Not-So Kind Regards

How to Create a Brand that Stands Out and Builds Authentic Connections

• Maddy Birdcage & Caroline Moss • Season 4 • Episode 4

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In this episode of the Not-So Kind Regards podcast, hosts Maddy and Caroline break down the essentials of building a solid brand strategy. They debunk the myth that a brand is just a logo, diving into the more profound elements like audience understanding and creating a unique brand essence. They also explore how being authentic and standing out drives engagement. They discuss critical components of a brand's success—essence, tone of voice, and personality—while sharing personal insights on mindset shifts and overcoming challenges to craft a genuinely compelling brand.

Episode Highlights: 

  • Introduction and Welcome
  • Defining Brand Strategy
  • The Importance of Knowing Your Audience
  • Authenticity in Branding
  • Mindset and Brand Strategy

Resources:  

Where To Find Us:  

To work with us, book your discovery call at https://www.birdcagemarketing.com.au/start-here

To discover the school, visit https://birdcagemarketing.com.au/

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Not so Kind Regards podcast. I'm Maddie Birdcage and I'm Caroline Moss. We are done with the digital fluff and pleasantries and we're here to talk straight about brand building, digital marketing and personal growth.

Speaker 1:

This episode is, of course, brought to you by Birdcage Marketing, the forward-thinking business, growth and digital marketing brand that started this all. If you are a small, medium or large size business, don't know how to get started or need to tighten up your digital marketing efforts, we are currently taking on new strategy and virtual marketing manager clients. Let us shape your strategy.

Speaker 1:

Give you the action steps you need to implement, and then hold your hand as you and all your team implement the exact process that will take you from where you are now to where you want to be. To get started, book your discovery call at birdcagemarketingcomau, and let's do this. Now back to the episode.

Speaker 2:

All right, Welcome Maddie. Hi Caroline, we're back with another episode of the Not so Kind Regards podcast.

Speaker 1:

Very exciting, and we are doing this from the comfort of your office and from the comfort of my office.

Speaker 2:

Yes, by coastal, but not really because we're on the same coast. Yeah, yeah, it's fun doing a remote episode. I like the energy we have when we record together, but this means we can put out even more amazing episodes Absolutely so today we're going to talk about brand strategies Woohoo, my favorite. I know people have so many questions about building a brand. It's probably like the first thing I think about when they want to start a business, would you say, is what is my brand going to look like, feel like, sound like?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would say logo comes to mind first.

Speaker 2:

So it's one of those visuals of the brand that people start to think about first.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think there's also a lot of misconception around what a brand strategy is, what a brand actually is.

Speaker 2:

A brand is not just a logo let's define that for people, because 100 people get that wrong all the time.

Speaker 1:

So I would say a logo is a logo. That's the visual branding. If the reason it's called branding it, I believe. Well, I don't know if this is true, but it's like you think of cattle branding. Right, you're branding. You're saying like I'm branding the cattle, I'm branding this with my business, but that is just a visual representation of it. Your brand strategy is everything that goes around. That it's what do you stand for? What does that logo represent? I always think people get so stuck on choosing a business name. But the William Shakespeare line comes to mind, which is a rose by any other name smells just as sweet. So it's really the brand strategy. Is what makes it smell sweet? The rose is like it's just the name, it's all, it's just the vibes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. Even coming to like the birdcage name, have you like? You probably thought of that, and then I'm sure you've had some reserves and then you stuck with it and now it's across eight brands and it's a very strong brand name.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I actually didn't give any thought to the Birdcage name. It's based on my a lot of people don't know this but it's based on my surname, which is Avery. But where I actually got it from was when I wasn't even married yet to my husband, because it's my married name. When I wasn't even married yet, my now father-in-law his email address was birdcage at iPrimus or something like that. And I thought to myself, if I ever start an agency which I knew I would when I start an agency, I'm going to call it Birdcage Marketing. And then I was doing some side hustle work when I was working in agency in Sydney, just for some friends, and I had to register a business name and so Birdcage Marketing it was.

