Lessons

Lesson Info

Making Branding To-Do's Manageable

So the last thing and you can see we're kind of working through that here is to try to break your branding down into those really small, manageable steps so we're going to create that big picture with cathy's we created this big picture right? But now we're going to break it down into these really tiny kind of manageable steps and so I actually helped you guys with that in the workbook so we're now on page forty nine so I looked at the different areas of your brand and we've actually got a task list here steve that priority level how important is this? How much do we need to do this the deadline when I'm going to get it down by they're done by so for those of you who are lazy if you start writing in some deadlines that actually really helps like I said I was gonna have that done today, right? And then you can check it off when it's completed uh if you have to add additional task they've left you guys a little bit of space in there and the nice thing is if you don't have to do it, you c...

ould just check off completed now like already got that we're good right? So it gives you that little sense of satisfaction so this can help you sort of break down into those smaller, manageable steps so you'll look at that action plan and then you'll create those big kind of a priority big priority steps the style guide the logo but we'll break those down into tiny manageable steps and you could work on things a little bit every day, right? It doesn't have to be all life consuming unless it has to be a force there on monica I might have to be but it doesn't have to be all life consuming or even all business consuming sit down, break it into those manageable chunks prioritize that order and you can you can do it in a way that actually feels okay right? And the other thing that I want you to keep in mind right is that your brand doesn't have to be perfect to create an emotional connection with your customer because that's that other piece you know we talked about research becoming a procrastination tool perfectionism right also becomes a a procrastination tool and I think I can see it happening with some of our group here, right? If I don't have a perfect name, I can't move forward but I know the perfect local I can't move forward right? You brand doesn't have to be perfect to create that emotional connection we talked the very first segment about the idea that falling in love with a brand is the same as when you fall in love with a person you meet someone you have some kind of emotional connection to them and then you meet them the next time and that emotional connection is consistent right? And if you keep getting those same feelings that same a consistent emotional connection that's how you fall in love but that person isn't perfect right? But with an emotional connection oftentimes we're willing to overlook the flaws right? Our partner might overlook some of the least in the beginning when you're in your first dating after you're married for a while then you only noticed the flaws right? But when you're first dating your partner overlooks the flaws because there's a strong emotional connection the same thing can happen with your brand it doesn't have to be perfect, but if you're generating that emotional connection they're going to forgive the flaws a little bit right? I'm not saying you could have like the website come crashing down they don't forget flaws like that but don't feel like it has to be perfect in order for you to put it out there I'm thinking monica, you're probably person who's like feels like it has to be perfect before it could go out right you hit hit the broad strokes get the overall feeling you know you can get a couple of great products a great lifestyle photographs you don't have to have fifty million a couple of great ones that's going to get you really far right said the moves had the color scheme a couple of great ones I know when you're chasing you to finalize the logo to get that that on there but you know the website maybe it shifts a little bit over time that's okay? So don't worry about the perfect focus on that and really kind of keep that emotional connection in mind so you just made a pretty long to do list but what I want to challenge everyone to think about right now and I'm going to challenge our online audience to do the same is what is one thing you can do today to strengthen that emotional connection to your brand? So monica, what do you think? I don't know I'm feeling so um um overwhelmed right now uh the one thing that we could dio is, um maybe start just being a little bit more proactive with putting out like some testimonials and highlighting mom's experiencing our product so that it can make a connection for other moms so that's that's a perfect one another one I think maybe for you that you could also dio is while you're working on the brand shift, you could also maybe be a little more active on instagram showing some of those things whether it's the mom stories or the years here's the purse here's my back, here's the diaper clutch in my purse today, you know, little things like that that help people connect with the brand and then that all comes with you. When you make those big changes, you could do those little things that just make people right sharing those moms stories, actually, you you told me you had a great agree email today, right? Yeah. What was that? Yeah. So we received an e mail today from a customer that just traveled to oklahoma with her child had been on a plane for the very first time, and the plane didn't have any changing tables, and so she was like your product was amazing. It totally saved us. I had to change diapers on their laps. Yeah, claimed poop several times on the plane, and we were doing it on our lap with your pad and I don't. I wouldn't have been able to do it without your product. So it's very rewarding story. So that is an amazing customer testimonial and to what you can do with that to strengthen the emotional connection to your brand is you can put that on your web site, but you can also email your customers, right? You guys have an email list hoping, yeah, so email that story out to your customers and then tell it on instagram and posted on facebook the same story, all those places, because, first of all, not everyone's engaging with you and every one of those places but every place that you tell that story that's a great way to strengthen that emotional connection. What a lifesaver, right? Totally. I didn't do that on instagram there's what? You have very limited storytelling space. So? So what I would probably dio is I would see if you have, like, a picture on your phone that somehow evokes the idea of air travel may be the last time you flew. Did you stop something? Or even if the customer has when you could ask them if they have an image post an image that shows that kind of hassle of that and then say, oh, a customer, just let me now you can actually you can write a surprising amount on