Lessons

Lesson Info

The Importance of Branding

We have been hearing a little bit about branding, and that's something that's really important to me. Some of you, it will be need to be a very strong focal point. Others can have a very loose brand or play with be more playful and take more risks with their brand. So what I would love to do is kick off with, yeah, what a brand means and how do you go about deciding what your brand is in in all of that? Um, basically a brand I once heard from a long time marketing uh, professional will say that. So he said that a brand is your customers experience start to finish, and I was always like new ones, like the logo on the website. That's the brand. The visual graphic part is the brand. It's not. It is very much the experience if you are involved with the transactions with your customers or viewers, even if it's not a purchase to directly to a product, transactions could be anything a transaction is them watching your video. They just exchange their time toe watch your video transaction made,...

so any time that's happening there experiencing something and it's going to be good or bad for them. And it's going to go into this thought process of Do A like this or doing not and that is your brand. Um, what I love to tell people is you don't have to know your definitive brand today. I mean, we saw my first video. Not only did I not know what a brand was, I didn't know the importance of a brand. I didn't even know what color I wanted my hair to be because I changed it every other day at that time. And guess what I am finally. Now what is it five years later to a point where I'm okay with that. I'm more than okay without I'm excited that my brand is going to be different a year from now because hopefully I will have evolved and become a little bit more refined on a little bit more elevated. So I want you guys to be very aware and give yourself permission to not be perfect today and to go for being better. Um, and also the discovery process. Remember how I said you're in Discovery mode? Go and experience and try different things. Look at other things there. So many creative outlets for you, Teoh saturate your life with so that you can take taste tests and then funnel into what resonates with you and for me. I've discovered along doing all my videos in all my projects and adventures what I like and what resonates with me. I'm gonna show you an example of what would be considered as a YouTube trailer. This is also like a preview or a commercial. They're great to use on instagram for quick 15 2nd clips, sir. Great to share on Facebook. Basically, it's not ah, whole collective tip or useful anything. It's just a little bit that show you that I'm an expert or that I have a perspective that I want to share with you. So I'm gonna show this little clip and then kind of break down Why, it's my brand and what components haven't naked a brand, even though it's just a video way ticket today with brand new bouncing dated. Okay, last with that, um so it's kind of like me. What do you think I'm us have been with me for the last day and 1/2? I mean, do you pick up on things that make me me. I love a very beautiful photo. I absolutely want toe Look, have an editorial picture of me. But then I also want to do the robot all the time. I don't know why I can't stop myself from doing it. And I have a very strong background in makeup and beauty. So you see that with doing the lip tutorial. But you also see the crafting and making just kitschy craft that that it shows you what my personalities like It shows you the things I like to dio and visually, it shows you what my hopefully want. My personality would look like if you could see your personality and it was tangible. I love bright, overexposed white pops of color. Chris, fast paced, peppy. All of those things are my brand. And guess what happens when I start to try or experiment with things that are in contrast with that start to get frustrated and I start to get confused and I start to feel doubt and they start to feel fear and insecurity and all these things that take me away from where I want to be, right? So I say that because if you're paying attention to what emotional response or having to something that is a huge indication, if it's part of your brand or not, if it's causing frustration if it's causing anguish or making you if people are saying you're not yourself anymore, you're stressed. Or this or that Um, chances are you're forcing yourself to do something that you think you have Teoh most likely because you see other people doing it. We talked a little bit about having friends who are superior in a specific skill, and we think that we have to be just like that and then trying to be something that we're not makes us unhappy, makes a slower at getting to where we want to be, makes us confused. All of those things. Um and this is a process I go through all the time. I'm so, uh, I don't know, I guess spontaneous. I love to try new things and I will try anything's thinking like, yeah, I could totally be a minimalist and granola And then I try and I'm like, No, I can't because I'm a hoarder and I love junk food and I don't know if that will ever change without the help of trained professionals, but to that point is without trying it, I don't know that it doesn't resonate with me. And if it doesn't resonate with you, it's not part of your brand. And so I encourage you to try new things. Dip your toe in the water, see how it goes. Take a second to gauge your reaction, and I I want to emphasize your reaction, not your audiences. A lot of times, and I know this happens so much in the social media boom. People just becoming insta famous on Instagram with their 10,000 or 100, followers. So we think it's got to be their pictures. I'm gonna make my pictures look exactly like that, or it's got to be there. Sarcastic comment. They're captions. I'm going to start doing that. Oh, they're using exactly seven hashtags every single time. I have to do that, But guess what happens when you start making all these to do's if I have to. I have to. I have to. There's