Make your brand completely irresistible (and unforgettable) with FUN steps!

If you could make the journey to success in your business faster and easier, would you want the tips to help you do that?

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Deirdre Martin is with us today on the podcast, and she has the most no nonsense, straight to the point, tips you will ever get on how to create a business that is memorable, irresistible to your ideal clients, and stands out from your competition (in even the most crowded market.)

If you are just getting started, or if you are a few years in to your business and struggling to get your marketing and sales in order, we’re stripping it back to the basics you need to get right, right now ,to get growing fast!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] If you could make your journey to success in your business faster and easier, would you want the tips to help you do that? heck yeah. That's the dream right? Well, today is your lucky day. Dear. Dear Martin is with us today on the podcast and she has the most, no nonsense straight to the point tips that you will ever get on how to create a business that is memorable.

I resistible to your ideal clients and stands out from your competition in even the most crowded market. If you are just getting started, or if you're a few years in and you're struggling to get your marketing and your sales in order, we're stripping it back to the basics you need to get. Right. Right now to get growing fast, get a pen and paper and let's get into it. 

Dear Dre is with us today and she helps coaches entrepreneurs and small service based business owners work on their business by refining leveling up and optimizing their brand marketing and their customer experience so they can achieve the success they deserve

Hi, DDRI I'm so glad you're here with us [00:01:00] today.

Thank you so much for having me Christie. It's great to be on the show. And, you know, I love our topic today because I think so many of our, our listeners are ready for this. We're gonna talk about leveling up their brand and their strategies for newer women entrepreneurs to grow the business quickly.

And I think there's just so many listeners out there that need that. But before we do that, I would love to hear a little bit more about you dear Dre. And what led you to the consulting space and working with women entrepreneurs? Can you share that with us? Okay, let me be brief because for your listeners, they may have guessed.

I have an Irish accent and with that Irish accent comes the gift of the gap. So let me try to succinctly describe what led me to being here, even on your. They were show today, Christie. Right. So I worked in retail banking for 20 years and part of my role was managing people and teams and delivering customer experiences.

It was marketing products, selling [00:02:00] offers all sorts of things. And in December of 2020, I got laid off. And that led me to really reflect on what my passion points were. The days that I came home from the bank. And I said to my husband that I could, I had an amazing day in the office. I really had to reflect on what had happened in those days.

That led me to feeling that way. And so when I was being laid off, it, it really made me. Think back to what those days were. And then I did some self coaching. I went and got a career coach. I spoke to a business coach and I went, Hey, I've got this idea. Do you think I can make it work? And they validated the idea that I had and said, yep, Judy, you've got loads of experience.

You've got 20 years experience. You've got a certification and customer experience. You've got all of those things. So yes, go for it. Basically [00:03:00] here I am today. That's such a great way of figuring out what it is that you are passionate about and what your area of expertise is, what the end of the day, what days, what were you working on when you came home and you just felt like you had a great day?

Yeah. it's not something that, you know, we really reflect on because often in life we're so busy, we don't stop to celebrate the wins. And especially in entrepreneurship, I find that to be very true. But part of my coaching that I did myself as well, Christie was about when I look back when I was 14, 15, 16, and I was me before I was part of that.

Corporate identity before I was institutionalized in an organization and my personal brand was aligned with their business brand. Who was I? I really had to go on a journey myself to discover who am I? And I had to figure out what is my personal brand when I separate that. Yeah. From the organizations that I've given 20 years.[00:04:00] 

Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about, well, let's, let's start by talking about what is a brand, because I think a lot of people especially if they're just starting out in business, they think a brand is their logo and their colors and their fonts. And that's, that's part of your brand, your branding. But can you define a brand for us?

So I like to define a brand as a little bit like your north star, it's where you point to in your business and say, that's where we're going. This is why we need to go there. And these are all the things that keep us on track. And if we don't have this foundation, this north star and our business, we're just spinning our wheels.

