Episode 138: Your Unstoppable Brand with Selah Hirsch

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit podcast.

Wherever you are today, if you're starting.

With nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso.

Greetings, everybody. Welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit podcast. Just wow. And you know, sometimes in life you meet those people who you connect with at the deepest levels, and it just changes everything in your outlook in life. I am privileged and honored to bring one of those people onto the podcast today because when we met, I have told multiple people this. I found one of my additional sisters that where we were separated at birth. Welcome to the podcast. Sala Hearst. Good morning, Mike.

Good morning. It is such an honor to be with you today. Yes, I heard great things about you before I met you, but I was completely blown away on our first chat because I think within seconds I was already writing down notes, gathering insights, being challenged to grow, I'm sure, just like you do every day to everyone around you. It's such an honor to be with you and with the unstoppable profit podcast community today. Thanks for having me.

Oh, you are welcome. Yeah. The day we stop learning is the day we stop growing. The day we stop learning is the day we stop earning more. And we don't want that for anybody out there in the world who wants that same thing. And I also learned quickly when we first met that we have so much in common. You were so kind to jump onto the cousins camp adventure, sending me books because of your three kids and your husband Michael's outlook in supporting entrepreneurial youth out there in America. And I love that about you and your family, and we can dive into that some other time. But what I want to get to today is branding. And the more I got to know you, we recently got to meet face to face because you were in California, touching the lives of entrepreneurs across the nation. And that was a magical time that we had together as well. And that was the moment that I said, hey, I got to get sail on the podcast because of what you bring to the table. So it's been my observation in working with thousands of agency entrepreneurs over the last decade plus, that the majority of them don't have a solid plan concerning their brand in place and you can't hit unidentified targets. Correct, Salah?

No, That's a good way to put it. That's so true.

Yeah. Yeah. So at the end of the day, the majority of, you know, top performing or rising agency entrepreneurs out there don't have a solid brand plan. And with that being said, the other thing to be thinking about all the time is, you know, in our journey, we built our core values, who we are as an organization. Then we created our mission statement. We converted that to what we call our promise. That was just us in our organization. And then we created our brand guide. And when we had those three, we love the power of three here at Upping Working in Synchronicity. Everything changed for us in the way that we went out to our target market. So obviously you do that for companies nationwide or internationally. Sayla.

Internationally. I worked with companies and organizations all over. It's a blast.

Fantastic. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Anybody who doesn't know Sayla Hirsch and Express, my brand, tell us about you.

Awesome, Mike, thanks so much for letting me take a minute to introduce myself. Yes, my name is Sayla Hirsch. My company is Express. Across my brand, we are focused heavily in brand strategy, brand development, with a specialty in brand messaging. We help build better, bolder brands for businesses and agencies. Just like what you're talking about. I always tell everyone, you build your brand, you build your business. And so many times companies or business owners are, are running into, you know, sales and marketing type of conversations or tactics. And if they're not grounded in a place of brand, I believe they're getting the cart before the horse. And so I fully expect today to have a blast with you. I warn everyone I'm coming at you. Very passionate about branding and pretty highly caffeinated. We have three small kids and so I'm pretty highly caffeinated at all times to keep up with all areas of life, from branding to my husband and with our children. But I'm excited to help business owners today because I come from a family of all business owners and I know what it's like to every day wake up and put your best foot forward and to grow your business, to support your family, to support your team, to take care of your immunity, to elevate your reputation in your industry. We're obviously talking specifically to agent owners today, and I've just worked with so many agency owners already, and I just want you to know we want to take care of you today. We want to help you grow, we want to help you succeed, to push past the fear and give you a plan so that you can be even more successful.

I love that. And at the end of the day, what I reached over and grabbed was this guy. This is sos renamed actually bsos, which is Bright Shiny Object Syndrome. And one of the things I love about having core values and a promise and a brand guide, so to speak, is the fact that it keeps us on target. Because us entrepreneurs, we're always bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, all day, every day, and we can't stay focused on anything.

