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Transcription:
00:37
Hello, welcome back to a brand less ordinary where we talk about how to stop your brand from blending into the background and being like everybody else's because nobody wants a boring brand and everybody wants to get the attention that they deserve. So in last week's episode, I started talking a little bit about the concept of getting someone to land on your profile and immediately feeling like it's for them or as soon as they come across your website or as soon as they meet you in person as well, they instantly
01:06
kind of know that they want to be in your world. And I've been talking about this a lot lately. I feel like it's kind of tattooed on my brain at this point. But if you are relatively new to the whole branding concept or you've only just found me, you might be thinking, okay, great. So what does this instant yes concept even mean? Is it a feeling? Is it a strategy? Is it just a vibe? And it is a vibe, but it's also a strategy.
01:32
So stay with me while I kind of explain how those work together and what it actually means, where the idea came from, why most small business brands don't have this. And then I'm to give you some practical things that you can do or practical signs that you can look for so that you can spot where it's happening. And then you can actually kind of go away and audit your own stuff and see where you're at and see what you might need to do.
01:57
So let's talk about the actual problem because I think a lot of people skip this part and then they sort of wonder why their brand never really lands, never quite gets the attention that they want it to, never has quite the right effect. So you've got a product or service, it's genuinely good, you know it's good, all the people that have bought it know it's good, everyone that's worked with you, people have got good things to say about it, but how do you get strangers on the internet
02:27
to believe that it's good before they've ever spent a penny with you, before they really know who you are. That is genuinely the hard part. And it's the bit that you kind of don't really get told when you start a business that there are these pieces that you've got to put together. And that includes getting people that don't know you to understand who you are and what you're about so that they actually start to know you like you trust you. That's a saying that we've all heard before. So most people's instinct is to make everything look very polished and professional.
02:57
kind of clean, uncluttered graphics, everything looking the same, using templates, neutral colors, formal language. And the logic is that if you look legit, then people are going to trust you. And that logic isn't wrong. I understand where that comes from and why people are going to think that way. It's kind of what we've always been taught. But what that produces in the real world, 90 % of the time is a brand that just looks like every other brand.
03:25
in the area that you work in, as in the kind of industry, the niche that you're in. And when everything looks the same, sounds the same, feels the same, absolutely nothing gets noticed. You've just become part then of the online noise. You're just kind of part of all of that stuff that people are trying to cut through or scroll past. So the real question that you need to think about isn't necessarily how do I look professional? It's how do I make somebody stop?
03:54
scrolling to actually look at what I'm doing and think, oh yes, this one, this is for me. Because if you're somebody that's got this amazing product, but you actually need to get people to stop scrolling, to read about it, to understand the story, to see all the benefits of the product, then it is hard if you can't capture their attention at the initial stage to actually give yourself enough time to get all of that stuff across. So
04:21
When you get somebody that stops and thinks, yes, this is the person for me, that's the moment that you want. That is this instant yes concept. They've understood enough about you just instantly to know that they want to be in your world. They don't necessarily whip out their credit card immediately and go and press buy, but they know that they want to be in what you're doing. So it's not just a case though of people just having a quick five second scroll down your profile and going, oh yeah, I really like their stuff.
04:51
That's not the same concept. The product has just caught their attention, but it's that split second recognition where someone lands on your content, whether it's your Instagram, your website, um something that they've come into contact with online that somebody else has shared, and they can just feel that you are for them before that they've read loads of pieces of content, before they've gone and checked out your prices, and before they've...
05:20
kind of fully registered everything about you. It's just something about the way that you show up and the kind of, like I said, the vibe that you're creating that clicks into place and their brain goes, yes, that person. So I want to be really clear about what it is that's creating that feeling because it's not what you might think it is. It's not your logo. So that's the first thing that people might see. And that's the thing that people think, well, that's on my profile picture.
