Start With A Win - 3 Steps To Level Up Your Personal Brand / Lee Heyward

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

⚡️FREE RESOURCE: 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘞𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱?  ➡︎ https://adamcontos.com/myleadershipWant weekly leadership content? Go here ➡︎ https://adamcontos.comIn this engaging episode of Start With a Win, host Adam Contos sits down with image and brand consultant Lee Hayward to unpack the undeniable power of personal branding. If you think branding is just about logos and colors, think again. Lee dives deep into the psychology of perception, trust, and the ripple effect a strong brand can have on leadership and business success. From crafting an intentional image to the surprising ways we form snap judgments, this episode will challenge you to rethink how you present yourself to the world. Tune in for insights that could transform your business and elevate your leadership presence.Lee Heyward is a brand consultant and the founder of The Prosperous Image, a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs uplevel their image so they make more money. She works with seven-figure leaders to help them build brand loyalty and grow more revenue. Lee is also the author of the bestselling book Strategically Suited: Your Secret Edge to Grow Sales and Get New Clients on how to grow sales and get new clients.00:00 Intro01:48 Could you quit a job you love? 03:20 Doing this in a way that builds the right foundation will help build your business!05:10 Why do we judge by what we see?06:55 What is a brand?13:10 Three phases of an image.16:02 This is the most important presence!18:40 Are these two things in alignment?23:20 How do you get the team onboard?28:05 Combining these two things is how I start with my day!.https://prosperousimage.com/https://prosperousimage.com/strategically-suited/===========================Subscribe and Listen to the Start With a Win Podcast HERE:📱 ===========================YT ➡︎ https://www.youtube.com/@AdamContosCEOApple ➡︎ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/start-with-a-win/id1438598347Spotify ➡︎ https://open.spotify.com/show/4w1qmb90KZOKoisbwj6cqT===========================Connect with Adam:===========================Website ➡︎ https://adamcontos.com/Facebook  ➡︎ https://facebook.com/AdamContosCEOTwitter  ➡︎ https://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOInstagram  ➡︎ https://instagram.com/adamcontosceo/#adamcontos #startwithawin #leadershipfactory

This is when you need a brand to be so strong that it stays in a thriving place with or without you. If you don't have a brand that's reflective of the intention of your business and the image of your business, it's going to be conflicting. Welcome to Start with a Win, where we unpack leadership, personal growth and development, and how to build a better business. Let's go! Does personal brand really matter? Today, we talk about that on Start With a Win. Coming to you from Area 15 Ventures and Start With a Win headquarters, it's Adam Kontos with Start With a Win.

Well, that's what today's guest, Lee Hayward, tackles every day. Lee is an image and brand consultant who works with elite service professionals to help them up-level their image and make more money by having a better personal brand. But she doesn't just focus on what you wear. She dives into the five key brand components

to help you grow your business and achieve your vision. Lee's clients often describe her work as magic and say she helps them discover their deeper selves. So I'm thrilled to have her on the show today. Lee, welcome to Start with a Win. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, this is a really cool topic

and it's one that's very important. I think a lot of people have, let's say either not even known that this was important or neglected it because it is something you have to work on in order to build your leadership. So Lee is an expert on leadership image and how that ties into your brand and how it helps you grow your business.

So Lee, take me back a little bit. How did you get into being a consultant on this and starting your own business called The Prosperous Image? Yeah, you know, it's funny because I have kind of a classic entrepreneur story where I had a job. Actually, I loved my job, so that's sometimes different. But I didn't love the life that it created.

I just wrote a press release and was like, hey, here's what I do. I'm going to help people put different clothes on. At the time, I wasn't even thinking about it from a bigger perspective like branding and leadership. It was just something I loved doing. And the press release got printed, which was kind of a miracle, because I didn't know what I was doing.

And then somebody hired me like a miracle number two. And then I was like, I guess I do this. But like any business owner, then you have to figure out how to actually build a business. And I quit a job I loved with the goal of having a life I actually loved. So I had to then go figure out how do you become a leader in an industry and be able to sort of do both sides where you have a life and business that you love. So that's where it all started. Awesome. So give us a flyover.

I mean, what does what does this have to do with business? And what does this have to do with us as a leader? Why should I be listening to Lee talk to me about my prosperous image? Yeah. So in the beginning, like I said, it was all about putting clothes on people. And I started watching what would happen when people showed up with a little bit of a different type of presence in the world. And the impact and the ripple effect it was making was really exponential compared to the amount of work that it had taken to just start to, you know,

put something different on you. But the real work came from seeing yourself in a different place. And if you're doing it in a way that builds a right foundation that's going to help you grow your business, you are starting to think about your presence and image from a place of where you actually want to go. What's the vision you want for your life?

