Moore Style - What is Personal Branding?

Starting point is 00:00:00 What is personal branding? Have you ever wondered what personal branding is? Well, today we're going to go over how to present yourself in the best way as your image. We're also going to talk to Sam, the brand coach, and how to show up in your messaging and on social media, and also how to maneuver and getting through personal brand with capital with Ailey Halby today. You're listening to MoreStyle, a podcast to help you transform your image and transform your influence. So thank you, ladies, for being on the show today. I'm really excited to get into what is personal branding. So I think today I'm just going to go over really fast, like who I am. If you don't know who I am, I'm Celeste Moore. I'm a certified image consultant

Starting point is 00:00:44 and I help entrepreneurs create, discover and master their own unique style so that they can show up as best versions of themselves. And I'm going to talk to you, Sam. Let's just introduce yourself if you will to everybody here yes of course if you don't know me my name is sam but i also go by sam the branding coach and i help people build strategic brands service-based businesses entrepreneurs anyone really looking to tell their story whether it be on social media through their website or just online in general i really specialize in helping people create that strategic brand with my phone i'm super excited to answer the question oh yeah hayley happy with GrowWise Capital, let's please introduce yourself to our audience and then we can...

Starting point is 00:01:27 Yeah, for sure. Thanks so much for having us on your show today. We really appreciate that. I'm Haley Hoppe. I'm founder of GrowWise Capital. I help businesses get funding, very simply put, so you can grow and expand and take your business to the next level. So you can grow wiser. So you can grow wiser. Yeah, we implement a lot of strategies that are very creative strategies to help obtain funding so just because you know you don't know how to do it or i i can't because i've got bad credit or all these reasons there's always a way around that so we're very creative with that and help you grow wiser your business and i love that all of our businesses

Starting point is 00:02:08 they create how building personal brand because there are such um there's certain levels and people get that really confused and i think that's really important that each and every one of us can can discuss today, but personal brand is just not about your website or your logo. It's about your messaging, how you're showing up on social media, which Sam will talk to you about. It is how are you able to get and build your brand without capital? You clearly need capital. So Haley's going to discuss that. And today also how to show up as your best version of yourself by wearing the right colors, the right style, and really amplifying your present. So Sam, I'd love to ask you a few questions. What is a step-by-step process that someone could think about when

Starting point is 00:02:57 they're just starting off as a entrepreneur, a business owner, to one, to learn in what their personal brand is? Like how do you walk through those steps with a new client? So my favorite thing to start with is honestly like identifying your why. And I say that because that was my own path. So when I actually founded my company, Polaris Creatives, and, you know, do business as Sam the branding coach, I wanted to start out as like doing websites and doing the whole thing. And it was very interesting because I was going through old notes and I actually found something that was like, I want to build a business that helps entrepreneurs build their brand, market strategically. But a part of it was onboarding because I see such a lack of

Starting point is 00:03:44 onboarding throughout. I don't even know what the word is. But when you see in corporations, onboarding has just like this amazing structure. But when you're in entrepreneurship, there's a lack of it. Anyway, I found this note. And so when I was thinking about how I wanted to approach my audience and how I wanted to talk to people, I had to go back to my why. I help my clients do the same exact thing. You need to go back to the foundation of why it is that you're starting your business and who it is that you're helping so I literally talk about discovering your why your what and your how your why why are you doing this what are you offering and how are you going to help people is that is the thing that is going to build the foundation of your brand if you don't

Starting point is 00:04:21 start there then you can build things but at the end of the day when you go back it's not gonna feel sustained it's not gonna feel fulfilled it's there's gonna be a lot of broken and missing pieces when it comes down to trying to get funding or trying to go to places because people actually check your website it's a legal requirement to have a website with an LLC like you have to have those things but especially when you think about funding perspective you need to have your messaging super crystal clear like people want to understand what you're doing to a large extent and if you're unclear on that as far as messaging as far as marketing as far as your socials there's just no way to go they love that and it's so clear to me that not only once

Starting point is 00:05:03 you create the brand with them right there they know their messaging they know who their target audience is um but the one thing that i think you provide that other people are seeing at least in my experience is that okay here's your brand right here's all the things you need to do let's create the website the logo all the more you know but the marketing piece right it's like i know that you're not the marketer but you give all of the information so that they can potentially take it to a marketer because that was one thing that was missing and that's where you're really going to build the business yeah so like my ultimate foundation that I saw though working through venture capitalist firms through working with small businesses through working with boutique

