080. How to Create Your Unique Brand with Ann Bennett

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Awesome. Well, thank you everyone, for being here with us today. I am so excited to introduce my guest. Today we have Ann Bennett, and we're going to be talking all about entrepreneurship and having fun and mindset and being an entrepreneur in midlife and all the fun things. And Ann is a brand profit builder. And I'm going to ask you, Anne, to introduce yourself, but tell us more about what that means and I would love to hear your story, how you got to where you are and share it all with us. Thank you.

Thanks, Melissa. Thanks for having me. I think, you know, brand profit building is about looking at not just, you know, people think of a brand as like, you know, it's a set of colors or some photographs or something like that. It's actually a feeling how you make other people feel and all of the elements that go into it. You know, typeface or what you're going to say. I, I help my clients, right? Head whipping hooks and titles and things to stand out and be different using their personalities. And we can get into that. But I have these archetypes that I developed. Renegade archetypes. You're either a nurturer, disruptor, innovator, or geek. And those help people to just center in on what are they truly like. And mostly we were always this way when we were children, we came into the world. If you have kids, you know, you know, each one of your children is different.

Mm.

They got the same parents. It's like, where did you come from? Police. That's how I was in my family, right. I was with all the feelings and caring about everything and what was going on in the world. And the rest of my family was like, yeah, she's the overly sensitive one, you know, that I don't know. She always makes it really hard. There's bad. All these things made up about me, you know, and for me, you know, I have a background in 25 years of magazine art direction and design. I've worked with everyone. I was the first woman in the art department at Popular Mechanics.

Oh, wow.

Only one to work at Vogue magazine with no fashion in her portfolio. So I know a lot about how to construct a story, how to stand out, how to be different. Even when, you know, there's a lot of designers, there's a lot of people going for the same jobs or now as entrepreneurs, there's a lot of us that do the same thing. But how do you distinguish yourself? What is it that really makes you different? Because as human being, we're all the same, essentially. We have the same wants, needs, and desires. But as individuals, it's our point of view. It's what I say, what breaks your heart and what pisses you off. These are the things that become super important when you want other people to be enrolled in what it is you're doing. You know, and I do that through branding and messaging, and you do marketing. You know, there's all these different ways to get there. And the foundation to it all is really, who are you? What is that 1% that you do, how you do it, that's distinctly yours that nobody else can really do.

Yeah.

In that way that you do it.

Yeah. And I think that's so interesting because we obviously, as individuals, have all been with ourselves for all these years, and so sometimes it's hard to see that, like, what is. I hear that a lot. Like, there's nothing different about me. Like, I'm not unique. I don't have any Unique. Yeah.

I don't have any stories. I'm like, oh, yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. I'll just say to them, remember your first kiss? And I go, oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember what I was wearing. I remember what boy or what girl I was kissing. You know, their name, all this stuff. Or, you know, first day of school, first. You know, it's really defining moments that stick out in memory. Right. So that's why in branding and messaging, you want to be a defining moment for someone else, interrupt the way they think in order to create an experience of feeling that's different than how kind of the status quo, at least in my. In my opinion, you need to be a little bit of a disruptor.

Yeah.

In the marketplace.

Yeah. I love that. So what are. Do you want to talk about the four archetypes now?

Yeah, I would love that. Yeah. I want to give everybody, you know, the archetype quiz so they can take it and really see.

Oh, yes, that'd be great.

So I'll give you the link for that.

Okay.

So you're nurturer, disruptor, innovator, or geek. And I just call these, you know, they're iconic personality styles. Because sometimes people get hung up with, like, well, you know, I'm not one thing, and I'm all these things. That's great. But when you're Branding, you want to be one thing until you have a very, very strong brand. Once you have a really, really strong brand, then you, like, you can go off and do whatever. You bring your tribe with you, so to speak, bring your people. But to start, you want to dial in on something that's authentic for you. So in these four styles, the nurturer is somebody like, you know, you walk into a room and you meet someone and all of a sudden they're your bff. You feel like you've known them for a really long time. They're usually spiritual. They're really kind. They're very community oriented. They're usually pretty good listeners. Doesn't matter if they're introvert or extrovert. I like to use Oprah as an example. We all feel like, oh, yeah, we know Oprah. She knows us, she understands us, you know, but not many of us have been to her house for breakfast.

Yeah.

Feel that feeling, right? So that's kind of the nurturer. And it doesn't matter if you're a healer or you're, you know, marketer. Doesn't really matter because some people say, oh, well, I'm just a nurturer. I know. I'm a nurturer. I'm a nurturer. They take the quiz, they're a geek.

