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A lot of people don’t realize that they have a brand and that a brand is everything. In this podcast, Nate sits down with Valerie and talk about what branding is all about, how it is so important and why it’s important whether it be a company brand or a personal brand.
Talking about influence again. And do we need to have a brand to influence? That’s we’re going to be talking about. So, how important is a brand? -Well, a brand is everything. And you know, it’s interesting because a lot of people don’t even realize that they have a brand. Everyone has a brand. Whether you’ve got an actual logo designed or not. -So, a brand is more than just a logo. -A brand is everything. In fact, branding encompasses everything associated about you or your company. So, I’ve even talked to architects and interior designers who talk about branding being essential to the interior design of your space. Because anything someone interacts with with your brand gives them some sort of signal to what you’re about. So, whether you’re a person and you’re trying to get hired at a company or you have some sort of service that you’re trying to sell to people, people are looking for clues about who you are. And people get that from your branding that can be seen in your logo, your website, the clothes you wear, the way your office smells when they walk in. The different sounds that they experience, it’s all encompassing. -So, as you see that, I’m like, “Okay, I wonder what this set up says about my brand.” I mean we’re not filming in an auto mechanic shop. I don’t know. What I… Like… -I wonder what it says. Maybe people can comment below and tell us. -What does the branding of our background here tell about me in this channel? -Right? -It’s very interesting. It’s good for people to think through what their personal branding is about because a lot of times, people don’t realize that you as an individual put something off to the world. And if you’re not thinking about what that is, you often can miss out on you know, different jobs you’re applying to, different opportunities, different relationships that if you had been conscious of it and put your best foot forward, you might have stood out a little bit more in the crowd. And you know, when you’re thinking about branding from a marketing perspective, a lot of times marketing teams will think through branding and be very strategic. You’ll do all these mock-ups of logos and different schemes and different things like that. But personal brands people don’t always think about. They’re not as intentional about them. But those that do really shine. And I see this more with like speakers and authors, coaches. They’re very in tune with the fact that they themselves are the face of the company and therefore their branding needs to be spot-on. They’re very aware of how they themselves as an individual come across. But you know, personal branding happens everywhere we go. So, it’s something that I think we should all be paying attention to. It’s something I tell all of the people that I come in contact with who are about to graduate college or even graduate high school. I encourage them to be thinking about some of these things. -So, part of it it’s kind of reputation. -It is. -You know, first impressions and all that video. That makes sense. As you’re talking, I’m recognizing. I mean, I feel like I’ve got a good brand but there’s a lot that I could do to be more intentional about it. -Sure. -I mean, you know, was that… When I thought about this background, I’m like, what does this background represent? I mean, professional. Is professional my brand? Or is it clean as it modern? Is that my brand? And so, if I were… I like words. -Yeah. -I’m thinking if I were more specific on what words should or do my brand represent or do I want my brand to represent, then as I’m picking filming locations like this, I’m like, “Okay.” Maybe playful. That’s not me. But maybe playful is my word then I want to have an ohm hit in the back. That, yeah. Let’s go ahead and thought of that. -Well, you know, one word that came to mind is you were talking through things is comfortable. You know? And you want people to be comfortable with your brand and I think doing it in a setting like this versus a very corporate setting. It fits you. You know? You’re not… You don’t walk in in a suit and tie this nearly to do your videos. You’re here just being Nate and you want other people to feel comfortable being themselves as well. So, that might be one word. -Cool, comfortable. So, I’ve read your book. It’s all about influence. And I know you talk a lot about this in there about how subconscious a lot of this is. So how do… How does that work with brands interacting with our subconscious mind? -Well, I think it’s important to realize that people are picking up clues about who you and your brand are every second. And it happens in a split second. You know, it happens so fast that we have to be ready to put our best foot forward all the time. And so, I think it’s important just to start picking up on what are the subconscious cues that people are getting about your company or about your brand. And there’s a couple ways you can do. You can kind of pay attention to figure out what some of those clues are. One of them can just be you know, ask some strangers. Ask some people to provide