Today,  we’re going to talk about what the fuck is a brand. 

There are lots of words and phrases that get thrown around in the online space in the coaching space, in the online marketing space on Instagram. For things like my brand, branding, content creation, I am an influencer. I’m this I’m that… Especially when you’re new to the game. But honestly, even when you’re not new to the game, it can be pretty confusing. And we don’t know what people mean or what they’re talking about. So one of my intentions behind this podcast is to teach you what that means, what different things mean, and how to utilize things in your brand. And in your business. There I am using the word in the definition.

So before we launch right into branding today because I want to talk about this, it’s been coming a lot up in my coaching and in conversations, I’m having with people, I want to make sure you guys know that I am hosting a free live virtual workshop on Tuesday, the 26th. This episode should be coming out on the 25th. So Tuesday the 26th. It’s all about how to land your first or next three paid coaching clients. As I always say if you do not have paying clients, you do not have a business. No matter where you are in the journey of your business. You should have so many clients that you are turning people away. We should be getting to a place in our business where we have so many clients that we’re raising our prices. So no matter where you are at I am going to teach you the goods. I’m going to be teaching you what I teach my clients on how to land more paid coaching clients, it’s going to be live. It’s going to be two hours long with Q & A. I’m going to give you all the goods.

What is a brand?

Okay, let’s get down to business. What is a brand? the way that I describe a brand is it is two different things that are interconnected. So the one way we talk about a brand is the aesthetic of what your business looks like. When people look at your website, when they look at your social media, when they look at your LinkedIn when they look at email marketing from you, what is the cohesive piece or pieces that let people know that this is you, this is your business. And so some of the big things that help drive cohesion in your business are your logo, the colors that you use for your brand, and the typography or font that you are using. I tell beginner entrepreneurs and coaches who are creating their branding and business to have cohesion, use the same colors every time, use the same font every time and have a simple logo.

I don’t know if you guys know this. I’m telling you guys, I didn’t know this. Every color has a code a color code. So if you want like right now my brand colors are like red, a couple of tones with gray, black and white. Each of the colors I use in my business, including the black and the white all have a color code. The shade of gray I use has a color code, though the shade of red I use has a color code. So you can have an idea for a color palette you want like I have red, gray, white, and black. And you can search palette, red, black, white, and gray with color codes. And you can pull those codes up in Google. And then those color codes, you can input them in any creative stuff that you do. So if you’re using Canva, you can go into your brand kit and Canva and input those exact colors. And you know that every time you create something for your business, it’s going to be the same colors, it’s super simple. And it makes it so professional because everything will look cohesive. Same thing with fonts. I have been using the same fonts in my business for two years. They are my fonts, they give consistency and cohesion to my brand. I’ve been using the same logos. So that is a way to have cohesion in your brand and the aesthetic of your brand.

Another way is when you’re using a visual platform like Instagram, to filter your photos similarly. So using a similar photo and having a similar look in your in the way that your photos look on a visual platform also creates cohesion in your brand. So that’s the aesthetic part of your brand. And I can dive into that in another episode if you want. If you’re interested in that, send me a DM, send me an email, send me a voice memo whatever you want, and I will talk about it more if it would be valuable to you.

The other part of your brand, which I think is the part of your brand that is sometimes more difficult for people is you as your brand. So you are more likely than not a solopreneur and entrepreneur and a coach and or a coach, right? And because you are your business, you are your brand. That means think about a big company like Nike, Nike is an athletic wear company and sponsor athletic teams. The way that we connect to Nike is we see the visual of the products and the logo. And we like the aesthetic. We like the style, we want to wear it. But Nike also has a brand that tells stories, they highlight athletes they bring us and connect us to their brand. Because of the humans, even if they’re models running on a track in an outfit that we end up buying, they create a connection between us and a human that would I mean, because your brand is likely a service-based business where you’re coaching and talking to people. You don’t have necessarily a tangible product that you’re showing people for them to connect to. And even if you do have a tangible product, this advice is the same.

 People buy from people, especially at this moment in time. People want to be connected to other humans. We’ve been isolated. We’ve been put on lockdown. My friends in Canada are on lockdown a strict ass lockdown in Ontario right now. We want human connection. So when you are a solopreneur, coach, entrepreneur, however you self-identify, you must create a way for humans to connect with you. You are one of the bazillion people online. How do I know you from fucking Joe Schmoe that I want to work with you, that I want to connect with you, that I want to invest in you, that I like you? Because all of those things unconsciously subconsciously go in our decisions to purchase when we’re going to be working with someone in an intimate setting like coaching, the way that people get to know us is through the creation of our brand.