Speaker 1:

Then when I registered that name for a few years, did not much with it. Then when I relocated to Mackay and I was like hating life and hating the agency work up here, cause it was Mackay time, not my vibes. Then I was like, oh well, I guess I'll just start working for myself and that was my business name that I had and we rolled with it. Since that time I've definitely been like, oh, I wish I had a cooler business name, like Casa de la Soul or something I don't know, something cool like that or studio. Since that time it's really. We didn't rebrand because it's an ordeal, but it's really, it's more. I'm really proud of it now because it's really more about what it represents, all the brand strategy behind it, what it can do for people, what all of those things.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so. It's now less about those physical words and more about the vibes and the personality and the values and the mission that everyone has bought into and everybody knows now as well, and you wouldn't change it now because it's a very well-known brand.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and all of those were intentional the values that people see from us, the feelings that people get when they hear our name or when they see any of their logo or their brand visuals.

Speaker 1:

What is that first piece of the strategy that we teach that can't be overlooked it always bothers me when people come to us and go I don't have a strategy, I don't know who my audience is, but I already have a logo. I think to myself how did you design the logo? Obviously, you simply designed it because you thought it looked cool. Sometimes it works out okay because you are your target audience. Sometimes, Sometimes Other times it becomes very clear once we go through the brand strategy process that oh shit, my logo needs a new logo. Like, we need a new logo, we need a rebrand, and it costs them a lot more money to do that. We can facilitate that process, but it's something you do want to avoid. So the first step understand your audience. I feel like I should get this tattooed on my forehead Know your audience, understand who they are and then build your brand around that.

Speaker 2:

And we were talking about this before this episode about how sometimes some of my clients get confused about if I'm building an authentic brand to me but then I'm focusing on my audience. How do those two things meet and still feel authentic, and what would you say to that?

Speaker 1:

It is easy to fall into the trap of creating a brand and creating content and marketing purely for your audience purely. If that happens and you're losing your authenticity in the process, that is a problem. But I also argue that if you can't authentically show up as yourself, or your brand can't show up as its authentic self for your target audience, then you're in the wrong game, then there's a misalignment there.

Speaker 2:

There is you need to dig a bit deeper.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, If you feel like your audience is, for example, really high, ultra high net worth individuals who value discernment, privacy, convenience, ease, luxury, and then you actually hate all of those things and you can't stand the customer service angles or you hate luxury or any of that kind of stuff, then it's yeah, I really do wonder why are you in this game?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you don't like your audience or their values, then why are you trying to market and sell?

Speaker 1:

to them 100%. I haven't come across that too much. The one thing I do come across quite frequently. The question is do I develop my brand strategy and my audience strategy around who I'm serving now, who I currently attract, or do I develop it for people who I want to attract?

Speaker 2:

Now, yes, I get that question a lot too, or sometimes in the process, it's oh wow, I don't really love this disempowered person that I'm attracting.

Speaker 1:

How do I attract very similar people but the more problem aware, self-aware, ready to take action person yeah, that's something I've experienced firsthand because we experienced that for a very long time where we were attracting the wrong type of audience, the audience that just wanted to throw their marketing at us, essentially just grow their businesses for 2000 bucks a month retainer, where we were just responsible for running some Facebook ads, but they expected us to do everything Any organic on their own.

Speaker 2:

They didn't want to do anything. Basically, they just wanted to throw money at us and then blame us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then we had to show up on calls every week and try and talk them down from you know why isn't my business growing? Well, you haven't done any of the things that we recommended. We are getting paid for one aspect of your marketing. If you want to pay us for everything, sure, but you need a shitload more money.

Speaker 2:

And even then, even if we do everything, if there's like you can feel, feel a completely outsourced brand versus a brand that really cares about their audience and thinks of all those little gaps that they can fill with better communication, better customer service, better customer experience.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so when we started shifting our marketing to speak to the more not even empowered, I would say the more responsible businesses and brands, people who are willing to take responsibility for their success, now we have only dream clients, only the best clients. We don't have any client problems. What agency can say that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's so true.

Speaker 1:

And so with the question, should I speak to who I want to attract or who I'm currently attracting? It's who you want to attract.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, why would you keep writing messages for the people?