not a whole lot of room for I want Teoh and this matters and I can, so that's pretty much all I want to get into as faras branding. I mean, I'm not gonna get heavily into graphics and this and that you have to be elevated and professional because some peoples brands are 100% the fact that they live on their mom's couch and they're happy to take advantage of her doing their laundry and all of that, and they love it. And society would tell us that if you don't drive a specific car or dress a specific way or have photos that are perfectly edited all the time, or the third number of has checked in on and on the month that we're not doing it right. And I just want to say your brand is right when you feel happy and when you feel fully expressed so questions. If you if you don't mind know about that, you do you have any, uh, let's see. So a lot of people have questions about starting and then kind of changing course mid after they put a lot of stuff up on YouTube. Les Collins, for instance, says, I created a block to help moms who feel along the feelings now that they're not alone, but my channel has gotten way off course. Should I delete all the videos and start over? Definitely not. No, that's part of your journey. That's part of your discovery mode. Those videos that I've shown you that I totally embarrassed by the pixie one where I ramble on and on and on. Not only does it have a ton of use, it consistently brings in a ton of use. Instead, you know what I dio? I put up a pop up message that says, Hey, you're watching a video I made in 2011. Come see what I can do today because I've had a pixie now for four years, I've learned a lot, and I have a lot of new ways that you can style a pixie and have a link that you can click on right inside the video and then have a link that using click on in the description box so it becomes a source of traffic for me. And also, a lot of people think when they're in their discovery mode, Or maybe you just have a life experience. I have a friend who used to be, um, just completely different, and she had kids and became very more family oriented, which I never thought she would be in very minimalist and just, um, you know, whole like, very I just want all natural and simple and now it's very much her brand. But I think it would be a shame to turn your back on the colorful, like almost a dangerous person that she was before, because that all plays a part in your story. And you're giving other people permission to change and to grow and to give up something that they don't relate. Teoh anymore way have on the completely other end of the timeline. 10 different people want to know the answer. This one. Do you launch a channel with one video, or shouldn't official launch have multiple channels or videos on the channel already? Um, my response to that Unless you have an INSTAGRAM or Facebook that has hundreds more likely thousands of subscribers and followers. It won't matter if you have one or if you have seven videos. If you're posting once a month or four times a week, if you only have three subscribers and chances are it's your mom, your dad and your one best friend. Whatever I mean, you're still everybody has to pay face the pain of starting out. And so again remember how we're We're not looking for reasons not to start. Don't let I only have one video video be the reason I don't launch. Do multiple if you have multiple, go for it. But I will say if I can, Um, was that you carry? Sorry if I'm picking on you. I don't know if it was your, um, fitness YouTube channel or a personal one, but I think you had a video of just one of your kids and it wasn't you and there wasn't nothing. It was just a Q home video. Almost. Skyler, I don't know, but I will say that depending on how professional you want your brand to be or what the context of the service that you're trying to promote is you might need to limit what type of videos and fainting on instagram and Facebook if you're very like clean and just the concise professional Onley don't have, like, this is what I had lunch today. And here's my kids running around in the spring. Claire's, you know, look at the my messy laundry from those those types of things would not be suitable. But in carries circumstance it Absolutely. It ties and do that. It is. People are attracted to things that they are experiencing. So that gives me a chance to address. I know there are a lot of people because I see the questions come in who are asking over and over and over again about timing and how often to post. We're gonna be covering that later this afternoon. So you don't need to ask anymore. Thank you. We will be talking about it really quick. I've got one more question here. Five different people wanted to know, saying I have to YouTube channels and they both talk about the same thing when I don't use anymore. So what would be best to get the videos over on my other channel? I use all the time and that I will also ask the opposite question because it relates to what you were just talking about. When do you think it's important to split channels and have multiple channels? I love both questions. Teoh approach the 1st 1 If you have a channel that you're no longer using, you have no intention of using. And there's like less than 100 people following it. Absolutely, you know, close that account. But keep the footage and move it over to the new account. And don't move it over all at once. Let's a have three videos on the other channel or hopefully, like 15 share one or two a week, and you have content toe last you for a long, long time. And this thing will actually be part of the promotion section on how to recycle content. Address the second question. When is it okay? Inappropriate toe have to YouTube channels or three? Um, I have two responses. The first is in 2015. There are no rules. Absolutely none. You can do whatever you want. My response, my personal. My other response from personal experience is you're already if your chances are if you're running a business and you're trying to promote yourself, you're already running Pinterest Facebook. Instagram Twitter. Now