That is so true. Well, and let's unpack that for a second because you're really challenging, I think anyone who's listening right now to say, what is your plan? Do you have one? And what that looks like is. It really looks like what is. What is the foundation of your business? Let's unpack the foundation of your brand. I was just joking around with Mike and we were saying you don't want to hear the word organic anywhere in branding. You want to hear it somewhere in marketing. It's even better for you if it is because obviously it's going to lead, you know, to growth and at a, at a more affordable rate. But in branding, everything needs to be highly intentional and I believe highly strategic. It's. We don't want our reputation to be willy nilly because what we're doing is we are intentionally shaping the beliefs of our customers and we're aligning ourselves to attract ideal customers. Here's how I'll put it for you, Mike. This is what I see is, is as I see two different business owners. Okay. When it comes to brand, and this might help you see where you're at as we're talking through this conversation today. Those who have this big giant net and they are just throwing it out every single day in every direction they can. Their email marketing, their social media, their team, their, their collateral, their sales convers, they're throwing it out and they're doing, they're doing a lot of work.

I hear.

You hear that in my voice. They're pushing and they're pushing and they're trying to grow the best they can. And then I meet this other side and instead of just trying to grab anybody and everybody, they're looking back and they're saying, who do we best align with? Who is our ideal customer? Who resonates with our brand? Who truly needs the products and services we offer at the price and the delivery that we're committed to, you know, giving it in. And they're, and they're sitting back for a minute and I feel like instead of just, you know, ready, aim, fire, shoot, they're more aligned and they're targeted. And yes, they're still working very hard, but their net is growing in a very specific direction. They know where their people are. They're drawing them in. They're bringing them in through a brand that is resonating from first impression all the way through to lasting impression. That's what the brand needs to do for you. It needs to attract new leads, convert more sales and retain more business. And you cannot do that effectively. I don't believe, if you aren't aligned at the very beginning to say we know who are best, you know, who are, who are, who are passionate about serving. We know again, who really needs these services. I am kind of getting a little head here because I am really. What I am talking about is knowing the insights that drive your ideal audience. And I will be glad to give you questions today, Mike, if you want me to give questions to your audience that they can unpack here because these are truly critical insights so that you can sit back and then use all that inertia and all that energy you have to find the right people and not just any people. Does that make sense to you?

Absolutely. I'm crystal clear. Thanks to me getting to know you more and having experience in the brand area. But one thing I do know about Unstoppable Nation, which is a moniker that or handle that, we all run by and fly by. They want it all and they want it now. So we'll take as much as you're willing to give us today. And they want to inspect and re inspect what they've learned so they can go back and watch this as many times as they want or listen to as many times they want. But you know, I love everything you said. Not first impressions, but lasting impressions. That's fantastic. And you and I both know because we've got to know each other so well, the definition of marketing is the attraction and conversion of our ideal target prospects and marketplace. We're going to get back to that in just a minute. But attract, convert and retain. You know, I'm sure you know this, Sayla. The business plan isn't super complicated. Get clients, keep clients.

Yeah.

Attract, convert, retain.

Sometimes we forget, though, we're so focused on the front end, we forget the retention end. Or we don't realize we need to bring our brand all the way through. That's what we're talking about.

Yeah. My buddy bsos is constantly watching me and trying to distract me.