That's funny.

It's very fun. So then you have the disruptor. They're the kind of person who, you know, they have a point of view. They're bold, they're brassy. They usually love to upset the status quo. Kind of like me, I'm. I fall into the disruptor category. Yeah, right. Something that gets people to go, you know, they. Things a little bit differently. And that's kind of their, that's just their personality type. Then you have the innovator who is. They're. They're also very creative, but they're more like they see the future and they bring into the present, create things. I always like to use Steve Jobs because, you know, Steve was understated and kind of like, nice. Reach into his pocket and pull a little iPhone out. Well, something that blow your mind, right? Just wait to see what's in the guy's pocket like that, you know, where like someone like Elon Musk is definitely a disruptor. Right? Very. They're doing similar things or, you know, but the way they do it is what makes the distinction. And then there's the geeks. My favorite people with a, a blueprint and a road map for everything. They love to chart. They love to have folders. They're the kind of. I had a friend recently that I just met, and she's like, oh, yeah, I have a folder for that. She just opened. And she'd have like 60 folders laying down the side of her computer. Oh, yeah, A folder for when I go to Paris, I have a folder. When I go to Barcelona, I have a. You know, she had her whole travel plans all worked out in these folders. And that's definitely more of the geek style personality. I like to think of that as like Ellen DeGeneres or Ruth Bader Ginsburg or any of the people that, you know, that really systems is their. That's their juice. That's their point of view. That's how they run their entire life. Those are the personality styles. And when you can see which one you are, I have a very simple question. Nine questions in three minutes. You'll. You'll get a printout of, you know, what you should be like on stage in your presentations, what your messaging should sound like, what your program should sound like, and of course, always Achilles heel.

Oh, interesting.

The one thing that's really prominent, that might be a little bit of a Achilles heel for you. So it's. It's a really great place to start. And then when I work with my clients, we start there and we start to build out. What is the brand going to look like? Usually verbally. What are the, you know, what is the messaging going to be like? How. How can they sound different than someone? Because we all really have our own language that we speak in. I know from a marketing perspective, it's like, speak in your client's language, say what your client says. Which is great. From a branding point of view, it's a combination to stand out. You actually want to speak a language that's like, it's a little bit like a dog whistle. Only dogs can hear it.

Yeah.

So only your clients are going to go, oh, my God, what is that? That's so interesting. I never heard it that way. Let me lean in and find out more about what this person does.

Yeah, and I think that's so interesting. Especially obviously on this podcast and the work that I do, I work with women. And so there can be a lot of discomfort behind leaning in. You know, we're. We're taught like, well, like you said, like, let's study our clients and what is the words that they use, the language, that language that they use. And yes, we incorporate that. But also this idea really that you're talking about really requires us to get to Know ourselves. Right. And to really lean in and pull out those pieces of us that are really our truest selves and using that to communicate. And I think that's very. It can be very uncomfortable. Right. Because we're not really.

Are we in the business of being comfortable?

I know, right?

Entrepreneurship is uncomfortable. Yeah. Is uncomfortable. Living is uncomfortable. It's, you know, it's funny because we. Because we do that. Exactly. What you're saying is so true. Oh, you know, let me be smaller so I can be comfortable. Yeah.

It's scary to stand out.

Yeah. It's like, that's the way we were taught. Right. Women, I. I don't think that men have that. It's kind of the opposite.

Correct. Yeah.

Men are like, you know, they're like, kind of going on that way. But women, it's different. And I agree. It's like, you know, we're brilliant as children, as little kids before we go off to school and we soak in everything in our environment. Everything we do is perfect. We're laughing, we're crying, we're pooping, we're doing all this stuff, and everyone thinks it's great. Right. Oh, look at that. You know, they're all encouraging. Then we go off to school, and it's like, sit up, show up. You know, put your pencil at the top of the page, that kind of thing. And. And behave. Basically. Basically, don't be different.

Don't stand out. Don't make noise when no one else is making noise.

You know, be quiet. You know, it's. It's very stifling in a certain way. And this is around us everywhere in every aspect. All of us have been trained. We, within our cultures, within our religions, with, you know, to. This is the right way. This is the wrong way to do something. So, yes, it is uncomfortable in that way. It's a breakdown of being able to really look at what makes you great, what makes you interesting to someone else. And we can't see our own eyebrows.

Right.