We're going around in circles. We dunno where we're going. We don't have a why we're going there or who we're going with. We don't know anything. And it is something that is unique to every individual. People have brands, businesses have brands, brands are things that make us memorable. You know, it's like that [00:05:00] sense of when you meet somebody and you have no recollection of having met them when you meet them for the second time.

Right. Has that ever happened to you? Christie? Never. I don't even know what you're talking about. okay. Well, me at COBA it's absolutely happened to me and I've had people not remember me and vice versa. Yeah. And the reason that happens is because either I or the other person didn't evoke an emotion.

We didn't create a feeling and emotions and feelings are things that create memories and brands when they're designed intentionally and strategically can differentiate themselves because that's exactly what they'll set out to do to create an evoke, an emotion, a feeling that causes a memory that makes people.

Want to engage with them again. So brand is very broad. It does cover a lot of things. [00:06:00] Like you said, website logo, all of those things, but on a foundational level, it is about more, who am I? Who is this brand? What do we stand for? Where are we going? Why. Who do we wanna go for? You know, who do we wanna serve?

How do we wanna serve them? It's very, very broad. But it's super exciting. And when people work through what their brand is, it's like, aha, I get it. It's like the clarity and light bulb moments are just amazing. It's so it's, it's magical to watch people go on that journey. And it really helps with every part of your business.

You know, people think of the branding as the marketing, but once you have your, brand outlined, you, it affects your products, your services, your customer, I mean really all parts of your business. It's so important. So you, you outlined a bit of it there, but let's, let's revisit that. What does a comprehensive brand strategy look like?

What are the, the pieces and the parts to. [00:07:00] So I have a framework that I use. It's my unique three step fun framework. It's literally fun. Okay. So business is often too serious. So I like to do a little bit of fun in my brand. And part of my fun, fun framework is initially that the F is an acronym. Fun is an acronym for fun.

So F is for foundation. Those brand foundations are, what is your business' purpose? Vision, mission values. Okay. What do you stand for? What will you go to war for, you know, against other people or naysayers about your business? Because this. Foundational to you. Okay. Those are some of the elements of the foundation, but also things like, what are your core aims of your business?

Who is your target audience going to be? Things like as well, let's say. Who your main competitors are. It's important that you have competitive awareness when you're [00:08:00] establishing a brand, because you don't wanna show up exactly like your closest competitor and things as well, like brands that inspire you, you know, they, and those brands don't necessarily need to be in the same industry or sector, but they could be highly advanced or innovative in terms of technology in terms of how.

Make people feel it's a, it could be a differentiated service that they create. It could be they're the cheapest brand. So it's about what are the differentiating factors at a foundational level that you want to be known for? Because those are the things that will cause people to have a feeling and emotion.

It's that foundational stuff that causes people to have a feeling and emotion. And so it's about strategically designing that. So that's the F for foundations, you then for the, a really comprehensive brand strategy, the you in the fun acronym starts for a unique brand [00:09:00] style and identity. And again, you know, one of the examples that I like to give is you could look at Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

If I held up two cams, one of Coca-Cola, one of Pepsi. One was red and the other was blue. And my hand covered both the brand names you would instantly know from the colors, which brand is which, and even though they're both flavors of Cola, they both have very distinct styles and they have those styles because the foundational elements of their brands are very different.

They're not trying to do the same thing, even though they may serve a similar audience, they're very different. And so how they show up visibly their appearance is very different and it reflects who they are in their foundations. So that's style guide can come from. The type of the type or archetype that you're trying to create for your brand.

Like again, if you think [00:10:00] of Disney, they're all about magic and wonder. And so the fonts, even that they use are playful and, you know, everything they do is playful. It's about incredible experiences and happily ever after and all of those lovely things. And so it's about identifying. Who you want to be, and a great exercise to do this Christy for any of your listeners, who'd like to try is to picture your brand as a celebrity, going out to the Oscars, you know, what would it wear yeah.

Who wouldn't want to sit beside what kind of earrings or accessories or jewelry would it have? What kind of outfit would it wear? What would the shoes look like? You know, what kind of car would they pull up in all of that sort of stuff. And to just get, have a little bit of fun with creating your brand identity and colors as well.

