809. Product-Based Vs. Personal Brand: The Importance Of Organic Content, How To Identify The Gap In Your Industry, And How To Make Your Personal Brand Sellable With Tiffany Carter of ProjectME

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There's a hole in every market I feel the best way is to find it is to ask yourself what irritates you the most about your industry? What irritates you the most? And then be honest with yourself of am I equipped to fill that hole?

Welcome to the Earn your Happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, Founder of Light Pink.

Best selling author, three time fitness world.

Champion, and I'm a crazy, multi passionate entrepreneur.

My journey has taken me everywhere from being a broke waitress, barista, retails associate and personal trainer with massive anxiety and.

No belief in myself to later becoming a multimillionaire in love with my life. In 2007, my husband and I lost everything. We found ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at rock bottom we ideas and I had no education to fall back on. This is when I found personal development and learned everything I could about business. Not by choice, but because I realized no one was coming to save me.

The conversations on this podcast are going.

To let you know that you're not alone and that we all feel like we don't know what we're doing. We're going to give you the tools to help you face your fears, take action, start your business, and grow those massive dreams that are keeping you up at night.

It's time to create a life that.

You can't hide from and put so much on the line that your higher.

Self is forced to come out.

You're going to stop waiting for someone to approve of you and you're going to anoint yourself. Because I'm obsessed about building businesses that give women a platform, I want to feature you. So if you text the word podcast.

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Answered on our Q and A segment along with a shout out. And if you rate, review and subscribe.

To this podcast, we're choosing someone every month to get coached and featured on our show.

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Hey everyone.

Welcome back to the show. If you have not gone over to our Instagram on @drink light pink and checked out the link in the bio to get your holiday guide, I'm telling you, this is all about saving you time, money and stress and supporting small businesses and female owned businesses. Go check it out right now because all of my favorite, most coveted gift items are on there. These are things that not only you would love, but your besties, your mom, your husband, your partner, your best friends. Everybody is going to be obsessed with these gifts. We spent months picking these out knowing that these are everybody's favorite favorite things and we're going to give you exclusive discounts. There's also free memberships in there to powerhouse women. 3 months free to Powerhouse women.

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So go to Drink Light Pink right now on Instagram and you can click the link in our bio to download the holiday guide. Did we mention that you get a free preset and that's for a limited time right now. So go download that preset while you can. It's going to make all of your holiday pictures pop. Today on the show, I have Tiffany Carter. Tiffany Carter takes the mystery out of making big money while doing something you love. She uses a combination of her clear cut communication style that she developed as a TV news broadcaster and she's also a top business strategy specialist and coach responsible for generating more than $120 million in sales transactions. She's most well known for helping big brands and small business owners generate consistent clients and cash online using her emotional based sales techniques. She's the host of the top rated educationally edgy podcast Project Me, which I.

Got to be on.

And I absolutely loved you guys. I love, love, love Tiffany because she is so unapologetically her that it actually rubs off on you just listening to her and that is powerful to step into your own place of power and really bring that into your business.

And that's what Tiffany does best.

A passionate advocate for sexual trafficked women and children, she lives in Los Angeles with her fiance and two rescue dogs. You guys, you can absolutely. We're going to put something in the show notes so that you can get started on your journey to leading your most exceptional life. She created a free Project Me Pocket Guide. Five steps to creating financial freedom. Go check out the show notes for that. But first and foremost, let's get into the episode.

Tiffany, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on, girl.

This has been a long time coming. Do you know that you're one of two people who I would listen to podcasts regularly years ago.

Shut up.

I couldn't listen to anybody else, and it took me 10 years to start this second business. And you're one of the reasons that I started.

Oh, my God.

But you didn't know it, right?

I did not know that.

Yeah, you're one of the reasons.

You know those moments where you're like, how is it? Like, I'm looking at you and to me, like, you probably don't know that I feel this way about you. I hope you do, but I just feel like you are such a badass boss. Like, you have so much authority, and you're so cool. So I think, like, it's so funny. Like, sometimes I put people in this factor where I'm like, oh, my gosh. I actually could. I hang out with them because they seem really cool, and I don't know if I am. So I know that sounds so funny and. But you probably have people like that too, so hearing that is like, are you kidding me? That's crazy. That's so cool. So thanks for that. This is like a little bit of a.

It's definitely, like, a really cool full circle moment. But I think it's also important for people to hear that we have no idea who we're impacting and influencing, because it's not like I DM bombed you. Like, I didn't even have an Instagram, so it's not like I was communicating with you and telling you these things. We don't know. We don't realize all the people we're influencing and impacting just because, you know, you're getting two views on your things or only 25 people like your stuff. Yeah. You have no idea what's happening behind the scenes with people.

