Build Your Business Brand With Intent

A recorded Zoom Lecture on Branding.

Assets

In addition to the video, we also want to make available (for FREE) the 2 slide decks used in teaching the class, as well as the Client CORE Workbook that we at AdJourney use with clients in developing a Brand Strategy. (That’s THOUSANDS of dollars worth of resources.)

Included in the assets are:

• Building Your Brand With Intent
• Building Your Business Brand With Intent
• Client CORE Workbook
• Video (which can be viewed on YouTube).

All that is needed from you, is an email and contact information to send you the link for downloading the assets and to get you signed up so we can keep you posted on future assets.

 

 

 

Branding Lecture Script…

Brian
Hello, everybody.

My mic is on. Hi, Teresa. Good to see you again.

We’re going to wait just a few minutes, but I want to start and make sure everybody can hear me. If you see my mouth move then obviously I’m talking, but I want everybody to make sure you can hear what I’m saying…

So we’re going to take a different approach tonight. As you see, I’ve got my wife with me and we’re going to make this more of… I want to educate you, but make it more of a conversation. The idea of just reading slides to you does not sound appealing, and I want to make this as engaging as possible so you guys can get a lot out of it. Yeah. Trish sent a note. She’s going to be watching the chat, so that’ll be the easiest way. Once we’ve got a lot of people involved that way, we can kind of see get questions answered because I want to be able engage everybody.

And when you got 40 of us, but everybody’s mind going and get a little crazy. But what I want you to be thinking about is… I’m going to ask questions throughout the evening regarding your businesses, so have in mind to be open to thinking around this space.

My goal is to when we wrap this class up, you guys have something really practical to take away. So tonight’s class is about branding, and the title of the class is build your build your brand with intent. I’m going to do a little bit of slides, just kind of walk you through some things and give us all anchor points to talk about. But this is more almost the style of a classroom setting just all of us spread all over the place. So welcome to the chat and we’re going to go ahead and casually get started.

The class tonight is building your brand with intent. And what we’re going to do tonight is I want to talk to you about – what Trish and I are going to talk to you about branding, what branding is and then how you can leverage branding regarding your business brand.

OK, so Build Your Business Brand With Intent or Building Your Brand With Intent. Now the idea behind intent is there’s a purpose behind it. In other words, what we’re trying to do with branding is we want to have a purpose behind the business. Most everybody that gets in the business, they’re really good at what I call wrench turning. In other words, they know how to do the job of their business. You know, most plumbers get out there. They know how to change up the plumbing fixtures in a house.

But design of branding and marketing and all that, that’s a whole different business entity to itself. And so in this regard, what I want to talk about is how to do branding for your small business. With that in mind, I’m going to walk you through some thoughts here.

The first is, this is the guy I’m going to be referencing a lot for definitions. I’ve got the book ZAG. I’ve got several of his books. This is Brand Gap. You see, he’s got a I’ve got a list of several. If you get serious about marketing and branding your business, this is a great book. It’s not that thick. You can probably read it in a couple of afternoons. It’s broken up into simple little chapters, big text, lots of pictures, but it’s meaty. And Marty Neumeier is a very prolific American author and speaker, and he writes on the topics of brand design, innovation, creativity. He’s the CEO of Liquid Agency. He’s based in San Jose, California. I’m connected with him on LinkedIn. He’s a fantastic guy, a brilliant guy. You can find a lot of his talks on YouTube and highly recommend. Take a look at what he does. Again, his book “ZAG” is really cool. It’s one of the top 100 business books out there, and it’s based off of a conversation he had with a friend. The idea of when everybody else is zigging you ZAG. In other words, finding a way to stand out. And that’s what branding is really going to be about.

Branding.

What is branding?

Well, I’m gonna start with what it is not.

Branding is not a logo.

A lot of people have gotten this as a misguided mindset of a logo is a brand, but branding is not a logo. A logo, is a part of the brand, it’s a symbol. It’s the visual representation, but it’s not the brand itself.

Branding is also not a product or a service.

A product is an offering of the brand. It’s the goods, the ideas, the services that a brand provides. But that’s not what a brand is.

Branding is also not a promise. 

A lot of people tend to think of branding as being what a what a business promises or offers to the marketplace. And so while the brand ends up acting on its promise made to its clients, in other words, I’m going to solve this problem for you. A brand is not a promise, either.

Branding is also not impressions.

Now we’re in the digital age. Everybody’s used to the idea of Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and all the other channels out there of engaging digitally. A lot of businesses talk about you need to brand and you pay for clicks and you pay for impressions. But that’s not branding, either. This is what many advertisers present branding asked. But branding is not an impression, either.

Marty Neumeier says,

“Brand is not what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” 

OK, so this is kind of a strange concept to throw out there. Who is “they”? Well, let’s go to the next one. “A brand is a result. It’s a customer’s gut feeling about a product, a service or a company.” OK, so I’m going to say that one more time.

“A brand is a result.”

Everything that you do as a business, you’re in the process of building your brand. So you think of it Trish and I talk about this often. It’s sort of you can think of it almost like a reputation can be a part of your brand. It’s because it’s how people perceive your product, your service, the business that delivers it. So the result of how you do business and the result of the products that you bring to the market that shapes the customer’s impression.And so that’s why he says here it’s a customer’s gut feeling about a product, a service or a company that makes sense to everybody. Here’s where I want you to get a piece of paper, and you can even do this in your chat box if you like.

When I asked earlier for people to list the names of the business they were thinking about. Here’s how you begin the process of branding. The first is you’ve got to create some definitions that work in relation to how you’re communicating in the marketplace. OK, so the first thing in your branding is there’s a series of what I want. What I’m calling brand attributes. So like this is they call it “the feely kind of things about your brand”, but that’s really what you’re engaging with. You’re dealing with how people think. The first word that we want to look for in this is culture. OK, so with cultures, how would your customers or your employees, how do they describe your company now? With this, I’m not looking for a sentence definition. What I’m looking for, and you see, I’ve got bullet points that run down the side here… What I’m looking for in this space is that you define at least three different words that are visual words that would define how you how either they do think of your brand or how you want them to think of your brand

It’s like what examples would be friendly? Engaging would be professional. What are some things that you know you might have as visual words that you think would be a good thing for your clients or even those who are employees of yours to describe your company by throwing a few up in the chat box? Real fast? Let’s see a couple, Trish wrote. Friendly, engaging, a professional. That’s what I was just saying. So we don’t forget your words. But this is a really good thing to be thinking about because what you’re trying to do is you want.