 So Instagram is a really easy way for me to talk about brand creation because I spend the most time creating my brand on Instagram. And I think it is well suited for brand creation because there is the “stories” feature on Instagram. So as you know, or don’t know, Instagram is a visual platform where you see photos and videos and short-form videos of people where you can scroll and look and read captions. It also has a feature at the top left that you can click on the picture of your face. And you see all the little circles at the top with pictures of people’s faces. And you can click on them. And you can watch what Instagram calls stories.

 Stories are essentially 15 seconds snapshots of somebody’s day and life. Stories are a way that we can connect with people in their lives, moment to moment, we get to get a glimpse of what people are doing, how they live their lives, what they’re eating for breakfast, you know how they engage with their children, where they’re shopping, it’s also a place for them, to educate us, to build credibility with us to share with us what they do, why they do and why they do it, and how they do it. Coupled with seeing their personal life. That is the most beautiful way that you can authentically create a brand online and connect with strangers. One of my clients recently he’s new to Instagram, doesn’t love the gram has resistance around the gram. And he was like, Regina, I get that you show up on social media. And you show your morning coffee and your cat and parts like that about your life. But like who gives a shit is essentially what he said, I don’t think he said shit. But you know, that’s how I remember it. He was like, Who cares? Everyone does, whether we like it or not.

 We live in a society where reality TV has allowed us to be voyeurs in people’s lives. Reality TV has allowed us to see real and not real glimpses of people’s lives, but it’s portrayed as reality. We are conditioned, whether we watch the real housewives in the Kardashians or not, we are conditioned to want to see and get to know the inner parts of people’s lives. It lets us in on the inside. So you in the creation of your brand, you must allow people to get a little glimpse inside of your life. It allows them to feel connected to you. It allows them to feel like they’re on the inside and that they know you. And you’re one of a billion people online. If I met you at Target, or I sat next to you at a conference, we might have a conversation and you tell me about your kids. And you know, you’re drinking your Starbucks, and I’m like, oh, what do you drink and you tell me about your order. And then you tell me a funny story about how the lady at Starbucks always mispronounces your name. And like it’s just human dialogue and connection and conversation, right? Like, that’s how I am with people I meet. Well, online, you don’t get those moments of intimacy. So we have to find moments of intimacy that we can share with our people. Regina, (you’re probably thinking) I don’t want to share my life, or I don’t even know where to start. My life is boring. I do the same things over and over again. I am hustling my buns, building a business. I’m gonna let you in on a secret: My life’s not that exciting either.

 I have moments of excitement and fun every day during the week, on the weekends, but my day-to-day is pretty regular, pretty consistent. I use the same stuff every day. And I show it. I show the things I do every day. Why? You might think why am I going to show people? The same things in my life every day? Like, isn’t that boring? No, we like consistency. One of my favorite mentors and his wife have a big golden doodle dog. And every morning they show themselves sitting, reading the dog doing some antics. And then like doing their morning routine, I always look at it I’m used to and accustomed to seeing their routine. And I like it. They’re funny, they’re cute, they have a great relationship that they show. Like, I like that consistency. I want you to think about reality TV.

 All the reality TV shows the same story arcs happen every time. The Kardashians or arguably whatever you think about them is fine. But they’re a great example because they’ve really helped to shape reality TV. So if you’ve watched any episodes of the Kardashians, and maybe you should, if you haven’t just like get a sense of what I’m talking about. nothing really happens on that show. They’re usually sitting around in somebody’s kitchen. They’re often eating the same salad from the same place in Calabasas drinking the same beverages in different people’s houses. The kids are playing, there’s usually a prank or an antic in every episode. But their personalities are funny. Like they’re cute. They’re funny. They’re not really doing much. People who watch The Bachelor or the bachelorette, the same story arcs give or take happen every season, right? People like but people love the Bachelor. People love the Kardashians. People love The Real Housewives. I love the Real Housewives of New York, Orange County, and Beverly Hills. They’re my girls. nothing really happens on those shows. I watch it because I like the personalities of some of the women. And I think they say funny stuff and I get a kick out of them. The same stuff happens. There’s manufactured drama, they usually go on one or two luxurious trips a season. Nothing that exciting happens, but for some reason, like a bajillion people in the world love to tune in and watch Lisa Rinna get crazy and do funny dance moves. And Kyle, Richard do splits. It’s the same shit, right? Why? And I’m this is just to drive the point home, we like consistency. And we’d like to connect with people’s characters and personalities. So for you, for the person who is like, I don’t even know where to start the intention behind building a brand.

The intention behind building a brand is to connect with your people because you want to be able to sell them a product or service that they really require. And the way that they’ll buy that is they need a connection to you. They require a connection to really be able to trust you enough to want to purchase from you and to want to work with you, especially if you’re a coach, you know, working with you is a very intimate investment. So that’s the intention behind building this brand. Okay, first thing. The second thing is we want to use some wool, we’re gonna go with Instagram. We want to use the platform intentionally. So it’s a great place to be educating your people, educational copy, educational videos, teaching concepts, but it’s also a great place to be highlighting you. So if you’re just getting started, I would pick three or four things that you do every single day and start to show them every single day.

