You are getting clients which is great, but the bad news that is in spite of your branding not because of it.
Sorry I know that might sound a bit harsh, but there it is, I’ve said it, out in the open.
You’ve done all this hard work making yourself visible, maybe networking, maybe getting yourself on podcasts, getting the real you in front of people so they know who you are. Give yourself a pat on the back that isn’t easy.
As you should when you started you DIYed your brand, it looked ok, it worked for what you needed and gave you a bit of confidence when you ticked, get branding done off the to do list. And you were happy with it then.
But now everything is snowballing. You’ve got clients, your working hard. Probably having a melt down on a daily basis trying to figure out how to fit all this stuff into one day. Your brand well that’s now just a thing on a really long to do list, you feel it’s not really you anymore, but it feels like this huge task that you just can’t fit into your day.
Have you taken a step back and looked at where people are finding you? Is it from meeting you, from referrals, from your website, social media, from a lead magnet so they are on your mailing list. I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and say it’s meeting you and referrals that are the really big numbers. And you might say well that’s ok then, I’m getting clients so it doesn’t matter.
I get that, people say that all the time. But your website, social media, lead magnets, mailing lists. All those places are where new people might find you. Or when people have met you who maybe aren’t sure go to look you up. All these things are like your 24/7 marketing manager, shouting about you while you are sleeping. And lets be honest you need the sleep doing all that work, I support sleep!
Imagine this your brand is an actual person who turns up when you are doing something else. And instead of it representing you. It looks like a person with a suit jacket on, surfer shorts, long sock, one slipper, unbrushed hair, with a wooly scarf and smeared makeup. And if that is your look, I am not judging 😂
And why does this matter? We all know how tricky it is to get clients, so the more people you can reach by having a brand that shows them the real you. That quietly nurtures them, keeps them interested, lets them quietly stalk you (in a good way!) and get to know you. Helps them decide to buy from you. Something that really attracts your people, the less work you have to do. And we also all want less work to do right?
We’ve all heard the talk about pipelines so having a brand that supports you helps build a pipeline. So when you finish working with a client you don’t have to run round like a headless chicken trying to find the next one they are just flowing to you.
So you might be wondering “how can a brand do that” well it shows up as you, it’s your words, it’s your colours, it’s you. It’s when people see an image with your colours and font without your logo and know it’s you. It’s that trust you start to build when they see you showing up the same every time. But it also saves you time, because when your brand fits, it’s easy to create a post image, it’s easy to update your website, it’s easy to create a lead magnet. You know how it should look, how it should be applied and it becomes second nature.
You can do a quick check for yourself, go back and look at your last 5 posts - do they look like they came from the same person. And was that person you?
If you would really love your brand to start showing up more like you, I would love to have a chat to see where you are now and where you would love to be.