Oh, my gosh. I mean, that is a really crazy thought, because there are so many days that even, you know, you have a podcast, too. You're like, are people feeling this? Is this helping? Even the reminder of how important it is, just even your experience, this girlfriend crush moment on this podcast right now. But to say it to each other, you know, because you never know. There's probably so many days, Tiff, where you're like, God, is this really helping or is this impacting people? I sure would like to know.

Oh, God. I mean, that whether it was my, you know, my first business I started or this business. Yeah. It's like, does anyone really care?

Right?

You know, does this really even matter? I mean, we all have those thoughts no matter how long We've been doing something because we want that external validation. It feels really good, doesn't it? We get that external validation, but it's not always going to come.

Totally. And that's a beautiful thing that we get to embrace and reflect back and work on for, you know, making it be okay and self love. I just literally, I was talking to you right before this, which I'll share that funny story that we were just talking about, because we talked a lot about kind of that, like, self love with Mel Robbins, the podcast I had right before, which you guys, I hate. This is something that if you get to know me, like, I hate being late. Like, I freak out. I have inner tantrums and panic attacks, and, like, which is why I'm rarely late. And so I was a few minutes late for Tiffany's interview, which I was freaking out and texting while I'm having a Mel Robbins podcast, trying to not let her see that I'm texting. And I was texting Lauren, my chief of staff slash assistant as well. I'm like, tell Tiffany I'm gonna be late. Oh, my God. Tell her I said sorry. And then I got on with Tiffany. I was like, tiff, I am so sorry. But this is one of those moments that I was just, like, gonna beg for your apology because it was like, I literally was like, look, we're gonna. We're gonna make friends with Mel Robbins.

It's gonna be great for everybody.

Listen, we wait for Mel Robbins.

That's what I say.

Period. That was my responses. And I was eating an egg sandwich. So.

See, somehow I actually knew that. I was like, she needs time for her egg sandwich, and Mel needs to finish up what she's saying. So this is. It's one of those moments, though. And I know that we can talk about this throughout what we're gonna talk about. Cause what we're gonna talk about is so juicy. But it's one of those moments where you have to just, like, let go and surrender and trust that this is happening for a reason and that the other person who you're late for just wants to finish their egg sandwich. So there's that. We have so many things to talk about because you were talking about this new business that you had started, and you're talking about what you used to be in. So can you kind of tell people what you were doing before you started the business that you're doing now that kind of transitioned into what you're doing.

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So 14 years ago, I switched from and transitioned from, you know, corporate America and the pharmaceutical world into starting my own business. And I never wanted to be an entrepreneur because both my parents were entrepreneurs and my mom did not make it look fun. She worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week. She always said, like, you have to give an arm and a leg, you know, if you want to be an entrepreneur. Like, I mean, it didn't look fun. I saw the wealth that generated, but it didn't look fun. My dad, they were divorced. My dad, like, is a mute. My dad very rarely speaks. So it wasn't like my dad's like, this is worth it. Like, I didn't get any feedback from him. So it didn't enter in my brain, right? But thankfully, we all come across in our lives these, these people, whether they're mentors, whether it's a client, whether it's someone you're sitting next to on a plane that really plants that seed. And I had a longtime client of mine who is a very well known, still is international physician. And he said to me, like, at what point are you going to stop absolutely making millions of dollars for these pharma companies and make that money for yourself? And I'm like, do you think someone would really pay me? And he's like, well, there's only one way to find out. Oh, shit. Yeah. Like, okay, here we go. Anyway, flat forward, right? What I did is I took a skill that I already had, that I was already helping people do for free, basically to build rapport with clients. And that skill was doing marketing and digital marketing to get more ideal clients, like patients into these offices, right, for them, because the more patients they have, right, the more money they're going to make. And so it was already a skill set. I already had built up these relationships. So I wasn't starting from scratch and I just had to ask them to pay me. And they did. And it was wild, but I had no idea what I was doing. So that took me quite some time to build that. But now my specialty has transitioned in that area to consumer packaged goods. So we specialize in the pharmaceutical world, the medical world and health supplements and then traditional consumer packaged goods, which obviously you're familiar with. I'm more on the food side, so like Nabisco, Kraft, Procter and Gamble, all that kind of stuff. But I would say it was like six, seven years ago. I mean, I'm really grateful for that business. It's a multi seven figure business. It's intellectually stimulating, but it wasn't stimulating my soul or my heart. Right. It was like interesting, intriguing, you know, business to business. But I didn't have much creativity because you're so regulated in that space.

Right.

I wanted more. And that's when I decided to create Project Me with Tiffany Carter. The coaching platform, the podcast. But girl, I had the idea for 10 years before I had the balls to start it. That's why I always tell people like, time goes by really fast. Here I had proof of concept. Here I had the money. I'm a professionally trained newscaster, so I know how to do that part of it. And it still took me 10 years because I was like, who's going to listen to me when they could listen to a Tony Robbins or an Oprah? It's like, I mean, I'm not famous, so who do I think I am? And all that other crap, other crap that comes up. So I like telling that part. But yeah, this business, the coaching side of my business, blew up what seems pretty quickly. But I always like telling people what the reality is. And the reality is five months of going all in, having a podcast producer coordinator doing all the episodes, all the things. I only had 5,000 downloads. I had two people watching my videos online. One was a 90 day fiance wanting money for his like dying mom's dying of cancer. And the other was probably like my nail guy. Thank you, John.

