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Lesson Info

Stand Out In Your Business

This is all about branding and messaging. So we talked about this a little bit and I want to dive in deep. I love branding. I think it part of it. I think it's Ever since I was 13 I've been selling something and branding myself in some way so that I would stand out. Yes, I was the Girl Scouts selling the most cookies. I was also selling Polly wogs at the top of the street with a hand painted sign for 1/4. You could buy three little Pollywog, and I just love branding myself and I And in order to stand out in your business, you have too. So I'm gonna go through some of the ways that I love standing out And, yes, that dress this dress, same designer. What do you think? So this recently showed up in my Google plus some feed. I was really excited. I didn't even know that I was a part of this article. But Ben Requena and you want to follow him. He is a great writer, focuses on branding. He put together a article about six social media rock stars that are all using color for their brand And i...

n this I'm going to tell you the names of the other five people that he chose so that you can follow them on Instagram as well. One of them is Amy Porterfield. Some of you might know her. She teaches Facebook. The other is Mari Smith. Mari underscore Smith. I'm sure most of you know who she is as well. Gary Vaynerchuk Check Gary V on Instagram, Chris Broken Who is nothing lost on Instagram and Donna Merits. And Donna Merritt's also from Australia teaches visual marketing. So these the reason I'm pointing them out to you. It's because when you see an article and it resonates for you not just instagram but I'm talking about an article a blawg. You want to see the other people in that article that are mentioned as well? And if the articles about Instagram you want to go check out to see if they are gonna add relevance to your business? So for me, it absolutely did. I was already following all these other five people mentioned in this particular brand article, and we're talking about brand colors here and having brand color. So it's so important to have your signature colors. And for me it's high energy colors with a nautical vibe, because everything I do is with high energy. So this is a fun picture of me showing that energy from the eyes of a seven year old. So she's like, Take a picture of me and put it on Instagram So I said, You have to jump really high. So she did. And she's like, Now I want you to jump really high. I don't think I got as much height as her, but she's like you have to do the pose that I did. So she was so excited when I use Dip Tick and I put a side by side and I celebrate this and this really just represents my true personality. So I love that picture, and I mentioned the nautical vibe, so everything I do. And by the way, this is a photo that service a took during one of our photo shoots. Everything I do has a nautical vibe. So whether I'm dressed nautical or wearing nautical jewelry or on the cape near the water, everything I do in my professional brand has to do with the nautical vibe. I also as many of, you know, love doing hashtag poses. And so because I do hashtag poses like this. I paint my nails too different colors. I don't know if you guys can see this, so I use whites. And here I have glitter grey because I knew it would go with every outfit I was wearing. It's all about the outfits on creative one. So So that's part of my branding is when If I don't have my hashtag sign or my hashtag frame that you just saw, I always have my fingers. So people like come, let's take a picture and they put their hand on their hips like No, no, no, There's no hands on their hips. There's no arms around me. It's let's do a hashtag post. So it's always like this. So that's become my signature pose. When I'm taking pictures while I'm on this subject, let me just tell you that I do have a YouTube video off how to take an instagram photo. Um, I put a picture if you're in it. A lot of people like I don't like taking my picture. If you're on instagram, get over it. You need to have your picture on Instagram to humanize your brand even if your makeups not on. Even if you just went for a jog, you need to show yourself there. So the things that I tell people in an instagram photo and those of you know me well, are getting to know that this is part of the the The gig on Instagram is to smile with your mouth open like that and not like that. So there's energy in your smile or use your hands toe, have energy in the pose or use a proper. And for me, it's often my hashtag finds that you will all be seeing all over the insta go live feed. And I want all of you watching to make sure that you are absolutely taking screenshots sharing. I want you to share where you're watching from. I love that The last chorus I got to see pumpkin and sunshine at the computer. I saw somebody doing yoga watching me. Somebody was cooking dinner. Someone was with their dogs watching. I want to see all of your behind the scenes of how you're watching me. Is it on your phone? Is it on? Your IPad is on your computer. Are you in a coffee shop? Um, at a restaurant. Like where were you watching and share that on instagram So that we all can connect to you from all over the world. And I will definitely be doing shoutouts at the top of the hour tomorrow so you can get some nice eye candy on your account if you do that. The other trick. Well, so this is my hashtag post. And so this is what happens when I speak at a conference? Um, everyone in the room either. I bring my hashtag signs wherever I go, and I hand them out, or I let everyone know that we're taking an INSTAGRAM picture and everyone has to