Dog Biz School Open Enrollment is happening now - learn more information on our leading dog business coaching services and how Dog Biz School can lead you in 2021.
In the 71st episode of Mind Your Own Dog Business - we're sharing an exclusive listen to Kristen Lee's closing keynote at Pet Sitters International World Conference 2020. A special thank you to PSI President Beth Stultz-Harrison for allowing us to share this impactful keynote.
Brand Disruption: Leading Through Authenticity & Creating Transformation
So, you've built a dog training business, but have you created a brand?
A brand that creates influence while developing an authoritative voice in your local market. Meaning, yes, you are different. But do you STAND OUT as a brand? Or are you being hidden behind your dog training business?
The truth is: dog biz branding is more than just logos, color choices, or quickly thrown together graphics, videos, and screaming about how awesome you are, which, if you're reading this, you are.
Brand STRATEGY for dog pros is mastering your identity, creating a powerful voice in your market, standing in your values and authenticity while attracting your dream clients (read: that pay more and respect your expertise), and becoming a brand superstar dog trainer.
Brand Disruption: Leading Through Authenticity is a transformational keynote. It allows dog business owners to peel the layers slowly back around their real authenticity, find where they've been potentially hiding in not only their dog training businesses but in all areas of their lives. By stepping into a different paradigm of brand strategy, they will be more effective with their marketing and have a higher sense of self-value when it comes to sales and pricing. It's NOT rebranding, but brand evolution.
Links:
Dog Biz School Open Enrollment
Check out more episodes of Mind Your Own Dog Business
Connect with Kristen & Grassroots:
Join Our FB Group For Dog Biz Owners: https://www.facebook.com/groups/petdogbizowners
Online: www.dogbizschool.com
Instagram: @dogwalkercoach
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DogBizSchool
Dog Biz School Open Enrollment is happening now - learn more information on our leading dog business coaching services and how Dog Biz School can lead you in 2021.
In the 71st episode of Mind Your Own Dog Business - we're sharing an exclusive listen to Kristen Lee's closing keynote at Pet Sitters International World Conference 2020. A special thank you to PSI President Beth Stultz-Harrison for allowing us to share this impactful keynote.
Brand Disruption: Leading Through Authenticity & Creating Transformation
So, you've built a dog training business, but have you created a brand?
A brand that creates influence while developing an authoritative voice in your local market. Meaning, yes, you are different. But do you STAND OUT as a brand? Or are you being hidden behind your dog training business?
The truth is: dog biz branding is more than just logos, color choices, or quickly thrown together graphics, videos, and screaming about how awesome you are, which, if you're reading this, you are.
Brand STRATEGY for dog pros is mastering your identity, creating a powerful voice in your market, standing in your values and authenticity while attracting your dream clients (read: that pay more and respect your expertise), and becoming a brand superstar dog trainer.
Brand Disruption: Leading Through Authenticity is a transformational keynote. It allows dog business owners to peel the layers slowly back around their real authenticity, find where they've been potentially hiding in not only their dog training businesses but in all areas of their lives. By stepping into a different paradigm of brand strategy, they will be more effective with their marketing and have a higher sense of self-value when it comes to sales and pricing. It's NOT rebranding, but brand evolution.