Yeah, well. And so let's unpack that again a bit further. Let me give you a few questions. Let's take a minute and let's start to put ourselves in the shoes of Your ideal client. Okay, here's. Here's what I want to do with you. This is the difference between talking at your audience versus talking to your audience. I build brands that are heavily engagement oriented, heavily conversion oriented. And what that looks like is. It looks like. Here, I'll give you a good example. Have you ever gone out to coffee or gone out to dinner with somebody? Maybe you're, you know, maybe you're networking and you're like, hey, let's get together. You know, I think we've got some energy. Mike, you and I just got together. Gorgeous sunset in California, which I'm totally jealous for because I didn't mention I'm in landlocked Oklahoma. Here I'm a girl whose toes were meant to be in the sand, and yet I'm in the middle of the US but here we are. If we sat down and we were to say, okay, let's have a drink. Let's get to know each other, and then what would. What would it feel like to you if I talked the whole time about myself? I just talked the whole time. I dominated the conversation. I told you everything going on in my life and why I was awesome, and, you know, and vice versa. What if you did that to me? I would sit back and I feel like I wasn't really valued. I wasn't truly engaged. I didn't see maybe as worthy of being able to reciprocate in the conversation. And that is an example of what brands can do. We can talk at our audience all the time. What's our. Our value? What's our programs? What's our services? Meet our team. But we're not having the inflections and the nuances in our messaging. Perhaps that is really delving into what matters to our clients. Okay, so Jeff Bezos is famous for saying, you know, what is brand? And his answer is known as saying, it's what people say about you when you're not in the room, which is equivalent of your reputation. Well, I take it a step further. I say it is everything people say about you, but it's the intentional development and the deployment of. Of the information that you know about that person that builds your brand and draws them back to you. And so here's the difference between at versus two. Instead of just talking at your people, ask yourself three critical questions when it comes to your business. What is the need of your ideal client? And it can be a tangible need. It can be a felt need. It can be an intangible need. They may need everything from, you know, transparency. They Mean they may need detail education and understanding within their policies. You know, they may need to feel like they are set up in a multi level kind of bundle approach that helps them ultimately have peace of mind. I mean, I can't speak to it because I'm not an agency owner, but I've worked with enough to say really take a minute and bullet point whiteboard, have a blast. Invite your team into the conversation and say what do they really need? What's going on in their lives? Okay, not only what we know we can provide, but what do they need? And then ask them like what is their goal or what does success mean to them? And again, unpack that, unpack that from a physical, tangible standpoint or again from an emotional standpoint, what do they really, you know, what does success really look like for them when we set them up, when we work with them in the way we know we can really, what is that going to translate and look like in their life? Have fun. Whiteboard that out. Get in their head, ok? See it from their perspective. And then the third question I want to ask is not only what do they need? And not only what does success look or feel like, but ultimately what, why would they be hesitant to work with your agency? That's a curveball question. And what that is is I love it. It is self awareness. Okay? It's realizing they may not know we offer this level of market access or we have this specialty team or we have these off 9 to 5 outside hours to serve them. Like there's all these things we realize that might be what's holding them back. And the brand can help me speak into all three of those areas. Because nothing is sweeter than having a conversation like you and I had when we're both creating value both ways. Because I know you, I know it matters to you. I want to, I want to help you in every way that I can. I want to engage and learn from you. That's where the brand goes from AT to two. And it's a beautiful synergetic relationship because what it does is it tells that ideal client of yours. They are there for me and they're, they're, they're an agency that will serve my needs. That's who I want to do business with.

That begins to answer the question, and this is one of my greatest encouragement for any entrepreneur out there is to answer this question. Why should people do business with you and your organization over and above and in all other options available to them? Because in today's online and offline world, they have many options and they don't need you.

So that's another reason that I'm so excited to bring Selah on. Thank you for being here, Selah. Because we need to help people understand they've got to get their brand together and in order and in alignment so that they can, you know, meet people not at, but to. In the two conversation. Fantastic stuff. Anything else to add? Because I love the fact that you brought up the ideal clients and the ideal prospects and the ideal target marketplace for any organization. Anything else to add? You know, you said their goals, their hesitations, and those three questions. I love that, by the way. Fantastic stuff.