Yeah, they are great … welcoming, reliable, nostalgic you’re wanting to think on what you’re trying to communicate to your target audience. And so in this space, these brand attributes are going to define how the brand is represented. And this allows you then as you communicate, as you engage in the space to effectively represent the brand to the market space. OK, the next question is customer. How would you describe your ideal customer? For me, it’s pain. Obviously, you know you want to make sure this guy is somebody who can afford to pay for your services. That’s one thing, but be thinking about the ideal customer.

This is a really interesting, tricky area to work in. There’s a lot of people that I’ve done. We’ve done consulting with a lot where when you sit down with them, the very first thing, it’s like, OK, describe here you know who your ideal customer is. And they’d be like, Well, everybody is my customer. I want it all. Yeah, I want it all. But you’ll find that that’s really not true. You’ve got a select group of people that are your ideal target customers, and so you want to figure out and define who they are.

So how would you describe your ideal customer? This is number two. Now again, this is a PDF document that I’ll send everybody. You’ll have to be able to build your own. What is your walking through this? If you think of things before, feel free to add to the chat as we’re going through this and throw any questions out as we’re trying to go through this knowledgeable, delicious, quality. Helpful. Nice. Good words, Teresa. Next is voice. This is one that’s kind of interesting. When I say voice southern is not necessarily the one I’m trying to come up with, but this is how you sound to others. And so we’re not looking necessarily for dialects or accents and things. What we’re looking for is how in the marketplace do people tend to think of your product? How is it that you come across? This may be educated.

This may be any number of things, really. That’s that’s the idea that you want to convey. The industry expert? It could be, you know, be thinking along the lines of how you want when people think of your product or they think of your brand.

What is it that’s being conveyed in their minds? What’s the idea that come down.. [ so, voice… this is voice? ] Yeah. The next word is feel. And this is how a customer feels when using your product or service. In other words, you deliver the product or service. What is the result? This is what I keep bringing up every time I teach a class just about is my good friend owns a plumbing business, and I’ve told him a long time ago when I was consulting firm that people are not buying how well he does, what kind of pipe you might use or what kind of glue he uses or how he puts the strap in. They really don’t care. They don’t need or even care about the nuanced details of how something a symbol. What they’re looking for is the end result that happens because the job was done well, like the faucet has water right now, when you turn it on the toilet flushes and you’ve got hot water with high pressure that peels your skin off, like those are the kind of things people, there’s a feel that’s associated with your business. Think in that relation of not just, you know, they’re happy that I did a good job for them.

Think of the actual pain that you’re resolving and how that makes them feel in that space. If it’s a product that you’re selling to them, you know, like food related, then it could be. If it’s a food related solution, then what is the result that you want to have in that space?

And our Teresa with – we got the mushrooms! So maybe there’s some element of feeling healthy and natural and earthy. That might be some of those things that would trigger in that feel space. So this next word, this next brand attribute, is Impact.

So impact is this is what you tangibly deliver. Now the other part was what they feel when they receive your product or service. This is the literal physical thing that’s being delivered. So, Teresa, this is mushrooms and food based products.

Whatever the product is that you physically deliver, what is that thing? So this is this is the the impact thing. And the other part of this is it doesn’t have to be just the physical, literal element as in a mushroom or as in plumbing. But if you’re talking about plumbing, maybe it’s running water and it’s flushing toilets. And you know, that’s that’s what the tangible product might be. The question? Yes, what if it is a web based service that does not have a tangible good feel like a service instead of a product?

OK, great question. So Jessica, what kind of web service is it that you have?

Jessica
Sorry, I had a mute myself. Sure. Just a very high level overview. It is a place where people can register the location of their estate with their attorneys office and things of that nature. They can also list their next of kin on there. They’re notified of it and their kids can log in and they can … and they can search it. And that way they know if there is a qualified medical event or in the interests of their death, that they know where the attorney’s office is and they can request that.

Trish
So the deliverable would be like a search engine they can type into or the level of service that you give them, or the breadth of the search for. Those are the things that are the deliverables that are tangible, right?

Brian
Yeah. And then even in that intangible space, you’re providing a security, a peace of mind to those, you know, in the event of something happening. Everything’s kind of laid out and defined for them. So that is a part of your deliverable as well.

The… the important reason. Let me go back one of the questions. I’m sure the important reason of thinking here of a tangible delivery is when you open it up, what is it that you actually are delivering? It’s important because this opens up a space of let’s don’t start or stop at the surface level solution. 

In other words, that easy – You know – I’ve got widgets on the shelf and that’s what people are buying. I think a little bit deeper, like you just gave us a list, which was fantastic. But in that regard, what is it that’s being delivered in that space? What is the the tie together piece? We call it the common thread. So I think of this and this is something I haven’t really touched on yet. But think of your brand like a book if you picked up a book and I’m looking if I’ve got one handy… that’s not a business book.

But if you pick up a standard great American novel, you know Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer has a common thread that runs through the entire book. It’s an idea that’s carried throughout and each chapter the consistent theme remains. It’s tied together with the main character and how he interacts as he grows.

But it’s still the same. You know, it’s like we don’t start with Tom Sawyer and, you know, two chapters in We’ve we’ve left them all in the dust and he doesn’t exist anymore. He’s still central. And you know, his adventures with his friends and everything else, it’s like he still keeps being there.

Your brand is that common thread that ties through everything that you’re doing as a business. So you want to make sure that that’s conveyed now. The next question is coaching business, self-development service, coaching business. You’ve actually answered your own question.

So you’ve defined your your tangible delivery of coaching and self-development. I mean, that’s really what the tangible delivery is. And what that looks like and how it gets expressed, it’s wide open to your interpretation. This is the beauty of branding is because each brand really needs to find how it represents itself in the marketplace and does so different from everybody else.

Next. The X Factor is what makes you special. Just like I was talking about just then as I wrapped up that little Segway is what is it that you do uniquely? How is it that when you come to the table with your product, your service, your solution, that it stands out?

If you’re out…

Trish
Compared to others in your [ yeah], in your lateral field, correct?

Brian
People that are on the same lateral field… those who are in the same segment. You want to be… you want to have a way that you’re unique. And this doesn’t mean you show up and do things in a… always in a strange way or whatever. But a good… a good example of this is I know a guy that’s got a painting service and he is Scottish. And so he actually created a brand. It’s Kolor Me Kilted. It’s spelled with a “K” for Kolor and “K” for Kilted. And he shows up in his kilt and paints houses. That’s just, you know, that’s his unique thing. It’s a different segway – in a different way of representing, but it’s an interesting idea. It’s his X Factor. It’s just kind of how he stands out.

