The Framework for a 7-Figure Brand Strategy with Heather Schaefer

What does it really take to build a brand that attracts aligned clients and sustainable sales? In this episode, Heather Schaefer breaks down her MVP Framework, used by million-dollar brands, and shows women entrepreneurs how to apply it to their business now. We also talk about how overusing AI can dilute your voice, why visibility is non-negotiable, and how to brand with both speed and strategy. This one is packed with clarity, conviction, and client-magnetizing insight.

 Connect with Heather and access her free resources at BrandingYouBig.com

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OMNI is your group coaching experience where you learn how to create visibility that works harder than you do. A strategic blueprint to become discoverable on the feed, search and AI. https://thevisibleceo.com/omni 

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Transcript

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Welcome back to the visibility impact show. Today we have an amazing guest who is not just a branding strategist. She is a powerhouse who's built hundreds of bold recognizable brands over the last 30 years. But after a massive pivot in her career, she stopped building someone else's empire and decided to build her own. Today she's here to talk about what it really takes to build a brand that brings in clients and cash. Let's give a warm welcome to Heather Schaeffer. Heather, I'm so excited to have you on the show today. Hello, I'm glad to be here too. It's gonna be fun. Okay, so talk to us about like your trajectory because you aren't just a branding strategist, you used to build brands for other obviously helping other people and probably a corporate job and now you're building your own empire. Tell us how that trajectory came to be. Yeah. So it is so interesting how things have changed through the years. So I've been in the branding space since before it was called branding, really. And now it's such a buzzword. And so my journey really took me from graphic design, advertising, marketing, and as you mentioned, really worked in all of those spaces. And I would say it was around 2012 when one of the, when I started in a really competitive industry and the direct sales space. And when that company announced it was closing, it really was like everything fell out from underneath me. And what's so crazy is sometimes we know these things we, I, I knew, or I should have realized, but I didn't make the connection that building my own brand. would sustain me through a fallout like that. And so that's really what I set on to do when that company closed and was building my own brand. And it's amazing how many people I would walk into a room and all of a sudden people knew exactly who I was. They had seen me, they had built up all of that and then people started asking me. How do you do that? How did you do that? And so again, before all of this was really in motion. And so that's when you kind of know as an entrepreneur, you're like, you know what? think I'm kind of onto something here. I think I can do this for other people. So that's how it all started. Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's lean into this because I know we talked about this in our pre interview chat. But everyone has a different definition of brand or branding or brands. So can we talk about the elephant in the room? What is a brand? What does that even mean? For those listening, it may not know or may have heard a million different definitions. Yes, that's the best place for us to start. so branding is the emotional aspect of who you are, how you want to be remembered, what emotions and perceptions start to become triggered in a good way, not in a bad way, when you are in front of people, when the marketing starts to be implemented. So marketing is where a lot of people think branding is, but Marketing is really the implementation of the brand. So marketing will show up obviously as website, email campaigns, social media, all of those things. And the marketing is implementing the brand strategy, the brand behind it all. the brand is really that emotional driver that makes us want to do something. I need to call her. I need to buy from her. I need to reach out to her. It's the emotional part and that's branding. Why do you think so many people skip this foundational part of the brand work? It's hard. It's hard work. It's simple. It's, it's, requires deeper work. So I'm working with my clients. That's when I started to discover that. And I, and I love that you asked that question because even just saying that helps me see that, that most people don't want to go that deep, especially when it's your business, you know, for speakers, coaches, that sort of service based entrepreneurship. We don't want to go that deep. want everything to look on the surface like it's, you know, butterflies and rainbows. It's all great. And brand work is actually deep and that's hard. It's hard work. So I think it's just easier to skip. It's easier to throw a website up there or a social media or something. That's just easier. Yeah. And I feel this is this is really similar to your ideal person, right? Nobody wants to take the time to do the ideal person work. But it's like Dan Kennedy, I think is the one who says the person who knows their, their person the best is the one who wins, right? And it's like, nobody wants to do the work, because they want to be for everybody. And so yes, I totally, totally get this. Yes. And I love what you had said there, too. You want to be for everybody. When you are starting out in business, I think that's so common. And a lot of businesses, brands can fall into that. And I always say, when you want to be for everyone, you're really for no one. Nobody can really identify. Yeah. You know, I always kind of use that analogy too. I don't know, but maybe growing up, I know I was, I had this situation where when you're little, you, your parents say, okay, you know, who do you want to buy to your birthday party? And, you know, they say include everyone, don't leave anyone out. They might have hurt feelings. And so we kind of, especially maybe as