instagram. They actually let you write a lot of text, but you can say, like I love that our diaper clutch saved a customer so much stress on her flight back home to oklahoma. She actually did change the diaper on the lap, and it was totally mess free so you can condense the story, but you can still tell it and again, you can use the image. So if you have an image that can evoke the stress of air travel, and then you can talk about how it really made life easier, that could be really powerful there, maybe she took a picture yeah, totally. Yeah, I something tells me that if you're a parent with a young kid on a plane, you took a picture. Teo, even if your diaper clutch isn't in the picture that's okay? She probably took the picture, and you could ask her if there's something that you can use. And if not, you know, pull open only image that you have or something. It's. Okay, totally throw filter on it. Let people know it's, not riel, but, you know, look, you know, I'm not on a plane right now, right? But you can still do that, kathy what's one thing you can do today to strengthen the emotional connection to your brand. I was thinking maybe sharing my origin story we were talking about before kind of s yeah, that's a great one and remind people what that origin story is, uh, well, how I started painting and how this emotional relationship with how I wanted people to feel when they had my paintings came up, it was from when I had my daughter and then just syria. So yeah, so when you're telling those stories, start with actually what happened. So I was inspired to start creating again when I had my daughter, and then I wanted to you know, go from there, so be careful who you make sure when you're telling those stories that you're telling them in a way that hooks people in for first, right? So it goes back to the idea of like, show don't tell, so you kind of start out by wanting to explain, right? I want to explain this, but feeling where I wanna explain the feeling, but you're going to put the story first, right? So the story is I had my daughter and I want to start creating again, and I wanted to create because and do you put this on the about? You think this would be good in the about paige or something like in the front? So it should absolutely be on yur about paige it's probably not going to go on the first page of your upset, but I would put it on your about paige and I would also tell it on social media, I would post it to facebook and I would post it on instagram or versions of them to instagram, because you're gonna change your about paige and people probably are going to notice, right? And you could post on social media go to my own knew about paige, but they're not going to go. And our goal with this kind of exercise is not that we're trying to drive traffic back to our website we're trying to create that emotional connection so doesn't matter where you tell the story which is why you're going to tell it everywhere facebook instagram you're about paige post it and people were like I didn't know that that's really great and do you want do you recommend posting it at the same ones kind of thing linc yeah on all yeah post is post the variations that makes sense but yeah just go ahead and post it all in the same day don't feel like you have to post one and then way in the post one of them wait because again most people probably aren't engaging with your brand across all of those platforms everybody has their favorites everyone has their ones they checked regularly you know some people are like all facebook's people are all instagram so people are just on pinterest so post it on all of them most people aren't going to see it more than one or two places that's true yeah please sarah I need thio obviously d'oh oh my uh origin story a swell but I was just thinking about it you know it's like I started making jewelry lived in japan that's not necessarily tied to my transformation thing so I need to figure out how to tie those together and I think you can start with the transformation and then fill in the backstory right so if you will get the way like a story is told in a book right do you know the really compelling stories don't fill out the background first right they start with something happening and then they bring in those background details that are important so for you something happening is you you got the divorce and you committed to the business right that's that's a pretty pretty safe statement to say it that way so that's what happens and then that let you rekindle this passion that you've actually had since you started making jewelry when you were sixteen and that you discovered again when he went to japan so a lot of times it's just about reef rearranging the elements of that story to get people that the big picture hook right away so in your case the moral of the story is I had a transformation and I followed my passion and then the interesting details are I did this when I was sixteen of my grandfather's tools and I studied this in japan but we hooked them in first with that big something happened and where are you going to do with that story now that you're starting to tell it um well if I had my website and I think I would say that the block starting a block and you know if I'm gonna have these interviews these weekly interviews would be good and then but we're going to do it today. What do you what do you say lives that so I don't um so do you have a personal opinion? I do have a website, I do have a block, but I nobody looks at it, but you have a personal facebook may I have a personal? I'm bit facebook is where I'm most active and that's where I would put it on both your your business page and your personal page can put a link just tell the story right there because again, it's it's hard to get people to cook a link and what we're going for again is not we don't need to get them back to our website. We're trying to just create that emotional connection, so tell the story right where the people are you gonna put it on your website too? That's? Fine, but don't make them leave facebook to read it because they probably won't. Right now we're just trying to create that emotional bond. No, no, I didn't mean a link to my to my fate to my website, because what do you mean someone? You mean your interlink to my, um professional page to know just finding might that the profession that facebook doesn't let me post some of my links, if I I mean post put up uh postings, they hold them back yeah, they make you pay for, right? So so what you're gonna do is you're still gonna put any links you're just gonna post the same thing twice. You're gonna post it on your business page unless you pay for it. People probably are going to see it, but you've been still posted there, a few might, but then you're gonna post the same story no length on your personal page. I would put up a new image because image post get better, and it might just be of an image of your jewelry that's okay, but I would post an image and just tell the