Yeah, those are psycho. Those are psychographic insights. Those are questions that get us past the age, the, you know, the income level, the product suite, you know, that they may need from us, and it really gets us in tune with our people. Well, then I tell you to turn around and let's go look at your messaging. For example, where does your brand have the word you in it? Where am I speaking to you? Okay, like, this is a conversation. This isn't meant to be, you know, behind plate glass or up on a post. No, a brand is down, living and breathing every day having these conversations from social media to email marketing on your website. The way your team answers the phone and where is that voice that is coming across speaking to their needs? In fact, that's one of the first things I do when I do a grunt test and I look at an agency's brand presence is, you know, the public presence that anyone can see. I say, where do I feel like you're speaking to me? And so, for example, that's a great place to say, do we have the word you? You know, we know what you need. Are you looking for this and how we serve you? Now, obviously, that's a little on the generic side, so go with me here, because every company is different. But I want to see my success, meaning the ideal client. I want to see my success reflected in the mirror of your brand. And that's just a great litmus test. And I would encourage your team to have this exercise with you, because if your team is showing up every day and serving your clients, but they're out of touch with their true needs, and they're out of touch in a way to speak to them in a way that's going to wake them up, then again, you're missing out and you're just isolating your brand to, like, your marketing department. I'm a big believer that teams carry the brand. And so whether you Know, even if it's someone in the accounting offices that may do payroll or billing and not be forward facing, that to me, doesn't matter. I feel like every single person on a team needs to be in step with the ideal client to the agency, because that will just help create a team culture that is committed to serving the client. And trust me, trust me when I say this. Clients can tell the difference. Okay, can I give one quick example, Mike, real fast?

Please do. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Has it. Do you guys all dread when you get like a cell phone charge? Like, say it's like 999 and I look at my bill, I won't say the name of the company because I. I don't want to throw them under the bus, but I'll see that charge. I'll be like, that is. That's not. That's not the right charge. I shouldn't have that. But the pain it goes through to try to contact my cell phone company. You know how it is. You know, push this button beep to get this button beep to get here. And then, no offense, but like, you know when you're reading someone's reading off of a script and it's a spiel and you're like, you are not talking to me, you're talking at me. Okay? You know, and that's the difference. Your client can tell when they are, you know, reading a piece of social media written with them in mind or all the way to a phone call. Okay? With them in mind. That's the difference between I'm just another number. I'm just another phone call you're reading off of a script. It's not even worth the money. I mean, it's not even worth the money to go through the pain of feeling like a number. And that's where I feel like you're not up against necessarily on a price level. In fact, I don't believe brands compete at a price level. They compete at an engagement level. And so engage your people in a way that's authentic. Okay? You can't speak to someone authentically if you don't know who they are. I can talk to Mike authentically because I've heard about his wife and I know about his grandchildren and his heart for leadership and his passion for agency owners. So I can speak authentically to him. But if you don't know someone, you're out of touch or you're just too busy trying to make the sale, they're going to feel it, and I feel like you're going to lose them and they're going to walk right out the door. Do you agree with that, Mike, Anything you want to add to that?

111%. You know, I'm writing notes as fast as I can. You know, one of the things I grabbed was our affectionate smiley ball. But on the back side is the four of the five trigger words. Let me see if I can get this straight and bring it up for everybody. It says you. Like you were just saying, Selah. Fantastic stuff. Five copywriting trigger words. I've gone through copywriting guilds and learned a lot about copywriting, but we need to enter the conversation already going on in their minds. Right. You guarantee new, free, and actually the last one is sex. And, you know, I'm trying to.

Be the right kind of mentor for people out there, so I leave that as a fill in the blank. And you can go any direction you want with that.

But.

But ultimately, at the end of the day. Absolutely true. Because everybody's playing their favorite radio station, right? Wiifm. What's in it for me?

So, so true. It's so true. So we have to be in it for them. We do set up for their success, and we have to say it before they even ask it. I think you've got to come out. That's the whole thing about having a plan. That's what you were saying. We did our core values. We created our promise statement. Like, I'm going to go ahead and lead forward with that because I've done the work to get to know you and what. And I'm. Okay. Those that don't resonate with it, let's be honest. We don't want to throw our net and drag every single warm body to our businesses. Okay. We want to attract the ones that align with our culture and need what we offer. Again, we want to get away from the price war and say, you know, is this the way you want to be served? Is this the team you want to work with? Is this the expertise that you're looking, you know, to gain from it? That's how we win people over and again. We can't just do that if we're talking about ourselves nonstop or we. We shortchange the conversation and only tell you again about us. And we don't bring room in to show their success.

Yeah. Let's be clear. They don't give a rip about you. Right.

They don't. They're trying to solve their problem. And people have a fan of a goldfish.

Yeah. So, I mean, ultimately. Exactly.