And what’s interesting is, that’s something that not everybody in the field is going to do – for one, but it makes it so that he stands out. You’re going to not forget the guy that shows up at your house and is wearing a kilt when it comes to paint your house. It’s just different. Now there’s X Factor have to always be what makes you unique or can it just be something you do that others in your lateral field do, but you do it exceptionally well. It can be both of those things.

So yes. Great question. And that’s everything that makes you special. The things that set you apart, whether it’s how you deliver the service or if it’s something in what you actually do. You know, all the things that really stand are set you apart in the industry. OK, so here’s the completed collective here of: culture, customer, voice, feel, impact and X Factor. And these are the Brand Attributes. These are really great to spend time on when you’re not listening to a lecture to really dive deep on some of the words around each of these columns.

Trish
And it really starts congealing things for you when you can sit to it quietly and really give it thought. Right. This, I mean, you might look at this and kind of go, OK, I don’t understand how this ties into what I’m doing as a business.

Brian
Again, remember, you’re the wrench turner. You’re really good at wrench turning in your business. This right here is how you’re going to set yourself apart and make sure that when you’re communicating to your target audience, you’re going to engage in a way that resonates and makes sense.
OK, with all of these things, this is a really good thing to engage other people into as well. Like those who know you best are, know the business that you’re a part of. Ask them what their words might be.

Get some range of ideas in this space. This is something that when I’m doing it with a client, I’m typically, you know, several hours involved in the process of, let’s go through each word and let’s think about this and how it resonates for you. The reason this is important, though, is from this collection, you’re going to select three words, OK. This is going to help us define a sentence that you’ll be able to use to describe your brand. But it’s also going to give you the three words that will help you define how are you going to communicate in the marketplace

I’ll show you what I mean. Each of those words fill out, this sets this business name, yours provides this product and service to this particular customer in a blank culture as defined here as a blank environment with a this kind of voice helping them feel. We bring in the field word and then the two impacts that that’s made because of how they feel and because of the service that you provide. So this is kind of a a a way to break it down and help you understand.

We’re taking all the words that we’re using here, and it creates for us a structure for defining in one to two sentences what you’re all about.

Trish
I would encourage you too, to not just lock yourself into the thoughts of your product when you’re asking these questions, especially when you’re asking them of current clients or even people who know you or know the business. Yes, of course you want some interface and feedback about product or service, but you want to branch out a little and ask some leading questions about their whole entire experience with the business.

Like, “What’s something that stands out about, you know, being able to reach us or being able to make an appointment?” Or “What did you notice about your experience with my workers when they arrive at your home?” And that’ll start helping people see that, that it’s more than just my water came on when you came and left.

So thanks. It’s going to help people who may not be very creative or want to think a little more deeply about the broader experience of interacting with your business. And you will then hear from your clients how people are consistently seeing you, if you, if they if you hear from your clients over and over.

I mean, it was great what you got here. You did a fantastic job, but it really was kind of a hassle to to actually get somebody on the phone and make the appointment right that that can really give you a clue as to some things that may need to be improved.

Or, you know, if nobody mentioned something that is important to you that you feel like you are making a priority. So I think about a home service provider like HVAC or somebody has to come into your home and you’re sending an employee in to do that – going the extra mile.

You know, when a stranger arrives to the home of, you know, they’re going to have your number, they’ll text you a picture of themselves, tell you when they’re ten minutes out, the wear shoe covers, they’ll interact with you when they come in and not just kind of chin down and show me where the thermostat is. You know, if that’s important to you, you need to hear that that’s being done from your clients right now. It needs to stand out enough that they’re saying, you know, I really didn’t even expect that, but it made me feel really safe to know what face I’m supposed to expect because anybody can pull up in a blue mechanic’s shirt and just say they’re here to help me out and [ right], you know, I don’t. I just do ask the questions about the broader experience and interface with your entire business. When a customer does the customer experience from start to finish, not just the product or the result.
[ Right ] OK, sorry.

Brian
No, that’s actually really good. Really good information. And what she’s talking about. one thing that’s funny in that space is several years ago, I taught a branding class at Sandhills, and one of the people that came to the class started a service business in kitchen appliance repair. And it was several years later we actually had them come out and do a service on our refrigerator, and they walked through the exact process that I’d laid out in the class, which was really exciting, and I contacted them to let them know because that was really neat to see.

Again, it’s the simple things. Think of it this way. Brand is how the consumer thinks about you as a business. So everywhere, that’s what’s called a consumer touch point. I mean, it’s everywhere that your brand can come in contact with the business or come in contact with a person.

And I say it right everywhere that a person can come in contact with your brand is a touchpoint, and it will shape the way the people feel about the brand and the services delivered. It’s not just about the wrench being turned, it’s the whole experience.

Trish
And I will say to that just on the human behavior side of things. Please do remember and consider that your product while it’s, you know, you can kind of encapsulate that. Try to remember that we, as humans do personify things with the personality and human on to even stagnate objects.

Yes, we do it to our animals, [ we do ]. But I mean, they will superimpose personality on top of their experience of your business or the product that’s left behind with them that they’re holding in their hands, that they we just naturally do that as humans. And so do remember that your product is almost this personified thing that’s interacting with your audience.

Brian

Yes. And that’s actually really important to remember on the branding element. Think of it this way if you’re a service based business and you’ve got an employee that’s had a bad day and he shows up at the customer’s house with an attitude, that customer does not have an extended history with you. They’re measuring that experience based off of the one they have with that that person – that shows up at their house – at that moment…

Trish
It gives your product a personality.

Brian
Yeah, and it can be a negative personality that negatively impacts your brand completely. And here’s the crazy thing that’s been true in marketing and branding and advertising forever. If people have a good experience, there’s a small chance that they might tell, because the expectation is that it should be good.

It’s got to be extraordinary for them to say something about it. If they have a negative experience, it’s likely they’re going to tell at least three people that they’ve had a bad experience. So think about that. You’re one.

The opportunity of a positive is very rare, the opportunity of a negative. It’s going to have three times the negative impact, just as a good be aware of because this is something you’re constantly dealing with. Customers. Now I’m going to leave this here for a second.

I’m going to go to another slide. I think I can switch it over. Let’s see. Yeah, good. I’m going to jump to a slide real fast. Here we go. Oh yes. OK. Customer. So the part about defining your customer, this is a really a valuable thing to be thinking about with this regard.

