what we want to be thinking about is Instagram, when we're thinking about coloring, we're thinking about brands. Obviously, that's going to kind of lead onto our website as well. But what we want to be thinking about, right? Is the visual expression that is consistent, right? So what we want to be thinking about is when someone comes to our page, when someone comes to see what we're doing on our website, to look at our programs, is everything consistent to what we've been saying? So I ask you this. If we're thinking about that your brand is like luxury, bold, high end, sophisticated, and then someone's going to your website and it's like bright yellow with like, green and then like some blue coloring and some stuff that looks like it's from the 90s, does that scream luxury, bold, you know, high end, or does it scream something that's more like edgy, fun, disruptive?

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We want to be thinking about when someone goes to anywhere, any of the places that we are showcasing our offerings, that they're going to it and being like, that matches exactly what. That. That matches exactly what they're trying to say. And I'm going to give you an example of my website that I've just redone. Redone at the moment. But if you have a look at this, for example, can you guys see my screen? Perfect. You can see the women that quit the 9 to 5 mastermind, right? So if we have a look at it this way, right? This screams exactly how I talk. This screams exactly the branding that I use. If you see my Instagram, if you see my photos, it's all really aligned, right? It doesn't suddenly. And again, I'm editing this at the moment, and it's kind of being moved around and we're changing some of it, but this is kind of how it looks, right? If you see that, you know that that's me, right? You know that that is me. You Know that, that if. If you see that, you know, the colorings I've used, you know that the personality I've got, that comes across, right? So this is a really, really good example. If we had a look at. Let's just. I'm just going to literally Google a women health coach. I just want to find a website. Let's. This website, right? If you. If I had suddenly been talking to you in the DMS and you were super excited about working with me, and then this is what you came to. It's not a bad website. It just doesn't align with me, right? It's very gentle, it's quite soft. It's quite like, you know, very simple. And like, this is what we're doing and it's very nice, right? It's completely not me. So if you went to that and then you clicked on that, you'd be like, something doesn't quite balance in the sense that this isn't really what I was expecting. Similarly, if you were talking to. If you were talking to someone at, like, the local leisure center, right, about joining, and then this is the website you went to, you'd be like, oh, something doesn't quite balance, right? It's like something doesn't balance with this offering versus the conversation you've been having with someone. So you can have the best conversations, the best tone, but if your brand isn't aligning with what someone's expecting, that's where it's going to be challenging, right? And what you've got to remember is you don't have to be good at creating websites. You don't have to be good at doing any of that techy stuff. I'm literally the most untechy person you will ever meet. And I built my whole website myself, right? Like, I've done all of this myself. I've built all of this. And we're obviously going through all of that. But, like, guys, these are literally screenshots from Canva that I've, like, added as photos. Like, super simple, super easy. Like, and what we want to think about is what is this making this client feel? Does this feel aligned with the vision that we have for our offering? Does this feel aligned with the conversation that they've been having?

Right?

Does it feel aligned with. With the. With the keywords that we've chosen? Okay, so we're thinking about those brand words, then we want to be thinking about the colors we want to be. And I know some of you probably already have colors. It's like, do we want to be doing Things that are, like, feminine and pink and, like, playful and nurturing and, like, the soft colors. Or do we want to do stuff that's like, black and red and bold and, like, let's go. Like, I know. I know a woman in the industry and her colors are, like, red and black. And at first I heard this and I was like, whoa, that, like, seems a little bit much. But her Instagram is amazing and it's great. And it's, like, feel so aligned to the person that she is. Like, when you're having a conversation with her and then you look at her Instagram, you're like, of course that's what it looks like. Of course that's what it looks like. If I went to her Instagram and it was like, pink and soft and fluffy, I'd be like, that doesn't feel quite right. This is what you've got to be thinking is it's like, not just about the colors. It's about how we do that. It's about the fonts that we're using. It's the simplicity, the boldness, like, however that really, really looks. I think in the coaching space, especially in the online space, we've really fallen into the trap of, like, this aesthetic, which is like the lime wash walls, you know, like that Pilates studio I just showed you, like, the really soft. And don't get me wrong, I've gone down that route before, but it doesn't feel aligned. You have to look at your brand every single day and it will evolve and change, but you have to look at it and be like, that feels like me on a piece of paper. That feels like me on my Instagram. Like, when I go to my Instagram account, I look at it and I'm like, yeah, that's me. That screams. That screams me and my vision and who I am and, like, what I want to create. If it's light and fairy and feminine, or if it's bold and luxury or if it's minimalist, whatever that looks like. It's so important that you have a brand, regardless of whether it fits the social norms. Like Emma, for example. Like, maybe a lot of the mum brands, like, are pink and feminine and girly, but maybe you don't want to go down that route. Maybe you want to do something that's like, super luxury and super high end and, like, really minimalist. Like, maybe that's how you see your brand evolving and you are carving and creating, creating that new space for you. But it's understanding that every single day that that feels really really aligned for you.