And, and you mentioned colors a moment to go and we might come back to that if we have time as well, but. Colors El, one of the [00:11:00] common mistakes that newer entrepreneurs make is that when they're creating their brand and unique style and identity, they choose colors that they like themselves. But actually color is something that really needs to be considered very carefully.

Because there is a huge amount of psychology associated with color things like red can refer to romance and passion, but it can also be aggressive and inspiring fires and blue can be calming. And. You know, in fact, some of the, the world's most successful brands have the color blue in them. So maybe blue is one that people should consider in some way, but color is something that people often make a mistake of choosing colors that they like themselves, as opposed to considering what is the psychology of this color, because their clients may be aware of that.

 And just one, one point to go with that. If, if anybody's listening and they wanna dig into that a little bit deeper, you can just Google color [00:12:00] psychology and it'll come up with all sorts of different sites that have lists of the different colors and the reactions that they incite in people so that you can, you can see what that looks like, what blue, you know, what, what emotion that creates, what emotion purple creates.

And it's interesting, once you start reading it because. You then realize that you have very similar reactions, you know, purple is royalty and, and luxury. And then you realize all of the things that you've seen with purple that, that that have those same values. So that's just a little tip. If you wanna get a little bit deeper into that.

100% on the ball. Christie, totally agree with you. And it's a fantastic exercise for people to do if you are in those early stages of looking at your brand colors. And even if you're considering a rebrand down the line, you can do that, but there's different hues and tones that you can have of your colors as well to soften them up or to use them as accent colors.

Instead of having a bright red via primary color, it could. Soft [00:13:00] red in the background that you use for different elements or components of your brand as well. So the end part in the fun framework is about a newsworthy message. So if your message is not newsworthy well, nobody's gonna stop scrolling on social media to read it.

If your message is not newsworthy, if it's something about you and your brand. And, you know, I was trying to be succinct when you asked me what's my story, because people don't really wanna know what my story is. People really wanna know is what can she tell me about brand that's gonna help me in my business.

Right. So your story has to be about your ideal client and you have to speak in a tone that resonates with your ideal client. And that tone should be a friendly conversation on tone. Like the two of you are sitting across a table having a coffee, and you're just having a chat about what problems they have in their business.

That should be exactly how you write your copy. [00:14:00] It should be how you show up on videos. It should be how you show up on reels or Insta stories or anything else that you're doing. TikTok videos, you name it and having that message a newsworthy message. That's consistent. That has the same narrative all the way throughout any platform you're on any content that you show up in that newsworthy message will be something that people will sign up to and consistently want to learn more about.

So getting your story right about your business, which is actually about your clients, not about you. Getting that newsworthy message, right. Is a foundational and a core component of a comprehensive brand strategy. I love that. And, and people don't realize, and that's such a great point that. Your story, really, if it's going to, if it's gonna connect isn't about you.

I mean, even your about Paige, isn't, you're about you, Paige. Isn't really about you. It's about how you can [00:15:00] help them, how your story affects them. And if you look at it that way, it's, it's much easier to write it when you're getting started. It's about, so that's a great book. I love that. Yeah. And clients are like, oh my gosh, thank God.

I don't have to write something about Lee. I wouldn't know what to write. Like, my story is boring or whatever. And it's like, no, it's okay. You don't need to write about you. It's all about them. it's amazing. yeah. I love it. I love it. So fun. F U N. So give us the meaning again is foundational unique and.

Newsworthy newsworthy also handy if you wanna do some PR, because that's all about being newsworthy as well. So that's a great foundation for that. That's fantastic. I love that. So if that's what we should be doing, then, then let's the other side of it. What are some common mistakes that especially newer women entrepreneurs make when they're, you know, they're building this brand and building their business.