Speaker 1:

Oh, but then I'll. I'll lose customers or I'll if they see a shift in my content, then oh, then I'll, I won't be making money. No, you have to. You got to jump that. What do you call that? What's like in the western movies where they all like Bart Simpson Canyon. You got to jump that Canyon. You got to get on your Bart Simpson skateboard and your brand strategy and your planning and your mindset is what is taking you down that ramp and then you make it over the top.

Speaker 2:

I heard something good the other day and I was like which is something we believe? Obviously it's. If you don't believe you can do it, you're not going to do it. If you do believe you can do it, you can do it. It's like it's literally that simple, but you have to put practices in place to believe you can do it and to believe you can serve those more empowered customers, to believe you have the tools to help them gain the transformation that they desire.

Speaker 1:

And this is where the mindset work comes in people. Whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you are right.

Speaker 2:

So if you're wanting to put together your audience strategy and you're not in the school and you don't work with us, but you want to gain as much free knowledge as you can from our episodes, go back and listen to our episodes. Season three, episode nine how to use our audience schemas to blow up your sales. That was in July that it aired. And how to use our ladder of transformation to become the obvious option. That was at the beginning of August. Season three, episode 13. So go back and binge those, yeah, okay. So what, maddie? What do you feel like is the most important part of building an authentic, standout brand, one that just attracts people, that people just flock to, that creates a community around it? Is there one thing or is it all the things?

Speaker 1:

I would really say it is just being different.

Speaker 2:

It's really about being different, having a point of difference.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the way to be different is to say something different. Show up differently. Let's be clear. I'm not talking about just like being crazy outfits for crazy outfits sake. Yeah, quirky for quirky, I'm just quirky. I can't stand that word.

Speaker 1:

It is dig deep into what your beliefs are, what your values are, whether you are the marketer for a brand, so it doesn't always have to be you as the entrepreneur. You as the marketer, have so much power about how a brand can connect. So I'm just going to I'm going to leave that statement there. But for entrepreneurs especially, figure out what you believe and what you don't believe, and especially draw on how is that different to what's currently happening in your space? And then go hard on that.

Speaker 1:

I had a lot of initial success where I started pulling out shitty agency practices on TikTok, because we'd gone through our own transformation about how we work with our clients. Specifically, we're not just going to take your money and then promise you the world and not deliver. We will actually force you to do the work on your end as well, to complement what we do, because we want you to be successful. And then also the strategy pieces as well. When I started calling that out, that's when people started taking notice of me, and still today, when I post content around that, people connect with that. So much better than if I start talking about five ways to optimize your Instagram bio.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I think this comes really. It's how it's communicated in your content, in your marketing. That brand point of difference it's communicated in your content, in your marketing, that brand point of difference, yeah, it's showing up, calling things out, not just relying on education content, because that we're really all sick of that, but there's a way to educate, doing it the way you do A hundred percent and it's opinion based.

Speaker 1:

I had a school student has been DMing me on TikTok. He's been really engaging with my content. I can tell he's in the method because he's commenting on things, saying like hmm, I'm feeling an outlaw archetype in this one which I love.

Speaker 2:

I saw that comment, I was like oh, who is this?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so, and then he DMed me to saying what do you think of my latest video? And I watched it and he's saying some. Really, he's in financial, he's saying some great stuff, but I feel like he's holding back. I feel like he's got a lot more to say on the matter and I said that I go, I want to see more opinions from you and he goes I have strong opinions about this. I'm just figuring out the right way to say it. I'm like, nah, don't, don't figure out the right way to say it. Don't be afraid to ruffle feathers, don't be afraid to be controversial If you're not being racist, sexist ageist ageist is kind of a little bit acceptable these days online but if you're not just if you're an intelligent person with an informed opinion and knowledge about subject matter that you help people with, you should not be afraid to make other people upset about what your opinion is, because that is actually the key. That is how you do it. That is the whole point. You're meant to make your anti-audience upset. You're meant to make them not want you.

