EPS 407 - The Secret to Brand Growth that no one is talking about (video)

[00:00:00] What a cult. And industry leading brands doing that you can do as well. Today I'm excited to talk about incremental innovation. It's something that I read about a long time ago when I was reading Blue Ocean Strategy. If you don't know the book, make sure you check it out.

And recently I started listening to a book called, there's Nothing like This, the Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift. Now we talk about Taylor Swift and you talk about branding and you have got me in a joyful moment. One of the things they talked about in this book as well was incremental innovation.

So I knew I wanted to share this with you. I think that it's a really important in 2025, it's not about making big moves. It's actually about taking a look at what you are doing and asking yourself, how can I be more innovative in this moment? Are there small tweaks? Are there changes that I could make ?

And it's those quiet power moves that can make the biggest difference in your business.

And as somebody [00:01:00] that has been in the brand arena for a long time, one of the things I used to do was take a look at other industries outside of the clients we were working with to get inspiration because it's easy to get bogged down when you're just looking at your industry, other people who are doing what you are doing.

The truth is, we wanna be different, right? So why not look at other brands that are doing things really well and it's really about looking?

And so that's what I wanna talk about. Why the smartest brands, the smartest women in business, are winning with incremental innovation and not huge radical pivots.

If we've not met, I'm Sue Chadwick, a personal brand and business coach. I also run Bold Vibes Consulting, which is a brand growth.

I also run Bold Vibes, which is a brand growth consulting business that supports women in business to grow their business, grow their brands, and also create custom AI tools that they can use in their business for that brand growth.

So let's talk about why innovating matters. I feel like it matters all the time, but I feel like it matters even more now because the world is so much noisier. [00:02:00] AI is making everything faster, cheaper, easier. So the question is what is gonna differentiate you and really understanding what differentiates you matters so much today.

Like my question is, can you answer that? Do you know why you are different? Is it your story that makes you different? Is it your experience that makes you different? What exactly is your differentiator in a crowded market?

And the truth is, as I'm sure you already know, that your edge is gonna come from how you think, how you adapt to the market right now, and also how you evolve your brand

in your space.

the reason that we wanna be innovating, as I mentioned, the book, blue Ocean Strategy.

Talks about instead of fighting for space in a saturated market, which is Red Oceans,. It's about trying to innovate so that you can create new markets, new opportunities, which is a blue ocean.

And you don't have to disrupt the whole world. This doesn't, as we said, need to be massive, but it is about really looking at what are people not doing in [00:03:00] your space that you think they should be doing? Where are the opportunities? Where are the gaps and how can you get there quickly or first?

I love in Blue Ocean strategy where it talks about value innovation is actually about making the competition irrelevant. They use a really great example of Cirque dis Solay. So obviously you've got the circus market. Historically it's been sought us on the floor, old tents, cheap tickets, animals. But when Cirque de Soleil came in, they went into a blue ocean where they were not competing with what we know historically circuses to be. They created a high-end experience. Their ticket prices were a lot more, and they didn't use animals in their act, but it was a very premium act with highly skilled performers. And so they weren't competing against the old circus model. They were creating a new model for themselves.

And I think the more that we can see examples of this, it can really help us to think about what that could look like. Now, I [00:04:00] think that Taylor Swift has done that for herself. She stands head and shoulders above others. Her record breaking tours, the way that she's made decisions about the way she manages her brand and really it is a business and she's done it in a really interesting way.

I.

So what are incremental innovation shifts that you could potentially think about? They're not huge groundbreaking changes, but it's more about consistency, layering improvements that make your, offers, your content, your client experience, and your brand. Stand out.

Even thinking about Taylor Swift Rerecording all of her music, it wasn't about doing something new. It was about her claiming her power back and that power shift in the music industry where she was able to own it.

Even with AI coming in, it's how businesses are using it, how they're starting to build teams behind them that are able to do more. They don't always have to be huge shifts, but it can be things that you're starting to incrementally take off your plate that's helping you to [00:05:00] automate, get more time back so that you can be focusing on your zone of genius and the things that you really wanna do better in your business.