I’m going to go into the customer side for a second, but I want to lead with this – “Unless there’s a problem to solve, the prospect is not going to buy a product.” First thing to keep in mind. So we need to understand what your client’s pain point and to know your customer pain point – you’ve got to know who your customer is. This is the thing where it gets really tricky because a lot of times we get these assumptions about who are customers. We tend to think they’re just like us. They’re not, they’re not us. They’re a whole different group of people. And so you’ve got to… you’ve got to find out and discover who your actual audience is. Identify the pain points. And what I’ve got here are four quick things. Number one is: “Don’t make assumptions.”

It’s easy for us to assume because of how we view things that we know exactly what the problem is or what the pain point is. It’s typically not always going to line up with how we think or process. We have to get into the consumer’s mind. The second thing is: “Discuss and discover.” The best way to do this is to ask the right questions. You want to find out what it is. That’s important. I’ve got I’ve got notes all around my computer here about asking questions.

Be curious, learn about the client and know what their problem is, what their actual issues are. The next is: “Actively listen.” I’ve got the note of Big Ears, little mouth, ask questions and let them have a chance to tell you what the problem is. Even if you walk into a house and… Trish, do you remember the commercial… There was a commercial, YouTube thing one time and there is this couple is sitting on the couch talking and the ladies got a nail sticking out of her head and the guy’s looking and he’s like, You know, the obvious problem is this nail sticking out of her head. But the commercial…

Trish
She keeps complaining like, my head is killing me. I just can’t understand why I’m having so much trouble. I’m so distracted. I have this pain and it’s just I can’t get around it.

And he’s looking at her with this nail sticking out of the center of her head, like.

Brian
But it’s not the nail. [ It’s not about the nail. ] It’s not about the nail. In regards to what looks to be the obvious thing, one thing that’s really interesting in this space, I’ve had several people that I’ve not been able to do business for that. I know I could help because they’ve had a negative experience with somebody else in marketing or advertising before. So it’s a … for me, the obvious problem is, you know, ABC [ obvious solution ]. The obvious solution is ABC, you know, it’s like it’s so clearly defined.

But that wasn’t their problem. Their problem was they had a bad experience with somebody else who cheated them in marketing with with the prior experience. And so it created a negative that that was what my biggest issue was.

I couldn’t do the first thing for them until I understood that for you. As you go to a client’s house, if you’re an HVAC and you’re supposed to fix their their AC unit, stop for a minute and find out what the problem is. It’s not always the nail. And what I mean by that is find out what to them looks like a, you know, a happy finished solution like Trish talked about before. The idea of when the service tech shows up, before he shows he’s going to send a picture, is going to send a picture to the customer, letting them know what time he’s going to be there. He’s polite. He puts on the little scruffy things over his feet. He talks and is patient and client kind to the customer. So he’s creating this safe, comfortable environment. Whatever that that’s that to the customer will mean far more than the big details of, you know, making sure the thing runs within ten minutes of getting there or whatever.

Trish
It may be that in that instance, it’s not just that it’s hot inside, but maybe the spouses haven’t been getting along for a few weeks. And, you know, he thinks she’s not pulling her weight. And then the AC goes out and what are we going to do to get this money? You’re not even working. You know, there’s so much more going on than it’s hot in here, please fix it and make it cooler. Just remember, these are human beings in relationship outside of their current problem that you can fix that have much bigger implications. [ Right ] So just be aware. I think it’s always good to be aware there’s a much bigger picture going on.

Brian
Yeah, and it seems so simple. And it is. It’s simple because we’re dealing with people. The next is finally common thread identify trends, product offerings and adjust kind of pay attention to what’s going on the marketplace, what the other people that are your competitors are doing. But here’s why I wanted to start on this page and go to the next one is you have to know your audience, to know what they need and how you can help them.

This was something I did for a client. It’s been a long time ago, 2016, I believe, and this was for a business that provided checks and balances. They managed people’s finances. They they handled their mail and we thought, OK, we need to define who is their target audience.

So we created six different profiles and each of these profiles, what I did is I defined getting to know what are the basic demographics? Here’s their age 65 and older, 19% of the population by 2030. Currently, one in ten people. I defined ’em

I call them Active Andy, gave a personality, and I said they’re retired people who’ve had a long, successful career and are enjoying the golden years, but the measure of financial stability to support their newfound freedom. Well, the attributes, here’s what the attributes are.

Here’s some key words that you’re going to find common among this group: Freedom, Financial Manager, Retired, Fun, Hobbies. Attitudes. This is some of the attitudes that they’re running into and then pain point. This is important. Bondage to essential financial concerns that take away from valuable time.

They’ve got time constraints. They’re looking for – Give me freedom. They’re big on money and small on time. So then we say, I want to define the solution. What is the solution? EDCNB makes their life easy, and this is how they do it.

This took some time because I had to break down each one of the target clients. That was their audience. But it allowed me to define what the problems are and allow me to figure out what keywords that are important to this audience.

So you got to do some research. We had to understand what their attitudes were and it allowed me to talk to them. So whenever Anne Selines – the lady, whenever she’s sending an email out to target this audience, she can have Active Andy in her mind and write a conversation to them.

She’s not just throwing out, Hey, pay attention to what EDCNB can do, but she can say, Hey Active Andy, let me tell you about how we address your problem, and she can speak to their pain points. This has been very significant for her.

Here’s how that actually laid out for when we … we put the presentation together, and then the actual copy that was used in the website. We created a story. We defined everything about it, and this was very powerful. And just recently sent me a message this year when I did a review that talked about the product, and she said she’s still actively using all of these customer profiles because they’re so fundamental to what her business is. This is what you need to do for your business. It takes time to figure out who your target audience is, and it’s just as important to know who your target audience is as it is to understand who your target audience is not. In fact, probably more valuable is the ones that you do not want to do business with, and you can know how to avoid that audience by understanding who your audience who the targets are.

Trish
I’ll tell you, to a small business owners, it’s going to be a big challenge.

Typically, I think, with the majority of small business owners to actually carve away potential clients. Yes, you don’t belong. It just feels so intuitively wrong because we want to sell [ right ] We want sales. We want to close, we want to, and it is so hard to go…

I would rather that non-client is non-good-fit for me – keep walking that way, and lose money, then gain their… the closing of that sale. And it is not good communication because they’re just not it’s not a good fit.

That is a huge hurdle to get over as small businesses that you are very much more happy and genuinely successful in business when you can define who a great match for you is and a client and who is not and be okay with saying we’re not a good match.

You know, it’s just not a good match. I mean, it’s almost like dating. Yes, you know, it’s like you need to know who is not a good match so you’re not wasting your time. And there’s because time is an asset you don’t get to replenish.