Speaker 1:

And the last few days, I feel like I finally turned a corner with my TikTok content because I had a lot of triggering things come up for me with our studio launch and I worked through a lot of that and I feel like I've had a breakthrough with that and because of that, I'm showing through a lot of that and I feel like I've had a breakthrough with that and because of that, I'm showing up a lot more authentically in my content now again, this is why the mindset and the reprogrammings and the activations are so important in the journaling I'm now showing up more authentically and the reason I know that it's working. My views may still not be where they used to be because TikTok is transitioning to a paid focus, I can tell. But I can tell I'm connecting because I've had probably three people viciously attack me in my comments and I love it and I celebrate it. And I called Max our content strategist and I was like woo, we're back, we made it, we're doing it. So I've got one.

Speaker 1:

One person was basically saying because I believe that everybody has the power to transform their life and obviously it is a little bit difficult because I am a white person living in Australia, so there is an element of privilege that I will not deny. But in saying that, I've heard so many stories from people in really poor countries, in really shitty situations that have used the power of their mind to get themselves into a better place. So someone basically said you're speaking from a position of privilege. Not everyone has the power to change their life, and I disagree with what's that word? Virmently, vehemently, vehemently, vehemently. Disagree with that so much and it shows me exactly the victim mentality that is going on in that person's head. But I'm glad they left that comment because I'm ruffling feathers.

Speaker 1:

The other one was with regards to when I basically was talking about this made up person, janine, who whinges that she wants to website and no one's come to the website. And I say you're not owed sales and they basically this comment was like I would never work with you. And then I responded and said well good, I don't want you to, I wouldn't let you work with me. And then she called me a mean girl.

Speaker 1:

But then someone else in the comments backed me up, saying Maddie is a breath of fresh air, especially in the agency space. A breath of fresh air, especially in the agency space. A breath of fresh air with her directness, but also the fact that you can tell that she cares so much, and I think that's what it is. It's like if you're a professional whether you're an e-commerce brand, whatever the fuck, whether you're an OnlyFans, I don't care but if you are a professional in what you do and you are knowledgeable, informed and you see and you're calling out behaviors or you're sharing opinions that not everyone agrees with, but the reason you're doing it is because your intention is to help people, then go for your fucking life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. It reminded me of a conversation I had earlier this week with one of my clients, and she's an entrepreneur. She works by herself. I believe we might've been talking about your content and how it attracted her into the agency, but she's like, it's just so hard, oh yeah. So she was naming the people around her. So family, friends, other entrepreneurs were all, yes, people.

Speaker 2:

And because other entrepreneurs, friends want to support you, they don't want to call you out because they need that hype person when they go through hard times. Family doesn't really know what you're doing, so they'll just say, yep, that's a great idea, sweetie. So you need other people in your life who are going to tell you the truth, who aren't just going to be like, yep, yep, cool, great idea. And then turn around and go, oh, that's not a great idea, but I don't want to say anything. And it's like if you, if you can create customers who want that as well and you know, depending on where you sit in the market, what, what you offer, I think that's a really, really powerful tool and, like you've said in the past, is when you start, stopped beating around the bush and started being honest. That's when, like, everything changed in your life. I think you called it like when I started being bitchy everything changed in my life for the better.

Speaker 1:

Even my personal conversations, you know, like with my direct family, where in the past I might previously have bitten my tongue on certain topics because I just didn't want to go into that. I just went into it, making it very clear that my intention was to support them and be. You know, even with Max's move to New Zealand, I told her many, many times my thoughts on the matter and sharing it from the place that I'm scared for you. I think this is a really tough thing that you're doing. My advice would be to stay in Makai. Obviously, I have my own motivations behind that as well, but I said that to her. I said all of those things to her.

Speaker 1:

I have not withheld anything that I feel about what her life choices have been. As my baby sister, I've come out and said all of that and yet, because she knows that my intentions behind that was to help her, she took it all on board. She still made her own decisions, but we have a better relationship than ever because I've been able to show up honestly and directly with her, and it's the same with a lot of the people that work in the agency. I mean everyone, but I also have really close personal relationships with a number of staff, specifically Maria, for example, who our boys are best friends, and so there's a lot of things that come along with that as well.