It's hard to do it, you know, on your own. And obviously, much better to work with someone like me that's listening and watching and looking from a different perspective.

Yeah. And I think. I mean, I can just speak from my own experience. One of the reasons why I started my own business was because my experience in corporate was I was always a standout, always a leader, always. And what that brought to me was either from the women, they tried to smush me, and the men tried to bed me down. Right. So it's like it was standing out and being different was always very uncomfortable in that regard for me, because it. It created unwanted attention. So I really had to work on that a lot as a mindset shift. So maybe let's talk a little bit about mindset and how that plays into, you know, what we're thinking. I think of mindset is a collection of our thoughts. Right. It's just a collection of thoughts. And so what kind of thinking do we need to be developing and practicing in order to step into this uniqueness and this and this brand? Because we're deciding. I love how you say that brand. Your brand is simply, what is the feeling that you want people to have when they interact with you and your business? I love that.

So it's definitely a feeling. And then, you know, it's not to make it complicated, but then it's a positioning, you know, that you're positioned a certain way in the marketplace. But I think to get to your question about mindset.

Yeah.

It's. Gosh, it's got to be the most challenging thing ever. And I just heard something that I freaking love from Marie Forleo, somebody I really like, and she was saying the simplest way to interrupt. So we all have patterns. We all have things we've said to ourselves over and over. I think I was sharing with you about my family, and they think I was the sensitive one or I need to be taken care of, or those kinds of attitudes. Right. And we take these on.

Yeah.

And they go in our subconscious mind, and we don't realize they're actually driving a lot of our results. So one of the things that Marie was saying was, I don't do overwhelm. She goes, I just tell myself every single day, I. I don't do overwhelm. I don't do. I don't do that. So it's kind of like, to change behavior from my point of view, you have to interrupt the pattern that's creating the behavior.

The thinking pattern. Yeah.

That pattern that goes, I'm not good enough or I'm not worthy or I'm not smart enough. I have a line on my website that says, it's not that you're not smart enough, techy enough, or pretty enough. It's that you are not you enough.

That's good.

You know, so it's a different kind of take on that. But we all have these limiting thoughts that we've carried since childhood.

Yeah.

At a certain point, it's time to be responsible.

Yeah.

It's going. And how it's not going, because it's time Going the way you want it to go. So you got to kind of interrupt this and go. Because I think to myself a lot. I'm overwhelmed. I don't know if any. Most entrepreneurs are kind of like that. Oh, there's so many things to do. Get it all done. Or, you know, it's work, work, work, work, work, work, work. That's because I like to say, the more fun I have, the more money I make, because I'm more relaxed. More relaxed. Not so much work, work.

Yeah.

If I work hard and I do all the things the right way, I will get the result. Not necessarily. Fact.

Right.

The opposite. Almost the opposite. So it's. It's the mindset that we're trained in. I was. My parents are from the Depression, and so their eth. Their work ethic was very much like, you work hard, and that's how you make money, and that's how you get ahead. That's the. The.

Yeah.

The form. Right. That's how it works.

The formula. Yep.

Yeah. It's not that you don't work hard, but it's more like, could you have fun and do the work? Can you enjoy it and, you know, love what you do and make a really great business? It's kind of like it's not one thing or another. So it's really a reframing and allowing yourself to think differently about something.

Yeah.

Instead of it being a frustration.

Yeah. And I think that that is one piece that we as women have really brought to the entrepreneurship space, to the economy, is that idea that there is more both. And. And it doesn't always have to be the either or. Right. Like, we are so much more holistic in the way that we approach our businesses and thinking about our lives and our businesses, that everything is, you know, working together and collaborating and cooperating. And. Yeah.

We can have women do so well in the entrepreneurial space. I often say mothers can run a small country. Right.

Well, they already do. Right.

Already. But you don't usually think of that. You just think kids, and they're going to school. I got my spouse, and then I'm taking care of that. I'm like.

And they're like, I'm just a mom.

Like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? So, you know, I think that we have a tendency as women to underplay our accomplishments, and it's time to. I always tell my clients, go ahead and brag. Go ahead and talk about yourself. Go ahead and tell people things that you've done. You know, we have a tendency to only celebrate super big things, not little. Little things.

Yeah.

You know, and all of that works on your attitude about what it is you do. If you're grinding it out every day, you will burn out and end up like many of us, you know, with health issues. That's just the. That's just what happens. So you want to really look at. I don't really believe in balance in that way, but I believe in. For me, what works for me is short spurts of intense work and then time down and then short sports of intelligence. Intense work.

