Suz Chadwick [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the Brand Builders Lab Podcast. I'm your host, Sue Chadwick, certified business and mindset coach, author, and speaker. Each week, we'll be talking about simple but powerful business and mindset strategies that will help you build a lean, clean, and profitable business so you can learn to get out of your own way pay and pay yourself more. Forget average. It's time to level up. Hey, Lovely. Welcome back to the Ram Builders Lab Podcast. Awesome to have you here.

Suz Chadwick [00:00:30]:
We are continuing our journey of being fearless content creators, building a fearless personal brand that we absolutely love creating and that our community, our audience, our followers are here for. And today, I wanna talk about all the elements that I'm seeing when it comes to building a brand right now and things that you may not be thinking about that you need to think about. So I'm excited to share this episode with you. The video will be available as well because I am getting better at it. I'm trying to get better at it. Yeah? But listen. Before we dive in, I just wanna remind you that the applications to the Amplify Mastermind. If you wanna build a fearless personal brand this year and you are a coach, consultant, service provider, and you are ready to really step up and be visible and be known for your thought leadership and monetize that as well in different ways that could be new to you or that you just kind of wanna expand and amplify.

Suz Chadwick [00:01:33]:
Funny that. Then now is the time to apply. Head to sue'schatwick.comforward/ Amplify and come and apply today. Applications close on the 2nd February, so get in while you can. So let's talk about what it takes to build a fearless personal brand. There are a couple of things that I wanna share with you that I feel, you know, have been around for a while, but we just need to think about them in new ways. So one of the reasons that I wanted to share this is because my mindset, as I've shared with you, has really shifted. And with that, my energy has shifted as well.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:16]:
And I've had quite a few clients that have said to me, your energy is what I'm here for. Like, I want some of that. And you've gotta remember that your brand is your reputation. And we've got, like, external reputation and our own internal reputation. And what I mean by that is, you know, you've got your reputation where people are talking about you in rooms that you're not in. They might refer you. They might mention you. They might share your podcast, those sorts of things.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:44]:
They might say, you know, you've gotta listen to this, or have you heard of? And so that's your external reputation. But then I also want you to think about how people feel about you because you gotta remember that your brand is the emotional connection that you have with people. And so what are people saying to themselves about you, and do you know what that is? Now I know that might sound really bizarre, but I have this conversation when I'm on a discovery call, when I am working with a client. I ask them at some point in time, what was it that drew you to me? Like, number 1, how did you find out about me? Because you should always know the source of your clients. I feel like that comes from my recruitment days. We used to have source of hire, which is basically like, where did where did this candidate come from? How do we know where they came from so that we can decide what we're using when we market for, you know, jobs, etcetera. And I've carried that through into my business as well, where every time somebody buys, it asks them the question, where did you hear about me? And it could be from a person. It could be from social media, from the podcast, from PR, and so really understanding that.

Suz Chadwick [00:03:59]:
And so this falls under reputation. Like, where are people connecting with you? And not just where, but why. Why are they connecting with you? I had a client yesterday, one of my beautiful new clients, say to me she said at the end of our coaching call, she said, you know something, this has been such an amazing experience. I wanna say this 2 You For You, which I thought was really lovely. She said I've been, like, in other coaching containers, and this just feels so great. It's exactly what I want. It's a personalization. I feel like you you can really help me in these particular areas, and I really love the energy of our, like, of our calls and what we're doing.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:43]:
And those are the things that you've gotta take notice of. Those are the things that you need to here and think about how can I bring more of what I do that my clients are loving, that my community is loving to what I'm doing? And so right now, when it comes to reputation and building that connection, then I am having fun with it. I am bringing as much of my energy as I can. I am bringing that fearless energy to what I'm creating right now. And I want you to think about what are you doing to understand why your clients are either working with you. And it's not I'm not just talking about, oh, well, you've got the experience. It's great that you've got the experience. But this comes back to there could be 10 designers in a room, but there's only 1 that I wanna work with.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:38]:
And it could be, yes, their skill, but it could also being, like, who they are, their personality, their energy, their values, the way that they talk about things. And so you've gotta know why your clients are buying from you. Because if you can start to understand that at a much deeper level, then you can use that to attract more of those clients. I always say, ask your best clients. Like, the clients where you're like, if I could have a 100 of you, I would be so happy. My business would be booming, and I would be working with the exact type of person that I want to be working with. And so if you can understand not just, you know, why they hired you for your skill, but what else about you really resonated for them. Then, potentially, you can start to use that and talk about that in your brand and building it in your brand, in your marketing so that you attract more people who want your energy, who want the things that you talk about, who want that values alignment as well.