Brian
Right! So any other questions from anybody before we go any further?

Jessica
I’ve got one. [ Sure. ] For my particular business, I know you talked a lot about, you know, with the branding and competitors and things of that nature mine specifically as far as I’m concerned and the other local professionals in the area that I’ve spoke with about, it doesn’t really have any competitor, so I don’t have anyone to set myself apart from. What would be your recommendation, how to proceed with that?

Brian
That’s actually a really great spot to be in. But that means you’ve got a couple of challenges.

Number one is, how are they accomplishing this without you? In other words, there’s a workaround. Trish tells me when she was younger, her mom would intentionally move the cereal bowl randomly on the table, and Trish would adjust herself to the cereal bowl instead of just moving it to where it was.

So and the solution that you bring to the table people right now are moving themselves around the cereal bowl. All of that makes sense, but in your space, then that means you’ve got to define why they would be interested in the service that you bring.

So not always is your competitor, somebody who’s doing the exact same thing you’re doing. It’s also the alternative means by which the thing is being accomplished. I think to this is another very good time for you to have your very strong client profiles because otherwise, you know, you go into that space that Brian talked about earlier where it’s like, I just they’re all out there. They’re all mine. Well, you run yourself ragged. You’ll have a ton of clients that are not ideal, which is not fun. In all, the money in the world can’t make up for really unenjoyable ill fit clients.

So take it, spend some time on your client profiles and get this thing honed in to where you are loving what you do. You are getting paid well for what you do because you’re doing it well for exactly the right people.

Yeah, that would be. The thing is, you know, you weren’t so much looking to your side to side to see what you shoot, what your message should be. You’re literally looking at, you’re creating your ideal clients and you’re saying, you know, what does my message need to be to them to make sure they know I’m here for them? Yeah, there’s actually in the PDF document that you guys will receive. There’s a breakout that talks about your competitors space, just for instance. Think of you, so you’ve got a restaurant that’s going to sell chicken sandwiches. You know, basic, you’re direct competitors are those that sell the exact same thing, in this case, Chick-Fil-A.

They sell chicken sandwiches in the next category. It’s literally called Category. In this space, you’re talking about people who sell something in a similar vein. In other words, it might not be the only thing they sell, but it’s one of the primary things they sell in this case KFC, Zaxby’s, Popeyes, Church’s Chicken, Bojangles. They’re all known for chicken, and they all sell chicken sandwiches, though that’s not necessarily their primary category. The next area is the Substitute. These are restaurants in this case that provide chicken sandwiches, as well as a lot of other options.

In this case, Cook Out, McDonald’s, Arby’s and Shoney’s. And then the last area is the Indirect Competitor, and these are solutions that you can get other food sources, whether it’s Taco Bell, Domino’s Pizza, Marco’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, not even chicken sandwiches, or even where a chicken sandwich can be acquired by doing it at home like a Tyson’s chicken patty breast. In regards to what you’re talking about, Jessica. You’ve got to think in relation to again thinking outside the box, a little bit of how is it they’re accomplishing their problem being solved now, and it might not be a comprehensive solution. It could be. It’s being done multiple ways.

Trish
Also, there may be a need in the market that people don’t even realize they need it. They don’t even realize there’s money out there. I assume like that. I don’t… I’m not totally honed in on what your business is, but maybe they don’t know they have a problem that you have the solution to, they’re like, I never really thought about the fact that there may be money out there waiting for me that I didn’t realize. Great, great Grandma, whatever. You know, remember, too, that the problem in the market for you may be that they don’t even know they have a problem, right?

You offer the solution.

Brian
Yeah, your biggest challenge on the outside of this is clearly communicating to your target audience what it is that you do and why it’s valuable. OK, so we’ve already been here. You’ve seen this page.

Who are your customers? Again, this is what’s really key in this space is to understand who your customers are. Now I’ve broken this up. This is a simplified way of doing the complex version I had just a second ago, but demographics, customer back story, customer needs and why?

And then I added a fourth panel here. It’s Exceed Their Needs. Now the reason I put that is because I want you to think in this space – What is it that you as a… as a product provider, a solution provider… what can you do that is going to exceed the needs of your target audience?

What is it that’s going to set you apart in the marketplace so that when you’re delivering there, just kind of blown away? Now from that collection, this is actually what was talked about in the logo class last week.

We take those three brand attributes, which is three of them. And those three attributes we use to create the focus of the direction for a logo. So in this case, three pick pick three attributes from culture, customer voice feel impact X Factor.

And this defines the brand and direction. Other words, how it’s represented in the marketplace. And this is kind of like you’re going to choose three keywords that you feel best interpret what your brand looks like, feels like and exist in the marketplace.

This is how the best way to define creating a logo start. But it’s also how you then can communicate and shape the look and the feel of your brand. Because once you define the personality or the brand attributes for your brand, like Trish said, we personify products and solutions and things.

Once you define this, then you’ll notice on here, says curated samples of colors, fonts, images and styles. Once you’ve defined the three keywords that are going to represent your brand, you want to think of things that help express that idea. Now, the logo class spends a little more time talking about this, but why is that important? Because ultimately, what you’re trying to do is to talk into that space. You’re trying to engage as this thing that’s understood and seen in the marketplace.

Branding is the process of connecting good strategy with good creativity. OK, so all of this that we’re talking about up to this point is about good strategy, and they’re taking all these things, these elements and conveying them, finding a way to be creative and and to share this.

This is how you’re being creative now with regard to the logo stuff. I’m going to recommend that if you don’t use the tool, get a free account with Canva. Let’s see a MVA. You can do a Google search.

It’s free. They do have a pro version, but for everything that you guys would use it for, it’ll just be a great resource. You can also get a Pinterest account. You can get, you know, several you can get a Google Drive document and just start dropping things in.

But as you find things that feel like what you want your brand to look like, how you want your brand to be portrayed, then you want to begin collecting or putting together a visual palette. This would help you define your colors.

It might help you choose the fonts that represent your brand. It’s all those elements. Yes, there you go, Teresa. You say Theresa screen. She’s got a style got already started. So those are really great things to do for how to define your brand visually.

This is me. 

There’s no magic formula, no fairy dust, no secret process, just a well-defined problem, a strategy to engage it and creative to communicate the solution. So branding it this is this is what branding is all about branding and marketing.

Branding is defining what the brand is and marketing is effectively communicating that message. OK, so this is something that Trish and I every conversation we have with the client. We start with asking this this same question What is your message?

