#237: How to Up Your Branding Game

Welcome back to another episode of the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I’m your host, Gina Onativia, here to get you excited about your course, your live cohort, your workshop, whatever you are cooking up. I’m here to push you to take action, thoughtful action, in order to get yourself out there in a bigger way. Now, talking about getting yourself out there in a bigger way.

Today, I want to talk a little bit about branding and how branding connects to your business growth and your next stage in terms of where I want you to go. Because here’s a truth. Your brand doesn’t need to be perfect at any point. We’re taking in perfect action here as we listen to this podcast. But I want you to go to the next step, whatever that looks like for you.

So today we’re going to talk about upping your branding game and we’re going to think in terms of three tiers just starting out, time to upgrade and then going big. And I’m going to break down each tier to hopefully push you and challenge you to go to the next phase. Now, before we dive in, this episode is, of course, brought to you by our Done for You services.

We do course creation, we do marketing, we do website development and brand development in a highly custom high touch way. If you want to work with us, check out course Creation boutique e-commerce course. There’s a quick application and then I’ll reach out and we can have a chat. Now, before we dive in about branding, all things branding, I shared with you guys that I’m going to run my first half marathon next year.

Such a scary goal for me. So as part of my training, I decide I’m going to run six miles today at Lake Lake Miramar, here in San Diego. And I go up there and one I didn’t anticipate how many people were going to be there, so many families. Two, I didn’t bring any water with me for six miles and I’m a beginner just starting out.

I should be bringing like maybe a little bottle of water. Three I didn’t eat properly. And then four, it’s it’s getting hot here in San Diego. Needless to say, I hated every minute of being on that lake, and I couldn’t wait to get out. And I ended up going three miles instead of six miles and felt like a failure.

I felt like a running failure. I felt like a running imposter. And I was really angry at myself for not planning better and not anticipating what I needed as a beginner runner, increasing her miles. And I was really angry at myself. And then I realized I have to take a step back. And that’s what running is about. That’s what entrepreneurship is about.

Of course, creation’s about is you’re going to take leaps forward because I had a great run on a treadmill five miles last week. Loved it. And then you’re going to take tiny steps back and that’s okay. That’s part of business. That’s part of doing something new and having a goal. And I had to give myself a little bit of grace.

So if you’re not exactly where you need to be or you feel you need to be, give yourself a little grace. I was talking to my best friend today and she was saying she had to give up this idea that she had to be perfect in everything. And I think we have to give ourselves grace that it’s okay not to be perfect in everything.

It was okay that I wasn’t. I was far from perfect. And guys, I’m far from perfect running, by the way, it’s not pretty, but I have to give myself some grace. So hopefully you are giving yourself some grace. I want to push you, and I want to challenge you thoughtfully. But if you have to run three instead of 5.5 today, that’s okay.

So we’ll pick it back up in a few days and and I’ll get there next weekend. So and I have time and I have grace to do that. So hopefully giving yourself that same generosity. All right. We’re talking today about branding up, scaling up from your brand. And I don’t think I really need to dig into why brand is so important, but that’s how you are represented.

That’s how people find you. That’s how you set yourself apart from the competition. We have been doing a ton of branding sites lately. That’s why I was inspired to do this episode and with each site I’m looking at the expert and saying, okay, why should I come to you? I’ve done all the things. Why you? Why now is that represent it on your site?

Is that represented on your landing page? Are you standing out in a unique way? Is it because of who you serve and you have a truly niche audience? Is it because of your approach? Is it because of your track record that you stand out above the rest? Is it social proof because of who you partnered with? Look, I’ve relied on a lot of that with myself, with my brand in terms of who I partner with.

I always talk about Tony Robbins, Amy Porterfield, IBM, American Council on Exercise, Special Olympics, right. I’m always talking about my special proof to help me stand apart. So in terms of your branding exercise, I want you to think of that front and center. It could be your story. I’ve been doing a lot of branding exercises, bringing in personal story.

