#014 3 Things Prince Taught Us About Building An Iconic Brand

Hey guys, it's Cheryl Plouffe here. It's Prince Day! I'm so excited. I've got my purple on. I also have my Purple Rain mug in hand. I bought this online several years ago. It's my favorite mug. You probably have seen me do videos with this mug in hand. I've got my Spotify playlist on for Prince in the background, not too loudly because today we're gonna talk about Prince. It's Prince Day. Today would have been Prince's 60th birthday. And what I wanted to do was to, on this episode of Personal Brand Breakthrough, to help you see that there's actually connection. We can actually learn something from what Prince did over his illustrious career. And how we can translate that into our own brand building. Now, we should be so fortunate to build an iconic brand like Prince. But we're all striving to build a brand and to, you know, build our businesses. And how do we do that? Well, a lot of us are utilizing online, we're using social media, we're using these methods of communication and technology to get in front of our ideal people. So what I really wanted to show you today are that there's 3 things— there's probably more than 3 things, but today we'll talk about 3 things that Prince has done to teach us, really, how to build an iconic brand. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to check on the Facebook page if you ever have questions. And also, I'd love for you to post what your favorite Prince song is. If you don't have a favorite Prince song, then shame on you, okay? You gotta have at least one, and it can be a top 40. My Prince song favorites are— or my favorite Prince songs are probably more obscure than yours since I've been a fan of his since I was 12. But I'll give you the option of choosing a top 40 hit. Okay, so let me just go in here and check in on what's happening. Oh, wait a minute. Just let me check. I want to make sure that I'm actually broadcasting. There I am. Okay, good. Okay. Oh, hi. Hi, Bill. How are you? And Crystal's here too. Okay, good. I just had a moment of fear where I thought it wasn't broadcasting, but we are. So, okay. Little red Corvette. Cool. I like that. Very, very good. Let's see. Okay, cool. So I have so many Prince favorite songs, favorite Prince songs, that I probably couldn't list them all. I really can't choose one. I'm often in Prince forums and stuff. They're like, "What's your favorite song?" Like, you just can't choose, let's be real. But mine are more obscure than yours. Things like "Empty Room," as an example, would be another one that's a little bit more obscure. "I Love You But I Don't Trust You Anymore," these types of songs. So what I'm going to do here, just turn this down a bit, and let me go into— and I've got some pictures, some personal pictures I want to share with you today as well that are Prince-related and that I think, um, you might like to see. Okay, so let me tell you a little bit of brief background on this. I've been a fan of Prince since I was 12. Um, I have followed his career obviously through the entire time and followed the careers of many of the people that he has influenced. I actually just recently did something that I've been dreaming to do for 30 years, and that was I visited Paisley Park in Minneapolis. Actually, it's in Chanhassen, but for all intents and purposes, it's in Minneapolis to most people. But just outside of Minneapolis, his home and recording studio, Paisley Park. And it was a very emotional experience for me. And they took us on a tour bus to go to the actual, you know, to actually go to Paisley Park. And I was bawling my eyes out when I got there because, you know, to me it's like hallowed ground. It's like these iconic songs that have meant so much to me and that have really been a soundtrack to my life, many of them were recorded right on those premises. So when I stood in Studio B at exactly the spot where these albums have been created, it was really emotional for me. But in any case, I think we all have someone who we admire, someone who we love, and in my case it's Prince. So I want you to think about who is that person for you. If it's Prince, great. If it's someone else, then wonderful. You know, when we become, you know, I hate to use the word fan because fan implies fanatic, I guess I am maybe somewhat fanatical, but it's beyond fanatic, right? It's not really about fanaticism from the standpoint of celebrity as much as it's like an emotional connection that I have to him, his music, likely his spirit to some degree. And I think that we all probably have that one person that we admire to that level. So what I wanted to kind of talk about today is personal branding and a few things that Prince has taught, I think, all of us who are building businesses and we can learn something. So, the first thing that Prince has taught us about building an iconic brand is the— is visual impact. So, when you think about Prince and we all can, you know, we all have this image that we have of him. It's the color purple, right? I mean, purple has become his iconic color. When he died a couple of years ago, monuments all over the world went purple because he was so effective at making himself synonymous and relating to that color so that people immediately think— well, now whenever you think purple, you think Prince, right? So he did just an amazing job from a visual impact standpoint of utilizing color to build his brand. Now, are we all going to be able to build iconic brands like Prince? Likely not. But in our own small way as entrepreneurs, we can utilize color to have visual impact. So, my branding color that I've chosen, at least to this point, it may change because I'm going through some rebranding. But to this point, I've used this really nice magenta color that I really like. And it has some significance to me. What is your color? What is the color that you use to have visual impact in your branding? Let me see if we have