Links:
Dog Biz School Open Enrollment
Check out more episodes of Mind Your Own Dog Business
Connect with Kristen & Grassroots:
Join Our FB Group For Dog Biz Owners: https://www.facebook.com/groups/petdogbizowners
Online: www.dogbizschool.com
Instagram: @dogwalkercoach
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DogBizSchool
Hey guys, we're about to get kicked off with today's episode of the mind, your own dog biz podcast. I'm excited for this episode, but first I wanted to officially announce something. Doug is school is opening its doors for 2021 enrollment. Our coaching team has been getting ready behind the scenes to have one of the most powerful, powerful coaching years for 2021. You thought we did big things for 2020. You have no idea what we have up our little sleeves, small big sleeves for 2021. And for all of our incredible dog business owners, the thing is we only open our doors a few times a year. And I wanted to make sure I gave all of my listeners an opportunity to learn a little bit more about it, to apply to it. And even if you apply, it's no obligation this way, you can talk with one of our program advisors, see if it's going to be a fit because no matter what's in store for 2021, you can be prepared and ready with your dog business. It doesn't matter if you're a dog trainer or pets that are groomer because our team of coaches have your backs. And we're ready to lead you no matter what happens, no matter if there's another pandemic, no matter if there's a crazy economic crash, we got you. And the most beautiful thing that I personally love, and I know it's going to be very, very important to a lot of my listeners is when you work with dogs at school. There's not more of a sacrifice. And when I talk about sacrifice more time, more work on your plate as a busy dog, a business owner, the deal is we want you to be wealthy, not only with money in the bank naturally, but also with your time, your energy and your empowerment to live a life. That you truly love and actually have a business that works for you for you not to be stuck working in your business consistently. Cause that that's, that's not cool. You don't want to do, that's not sustainable. So dog, this school is your place. This is where smart as F dog trainers and dog business owners go to get educated, make some bold ass moves and shifts in their business and create lasting wealth. Plus what's really excited too, is our groundbreaking. Accreditation program is included in dog school, which is going to be launching extremely soon. So if you are interested, what you can do is go to www.dog biz that's D O G B as in boy, I Z as in zebra. 2020 one.com. So that's dog biz, 2020 one.com. And you can apply, like I said, it's a non obligated application. You can speak to one of our program advisors. See if it's a good fit. If it's not, that's totally cool, but I wanted to give every single one of you guys, the opportunity, if you've ever. Wondered what it would be working like with one of our team members. It's an incredible opportunity. And I encourage all of you guys that you've ever been interested in working with one of us to hop on this opportunity, because we might actually not even be opening up till maybe Q3 of 2021. So. Dog biz 2020 one.com and I'll catch you on the other side. You're listening to the mind, your own dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business. Strategic Kristen Lee guys. Get ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business grant, along with mastering your mindset. That's going to smash. All of this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog was this to the next level. With actionable steps, you can take right away. We're going to empower you. We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self. Not only as a dog trainer, dog Walker, or what ever slice the pet industry, you find yourself in. But as that bad-ass entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm. Cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and empower the incredible women of the dog business industry to step into the spotlight, reclaim control and transform not only their businesses, but their lives. It's real. It's raw. It's uncensored. And it's what this dog business industry needs. Let's do this guys. But at this time, it is my place. Introduce our keynote speaker for this year's virtual pet sitter world educational conference. Kristen Lee is a branding and marketing expert who gets dog business entrepreneurs seen, heard, and paid by stepping into their authenticity and disrupting the norm of how they do the business of dogs. She has helped hundreds of dog trainers, dog walkers, and pet sitters, and shown them not only how to effectively market and sell their services, but also how to build a brand that creates transformational change while empowering them as an industry disruptor, Kristen serves up an uncensored and intense truth would love for the pet dog industry. As she understands the challenges, entrepreneurs face. She built her first three dog businesses to multiple six figures while working full-time in corporate America. As a trusted advisor to numerous CEOs while earning her MBA, you can find her working on her passion, the top rated podcast, mind your own dog business, and@thekristenlee.com. At this time, I'm going to turn the presentation over to Kristen. Awesome, Beth, thank you so much for such a lovely, lovely interjection. I really appreciate it. So welcome everybody right now. I'm going to be sharing everything and just two seconds and perfect. Welcome everybody. It's