Starting point is 00:05:46 marketing firms was that when you hired a social media manager there was a lack of transfer of knowledge which absolutely killed people's trust in marketers and just able to hire someone and marketing agencies charge tens of thousands of dollars for what a pdf file to give your branding to give like as far as the fonts and logos and schemes they don't tell you your tone they don't tell you your message they maybe give you a marketing plan but at the end of the day you don't know what's going on behind this so my whole foundation of my business is to help entrepreneurs find their own message, understand their message so that they can understand, God forbid, if their social media marketer disappears, just they have to be fired. You just disconnect whatever the

Starting point is 00:06:33 case is and you need to post on Instagram. How are you going to show up? Do you know what you're doing? So I want to teach business owners that because it's the same critical information as knowing how to set up a business bank account, knowing how to get an LLC. I think that it is as critical as that information so for me I'm like please go through know those foundations learn how to market yourself and then pass it along to someone and like you said I don't do the marketing piece but eventually that will be a part of my team to have a trustworthy team of social media managers because at the end of the day we all need someone to trust 100% I think that's why we all do business together you know Sam has helped me with my marketing my messaging

Starting point is 00:07:13 as i've pivoted um working with speakers entrepreneurs and um you know hayley has been instrumental in the growth of my business and so building that trust between us i mean we were all referred to one another's colleagues yep and so and that's just how business built yep but so i love that so much and i think just to add a little piece to that what's have your message dialed in. You have to understand that it's not just going to be what shows up on social brand shoot. You should be wearing those colors that are going to represent message. And there's a lot of, oh, I took really great photos or have a very great videographer without a videographer saying, no, this is your message, this is your avatar. Let's really dial

Starting point is 00:08:08 in that so taking that messaging taking that outside appearance making sure mesh and the art and it is hugely important so that when you have those photos they know without without reading the message yet but then they read the message everything is unseen and then the ability to build this brand I will let Haley talk about how is it someone can find someone like you because career gem girl. Yeah. You know, right now we're working so much off of referral business because of this, right? Like, oh, well, Haley helped me out. So we're going to do that. But social media is like the biggest way to go find me. And it's honestly, it's our business card nowadays. And it's so important. And I just wanted to piggyback on what you guys were talking about in image

Starting point is 00:09:00 consulting like if you wanted to go uh into a bank or you know if you're gonna talk to your bankers or institutions like well you've got to present yourself where people take you seriously if you're gonna go in and ask for a large sum of money you have to you have to look worthy right you have to feel worthy um you have to be confident in the way you're going in and i think you know what you do is so amazing because the outfits that you put in and put on you know the the clothes that you wear really build that confidence. But, you know, and then I really wanted to talk about mindset, because when it comes to, you know, any like any of these aspects, it mindset is so, so important. If you're going to grow your business, you know, it's a constant

Starting point is 00:09:46 evolution of yourself and personal growth and pushing yourself towards, you know, these so-called limitations that we have put on ourselves and to kind of break those programs. But around money, it's really important to realize that you need to as a business owner you need to spend some money to make some money this is just how it goes so you have to invest in yourself and invest in your business and doing you know obviously social media branding that messaging so important banks are going to look at all that stuff they're going to look at all of that how you present yourself in your pictures um what kind of stuff you got going on they want to see a beautiful brand that they feel confident in backing um so that's just really important things that i wanted to touch on oh no

Starting point is 00:10:35 we were talking earlier about mindset and like i think that's an untouched market in the sense of when you become even if you leave corporate or if you've been an entrepreneur the whole time it's almost just like the flow like the energetic flow of money and how to allow it to come in and then how to allow for good that i would allow that it's going back just creating that shift and perspective really helps as an entrepreneur and if you don't do that it's really i think it's detrimental to your business well and then me like how i met you through a good friend of ours oh hey coach yeah hey coach if you're watching this on live um you know he I came to the point in my business where I was like I was really stuck I was like I know what

Starting point is 00:11:27 my brand is and where I want to go with it but no one educates you on how to get the how to move forward how to get funding and or the right funding that's the other thing because you know Haley is so up to date with all of the laws and the things that are constantly changing and finding the best ways for your brand, your business. And that was invaluable. That was huge for me. And I'm so grateful for just meeting you in that aspect to really help me look at my business in a different way.