Thanks for getting it started.

Thank you so much. You just wanted to see your nails, but that's totally fine. It's great.

I love that I gave, you know, myself permission and so have you. With light pink. Right? You gave yourself permission and I guess we could use that like overused term, like you gave yourself permission to pivot or to add something else. We don't have to completely abandon our other things. We can create another company, another source of revenue so that we feel like all those sides of us are getting nourished and stimulated.

I love that you brought that up because that was huge for me. Even in once I. Let's even talk about once I started writing and podcasting and doing women's events, there was a part of me that wasn't getting stimulated. It was like that part of wanting to still do those things, but also wanting to teach women how to make more money or to have a product if they wanted it, like, to add additional sources of income or to see if we could take these things that we love to do. And these concepts of bringing women together and cracking them open and seeing if I couldn't connect that to an actual product as well. So I love that this is, like, we're kind of marrying all of it together within this conversation. And so this really brings me to. First, I have to just say you had said on there, which I think is so funny. We all do this. You had. You had said earlier, who are they to listen to me? I'm not famous. And it's like, oh, my God, none of us were famous. Before we get out there. I'm not saying I'm famous, but I guess I just said I was. We're getting slightly famous, Tiff.

I don't know.

That's what we're going to.

Are we on, like, the C list now?

I don't know. I might still be lower in the Alphabet, but I'm going to let my famous list go to, like, the level, which is great. So I don't know.

Okay.

With that said, it's always remembering, like, the people were never the thing before they got out there and started to become the thing, or started to even do what I just did and coin themselves the thing, which is even crazier to think that a lot of people start and a lot of celebrity starts by them giving themselves permission to call themselves the expert in that arena. It's just kind of like you're the number one health person on the Internet. Like, who actually coined that? Was it their cat or was it their aunt? Like, I don't know. You just put it out there and it can catch on. But what I want to talk about is the reality of having a personal brand versus a product. And we're also going to talk about what it really looks like and what it really takes to build your business. And I think this is going to be a refreshing conversation for so many people to actually know and set a real expectation around what it actually looks like. So, Tiff, tell me a little bit about the difference between having a brand versus, like, a product.

I like looking at things as, like, what are the pros and cons? What's the catch? Because I feel like if you guys know what the catch is, then you can kind of mentally prepare. Like, okay, I can handle the Catch. Because if you're willing to do the work, that's the catch, the real work work, then you should go for it. If you're willing to know what you're, you're getting into. That's why I always tell people this is what you're getting into. Not to be negative. Yeah. So when it comes to, in my opinion of having you know, 14 years with, working with multi billion trillion dollar companies, bringing God knows how many dozens and dozens of new products to the market and all these launches, you know what the catch is? Is that that not everything you touch is going to turn to gold. You can have the best advertising team, you can hire the most high level business consultants like myself, you can hire, you know, the fanciest slick digital marketing firms for all your stuff, do all the market research and it still might not catch.

Yeah.

That's why I tell people go to the 99 cent store, the land of the misfit product. Take a stroll through there. It's really, it's interesting and you will see right like you'll see bacon flavored Cheez its, they didn't make the cut. You'll see the products, you'll see the weird flavored Oreos that you're like, I could see like having a moment where that would be good but it didn't make the cut.

Right.

Well it's not like they just ran these big companies randomly threw stuff out there. They put in millions of dollars as you know. Right. In research and development and it might not still catch. So that's the risk. You have to be willing to go for it anyway and there's no guarantee with a product based business and you have a lot of money that you've put up front and it still might not do it. Your job is to do what you can to increase the odds that it's going to be a hit.

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Oh man, it's so powerful to hear that even in the product space because I feel like I preach that non stop on our masterminds to people about courses and about like figuring out what their next thing is going to be or how they're going to make income. It's like, like really setting the expectation that you can work all day on this course. It could be the best info that you think you are putting out there. You can do all of the marketing, you can do all the things and it still might not be the right thing. You might need to like put it out there and get the feedback which is like they put out the bacon flavored Cheez its got the feedback, they sucked. Nobody bought bacon flavored Cheez its. So then it's like, all right, we put all the money and did all the things and we got the feedback that maybe this was not the flavor that people wanted who were eating, eating Cheez Its. And that's just the reality is like sometimes you can do all of the pre things, you can do all of the launch things, but it makes me really wonder until you actually get viable feedback from people in your market, should we be going out full bore on some of these things? So I know that you're gonna share a little bit about the reality of having a personal brand versus a product. But it just really has my wheels turning and also makes me really grateful that I got a lot of my testing on light pink out before I launched it.