Speaker 1:

You know, we we, our families hang out together and we basically have this policy where I'm not going to offer to be polite for things. I'm not going to say to you, um hey, you know, I invited them over for lunch the other day and she just was like no, no, thanks, not today, like great, we don't play. Pretend. I don't know it's. I think it's the German-ness that's coming out in me that I'm actually embracing, because it was something that I tried to really downplay for a long time and it really sat in my shadow for a long time. We've transitioned into a therapy session, haven't we? I know?

Speaker 2:

That's interesting though.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was definitely. You know, I always had comments from especially people in high school like it's just, you just say things that offend people. Sometimes, maddie and so and I know my mother is a lot like that as well it's not what she says, it's how she says it, and it really rubs people out the wrong way because it's like, oh, I know you're right, but like it's just really annoyed me how you said that, and so I really put that aspect of myself in the, in my shadow, for a long time since I embraced that. And this is again. People are wondering why are we teaching mindset manifestation shit when we're a marketing agency? It's because you can't do one without the other, and if you've done a brand strategy in the past and it hasn't worked for you, I guarantee you it's because it's been superficial words on a page.

Speaker 2:

And it's some kind of limiting belief that's popping up, that's keeping you from.

Speaker 1:

It is. It's like if you've written that your brand values are like inclusiveness, happiness, that kind of thing, positivity, if you've written that because you think, oh, oh, that's what people want to see from me, but then you're actually an undercover, sarcastic little bitch, then it's not gonna fly, it's not gonna work for you and I want you to embrace the fact that you're a sarcastic little bitch and get on social media and be that person so think about the words little bitch put together make me giggle.

Speaker 1:

Sarcastic little bitch. I think about particular friends, though, or even Jess, for example, our creative director. People who don't know her as well as we do. They think, oh, she's just the kindest, most loving, generous, wonderful person, and she is all of those things, but she's also can be grumpy and stubborn, and so she's a human being she's absolutely a human being, but I actually love that strength behind her and that's part of why I love her.

Speaker 1:

I love her for the fact that she doesn't like taking shit and she she gets pissed off with people that don't hold themselves to a good standard and it's like with her. I know she's starting her content journey and with that I really want to foster with her, for her to step into that and own that part of her where she is generous and kind and loving and this wonderful spiritual woman. But she is also someone with strong boundaries and has the right to be that.

Speaker 2:

This even is reminding me of a previous episode we did with the business coach, jess Williamson, and whether it was in our interview or in her book, she was just talking about that like good girl syndrome and how so many of us grow up with that and how it's like so detrimental for us to experience big wins or go after big things or be ambitious. And this all comes back to your brand, because we really speak to small businesses and even if you're not a small business, we work with some big corporations. They're still coming to us to go how can we build personal brands around this corporation? Because they know it's people that drive this.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And just a note on that, something that we actually haven't spoken about a lot in our content, but I think we should be it's the fact that when I first started this agency almost 10 years ago, I started it because I wanted to help small businesses with smaller budgets achieve their goals. I worked in an agency. It was only small, but we worked with big budgets, big brands. I had a heap of side hustles myself and I couldn't find anyone who could help me. I was specifically looking for PR agencies, but there was also no marketing agency. So I'm like I'm going to help people like me with smaller budgets.

Speaker 1:

Right, small businesses used to be on the back foot. We used to have to try and be more inventive, to figure out how to get our name and get our brands out there without the big budgets that big brands have. Social media as it is consumed today has completely flipped that on its head, and it's actually small businesses who are more agile, who can show up as a personal brand and who can relate to other individuals on the internet that are in the driver's seat, and it's the big businesses that are trying to figure out how to do the same.

Speaker 2:

It's the big businesses, yeah, that are like 10 years behind and they're like oh crap, we better figure out this social media thing. It's like yo, this has been around for a while now and we've been screaming it from the rooftops.

Speaker 1:

But not just that. It's like they can't pivot as quickly. They can't see the breakdancing trend, the breakdancer Ray Gunn. They can't see that and go and create a video that day unless they have a progressive approvals process that values agileness and responsiveness. If you're in big business, by the time you get that shit approved, it is done and dusted. Not just that, but I know working with council, for example, working with government they can't have a face of their brand online.