women, we kind of continue to fall into that trap a little bit, like be nice to everyone, you know, and And really when it comes to your brand and to your business, you're not going to be for everyone. And you know what? The more you can talk to the person you are, the more they're going to click. Yes, so true, so true. Now, how would somebody not, when they skip these foundations, like how is that hurting their visibility or the impact that they wanna make with their audience? Well, like I mentioned, first of all, nobody really can identify with them. They think that that what they're saying doesn't really apply to them. And so they just kind of go right over. They kind of go right over the whole process of the really hard work, um, that it really, nobody really can resonate with them. And then you're really. You're missing. You just kind of get watered down. Your messaging, your brand, everything just gets watered down. Yeah, and nobody wants a watered down version of anything. It's not attractive. It doesn't attract people. It doesn't pull people in. It doesn't create a movement. So yes, so so true. my gosh, this is speaking my love language here. I love it. it. Love it. Okay, so one of the things that drew me to you and wanting you on the podcast was you said that you have five steps to a seven figure brand. Can we dive into those and give the listener some of the meat of this because I know they're gonna love these steps. Yes, let's do it. And what I love about this framework is this is, I call it my MVP framework and I'll walk through that. What I love about this framework is that this is what billion dollar brands are using to build their businesses. know. Right. And so I feel like I'm kind of like going behind the curtain and pulling out the good stuff for because if billion dollars or company companies are doing it, we can do it too for our businesses to build our million dollar businesses, to build our, if you're aspiring to six figures, whatever stage you are in, this framework will set you apart from the rest. So this is my MVP framework. And where I always start is with mission. Mission is the very first part. And this is again, where Like you were talking about, some people really just skip over this and mission might seem like kind of a no brainer, but really when you're walking through this and you're really getting clear on your values, which is the next part of the MVP framework is values. Your values drive everything in your business. Having those, usually say about, you know, five, three to five core values are really great to build on. And again, I'm not talking, I mean, I am super intentional and super, I go deep with my clients. Sometimes they do get a little choked up and emotional because we do go so deep. And when I'm saying values, I'm meaning in every aspect of your life, whether you are communicating with your best girlfriend, your husband, a coworker, somebody out in the community, those values are the same and how you relate with people. across the board. it's not as if you're saying, well, over here, I look like this and over here, I look like this. No, it is the same and it is consistent across all of that. having your mission and then your values will really be driving forces. The next V, I kind of play on my MVP. I do a couple of V's in here. The next V is the vision. What is your vision? for your business. So that's the longer term approach. I think people get confused on that. Mission and vision are different. Mission is what are you aspiring to do? Like, how do you want to make an impact? And what's that going to look like? That is so important for us to have that concept in mind. And so these are not just vague things that we're putting up on a on a wall of an office that doesn't exist because we're all virtual. This is what drives everything. Because when your audience can really feel and sense your mission and your values and your vision, they wanna get behind you. They wanna jump on board. And I think, just to use an example in here, even with just these first three parts of the framework I wanna share with you. is I had a client who had been in business for 10 years. She had had a mission statement. She had some of these things, but it just didn't go and align with her values. And the reason why she knew that or came to discover that was that her revenue was the same. It was stagnant for about three or four years. She was making a good multiple six figures, but it just kind of like plateaued and she was like, what is happening? I can't figure this out. It's like she kept hitting her head on the ceiling, you know, and really unpacking this framework was what unlocked her business. And so when we implemented her framework for her brand, she was able to grow her revenue in 60 days by 77%. So I know that's big. that just that right. It's not jump chain. It's just like a period at the end of the sentence, right? Like that. demonstrates how much her audience and people who didn't even know her were craving her messaging. And that's where we go into the voice. Once we have the mission, the vision, the values, we go into the voice and you really start to put some, some teeth, so to speak, with all of those things. What are your clients saying? One of the things that is so essential in the process that I that I implement this framework for is that I'm actually doing client insight interviews. I'm asking the clients, their best clients, what are their words? What are they saying? And that's the best way. You don't have to guess anymore in trying to figure out what they are thinking. Because when somebody outside of them asks them these questions, it really unlocks what that voice sounds like. So mission, vision, voice, or values, voice. And then I go into purpose. What's your purpose? What's your bigger calling? Why are you doing this? Because, you know, none of us, we're going to be able to take with us, right? This is like, this is something bigger than us. And when, I mean, it just gives me goosebumps thinking about it, because when you have this purpose that is driving all of this, it makes the tough days easier. as an entrepreneur and your best client, the people who you are speaking