Well, that felt good. Good about, you know, I'm very open about being, you know, a prime investor in light pink because I know how saturated the market is. And that's the other thing with having a product based business. Every market that has money to be made is going to be saturated. So what makes you different? And I'm very familiar with the alcohol market from a business perspective and a consumer. Right, right. And so this really. Right. Has to be more than just the product, it has to be the brand. And that's why I was like, okay, Lori's got it right. But also there's still no flipping guarantee, you guys.

Nope, there's not.

There's no guarantee. So when we look at having, let's just say a personal brand or a more of like a digital product or service based brand and you don't have to spend as much money up front to put it out there. There's more sweat equity. Right. In doing. I call it the content monster. Right. It's like insane amounts of content. Getting better and better at your content, constantly putting yourself out there. That's what you've really got to do in order to get eyeballs on your stuff. And let's say it doesn't hit because it's not always going to. It really irritates me, Lori, when I see like, like the people showing all like the post it notes on their wall, which I tried to do that by the way. I tried to do it and I was like, my whole thing is don't be basic. So like I was like, I have to be different. So I bought like black post its and like metallic sharpies. And then I was. And I'm like, this is what I'm gonna do for this launch. Like all these people are doing it. Like, how can I do it different? Maybe there's a thing. The shit was falling off the wall. This was way too much work. And I was like, listen you guys, I took a video. I'm like, I bought the stuff for the post its. It's not happening.

This isn't me. It's not working.

It's not working. So when you see the people with like all the post its on the wall and I sold out my thing again and all that stuff, I'm not saying that's not true or not true. I, you know, I'm not behind the scenes of their business. But what I want you to remember is there is no way that everything they touch turns to gold. Even though that's what most of them are presenting. Most of them are presenting that way because they feel like if they showed you the failures, you wouldn't buy from them. But the reality is it's not possible for everything you put out there to turn to gold in the digital marketing space or in my example with consumer packaged goods. Right? It's not possible. But you have less money on the line when it is like a coaching business. You're an accountant, right? You have less money on the line if you're not getting the clients and it's not working. There's just less money up front. However, you have to put out a lot of organic content and be really strategic with your branding to really get yourself to stand out for that to work. The worst thing you can do with both, both digital products, service based business owners and products is not to make what your people have already told you they wanted. It'd be assuming you didn't assume that your people wanted a low calorie rose in a can and a non alcoholic version. I know you didn't assume that. You might have had the thought like I think people would want this, this, but then you validated that over and over again, right?

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Yeah, well, it was like continuing to show me at all of our female get togethers and celebrations. It was like we all either weren't drinking for a reason or we had something we needed to wake up for the next day. And it was like, what do we want? What are we making? Like, why is it always so hard to find something that's really good, that still feels celebratory? And I just started having those conversations all of the time. And then also with champagne and cocktails, I was like, does anybody else feel super heavy? Do you want something a little bit lighter that feels like you can have more than one or two if you wanted to be drinking? And so I literally started asking and have these conversations with all of my friends and then also surveying audience. And yeah, I think it's, it's like, it's so easy for us to be able to research. We don't even realize all the things we have at access of our fingertips. Like, Instagram is one of the most powerful tools I've ever used. I will do a survey a week right now or more to figure out which way I should go with marketing or what they really want or what messaging I should do out in the market. It's too easy to not survey. You should be surveying and trying to.

Figure it out, whatever business you're in. And it shouldn't just be, oh, I did it last month. I mean, it's constantly shifting and moving and make it fun to survey your people. You'll Get a lot more answers instead of like, we're sending out a survey, can you help us? It's like, you'll get answers, but like, like, make it fun. Make it part of the experience for them. Make it part of building hype for this thing that you have coming out. And then they feel like they're a part of that program coming out. They're a part of your new service, your new bracelet, your new bag of chips, whatever it is. They feel like they are invested in seeing it go somewhere.

Yes.

But have fun with totally asking questions and like six different ways to see what kind of different answers you get. It's going to save you a lot of money, you guys. Yeah.

And I love that you're saying make it fun because that's definitely. I noticed when I take surveys, it's, it's fun things, like, even different things, like taking a different spin. Like, tell me what you're annoyed with about, you know, the drinking experience. Tell me what you're annoyed with when you go to try to pick out your bottles of champagne. Like, it's just fun to see, like, here's what bugs me or here's what. And it's solving those problems. It's like telling you what problems you have to solve. Or would you rather do this? Or would you rather do this and make your second one, like, goofy and ridiculous and, you know, see how people are responding if they want your first option or if they just kind of like skip over it or whatever that looks like. But I think there are so many ways to have fun with it and get people's answers. You guys, data and feedback is your best friend. It really goes back to what we were talking about in the beginning, that you can do all of the things, but until you get that feedback, and that's one of the things that will secure what you're doing with the product and what you're doing with launches, whether that's a personal brand versus a product.