Oh, Christy the same ones. Keep cropping up over and over and over again. And you already mentioned them, you [00:16:00] know? Right. So logo and website, most entrepreneurs, not just female entrepreneurs, mind you most entrepreneurs. When they start out, they get a graphic designer. And a web designer potentially, or web developer, or they'll do it themselves.

They'll get a logo created. And from that logo, they'll take those colors and fonts and create a website. And they think that's it. I've got a brand I'm so proud of my lovely website. Doesn't it look pretty? And then, you know, nobody's visiting, they can't figure out why nobody's buying their programs, products, or services.

They can't figure out why. And it's because a website and a logo choosing colors that is not a brand that does not comprise of brand. The second mistake and I've already touched on, this is colors. They're choosing colors that they themselves like, as opposed to choosing colors that are appropriate for the type of message they're trying to create.

You know, an example [00:17:00] again, that I give of this is if I'm an undertaker. Okay. I'm not gonna have neon pink on my website, in my font, unless my target demographic are funky. People who love neon pink. And that is a specific target audience that I am pursuing because they're gonna be like, I don't care what happens to me after I pass away.

You need to use that undertaker for me. They know me. Okay. they feel me, they know my ran and that's such a great point. Cause unless you are your avatar and in many, many cases you aren't right. Unless you are your, you represent your target demographic, what you personally like really doesn't matter. It's all about what your avatar likes.

So. I love that. That's a great example too. Yeah. Right. Okay. And the third thing they make again, we've already touched on this. They make their brand story about [00:18:00] themselves. They go into years and years of spiel, about 75 years ago when their grandfather set up their business and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And people have just tuned out and lost interest after about three seconds because they don't care about that stuff. All they care about is what's in it for me. That's it, what's in it for me. I've got a problem. Can you solve it? How do you fix it? I don't believe because you're just talking about yourself.

Yeah. Yeah. And the difference here, because, you know, we talk about the value of telling your own story, but I think that the key is that your, again, your story, your story is only effective. If it's a bridge to possibility for them, if they can see themselves in your story. So even though it's your story again, still about them.

So I think people get confused, right? Cuz they say, well, they tell me they need to tell my story and yeah, yeah, yeah, you do. But you always have to tell it with an eye to. How it's going to help your, your avatar, right? Yeah. So there is a fine line between [00:19:00] telling your backstory and how you can demonstrate empathy, authority, and expertise.

So that people believe you to be credible so that people believe that you can get them from where they are now to where they want to get to. There's a fine line. So an exercise that I regularly tell clients to do is go back and look at content you've created before you post it. Go back and look. At emails you've written to your, for your nurture sequences, your website, wherever you've generated or created content and look at all the places you've written.

I, my, we, our boss. And how can you rephrase that sentence? So you're telling your story, but you're saying, has this ever happened to you? We've been in that situation, so you say we would, or I've been there once. And so you're setting a scene almost, but it's a scene. Yes. You've been in and it's your story.

And you're sharing that, but in a way that [00:20:00] it's about that, does this sound familiar to. You're sitting at your desk, you know, you need to write a blog post, you've got writer's block. You don't know where to start. That's exactly what happens me every week when I sit down and I need to start creating my content.

So instead of I, I, I II my, my, my, my it's all about you. Your does this sound like you? And that is so much more effective when you're talking about stories, cuz and stories are so important in those messages as well, Christie, because. When you create a story, people can visualize and picture themselves in that story.

And I could talk about story all day, right? Because that's part of what I do, but let me just ex explain or elaborate on this a little bit more, because I love, I love what you said there about, you know, PE we do encourage people to talk about their backstory. And stories really resonate with people. And here's an example of, you know, [00:21:00] how you can prove that stories resonate with people.

Why do people go to the cinema? They go to the cinema to watch a new movie and hear what the story is about. And whilst they're in the cinema for two hours, 90 minutes, two hours, whatever they're totally transformed. They are captivated by. The hero of the story, a potential villain in the story, the obstacle that's cropped up that the hero must overcome that if the hero doesn't overcome this obstacle and get to the end what's going to happen is.