05:46
That's the thing that's got to represent my whole business and my whole brand. So many people think that a new logo is going to fix this problem. If you haven't got people stopping the scroll, they think that they need to rebrand immediately and change the logo and all of that. And that's not what's going to change it. It's not your color palette specifically. It's definitely not whether your fonts are on trend. It's not that you are only using two or three colors. It's definitely not how many uh
06:15
Instagram followers you have, it's not that you are using the same couple of templates over and over again for an inverted commas consistency. Instant yes is more created by you being specific and consistent in things like the style that you're creating and the energy that you're putting out there and the message that you're putting out into the world. So it's like I said, it's not necessarily that all your graphics look the same.
06:44
It's just this kind of whole feeling that you're creating with your brand instead. You know exactly who you are, exactly who you're talking to. You're not trying to em just kind of appeal to everybody at the same time. It's your personality weaving through all of this as well. It's your point of view, your opinions, your values. And it's the sense that people get that there is an actual human being behind the brand.
07:10
who has a particular way of seeing the world or a particular way of working, and particular things that they do for a certain reason, it's probably your journey or things like that that have got you to this point, that weaving all of that into your brand, people kind of really understand everything about you. And then people kind of almost recognize themselves in a person that they can see behind the brand, or they can recognize
07:38
the same circumstances, the same situation, the same kind of journey. And they feel like they finally found a place where they maybe belong. And that's how, if you think about brands or creators that you feel instantly drawn to, it was kind of one of those triggers that made you feel drawn to them. And it's not necessarily that they were the most polished brand, it's ones that actually feel real, that are the ones that kind of have that sort of magnetic pull of reeling people in, because people can see themselves.
08:08
you'll maybe read a caption and you're like, oh yes, I totally get this person. And you'll think that yes, this person totally gets me because they're talking where they understand the things that I'm going through as well. I want to be around this person and maybe I want to buy from this person. That is the concept of instant yes. And it's built from the inside out instead of the outside in. So instead of the outside in being all about the aesthetics and everything that is kind of the outward facing to the customer. And you think that's the thing that's going to reel people in.
08:37
It's building it from the inside out, all based on personality, values, opinions, the way you do things, the way you see things. That's what draws people to you. And it's putting all those things into the m outside bit, the external customer facing part. And then it all works together to draw people in.
08:58
So you might be thinking, well, if that is so supposedly easy to do, or if it's so powerful, why isn't everyone doing it? And there's a few reasons. The main one comes down to fear. People are scared of actually putting their real selves into their brand. You know, what happens if you put your actual personality in your brand and nobody likes it? You're opening yourself up then to the possibility that people will tell you that they don't like you.
09:24
or people will show you they don't like you by unsubscribing from your email list or unfollowing or things like that. And that is uncomfortable to people obviously, but it is something that instant yes also helps you with because you kind of almost want that instant no as well. You want people to instantly know whether you are for them or you're not for them. Think about the fact that you've probably come across loads of brands lately and...
09:52
there's nothing wrong with them and you just look at their page and you think, oh yeah, okay, that's not quite the thing that I'm after, or that's not quite the approach that I'm going for. And it doesn't mean that their product is rubbish. It doesn't mean that their service is bad. It doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with their personality and definitely nothing wrong with them as a business owner. It doesn't mean they're rubbish at their job. It just means that that's not the right person for you at this particular time. And that's the kind of thing that people, you're not prepared for because
10:22
you do feel uncomfortable and you do kind of take things personally, but it is absolutely the best thing to be able to filter people out at that very initial stage because if you're not the kind of business that they're ever going to need or want to buy from, there's absolutely no point in them sticking around and it doesn't have any reflection on you as a business owner. Then another reason why everybody isn't doing this is there's a lot of information out there, tips, hacks and everything like that.
10:51
all about the kind of the mechanics of branding, the sort of foundations in terms of here's how to choose your colours, here's how to come up with your brand voice, here's a framework for doing this, here's how to make your feed look cohesive and that stuff can be genuinely useful. I have given tips on all that kind of stuff in the past but it is just a surface layer, that's the execution of your brand and if you go straight to
11:19
the execution part without doing all the kind of deeper work first. The bit that some people see is boring, but I don't. I see this as the bit that's fun because it gets all your actual quirks and your real personality out into your content and your brand. If you don't do all of those bits so that you really know and you believe what makes you different, you end up with branding that looks fine, but it just kind of feels a bit hollow. And that's probably where you then trip up.