truly an honor to be here today and to be your keynote speaker. So something that I want to go into this conversation with very clearly. Is, this is not just a rebrand. This is a brand evolution, and this is something that I want everybody to think about as we go through this. Now I'm going to be discussing a lot of the topics and the pillars and the viewpoints at a high level. So it would be incredibly awesome. If you can write down any questions as they come into your mind, and then I can answer them towards the end. So. I'm super excited. I just want to kick this off. All right. So sorry, I didn't let you know that we're not able to see your webcam. So if you did want to hear that you don't have to, but if you want to tell him to catch you before you got started, see my, I want you to see my pretty face. I got all up for you guys. There you go. There you go. Can you see me now? Yes, we can see you now. Perfect. Um, awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Okay, cool. And you guys can still see my screen. Perfect. All right. So before we get kicked off, this is supposed to be an interactive conversation. I don't want to bore you and everything like that. So feel free if you want to, to take specific pictures to tag me and whatever, but first the first question I want to ask every single one of you here. No matter how long have you been in business? No matter what type of business you do, whether you're just a pet sitter, maybe you do dog training, maybe do cats today, who here is using their branding as an authentic, curated experience in their business. Just show your hands and everything like that. You're probably like, what the heck is she talking about already? So let me put it this way. If I was a perspective client of yours, just say, I lived in your local market and I am a busy, successful. Entrepreneurial woman. I have a lot of things going on in my life, including I had my own pets too, at this point. And something that I truly desire at a deep, deep level of who I am at as a human design, is that I need to get away from the office. My life is insane. No matter what year it is, no matter what I do in business, my life is insane. Completely insane. So. I want to get away. I need to get away. I need to get away with my family because it's just insane. So, but what am I going to do with my pets? You know, like I'm not your typical dog owner where I'm just looking at it. It's cool. You know, I'll put my dog in a kennel or whatnot, but I, I have a unique desire to be able to take care, get my dog and my cat taken care of at a super, super high VIP level. Now. When I talk about a VIP level, I mean, everything's done for me. I can just go, I can go on your website and I'm just like, yo, this is who I need to book. And we have a curated experience. And what's beautiful about that is when you create a curated experience, I have a deeper sense of level of trust. I'm going to pay a lot more money. I'm talking. If you've had sit my cat guys on average, I pay about $85 a night just for my cat. So I want you to think about right now, when you think about your brand experience as a pet sitter, as a dog Walker, as a cat sitter, is it just started your website started your logo and there, okay. So that's a huge thing guys, because when we start to think about branding, we think about colors. We think about logos, Hey biography, AKA font, and then you call it a day or maybe you just have content out there. For sake of content, but when you start to curate a branded content curated journey to your perspective, clients, guys, I can tell you a few things first and foremost, it's the ultimate form of self-care ultimate form because it establishes boundaries. You start to step into your authority. And people pay more money. You attract the right people and because here's the deal, right? We always think about, and we always have this perspective of, well, we need more, we need to have our profits up. We need to have our profits more money means more clients, but when you start to really, really get into the depth of your brand identity and create a strategy around it, and really think your, your perspective dog owning client tick and talk. That's where you don't have to have a ton of clients and everything like that. I mean, that's your jam. That's totally cool too. But I'm here. I'm Beth. Beth wanted me here to disrupt you guys. So let's officially get started. So something I like to tell people is let me see my screen working perfect. 91%. This is a fact 91% of consumers out there. People that are spending money 91. Want to purchase from an authentic brand. Now authenticity is this funny buzzword these days it's like, Oh, be authentic. It's like, okay, what the heck does it mean to be authentic? We're going to dump it to that. I promise you. I promise you guys. I got you on that one, but 91% of people out there, people that want to spend money, they want an authentic experience. So something I want you to think about as we go through, this is authenticity. In your brand inspires in trust and loyalty, right? And the beautiful thing about authenticity too, it doesn't just empower you, but it empowers your perspective. Clients. It's a deeper connection and relationship and authenticity. I truly believe authenticity gives us the freedom. Absolute freaking freedom. In our businesses to be ourselves, because I know you guys are suffering from so much burnout, fatigue, especially after this crapshoot of 2020. I know a lot of you guys are making it. You guys are doing great, but then we're going to go