my hash tag posts. So there he just asked for people to do things, and they do it, especially if you tell him. You gonna put on instagram especially bomb asking. I didn't tend to get what I like. You can ask my producer here. It creativelive So So in this case, I was telling everybody to do the hash tag sign, and the audience did that. Sometimes I'll take a 15 2nd video and I'll say OK, make sure you say instead allied with your hashtag sign. So whatever it is, just ask for it. Because when you ask, it's like the call to action you will receive if you do it in a way that's not sales. A. That's fun. We're talking about having fun, selling on instagram and making money, doing what you love. And that's the messaging here. So speaking of my producer, here he is. Those of you here at the studio have met Justin. He is amazing. And we have so much fun taking pictures with the hashtag signs here at Creativelive, which you are all going to be seeing on my feet very soon. So this is my overarching message is fearlessly be yourself. So this is a great screenshot that be that, you see is the same be that I use. This is my store on the cape. This is my logo. The B stands for Sue be doo. Yes, I fly around like a busy bee all day making money with honey. However you want to say it. Um So, um so anyway, so that's the most important thing to do. We are going to talk about some featured accounts right now that I want to go through that We're all part of the last course and how some of these people have actually put together their featured account in a way that is well branded. And you may remember some of them. So Mona Lisa within the audience last time. And when she was sitting here, she created her featured account. She has more followers on her featured account now than her personal account because she is consistently branding in a look and feel with inspirational quotes. I love this light of light as a feather pastel palette that really works for what she does. She is a coach. She's in the space, the same space as Asia and remind me again, Laurel, which is the spiritual space. So this is a nice look and feel for her. We also have avocado shirt Company who's actually deep, has given us some T shirts that we can I can showcase really soon when I get on the Google hang out. But they avocados who thought that you could make an INSTAGRAM account because you love avocados and this account is awesome. And Rachel, who works with me, you're gonna be meeting soon This is one of her favorite INSTAGRAM accounts, cause she's like Sue. You can have an INSTAGRAM account with avocados that's pretty cool. And so they do a beautiful job talking about guacamole and green and avocados, and they sell T shirts and buttons, and it's a great brand, But I love it how their logo is awesome. It's really simple. You can see it as the Avatar. All their emojis are green, as you can see here, and they have a great call to action. Want cattle cash? Join our club click below. So they've got all the right elements of that perfect bio. Another account that I love is locally, locally in is an artist. She's amazingly talented. She does a beautiful job with featuring her designs that she creates. She does a lot of lines, and then she sells cell phones with those designs. She also has a great call to action, telling you where to go to her featured account, she's pointing that emoji finger to their locally and canvas, which is the featured account below. Like me, she has more than one featured account. I'm not the only one, and she does pet portrait. You absolutely want to check out her locally dot canvas account. She's so talented in how she does thes Portrait's and that little dog right there. Cookie you were going to see on a Google hang out. I hope that they bring the dog on. Yeah, we're doing Google hangouts with dogs now, so this is one of the featured accounts pumpkin dot sunshine. So it's like we're all connected through Instagram through that first course we did on and then another account that I like that does a really good job as a photographer. This is a Canadian photographer. Picks underscore and underscore Stone again, a work around that user name, because she probably couldn't get picks and stone. And I love the way her feed looks. I mean, it's really all about nature in a very consistent way. As a photographer again, being a photographer is very competitive, so you want to figure out like, what's your style and how it's gonna work for you now? She does not have a lot of followers here, and I want to bring that to your attention. But she's having success as a photographer in her space, so her conversion rate is not that great, but she stepped up her game since the last course and put together a strategy that it really works well for her. And then, um Daniel Malone con. I'm not try to pronounce his name. I'm sorry. Awesome. Awesome photographer. Absolutely. If you're photographer, you want to be following this account. He does a beautiful job with this app called Giant App, where you can have placements of the photo so it blows up and he does it in such a way that works in his speed. He recently he threw my little like promote everyone that was being featured on the course that a promotion for creativelive. So he creatively put one in their a swell. But when you look at his feed, you see beautiful babies and amazing photographs, often in black and white. So it's really stylized as a photographer. So I love this account again. All of these accounts will be in the back end of instigate alive, so you can easily just click, click, follow, follow follow everybody that I'm featuring Google hang out guests coming right up side. You don't take too long on this. But someone was saying, you