11:49
with, well, this isn't quite landing or I know what I want to say and I know how good all of this is, but no one's really engaging or understanding in the same way. And it probably is just because all of that part where you're extracting all of your DNA, the quirky bits, the interesting bits about you, the way you got here, the way you think, the way you work, you're missing all of that from your brand. So then you've just got something that looks really great, but people can't really feel exactly who you are.
12:19
And then the last reason I think that people aren't doing this is because they've genuinely been told that their personality is too much. They're too niche, they're too weird, they're too something, too much. And they need to make it more um accessible, more toned down. They need to be more professional, more polished, whatever that might be, more um appealing to everybody. And they...
12:45
tone it down, they strip away all of the interesting stuff about them and it's really really sad and then people end up with this, as I've said before, this kind of dry toast feeling. It's just not that appealing and it does a job and it's not very exciting and you don't want that from your business that you've worked so hard on to just be the kind of branding equivalent of dry toast.
13:10
So if you're one of those people that has been told that your personality is too much and you're trying to tone it down, you're trying to like sand off all of the weird bits because you think that you need to be something else, you're following all these kind of shoulds and musts and everything like that, then that is the whole point of building a brand around you and your personality so that you do come across as different from everybody else. Different isn't bad. And the more distinctly yourself that your brand is,
13:39
the more powerfully it will attract the right people who are meant to work with you because you really truly are not trying to appeal to everybody. And I know it's really good to get into this situation where everybody likes you and everybody wants to follow you and your follower numbers go up and everything like that, but that genuinely isn't the point of growing a business and a brand that feels like you and that you love to run. What you're trying to be instead is unmistakably right.
14:08
for your people, that is what you need to do. Okay, so we've looked at what it is, why it's hard for people to do. Now let's have a look at what that actually is in practice. Like what do you actually have to do to be able to kind of create this brand that has this instant yes feeling for the right people for you? Because I want you to be able to look at your own brand and have a go at this or have a look and think, right, do I have this or do I not have this?
14:36
And sometimes it's hard when you're very close to your brand and other people can see things better when they're on the outside. But it's definitely something that you can kind of take away and try and look at your own brand and try and think, right, do I think that this might be working or not? And is there something I can tweak? So I've got four signs that your brand has instant yes energy. And if you're sitting there going, oh, I'm not sure that's me on any of these, that is also really useful information that you can't really tell for sure. So maybe something just needs dialing up.
15:05
or dialing down or whatever it might be. So number one, sign one is people can hear your voice when they read your words. I don't mean like the kind of brand voice concept that people find a bit abstract and corporate and all of that, but like your actual voice, like you're listening to me now. Like if a regular client or a follower or someone that has spoken to you or has watched videos of yours or anything like that.
15:32
If they were to look at a piece of content that isn't you speaking, so it's written, and a caption, let's say, and it didn't have your name attached to it, would they know it was you? Now, this is probably a really hard one because it would be difficult for someone to maybe just read a caption and go, oh, that belongs to that person. But genuinely, there are people that I follow that I would know that it was them that was saying that based on the way that they've written it, or the thing that they're talking about, or that kind of thing that they repeat all the time.
16:01
So there are signs there and there are things that you could be doing that do let people know that it's you. So is there anything specific, a phrase you use, a way you structure your sentences? Do you always start with the same thing? I notice when I record this podcast that I often start my paragraphs with so or now. And perhaps you do that as well. And I think that I do that in my writing as well. I write so at the beginning of my sentences a lot.
16:31
So is there something that you do like that that makes your writing feel more like a person and less like it was like it's an essay or, you know, even worse, you know, spewed out by AI? And if the answer is yes, there are things that you do, make sure that you're putting those into your actual captions. And it's those kinds of things then that people start to um warm to, they start to notice, and that's the kind of thing that could contribute towards.