What is your message? So think about this when you’re talking to a potential client. What is the message that you’re delivering to them? What is it that you’re letting them know that you can do? That’s solving their pain, their problem?

Again, it goes back to asking questions, but I hear you thinking,

Trish
I’m just thinking of so many clients we’ve sat with who are well-established yet and, you know, getting things done. They’re running uphill, but they’re getting things done.

And the first question you ask is, “What is your message?” Like… There was a particular one I’m thinking of. We sat with their their actual marketing person employed by them and, you know, and she just sat there. Like a deer in the headlights, like… in front of her boss, and it was sort of like, Oh!…

And she’s actively sending out a post every day on social media and I’m like, “So what’s your message?” But it’s the same thing. This is where you find companies that are sharing recipes, who are sending pet pics, who are all over the place with the communication.

Brian
But it’s not a consistent message. And you what you end up with is just like throwing stuff at the wall, hoping something sticks. It’s ineffective. It’s like it becomes noise. Maybe you’re painting illustration of every stroke, contributes to story or takes away from it.

Yes. So that was my degree in college was communications and the emphasis with commercial art. And one of my instructors, Brian Jekyll – fantastic, fantastic teacher, an amazing artist. But Brian Jekyll told the class. He said that like Trish was just saying, “Every stroke in the painting either contributes to the story or it takes away from it.”

You don’t want any more strokes than what’s actually adding to the story. So in regards to your messaging, in regards to your website, your social media, the things that are a part of how you represent yourself. All the consumer touch-points, if they are not on point, then they’re actually detracting or taking away from your brand…

Trish
It’s always good to know what your message is, so that right before you hit publish or send, you just kind of ask the question. It’s just like almost an automatic thing you do. It’s procedural where you’re like, OK, my message is.. it always is – dot dot dot.

Does this contribute to that message? Does this convey that message? Does this, you know, is this on point, right? Is this getting at it? So having just a basic filter, just a teeny little thing that you’re remembering before you post?

Is this really about what I’m about? [ Right. ] You know, I’m not going to be I’m not going to be posting recipes on Facebook because it’s not what I’m about. I’m going to be posting things about how to do something the easiest way possible with the least amount of steps.

That’s more on brand for me.

Brian
Yeah. You know, like Teresa with the mushrooms… maybe recipes would be a part of your thing because you’re dealing with mushrooms and you want to show options. But if someone is out there with an HVAC company, mushrooms and stuff just might not be in their wheelhouse.

So it actually is a distraction and it doesn’t keep you on point.

Teresa
You don’t. You don’t want mushrooms in your HVAC system. [ That’s right. ] And that’s fungi of any kind. [ It’s a big problem.] It’s a no no. What around the mushrooms? Yeah, but it’s funny.

You can’t grow mushrooms without HVAC, but you just don’t want it in your HVAC.

Brian 
Right! [ Yeah. ] OK. Was there a question there? I think I heard somebody.

Trish
“Be relevant to your Brand.” Yes, Melanie…

Brian
Yes, that’s right, Melanie. I’m going to throw some questions in here that’s actually not on the PDF, but it’s some notes that I made today when I was thinking about this class.

With your brand. Start with your core competency. In other words, what is it that you do that sets you apart? Simple, right> Everybody here could probably say I’m in the business of…

And they could say specifically what their business is. The next thing is Simon Sinek, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, you’re probably very across him at some point. But he has a book and he’s got a whole TED talk, a whole series around this idea of – “Why?”

So, know Why you do – what you do. This is actually really important. Sometimes it’s, you know, I just needed a job and this is what I was taught how to do. And so this is what I’m doing. But you’re Why is actually really important because it’s going to drive and determine the direction you take your business and how you run your business.

Trish
It’ll have so much to do with your message too!

Brian
It will definitely… It’ll definitely have that. So be it… be figuring out what your Why is. Why do you do what you do?

The third… the third thing? What are the top three values of your business? And this can be your life values, in other words. This kind of goes back to where we were looking at those key words before that defines your brand.

When you think about your business, what is it that you want people to think about regarding your business? What do you want to be known for? Do you want to be known for being the cheapest guy on the block?

I mean, there is people who have the race to the bottom. Maybe you want to be the most expensive. And in that space, you’re not going to declare you’re the most expensive, you’re going to have a different terminology for that.

You’re the most qualified. You’re going to be. Yeah, you can have the best quality. You’re going to provide the best service. And so in… you define what you’re trying to do, what are the values that you bring?

Trish
I mean, this is a real that’s a real another filter.

Thinking of another business that they 100% are excellent at what they do and you will not be dissatisfied with the results. However, it is not because of just the logistics of the running of the business and the difficulty in acquiring a really solid workforce to deliver that thing – well.

They cannot prioritize at this point being the person you can have quickest out to your property to take care of things, but best believe they are the best and most sought after because they have every kind of certification, insurance, all of the things there.

They are highly educated, well qualified, come and go and you never know they’ve been there. They get the job done and done well, but… they have to sacrifice the fact that you’re going to have to wait for it and many people are more than willing to.

Brian
Yeah. So we actually have an example of this. one of our clients is a tree service. And in that space, what’s amazing is he’s told me several times that because of the marketing of things that we’ve done and because of the quality of work that he does, he said he could run three crews round the clock and just to stay caught up with the amount of people that want his service. So it’s a good problem to have. But then what you have to do is you have to adjust your communication in that space. I’ve actually recommended that he hire somebody to come in and man the phone, and their whole job is to basically get people on, say, started off with, “OK, we’re already booked out for a month. Is that OK with you?” Because otherwise it’s going to be a negative on the front side. But what happens is everybody that he does work for, but take away every single time is, “these guys are simply the best!”

And it’s a great reputation. But like we talked about before the consumer engagement, the consumer touch points affect the brand as much as the actual product service deliver. This is where it gets really tricky and you have to be careful for it and I’ll just bounce back.

Trish
You know, Brian mentioned, think about the top three things you want to you want your business to be known for. You do have to realize that this is going to mean you have got to choose things that are less important for you to be known for because you cannot do it all, be it all – you’ve got to decide. You’ve got to choose. It’s so hard. You want it all and you want to just be it all for all, especially as a small business. It’s just such a huge struggle to niche in that way. Right? But do you realize when you’re looking at the top three things you want to be known for?

Sometimes that means sacrificing other things you won’t be. Yeah. Everything you say yes to, you’re actually saying no to other things. And that’s something that’s hard for people a lot of times to get and understand, but it’s really a key part.