It's going to end in failure and that failure can't happen because if that failure happens too early in the story, well, everybody will leave the cinema so it's the only time it's 90 minutes or two hours, and people are captivated and it irrespective of what culture they. Or [00:22:00] where they're from or what their beliefs are.

People are captivated by stories. Okay. You can take your phone out in cinema, but they're still captivated regardless. And so when you use storytelling and you're messaging and you, you talk about your clients as though they're your hero. You talk about the problems and the obstacles that crop up, maybe their pains, their irritations, their frustrations, their challenges, whatever it might be, they're thinking.

Oh, my gosh, Christy really knows me. She's talking about all of the things that are happening in my life and it seems like she gets me. Maybe it's happened to her and she's further along now. How did she overcome those? So that it's ended in success for her and she's gotten her happily ever after. Yeah, I want that.

Yeah. It's that, it's that bridge between where they are and, and where they, they can be where you wanna take them. Yeah. So if we've got the strategy and we're avoiding those mistakes, hopefully let's, let's condense it right down [00:23:00] to the, Most critical steps. What is the best way again, for, for newer women entrepreneurs to grow their business then quickly and easily.

I think I know the answer to this. It's gonna be a brand, right. it's gonna be a brand, but there's so much more to it. Right, right. And it does come quickly and easily, but only after you do these things. Okay. Okay. Number one thing is you need to know your. Okay, because you can build a brand that's fabulous and pretty and nice, and it tells a lovely story.

But if it's telling the story to the wrong people or speaking about the wrong problems, well, then nobody's gonna listen. So you need to know your audience. And that means researching having conversations with them and gathering qualitative data about the challenges that they're facing, what their aspirations are, who are they now, who do they wanna become?

And that before and after, so you can write compelling stories about it. So know your audience, that's the first thing. And [00:24:00] a, again, it can be asked them simple things like what would stop you from buying, whatever it is that you offer. Then you're learning about what their fears are. You're learning about why they might not go ahead with you.

And those are things you can speak to in your messaging so that you've already allayed their fears. So knowing your audience and I, I would just talk about that part for the whole show Christy, because. And I think, you know, new, newer entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs that have been around for, a decade, if you're having trouble, if you're not making the sales, if your marketing isn't landing, this is probably where you miss the mark, you, you, you don't have the right audience.

You haven't done your research. And I think, you know, when we start out too, we feel like. We we know who we're selling to. We, we do a lot of this guesswork and we kind of skip the actual research of the, you know, speaking to the demographic and, and pulling those numbers and looking at the competitors and what their demographic looks like.

And, and it causes so much trouble down the road. Yeah, [00:25:00] and I mean, there's fantastic resources that you can use for free as well. Like SSOs there in Canada, they do incredible market research where you can go on, read their insights and gather data that way about a particular segment or cohort of people potentially.

So that might give you quantitative data, but qualitative data is really about diving in under the hood. With prospects who potentially may buy from you. And, you know, it's interesting because I actually spoke to somebody about this last week and I was asking questions about this. And one of the things that I was trying to, to comprehend for people that, that we were training at the time was.

When is it important to do this? Not just when you are a new entrepreneur, it's important to do this when you are building something new, when the journey is ongoing with the client and you have active people [00:26:00] using your program, product or service. And then also if they leave, are they finished using your program, product or service?

Why? So it's important to do. And know your audience know what's going on. What's happening with them before, during and after. And right now the world is it's topsy turvy. Okay. And we need to understand what are our people feeling right now, and perhaps their challenges have changed. And so now is a good time to be asking people as well, you know, what's happening?

What are your challenges? What are your pain points? What irritates you now? Things have changed so much in the last two years. So for anybody listening, who hasn't done, you know, market research or gathered customer insights now is the time to do it. So that's one of the first things I'd say. So it's, it's quick and easy.

Once you've done the research and that research start, start there. The second thing is to create a brand and marketing playbook Christi, because when you have that, [00:27:00] you have your fun, comprehensive brand strategy and that full strategy can keep you or your team or your VA or whoever aligned so that you don't deviate from.