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Now let's get back to the episode.

Tell me more about the differences with a personal brand versus a product.

What I want to tell you guys before I answer that is there is no better validator than seeing what people will give you money for that actually pay you. Yep. That's when you know, because a lot of people will say I'm sure to you, Lori.

Right.

Like they're longtime followers, very supportive of you. Oh my God, I love that. That sounds great. This is so fun. But are they going to give you their money for it? That's a very different thing. And I know a lot of you listening have put out like I don' get it. I've made a course. I even have a freebie and that people told me they would love. And I did all this research and they told me I should do it and they wanted it and I put it out and not. And it's free and no one even signed up. So instead of like scratching that, I want you to take a step back. Try your best not to make it personal. Yeah. Look at it objectively and go, what didn't connect here? That doesn't mean it's not the. That doesn't mean the products the issue. It could be the wrapping paper. You put it in. How you Presented it, it could be the energy in which you presented it, the time of year, there's a lot of factors. So you have to be willing, especially in a product based business to really dive into the psychology of a consumer. It's called consumer packaged goods for a reason. The packaging is it. You don't nail that packaging, you're going to have a problem. You have to really go through the eye of that consumer who is going to, let's say, you know, let's say you were having it in a store or that was your goal, right? What is making that consumer pick one can of over another or one chip over another. Like get really deep in the psychology. Walk into a store as though you, you are your ideal client. Literally drop in and embody that person. Take note of your own behave buying behaviors. What makes you sign up for Lori stuff? What made you sign up for the free cocktail guide you guys have for light pink which you guys need to sign up for that? What made you sign up? Was it I just want to support Lori or was there another behavior that made you do that? Because whatever made you actually do that, sign up for the thing, spend the money, that's going to be the same thing that makes your ideal client or consumer do the same. When it's a physical product, you've got to be that detailed with the packaging. What catches your eye, what types of email responses do you get? It's consumer packaged goods is heavily email driven, email driven, ad driven. So there's a lot that goes into it, a lot of moving parts. You need a lot more people helping you when it comes to having a service based business. Maybe you're a coach, maybe you're a healer, maybe you're a medical professional, whatever that may be. You don't need to have as many people to help you to start and execute and make money. But you also don't get to make as much in the end.

So I love that. And that's so true. We ran a really tight ship with personal brand for a really long time and we got really burnt out because we needed more people to scale. And then even when you hire more people now you're spending more money for a business that is scalable but not as big of a, on as big of a scale. So what's happening is the more that you get people into personal branding or like your personal brand, it's amazing and yes, you definitely grow. But it's incredible the amount of people that you do need and the amount of money that you need to be spending to still grow that brand without as much room to be able to scale. Because it's just the amount of people that you need for certain products or high end products or lower end products is enormous. And it's also a lot of or exchanging time for money. So that's a huge one. Is no matter what with a personal brand, a lot of times it is really hard to take your personal time out of it. Like there is probably a personal element in there that you need to actually physically either be coaching someone showing up on a stage or showing up physically where a product, yes, you have to show up, but you may not have to be trading that time for money with your product.

I love that you said this. I mean, you're trading time right now, right? As a podcast host. I'm trading time right now as a guest. And it's true. I was just thinking when you were saying it, you know, I have, I think I have eight people now on the project me side. I have 15 on the TLC enterprises, my consumer packaged goods company on that side. But the amount of net profit on the TLC site is much, much higher. And it's very little time at this point for money over there. But granted, been doing that for 14 years on the Project Me side. Just so you guys can get like a behind the scenes means, you know, viewing, right? That's at a million dollars of revenue. Not net, it's a million dollars of revenue, but the amount of time I have to trade to get that. Even though I get to keep more of that revenue. Right, right, I do, I get to keep more of it. So that's nice. But there's a lot more time for money. And here's it, here's an example. I have a social media manager. I am a content creator I love.

And you're so good at it.

Thank you. I love it. Like, I really love it. It's a creative outlet for me. It's fun. If you can't find a way to make content fun, you're gonna have a real damn hard time having a personal brand, by the way. So even with that, I have someone executing my graphics, right? And all that stuff and executing and editing my vision and then, you know, posting all the crap for me. Even with that, I have to sit here and review the stuff that goes out because it's a representative of Tiffany Carter, not TLC Enterprise, not Product X. I am having to review it. Even though I have a right hand brand director that I totally trust that can do it with certain things, it has to go through My eyes. And you don't have to do that as much for light pink, guaranteed, right?