Is that short spurts in terms of, like, hours in the day or short spurts in terms of multiple days and then multiple days off or what does that look like for you?

Yeah, it's more like work hard for two weeks, celebrate, you know, you should celebrate every day. But I think for me, it's just my pattern. It's just how I work. Other people, they're like, consistently doing one of the one every day. You know, it's really easy for them. They're very consistent. I'm not that person.

Yeah.

So it's really looking at how do you work best, what works for you? I mean, when I work with my clients, it's. I'm not telling them how to be, how to work. I'm saying, what. Look at what you love to do and what's easiest for you and work there. Yeah. I go off and try to, you know, everything and, you know, I get it, social media and all that stuff, you got to be consistent. It's an. It's a consistent game. But. So just do it all at once. In my world, just book it all in a day or book it all in a week and then be done.

Yeah. It's funny because we think about. And this is how we're socialized, I guess, is that we think about, well, you know, we have to do it the quote unquote, right way or the way that everybody out there is doing it, men included. Right. But what if we think about, maybe I'm not wrong the way I want to do it and try it, you know, like, maybe I'm right the way I want to do it and try it and see what happens.

Yeah. I always say, does it feel good? Yeah.

So let's talk about that. Like you say, the more fun I have, the more money I make. So tell me more about that. How did you come upon that coming from the family of origin that you did that was work hard, make money?

Yeah. I mean, you know, my. My parents were raised in families where they were in Complete survival. They didn't have anything. You know, and as human being, we come from that point of view anyway. Mind in our brains. But I think, you know, like, I, when I first started out, I, I, I went to this billionaire mentor woman, woman billionaire. And she said to me, ann, do you want to, do you want to make money or do you want to have fun? And I said, can't we do both? It was like she had this, added that she had this. I, that was her way. And that's all right.

Yeah.

You know, nothing wrong with it. Uber successful, whatever. It's just not my way. I've always wanted to have fun.

Yeah.

It doesn't mean I can't have fun and make money. I love making money. It's super fun.

Yeah.

So it's not, it doesn't have to be separate, I guess. And I think that's a very. When we're talking about how men and women do business, women do have a tendency to be very inclusive about things. I mean, I've seen million dollar business women with their kids on their lap doing a webinar. Who says you can't.

Yeah.

Or who says you can't take your kids with you? I just watched a documentary on Pink and she has her kids on, you know, world tour tour with her. Who says you can't be a good mom and be a rock star and take, you know, change the, change the, the structure. I guess that's where my disruptor part comes in. It's like, do it your way. Do it the way that you love to do it. You know, some of the moms I've worked with, you know, they, they carve out time when kids are napping, kids are sleeping, it's early in the morning, late at night, whatever. Those things work for them.

Mm. Yeah. Yeah. So how, what are some ways that you have fun in your business or incorporate more fun into the work you're doing?

I think marketing is fun.

Yeah.

You know, to me, the creative marketing, the things that you can do now with marketing is crazy fun. It's, you know, I shoot, I shoot car wash coaching. Like, I'm getting my car washed and I'm doing a coaching tip because it's fun.

Yeah.

Or like one of my first lives, I shot in the shower about it. Got like something crazy, like 800 views. I mean, I don't really understand social media, truthfully, but, you know, everybody wanted to watch me in the shower and, you know, just up to here, G. But the shower was on, and I was naked, and I was certainly not going to drop the camera, but I think maybe they were waiting for that. But you know, that kind of stuff to me is very fun. And then of course, there's a place for doing standard, you know, tips and, and being more structured in what you do as well. All of it is fun. I have a tendency to like to do kind of goofy things because I just think it's fun and funny and I have a sense of humor about everything and where other people are. Oh, no, I can't, I can't. But people see that. So I do encourage my clients to be a little quirky and allow people into their personal lives or into things that they don't normally share. Business wise.

Yeah.

Because it allows for human connection connected with each other. We want to know each other. We want to see you not only as the professional expert that you are, but also things that you like, things that you like to do when you're not, you know, doing what you do.

Yeah, yeah. So what are some of the things that you like to do?

Pickleball.

Oh, me too. I'm totally into pickleball. We just started playing like, well over spring break last month. We were visiting my in laws and my mother in law taught us how to play pickleball and so we've been hooked ever since.

Yeah, it's the game that gets you going. I think this is why I think it does. I think it's. You are now five years old and you're back going outside to play with all the other kids. Yeah, a game. And you're playing a game and you're having fun and yeah, if you win, it's really awesome. Of course, always. But it's not about that. It's merely about being with each other.