know they couldn't get their name, but they realize the name has already been taken by someone who never, ever uses their account. Is there a protocol and perhaps approaching that, you think, Just leave it well, if they have a girl in the account and you can click that and try to find them, some people actually sell their account names. It's hard like when I couldn't get Sue Be doo and they don't even use it. There's zero follows. It's like, really? But then I have the work around and there's always a work around. So if you can tell me what this person does, I could help problem solve this thing. Yeah, I was just wondering. It's appropriate to ask. You just called, you know, your accounts, contact them and convince them, and maybe give them some free energy bars or something. But you make a really valid point that some people do try and sell accounts don't like, Yeah. Oh, some people, they do that on every account. People squat names just to get well, don't steal. I'm up to 55 followers and we've been on the way is well, about time. Yeah, so we're gonna move into another Google hang out. I'm so excited this time to bring you three accounts. We have products that I'm gonna be featuring deeps gonna be bringing those up. I have Lindsay Tia coming on an avocado shirt company, which is the company I just featured. And then we have Brownie Points, Inc. Which and I'm gonna have them introduce what they do. All right, Lindsay, huh? You guys. All right, so let's give him a big loan. Welcome. So I'd love to get their products up here if we can. So this is Lindsey T. I want to just introduce each of them and tell you how I've met them. Lindsay is a young entrepreneur back home in the Boston area, and she is good friends with Holly Nichols, who you guys met last course. And she's actually coming on tomorrow as a graphic illustrator. She's going to do in a Google hang out, and Lindsay's very good friends with her. They share a studio together, and I met Lindsay through Holley and Lindsay makes these awesome bags, and she's gonna tell you all about them, but because they have anchors, guess who's selling them at Scooby Doo and I'm selling a lot of them. And this summer we had a really good time doing a director consumer event and Mata poise it and we have been collaborating ever since the next guest. So, Rob, we mentioned his account earlier. I want to show some of the T shirts. Hey, sent me these. This'll someone I have to show you, all of them. I love that email these to may. I don't know if they'll fit me, but they'll fit my daughters that things great. And here's the other one at these. Great. And they also have buttons. I don't know if they use these promotional lee or think they sell these, and they sent me a bunch of stickers. So thank you for that. That is Rob and then Lisa. Oh, my goodness. She sent us a ton of brownies. They're called brownie points, and they are bites. They compacted in this great box, and they're bite sized brownies. And everyone here in the live audience is going to be tasting these instagramming, these and everyone if creativelive is gonna have some too. So they all sent me their products. Um, so I love that I have them here to showcase and share with you all. But let me have you each kind of introduce yourself to the world and let people know what you dio. I'm gonna start with Lindsay. Okay? Hello? Hey, Lindsay's? Yes. So I have a handbag business as well as a paint it paint your own toe party company. And I have a boutique as well. And I used instagram for all these, um, activities. How about you, Lisa Ojai unloosed a king. I'm the president and founder. Brownie Points. Brownie Points is a gourmet brownie company. We also do all different kinds of chocolate confections and gourmet popcorn. And I love instagram because it honest and gives us the greatest opportunity to show our products to the world in a on and creative way. And we get reactions. It's the It's the old saying. A picture paints words, and it makes a big difference. Awesome hair. I'll go ahead and introduce yourself. I am Rob Russo and just one of the co founders of avocado shirt company. With my friend and buddy Jason. We actually launched a like a marketing agency, and the avocado Shirko was just a side project that one like a do you like guacamole? Quality. And then we decided to go on Kickstarter to see if anybody else agreed. And it was a successful campaign. And then here we are. A few months later, I talked to you. So So can you share with everyone? How are you using Instagram to drive traffic and sales to your business? We just, uh, we put up. We put up some of our product, you know, photos, obviously. But we don't, like, sell, sell sell by my teacher all the time. So we just figured it will dio, you know, all things avocado and just you either love or hate the avocado, avocado and guacamole in all of that. And we just figured Well, we don't have to convince you. The followers there, the lovers of block just come to us. Yes, we started Pictures are featuring other just dishes, the other people re posting and given the credit, of course pictures that people like to pose. I think if you just start hashtag avocado, it's over 1.6 million streaming through instagram and it won't take a second to upload. Everyone was to tell you what they're eating. Or here's what Here's a picture. My guacamole. Yes. To your place. Yeah, Your point. Yeah. To your point, everyone likes to post what they're eating, because food has posted the most frequently on Instagram. But I love that. I love that you have your own unique hash tag and that you really created a feed that's very much featured in this space of guacamole and avocados. So, Lindsay, I want to go back to