Starting point is 00:12:05 Okay, so this is the creation of making the brand move in different ways. And yeah, so finding you was great. My next question really is, what does that process look like? What is like, you've already done this step-by-step process in the pre-funding, the actual funding. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, nowadays, if you're if you're just starting off and you have a business, you can absolutely go get funding. If you started it, you know, a week ago, you can go get funding. There's a lender for everybody, for everyone. And, you know, navigating that financial landscape can be really daunting. And it's a lot. And that's why you have people like me. So, you know, to make this process easier. But to get ready for funding, you know, you want to have some ducks in a row and make sure that you're prepared. And one of those is nowadays, a lot of banks are doing personal guarantees. That's just how the quickest way to get funding is when you personally guarantee, which means we're leveraging your really good personal credit to gain access to capital for your business. Second way, if you're established business, you could go ahead and maybe a business credit already built or corporate credit already built with them. We can use your EIN only, you know, as as an alternative. But there's layers to this.

Starting point is 00:13:26 So you can work your way to that. But at first, we want to use your personal credit as the guarantor because it's the fastest way to get funding. So, you know, otherwise, this could be a very, very long road. It could be. So, you know, just be prepared that you're not going to go in, borrow and expect to have fun. Yeah. And I want to touch on that. It's not about your score. It's about your profile. This is so, so important. It's not just about your credit score. It's about your whole profile. So we're talking about hard inquiries, utilization, credit utilization, all of these factors,

Starting point is 00:14:04 how many open positive accounts that you have. You want to have at least 12. You want to have less than three inquiries on each bureau equibax experience transunion um you know to go for funding so it's it's been it's been so interesting though because like for me being 20 almost 26 as a business and like we've had a couple of rejections on my end yeah just because my credit profile is so new right and like because i'm so young right and like that's very interesting to have to go and like talk to banks and be like oh hey like i'm actually a business owner like i'm trying to make money build money and all those things so like please trust me with money but right you know it's you have to get a little uncomfortable to grow so and i think going in

Starting point is 00:14:45 these spaces it's just like you have to know a little bit about every aspect of your business to be successful so that includes like you know cleaning your house is like i mean like all houses right like not just your physical home but your financial home you know all of these all of these things you know the way that you present yourself the like cleaning your house like okay my social media had a bunch of personal stuff on it and now i probably should uh we should archive that down we should archive that and uh you know and then you know kind of pivot from there and like really focus on the business and how you can use your social media or your brand to make you money yeah well even i mean you're working with hayley right now as you talked about that you've archived

Starting point is 00:15:33 a lot of things on your instagram yeah you wanted to keep the followers but you want to yeah really focus on one business not multiple businesses and then sam what does that look like for for hayley as she's you know i wouldn't say pivoting she just like really focusing on one brand for someone who i will well that's actually not uncommon from what i've heard from a lot of people have like transitioned from like their personal profiles into businesses the same thing you should know about that regardless is you are always going to see a decrease in followers people are like oh i thought i was following you for your personal page like i thought i was like here for this but no like they're now here for your business and so there's always going to be

Starting point is 00:16:15 maybe a decrease in engagement and decrease in overall just people being there because it just changes their perspective on like what your page is going for but once you establish that once you like the message and once it's clear then you'll start attracting the right people overall and like archiving starting over i've seen people do it and grow really quickly i've seen people grow really slow but you have honestly a thousand followers on instagram or on any one of your socials and those thousand followers can be completely loyal buy absolutely anything from you like you don't need sometimes 10 000 30 000 100 000 what other people think you have to have to have a personal brand brand it like it helps brand deals to have more followers but don't get

Starting point is 00:16:54 stuck on the number exactly don't get stuck on the number because it doesn't really mean anything yeah it's interesting how you did that because with my pivot of you know killing the date coach when I brought back just the image consultant uh yeah I noticed there was a big shift I mean rebranding in a very minimal way though it's but it was enough that like I wanted to focus on the style and the color and so archiving things and like oh wait oh now you're doing this and so i think it was so important that um as you're pivoting or or focusing on one brand that you're really just like dialing in with that message i mean we'll probably see that with your profile too of just like some people will leave some people will stay but i mean regardless it happens

Starting point is 00:17:41 And, like, I think, too, of, like, when we did that whole campaign for you of just being, like, the dating coach in me is dead. It was so fun, for one. But, two. It's, like, Taylor's dead. Celeste is dead. Yeah. Ouch is dead. But, I mean, it was dramatic.