The social. Yeah.

And that's why I think that game is so popular. I started during COVID Oh, wow. I was so lonely and had. I don't have animals to live with and I don't have a spouse or a partner to live with. So I was like, I gotta go out and play. I gotta get out of here. Like, how do I get out and do something right? And so I started playing and now it's. It's really so much fun. I've shot live, I've shot branding ideas on the pickleball court. Like I'll have people film me playing pickleball and then I'll talk about, well, how is pickleball like branding or marketing? What can you use? So I like to use kind of things that connect the dots in a different way.

Yeah. Yeah.

Because everything that we do, I'm a real inclusive thing person. Everything that we do reflects everything else that we do. It's all business or it's all marketing, if you want it to be. And in that way, it's not as separate. Like, now I have to go shoot marketing videos. You know, you want to bring it closer to who you are and what you do.

I love that. Yeah. So what are some of the lessons you've learned about entrepreneurship or branding from pickleball?

First of all, it's a team sport by yourself, but it's not as much fun.

Yeah.

Unless you're professional. But, I mean, as you go out to play, you play with other people, and there's a parameter that you play in. Right. So it's like marketing in a sense of, like, you're testing things. Oh, is this like, you're changing up how you play? You got longer shots, you've got dinking, little dinking shots. You know, all of it's great, and it builds on itself in order to actually win the game. So in that way, it's a lot like branding and messaging.

There's no one perfect shot.

Well, the one perfect shot is the one that gets you the result you want. You get a point. Right. Or you keep your opponents from gaining points. Right.

Yeah.

So, but for branding, it's more like, you know, there's a way to play, and you can modify everything to how you play. So somebody told me the other day, she was watching me play, she goes, I've never seen anybody hold the paddle like you do. Oh, I'm like, well, this is how I feel comfortable. So I grip my paddle, and then I loosen it. So I grip it up really towards the. Not right on the handle, but towards the front of the paddle.

Okay. You choke up on the handle.

Yeah.

Okay.

And I'll, like, hit from there or I'll serve from there. It depends on what kind of serve I'm doing. Yeah. And then, you know, if I'm going. If I'm going for the ball and it's a short shot, I'll, like, move my hand way back. So I extend my. Because I'm not that tall, you know, or that, you know, some people I play with are, you know, above, you know, five, eight. Yeah. Have a little bit bigger wingspan than I do. I'm very quick. So I play the game a little bit differently. That's fun, partner. And, you know, Brandy is like that, too. It's like, you know, play your game even in business building. Okay. Play your game, whatever that is because that's going to be the most effective for you. You know, we're always looking at other people and how they're doing. You know, what is their marketing strategy or what they're doing. That's okay. But playing your own game is better.

Yeah. Yeah. So why do you think, like, the energy of play and the energy of having fun makes money?

I think because you're not attached to it. You mean play. You're just, you're just having fun. All of a sudden I'm in business. Oh my God. It's all serious, right? Oh my God. I have to look like I know what I'm doing. Especially when you're starting out, you know, it's like the more successful I got, the less I needed to, to do that. And I could say to people, look, I fail, you know, 80% of the time and, and I'm, I'm making six figures. It's okay. It's kind of how it is when you're really stretching.

Yeah.

They all think, oh, I have to do this right. I have to do it perfectly or I'm not going to do it at all. And I'm like, good luck with that.

Right. You're not going to be doing much of anything.

Wait until you're sure it's going to work. And we know, as you and I both know, in marketing, sometimes you're surprised. Totally.

Yeah. I love it. So how can we keep in touch with you and follow what you're doing and tell us what you're up to now or what's coming up for you?

My website is Ann Bennett Marketing. I like to make it really clear and simple and easy.

Perfect.

And Bennett marketing, you know, you can go over. There's lots of freebies and, and fun things to help you move yourself along at whatever level you're at. We're going to give everybody the archetype quiz so they can find out their archetype and they can start there. I just launched a program, we'll be doing it again, called Rebel Brand Formula, which is all messaging. It's. How do I talk about myself? What do I say that's a little bit different than other people? How do I create head whipping hooks for my business? Sound bites, things that really help you stand out and be different.

Nice. Yeah, we all need that for sure. Awesome. Well, it's so great to have you here. Thank you so much for your time and we will keep in touch and, you know, get our brand archetypes done. That's going to be so fun. So thank you for sharing that with us.

You're welcome.

If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training, Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love, where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.