into the holidays. And I sometimes see people treating boundaries for ability. And if you have to be liked, we got to talk about your authenticity. We got to talk about it. Because the thing is, you're not going to please everybody, but you're going to please yourself and you're going to attract the right freakin person to you when you're authentic. All right. So no further induction. Here we go. Let me go here. Of course. Now my computer is not working. My official official, official introduction is my PR I'm Kristen Lee. And my goal today is to have every single one of you, whatever phase you're in as a business owner, as a pet business owner, as a pet PSI attendee is subserved to plant the seeds. Now I don't expect you guys to go out and implement all this stuff. It's a lot of stuff. I mean, When I work with people doing this when grassroots works with people, high level people, and we do a VIP, it's actually about a quarter's worth a year work. But my goal for every single one of you guys here is just to plant seeds and then you can act on them, take what you want from this. But if I affect just one of you and I started to change the gears the way you think. That's where the true magic is going to happen. And then from there, once we figure out who you truly are, who that niche client is, how you can connect with them, how you can start to flip things out. Then you can have the fun part of doing your logos and your colors and everything like this. Okay. So today I asked you guys to do one thing, be able to trade your likeability for authenticity. Cause you gotta be authentic. So a lot of people like to ask and let me set this. Sorry guys. I have multiple computers going here. A lot of people ask branding, what is branding and branding? Just like authenticity is subjective. If you look at Seth Goden, he is the grandfather of any modern, modern marketing, highly recommend any of stuff's books. Love it. The guy, a fantastic speaker, Steph talks about a brand. Influencing customers, thoughts, decisions, and purchase behaviors. To me, what I talk to our grassroots students about what I talked to our VIP branding students about is that branding is completely intentional. It's strategic. It's putting what you can bring to the table authentically and serving it to your customers. Right? So one thing that I've know, I noticed this in the vendor group, a lot of people, yeah. You know, branding feels like a commodity yet because it's been commoditized over the years. It's been. Dumb down to basic, you know, what content and colors and logos. So it's used very loosely, but here's the deal guys. It's branding is an emotional tie to who you truly are at an athletic level, right? Internal versus external. We're going to be using that word a lot today. I'm going to be using that word a lot today. I got to make sure I watch my time because I can talk about this all day. People know this, so. A brand, is that external perception in the minds of your audience? It's an idea. It's what people think and feel when they consider your product. It's what they think and feel when they consider your mission as a person. Because at the end of the day, as entrepreneurs that happen to be in the business of the pets, we're all on a mission. It's your customer experience. Remember when we talked about, if I was a person looking for a high end pet sitting service, or maybe an all-inclusive pet sitting slash dog training surface, what is the customer experience? How is it talking to me? What am I doing? What calls to action and the best part of branding, something that's super deep that nobody scratches the level on. It is completely, completely personal. It is a life changer. I've had many couples that have gone through our brand accelerator that actually said to me, they're going to be on the, my drone dog business podcast. And they're like, you know, Rediscovering our brand doing our brand evolution, brought us together more. I was able to partner and they were able to communicate better just through freaking branding. That's insane. Right. So I'm going to share a couple of stories around that, but one thing I do want everybody, every single one of you guys to think about Bella, the branding lab is here is everything that your brand touches. Every single thing. Is a brand experience, any interaction. It's something that I drill into our grassroots during Doug was without porters. They were like, Oh my God, Kristen, just shut up. Even Maggie was like, Oh my God, I've had enough of this. But from taking phone calls to how you show up online, through social media, through tick, talk through how your business cards look, how you connect with other business owners, whether it's through lead generation to if you're a dog trainer and you have printouts, everything that you touch, everything that your employees touch, everything that your eye sees touch is considered branding. Now. There's an, there's an exercise I want you all to do right now. Okay. Now, when I talk by the way, guys, when I pull out little kind of points here, I'm talking from an objective non-emotional viewpoint. So if you are doing any of the quote unquote things not to do, please know it's not a personal attack. I just been in this for a really long time and I see how it can change lives. So just know it's not something that I'm, you know, I'm going after any particular individual, if it speaks to you. Great. If it doesn't, that's cool too. So thinking of as everything touches, everything that your business has, everything that you touch is a brand. If you were to close your