Starting point is 00:17:57 And it was literally, like, the break that you needed. Yeah. But the cool thing when that happens is, like, okay, cool. Like, you don't have to stay on my. Like, you can leave it. But what you're going to see if you stay is how I transition. and like yeah with Celeste with working for her now hey five six months it's been a while but we've seen like the growth like I show your Instagram page a lot of people when I'm like

Starting point is 00:18:21 referencing the growth appliance because you can see just the ultimate shift of like when you were a dating coach when you were kind of pivoting into more of the image consultant lifestyle and then now to being fully the image consultant is seen on her pages on rail so you can go come and go see her Instagram like you can scroll all the way back and then see how it's changed but i like to watch a journey yeah yeah i like to watch a journey in evolution it's authentic too and it's genuine because we all grow and we all change so that's gonna be the same thing for you same thing it's gonna be fun to watch for yeah absolutely i have a question for you what would you say what would you give advice here for people today if they are like okay i am looking to and

Starting point is 00:19:04 whether they come to you or not they want to create capital for their business if they were going to show up in front of investors say they're looking for angel money where how would how would you recommend them showing up to a meeting and even as to a certain color would you recommend people here like show up a certain way well definitely you know you want to have your your books in order if you're going to show up to angel investors you want to make sure that you have, you know, your business plan has to be solid because you're, you don't just go in, Hey, can I have some money? This is a cool idea. You know, it's like, here's, they want to see the paperwork to back it. So knowing your business plan, how to write your business plan, um, how

Starting point is 00:19:49 to pitch that your market research is really important. Um, all of those factors, if you're going to go angel investor route, um, would be a really important things to do it. Now, if you're going to go to a bank. It's a very different story and a lot easier, I would say, and definitely not as nerve-wracking, I would say, as getting in front of a group of angel investors, convincing them that your idea is the best, you know, and like, we want to throw a few million dollars at you, you know, that's a lot higher. It seems to be a little bit easier avenue for some of it. For sure. That's why these institutions are here and they have these structures and you have your business bank accounts with them you know and you have relationships built with your banks like you

Starting point is 00:20:30 can go to your you've got a good relationship with your banker you know like ask the questions they are there to help you so ask as many questions as you want like what do I need to get ready you know I've been with you for x amount of years I'm interested in this credit card product that you just rolled out I'm interested in this new this line of credit that you that you were telling me about it's their job to get you into different products at the bank you know so and remember like go in there confidently because banks need you banks need you that's how their business that's how their business runs that's the model that it runs on is that they can't be a bank and an institution without you know you so going in there confidently my question for you is what would I

Starting point is 00:21:17 where to something like that so since you've been and must show up with confidence you know body language is very big okay i'm gonna touch on religious for a minute yeah because knowing your message being dialed in is going to be like huge like having all the ducks in a row and your your business is all the paperwork so i don't know that's what she knows but walking in in the right color of suit the right fit and the right fabric is going to make you walk in with utter confidence you will not stutter you will not uh um not uh like this is new no you're gonna walk in you're gonna know and you're gonna deliver and some of the colors you should wear are if you're dealing with banks purple gray um it means you're credible you're professional

Starting point is 00:22:11 but baby blue is trustworthy credible and professional as well um that is if you look at a lot of big banks they use navy and oh yeah and their colors sure i never thought about that yeah um and so keep in mind that just dealing with bankers those are probably the two colors i would stick with no black no bright colors kind of green it's like to represent it does represent not money but growth so you could tie in a little bit of green maybe it's a shirt um i'll keep it really kind of subdued subdued medium contrast to my contrast i contrast just so you guys know is the most commanding of present so it could be navy and white and if you think of all the politicians they add a little bit of red because red's the most commanding color as well

Starting point is 00:22:59 but just if you cannot wear high contrast and you might not know this it's okay but i cannot we're high contrast I'm a medium contrast girl and so the reason why I chose the suit I wore last night which was purple on top and I wore the purple because who my audience was my audience was business creative and a luxurious group so that all represents we were born and the bottom was this pale yellow um because yellow is a complementary color of purple okay and so when you use a complementary color when you're medium contrast that sends the same message as wearing a high contrast outfit so I strategically used my suit last night and when I put that on let me tell you anybody that puts on a suit that has all the messaging dialed down will walk through

Starting point is 00:23:52 any room with confidence it's just like your superpower suit so that keep in mind who the audiences even keep in mind the bank institution if they have certain colors that they resemble i mean just do your a little bit of your homework and if you don't know you can ask kaylee for that if you're not sure about your messaging sam the brand coach is your person too we really dial that in because at the end of the day we all need confidence in all of these areas to be successful in our businesses and it's okay to ask i don't think you can't do it all alone to be successful someone told me once or maybe it was a few people I've heard and correct me if I'm wrong but you can you can do it by yourself to to about a million dollars but anything past that can't do it alone