you, and I want you to explain your bags. I want you to talk about your business, how you started it, your bags, a story behind your bags picks. I just brought one of the many awesome bags that you make and talk to everyone. E when you're a young entrepreneur passionately doing what you love, and I want you to share the story of your bags. So that and then and how they help you convey the message the overall messaging that you have on instagram. Okay, so Lindsay T is all about what's your personality. So each bags named after someone who's helped me get to where I am. And then this season me and Holly collaborated and did. What's your personality where it allows you to relate to four different trends that are going on. We have a preppy girl, urban boho girl city, she girl in, ah, glam girl. So it allows the customer to interact with what we're doing as well as us asking them on instagram. What do they want to see next? What's the latest trend? So they're helping us build the business, too. And so, collaborating with the three year free three friends there. What have you Have you noticed that all of your accounts are increasing followers as well as sales coming back to you in your boutique yet So collaborating with all my friends and it allows us to hit each other's markets, um, hit boutiques and gain bigger following as well as drive traffic to our stores as well. So are you finding that a lot of people coming into your boutique find you on instagram and they don't know that your physical location exists? S so we do the geo tag, and we also put up open signs letting people know that we are open so it hits a bigger market and targets them to come in. And what events would have at the store. And so it and then I know that in addition to the store, you do a lot of direct to consumer venues on and you're talking about the geo tag, which is great, cause I talked about that earlier, and you're validating how important that is. So talk about because you've mentioned to me that you have five events this week. Send me the questions before I have five minutes. Talk about the events that you're doing, your direct to consumer events and how you, um, push traffic from instagram to the events and to your store from doing the event. So it's like a full circle for you because, like like myself, she has a physical location. So it's not just selling from her store. She's actively selling from Instagram, and she's also traveling. So can you talk about that? Yes, so I just events at my store in a post about them all. We and then I do trunk shows with my boutiques to help build an audience and tell people about my product with, um so we'll take a picture together, posted tag. It tagged their account, and it lets their customer no Oh, you can come meet the designer. She has one of a kind stuff today. Come check it out today only, um And then with the pay parties, we do We take the rush, don't wear at you got by your ticker that advanced This is how and by using all these different avenues on instagram it builds everyone else's audience to each other. Yes, So she's really the tagging. And the collaboration for her product is what she does so beautifully. Um, and like I said, Lindsay has so many awesome bags that she has literally designed. She's been sewing since she was seven. She is so passionate about what she does. I'm so impressed with the business that she's building, and I'm thrilled that you're here. You look great. Yeah. Lisa, I'm gonna talk to you now, honey. So So I want to talk about the you mentioned instagram and how much you love it. And I You and I chatted before the Google hang up for a little bit and I didn't see any pictures of you on instagram. And so I just want to point this out because I think it's I think her feet is great, but I think I would be more connected if I saw you as the owner of the company to humanize it. So I wanted to talk about how you're what you're posting. Strategy is. And since talking with me, if that's something that you think will add value to your account Actually, I thought your suggestion was fantastic because you're right. We've never done anything to humanize it in so much of what we're trying to portray when we do. Instagram is the personality behind this is all the personalities, and it does make a huge difference. You did inspire us to post a picture the other day of all of our staff, or I should say most of them so you could see all the friendly faces behind what makes it happened at brownie points. But yes, we are actually talking about different things we can do now to make us able to connect with our followers more rather than just show these amazing pictures that make them want to eat the brownies right, he said least has been so generous. She sent some brownies for all our students. They're just passing them around right now. So we're gonna get lots of pictures of those online. Thank you. Thank you. And so I just want to mention Lisa chocolate Johnny. And you definitely share a very similar business space on. And you should absolutely be following his account if you're not, because he has literally humanized his chocolate factory in the way that you and I had discussed prior to the hang out. It's great to know. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you. Yes. So, going forward, you're planning on putting more pictures of your staff, and then the other recommendation is Look what's going on in here. I'm looking at Caroline White, and she's like, OMG, this is so good enough. So So in addition to your wonderful employees and you, your beautiful faith, it's the customer's indulging in loving them. And and I want to take a pause here to actually thank Jill Boudreau, who was on my last course on a Google hangouts. She's the real estate agent I talked about in Wellesley, Massachusetts, because of Jill, I met Lisa and Jill gives out these brownies to everybody that lives in our hometown. Wealthy Massachusetts. I got them in my mailbox before even met Jill and I said This is the most brilliant real estate, that postcard gift I could ever get. My kids ate them up. And when I met Jill after, it was the brownie points that I talked about as the connection to her more than anything else. So we had been connected through Jill by meat eating your brownies like a year plus ago. I just want to share that with that. Builds a marketing genius. She's an inspiration to me. She really is. Yes. So anyway, so I want to let you know this all comes full circle. Last course this chorus tackled will hang out This one. We're all connected on Instagram. It's a beautiful thing Faux Thank you so much for being here and taking time out. Also, Rob, I want to talk to you again about your pictures that stand out and talk about some of the tools that you're using. I love. Can I just give you a huge shout out for the post that you did? Did you use the giant app? Is that was that we used feature said about your course coming out this court use photo shock. I have to say sometimes I'm a designer. So I do use Photoshopped. But this goes into what you were saying that you don't. I don't use that every day for Instagram post. And you don't have to be designer or have access to one Teoh, but nice pictures up. I know you love words Way. Yeah, you say that I use that much every day. Anything. Those words on it? Well, sure, I'm sure a lot of the listeners use photo shop. And if you go check out that last post avocado shirt CEO, you will see that he did. How many post eight. It was a little pieces 06 putting together, announcing that he was gonna be on this Google hang out because one of my assignments for everybody being featured was to make sure you share this with your followers, that you're going to be featured. And that's how we got more eyeballs on this course. More sign ups for this course, because it's the collective effort of others that I'm featuring not just myself promoting this course, but all the in studio audience, the Google hangouts, and you you just trumped. You got, as Rachel would say, 10 points for the avocado host. Right? Thank you. Thank you. Talk about Daniel, the amazing photographer earlier. And, you know, he does a lot of those. So I have seen that. And I thought, Well, we could do that too. Well, thank you. We really appreciate it. So let's thank all, Rob. I think we lost Lisa and Lindsay for being on the Google hang out. I know everyone's gonna be connecting with All right? Pretty 76 s. He's like, he's like the teenagers I 100 legs. I never thought it. My I've got 76 on. There's about 20 photos being posted of me from people I think in here. By the end of the course, I'm going to challenge all of you. I bet he's gonna have close to 300. That's my guest. Just hashtag just saying Okay. So I created again this this graphic and dipped IQ for those of you that just need to know what these third party APs that I love. We mentioned them. We have a in the bonus, we have all of our favorite maps that we use, and I just want to give a shout out to Lindsay rock out with your walk out. I love that. And did you guys love the delicious brownies? Okay, there's more. So we'll be taking some instagram. So that freckles. Yeah, well, he's a little round ones else around. So for anyone in Australian, these freckles Americans either Sprinkles for anybody watching in the U. K. These are hundreds and thousands. We call it too. So let's hear from the guests that haven't spoken up. Catherine, you want to introduce yourself? What people know? Why did you come here? And what do you hope to get out of sitting in the audience this time? Cause I know you watched from TV last time. My name is Catherine Tatum and I'm a hashtag is classic legacy. And, um, I watched the first class and I just really learned so much. I my clients are retail stores, hotels, museums and resorts. And I wanted to learn how to connect with them in a better way, which is great. And I do have I do have some of your products that we can showcase it another time that I brought So Katherine's another vendor that found me on Creativelive. And I mentioned earlier I sell her necklaces or bracelets at my store. She made me custom Cape Cod charms, and we sold them very well. So I was really three. Alex in an a style bracelet was my best seller. The expandable hoots bracelet. Yes, yes. Hi, Maureen In my daughter and I own to pet businesses that are strictly online. We make raised, um, feeders for dogs and cats, depending on the height of your pet. And then we also have organic gluten free dog biscuits that we make. And I first met you Sue watching creativelive last time. And then my daughter and I flew out to Boston and attended your event, which was phenomenal. I mean, we had so much fun and, um, really here just to learn and increase our engagement we're trying to We're doing to faked to Facebook. Sorry to Instagram pages and find it really difficult to know. Like toe have the balance between how much product to show and try to get other types of engagement without being really sales. See, that's what I'm having. I'm gonna talk about style izing products later on, but that's a great That's a great question. And I know I'll give you some inspiration when I'm actually showcasing what I do at my store. Scooby Doo, like it's not just the product. That's how you stylized, Um, that really can make an impact on how people are looking at them on Instagram. Great. So thanks for being with Great to see you again. You, too.