eyes, you can do it right now. And you were to put yourself in the shoes of a prospective client, who is the average dog owner, the average cat owner. What would they like if they told your story? What would it sound like? Is it, Oh, they're a great pet sitter or man that Leslie gets me. She understands. She knows that she can. I, she, I know she has my back. I know she can, you know, Be able to be able to swoop in when need it. I know I can trust any type of services to the owner just by using content, language, images, and creating that emotional experience. So that's one exercise I want you guys to walk away with today is if I was, if you were to sit down, close your eyes, put yourself, and we're going to do the close your eyes exercise several times. It's okay. I promise you. It's not awkward. I'll make, I'll make myself an awkward penguin to do it. But close your eyes objectively and understand, okay. How do I show up as a pet business brand? How do I speak? What tones do I use? Am I just kind of leaving out there and call it a day now? Something that I want to also touch on too. And this is something that I'm extremely passionate about. Specially all of you guys, all you women out there and you're meant, and the men too cool is I want you guys to stop hiding behind the logo. You all are beautiful people, all of you, and it's time to let your personality shine and the beautiful thing about this branding process and finding your identity. You are going to be able to build a self-confidence that you don't have to hide anymore. Guys. Now, truth be told I'm done up right now. Okay. Normally I, um, I have a dog in my lap. I have a cat running around here. That's you that's you. Right. But allow yourself the permission to step out from the dog. Step out from the cat, the pet hair. If you want to do that, if you don't, it's totally cool too. Now we're going to go through a brand discovery. So I wanted to share a story of Maggie, Christina. Before I started working with grassroots full time men, as you guys know, I used to be consulting and then we joined forces to become the leading a pet industry coaching in the world. But Maggie was one of my first branding, VIP clients. And by all intensive purposes, if you looked at Maggie two years ago, She was the epitome of success in the pet business, multiple seven figures. Okay. Multiple, multiple seven figures, two decades worth of experience training dogs. Literally she made her own success story and like most of you guys unlimited blood, sweat, and tears and poop. Made a pro-life. Okay. And she wasn't just an entrepreneur. She was a mom. She was head of household, keeping it all together because at the end of the day, I understand. And I hope you guys understand every single one of us as humans, we all have our own unique things going on in our life. Right. But day in, day out working, working, working delivery, delivery delivery for you guys. What is delivery? Going to walk dogs, going to do stuff on your website and everything like that. And sure. She built a seven figure coaching business on her own through blood, sweat, and tears. She had many multiple sex successful dog training businesses. And then before that, when she was younger, she had amazing, amazing pet sitting businesses and dog-walking businesses. So she had this persona of grassroots, Maggie, Christine, right? Sure. She had a logo. Sure. She had some colors. Sure. She was outspoken and she pushed the lines everywhere. She showed up online. Right. That's a thing. Either love Maggie or you hate her. It's totally cool. But deep down when Maggie first reached out to me, I was like, no, I'm not going to brand you. I don't want to do that. Like, that's how we all go. But deep down. Add a molecular like a molecular level, like in her DNA as a business owner, we took a deeper as a dog trainer. We took it deeper as a mom. We took it deeper as a wife. We took a deeper at a functional human design level. There was a massive, massive misalignment. Okay. So we started to work on her. We started to understand, okay, well, let's get a brand that matches the success. Let's really start to step into your true essence, your higher self, which I talk about, but still keep the quirkiness about you. So we were getting ready for our photo shoot. We're getting her all prepped guys. I love brand shoot days. They're amazing. And I was like, you know, what, use your f-ing motorcycle. Like use your motorcycle, wear a Tutu. And she looked at me, she's like, I can do that. And I was like, Hey, I want you to get on your motorcycle, go your shepherd, your German shepherd, get your Tutu and let's get us and let's get it. And we'll just build your brand off of the shoot and we'll go from there. So she did it. And guess what? She started to really sink into her vulnerability of stepping into her authentic self, into your own personal brands. And she started noticing them as alignments in her life. She started noticing what was really going on because of her branding. It's changed. It started to train a chain reaction. First things first, she left her husband. Now I'm not saying you guys need to go leave your home, leave your husbands. And this is not going to make you leave your husbands. But the deep down advanced level of personal branding really allows you to start stepping into that confidence through vulnerability. So she left her husband much happier. Now it was 2020 of this year. Everything's going to crap. It was like, may we had a whole bunch of stuff going on. I was officially a grassroots and it was just a crazy, crazy