What's the vision you want for your business? As I started working with entrepreneurs, I had started just on the personal styling side. And it's very important to start there. But what I started noticing is if you used your own self and were super clear in what you wanted, you actually sort of monumentally dialed up your own leadership in a way that asked your team to also step up and just massive ripple effect. Awesome. I noticed this.

It's fascinating. And everybody needs to take a step back and look at how our senses perceive trust and value and our desire to work with somebody. I mean, the reality is, I think as human beings, I think the number one thing that we typically rely on is our eyesight when it comes to, you know, do we like something, not like something? You know, we start making instant split second decisions.

And frankly, you know, if you walk into a, let's say a professional establishment, like, let's say you're going to have some elective surgery done and you walk in and the surgeon looks like they just got off the beach or something like that. Or they're kind of nasty, like they were just cleaning out their garage or something like that. Nothing against people who do that for a living. But the reality is that's not what I want my perception of my surgeon to be.

Why is it that we instantly form these opinions based upon what we see? And does that impact our desire to purchase from somebody? I think it does. Oh, I mean, I totally agree with you. I mean, I think it's very interesting because we do live in a place in society where it's kind of a do you, be you, all these things. But at the end of the day, we all sort of come from cavemen and cavemen were not a, do you wander out from the cave without looking, like, right? There was a reason that sort of resonated in all of our DNA that goes back to safety and survival.

And so, you know, judgment can be certainly used in a very inappropriate and wrong way. But if we really go back, judgment was sort of ingrained in all of us so that we survive and prosper. And so before the cave person walked out of their cave, they're going to look and with their eyes and decide, is this a safe time? Is this a safe place? And in a way, we're all doing that. Whether you're on Zoom with somebody to hire them, even just like listening to them, you're using all of those senses to decide like,

is this a safe investment? Is this a safe person to work for? And we don't usually put it in those terms, but really it goes back to safety, security, and ultimately, prosperity. I love this. And you created something to tie all these together, and that's your image mastery system. Tell us what is that? And then we'll start pulling it apart and go through the different components. Yeah, absolutely. So I believe that everything starts, whether you're a founder of a multiple million dollar company, or you are, you know,

doing your own show, I believe and I've found in all of this experience building my own company and working with lots of entrepreneurs, it always starts with you. So the image mastery system starts with the idea that your personal brand is driving every result that you're getting throughout every piece of your business. And I think what we have to back up a second and talk about this idea of brand because brand is one of those words that I think it's thrown out all the time. And sometimes you're think of it like, oh, it's my logo. Sometimes it's my personal brand. And I think it's like convoluted idea that nobody's super clear on, even though we're using the word left and right. So I like to make sure that my clients are thinking about their brand as what it is, which is the way people perceive you.

And what we do with the Image Mastery system is we help you use all the pieces of your image, which are the things you put out into the world, in order to strategically help you be perceived in a way that's going to make you be successful. And so it's really remembering that brand is really like what's coming in and image is what you're putting out there. And you know, it's I think image can be a sometimes a scary concept for people thinking about, oh, gosh, I have to make things look pretty or perfect.

And it's really not about that. It's really just about a consistency that you're putting out into the world. And then you're running that consistency through every piece of the image. And that is what is really speaking to clients and whoever you're in front of to give them that safety, you're in the right place, please buy from us. I love that. I mean, it was like Steve Jobs, he wore a black turtleneck and blue jeans every time he was on stage.

And I didn't know Steve personally, but I'm assuming he wore it to meetings and things like that. Also. So that was his image. I mean, you look at like Gary Vaynerchuk has a particular, he wears Air Jordan sneakers or whatever, baseball cap, has a particular look. I mean, it can go on and on.