Especially in the future. The plan is to most likely not have to do as much and have those either specific people or. Another thing that I was thinking about while you were talking, what is a huge difference as well is that a personal brand is less sellable. So obviously with light pink, the goal is to eventually sell the company. And when I had a personal brand, you can't really sell your brand because you are attached to it. They need you like they actually need you in it. So you would be selling yourself. So you would then, yeah, you might sell the company, but you still have to show up and then you're an employee. So that's a really interesting twist. And once in a while that does happen, right? Actually that that's something that can happen when a company gets bought, let's say light pink gets bought and they feel like they want me to be a part of the company for the next year or two and I somewhat become somewhat of an employee of that said company or light pink. Because, yes, you're still a part of it, but then you kind of work yourself out of it. So that's another big difference that I don't think people realize is that a lot of times we can be building this personal brand in hopes of maybe selling it or not having to do it forever. And there are ways to do that, which I think that we could look at something like, let's just say like a create and cultivate where we know Jacqueline Johnson is the founder, but she did not put her name on the event because her goal was get sponsors, make this a viable company, and then be able to sell it. And now it's an event that is sellable. So that's a really interesting thing that if Tiffany Carter created something that was under her personal brand, but built something without her name attached to it, that yes, people knew she was the founder, but it could be something that's a sellable thing later on. So I think there are these companies that we could start under personal brands like that. Have you ever thought of doing anything like that?

I always enter starting a business or adding a revenue stream on, knowing I look what's going to happen later. And then I reverse engineer it. I do it with all of my, you know, coaching clients too. We're reverse engineering. How do we get to this set end goal? So there's a reason why people called Project Me with Tiffany Carter. I can remove the Tiffany Carter on it. But I also was very aware that this is not sellable. My other company, however, I've been approached many times by big New York City fancy firms that want a niched arm of their digital marketing service. And I mean, I've been asked many times. Times I'm holding out so that I already know I have, you know, an exit for. But just know what you're getting into. Which is exactly why, like, Lori and I are, you know, are thrilled to be having this conversation. So you guys know what you're getting into now? Some of you going, oh, crap, you know, my company's is my name now. I've screwed myself. No, you haven't.

No.

You can always create, like an event division of that company, like a subsidiary. You can always create a course division. Like, I have the Project Me Business Academy. There is no Tiffany Carter in that. That's by design. Yeah. So it's not like you screwed yourself.

Yeah. One of your products, like the Bliss Project, you could have different courses. You can create different things that are truly. That can fall underneath that. So. And what's crazy is there actually for some things, I really do feel with personal branding, they are having a personal brand. It needs to be personal. Part of it needs to be personal for it to catch on. Because they want, you know, if I'm doing Project Me right now and you want that to take off, like, I want to know Tiffany's behind it. I want to know about her. I want to know. I want to listen to the podcast. So I do believe it's like, so even for people who are thinking, like, I shot myself in the foot with that. No, you did not. Because there does need to be that personal element. You do need to be attached in the beginning. I really think that people want to know the person. They want to talk to the person, they want to see the person. They're following the person. And then the brand can have all of these sort of umbrellas as you get out there. And Chris and I talk a lot about this, like, kind of earning the right to take your name off.

Right.

Like earning the right to pivot as well. And it's really creating the success behind one thing. That's all you need is to have, like, one thing be successful and to be really, like, known for it. And when I say really known, that also can. Can look very.

We're a celebrity.

That's right. We just. We gave ourselves that title. So watch out, you guys. It's happening. So it's like earning that right to pivot. At what point with a personal brand do you feel for people when they're like, you know, I have this thing and I just started it, But I really want to be known for this.

This.

When do you think people can sort of add another thing to their personal brand?

I see you multi, passionate. I call you guys niche switchers. I love that. Where it's like, okay, well, this doesn't seem to be catching on. I've only been doing it two months.

Right.

But it's not catching on. So now I'm going to go over here and do this. You're not allowing it enough time to catch on. Yeah. So I want you to pick that one thing. But it's gotta be something that excites you. It's gotta be something that people will buy and it's gotta be something that you make different and then stick with it. Most of you guys don't stick with it long enough or you'll kind of toe dip in it and then you'll be like, oh, I've been, you know, Lori, I've been doing this two years and it's not taken off. But have you. Yeah. Are you treating your business like a jobby? A time consuming, expensive hobby? Do you have a job or do you have a business? Like, I'm being straight up and you guys know who are listening right now? You're like, oh, crap.

Oh yeah, I did this.

Would you fire yourself if you were a manager in a corporate office? Right. Would you fire yourself?

Would you take off all last week?