you two probably a blawg, probably a website or a shopping cart or an Etsy shop. This eight things now, probably getting emails from your website, probably getting emails direct to your inbox, probably getting direct messages on Facebook and Oh, yeah, You're getting picture direct messages on instagram and you're also getting I don't know Snapchats from people and you're getting a comments on YouTube and you're getting direct messages on YouTube. We're at 15 different modes of communication. They're trying to not only produce content for but keep up engagement on. Do you really want to add another one? I don't know. And this is a question. I mean, with me being multifaceted or a passionate having so many different messages to share, you know, the beauty level, the professional level, the creative level. It is confusing because I know how beneficial it could be to talk to a very specific audience. I don't want the people who follow me because of the hair styling tips to stop following me because I'm going to start talking about social media. Um, I brainstorm a couple solutions to that. One might be where on Mondays it's all about whatever I want. And everybody is always like throwback Thursday in fashion Friday, and women crush Wednesday like I don't know why we had to conform. Teoh matching the letters. It could just be crazy Tuesday. Make your own rules is what I'm saying, but that could be a solution where you have a specific day for your specific type of content and you're engaging with one audience at a time. There are, however, you know, really successful YouTube celebrities who have their beauty channel, and then they have a block channel or they have basically to flog channels, and they're just killing it at both because they can cross promote. But unless you have something that is just driving traffic like crazy and you're just wanting to leverage it, I would not take on extra work, which is what having to YouTube channels or to anything. I don't have a personal instagram account, and I rarely talk Touch me personal Facebook account cause my brand is me being me. And if you follow me on whippy cakey, follow my family, too. So and I said I had three questions I like before Way didn't get to yours either. Well, uh, seven people want to know the answer. There's so many people like me on YouTube trying to be a beauty blogger. Love suggestions on how to stand out from all the others, and I'll extend that with little move photos, question Are there any tips for really digging deep into figuring out what your unique brand truly is? Because you are. You know, one of the things that you do a lot of is beauty is hair, and there are a lot of people who do that. So how do you figure out how to stand out and be yourself? I will tell you that it's not something that can be forced least in my situation and that I never claimed to know the answers to everything I just know from my own life experiences. And I went through this twice. The first was when I was making all my handmade items, right. When originally started with the cake, I made polymer cupcake charms. I made diaper cases I made. This is horrifying, but Twilight paraphernalia and my husband made me go to twilight premieres and sell them to all the people waiting in line all day. And it was so very okay. But I made all that stuff and I remember thinking like I thought, like 120 followers now and they're probably like Who was with the cake? Did she like twilight hair? Did she do baby stuff, and I just don't know where she's going with this. And I was just like, I need a niche. I need a niche, had my first baby girl and of course I was just like I'm making her every obnoxious thing in the world and a experimented I tried to make this one flower. It didn't look anything like the flower I tried, but it looked way better in my eyes. Something totally different. And I went to event had all my other stuff and these headbands, the headbands were gone in seconds, and the other stuff just sat there. They had people, and instantly I knew I had a niche. Same thing. So in other words, I drew from an experience, and I paid attention to what people were responding to. I love the headbands. I was so excited to come up with something on my own on accident and keep finding ways to innovate it. And then I mean, it was wildly successful. What was so successful that I ended up having to cut it off because I was not willing to commit? I'm not a manufacturer and don't like e commerce. So and then recently you know with being a beauty blogger and having told years 12 years of experience in working with women who come to me with a problem, right? Whatever. Whatever they're saying verbally, I need a new haircut. I don't like this winter. I don't like my hair color or I don't know what kind of close to where they're saying, Ah, 100 different things. But what their meaning is always one thing, and that is I'm not happy with me and what I was finding over and over and over again, especially with my clients who would just throw money at problems. I mean, just drop dollars and it would never be enough, and it finally clicked for me one day. It's not about how much you spend. It's not about how many plastic surgeries or what type of brands you're wearing. It's about who you are on the inside and how you choose to live your life. And so that instantly as it click, just like those headbands became my perspective and a new facet of what makes me as a beauty blogger. Different is whether people like the cheesiness of you are amazing and you are beautiful from the inside out. I am sharing that message because it is important to me. And I am not gonna waste my time or your money trying to get you clothes and hair colors that I know aren't going to make you happy when what you really need to hear is how to get to a place where you really love and are confident with yourself. So hopefully that will just in short, have life experiences. Go try things. And no doubt you will find something that resonates to you or that is just really important to you. And that will be what makes you stand out from the rest.