16:59
that sort of instant yes energy. So if you were to swap your captions with somebody else's, would they match your brand? Because if you were able to pick up someone else's captions and put them straight into your brand and nobody would notice, or pick up your captions and put them onto someone else's content and nobody would notice, then it possibly means that both of your captions are just a bit generic, a bit samey, and could have been written by anybody.
17:29
And that's kind of not the thing that you want. You want it to be clear that that is kind of the thing that would be written by you. So sign number two, that you've got instant yes energy, is that the right kind of people are the ones that are following you. So your ideal clients are self-selecting and realizing that you're for them and they're pressing follow. And that means also that the wrong ones are self-selecting out because they read your...
17:55
website homepage or your bio on Instagram or something like that and that they realize, okay, no, this is not the kind of thing that I need. I came across somebody the other day and in her bio, she said that she helps spiritual entrepreneurs to do this. And she does help people do the thing that I needed help doing, but I'm not a spiritual entrepreneur. So I immediately realized that if that's going to be her kind of content style and that's the angle that she talks about everything from.
18:24
then that's kind of not really the help that I need. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with what she does, but it's definitely just kind of not the style that I would immediately be drawn to. So I'm self-selecting out and I'm not her ideal client and that's fine. So we are conditioned to think that repelling people is bad and that's a failure and that people are judging us and things like that. But if your brand is specific enough to create the instant yes feeling, like I said earlier,
18:53
then that also means that it's creating the instant no. That is something that you want to keep. That's not a bad thing. That's not a glitch. That's not an error. That is what you kind of want to create. The right people self-selecting in and the wrong people self-selecting out. So you're not trying to get this huge audience of just like vaguely interested people. And you're definitely not trying to get an audience full of people that are just there to support you. You want people that are genuinely actually interested in what you do.
19:21
the right kind of people. And then when you get inquiries, they're almost like half sold already on what you do before they've even spoken to you. And that's the sign. If you're not then having to convince people or persuade people or over explain what you do, that's great because they've already understood all of that from your content. And that's what you're building towards. So ask yourself things like,
19:46
you know, whether your clients have ever said to you things like, oh, I just knew I needed you as soon as I found you, or, oh, how do I feel? Why do I feel like you're kind of in my brain? Or I felt like you were speaking directly to me in this particular piece of content. So if anyone's ever said that to you, then that's brilliant. Sign number three that you've got an instant yes brand is your visuals actually feel like they represent your personality and they're not just based on a trend. So,
20:14
This is the one where I will always push back on the idea that visuals don't matter because a lot of the gurus talk about the fact that your aesthetic doesn't matter and it's all about your content and what you talk about. And of course that is important, but your visuals do matter. They're not the whole source of like instant yes energy, but they're the expression of it. That's how when someone lands on your profile and they're like, oh my God, I love your brand. love.
20:44
um whether it is the colors or the photos or just the kind of vibe that you've created. And they say, oh, I love um your Instagram feed because that's then the expression of your personality. So when your visual brand becomes a part of like who you are or the other way around, maybe who you are becomes a part of your visual brand. It's got that um specificity to it that trends just don't have.
21:09
And even if you take a trend, can interpret it in a different way so that it still looks and feels like you. If you could look at it all in, you know, a couple of years time and still recognize it as you, because it's not being built just around what's popular this week, then that's what you want. If you choose colors, fonts, your visual style,
21:32
the photos that you use, if you use like stock photos, let's say, or the little elements that you find in Canva, if you feel like those are genuinely an extension of your personality and an expression of you and your values or whatever, then that will come through. People will feel it even if they can't really articulate what it is that you're trying to do. So have a think, is this like aesthetic that you've got became unfashionable tomorrow or unpopular tomorrow?
22:01
would you stop using it because it's no longer trending or would you still be like no because this is kind of what makes my you know feed feel like me and if so brilliant. So sign number four that you've got an instant yes brand you've got a point of view you've got an opinion and you are not shy about it you talk about it repeatedly you talk about it loudly and that doesn't mean that every piece of content just
22:29
is exactly the same because there are so many different ways of saying the same thing. But what it means is that you've got a stance on something. Perhaps there's something that you hate about your industry. Perhaps there's something that you feel like people are missing. Perhaps there's something that you feel like all the advice out there is leading people down a particular path and you think that it should be different or you just don't like what your industry has become or whatever it might be.