Your foundation's your unique style and identity and your newsworthy message. It keeps your brand and marketing on track. So create a playbook. You can get them for free on canvas. You can find them in loads of different places. You can hire brand strategist or marketing strategist to do it with you.

Create the playbook. It is such a worthwhile exercise and that will last you for years until you rebrand, refresh or come up with a new program, product or service for a totally different market. So the third thing to consider is how your brand will differentiate from others. is it going to. A luxury brand or the cheapest brand in the market, the most advanced in terms of technology, the most innovative, [00:28:00] the, you know, the most, what, how are you gonna be different from people who are just like you?

So consider that and consider how you want to make people feel when they engage with you. What do you want your reputation to be? So I think putting some thought into. And then making that happen through the experiences you create is really important. That will help you grow ly because you'll be different.

The fourth thing is about building brand credibility, authority, and expertise. And one way that you, you can do that. And why it's important to do that is that positions you as a guide to the hero of your story, who is your ideal client and in any story. Heroes need guides to help them get from where they are, to where they wanna be.

And so when they have a guide, it's somebody who hold their hand and that they can trust. So how do you build this brand credibility, [00:29:00] authority, and expertise? It's by working with people and getting results it's by showing up consistently and having brand awareness. Cause people go, oh yes, she has an established brand.

It can be getting something published. It can be. Hiring a publicist, if you can't, you know, if, if you can't get into a publication, for example, you know, if, if I saw that Christie was featured in Forbes magazine, I'd be like, Hey Christy, that's incredible. Oh my gosh. How did you get there? Your brand must be amazing.

I completely trust you if you've been in Forbes. Right? So it's the trust that, that credibility can create. The fifth thing is that you make your story and your content newsworthy and notable. So we've already talked about that. The sixth thing is aim to add value. Okay. When you're branding and marketing, if your brand is consistently showing up with a message that says buy from me now, buy from me now, buy [00:30:00] from me now, buy from me now everybody's gotta be so repelled.

By your buy from me now message that they won't want to even follow or engage with. So instead aim to add value because value creates reciprocity. And when you add value and people are so thankful for the three thing that you gave them and do not on this value. Let me add when you give incredible value.

For free people will think, oh my gosh, that was amazing. I can't believe I got that for free, but you know what? I still need a guide to help me do it. It's like if I go to the salon and I get my hair blow dried, it's so much better than when I do it myself. So we need a guide. We need someone like the people who work in this island to give us those blow drys.

It's the same for your program, product or service. So add value and the final thing. Be consistent and [00:31:00] persistent with everything, with everything. And when I say everything, I mean every one thing, Christie, and let me be clear on that. One message. One identity, one program, product, or service. You show up on one platform for one target audience.

So be consistent and persistent with that one thing when you start out, because if you're focused so focused in that one thing for these one group of people in this one location, you're a message is just gonna jump off the screen. It's gonna jump off the page and you know, you will stop people scrolling.

So. There's a lot there. I know, but doing these things will absolutely help grow quick and easy. Those are the last one there makes me laugh because I think for so many of us, as entrepreneurs, we tend to have that shiny object [00:32:00] syndrome and the blinders you've gotta put the blinders on when you're starting out.

Right. You've gotta really focus and, and you tend to, we get a little We get discouraged if things aren't going the way we think. And then we think, well maybe if we try that and maybe if we try that and if you try all the things not none of the things end up being successful. So that's amazing advice.

All of those I think, are, are really the keys to success in. In any stage of the business and certainly when you're starting out. And what I love about that as well is that if you're in a crowded market and if you are, you've got a lot of competitors out there. If you nail those, you know, especially figuring out your unique difference and, and you know how to stand out in your competitors and, and creating that authority and your marketplace, those are the things that suddenly wipe away all your competition and you're standing alone, which I think is, is really fantastic.