That's why it's so important that we've got to connect with them. And I love the fact that you said mirror of your brand. So here's an idea for you. We have actually had the mirrors of truth. You know, only one person stands between you and everything you want, meaning success and high achievement. And that's you and the mirror of truth. Right. But so I might encourage you, Sayla, to create a mirror of your brand.

That's great. I love it.

So just a thought process.

I gotta tell you, my, my 7 year old, we have a 97 and 5 year old and so our house is just non stop chaos. Okay. My seven year old took my mirror of truth, by the way, and she carries it around. She's our girly girl. So she does love looking in it. But on the flip side, she really latched on when we challenged her to say who do you see what's standing, you know, between you and what you want to achieve? And again, I feel like that's the same thing with brand. It's not about the smoke and mirrors, it's not about the veneer of, of, of inflated value. It's a, it's, I'm just saying it's, it's the true value. Let me get clear on that. It's what your agency offers and in fact, if I could just kind of give another suggestion here for those of you who are going, please do. Yeah, okay, I already got it. We're in tune with our audience. Take me somewhere else. Salah, in this conversation, I'm going to take you into your brand differentiator. I'm going to ask you, have you done the work to really ask ourselves what sets us apart? Because again, I don't believe that you are, you are in a price war, but you are not necessarily even, you know, toe to toe with a competitor. If there's another agency next to you on your same main street, I don't see them as your competitor. I see you looking in that mirror. You are a competitor against yourself because it's your job to stand out. That's called having a brand advantage. Mike, can I give your audience three questions that they can unpack?

Yeah. But I've got to add this because it's so vitally important and I know that you'll piggyback on it and help people more with your answers and your questions. Because in safe, the insurance industry as an example, especially in personal insurance, which is auto, home, umbrella insurance, boat insurance, fortunately or unfortunately, it's become a little bit commoditized. We're not going to Name names, as we aforementioned. But there's some big players out there with a lot of money who consistently push their brand in people's face. And therefore it's become a little commoditized. So sometimes in the mindset of the people that we get to work with, the independent insurance agency channel, they have it in their mind, well, you know, it's all about price. All about price. So help them separate themselves. It's not about price. It's about their brand and who they are. Go ahead, take it away.

That's fantastic. I'll say it this way. Better is weak and different is kick. Okay? Better is weak. We don't need to just be better. But different is king. And so let's unpack a brand differentiator. A brand differentiator is something that you decide on purpose, okay? Don't expect it just to happen in. In 5 or 10 seconds or minutes of, you know, something you really have to delve into, and then choose to be different. Okay? That's how you stand out. And we do move away from the price war. We move away from the commodity into a different in space. It's kind of. There's an old book, you know, that came out years ago. It's called Blue Ocean, Blue Ocean Strategy. It's a great business book. I'm sure most of you here in the unstoppable profit community have read it. It's finding pockets of Blue Ocean strategy. It's finding a differentiator in saturated spaces. So first of all, it starts with a mindset saying we, we need to stand out. We've got to find it and we've got to own it across our entire team. So part of the way that we begin to find that kind of X factor, that differentiator is we begin by unpacking three questions. I'll give them to you. This is what I do with clients every day. Okay? We spend hours and thousands of dollars to unpack these three questions. So make sure you've got something to write down right now. Okay? Number one, what makes you better than the industry status quo? Okay. What makes you better than the status quo? And what it's going to take is. This is going to take a little bit of time to unpack that question. You know, what is it expected in our industry? Okay. What are the common pitfalls in our industry? Excuse me, I'm losing my voice. I've been talking so much the past few days here, and invite your team, invite those that are, you know, the millennials or the gen zers around the around the table, like, bring in some insight from your team and really ask ourselves, like, what is this industry status quo and how are we better than it? Have fun. Just whiteboard, brainstorm it out. Okay, this is just going to unpack this differentiator for you. You. Then I want you to move over and I want you to ask the question. And I'll give an example here of each of these here when I finish them, an example of how are we different from our competitors? Okay. So obviously you need. You need. You know who they are.

Sure.