Suz Chadwick [00:06:43]:
So think about how am I not only building my reputation out there and also saying to my community, if you enjoy my content, if you enjoy this podcast, I say it to you, please share it. I would love you to share it with your community. I would love you to tell a friend about it because that helps me to build my reputation in the market, and that helps me to get my message out there that, yes, you can have a feeler's personal brand. You can have a brand that connects on an emotional level with your audience. You can have a reputation that precedes you, yeah, where you are known for what it is you wanna be known for, not just skill based, but energy level values based as well. And so how are you intentionally building your reputation in the market, and also how are you building that internal connection with the people who love you, but you can only do that by understanding what it is about you that they're really connecting to. The next thing is repetition, and I feel like we've spoken about this in, you know, previous episodes, but my thinking right now is literally I just did a 7 second video of myself. I put it on my dining table, which was a couple of meters away from my kitchen, and and I was just making coffee and having breakfast.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:05]:
And I just recorded myself for 7 seconds, and then I shared a couple of brand tips. Yeah? And I just think repetition right now, you've gotta remember that we don't remember whether we see somebody in person or we see them online. You've gotta remember that there is a lot going on right now. And so if you can find a really fast, easy, like, frictionless way to show up on the regular so that there is repetition of your brand and people are seeing you often, then that can make a really big difference. But don't overthink it. Don't overcomplicate it. Don't overengineer it. Literally recorded myself for 7 seconds, not even looking at the camera, just making my coffee and having my breakfast.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:57]:
Like like, I just think once again, what is happening in the like, it right now. What is happening in social media and marketing right now? What can we capitalize on that is easy for us to do that doesn't take a lot of effort, that can actually get us in front of more eyeballs, that can get us in front of the clients that we want, that can help us share our message. I'm also having a lot of fun with creating content that is very kind of in your face. I don't care. Let's have some fun with this, like, attitude based, and I'm loving it. So when I hear an audio that's a little sassy, I'm using it, and it could just be, once again, a really short video. But this is where you've gotta think about, how am I building my reputation, how am I having the repetition, but also what kind of content am I sharing when I'm having that repetition. So I might, you know, have something that's something really simple, where I'm sharing a couple of insights into how to build a brand, and then having something that's really sassy, that shows my energy and what I think and helps my audience have a little bit of a laugh, but connect with me because you know that I love talking about having more fun in your business, having more fun as you're building your brand.

Suz Chadwick [00:10:18]:
And so how are you kind of wrapping all those different types of things up into the way that you're communicating with your audience. And this could be on an email. It could be in your socials. It could be if you're writing being a blog. It could be if you're doing a video. Like, we're not just talking about 1 form or 1 medium here. Like, there's different ways that you can do it. It.

Suz Chadwick [00:10:39]:
And, also, when it comes to repetition, I think I've shared this with you before, and I was working on it this morning, is we've got our Airtable. You could use a Google Doc more a Google Sheet for this. But where we go and we put all of our captions into an Airtable spreadsheet so that we can take what we've written before and use it across the board. So I could use it on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on TikTok. I could write a blog post on it. I could share it, you know, to my email list. I could talk about it on a live, and so or talk about it on the podcast. And so really thinking about, you know, where you're getting your repetition in because you might have people that have signed up for your email list.

Suz Chadwick [00:11:22]:
Maybe they follow you on socials as well. They listen to the podcast. And so if I'm talking about brand building and build building a fearless personal brand in 2024. I'm gonna talk about it on the podcast. I'm gonna email my list about it. I'm gonna talk about it on socials, and that repetition builds brand. That repetition builds reputation. And I think we've just gotta understand the mechanics of why we wanna build a brand.

Suz Chadwick [00:11:49]:
Because if you build a brand that connects with people where they love you, where they wanna work with you, you don't have to market as much. They will go and seek out how to work with you if your brand is connecting with them. If you're like, oh my gosh. You're my person. Let me go and see how I can work with you. Then you don't need to sell as hard if you're building a brand that is magnetizing your audience. That's what the 2nd book is all about. So that's something I want you to think about.

Suz Chadwick [00:12:18]:
How am I building the repetition that builds my reputation, that helps me to magnetize my audience so that they are the ones who are seeking out how to work with me, Because they're just like, I am all in on you. And if you haven't sat down and thought about it, this that's one of the core things that I really want to get you thinking about from this episode. I love that you listen to the podcast, and I know that so many of you take action. But if you listen to the podcast and you're not implementing the things that I'm sharing with you, that is a little call to action in this episode that I really want to, I guess, you know, get you to do is to think about how am I building my reputation, how am I understanding where clients are coming from, how am I understanding why they buy from me, you know, am I looking at the different types of content that I'm sharing that really show my personality, that share my values, that share some value with my clients, the help me connect, and am I doing that on the regular so that they're seeing me often, and they're like, I'm front of mind for them. And that's one of the reasons for repetition. It's not just for the sake of it. Repetition is there so that you stay front of mind, so that it's an easy recall for people. So reputation, repetition, and recall are 3 core elements or attributes of a strong brand.

