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Kerri-Ann Hooper on Building Smarter: Contracts, Cash Flow & Calling BS on Industry Norms

This episode is for anyone who's ever looked at a building contract and thought: Wait, where did that charge come from?
I’m joined by Kerri-Ann Hooper — straight-talker, industry shaker, and founder of a building company doing things differently.

We get into:

• The sneaky stuff hidden in building contracts (and how to spot it)
• Why COVID didn’t just shake up timelines — it reshaped trust
• What real estate taught her about branding, perception, and backing yourself
• How social media actually works for builders (hint: it’s not just before-and-after shots)
• And why building a brand with intention matters just as much as bricks and mortar

Kerri-Ann’s story is packed with real-life lessons — from overcoming financial hits to navigating unrealistic design expectations and championing transparency in an industry that’s not known for it.

Whether you’re in the game or on the tools, this convo is a blueprint for building better — businesses, brands, and homes.

Episode Highlights:
00:00 – Office Christmas Party Recap
00:57 – Meet Kerri-Ann: A Disruptor with Purpose
01:40 – Making Waves at a Networking Event
02:23 – Branding That’s Built to Last
07:44 – Real Talk on Industry Challenges
13:12 – The COVID Fallout
16:05 – Resilience in Action
22:01 – The Block vs. Reality
24:30 – Champagne Tastes on a Bunnings Budget
24:50 – Picking Colours That Rent, Not Just Impress
26:02 – How TV Trends Skew Real Life
27:43 – What’s Next for the Aussie Building Scene
28:50 – Energy Efficiency & Government Red Tape
29:48 – Prefab Homes and Smarter Living
30:29 – Why the Housing Crisis Isn’t Just About Houses
35:59 – Relationship-Driven Business
41:24 – How to Nail Social Media When You’re in the Trade
45:25 – Wrap-Up & Takeaways

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In this conversation, Martin Sully addresses the question of how to maintain a unified brand identity and consistent message for a two-sided marketplace with two target markets. He suggests creating personas for each target market and gathering information about their demographics, interests, and problems. By integrating this information with the brand values and message, it is possible to create content that resonates with both target markets. The key is to use language that is simple and free of jargon. The brand identity should remain consistent, but specific pages or landing pages can be created to address the different needs of each target market.

Key Takeaways

• Create personas for each target market to gather information about their demographics, interests, and problems.
• Integrate the gathered information with the brand values and message to create content that resonates with both target markets.
• Use language that is simple and free of jargon to ensure the message is understood by both target markets.
• Maintain a consistent brand identity while creating specific pages or landing pages to address the different needs of each target market.

Need to better understand your target audience? Read our blog post: Attracting Dream Customers and Repelling Customers

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Brand guidelines are the most important document for a business, as they control and maintain consistency in branding. They can go deep and include strategy, tone of voice, and messaging. Even small businesses should have brand guidelines to guide their brand identity. Not having brand guidelines can lead to issues like inconsistent colors and messaging. Brand guidelines help document and communicate shifts in target markets and prevent confusion. While it's not necessary to outline every detail initially, the minimum for brand guidelines is logos, fonts, and colours.

Key Takeaways

• Brand guidelines are essential for maintaining consistency in branding.
• They can include strategy, tone of voice, and messaging.
• Even small businesses should have brand guidelines.
• Not having brand guidelines can lead to issues like inconsistent colors and messaging.
• Brand guidelines help document and communicate shifts in target markets.
• The minimum for brand guidelines is logos, fonts, and colours.

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In this episode, Martin Sully discusses how to maintain a brand's tone of voice. He explains the difference between brand voice and tone of voice, and emphasizes the importance of aligning the brand voice with the company's mission, values, and target audience. Martin also suggests creating a written style guide to maintain consistency in communication. He advises auditing past content to ensure it aligns with the brand's tone of voice and highlights the significance of authenticity in influencing purchase decisions.

Key Takeaways

• Brand voice and tone of voice are two separate things, with brand voice being consistent and tone adjusting based on the audience's emotional state.
• Align the brand voice with the company's mission, values, and target audience.
• Create a written style guide to provide guidance on communication.
• Audit past content to ensure consistency in tone of voice.
• Authenticity influences purchase decisions and builds stronger connections with customers.

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The conversation revolves around the importance of paying attention to the little details in business, particularly when it comes to aligning values with execution. The host shares a personal anecdote about a company he met that focused on renewable energy but had plastic-coated business cards, highlighting the disconnect between their values and their actions. The main takeaway is that every little detail matters, especially when trying to achieve sustainability goals or B Corp registration.

Key Takeaways

• Paying attention to the little details is crucial in business
• Aligning values with execution is important
• Every little detail matters, especially when it comes to sustainability
• B Corp registration requires attention to detail

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Martin Sully discusses the importance of networking and building a personal brand. He emphasizes the need to connect with people both online and offline, and highlights the value of real-life conversations. He also shares his experience with starting a networking group called Chatterbox and the benefits it brings to businesses. He encourages small wins and offers advice on creating content and building a personal brand.