I love that we do that as part of our done for you. How are you standing out? How are you positioning yourself as special? Now, keeping that in mind, that is the first thing I want anyone to do, regardless of if you have an audience of 100 or 100,000, if you’re listening right now and you feel like you’re not standing apart because of this, I want you to think what makes you unique.

Do I need to take a step back and do a branding exercise right now? So we’re thinking in terms of tears and tears of branding. I want to do tier one as you’re just starting out. Maybe you’re leaving the coaching or consulting space. Maybe you’re leaving a 9 to 5 and you’re kind of pivoting your expertise and going out there.

We have a client who’s doing that right now. She just released a podcast, really powerful podcast. So if that’s the case, you might want to consider, say, a Wix or a Squarespace. You do not need a $20,000 website or a $50,000 website. You may not need a custom brand strategy. You might just need something that’s clean, functional and fast to launch.

So many times, listen to me, right, guys? So many times listen to me. Do I see entrepreneurs who are six months out, a year out from getting a website? I have a friend who literally has paid somebody to get the website done, and she’s sitting on it right now because she hasn’t made the time to do it. Now, on one hand, she’s already getting the work, so the website sits on the burner, the back burner, but any other hand you’re it’s your asset, right?

It’s your home base, it’s where you send people who are interested. And that’s why having that brand piece in that brand asset is so, so important for you. So I’m good with Wix or Squarespace when you’re starting out because they do have the drag and drop builders, they do have the templates. You don’t need coding experience. You can go live in a week.

You just need a couple brand basics. So if you are listening to me right now and you’re like, Gina, I’ve got absolutely nothing, but I want to put myself out there, especially in the next few months. Think about starting small with something like Wix or Squarespace. Now for the second tier, if you want to go a little bit bigger so you’ve got something out there, or maybe you’ve got a landing page out there, maybe you’re using LinkedIn or Social as your branding site right now.

I see that all the time. I want you to think about tier two and maybe you’re going to build your funnel. You’re creating offers. When it’s time to upgrade your online home, I like hijabi. Now Hijabi, you can build beautiful, customizable landing pages, sales pages, shopping cart pages, of course, beautiful courses like we talk about all the time on this podcast, you can do email marketing automations, pipeline irons, etc. However, it’s a lot more bells and whistles and Squarespace and Wix, in my opinion, and it’s so easy to use and it’s so easy to scale.

We’re working on it with a client right now who’s in this position, who’s in this tier, and it’s easy to get started and get your brand site up rather quickly. So if you’re kind of in between but you want to get your offers up, I would go hijabi because I feel like then you get the bells and whistles.

You get all the marketing pieces that you need to scale up quickly. Now, if you’re in tier three, we’ve got a client in Tier three right now. Had a branding website pivoted. Her business now is going out there in a bigger way. I want you to consider WordPress and this is great for you if you’re adding team members or you’re running multiple programs, you’re creating evergreen funnels, you’re looking for a little more customization that maybe Hijabi allows and you’re really, really, like I said, into the brand for the long term.

Now WordPress gives you total creative freedom scalability for large content libraries, custom designs, better long term SEO integrates with really advanced tools and it gives you a lot of room to grow. So if you are ready to go big, think about WordPress. So we’ve got an outstanding WordPress developer that we love to work with and that’s why we’re doing brand sites.

Now. If you’re interested in working with us, just reach out. Of course, Christian Boutique Ecom and and we love WordPress if you’re really in it to win it in terms of your brand site and, and you want that creative freedom like I mentioned. So the thing is, wherever you are, I want you to think about going bigger, especially in the next few months.

Take stock of how your brand is represented. Design Copy messaging. Do you have your unique selling proposition? Do you know what you stand for and why you stand out from the competition? Have that thoughtful conversation and then think about your different tiers. Just starting out with Wix or Squarespace, you’re scaling beyond coaching job or you’re really going big with WordPress.

If you love this episode, make sure to subscribe and share it with a fellow coach or consultant ready to build up their online presence. And as always, please, please, please keep taking action until next week. Go create, be you and be brilliant and get it done.