Suz Chadwick [00:13:44]:
So if I see you often, then when somebody says, oh, are you looking you know, I'm looking for a business coach, you're one of the first people that they think about pause your front of mind for them. So really think about how you're doing it in a strategic way that works for you and that you can actually measure what's working and what's not working, and also, hopefully, having fun, seeing the fruits of that, playing with different types of content that you're sharing as well. And the third thing that I think is really important when it comes to building that Fearless personal brand, and a brand that really stands out is brand story. And I wanna give you a couple of different elements to brand story because I'm working with a lot of clients on this at the moment. We're kind of diving quite deep into brand story right now, and there's a couple of different stories that you can use in your business. The first one is your origin story. So your origin story is obviously how you got to where you are. And so when I'm on a podcast, people will be like, so literally, how did you get to where you are? And I share with them my story, which is all about how I started.

Suz Chadwick [00:14:55]:
You know, I was a debater when I was 16. I ended up going to London with work. I was a recruiter. I ended up as a HR director. I was then working at Deloitte for a long time as their head of recruitment for consulting, and that was my first taste working with a brand agency and all the things that we did, and then, like, what my story was from there and how I ended up starting my business kind of by by helping a girlfriend to build her business as strategy, and it was something that came really naturally to me. So what I do with my clients is they tell me their whole story, And then I pinpoint different elements of their story that I feel are really strong elements of their story that help to kind of share where they are now and why what they do now has come about and how it's kind of an obvious thing based on what they've done in the past or, you know, what they've wanted to do as well. So your origin story is something to craft, and, also, your origin story should be able to be broken down. And so what I mean by that is, let's say I'm talking about becoming a really confident speaker.

Suz Chadwick [00:16:08]:
There are different points and different substories in my main story that I would pull out that I would use to emphasize that particular point. So you've got your origin story, and then you've got your sub stories according to, I would almost say, content pillars. You know, the themes that you talk about. I talk about personal branding, business strategy, money, profitability, systems, Trae, and so there'll be different things within my story I can pull out that are specific to those themes. The other story that you've got is your story now. So what are common things that are happening now with you and your clients where you could be telling those stories? So I'm gonna be starting a series on, client lessons and client stories. And it's not gonna be naming anybody, but it's gonna be sharing lessons that I've learned and lessons that you can learn from conversations that I've had with clients where I just think, wow. Like, that I think that could be really help somebody else.

Suz Chadwick [00:17:07]:
And so those are stories that I'm now thinking about, gathering, that I will use as content because I think that if one of my clients is struggling with it, there's probably a lot of people that are struggling with that particular thing. So think about what stories you could share data from now that can help you to really connect with your audience and help them to relate to you and you know, so that they understand that you get it as well. And then, obviously, you know that I talk about story selling all the time, seeding and story selling. So I could say you know, I could be talking about personal branding, and then I'll say, you know, one of the things I'm working on with one of my Amplify Mastermind clients at the moment is really taking a look at her brand story, how she's sharing it on the regular, you know, as part of just connecting with her audience through the content she's creating, whether it's on Instagram or through newsletter, and I could talk to you about that. And so whilst I'm sharing something with you. I'm also telling you about the Amplify Mastermind and some of the things that we do. And so you've kind of got different stories, brand stories that you can implement and use within your business as well. And when you do that in a way that is casual and connected, and it becomes something that kind of is quite fluid for you.

Suz Chadwick [00:18:34]:
It connects on such a deep level because then people come back because they know that you tell great stories, because they know that you're sharing things that they're gonna learn from, or you're telling them about successes that your clients have had in a really fun way without it being salesy. Yeah. So really think about how are you sharing your brand story. And the other thing I wanna say is that you don't just share it once and you're done. You share different elements of it on an ongoing basis because you've always got new people that are coming to you and who are finding you that top of funnel. And so make sure that you're dropping your brand story in in different ways. And you could potentially do like a brand story video, and you could pin it on some of your socials, or you could have it on your website, wherever that is so that people can really get to know you. But that is definitely something that I think we need to be more confident with and share a lot more as well because it can really help our audience to understand how we work, what we do, where we came from, how we can help them now and how we can be really relatable to them too.

Suz Chadwick [00:19:48]:
So those are just some ways that you can think about how you build your personal brand this year around understanding what your reputation is, really supercharging your repetition, really thinking about how you are relatable through the different types of brand storytelling that you can share in your business so that people can connect with you on a deeper level as well. So if you've got any questions, let me know. If you wanna work with me on this, then apply for the Amplify Mastermind this year, and come and join us. It is something that will change your business, and I would love to work with you on building a fearless personal brand in 2024. Otherwise, have an amazing day, and I'll see you next time.