to are going to be so, they're going to like want to lock arms with you and say, let's go. Like I want to be a part of this movement. This is something big. And I believe everybody has that in them. And it's just unlocking that MVP framework to get to the core of it is. So key. I just rattled it off really quickly, but that is the foundation that every billion dollar brand has and that we can have too. that's so good. So good. Like mission and make sure I get these right vision. voice. What am I missing? Values and purpose. Like, and the whole thing when you said purpose and it's like that movement, like that you want to create or that purpose comes from like your higher power. Like that is just like, that's, that's all for me. That's it. That's good. know. Boom. There we go. Mic drop, right? Okay, so let's shift gears a second because those are so good. And when we're talking about that, we're really focusing on the authenticity really of your brand, right and making sure everything is aligned. And one of the things that we talked about in our pre interview was we talked about AI. And so let's pivot a second and talk about how people are overusing it and losing their brand voice. Can we chat about that for a second and what your thoughts are on that? Yeah. Well, I always like to say, you know, and some of the times that I'm talking with groups or speaking on stages, that is a topic that I talk about how to not ruin your brand with AI. That's probably grammatically incorrect, but, but it's so true because, you know, I, I'm kind of a geek. love techie tools. I love all of those things. So there definitely is a place for it, but what you're losing and what you will. always, always need with your brand is the person. Because people connect with people. They don't connect with robots. And you can definitely train a robot to try to understand you better, but you are never going to absolutely replace that emotional connection that you need. And so Really giving too much to AI is dangerous for a lot of security reasons, as well as protecting your brand. So one thing that people may not realize is that let's say you use AI to create a visual part of your brand. Maybe it's a logo or something like that. You will never be able to trademark that logo. When you become that seven and eight figure business that you are aspiring and being called to be, you are not going to be able to trademark that. So then you got to start all over. And it usually is going to involve bringing on an actual person that has brand strategy and design to be able to bring it to life for you because people connect with people and we can't miss that. Yes, this is why I'm so focused right now about talking about face to camera or talking head content because we're seeing AI take over video. mean, nobody has ever used as many dashes as they use today and I can tell everyone's content is written by AI because they've never used them in their content. Like I know these people and it's like you are you're like, this isn't who you really are. And when you do you know, create this facade, right? And they actually pay you. And then they realize, this is not the same person that I thought I was getting. You're going to break the trust that you built. And we know that trying to get trust back in the online space specifically, is a million times harder than getting it in the first place. So I see a lot of trust being broken. And again, with the video and things like that. But if I talk to you, right, we're on this podcast, we're gonna mess up, we're gonna say, we're gonna have long pauses. That is the natural human way of doing things and people are going to build so much more trust with that imperfection versus let's overproduce everything my mouth always like says the things that it's supposed to say and I never get hives and I never say and my dogs never bark in the middle of my podcast episode. I mean, let's be for real, right? We want to be real. We want to be relatable. And the more we use AI to take over us, the less genuine we're actually being Yes. Yes. And you know, authenticity, you said it at the beginning is that authenticity is also another buzzword in there. So how are we going to be authentic and build relationships because business is about relationships. You know, I've been sensing that a lot even lately because obviously we, we do a lot of social media and podcasts and all of these things where we're kind of putting our best foot forward. But. I'm telling you, I have been making some of the best connections just in person, in person networking. And I just, and I find how much I enjoy that. And it just, I find too, in that really personable space that the relationship is built faster because you can be more authentic. You're just being real. You're not up on stage, you're not mic'd up, you don't have a script in front of you, and it's just two people getting to know each other and learning about business. And so there's just such value in that, that it's important to keep that in mind. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. This is so good. So good. my gosh. We can talk about this for hours. Like I'm just gonna like say I've talked about this for hours. But this is the visibility impact show. So I have to ask, what has visibility done for you and your brand? It has allowed me to walk in a room and somebody already really knows who I am. Yes, because I am. And not only they know who I am, but they know what I'm about. You know, I'm very consistent with my images of what I have. You will always see water, somebody of water, something, some beach somewhere that, and I talk about that as a lot in a lot of my content pillars too, that. That's just a part of me. just like fills me up and creates that connection that I have with other beach and water people. uh And so they know what I'm about when I walk into the room. I'm very consistent too, in not only showing up on social, but in how I show up in person. I'm consistent. I'm not like looking one way in one setting and then online I look totally different. So I think that has has really added a lot. And so that right away then what that helps then, Chrissy, is then we already have a