Speaker 2:

The face of the brand is their constituents there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they can't have someone who can represent the brand right. They're not allowed to, and so we had to work very hard with strategic angles to figure out how do we go around this, because we now have to do it the hard way, whereas if you are a small business, a medium business, even a big look at Duolingo I use that example all the time. They figured it out by putting a mascot that became the face of the brand. But they also obviously have an approvals, a marketing department, a leadership team that allows creativity, allows very fast content production, isn't afraid to make mistakes, because that's what happens when you work with speed. But most big businesses don't have that, but most small businesses do, because you, as the creator, as the marketer, as the everything, as the owner, you make the decisions that brings me back to when you said let's have a only bad ideas meeting.

Speaker 2:

When it came to marketing for the agency and I think that's probably the energy that more people need to bring to their content is like let's just throw out the weirdest, most random bad ideas. Like if you go look at Telstra's TikTok, they do this. You know everyone says like oh, it's the Gen Z intern who's running their thing. But no, it's a very strategic millennial or Gen Xer who knows trends who's doing like it is the most random content, but it works. Duolingo random weird. Go look at Click click up. It's like the owner of click up and he has all these weird personas and he just did like this rap as the hr department. Like these are the. This is the content that's standing out.

Speaker 1:

The paralympic content. Oh my god, they're almost like making fun of themselves. Disability like not. Then they're definitely not making fun of it obviously they're celebrating it, but they're kind of like it's almost like they're posting content yeah, well, no, you're posting content where you're like can you say that? Can you, can you do that like it'll be allowed to laugh with you? Yeah, it's like, it's kind of stuff like um, I don't know, it's almost like break a leg and they're amputees.

Speaker 2:

And I was in customer service and I had a gentleman who had a disability with his leg and he said something about like oh, I can't do that because I'm going to get legless, and I was like I didn't know if I was allowed to laugh. But he obviously meant that as a joke.

Speaker 2:

But then you're just like yeah, and that's like the time, this is what I mean it's. But then you're just like, yeah, and that's like the time, this is what I mean. It's like it stands out. So you have to. It stands out. You have to come back to your values and you have to come back to like your personality, your brand personality, and then go, okay, do those things align, check, check. Let's just go for it. If it's completely outside of your values, then it's a hard no. Do you know what I feel?

Speaker 1:

like I feel like so for the mindset in the school. I'd want to be adding more stuff to more training, more activations to it. I think it's the time now. I think people are starting to take what I'm saying on board and we're ready for next steps. I would almost argue I feel like I want to do a workshop in there. That is about uncovering your shadow, uncovering the aspects of your personality that you have denied because you were told it was not safe to be that person or to do those things. Because, for whatever reason, society, friends, family told you not to do it. But because often, I would say, the secret to your success with your brand, with your marketing, probably lies in your shadow that you've been denying yourself.

Speaker 2:

I would really like to do that training after you deliver it, cause I know those things. I've like very self-aware of my shadow, but I don't really know how to work on them.

Speaker 1:

Okay, writing it down. It's going to happen.

Speaker 2:

Maybe we'll have to do an episode on this soon. You can do a bit of a therapy session on me, because I remember when you were doing some mentoring with me for my personal brand and content and the advice you always gave me, which I still keep, is if it feels like cringy or you don't want to post it, that means you definitely need to post it. It's all those things that scare you. That's the edge of where the success is.

Speaker 1:

That's outside your comfort zone. And that's the thing with this big studio launch party we had. That was the first party that I've thrown since I had a house warming back in Sydney over 10 years ago and no one showed up and was one of the well, not no one, but a lot of people didn't. There was only a very small handful of a big group of people that we invited, and that was after me going from having a really big social group and being a popular gal to then me shifting in my life. Where I got married, I bought my second house. We were renovating all of those things that were just obviously not on the same page as a lot of the friends we grew up with, and that was the catalyst for us to then basically move. That was kind of the last straw where I was like let's do something else, let's go somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

So it was just out of jealousy. They were like nah.