Brian
Let’s see. OK, I want to take a look in a different space here. This is kind of continuing with the engagement. CAUSE. This guy, I don’t even know how to pronounce his name, but he had this really neat quotation. It says, 

“Money is not your only purpose.
Your purpose is to make things better for other people,
and in the end, money will come as a result.” 

I like that quotation. But here’s the thing about Cause. Cause is – Who are you?

What is your business or branch reason for existing? What’s your Cause? What’s your purpose? This is kind of the idea of answering your why? What sets you apart? You have a niche that is unique to you, a talent and offering an idea, a means of delivering your service that set you apart.

What is it? And Be you! Be your brand. Your company needs a central, compelling definition that embodies what you are all about. It means a heartfelt sense of who am I and why do I matter? Then you, as a company need to embrace that idea fully.

This is what we’re talking about with this whole idea of defining your brand while I want. I spent so much time on that brand building piece with answering answering all these questions because this is what sets you apart in the minds of the consumer.

Again, you guys are probably great wrench turners in your specific field. The thing is is you’ve got to take that message and make it relevant to people who are not going to be wrench turners alongside you. They’re relying on how you’re going to solve their problem.

Trish
And I don’t know how many of you here have representatives of you and your brand and your business out in the community doing the thing. I don’t know who here has employees and whatever. If you do not get your brand right and get it succinct to where someone who represents you and the brand out to the community , to the client. If you don’t have that clear and they can’t echo that to you, like if you don’t have that fear internally, right? You know, it’s not just about making it clear to your potential clients and the market.

You have got to make it clear internally so that your folks go out and convey the same exact, consistent, concise message. [ Right. ] Huge.

Brian
Agreed. So all of that gives us the basis – the foundation for defining our brand. But the other side of this is that you’re going to take all of that and you’ve got to take and communicate it out. So branding with intent, the first part of that is shaping what the brand is all about. And then the other side of that is the marketing element of actually communicating that forth. David Legere, Krantz, said:

“All I wanted to do was to follow my passion and tell a good story.”

This was a fellow who was his author. But I liked his quote because the idea here is branding and marketing is really that. It’s telling a good story. In order to have a good story, though, you’ve got to have problems that’s being solved.

You got to have the hero of the story. And by the way, you’re not the hero of the story – the customer is. We’ll get to that later. Communication and Channel. So where is your target audience? Be, where they’re going to be.

A lot of people think everybody’s on social media, so I just need to be on social media. Figure out where your target audience is. It might be just as effective, you know, depending on who your audience is to be in a local publication as it is to be on digital channels.

Not everybody’s on Tik Tok and on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. So figure out where your customers are actually going to be. And this is, you know, this because you’ve defined who they are and you’ve kind of laid out that definition.

Once you understand who your audience is, then you begin thinking of, OK, how can I get in front of you? So this has be where they’re going to be show up, where they are going to be looking, listening and engaging with life… and then, be a part of their existence.

So I’ve got in this, Define the channels of communication and the 360 degrees of communication as think about your brand collectively, what are all the consumer touch-points that your brand may have? It can be as simple as your business card.

It can be the lettering on the side of your vehicle so people know how to get in touch with you. But think about how to get in front of the people that need to know about you, then speak in your audience’s voice.

Now remember, I told you to figure out your voice. Well, you want to speak in a way that can be understood and recognized by them. So I think, was it Jessica, that you have the estate, the estate stuff? OK, so in that space, you need to be able to figure out, how can I communicate this product, this solution, in a way that’s relevant to them, that makes sense to them. So you’re going to take terminology that works in their space.

So in other words, in your space as you’re communicating, going to be familiar and comfortable, be approachable, real and relatable – talk in terms that the consumer knows. I’ve worked with some multi-million dollar brands and they get caught up in their their terminology.

Their language, their industry speak, and they’re so proud of it. The salesman love to talk about things. One company that I worked with, they were a base layer manufacturer and they literally did the manufacturing here in North Carolina.

And the challenge that they had is the salesmen knew how to talk about spun yarn and they knew how to talk about combed wool. And you know, they… they were familiar with all of the terms of wicking and breathing and all these things that had not yet hit the industry standard. People weren’t used to that terminology. And so when they would sit and talk and have a conversation with people, it was just going straight over their head. And the consumer just kind of .. they blinked out. They’re not paying attention because it doesn’t relate.

So you have to speak to the consumer with the idea of – it used to be called the granny test. In other words, talk to them in a way to make sure that they understand and you’re going to not talk down to them, but you’re going to talk in a way that they understand what you’re communicating.

Trish
It makes me think of in the medical, in the medical world. You know, you want to be a physician with good bedside manner. And a huge component of that is, can you speak in the language of the patient?

No, you don’t. You’re not going to use million-dollar words that they literally have no connection to. You are going to speak in their language so that they can have better understanding and you guys can communicate better.

Brian
Right! There’s a thing I like to do in the communication stories that I do teach in this space, and it’s called Tap it out. And this is a really fun exercise to do in a classroom where I have everybody kind of sitting around and I’ll say, Okay, pair up. Now I want you to get a song in your head.

Whatever doesn’t matter what the song is. Don’t hum it. Don’t sing it. But I want you to tap it out on a table for the other person, and they’re going to try to guess the song that you’re you’re tapping. And what you find is the person who’s tapping – they are so insistent that for sure [ how can you not hear it? ] Yes, because they hear it in their head as they’re tapping, and they’re assuming that obviously the other person can hear this rhythm and know what they’re doing.

But to the person that’s listening, all they’re hearing is [ tap – tap – tap ] and it means nothing to them. Think in that relation. Get that story in your head because every time you communicate and you’re not speaking their language and you’re not talking to them, it’s just like tapping on the table. The song is not being conveyed.

Engage the consumer touch points. Consider everywhere your consumer will engage with your brand and be there with an image that reiterates who you are and how you will solve their problem. And we’re going back to this piece… unless there’s a problem to solve, the prospect is not going to buy a product.

Here’s the thing… you might know that there’s a problem to solve, but does the person that you’re trying to reach know that they have a problem? And the thing is – is you have to figure out how to solve the client’s problem.

This is really kind of a nuanced, tricky thing. But again, the customer, the client has a problem in mind and it might not again, like we talked about earlier, it might not be the nail that’s obvious. It’s something there.

You’ve got to figure out what the customer’s problem is and make sure you’re addressing that as you engage. [ Mm-Hmm. ] Here’s a couple of examples. I just put a couple of here. Moore Family Medicine when I designed their logo, we were looking at “How can we convey this story?”

And so this is telling a story that we’ve got a new name and a new logo. But the business was going to remain the same. And so this was literally the postcard that I put together. It says new name, new logo, same location, same phone, same great care.