So thank you for that. That's amazing. So before we wrap up, we've got a couple of minutes left and before we wrap up, I just wanted to ask you a question I love to ask when we have the time, which is [00:33:00] what is your best piece of advice for a woman that's just starting out on her entrepreneurial journey and it could be to do with, with the branding.

It could be just some advice that you received over the years. That's really resonated. What can you share with us? You know, I actually heard this same quote last week and. Stuck with me. But it was when I heard, when I started out. Right. If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you want to go far. Go with others or go with manly.

Don't ask me to coach you for a bat, but you need a guide when you are an entrepreneur, you need a guide. If you're a new entrepreneur, you need a guide. That was why. When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I hired a business coach. I knew I couldn't do this on my, on my own. All those shiny object things.

I completely suffered from the same syndrome. Christie. I needed my coach to pull me back and say, hang on there, here. No, come back. What was your one thing? And if I didn't have that, I don't know where I'd be [00:34:00] right now. So I think, yes, you, you can go fast if you go alone, but you can go so much further if you have others and you need a team of support.

If you, as you said, you know, when we get that shiny object syndrome or we try all of the things and they don't work, it feels like failure and your brand and your business can feel like your baby. And it feels like, oh, my baby is just not as perfect as I thought it was. Or, and we take that as a form of rejection.

It feels so personal and that can reim impact your confidence. And so you need somebody in your corner to support you and say, it's okay. These things are normal. You tried it for what, two weeks. And it didn't work. It's OK. , you know, give it six months, give it three months. Give it however long you need somebody.

Who's. Gone the path before you, you need somebody who's tried and tested similar methods who can [00:35:00] help and support you. You need somebody who can help you find the way to get there faster and easier. You need a sounding board. So to go far, you need others. That is the best piece of advice I got and I stand by it today.

Always be coached, always have somebody in your corner. Yeah, you need a team and we're, you know, you're not, nobody is good at all the things. And when you start out, you're responsible for all the things. So if you are not good at, you know, bookkeeping, you need a bookkeeper, or if you can't afford help, maybe, maybe you can't afford a coach.

You find a mentor, you find somebody in your industry. That's done it before. That's willing to, to help, but everybody needs a team. I think that's. A hard lesson. I learned too a couple of times along the way, because I like to do things myself, but it, it, you can't, you need, you need a team, you need a support, you need a network, you need to you need to figure that out.

 Just to add to that Christie, you know, the one thing for me was that I wanted to stay married to my husband. And I did not want to be having conversations [00:36:00] about my business around the dinner table when I started out, because he has run his own business before, but it was a long time ago.

And the challenges he faced in his business are very different to the challenges I faced in mine. And I didn't want my business or entrepreneurial journey. To seep into my home life, because my view has always been when I worked in the bank, you leave work at work and you leave home at home. And so I needed somebody external, who I could speak to.

And I have other people, I have people who are entrepreneurs as well, who I have a very trusting relationship with that I can openly say, oh my gosh, I had the worst day this happened, you know, I created a post, somebody unfollowed me and I'm like, oh, you. Whatever might have happened. You just need somebody who understands.

And that can be again, it can be a sounding board. It can be somebody like, like you, Christie, [00:37:00] who says, if you don't know how to do your books, you need a bookkeeper. Here's why, if you don't a, B or C could happen. So you do need a sounding board. 100%. Yeah, love that. And if you wanna stay married, I envy your balance.

You sounds like you've got a really good, a really, really clear boundaries, which I do not have. So I think we might need to talk about that later, where you can gimme some notes. so you've got some really great Resources available for our listeners. You've got a couple of great resources. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

And I'm gonna put the links in the show notes for everybody. So you don't have to try and scribble these down, but I'd love for you to explain what they are because they're really fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. So there's two, two key resources that I've shared with you. So one is how strong is your brand?

So it's a quiz. If you've already set up your brand and you're just kind of thinking, Hmm, I think I'm maybe still a rookie at this whole branding stuff. Well, this quiz is gonna help you [00:38:00] identify exactly where you're at and it's going to give you three pointers as to what you need to do next. So you can go from a rookie to a pro or if your, if your brand is thriving, it's gonna help you get to a pro.