Speaker 1:

Well, I don't know if it was jealousy. Well, I don't know if it was jealousy. I don't want to necessarily say that, but I think it was just. You know, people were still focusing on getting fucked up every weekend.

Speaker 2:

And, yeah, we were renovating a house Side tangent. But this happened to me when I went from public school to private school and I went to have a birthday party where I invited my new friends and my old friends. And one of my old friends decided that she was going to have a party that same weekend. And so all my old friends. And so that was the straw of like okay, this is my new group. I'm like my dad kind of told me. I was like no, it's not jealousy, it's not this, not that. He's just like okay, you can take it or leave it. But yeah, and it's just like okay, well, if that's how you want to act, then we don't need to keep this relationship anymore. And all my new friends were like so supportive because I was like embarrassed and they were so supportive and they're like oh, we're your friends now, like you know, and they're still my friends today. What I'm 34. I've been friends since high school.

Speaker 1:

This is a question that I had on one of the webinars that I hosted recently, where they said if you start doing all this mindset work like, how do the people around you react? It is a thing where you will lose people around you. You will, but it will be for the better. Look at both of the examples we just gave. No one showing up to my housewarming was what motivated us to move states and to build a life here in Mackay, which I'd say has worked out pretty well, especially if I compare myself to what's happening down in Sydney, where people are fucking miserable because their mortgages are out of control, right? Not just that, but it meant we got to hold on to our house down there and sell that for a nice hefty profit a few years later right, it's like that was the domino effect for good things.

Speaker 1:

Yes, same with your situation. You would have felt so sad and terrible and it would have felt like the worst thing in the world at that time.

Speaker 1:

But especially as, like a 15 year old girl, yeah, imagine if, though and you I mean for someone to do that they're obviously like low vibe people. If they're going to go do that Like and that's not the kind of friends you want. Anyway. Obviously, these new friends that you've stayed friends with up until adulthood and beyond, they're obviously high vibe people, and it's like, if that didn't happen, if that shit thing didn't happen, you wouldn't have been motivated enough to just cut those shit people out of your life and focus on the good people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I wouldn't have been nurturing the new friendships as much, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You would have been between the two of them and trying to yeah, maybe not going all in into these new friendships that have obviously served you really well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so that just shows you that because we were being authentic, or that was because the universe was showing us what authenticity looks like to us.

Speaker 1:

If you do the mindset work on yourself and you are elevating yourself, you're improving your vibration, you're improving the quality of your thoughts that will then start to reflect in your outside world. So if you start improving the quality of your thoughts and your beliefs and the way you feel and process emotion, that will then mean you have better quality people coming into your life. The old people that were in your life because of your low quality thoughts, the lower quality people and relationships and situations will start to drop off as you attract new quality into your life.

Speaker 2:

This is the same with your brand, the same with your audience. You have to take that leap of faith to be the right magnet, the right frequency to attract the right people.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And, if you think about it, it's back to who do I want to attract the audience I've got or the audience that I want and it's about leaping the canyon. It's back to who do I want to attract the audience I've got or the audience that I want and it's about leaping the canyon. It's about saying I want to attract a better audience and I have faith and I know that I deserve a better audience and not just yeah, it's making the decision out of abundance rather than scarcity. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I can't let go of this old audience because I'm scared, because I'm fearful that there's not enough more of the right people out there, versus I know that there's the right people out there and I know that I can deliver the transformation that they want and I know that I can deliver a great service or a great product for them. Yeah, let's talk about a few of just the tangible things as we wrap up in a brand strategy. So there's a lot like you can Google brand strategy. You can look on TikTok, you can. So there's a lot like you can Google brand strategy. You can look on TikTok. You can work with us in our school. You can work with us through the mentorship, through the agency. We write your strategies for you.

Speaker 2:

But really the big things are your personality, your tone of voice, your mission and vision, your brand story and how you can deliver that into your content. Your brand story and how you can deliver that into your content. And your brand story really needs to be about your challenges and then your evolution, and it needs to match where your audience is too. So there's an art form in that. What else do we feel like is really important? Obviously, your brand aesthetics got your brand essence. Do you want to talk a bit about brand essence, because that one's a.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you always say in the school, school.