any questions. By all means, please ask. Okay, if you have any questions, let me just refresh this too. So one of the things is— let me just turn that down. So one of the things is visual impact. So it's things like, again, the color purple, you know, his wild fashion sense. Like, he wore things like, even for me, I'd be like, whoa, wow, okay, you know. He did a performance, MTV Music Awards, I think performance at one point with no butt cheeks on his yellow lace outfit. You know, he took risks like he went above and beyond. But fashion was a really big thing for him because it had visual impact. I'm not saying you have to go to those lengths. But do you dress appropriate to your brand? Do you dress in certain way? Let me actually show you some personal pictures here. When I went to— I actually went to Minneapolis just in April, and I was able to see First Avenue, which you'd recognize from the Purple Rain movie that so many millions of people have seen. And then I also went to Paisley Park. Now, you're not allowed to bring camera equipment into Paisley Park, so I wasn't able to take pictures, but for the food tent But in any case, that's the food tent right there. And here's me just outside of his white Paisley Park building out there in Chanhassen. So I had a great time, and I was thinking more about the brand and how it can impact— maybe how it's impacted me. You know, I think that certainly from the standpoint of color and visual impact, I think about those things before I do a video like today. I wore my purple sweater. It's appropriate to what we're doing today. The other thing is, again, things like hair, hairstyle. Having, you know, maybe hair in the case of what you do might be important if you're a hairstylist or you do something in the beauty field, you know, beauty and that sort of thing. Well, maybe having certain hairstyle is part of your visual identity. I'm thinking of a Kimra Luna as an example, where she had— she's kind of a punk rock style. She had bright blue hair at one point. Well, that kind of became synonymous with her brand. You know, things like visual impact. I wrote here, you know, Prince often wrote in a very— he wrote in a very different style. So when he wrote letters, notes, what have you, he wouldn't write the word "to" like T-O. He would use the number 2. And then instead of writing "eye," in other words like, "Hey, your eyes are blue." we would write it as E-Y-E-S, he would use the symbol of an eye. So he used this symbolism even in his written materials, which was unique to him and is part of the visual identity and thing that he built. So the first thing that Prince can teach us about building a brand is visual impact. Now, visual identity comes through a process of working, you know, in branding. I'm actually in the process of doing that myself right now, but I think when you're starting out or you're in that kind of growth phase or you're trying to really build your business, you can do simple things like being aware of how you dress, how you do your hair, what kind of visual impact you're having with color on a very baseline level. So that's number 1. Alright, number 2 is authenticity. No one is more authentic than Prince. I mean, this is a guy who, you know, grew up very, very shy and was obviously very skilled and talented in music naturally. But he dedicated himself to his craft, and many people would say that in his early years he was very quiet and almost antisocial. There was an interview that he did on American Bandstand with Dick Clark way back when, before Purple Rain, and it was painful to watch, let's be honest. He couldn't answer questions. He was— he didn't want to say— he would— he Dick Clark would say, "How many years have you been doing this?" or something, and he went like that, "Four." He wouldn't even say it. He was painfully shy. But he got out of that, I think, as he started to really realize, "I'm going to have to put myself out there. I'm going to have to get over this fear of public speaking and what have you." He did a lot of things to help break free from that. But no one can say that he wasn't authentic. For example, how many men of smaller stature who, you know, Prince was like 5 foot 2, he's tiny, shorter than me, and, you know, wear full-blown, you know, makeup, full makeup, high-heeled boots, appear on the COVID of an album naked. It's like, who does this, right? These are people who are, again, authentic to a fault, is who do— who does this. Who changes their name to a symbol, right? Like, these are people who are very, very secure in who they are and authentic, and authenticity is so key to them that no matter what anyone says, it won't change their mind. So they're authentic to a fault, and Prince was one of those people who did that. So, you know, again, authenticity, I think, rules every time, no matter whether you're ridiculed, whether people get it or not. A lot of people didn't get it. A lot of people still don't get it. But he stayed true to who he was, and he stayed authentic, and eventually he started to build a following because he was excellent at what he did. His skill set, his music, his output. His prolific nature was what started gaining him attention and audience. And people then started to kind of start to get it. This guy is unique and different, and this is what he is. It's how he is. You either like it or you lump it. And authenticity got him far, far away. And I think that you and I can learn from that. It's being real and staying true to yourself that's going to help you to be to build your following and to build your brand. Okay, so questions. Let's go down here. Matthew said, I'm a fat— I am fashion, laugh out loud. Okay, and I take much pride in my wardrobe. I have a very unique style and I like to look sharp too. Yeah, and, and see, that's what I'm talking about. If that's important to you and it's part— and let's be real, your visual identity is part of your brand. It is. So being