22:56
And all the opinions don't always have to be uh negative ones, by the way. They don't have to be, hate this. So you just have kind of a strong opinion on something. It might be that, you know, people blame a certain thing, but actually there's nothing wrong with that thing. So yeah, have a think. What is it that you truly believe about your kind of product services industry, the world in general, whatever it might be. And it doesn't mean being controversial just for the sake of it.
23:26
It just means you're being honest about what you think and feel. It means having this perspective, perhaps on the way things are usually done. Perhaps it's on the way that you think there's something that your clients particularly need and sharing that perspective with kind of passion and um yeah, repeatedly so that people truly know that that's something that you stand behind. It's like that saying, isn't it? know, find a hill that you will die on and it's staying there.
23:56
staying in that lane so that people know that you are a trustworthy person because you've got your opinions and you stick to them. You're not flitting about depending on whatever opinion is popular at the moment. And when someone finds a brand that says exactly what they've either been thinking themselves or finds a brand that says exactly what they need to hear to kind of change their perspective, then that is
24:23
kind of instant yes in the most powerful form, I suppose, that's the moment where they stop scrolling, start following, start reading your content and start trusting you. So something to ask yourself here is, does my content lead people to be thinking, yes, exactly, I've never heard anyone say it like that before. I was on a networking call yesterday.
24:49
And someone actually said to me, I have never heard a brand designer say that before. And it was an opinion that I have. It was actually an opinion that I don't believe that beige is a bad color. It's because a lot of people in the branding world talk about beige being this, um you know, they use beige in a negative way. And I believe that beige brands,
25:14
can still be fun brands. It's not about the color, it's about the connotation that people have attached to the color. But someone actually said to me, I've never heard a brand designer say that before. And I was like, really? Huh. And I think that's right, that that's not what people say. But the fact that I articulated that, and I strongly believe that, and I'm going to create some content actually around the fact that beige can still be a brand that has personality, because it's nothing to do with the color.
25:41
It's about what people have attached to that color. And I know what they mean. They mean bland and boring and vanilla and whatever, but there is nothing wrong specifically with the color beige. So I'm going to prove otherwise. So to bring it back to what I was talking about, instant yes then is the feeling that your ideal client gets when they find you and they just know. No convincing required, no kind of elaborate sales tactics to kind of draw them in, no persuading. um
26:11
They just kind of get it when they land on your stuff, something clicks within them. And the way you build that is not by having to make your brand prettier or more professional or like all the other people that you admire in your industry. It's by doing the work to get you to understand who you actually are and then build a brand that actually communicates that clearly, consistently.
26:37
so that people really do understand it as soon as they find you. So go over those four signs then, and then be honest with yourself. Where are you already doing this and doing it well? Where do you think you just might need some tweaks? Where do you think that you need to do a lot more? And where do you really need like major help? Then you kind of know what you're starting with. So you then know what you can go away and have a think about.
27:06
What you can kind of have a look at what other people are doing. And when I say have a look at other people, what other people are doing, I don't mean go and look at their content and then take their ideas. I mean, just go and see if you can spot those kinds of things in other people's content. And you'll start to see it all over the place. You'll start to see people's actual personality or people talking about things in their life, about their journey, about how they got here, about what they think, about what they feel.
27:33
and you'll start to see it everywhere that people are using that to show people exactly who they are so that the right people when they land on their account know whether or not to follow them. So I hope that has been useful. Thank you so much for listening. As always, I will be back next week with another episode. In the meantime, if you want to like, share the podcast, tell your friends, send all your business besties my way that might need help.
28:01
with their brand if you know someone that's been playing a bit too safe and they need some help with getting themselves into their brand so that they can get more visible and more attention that they deserve. And I will see you back here on a Brandless Autumny Podcast next week for another episode. See you then.