Like, you know, Damon John has a particular look. All of these different key people, when you think of this person, it resonates in your brain. This is what their personal brand is. It's fascinating because you're right. We have this separation of some people going, you shouldn't judge what I look like. But on the other flip side of the coin,

or I guess you could say the other side of the coin, or I guess you could say the other side of the, you know, it cuts both ways philosophy, if you don't have a brand that's reflective of the intention of your business and the image of your business, it's going to be conflicting. So I mean, what happens when we create this conflicting environment where, you know, like you go into a bank and they're

dressed like a painter or something like that. I mean, is that going to cause us confusion and make our brains go, is this really who you want to be doing business with? Because I think it does. Yeah, I think it's, I mean, I think a lot of times, and you know, I've fallen to this as well in different parts of my career, we

believe that it's the service that we provide that is gonna really catapult our brand to the next level, catapult our revenue to the next level. And the service matters, but I always remind people the service is kind of a given. When I hire a lawyer and I am getting my estate plan, I kind of assume that it's going to be a good estate plan. Right. What starts to chip at that revenue trajectory and growth trajectory is inconsistency,

like you mentioned. And it's the things that make our minds sort of self-consciously start doubting. I don't think that they actually know what they're talking about. I wrote a whole chapter in one of my books called Strategically Suited, which I won't say the actual chapter name because it has a bad word in it, but it's called The Bird Poop Lawyer, but I didn't use that word. And it's a story about when my husband

and I refinanced our house a few years ago, the attorney showed up to our house to just sign papers for the closing, and he had bird poop all over his car. And it was like kind of a monumental amount of bird poop. And I walk in the house and I'm just dying to know what in the world happened because I had not quite seen anything like it before. And he just says, I park under a tree. I live here and I park under a tree. And so here's what my mind is doing. You just told me where you live. I know where I live. I know there's at least six car washes on the way. Like in my mind,

there was like a geese uprising. There's something like really cool and exciting. And so I was really disappointed. And what happened was I just assumed that the whole closing was not going to go well. It happened too. I don't know his name. I don't know the firm. I don't know anything about him to be able to refer him. And so it was something that had nothing to do, like a bird who car has nothing to do with one of them, you know, refinancing of my house goes yay or nay. But that's the thing I remember. And so never again would I recommend that firm, would I recommend him?

I don't even know what his name is. That's incredible. And a lot of the people that listen to this are in the mortgage and the real estate space. So you get an image that way. And it's fascinating. Like when we take a look at real estate agents, your client is going to see your car.

They're going to see how you dress. They're going to see how you operate. So if it looks like you live out of your car, they're going to see how you dress, they're going to see how you operate. So if it looks like you live out of your car and you're disheveled, you're disorganized, you haven't ever washed your car, or maybe you can't see through the windshield because it's all cracked or something like that, people are going to judge.

We do. It's human nature. Get over it. Don't say, no, you shouldn't judge. Because the reality is our DNA is designed to do that out of survival instinct. So this is a great topic. And it's the same thing with a CEO walking into a meeting

room. Talk to me about that. As far as CEOs and their presence, how important are these aspects? I've heard, you know, there's some books out there, there's, you know, obviously gravitas, there's appearance and there's communication as the three pillars of a CEO's presence, or

an executive presence and why those things matter. And I taught the class to executive MBAs. And I actually got some people that were turned off by me saying, people are going to judge how you look. And they're like, well, you're fat shaming me. I'm like, no, people just want to know you take care of yourself. Right. You can still be heavier, but polished. So, grooming and polish are the two aspects of appearance. What comes to mind for you when you think about executive presence and how much that matters? Yeah. I mean, so I'll back it up a little bit

because I think this is really important. I have found that in the growth of a brand, there are sort of three phases of the image. And in order to be a high level executive who is able to lead from a place where people get things done, things are happening, all the things are going right, you kind of have to be aware of this trajectory. When we start out,

no matter whether we are the peon working to be the CEO or you're just starting a business, it's your personal brand that actually helps you create the vision and clarity for where you're going. Because in order to create a brand that's correct and authentic for you, you have to design it from the inside out. And so you have to be really clear on your own values and desires.

So that's step one. Step two is when you are in a position where you're leading a team or you are becoming a thought leader within an industry, whether you're influencing on social media or in person in a team meeting, the way you are consistent with that personal brand and the way you're able to speak about it,

which sounds easy, but it's really not. Part of my job is just being a translator some of the times, is what allows you to sort of trickle the essence of the brand out of you and into other people. Now, the third step is where this executive CEO stamp comes from. This is when you need a brand to be so strong that it stays in a thriving place with or without you.

But you had to do those two steps first in order to sort of earn your sort in order to earn your keep, if you will, at that level and get an entire team and organization on board with what you're doing. Then for that particular executive, what really matters for their presence, in my opinion, is being aligned with what the company stands for and what they say they stand for.