 Maybe it’s your coffee in the morning and your meditation and your journaling. Maybe during that meditation, coffee and journaling. You have a mantra that you say I like to pick mantras. Why don’t you share that mantra with your online community and your story and tell them why that’s your mantra? why that’s important to you. It’s a simple thing. It builds a little bit of intimacy because that mantra is personal and important to you. And it gives them a piece of your life. Find things like that in your day-to-day to show and to share. I show my coffee, I show my kitties. I show highlights of fun that I have. And then I also like to use my story as an opportunity to educate. So I like to take a walk or have a cup of coffee and share teachable moments that have come up on my coaching calls. It’s a great opportunity to teach something and to share with your community. And guess what, after you do it on your story, you can take those teachable moments, and you can make them a highlight on your Instagram. So when you look at your Instagram, your profile, you have your picture, then you have your bio at the top. And then underneath of that, there’s a place for highlights. So as you’re teaching different things, you can add highlights about those teachable moments, that’s a great way to repurpose your content, you can also take those teachable moments. and you can download those videos.

So say you do eight-story slides teaching something relevant to your coaching business, you can download those eight slides, combine them in an app called in Shot, and make a short one-minute video that you can later use and repurpose for feed content. Pro-tip, I love free content and repurposing content. So that’s something else you can do.

So think about how you want to show up in your stories and build your brand in your stories. Another way to build your brand, and this is really thinking about the stories, but then also your feed content. I like to think about my business and I have “content buckets or content pillars”. So what are the four or five pillars that involve you, and your business you personally in your business that you want to be known for? That’s a huge part of your brand. So maybe it’s teaching about your niche, that your coaching niche, maybe it’s inspiration, maybe it’s health and wellness, whatever those buckets are, get very clear on what those five buckets are. And then we create content according to those buckets. That is another way on a content level that keeps us, really, really on brand. And then those content blankets can extend into your story with bits and pieces of your personal life. share things that are authentic to you. I was just talking to a friend about this. I love to dance, I am a dancing machine. My nickname as a little kid was Jean being the dancing machine. I love to dance. I don’t like to dance on social media. I don’t like to make rules or Tik Toks where I’m dancing. When the cameras off, you will see me dropping it low twerking it out shaking my ass. Not on camera. I don’t want to do that. That’s not in alignment for me. So it’s not a part of my brand. But I have friends who are coaches, I have a good friend who’s a coach, she dances every day on her story, it is an alignment for her, her people are used to it. Her people have gotten used to seeing her every single morning in her bathroom, doing a high vibe dance party. Okay, that’s beautiful, because that is an alignment for her. And that is in alignment with her brand. 

So what are the parts of you that you want to share? What are your daily things that you want to share, and that you are committed to sharing consistently? But remember, whatever those personal things are, they must be interspersed with the pillars or the buckets that are for the business. And like for the growth of the business, okay. That’s what this is all about. That’s the intention here. It’s to aid the growth of the business but peppering in parts of us and our humanity. So people can connect with us on a deeper level.

I know that was quick. But I hope that was helpful. Your brand is so important. And I think one of the interesting things about building a brand is that it requires us to get in touch with ourselves because we have to share and be vulnerable. And it causes us to have to just get over ourselves. Like it’s not about me, I have to show up. It’s about my people and just consistently showing up. And that’s really how you build a brand.

The more honest and vulnerable you can be and what you show up, meaning showing up as yourself showing up in the way that feels good for you. Don’t compare yourself to other people and feel like oh, well, this girl has so many followers and she does this and she does that. That’s great for her. But does that feel good for you? Is that part of your life? Is that part of your routine? If it is and you see somebody else doing it awesome. But if it’s not for you, then don’t do it, the more honest and vulnerable you can be and how you show up in your brand, especially in the online space, the more connected people are going to feel to you, the greater impact you’re going to make and the more prosperous your business will be just as a result of You showing up and being who you really are…

Regina Lawrence Esq. is a former trial attorney and law school professor turned soulful business & life strategist. She has found that so many entrepreneurs have these brilliant ideas and dreams but don’t know how to take the dream and create a system or structure to make that dream & idea profitable.  That is where Regina comes in.  With discipline, consistency, systems & structure, we can’t help but create profit & fulfillment from our soul-driven business ideas.

Regina’s approach to coaching marries her background in legal analysis, spirituality, mindset coaching, holistic nutrition, and neuroscience to create an experience that will assist you in getting into alignment, get clear on what you are here to do and what steps and systems to implement to make that dream a profitable reality.

You can find Regina on Instagram @reginaalawrence.