Take a minute and say, how are we truly different from them? Okay. There are lots of differences and you probably know them all. Somewhere in the back of your head, you spin through them when you hear someone who's maybe gone to a competitor. Okay. But take a minute and really show yourself, show your team how we're different. It's amazing what comes in the strategic element of. Of delving into brand strategy. And that's what this is here. First we have to unpack. We have to dig into it a little bit because it's in there. We just got to pull it out.

Show, not tell. Right?

Exactly. Mike, you've got. But you can't until you've really, again, just taken that breath, taken that time out of your busy day and said, okay, we're going to really dig into this. And then here's one of my favorite questions to ask business owners is what makes your culture special? What makes you special as a company? Because the way you do business is unlike any other business owner on the planet. Be encouraged by that. Okay. And some of it is, you know, maybe, you know, been developed over years. Some of you are just starting maybe on your brand culture. It doesn't matter. Look at you and say, what makes us special? What's the team around the table? What are our core values? How do we. How do we do business? What do we celebrate as success? Okay. Like, really. And I can give you again, all kinds of questions to unpack those big questions a little further. But what you're doing is you're looking for one differentiator to hang your hat on. And hopefully you're going to look through those lists and all those ideas and you're going to see lots of them. But then here's where the rubber meets the road. And I'll give a few big examples of big brands, because this will help you see how they chose it and they put it in place. Again, it's not by accident. Branding is not by accident, but it's by design. One of My favorite brands is Chick Fil A, for example. What makes us better than the industry status quo? Okay, I go through the Chick Fil a drive thru probably about three times a week to feed my kids. Right. And it's so wonderful to see those smiling employees outside of the building in the drive thru. Mike, you know what I'm talking about, right? When you drive through during lunch or the dinner hour and they're out there taking my order, I'm not shouting through, you know, the megaphone into the, into the big box, box screen. They're right there going, what can we do for you? They're expediting that line. Chick Fil a got out of the building and into the drive thru line. That is one of their key brand differentiators. And guess what? It didn't, it wasn't just once, it wasn't just one location who thought this was great. They rolled this out across their company and they said, we're going to show up where people need us. We're going to break the industry status quo and get outside and really care for our people. Do you see that? So they, they made that choice, choice off of an exercise like this and they owned it. And it totally sets them apart.

Yeah, I was at a different, similar brand yesterday. In n out, same kind of thought process. I don't know if they have those in Oklahoma, but a lot of similarities in those two brands. And it's just amazing to me that they have constant streams of business continually coming at them. Think about that for just a minute.

It's so true. People come running to them. I will go out of my way to go to a brand that will serve me in a way that is, that is a delightful experience.

Exactly.

In a way that takes care of me. I mean, you know what it's like. There is one Chick Fil A between Oklahoma City and the Dallas, Texas kind of border, you know, cities. And I will, we will all wait another hour to eat because of where we'll want to go. You know, same thing with you, Mike. You're going to go where you are best served. Another great example is how are you better? Or I'm sorry, how are you different? Different from your competitors is like Southwest Airlines. They have owned the free bag policy. Their new president has said it will remain free. And I know a lot of you are going, okay, great. Like that's. But that's a money choice. We can't choose to make these decisions. Well, I believe you can't choose to remain, you know, in the, in the week, in the better in the week conversation. You've got to become different. They have. They have raving fans who love to fly Southwest Airlines because they are committed to delivering training fair and see. Yep. Come on, companion pass. Come on now. You know what I mean? Like, I will go out of my way at all efforts if I can fly them because I love what their company believes in. I love that they're not wishy washy. But they made a decision and they owned it.

Yeah. And I'll be happy to trade those bag costs for the VIP upgrade to get the A section.

That's right. There you go.

It's a win win. And I get to experience mostly happy, friendly people who are making my day and telling, you know, all the jokes and the stories and everything in the aisle before we take off. Love that.