time as you guys all know. And she's like, you know, I want to just take off my motorcycle. That reminded me, Kristen, that one time, you know, when you sh you were like, yeah, you have permission to go ride your bike and show up in the grassroots, ran in the motorcycle. I'm like, why the heck don't you go do it. And she started a soldier across the country, by herself as a woman on her bike. So when we talk about Brandeis, this is why I want you to take it super seriously, and honestly, start to really, really embrace authentic. You find where the misalignments are and start there to start building the external. All right. So let's talk about the internal. So typical brand identity goes as follows. If you go and look at any branding website or any pet business brand, or whatever, or website builders or whatnot, logos, typography, colors, fonts, messaging, whap, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it compliments and reinforce enforces your bread. Cool. Basic, you know what branding I call it. And then there's no hate against it, by the way. I love all you guys to do that type of stuff, but let's go a little bit. Let's go a little bit deeper. I want you to, I want to challenge you to ask a little bit deeper before you even start the visual design phase, or before you even think on how to create your logos, your fonts or colors, which ones are going to speak to you. We need to go much deeper where it's authentic, where it's disruptive. This is why branding is powerful. So authenticity, let's chat about that in psychology. If you look up authenticity in the directory or Wikipedia or whatever it is, authenticity refers to self knowledge. Well, giving yourself the self knowledge to understand what a bold, you know, what you are a bold B bad, but you are. Pet business owners guys know who they are and what they stand for can start the identity process from a position of strength. So you being in touch of why you started, I'm going to go through all the questions with you guys. I got you. I promise I got you. You, when you start the process from knowing your true authenticity, who the heck you are at a deep level, at an internal level, at an external level, you're going to start from a position of strength. They build brands that are sustainable, that are genuine. Okay. Now the thing about brand expression, it must be congruent with the pet sitter, the dog Walker, or whatever else, type of business culture, or business organization you have. You have to be, uh, in alignment with your target market, which we're going to talk about in the next slide, your culture, your values, and your personality. Now you guys might not be all Jersey shore here with the big bumps here. You might just be a little bit more quiet. Conservative introverted and that's cool too. That's totally cool too. We have, this is for everybody, but we have to really, really start to embrace our own personality because right now, to guys, something that you're noticing, everybody's getting a lot louder on online. And if you can't embrace your true personality and turn it to your prospective dog winning market, you're going to get lost in the noise. And dog owners are just. Done with a lot of noise, but we need to start asking ourselves these questions. Now these are the questions you can start to write down and start to do homework around because we're going to start blending the personal and the business together. So something from the very beginning of this, of this keynote, I asked, what is your current brand external experience? So the first point of contact, your perspective client lands on you. Now we're going to skip from the referral process. Okay. I know a lot of you guys rely on word of mouth. That's a whole other story. It's not bad, but there's a whole other story around it. But even that, like, what are your clients saying? What are your clients talking about? Like what stories are you telling? Because here's the thing that I used to something I want to, I want to really, really make it clear if the first point of contact is your Google listing. If the first point of contact you're to Facebook, Instagram, social media, whatever your website. Things have changed dramatically in the consumer and the market behavior. Okay. Back in 2015, y'all could have just a really plain Jane type of website and everybody would be attracted to it. But something I want you to think about 2020s evolved, we have evolved we're Fastly evolving as humans and spenders, everything like that. So start to ask yourself, okay. When was the last time you evolved as a brand? When was the last time you sat down strategically because you didn't have to cause you wanted to. And you're like, Hmm, things are not going great. But you know, when's the last time you sat down, when's the last time you sat down and go, okay. I want to make time to be very clear on who I want to bring in your business. Now, if you've done that, what was the driving factor of that evolution? Okay. Was it maybe you had a bad client experience or was it maybe it's like, Oh crap, a Rover disruption, everything like that. I need to stand up. Okay. So start to think about yourself and ask yourself. When was the last time I evolved as a brands and as the consumer and client and brand experience the same, it was a few years ago. Now we're going to talk about the internal internal brand personality. This is a question that I ask every single one of you. And I promise Beth, I promise PSI. I wouldn't use the F word, so I'm not going to do it. You guys can go on our other platforms to do