This was a simple way of conveying a story that would allow us to kind of carry through. Plumbing Knight. I designed their logo, but here’s something that’s really kind of interesting. This is dated. This comes back from the early 2000, but Rodney Swarms was looking for a way that he could get the phones to ring. And he said, Brian, if you could just come up with a way to make the phones ring, that’d be great. This is what I did… In the local newspaper, once a week on Sundays, I would take and we would run this full size, I think, a five inch ad and I would say, tell the people who were there and they’d hide these three little one inch ads randomly throughout the paper. And what they had to do is they had to go through the paper, find what pages they were on and then call the Pilot – ahhh, not call the Pilot, but the Plumbing Knight and let them know where the phone number, where the ads were.

OK, so what happened is they were getting over 100 phone calls a week with people trying to let them know where the knight was. Why was this important? Because what I was doing is I was getting people to look for the knight.

You think about that in relation to your business. Your goal is to get people to pay attention to you and to look for you and then know how to get in touch with you. We accomplished both of those things and his service – took off.

This is where the Plumbing Knight really began to ramp up in regards to their sales.

Trish
Because I’m betting that outside of just looking in the paper, you get in the habit. Yeah, you subconsciously you’re getting in the habit of looking for them because you almost start feeling connected like I know them, [ Right. ] And so then you’re out and about and you see one of the trucks and you notice, whereas it may pass you by, you’ve already been on the hunt for them somewhere else. So your brain kind of keeps on the hunt for them everywhere else. [ Right. ]

It makes… It makes it. It’s really an interesting practice, but I think it’s highly effective.

Brian
So, I mean, this is maybe something you might be able to utilize in your digital channels if you’re advertising digitally. How can you engage people in a way where you’re telling them something?

And that is what I did here – quality service, timely service, personal service. I gave them three touch points. Every time they would find these three ads, these little bitty block ads, I’m conveying information and I said – Plumbing Knight = peace of mind. Plumbing = convenience. Plumbing = reliability. I’m telling the story over and over again. How can you take your story and convey it in a way that engages? In addition, once anybody called, we would also send a postcard that gave them $10 off any service, and we engaged in that space, so we were keeping the contacts going.

Trish
You were training your clients to be treasure hunters and you were setting yourself up as the treasure. [ Yes. ] So that is an impression that is just you can’t break that in a human brain. That’s an impression that was made like there’s something to be sought after there, something to hunt for there, the treasure that I’m looking for…

Brian
Right. And even if you didn’t get the, you know, the free meal, they still got something in the mail that gave them a gift. So every time they engaged, they were getting something back. This is another thing talking about story.

OK, so when you look at this, this looks kind of chaotic, but let me show you what this is all about. This is Thin Blue Line. I worked with them for a small period of time. They were a… they created a vest for police officers and later, after I engaged with them, they were bought by another company that kind of ran them into the ground. But at this point is a good company. But one thing I did in this is I started with we wanted to relate the brand on a human level. How could we make the people that were a part of manufacturing this thing feel like they were a part of this story?

As well as how can we show that the product instead of just simply giving a list of here’s all the great things that the product can do. Let’s make it real. Let’s actually show an example of the product in use and how it solved the problem in this story.

This was an officer officer right here is Officer Maota. He showed up at a person’s home to issue a a warrant. And as he turned around to leave because he didn’t know any extra details, he was just told to drop this thing off, he does … as he turns around to leave the guy… that you see in this picture – grabs the officer’s gun, shoots him point blank in the back three times, takes the police officer’s car and flees the scene. Well, Officer Maoto survived because he was wearing the Thin Blue Line’s protective vest. An awesome story for telling how the product saved the life.

And one thing that I also added to this is every single product that the company produced had a tag. And that tag – you can look at the tag and you could see who was on the assembly line that day when that product was released. And so you can literally choose the… the vest that the police officer was wearing. We could go to the individuals who was responsible for saving his life, and they could be notified, Hey, because you did your job, well, this officer, his life was saved.

It was a simple way that this brand story can be conveyed publicly and get a lot of attention through the media. It was also internally where it showed how these people doing their job had an impact and saved a life. Sometimes there can be a separation between the individuals who are doing the job, who are responsible, and then understanding how them doing their job well actually has an impact. So be thinking about that. Your brand story is more than just you doing your job turning a wrench.

How does your brand relate outside the market principles? As you’re communicating, you want to be simple. You want to be memorable. You want to be timeless, versatile and appropriate and appropriate will be how it communicates to the marketplace that you’re engaging with… Bye…

So, Tanya and Jessica, I see you’re still here. How can I help you?

Jessica
Yeah, I had a quick question, before ya’ll have wrapped it up. I know you had talked about like with the content, like not being all over the place. Don’t post a picture of your dog or your kids or whatever. But but I also know that like Facebook algorithms, and that those are what they can bring more people. If you do a funny thing about a dog or whatever, and for my market, you know, if you have grandkids and they’ve got that, they love their dogs

So like, I was trying to figure out a way to grow the social media aspect of it, but also keep the content relevant.

Brian
Yes. So here’s the challenge that you run into with that you can you can get more people, but it’s not necessarily your target audience. So that’s the trick, right? Yeah, it’s sort of like, OK, I used to go to a lot of trade shows for business stuff, and everybody gives away candy. Everybody gives it away like you walk by and there’s candy and all the bowls and you’ll see people, they’ll run to the booth, they’ll find the one that’s got chocolate or the mint that they’re interested in and they walk away with it. That candy didn’t do anything for the brand or the business that’s trying to promote in the trade show. In the same way as you talk about dogs – and you may get a like and you may get some attention, it doesn’t necessarily move you closer to a sell or move you to a place where that warm, fuzzy does anything that helps the brand. [ Hmm. ] So that’s the challenge you got to think in. More apropos would be instead of focusing on the algorithms of Facebook and worried about, you know, getting more, think of “how can I engage in this space effectively and talk to the people and address their particular pain point and how I can solve it.” That’s where you’re going to be more effective in that space. Now, if talking about pets is a part of, you know, the solution that you’re bringing to the table, then sure, you can mention here’s so-and-so’s pet and here’s what’s neat about it.

By the way, did you know that included in our documents that we’ve put together? We’ve also got end of life care for this pet or whatever. So if there’s a way to tie into it and show how your solution still addresses that great, if not, it’s again, it’s like those extra brushstrokes they began taking away from what your main point is. OK. All right, that’s very helpful, thank you all for your next week. 

All right. Thank you, man. 

Thank you. 

Bye.