story don't like them anywhere else, just on both, both sides of the platform do the same post, okay, and that's going to create that emotional connection, what we're getting in our online audience. Well, they're saying that some of the things that people said that they really need, teo, a lot of people say the first thing is they actually need to understand much more about what it is they're clients needs find that find what it is that that what that emotional connection actually is so here's the thing. So we talked about this before, what can you do to strengthen the emotional connection to your brand? You can have a conversation with your customers, so if you're not sure that's where you start today, jump on social media and ask them something about them no surveys exactly exactly people say I'm a studio says I need to focus figure out how my product makes me people feel, but I also need to become the biggest fan of my own products that's really an interesting one but you know, people are saying, you know, they really got to get the feedback so they understand how their customers feel this class and and and if you're engaging with you're customers that absolutely creates the emotional connection for sure and here's the last thing that I want you guys to really think about going forward, I can see a little bit of stress happening because I know that there's a lot of information and a lot of to do lists and everyone's well, take a deep breath right now, right way need like one of cathy's prints to like calm us down, right have fun with this right? Because if you're not having fun would with the brand is your developing it it's going to come through? Your customers are going to see that even if your brand is not about happy fun, whatever you want to be in that good headspace, you want to be creative when you're creating it because that's what's going to come through so give yourself that room to evolve and experiment and make changes and I actually really enjoyed the process because it's going to come out so much better. So, monica, what can you d'oh to enjoy the process a little bit more besides that big glass around, I'm going to say, start there, you start with the thing that makes you feel most excited, but I think that what yeah, what I need to do is it really is as generic as it sounds. I need to sit down with, like, a sketch pad and just sort of doodle things out and just get my creativity going, because once I can create a vision that I can get really excited about it, awesome, how you have fun. Well, hopefully my art suit will be finished. Yeah, build on having that art space like that space that you own, but two, it just sparks creativity and just kind of you know what you have to do, and you're sitting there and everything's around you that it's already says, um, and that and that's actually so perfect for your brand, because your brand is about creating these amazing spaces. So we're going to be in this amazing space, and you would actually, and then you can share that, right, so that becomes a whole part of the branding experiment. Right? Yeah. And, sarah, how are you gonna have a little more fun with this process here? Well, you look so nervous right now, I'm just I'm I'm a little overwhelmed. It's not. I mean, all this stuff is fun to me, right? So it's so yeah, it's more for me, the time crunch? A lot to dio. Maybe I shouldn't have applied to this show because that's extra pressure and, you know, you could always defer it if you realize you're not ready. You can always talk to the show about deferring, so that is one option. But I think the other thing is to as you're working through this branding process, even though you've got a lot of work to dio, make sure that you're giving yourself time, even if it's just a little bits to get into the studio and play because that's, the other thing is, we talked about this before, with the end of the day, your products are the heart of your business, so go back to the things that inspire you at your business. Go in and designed something you go in and create some product, give yourself permission to keep playing and having fun while you're doing this branding process, because it's going to come out so much better if you d'oh how's our online audience feeling ready to go yeah, they're ready to go but they think they all understand you know from following all of the steps that you've been sharing that they've got to make some first all they got to really engage with their audience and understand what it is that they're feeling about their products and I think that's the first step that most of them are looking to take some I'm gonna let them go get to work then and I cannot wait to see how everybody's brand evolves because I think there's going to be some amazing brands coming out of this class for sure I think so too is there anything meghan you'd like to leave us with as an inspirational thought just as a thing to get out there and do it? Yeah, you know I just think that you guys really ten do it, you take the deep breath, go have the glass of wine and then pull out that sketchbook in play this is a creative process branding is creative and always keep that emotional connection in mind. And if you can't think about how if you're not sure you what your customers to feel, how do you want to feel in this process? What do you want to put out into the world? Because it should be about you two so figure out what you want to amplify into the world and then go and make that happen and I think everyone can do that I'm so excited to see what you guys develop I think everyone can do and I think that's where your inspiration has been in the last couple of days megan you've really just shown people by very easy demonstrably steps that by following what you've been teaching all of this is achievable I really want to say a big thank you to you for that I want to say a big thank you to everybody has joined us online of course you're the reason that we're here thank you for all of your comments thank you for all of your questions I'm sorry we didn't get to all of them but we we really do appreciate you showing up and you being with us but it's a big thank you to our students who are with us as well it's not easy to come here is it sit here and share your stories with a global audience but you all did very very well I know all three of you going to be very successful I will certainly look forward to seeing how you've implemented megan's plan and how that works for you so thank you cathy thank you sarah and thankyou monica is great to have you here I won't say a huge thank you of course to the incredible creative life team thank you so much to chris has bean are host in the online world for the last couple days, thanks so much to chris. Thanks, of course, to our wonderful producer, michael karsh. And thanks to all of our incredible team to john, to daniel, to chris to stacey to alex and elisa, who run the studio, they've done an incredible job for this particular course. That's a wrap.