conversation starter the minute I see somebody in that room. And that just helps break the ice. It helps us kind of have something to talk about that we're on a common plane. So that just feels good, right? Because it's just building connections deeper. It is it is and I don't know about you. I'm an introvert. So when I walk into a networking or an event and people already know me, you've just taken the awkward, the awkward real life me out of the picture because you know who I am. So we can have a conversation about anything because they you know, we talked about I talked about this a lot parasocial relationships, right showing up people build a relationship with you even if you've never met them. So they already feel like they know you and it is like a win win that Visibility helps the in-person side so much easier, specifically for an introvert. Are you an introvert? You know, I have my moment. I would say probably mostly I am an extrovert, but I do have my moments. I still need to recharge and, and have that, that downtime. Yeah, I can really. Yeah. how has visibility helped you attract aligned clients? Well, as I mentioned, I feel that having my brand be really clear of who I'm about, what I stand for, how I want to be remembered, that it just can't help but attract your best clients because you want to turn away people that you don't want to work with or that aren't. I mean, I guess that's maybe a rough way of saying it, but it's true in that I don't want to, I'm not for everyone and they're not, not everyone is for me. And so. I'd rather boil down all the surface stuff and get to the bottom. You know, I've always kind of said that about just me personally. I'd rather have a few great friends than a ton of friends that barely know me. And that's really what it boils down to is it helps me speak directly to my client. My client knows who I'm about. I know what they're about. And it just creates. a much easier working relationship too. And then referrals, referrals come from that. So when you've got a raving fan that come a referral is very natural. so then, you know, good people know good people. So you just kind of keep working through those people that are aligned with your values and your mission. And it also makes it easier for me to say yes. And for me to say no, I can I can tell when I'm meeting with somebody if it's a good fit. And I kind of say that upfront. I'm very upfront. You know what? I'm going to see if I can help you. And if I can't, I'll refer you to somebody you can because I'm not for everyone. So it just, you know, it makes, now some of that maybe comes a little bit with age. I've been doing this for a long time and had relationships with people through the years. And so you get a little bit more comfortable with it, maybe when you're older, but at the same time, it really It can be applied in so much that it's just gonna naturally, it's like that magnet attraction. You're just gonna attract the people you want and you're gonna turn away the people that you're just not the right fit for. And that's good. Yes, attracting and repelling is one of the my favorite things about video content. Because if I'm annoying, I'm repelling you, right? Or if I say something you absolutely do not agree with, like it's my heel. It's my heel I'm willing to die on. But you're like, absolutely not. Scroll on by keep moving. Like there's somebody that's gonna work with me and you just you're meant to work with somebody else. There's no you know, there's no like, you know, there's no worries because there's there's plenty of people for everyone. And that's one of the things I love again about visibility because it gets you an opportunity to attract and repel immediately. So yes, love that so much. Okay. Has there been anything like a learning moment or a mistake that maybe specifically from visibility or something else that you've learned running your business over the years? Well, I've learned just not to do what everyone else is doing. Because you know what, when we first start out, as we talked about, sometimes you just, you do want to appeal to everyone. And so you just try to kind of be like mayonnaise. You just kind of spread yourself really thin and you try to appeal to everybody. But you know what, sometimes You just need a little spice, a little hot sauce in there. And not everybody likes hot sauce. So, you know, I just think the I made were when I was just trying to be vanilla and blend in and do what other, what was working for other people. thought, okay, well, if it's working for them, then I should do it. And that was probably my biggest mistake. Yeah. Yeah, so good. So true. So true. Alright, so before we wrap up this episode, I want to do some fun rapid fire questions. So the audience can get to know you on a deeper level on a more personal level. So are you ready for this? The first thing that comes to your mind? Okay, what is your favorite emoji that you use all the time? Probably the one that the shrug woman that goes like this. Is that what she's called? The shrug woman? I don't know. Yeah. Or the ones where her hands go like this. Yeah, it's like, got me. and then I also use the face one a lot too. Like what what is happening right now. And the hard hands is like my favorite. Like I love the hard hands like give me a hard hand. It is it is as much I guess. Yeah. All right, do you have a confidence or a hype song that you always go to? I would say it's probably not necessarily one song, but my genre is generally always some sort of praise or worship music for me. It's just, so not necessarily a song, but just kind of a, a genre, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Um, gosh, you know what? I could just go forever on anything that Lauren Daigle sings. Okay, okay. I love that. of it in there that she, yeah, just kind of has me. Depends on maybe what was in church that weekend too, that it kind of like is in my head. So yeah. Yeah. is the first thing that's your morning routine? What's the first thing that you do every single morning? Well, like really my very first thing is I drink a big glass of water It's how I hydrate right when I get up in the morning because I know coffee is