Key Takeaways

• Networking is crucial for building a personal brand and expanding your reach.
• Engaging in real-life conversations with people can provide valuable insights and help in building relationships.
• Starting a networking group can be beneficial for businesses of all sizes.
• Creating content and building a personal brand requires consistency and finding a balance between polished and behind-the-scenes content.

Visit the Snapper Studio Branding Agency website

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We're back from Christmas with a proper guest – Rebecca McCutcheon is the Managing Director of Fit Test Australia (FTA), a company that specialises in respiratory safety.

We dcusses her business's growth and how vital it is to learn from mistakes, uphold strong values, and maintain authenticity in both personal and business branding.

FTA have a mission to enhance people's health, and have just added new services such as spirometry, audiometry, and ear fit testing.

Bek emphasises the importance of ongoing employee development, adherence to core company values, and overcoming obstacles in business.

If you want to connect up with her – jump on her website – Fit Test Australia or reach out to her on LinkedIn.

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In this episode, we discuss the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in brand building. 

And, although SEO can be confusing and expensive, it offers long-term benefits that outshine short-term marketing strategies like influencer marketing, which can be unpredictable and less controllable. 

SEO should be a key component of any brand's website/marketing strategy and recommends integrating it with brand building to foster trust among consumers and eventually increase sales. 

I have Remy Audette, from Sunday Best lined up to go into more detail on mixing brand strategy and SEO together to help grow your business.

00:00 Introduction and Rekindling Love for Website

00:48 Introduction to the Level Up Podcast

01:20 Understanding SEO and Its Importance

03:09 The Role of Luck in SEO Success

04:08 The Value of SEO vs Influencer Marketing

05:21 The Risks of Relying on Social Media Platforms

06:07 Integrating SEO into Your Brand Strategy

06:48 Building Trust and Confidence through SEO

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Just like you might set New Year's resolutions, the start of the year is the perfect time to set and track ambitious, achievable business goals. 

We talk about:

• Accountability
• My brand goals for the year
• Why brand goals need to be broken down into tasks
• Setting stretch goals and deadlines to help you achieve them.

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An explanation of the importance of brand audits. 

In this episode, I describe how audits can be used to:

• Understand a brand's position
• Evaluate customer recall
• And to identify potential issues that a business might not have noticed. 

I use brand audits to analyse three key areas:  

• External branding
• Internal branding
• Customer experience 

The ultimate goal is to ensure businesses are heading in the right direction and to diagnose areas to improve.

It's also a service Snapper Studio will introduce in 2024. Come and sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know about it.

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In this episode of the Level Up Your Brand Podcast, host Martin Sully, shares his Christmas experiences and discusses the concept of 'is your business a brand?'. 

It includes:

• A Christmas day wrap-up
• A thought provoking question raised by Kevin Finn
• Where the identity of a brand comes from
• And highlights that to build a brand, it must be worked on daily

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In this episode of the Level Up Your Brand Podcast, we discuss how baking a charismatic personality into a brand helps create meaningful connections to your audience. 

We cover:

• How every person working in a brand becomes an extension of its persona
• The connection between a brand and its employees. 
• And give you a practical tool to create a charismatic brand personality. 
• We also the misconception that charisma and personality are limited to individuals, not brands. 

Giving personality traits to a brand is not about manipulatively triggering emotions but facilitating engaging connections. 

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Snapper Studio and Martin want to announce limited availability for branding projects and podcasts due to Martin and his wife expecting a baby.

I want to personally thank listeners for their support and encourage them during the holiday season to reach out if they need help.

You can reach me on:

LinkedIn
Email – martin @ snapper . studio
Or through the Snapper Studio website

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In this episode, host we talk to Mathew Goddard from Aquacultr about creating a more efficient and sustainable system for seafood production.

Mat shares his journey from discovering a Barramundi farm for sale to establishing a sustainable fish farming model.

He emphasises on the need for sustainable, low footprint technologies and how his company, Aquacultr, seeks to revolutionise seafood farming.

We discuss the environmental and health implications of current seafood farming methods and the future for sustainable aquatic farming.

Mat also shares his aspirations for improving food security and leaving a positive impact on the environment, the food industry and people's lives.

LinkedIn – Mathew Goddard
Website – Aquacultr Sustainable Fish Farming Systems

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Martin Sully, a brand strategist and founder of Snapper Studio, discusses the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning on branding. 

He explores the tools currently available that incorporate AI, including Chat GPT, photo editors, AI-generated logos and even the emergence of AI-assisted brand development tools. 

However, he also emphasises that while AI can help streamline certain design processes and content generation, it can never replace the emotional and human touch in branding. 

Martin believes AI will change the graphic design landscape over the next two years, including Adobe's potential move into providing AI-assisted brand development tools.