So it's just gonna identify for you exactly where you're at right now. Or if there are things you need to work at in relation to your brand. So that's the first one. And the second one is story brand marketing assessment, because I am a story brand certified guide. Part of my entrepreneurial journey is helping business owners with customer experience.

And my mantra has always been for that about making the customer, the hero of everything that you do in your. Because if everything you create is about your ideal customer and what they want and what they need, well, your business is gonna survive. And pride. Right? So when I started in my business, [00:39:00] I read the book, building a story brand by Donald Miller and the book I was captivated.

It's a seven part framework that helps you clarify your message. So your customers will listen. And I thought, oh my gosh, I have to share this with my clients. And so I went off to Nashville virtually during COVID and I got my certification. And this assessment, when you do it, it's so comprehensive. It gives you like a 50 page report that breaks down for you.

How effective your marketing is. Everything from your messaging to how effective your website is to sales funnels that you've created even proposals that you might be putting out and whether or not you're getting. Positive responses from what you're putting out into the world. So it is incredibly detailed and customized based on how you complete it.

So it is an incredible resource to [00:40:00] have. I'm so lucky to be part of the story around community, to be able to share that with you, Christie. Yeah. It's, it's amazing. I, I actually did it last night and I thought, oh, this is, it's quite a few questions to get you through it because it is customized. Right. And about halfway through, I was like, okay, this is a lot of questions.

and then I got to the end and I got the report and you're right. It was like 52 pages. I think it was just amazingly detailed. So it's well worth the, you know, the five, 10 minutes that it takes to, to fill it out, the information that you get out of it. So we're gonna put that link in the. In the show notes.

And if you're watching on a platform or watching, if you're listening on a platform where you can't see the show notes, you can always go over to one step empire.com. That's the podcast website and the show notes and all the episodes and all the good things are gonna be there as well. And tell us a little bit, cause we didn't really talk about it.

What are you, what are you doing now with your clients? What if people wanna get in touch with you? What kind of services are you offering? How can you. Personally. So I've got two frameworks that I use to help clients. So I help them [00:41:00] with creating their own unique, fun framework. So I do that through a brand and marketing playbook.

So we use the fun framework to create their brand and marketing playbook. So that's one component. And then the other element is where it's, it's mentoring really around all. Stages of a customer journey, which starts from creating that brand. So people have a sensation or a feeling when they engage with you, it's mentoring around marketing strategy.

What is your strategy for marketing? How can you build that brand awareness? It's the sales, helping people have those really effective sales conversations. So more people say. It's creating customer journeys that customers absolutely love and wanna bring from the rooftops about you. And then it's about what are the skills that you need to keep getting up and doing this every single day and building your brand in your business.

So there's quite a lot in there. It's my five, it's my five stack process to building brands that stand out. [00:42:00] So those are the, the two services that I'm offering. Right. So important and it's so hard to step back from your own branding and to step back from your, you know, when you're creating your buyer personas and your ideal avatars and all of those things.

I even when I do mine and I teach people how to do theirs, but when I do mine, I have to get people to come in and help me because it's so hard to step back from that in your own business. So really important to get help like that. often we're like the Cobbs with no shoes, Christy.

It's so frustrating though, because I'm like, I show people how to do this. Why can I not do this for myself? But I do. All right. But as soon as I get someone else to come in and have a look at it and it's like, oh, hang on, you gotta step back from this. And take a different perspective. It's it's really, really useful.

So really important to get that, that coach or that mentor in there, or get teacher in there to help you. Because she's an expert. So we're gonna put those links in the show notes for you. And I, I highly recommend that you go in, you check out that story brand marketing report because it's, it's gonna make a massive difference in your business.

So take advantage of that. It's free and it's such a great [00:43:00] resource. So I just wanted to say, thank you. Thank you so much for being with us today, Deidre. I really appreciate your time and your expertise, and really these are fantastic tips that are gonna help a lot of people. Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.