coming next and I got a hydrate before I dehydrate and You know, I am a I ease into my day pretty slowly. So The water the coffee comes next my family would joke and say You know, there's a funny mug one of my friends gave me one time and it's like, you know the top of the coffee mug says like don't talk to me. And then the middle of the coffee mug says, I'm, I'm almost there. You might be able to say hello. And then, you know, the end of the, the bottom line on the bottom of the coffee mug was, okay, we can have a conversation. that's, that's a little bit about me. And it usually I go right from a, coffee. walk with my dog. have a group of neighbors. There's we have a group chat of anywhere of like, 15 women in this group chat and whoever wants to go for a walk starts popping in pretty early in the morning and whoever wants to go, goes and that's really getting moving, getting my dog out and walking is really the beginning part of my day. What a great neighborhood. That's awesome. Like you're like, never moving. Right. All right, and the last rapid fire question, what would be something that the audience would be surprised to learn about you? go with my, my fun fact, you know, that you use it all the parties, like, what's that fun random fact that nobody knows about you? I grew up flying in hot air balloons. I know as a child, my family, we had really dear friends and we went, we flew hot air balloons every single weekend for as long as like for a long time, years and years when I was growing up. And, um, I know it is, it is. It's just one of those unique things about me, but not too many people. um Probably as a teenager. Yeah. I have not revisited. It's interesting because my husband has never been. And there might be different times where we see it, but most of the time it's a tethered hot air balloon where you just got ropes attached and you go up and down like that. I'm not doing that. But I do have on my bucket list, I would like to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. That would be really cool. yeah, but just really great memories. Sometimes you don't necessarily need to revisit something you've done as a kid, but it would be kind of neat. And while I'm still maybe, you sometimes as we get older, we develop these other fears or whatever. don't think I'm afraid of heights in that situation. Like does it seem higher today than it did back then? Exactly. You know, because at that point in the basket where we would be riding, you I wasn't that much taller than the top of the basket. um So who knows, but um kind of a fun fact. Yeah. is a fun fact. Okay, so before we go, where can people connect with you and dive deeper into your world? Yes. Well, you know, what's really fun, I just released a private podcast. So it's an exclusive podcast. If you want to really deep dive in, go hardcore, if you like binge worthy things where you're just like, you know, I just give me bite sized pieces. Let me kind of unpack branding in that way. I have that a link to my private podcast on my website, which is branding you big.com. You can find me on all the social channels, branding you big. And that's really the best way to connect with me. And you also have a quiz. Do you want to share about the quiz? Yeah, I do have a quiz if you want to really see and rate. It's kind of a self-audit of your current brand that you can rate yourself. You can kind of get a little feedback on what your brand and what different things in your brand mean and stand for. It's an easy, quick quiz. And it will really, again, kind of walk through the beginning part of this MVP framework. shared today in a little bit more detail and a little bit more visually for those people who like to see visuals attached to hearing things spoken. think having that visual in that quiz would be really helpful. So you can find that on my website. I have a link on my website, brandynewbig.com. You can go to free stuff. Everyone likes free stuff. So that's where you can find that. Yes. And we'll put this in the show notes too. So you can go right there and click. So Heather, thank you so much for being a guest on the show today. Is there anything that you would like to share or reiterate with my audience that we maybe didn't touch on? You know, the only thing I would say that we didn't maybe touch on is that oftentimes, you know, we talked about how having your brand and specifically your brand strategy is hard work that people want to avoid. But the other reason that I think a lot of entrepreneurs who are going, you're in a forward motion, they think that you have to slow down to speed up. And I have taken that out of the picture when I'm working with my private one-on-one clients because I do the entire brand strategy process in two weeks. And so I know it is super fast. I talk about brand strategy is your anchor and speed is the undercurrent. And that's really what I would like to maybe say is that you don't have to... slow down and wait months and months to have a brand refresh or a rebrand. You can have it all quickly because entrepreneurs move quickly. And so for those laser focused entrepreneurs who are like, I am going and nothing's going to stop me. And you want to hit your goals in the next quarter, not just two years from now, going fast is possible. And that's, I walked that. I walk that process through with my one-on-one clients, but I'm also giving you a lot of tips that you don't have to take forever to rebrand or to refresh. So it can happen with speed and be comprehensive and complete at the same time. that so so good. I know that everyone is going to get so much value from today's episode. If you love this episode, make sure you share it with a friend and share it on social media connect with Heather if you want to find out more information about what she can serve and support you with but Heather again, thank you so much for being on today's show. I know there's gonna be so much value that comes out of this for my audience and I appreciate you Yeah, thanks for having me, Chrissy. It was really fun. All right, make sure you stay tuned to next week's episode and check out again, Heather share this episode and we will see you on the next one.