00:53 Introduction to the Podcast

01:17 Impact of AI on Branding

03:01 Exploring AI and its Limitations

04:02 First Experience with Generative AI

05:33 Understanding Emotional Branding

08:42 Current AI Tools in Branding

12:01 Real World Uses of Generative AI

12:13 The Role of AI in Podcasting

17:48 Adobe's AI Innovations

23:16 The Future of Branding with AI

28:48 Conclusion: AI's Role in Design and Branding

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We talk with Claire from KidBiz Academy and Tara Clark Art about the pitfalls of working with kids, selling candles, fortune telling, and how we all need to persevere to get to where we want to.

 This episode is packed with gems, by two guests who are doing incredible things. Claire is empowering children to take on an entrepreneurial spirit, teaching them all about the various aspects of business, from marketing to design, to sales and production. Breaking it down and making it interesting for kids aged 5+.

Tara is a 15-year-old aspiring artist, specialising in Character Design. She guides me through her process, where she wants to take things and that she's currently open to commissions, so if you want to work with her, her work is simply amazing. And now she's a published illustrator.

Download my freebie - supercharge your brand's feelings

Claire Wheeler
Website – KidBiz Academy
Socials – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Tara Clark
Instagram – @Tara.Clark.Art 
Commissions Email Tara at tarairclark@gmail.com

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Recycling 20 tonnes of plastic saves enough electricity to power 54 houses for a year.

Yearly, it's reported that the world creates 460 million tonnes of plastic.

Let that sink in.

Luckily the world has smart entrepreneurs like Jess Hodge, from Resourceful Living, who are battling to solve the problem and create useful everyday solutions to reuse it.

Connect with Jess
Facebook - Resourceful Living
LinkedIn - Resourceful Living
Website - Resourceful Living

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Rachel Smith is this episodes guest. We first connected when she took the quiz on my website. Point's don't mean prizes, but she's currently the high scorer with 3. Have a go here - Feels Finder Quiz

We chat about
• Yum cha and wine
• Rachel's list, how it all began and maintaining a community.
• The Content Byte Summit and the talks that lit up the stage – Jennifer Goforth Gregory and Ed Gandia's episode with Shane Sam
• Picking a brand name and how it sometimes picks itself.
• AI's impact on copy and design worlds
• What Rachel would do differently if she did it again

Connect with Rachel
Rachel's List
Rachel Smith Copy & Content
Content Byte Podcast
Subscribe to the Wrap Up

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Branding, it's history and the dark, disturbing reason we changed our podcast name to the Level Up Podcast.

This episode covers:
• The Industrial Revolution and it's impact on branding.
• Branding's disturbing past
• Where we see branding going and how business will have to adapt.

I also spoke about Personal Branding Unlocked, a new podcast from Monica Walmsley and Josh Lawlor.

And, the original article that sparked this podcast - The Daily Heller - is post branding a thing?

Spot more of my work at Snapper Studio

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A 10-month hiatus. But the podcast is back.

This week we're talking all about scent branding and how you can introduce it into your brand.

Read more about scent branding on our website – https://www.snapper.studio/blog/scent-branding

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2023 is knock, knock, knocking on your door, with all the jingling of Santa's bells. It's time to talk about graphic design trends in 2023.

I'll cover 6 design trends to avoid in 2023, summarise what we saw in 2022, and explain why you should avoid looking at trends.

Design trends 2023

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Martin, when should I rebrand? How much does a rebrand cost?

I regularly get asked these types of questions. 

And there’s a bunch of things to consider.

• What's your biggest challenge right now?
• How do you overcome it?
• Is it a revolution or evolution?

A rebrand is about redesigning or rewriting your story. It's more about revamping who the brand is and how you want to be perceived.

In this episode, I'll run through 20 signs that it might be time for a rebrand.

Book a Vision call

Visit Snapper Studio website

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If you're struggling to pick your brand colours, this episode is for you.

When you have a clear direction, picking your brand colours will feel less like picking colours out of thin air and more wahoo!

In this episode, I discuss the thought process behind choosing brand colours and the considerations you need to make when selecting yours.

I cover:

• Why you can't choose your colours until you understand what you're trying to communicate and to who
• Why looking at your closest competitors can help guide your colour choice
• An example of a brand colour palette that I would pick
• And tips on how to pick the right colours

Resources:

• Follow me on lnstagram: @snapper.studio
• Meet me in real life @chatterbox.au
• For more information and to work with me visit snapper.studio

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A tub-thumping brand personality and tone of voice will shape how customers engage with your brand. It will make storytelling simpler, so you no matter the platform, you can talk to them like humans. What you'll be left with is a vibrant, authentic, unique way to market your business.

In this episode, we cover:

• Transforming your brands personality and increasing your brand awareness
• How to uncover engaging brand personalities
• How to apply brand personalities
• Exploring personality traits
• Balancing your brands personality

Come and learn more about branding at www.snapper.studio 

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By elevating your customer experience, you create an army of loyal customers who will be out there talking up your brand and saving you marketing dollars.

This is a big task, and you will continue to do this as your business evolves. It pays out in trust and improved customer experience.

In this episode I run through two methods to build your customer experience.

Come and learn more about branding at www.snapper.studio/brand-strategy