It's true. Isn't it funny how you picked up on that? I didn't even bring that up. But. Because again, there's so many things we could unpack here. But have you noticed how, like, you rarely see a grumpy chick fil a employee? You rarely see a grumpy Southwest employee. They love it. They love to come to work because their companies are building on purpose. They're building by design. So I'll throw one more out there for you. What makes our company any special? What? You know, I love to look at Trader Joe's. Do you guys. You guys know Trader Joe's? They have the crazy Hawaiian shirts on. Anybody has small kids, they've got the little grocery carts. They've got the scavenger hunt in the store again for me. I gotta drive 45 minutes to our closest one. But guess what? I will. Because that. That they're excited about what they do. I think they're all hyped up on something because they love showing up to work every day. They've embraced the special nature. And no, I'm not asking you guys to wear Hawaiian shirts if that's not your agency style. But I'm asking you to delve into what. What lights our team up on the inside and then bring that out to your team.

And it's called the H2H formula, by the way. More on that later. Please continue.

Oh, no. I feel like I need to write that down. Okay, Slip that in here. But that was the last point I wanted to make. There is all of those companies weren't. They didn't have to do those things. Things. Okay. You don't have to do what we're telling you to do today. You can choose to do it if you're ready to grow to the. You get to. That's right. And like Mike sentiment, you get to grow. And so I encourage you look at brand as something living and breathing. It is. It's not this statue. Yes, you do need a brand identity. If you don't have brand guidelines for verbal and visual, then call me. We need to get you some. But what I'm encouraging you to do is say, own it, own your business. And ask ourselves, what does it take to get to the next level? Number one we've already talked about today is get super in touch with your client. Get in. Get in their head, get in their hearts, be able to speak to them, be aligned with them, because they will see themselves then reflected in the mirror of your business. And then, number two, find your way to be different. Find your way to smash the competition because you've elevated yourself into a different space. You're doing things that, that no one is asking you to do. Okay. Because what you're going to do is you're going to say, you know, we're not like any other agency out there. I can tell you that all day. But let me show you through how we choose to have a differentiator.

Yeah, wonderful stuff. You know, one of the things that I was, my big aha takeaway here, branding is not by accident, it's by design. And so you help people design their, if you will, money making machine business of the future simply by connecting with people. And one of the other things that came to my mind, you know you've heard of Toma, right? Selah?

Wait, tell me that again. No, I don't know.

Top of mind awareness.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Sorry, the way you said it, it came across jumbled. Yes. Top of mind awareness.

I do mumble because, I mean, I wish my mouth would work faster. My head's spitting out stuff so fast my mouth can't keep up sometimes times. I know you've never had that issue.

Exactly. But at the end of the day, Toma is out there. Top of mind awareness, which is being, you know, in front of people consistently, et cetera, et cetera, with a message to your ideal marketplace. But in our UPP circles, it was born, I don't know, within the last couple years. I heard it one day when one of our members spit it out and I said, what did you say? And he said, it's not Tomahawk. And this is in direct alignment with everything you said over the last time that we've been sharing. Selah, it's not Toma. Top of mind awareness. It's toha. And I said, what is toha? Yes. Right. Top of heart awareness.

I love that. Okay, I've got to use that. That is so true. That is a great way to summarize, really, what we're saying here. Right. You cannot be intentional by accident. You know, I'm saying those words do not coincide. What we're doing is we're choosing to walk out of a place that is authentic. And I believe every business has that capacity to delve deep inside. They just need someone to pull it out of them. They need to make some, some, some decisions, and they need to hold a team accountable to walk those all the way through, because that's how you create something that is dynamic, truly remarkable, and something that will last as your business grows at a scalable level. Oh, I love that. Top of heart awareness. I'm totally going to pull on that from now on. It's. And I know that there's heart within every business owner. That's why I want to encourage you that this conversation is for your success. It's not to be critical, but it's to help you realize, okay, based on wherever you are in the trajectory of your agency, whether you are an emerging agency, whether you are a fully established, established agency, the conversation, it's neutral. It works across the board for you. You can latch onto it if you choose to.