Speaker 2:

That's the most challenging part of your brand strategy.

Speaker 1:

It is it is. It's the hardest because it's the most simplistic, it's the most consolidated, it's the shortest. How do you condense down all of the strategy work that you've just done on all of these pages before into one or two sentences? But that is the challenge, and that is something that I don't think we ever stop working on. I'm still have never been 100% happy. I think, where we are now intelligent, iconic and in charge, we are definitely the closest to some summarizing everything we deliver across all of our brands, to all of our clients, students and customers. But it's it's a constant evolution, and the reason why it's hard is like your brand essence should really be your Instagram bio, your TikTok bio, your website header. It's your positioning statement. It's when people read that they should instantly know are you for them or are you not for them, and what is it that you actually deliver for them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so trying to nail that is challenging, but that's why it helps to work with experts to do it.

Speaker 1:

It is really, really hard, and this is where you can use AI tools like Chat, gpt. I don't recommend using chat to write your strategy. I think you need to write your strategy yourself, because otherwise you just get superficial shit. But once you have gotten yourself like 70 of the way there, then you can use it to refine, to say is there another way to say this or how would I say this more? You know, literally dump your entire strategy into chat and see what it spits out for you.

Speaker 2:

that's what I suggest, and then keep going I like this, let's workshop it. I like this, let's workshop it. And you keep giving it feedback, and you keep giving it feedback until it's right, and then you have the human part of your brain go oh, that sparks this idea. Oh, this is it. You've nailed it, yes, so what do you think are the things? So it's, let's. In summary, so the things that make a brand stand out online that attracts the right people, repels the wrong people, is being polarizing in an authentic way. It's having a unique point of difference.

Speaker 1:

I think that is the crux of the matter, and really everything that you do in a brand strategy guides you to figure what that is, figure out what that is. What is it that you value? What is the brand personality behind it? What are you trying to actually do and achieve? And then it's really, you know, using that mindset piece as well and having your vision board or having your life strategy, which is a whole nother episode, but drawing on that to influence the most authentic version of your brand.

Speaker 2:

And one tool that we use in our strategies as well as the brand archetype, and you can go and Google those and you'll start to realize that every major brand has a brand archetype and that helps drive all of their messaging as well, and all of their aesthetics and all of their campaigns. So go look at that, because it's a really fun activity and you can use AI to help you create that as well, but that helps you be authentic with a clear message and a clear, consistent way of showing up.

Speaker 1:

I would 100% recommend doing your brand strategy and that's how we teach it in the school Write your own brand strategy first, before you then run it through the archetype. Don't use the archetype. Don't use it the other way around, because it becomes too generic. Also, if you are looking up things online about brand archetypes the way that we have it in the school and that we use for our agency we've very much taken these brand, which is how we've used all of our psychological frameworks. We take what is what already exists, but we've built on it to directly reflect marketing and brands. If you're not in the school or you're not a client of ours and you look up archetypes and it makes you more confused than ever, you probably need that next step that we can give you, which is showing you how to apply it into your brand directly.

Speaker 2:

And I think even where some of our students get confused as they try to go brand archetype before they go audience as well.

Speaker 2:

And then they're like I'm this, but my audience is this, and I'm really confused. And we have a whole framework within our strategies how you match your audience schema all the way over to the messages, the traits and then the brand archetype, and it's you have to go. You can't really shortcut things as much as you want to. It's really hard, especially for newer brands, to land on who their audience is, but it's the work you have to do first For sure. Alrighty Thanks, Caroline. Awesome. Well, reach out to us if you have any questions about your brand strategy. It's a really fun part of building your marketing strategy. Woohoo, Woohoo, Bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Not so Kind Regards podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. If you did, we would really appreciate if you left a review, on whatever streaming platform you are using. It helps us to grow as a brand new podcast and to help many more business owners and content creators reach their goals, just like we hope this brought you one step closer to yours. Remember, connect with us on TikTok, at Maddie Birdcage and at Birdcage Marketing, and the same handles on Instagram again, and if you really want to learn how to work with us, make sure you head to our website and book a call. We would love to speak with you.