feedback about your website or your logo. Ask them what words just they would use to describe your company. And those can be really eye-opening for someone especially if you are just so ways they’re focused on your business. It’s really good to get that third party perspective on things. -I would have never thought of comfortable as a part of my brand. -Hey, it happens. Yeah. You know, one of my friends gave me this tip to pull up your website to some stranger in Starbucks. And ask them to describe what you do in 15 seconds. And just see what they say. And if they can’t tell who you are or describe your company in a way that makes sense to what you want to be aligned with, you need to go back to the drawing board and explain it again or describe it again or redesign things. Get that third party’s perspective. It can be really really helpful. That’s a really good tip. I mean how quick with that feedback come, right? You just show them and say, “What do you think? What does this tell you? What do you think I do .Yeah. Are you guys taking notes? -Well… And it’s so easy, right? People in Starbucks are usually pretty happy. They’re what they’re willing to help. So, yeah. And you know, one of the other things I like to do is just to think through. You know, what it… What subconscious cues am I getting about other brands? So, take a look at some of the companies that I encounter whether it’s the car mechanic, the restaurant down the street, the dry cleaners. Just walk in and take a look and see what am I paying attention to. Am I noticing the rips in the carpet? And is that telling me that this company doesn’t take good care of their space. Or do I walk into a car mechanic and get welcomed by plush leather couches and air freshener scented spaces with soothing calm music. There’s a difference. And you can start to pay attention to those things. Yourself in other businesses and see, “Are there little touches that I can bring in to my business to kind of give that just subtle level up?” -Makes me think of… There’s a company here called My Tire Guys. -Okay. -And we buy our tires there. My wife was driving to drop the kids off at school one morning and hit something in the road. There was like a metal bar and it knocked off something below our van. I mean, it was still able to drive it. She happened to be right close to My Tire Guys. So she said, “I don’t know if my Van has been damaged. Can you take a look?” They raised it up took a look. They said, “There’s something small. We fixed. You’re good to go.” And she didn’t pay anything there you. You know, they didn’t ask her to pay anything. She’s like… And they’ve actually done that before. We had something with our tires. They fix our fixed our hubcap. And I’ve just noticed that part of their brand at least to me is that they care… Why am I getting emotional about a tire? They really… They’ve taken care of my wife. And they haven’t tried to take advantage of her for not knowing about a car. -Right. -They really show that they care and they’ve helped her and not put money first. I just… That’s why we buy tires there. -You don’t even press shop, I bet. You just know exactly he’s going to go, right? -Yeah. In fact, when I first went there, we did price shop and they have a good deal and then we’ve stayed there. We don’t anymore, yeah. -Yeah. Well, it’s amazing like once you build that brand, how much loyalty comes from when people just do little things on a regular basis. It really builds up over time. And I’ll even add to the story. Just a quick thing: We have… On our breaks, you can kind of fill a vibration. -Sure. -And we had it checked out and they said, “Yeah, you could get it fixed. But it’s not necessary.” Well after this incident where they didn’t charge my wife for that. My wife’s like, “You know what? I’m going to wrap them fix my brakes.” Just because she wanted to say, “Thank you.” She took it back and they had the brakes fix it. -That’s amazing. -Okay. So this has been a great discussion about brands and how important having a brand is and that we all have a brand. How important is a brand and influence. -So, branding is one of the foundational pieces when you’re going out and building influence in the world. So, you first need to know who you are so that you know exactly who you’re telling the rest of the world you are. You have to know who you are first before you can tell the world. And so, if you figure out your branding from the beginning which is usually where most businesses like to start. Even if you’re an individual, I encourage you to start there as well. Once you figure that out, then you have this foundation to go out and reinforce that to the rest of the world. And I’ll tell you, it takes time. It’s not something that happens where use test them on once. This is who I am. This is what I’m about. And you just… They instantly know. They’re going to need to be told multiple times over. So, you need to show up and show up consistently with your brand. So figure it out first so that you know exactly who you are to the rest of the world. -Thanks for watching today’s episode. And thanks Valerie. -Thank you. -This is Valerie Morris’s book, We’re All Ears. That’s all about influence and I know we have tons the influencers that are watching this channel. So check it out. It’s on Amazon. Be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you tomorrow.