Let's be real. Mercury's in retrograde. I'm not feeling inspired. Would you say that to a boss? That was something that was said to me, by the way. Would you say that to a boss? So you've done lost yout mind, right? And have to just be honest with yourself. Have I really gone all in consistently and I need to see a year. I don't even care about six months. I'm not saying you won't make money sooner than that with the right strategy, of course. But I need to see that you're willing to go all in for a year. And what is making it different? Well, yes, that it's yours. That's different. Okay, that's great. But we need to find there's a hole in every market. Market. Just like Lori found the hole in light pink. I know she found the damn hole. Right. There's a hole in every market. You know, I feel the best way is to find it is to ask yourself what irritates you the most about your industry? Whether it's, you know, health and Fitness, whether it's Reiki, whether it's eyelash extensions, whatever the hell it is, what irritates you the most. And then you have to be honest with yourself of, am I equipped to fill that hole? That's how I started Project Me. The hole in the market was there was no female out there, just being straight up, no bs, no fluff about business, telling you exactly how to do it, not being evasive or secretive, telling you how to do it, showing the good, the bad, the messy, the ugly. And there's just people being all poly, the influencer crap that annoyed me. And I'm equipped to fill that hole. And so I did. So there's an example there, right? Lori, I'm sure you.

I'm like, I totally want to share mine. I literally looked around and I was like, wait, men are marketing to us on what they think we want to be doing and drinking and how we want to look at a label. And I was like, all of these are so ugly. Like, these suck. These are not cute. They don't make me feel a certain way about them. They don't make me feel, like, luxurious. And the experience of cocktails is like, there might be a couple women out there, but, like, the experience of who are creating alcohol brands, but the experience is so surface level and shitty. It's just like women getting together and either being. You know, I even just think about the housewives, right? Every time they get together, it turns into a cat fight, and I'm like, gosh, alcohol rocks. Like, we can actually make this a really good experience. And then for the women who don't want. I have so many girlfriends who don't drink or when they're pregnant or whatever that looks like. I'm like, they do feel kind of left out, or they ask for it in a wine glass or whatever that experience is. I'm like, why can't we all kind of have the same thing that feels up leveled, that feels lighter, that is taking away some of the other things that are making me not love drinking. Like, I felt really heavy or I didn't love the marketing. I felt like we buy so many things intentionally, but we don't ever get intentional with what we're drinking. Does this give back? How's this gonna make me feel tomorrow? Is this female funded? Is this female founded? Like, why does this matter? And I really wanted to connect with an alcohol product. And there's really. People are not loyal in that department because what are we being loyal to? Like, we're not really excited about it. We Just go and pick the cutest label, I guess. And it's like, wouldn't it feel good to know that you're doing something awesome and you're connected to such a larger community while you're doing this one that actually teaches you how to connect deeper past the surface. So, yeah, there we go. We're so, we're passionate about our things.

But I love that, I mean, Lori's conviction and passion for it, right? That's where she found the hole in the market and she is filling it. That's when you have a successful, refreshing, not basic business. So if you don't feel how she just went off on a whole thing, if you don't feel that way, whether you're a coach, you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, an accountant, you're a reiki healer, you're a fitness coach, whatever it is, if you don't feel that way about what it is you're doing in your business and how you're making a difference and how your approach is different, we've got to go back to the drawing board.

And I love that you even just brought that out and gave your example. And then I was able to share my example because what I want this to open up and what I pray this opens up for people is the idea that possibly part of their company could be something that they branch off that's separate from them, that they could have be bought or they could even add a product to what they're currently doing. Have you ever suggested people have an actual physical product who have a personal brand? And what does that look like? What do think you, you think?

I would say that starting a physical product from scratch before you have any, we can use the word influence, whether it's on YouTube, whether it's on Twitter, if you don't have something where you can le, something you can leverage, and maybe it's that your best friend's audience you can leverage, right? If you don't have something you can leverage, you better have a lot of damn money to have a physical product that's going to make you enough money where it's going to feel good to you because you're selling on volume. That's the other big difference is when you have a service based business, even if it's like digital products, you can sell, you can sell 10, $2,000 high ticket robust courses and make solid money. But for you to make that same amount selling makeup, eyeshadow, palettes, or maybe that you, you know, you have a certain kind of gum, you wanted to have come out or a skincare line. You've got to have high volume of numbers of people buying to equal the same amount. Where are you going to get those people from? So you either need to pay for it and heavy advertising really leverage other people's audiences. Email list. So if you don't have that to start heart, you better be rich or have a rich uncle.

It's so true. And I think a lot of times we see people's products take off and then I've. Because I'm in this space now, I'm like, oh, so your best friend is Kristen Cavallari? Or like, got it. Okay, so do a little research just to even like free yourself up and understand, you know, how would this work for you? Or do you want to go back to the drawing board and really focus on. On creating more audience? Because there is nothing that more audience won't solve. It's the truth. There's nothing that making sure that you are always getting more audience isn't gonna solve. And I promise you, as long as you're marketing, as long as you're showing up every single day, if you are working on getting more audience, it can solve a lot of problems. And honestly, that's what we're doing with light pink right now. Like, we were delayed in our manufacturing and we said, what's the best use of our time? And it was getting audience. We're doing guides, we're doing recipe books, we're doing giveaw ways. We're doing anything that we can to get people's email lists right now. And, you know, it's interesting that we can look at, oh, this sucks that this happened. Or we can say, this happened for us and just work so hard on getting the audience. So you're so that whenever you launch anything, this is product or personal branding, you guys. So that when you launch anything, you have those people who are excited and now trust, you know, like, and trust you. And I think that's so important. So, Tiff, what are some last words for people around just the realness of being an entrepreneur in either one of.