cognizant of that, being aware of how you present yourself in public is important. So great point. Number 3, the third thing that Prince has taught us about building an iconic brand is that you need to surround yourself with good people. And that you will not be able to build a brand or a business alone and in isolation. I learned this many years ago now when I started investing in coaching. You know, and it became very apparent to me very quickly that I can go it alone, but I'm not gonna grow. You have to surround yourself with good people. Prince did surround himself with amazing people. Um, here's a picture actually. This was taken at Celebration at Paisley Park. Um, Mayte Janelle Garcia is Prince's first wife. I actually had the pleasure of going to a belly dance, um, class with her in Minneapolis and meeting her. But this is a picture that was taken during that multi-day celebration. And you can see all the people that are lined up here. Some of these people are, again, the amazing people that Prince has surrounded himself with over time. Maité, as one example. The twins, Maya and Nandi McClain. Who are some ama— Shelby J., as another example. Kirk Johnson. Wendy and Lisa. You know, from the Revolution way back in the '80s. Susan Rogers, who was Prince's engineer, sound engineer, for many, many years. And in fact, it's interesting, I actually took a clipping of this and I tweeted this article out this morning, but Susan was interviewed and she was talking about Prince alumni and how they all have something in common. And she goes on to say Prince alumni, in other words, people in Prince's inner circle and people that he surrounded himself with over years were service-oriented and kind, not quick-tempered, tolerant. Yes, a group of people who were kind and patient, and we needed to have that to be with him. And I think that's a really interesting thing to note. He surrounded himself with great people, and, and obviously that had an impact on him. And I think that's something that we can learn from Prince is that we need to surround ourselves with good people. And that could be, again, a mentor, a coach, someone that we can learn from, a peer, an accountability partner, someone who we can bounce ideas off of and who, you know, help us to work through problems, right? So that, I think, is really key to Prince's success as well. I also wanted to show you some other pictures here while we're talking about Prince. Prince got into photography a little bit later on in his life, and at one point I was actually at a concert. I had gone to an after show. I remember how this worked. It was in November of— I can't remember what year, I can't remember what year, but in any case, I was at a Christmas party for the Weather Network in Toronto, downtown Toronto at the Royal York, and across the way at the Air Canada Centre, I could hear the Prince concert going on, and I couldn't be there because I was at the Weather Network Christmas party. Trust me, it was killing me, but I had a plan. I was gonna go to the after show, and I went to the after show, and it's interesting because at that after show, Prince was there with Andy Allo, and he actually took a picture, and it looked much like— this is not him taking a picture of me, but it looked like this because I was on the dance floor and he was taking pictures of the people in the audience, and I was one of them, and he was pointing his camera right at me and and took a picture, and I was like, whoa, that's pretty crazy. So that was pretty neat. What are some other pictures I wanna show you? This is me at Halloween where I dressed up as Prince. I think I did a pretty good job, don't you? So look, there's Prince on the left and there's me on the right. I painted the mustache and everything, and I got the third eye glasses and the whole nine yards. So that was a lot of fun. And today, again, today would've been Prince's 60th birthday. This is a very special day. And yeah, thank you, and I'm very proud. And for the people that love him the most, here he is, ready. And they're having a good time. Look how shy he is. He's like, I don't really want to be sung to. Oh no, it's too cute. So there you go, lots of fun in the princess. And then more recently I went Minneapolis, as I mentioned. So there you have it, some of my Prince pictures that I wanted to share with you, and 3 things that You know, I think prints can teach us about personal branding and about putting ourselves out there and building an iconic brand. So I hope you've enjoyed this sneak peek into my obsession with prints, some personal photos of mine that I wanted to share with you, and 3 things that I think can help you to— just some food for thought, some food for thought as you go out to build your personal brand. Is there a way that you can again augment the visual identity and the visual impact that you have and Again, always staying authentic and true to who you are no matter whether people get it or not. And thirdly, surrounding yourself with good people. And if you're someone who's looking for mentorship or looking for coaching or looking for someone who can be someone to surround yourself with, I'd be happy to have a conversation with you about that. If it's video-related, that's what I do. You're more than welcome to email me, Cheryl@CherylPlouffe.com, and we could talk about next steps to to do that. Otherwise, I'm always here and you can reach out to me on social media @CherylPlouffe and we can connect. So I hope that you'll share this out to your network of people because you may know some Prince fans who might appreciate watching this. And I hope that you guys have a fantastic day. Wear some purple today in honor of Prince's 60th birthday. I'm gonna be wearing and sporting my purple likely through the rest of the day too. So I hope you guys have a fantastic one. I'll see you in the next episode of Personal Brand Breakthrough. Go out there and build your brand. Bye for now.