We get to. Exactly. It's all about choices, and we either choose to or we don't. My strong recommendation is when you get to the point you are ready to really launch and scale, possibly have a conversation with Sayla Hirsch, and she will help you get there a lot easier than you could ever figure it out on your own. And the great thing that I love, love, love about my growing relationship with Sayla is she's also involved in leadership. You know, you might be thinking to yourself, well, how can I get my leadership team involved and on board with this? You know, you work with people like loveworks Leadership, the University of Oklahoma. Selah Hirsch has been profiled on local TV news stations because of her work in partnership with United Way and so many others, because of the amazing things that she's doing out there in the world. And I will suggest that this is not the last podcast that we will be honored to host. The unstoppable, the amazing Sailor Hirsch on. Because. Because I know there's a lot more that we want to learn to be able to help the business entrepreneurs out there. More Salah. So thank you. And what I'd also ask you to do respectfully is if there's somebody out there that, you know, heard something that they liked today and they want to learn more about building their brand, how can they reach you? How can they find you?

Absolutely, I would love to talk to you. And I always tell everyone, whether we work together or not, my heart is for the business owner. That's the why in my business. So don't feel hesitant if you're, hey, I'm not ready, you know, to make a big investment or we're growing or I'm not sure yet, it's okay. Just reach out. Let's connect for a few minutes. And I always say, when you live open handed and you help those around you, everyone grows better. So reach out to me. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram @ExpressMyBrand. You can reach me through my website, ExpressMyBrand.com. you can email me directly at sala, which is S E L a h@expressmybrand.com. so don't hold back. Ask yourself yourself, where are we growing? How do we want to grow next year? And let's look for areas that say, okay, these are, this is where our next steps are. I love kind of those practical next steps. And what is nice is I get to have a, be it, be a champion in your corner with an outside perspective. That is what I do all day for people is I get to say, you know what, my heart is for you, my heart is for your success. But looking from those outside eyes, this is what it looks like, this is what it sounds like. Like, so let's tweak it, let's find different points of, you know, again, brand personality, brand voice, a brand differentiator, your brand positioning, all the different pieces that go into your brand playbook. And let's look at maybe which ones you need to focus on in order to grow to the next level. So it's, it's always great to know you're in good hands with someone you're talking to who wants to truly see you succeed. I'd love to talk to you.

Good hands and good heart, right?

That's right. 100%.

I love that. Love that. Thank you so much for sharing that today and thank you for sharing all that you shared today to help entrepreneurs continue to grow their business. Absolutely. Hit it out of the park and beyond. Grand Slam home run, Sailor Hirsch. Thank you, Mike.

Thanks for having me. You know, I'm a fan of yours, so I'm going to be cheering you on.

Thank you again so much for having me today. This was a Blast.

We're reciprocal big fans of each other so I can't wait to continue to grow more and learn how to help people more. So thanks for being on the podcast today. And by the way, if this is your first time either watching or listening to the podcast, welcome. And if you don't know, my name is Mike Stromco. I'm widely recognized as the leading author, speaker and coach for the Independent Insurance Agency. You can find me@unstoppableprofitproducer.com if you're interested in attending a virtual or live event to grow your business, create wealth so you can live life on your own terms, please visit. Our virtual website is upfaststart.com and if you want to attend one of our live events go to beunstoppablebootcamp.com Both events are designed to share some of our best money making secrets developed over 35 years of experience in your industry. Again to help you grow your business, create wealth so YouTube can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. And please make sure you go to unstoppable profit podcast.com go up to the top and subscribe so you don't miss one episode with amazing people like Sayla Hirsch and other business industry leaders to help you grow your business, create wealth so you too can have more freedom to live life on your own terms. In addition to the that, we're out there in all the channels, Spotify, Google Play, you name it, we're out there. You can find us on any podcast channel. Unstoppable Profit Podcast and you can go to YouTube as well. Unstoppable Profit Producer. Just go to videos and about the last 60 podcasts are all there lined up to help you grow, create wealth and have more freedom. Sayla Hirsch thank you. You rock. You are absolutely unstoppable. Loved spending more time with you today.

Same here Mike. Let's be unstoppable together. It was a total joy. Thank you.

There's no other options, right?

There's no other options.

Are you kidding? Until next time. See you everybody.

Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.

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Now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.