And I think when you're looking to create that incremental innovation in your business, there are three things that I think are really important and it does fit with my scalable impact flywheel and method the first thing is your brand. So really keep refining your brand assets, your positioning.

Your power offers. Like even now in my business, I'm looking at the next iteration where are my clients coming? What do I really wanna focus on? What's gonna streamline the business and make it easier for clients to work with me? We're looking to merge our two main programs into one and elevate the branding.

Redo some of the content and create custom AI tools that help our clients get better results faster. And so just looking at your business and thinking about what do I want this to look like moving forward? I was working with my mastermind clients this [00:06:00] morning, and we were talking about where do you wanna be in 12 months time?

What kind of business do you wanna have? What community do you wanna build? What culture do you wanna create? Who do you wanna be as a leader in your business? And really taking a look at where you are now and where you wanna be and what your strategy is to be able to get there, is something we should be doing every single year.

Really looking at what we're trying to achieve. And so by doing that, you are looking at how you are refining your brand. Does my brand still align with where I'm going? Do we need to elevate it? Do we need to. Evolve our brand authority in order to continue to grow in the market, become more visible, become more respected, become more known.

When you're looking at how you build demand for what it is that you do, I think that it's so important for this to be innovative because It's so easy to look at what everybody else is doing and just do what they do. But the question is, does that work for you? Have you tested different ways of building demand in your business, attracting the clients that you want? Using things like AI

[00:07:00] becoming a really great content creator. And building a repeatable sales system can help you build a consistent brand.

One of the things I was saying to a client is that whether you like it or not, in 2025 and beyond, you do have to become a great content creator because it's part and parcel of how you grow your business, your brand, become known, build demand, and attract clients.

And so really finding your joy. With your content creation and testing and trying different things, doesn't have to be massive. It can be testing and tweaking and finding what you love, what works for you, so that you can use that to grow your business and brand.

And the third element is around delivery. So improving your delivery to create really rave worthy client experiences.

And each time you look at that, like whether it's building your brand, building demand, which is sales building delivery for client results, I just think these are the three most important things, which is why, that's what I work with clients on, is that every time you go through this, you [00:08:00] wanna have that incremental innovation.

How are we doing this better?

How are we making this better? And the formula's really around visibility systems and client results. That's how you get the scalable impact.

And obviously you don't have to do things overnight, but you do need to keep building that momentum. Organizations that look at, what's working and what's not working, how can we be better? What else could we do? They're the ones that stay ahead when you rest on your laurels and you keep your business the same and you don't change anything, you don't test anything, you don't innovate.

It is so easy to get left behind right now because of this pace at which the market is moving.

And so, as I said, this is something I'm working through in my business at the moment that I think is really worthwhile. Where do I wanna be in 12 months what are the things I wanna change? How can I make my client experience better?

Are there tools that I could be using right now that can help me. Be more efficient and effective coming up with new ideas,

becoming a great content creator because [00:09:00] as I said, it's not a nice to have anymore. It's absolutely part and parcel of being a business owner.

And it's really looking at what you've got and what you wanna evolve it into.

So when we can think ahead, when we can forward plan. And we can ask ourselves the question, and I think this is one of the most important things, are you asking yourself the question, how can I innovate? How am I being innovative? Am I doing anything different?

Am I just copying what other people are doing or am I doing new things? How can I make this 10% better? What would surprise and delight my clients?

What am I tolerating that's actually holding me back from going to the next level? That is a big one,

and my friend, you don't need a revolution. You just need consistent, visible evolution. How good's that.

So I would love you to send me a dm, drop a comment, let me know what is it that you wanna improve in your business? What is it that you can see an opportunity for? And if you're stuck and you're not [00:10:00] sure, then also let me know because as I was saying last week with Chris Doe on the podcast, it's really hard to read the label when you're inside the jar.

Even one of my clients gave me a great idea today, when you're in your own business, it's important to be intentional about the way you improve things, otherwise, you'll stay in your safe zone

without creating the impact that I so know that you really wanna make.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you subscribe and share it. If you've got any questions, let me know, let's start incrementally innovating in our business so we can build the brands, the revenue, and work with incredible clients that we really want to see.