Starting point is 00:24:40 I would have a different difference of opinion based off of like the 10x book like I would yes so like that's just when I heard one person doesn't mean anything I say like Dan Sullivan okay that book he references like a story of like how you after a certain point because you've been even talking about like lately it's like even without your assistant you're like oh my god oh yeah i need a team yeah absolutely need a team i think maybe once you get to the point of capping i'm doing so many functions that i'm going to feel like a chicken with its head cut off then you need a team so like that could be that but that could be a different ranges so you're right that could be at a million dollars it could be but you have to be very aware of your energy

Starting point is 00:25:18 and like how you're feeling about things because ultimately that could be at the 10 000 that could be like okay cool i'm consistently making ten thousand dollars a month i need to add someone to the team it could be consistent five thousand dollars a month of just hiring a slow game but it really depends on your business too exactly like what are you doing what are the functions and yeah how actually in some where are all the facets of your business you know 100 period you can't do it alone i think that's the consensus that's like you can't do it alone um is there anything else like you would like to share with the audience today um that may be something i this or something that ties back to really personal brand and how important it is to your

Starting point is 00:26:00 business? Yeah. Okay. I'm just touching on confidence and that's really, really important because sometimes I have to give clients some homework to do and that might involve going into a bank to open up a bank account or something because we need to establish a relationship with the bank. But going in there and just remembering, because I think a lot of people trip up on this, They get really nervous for whatever reason. It's just a checking account, you know, and then just asking about a product that they do. But it is it's like I'm going into this big bank and it feels intimidating because maybe we haven't embodied our worthiness to receive that. So, you know, so that that putting on a nice suit or something that makes you feel really good when you go in and then just being prepared and honestly just have that like a simple conversation, getting to know somebody in a genuine way, like, you know, a banker. I have a client that actually takes her banker cookies all the time. And it's just a personal relationship at the end of the day.

Starting point is 00:27:02 That's your most powerful asset when it comes to business funding is your personal relationships, for sure. And is there anything else that you'd like to touch on? Come see your business and personal branding and how to really tie that into confidently moving into your messaging. Absolutely. I have this weird sense to do this. I'm going to look directly at all of you. Look, I get it. Marketing has sucked. Marketing has been schemey and it has been branding people are just not authentic anymore. People take away a lot from you. You need to understand your why. You need marketing in your business. Whatever the

Starting point is 00:27:37 corporations do as kicking marketing away as a first person. No, like that's not the case anymore. You need it. It's a foundation of your business. Branding and marketing absolutely are essential. So if you don't have that to start, I mean, start there. Please go back to your why, figure out your what, why and how and just talk to people because your audience is going to tell you absolutely everything. But you can't just have your website anymore. You need a social media presence. You need to command that. And why I'm saying this directly to you is because I get it. I've been there. I've been the skinny social media marketing manager who has taken money from small business owners. And I'm just going to be upfront about that. But everyone has been gypped and seen the gypped and been the gypper, to be honest. I'm saying that and recognizing that if I can go from that to now recognizing that I would never want to take money from a small business owner without them knowing that they're going to succeed and knowing their personal brand, knowing their brand for their business and knowing their marketing plan. I can tell you that right now that it's worth every single penny that you invest and you need it.

Starting point is 00:28:37 That's what I would do. ROI, ROI. All right. I'm going to leave you guys with one last thing to listen. We all put money into, you know, masterminds and, and rowing and meeting people, networking things and the media and the marketing and all the things, but don't forget how you are showing up in your personal image will make or break whether somebody will do business with you. that is the first thing that someone notices and it'll be the last thing that someone notices so whether or not you realize how important it is please invest know your colors know your style know the fit know your audience that everything matches know yourself mostly because really it's about bringing all that into your personal brand and I just want to say thank you for being on the

Starting point is 00:29:26 show. Amanda McGinley, Polaris Creatives, Sam the Brand Coach. Thank you, Haley Hoppe. Yes, thank you so much for coming on today and just like having these chats and really helping people here learn more about what personal branding is. Thanks. Yeah, thank you. Anyways, oh, one last thing. Don't forget to subscribe here. If you thought this was useful, all these tips. Thank you. Hit that like button. You

Moore Style - What is Personal Branding?

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