These spaces, we all can fall into fantasy thinking because it's very fun to be sipping on rose and, you know, saying, oh, I have this amazing idea. You know, one of my things whenever I'm buzzed is like, I'm going to have my office supply lines. I'm obsessed with office supplies. I'm going to have like the best office supply line. And that's happening. And now then I'm going to have like, all the big office brands, you know they're going to buy it and be clamoring to have. Right. And I go down a whole path. It's my dopamine going and it feels fun. Well, A, it's not going to turn it into a business unless I take deliberate, intentional action. And B, we've got to be realistic about it. Either I would have to go and raise capital to hit that big, or I have. Have to continue to increase my influence and audience and then strategically. Right. Launch that line organically and then have an ad budget and all of that. And it's not like I want to kind of burst your bubble because it is fun to be in the dream phase and fantasy. But what I find happens is and you guys go out to try to do the thing and very quickly you're disappointed, you're feeling discouraged now you're unmotivated. Then you get into comparisonitis. But how did she do it? Maybe it said, I'm not meant to do this. No, it's that you were disillusioned because think that this is way easier than it is and that it happens way faster than it does. You have to be willing to keep going until. Not keep going only if.

Oh, God, that's so good.

Good.

This is taken. This has taken a level of resiliency that is just like. Resiliency. It's like such a muscle. And it's. It's also something that if you know you have it, then definitely. You know, if you know you have it and you know that you have the network and the capabilities to grow for sure, then it. It's for you, it's. It's a long game. It's a marathon. It's fun. If you have the. The ability to keep resetting and resetting and you have the. I would say the support system in the network, like, I think that's another huge one. Is not only audience acquisition, but work on your network and your support system simultaneously, because they're also gonna be the people who are gonna help you get the things that you need and support.

You when it's really, really hard.

Like even just tiff. Even talking to you a couple times, I was just like, oh, my gosh. I mean, like, the manufacturing and supply chain is tough. And you're like, yeah, it is. And I was like, thank you. I just needed someone to say, like, I see you. Great. You know what I mean? Awesome. Keep going.

We still don't have the glass bottles, by the way. What? We're there.

We're just chiseling it down right now. So thank God. But also like, wow, wow. That's all I'm saying. But in the best way. And it makes me really, really excited for what is to come. And it makes me excited for people who really love the up level and the challenge, who are maybe hearing this right now and they're like, that's interesting. I feel like that's something that I would love to do if they're really passionate. So, all right, tell me all the things. How can we work with you? How can we find you? Tell me about everything.

So the best way to reach out to me is on Instagram at Project Me with Tiffany. I'm sure that'll be in the show notes. Listen to my podcast. It's high value, free, straight up info. So if you liked my personality style here and like, want to be kicked in the butt, but also want someone to tell you, like, if you're that person who's like, I'll do it. I just need to know exactly what to do. That's my jam. I tell you strategically exactly what to do. I'm not trying to hold my secrets back. The difference, when you join my programs, my membership, hire me to coach you, whatever it is. The difference is you get that customized for you. It's not required. But if you want a shortcut, learn from people who've already done it. Pay for the fact that they have already made the mistakes, and now you won't have to make as many. You'll still make, but you just won't make as many. I mean, I'd love for you guys to take a screenshot of this episode so we know if this, like, real kind of talk resonated with you or did you feel like we kind of were, like, burst your bubble? It was, like, cynical. Yeah. Or you needed to kind of hear it. Right. I have a feeling that you needed to hear it. So, you know, it's not that you're failing or you're missing the mark. It just takes time. And we don't get to produce, predict when that time is. That time for you could be next week. It took me five months of grinding it out with that podcast where I was like, this is bizarre. Like, I actually thought I was kind of funny and, like, talented. No one's listening. No one gives a shit. I was like, wow. But then in the sixth month, it absolutely took off.

Wow. I love that. I love that. And I know that you're so consistent with it. So, yeah, you guys, we would love if you would take a screenshot of this podcast. It's one of the biggest ways that we can let Tiffany know all of the value that she just added. So take a screenshot. Tag Tiffany. Tiff, give your handle one more time.

At Project Me with Tiffany.

At Project Me with Tiffany, tag myself. Let us know what your biggest takeaway was from the podcast. Definitely. Go find her. Go follow her. You're gonna love it, I promise. And her dance moves. You'll see what I mean. And until next time, everyone earn your happy, happy.

Bye. Bye.