Because their main job is being a people person, to pull all the strings and get the things done. And you can't do that if people don't respect your presence. I love that. That's amazing. So, all right, people respect your presence. We talked about personal brand here. One of the key aspects to your image mastery system is online persona. I see a lot of people hiding from going online. They're like, I don't want to have an online presence as a leader of a company. But my feeling, personally, is that somebody

should be able to know who the CEO of a company is that they're doing business with. And people want to know. I mean, Gen Z wants to know who the boss is and what do they stand for. Yes. So take me through your perspective of your key aspect of online persona.

Yeah, and online persona is a really interesting one because it's where, I don't know if I said this already, but like it or not, planned or not, decided or not, you have a brand, you have an image. So the choice is really like, are you making it what you want it to be? And the online persona piece of the image mastery system, it's one of those pieces of your image that really chips away at your reputation and your brand very quickly because everything is available

for people to see all at once. And if it's not current, it's not updated, your pictures look terrible, or you look nothing like the photos that you do put up when people meet you in person, it creates this instant mismatch that goes back to that moment of like, I don't know if it's really a secure thing. like moment of like, I don't know if it's really a secure thing. And the thing that I find actually is the biggest piece of this is really like just taking a second and being really honest with yourself. And back to your word of hiding, ask which side are you hiding from? Because we're all hiding in some way. You're either hiding, putting yourself out on social media, because it seems like a pain in the butt or like

You know your hair wasn't done or whatever the situation was or You are hiding your true self with social media and so really being honest with yourself and sort of building an online persona from from that honesty is is really key and then you've got a persona from that honesty is really key. And then you've got to, what I recommend to my clients is actually have a third party, which is me if we're working together,

but anybody can do this, have a third party Google you and have them literally look at the, how many versions of you show up. And of course there's all sorts of versions and iterations of all of our businesses, but what is the perception that they feel when they see you online? It's almost like kind of being secret shopped in a way. It's really like, if you can stomach it and find the right person to be honest with you, it's an amazing tool. I love that. What do people feel when they see you online?

That's a powerful question. I don't think too many, even your business brand, have them pull up your main website. What do they feel when they see that and then have them look you up? Are those things in alignment? Correct. I mean, that's a big question.

If they're conflicting, people are going to lose trust. Well, and what happens is, typically, as you're growing a business, you're like, OK, I need a website. I need business cards. I need better clothes. I need this. I need that.

And everything sort of gets built when you need it. And once you get to a certain point, you have the revenue, you have the growth, where it makes sense to go back and look at all the pieces in a row. But most of the time, there's a moment in time where everything was built in different versions of who the business was. And sometimes that can be very, very jarring and apparent to the potential client because they are no longer sure

who you are or what they're buying. Because we're all buying a feeling, right? There's that concept of impression of increase. Wallace Waddle's book is Science of Getting Rich. Everything in life we do because we purchase because we believe it will increase our life in some way. As simple as a stick of gum. You put a stick of gum in your mouth because you think it'll freshen your breath or it'll be fun to chew or whatever it is. And so that's what people are sort of subconsciously doing, is seeing how are you going to increase their life. And it's that online persona that can sometimes get you. I love that.

That's so cool. So as far as we see a lot of people who are afraid to get on video, are afraid to post photos of themselves, that post a meme or something that they see that really does not portray the image of them whatsoever. It's just they think people want to see it or hear it or it resonated with them at the moment. What do you think about leaders?

And by the way, I'm coming from a position, out of all transparency, I have my from a position out of all transparency. I have my students create a video as a leader. And I teach them how to create a video, camera angle, lighting, sound, what to say, how to say it, things of that nature. How important is somebody seeing you actually act as a human being versus just something that you say. I think it's huge.

I believe what sets my company and me in particular in a part is that word feel that we talked about a minute ago. Yeah. I don't really care how you want to look. I only care how you want to feel. And then my job is to align everything with that. So video is a great example of that. If you feel like an idiot, that will show up on camera.

I tell people all the time if we're planning for photo shoots or whatever, if you don't feel good in those clothes, those are not the clothes, it will show up. And sometimes it's just being uncomfortable. I mean, I remember watching myself on live TV for the first time and I did this weird thing with my eyes where I like, I don't know, I was like blinking them,

trying to look like a doe. I have no idea what I was doing. And I would not have known until I did it. And I had to do the work to watch it and see why I'm doing it. Like, what is it? It was, you know, I was feeling uncomfortable in some way that made me do that.

And so I had to like sit with that and then ask myself to grow. And that's easier said than done. I completely realized that, but I do think that's really key is figuring out the why behind why you feel like that. And then what can you do to change it? Some people are better on video live.

Some people are video when somebody sits on the other side and ask them a question. Some people want nobody in the room. So how can you make it authentic to you? Well, here's the reality, though. You're not going to know until you try. It's very true. That's sort of the fun of life. Totally.

Yeah. I don't know if I can ride a bike until I get on a bike and start pedaling. OK? It's the same thing with video. You don't know what you're going to look like or sound like until you do it. So just go do it, folks. Your first video is going to be your worst video. I can just promise you that.

So all right, so we've talked about personal brand, online persona, things like that. Let's bring this kind of around. You're growing a business. You have a team of people. How do we align that team of people with our personal brand and what we're up to? Yeah, so this is one of my favorite things to do because my big why is helping

everyone live their potential. And so when I come in to work with a business, it's, of course, the founders vision and whatnot, but they are blessed to have this team of people who are helping them create the impact that they desire. So how do you get them on board is you have to make sure they understand, I'm gonna use the phrase like, what's in it for them? Like, why does it matter that they show up a certain way?

And the main thing is, it's that they have to be bought into the why behind what you do. And that's a different speech in the conference room than, we've got to stop dropping the ball and answering the phone like this and doing it like this. Instead of, listen, the goal of this company is that we create an atmosphere that where these people go through this process and have no regrets. I mean, I'm just making this up.

But therefore, we act in this way because we believe it helps the client go through that process and we hope it helps you go through your life like that too. Again, totally making it up. But when you have a process that seems stupid, like always use blue ink on the right side of the whatever. If there's a reason and a why that is bigger and making an impact, it's way easier to get people on board. I love that. Okay. That makes sense.

All this ties into experience, right? The experience that the consumer faces or can expect the reputation around that experience, things like that. Tell me what key points should we be thinking about when it comes to customer experience as this all comes together? Yeah, so I mean, there's a great book, Joey Coleman's Never Lose a Customer book.

He talks about how the first 100 days with your client is the key. That's when you either keep them or lose them. And the idea of sort of secret shopping, like I mentioned earlier with the online persona is one of the fastest ways to figure out, wow, the experience I thought my client was having is not what I thought was really happening.

And I'll tell you a super quick story, but that illustrates this. I got new tires on a car. I'm very blessed it was my extra car, I call seven times, nobody answers, and I'm like, why is my car not ready? So I drive there in my other car, because now at this point I'm annoyed,

and I'm like, your phone's must be broken. No, we're just really busy. At this point I'm like, okay, well, so am I. And they're like, we're sorry, it'll be ready tomorrow. Fast forward tomorrow, no call, no nothing. So it was a fairly miserable experience. I had frequent in this place for probably 20 years. I've lived in the same town for 20 years.

And here's the thing, once you mess with the experience that somebody has, once I had that very kind of negative, like you clearly don't value my time, I will never go back. 20 years, one time, dry line in the sand, and I've gotten tires on other cars and we didn't go back. And so the experience is truly the thing that honestly is what your client is talking about. You think they're coming in to purchase something, but they're actually buying something else,

which is the way they feel when they're working with you. That's powerful. Amazing. Lee, where can we find you online to learn more about these concepts? Yeah, absolutely. So the personal brand concept does have a book component. That's called Strategically Suited, which is on Amazon.

There's a new book coming out later this year. And then ProsperousImage.com is the site. Awesome. And through Prosperous Image, if somebody wants to work with you on these concepts, they can sign up there or contact you. Yep. All the contact information is there.

And everything starts with just a phone call to literally see where you are and where you want to go. And just to help you figure out, okay, here's how you would close the gap. And if I'm the person to help you do that, great. And if not, go close the gap on your own. Because, you know, my true hope is that I am living that lie of helping others live their potential and I happen to do it through branding. Awesome. Lee Hayward, you've been a huge help to us today, helping us understand how our personal image and our brand and everything ties together in order for us to actually make more

money in our business and further our careers as in growing the corporate ladder or becoming more influential in the businesses that we operate in. So thank you so much for sharing all that with us today. I have a question I ask all of the leaders on the show. And we'd love to have your answer to this one also. How do you start your day with a win?

Well, I have listened to the show and seen the show before, so I came prepared. Oh, wow. It's cliche because, I don't know, I start my day with a journal. But it's true. I wouldn't say I'm a journal person, but the five-minute journal is very visionary,

which I am very visionary. And it combines vision and gratitude. And it's been a real key for me over the last few years. There's nothing wrong with vision and gratitude. It keeps you aligned and it gets you going. I love that. That's a great answer, Lee. Thank you so much for all that you do.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us today. Make sure you check her out online. And Lee, thanks for starting with a win. Thank you for having me.