it, but who the heck are you? Like, how are you and who are you? When's the last time you sat down and were like, who am I? Who am I? So I'm giving you, I'm giving you guys permission to start rediscovering yourself. Who am I as a person? Not, I don't want you to think about the pets that are, I don't want you to think about the dog Walker, dog, trainer, whatever you are, but like, who are you? Are you a mom? Are, are you a social media, justice advocate? Are you a community advocate? Are you quiet? Are you a savior of all animals and everything like that? Are you a community builder or you inspire, or are you a book? Nerd? Are you a moral nerd? Are you a Harry Potter nerd? But who the heck are you guys? I don't give yourself that question. Start turtle. Cause the thing is, was internal is going on in here and the way we express it on the outside, you are going to track the people, just like yourself coming in. So ask yourself and give yourself permission who the heck am I and allow yourself to fully embrace that. And I know for a lot of you guys, it's been a long time because maybe you've traded, you know, again, authenticity for likability. And it was like, Oh, you don't want to rock the boat. I'm like, man, you got to shift the Titanic sometimes. Especially if you're feeling misaligned and everything like that. Now, something I want to also ask yourself. I hope you guys are writing this down because this is your brand identity work. What is your current vision? Like what the heck do you want? Like what type of impact do you want in the world now? Again, I realize a lot of you guys might be burnt out and this is, um, you're hearing this girl puffy here coming in and be like, she's telling me who the heck am I? I don't have time. No, no, no, no. I want you guys to take the time to do this work. Who are you and what is your current vision as a person? What type of impact do you want to leave this world? If you got hit by a bus tomorrow? Okay. Just say you got hit by a bus or you're in a plane crash or something. God forbid happens. What legacy do you leave by? Do you, do you complete the vision you wanted to have? How many people did you personally impact? How many animals did you personally impact? Now? The next question is what are you passionate about? Like, what is your passion? My passion is, you know, connecting with people like you. Um, I am a horse person too. I love dogs as well, but my deep down passion is actually using my platform to express marginalized communities in women and empowering them. That's my passion. That's my sole passion. I want to be able to make impacts that people aren't in systemic racism and all that crazy stuff we have going on. So what is your passion inside pets and outside of pets? What are some of your interests? Like, what do you like to do? Like, do you like to read, do you like to run? Do you like to go CrossFit? Do you like to roller blade? Oh God. So I'm going to share a super quick story. We have a client and she's actually, she works at grassroots. Now, her name's Emily Nolan. She's amazing, amazing dog trainer. And she has a dog training facility. And part of her passion, part of her thing is she's very, very supportive of women, empowering women. And she's also a roller Derby girl. What she did to include her personal brand into her dog training brand, was she built a skate park in her dog training facility. It's amazing. But starting to think about what interests do I have outside of pets? What sets me apart from others in the market? Now this is not the whole thing of like, well, I've been doing it for so many years. Great, great. What's what's but what sets you apart? Like if I'm talking to you and I say, you know, Heather, what sets you apart from others, your market? And Heather was like, yeah, you know, I have five star reviews and you know, I'm always there for my clients. Cool. What also sets you apart? What is something that I need to know about you? Heather would be like, well, you know, Kristen, I'm really into behavior and I worked as a special needs teacher and I can see a lot of the spectrums of dogs and behavior, but I like to incorporate through my pet-sitting boom. That's what sets Heather apart. So start to ask yourself, okay. What sets me apart? What makes me that super special person? Cause y'all are special. Now, this is a self-belief question. Why do you believe what you're doing? You're just doing it for a job, or why do you believe again, it ties into passion as yourself. Why do you believe what you're doing? And what is your voice? Are you using it? Are you using it for noise, but are you using it too much or maybe you're not using it enough? Maybe it's like, Oh my God. I'm afraid to be bold. Oh my God. I'm afraid to actually stand as my belief because I don't want to be seen as this person. It's funny. I was just talking to Tori mystic from why were repeat yesterday. And we were actually talking about using our voices and she's like, you know, one of the biggest things that I came to realization of is in 2020, I have a voice and it's my job to use it. And I truly believe as any entrepreneur and any industry, we do have voices we do at platforms. So I want to ask you, how are you using your voice? Okay. How are you using your voice? Uh, because that's going to translate into your marketing, to your content, your website, copy to everything else. You guys are like, I don't like those skirts and I told you, I told you guys I'd be going deep with this type of stuff. So, something I like to say is if you have no idea what you stand for it, neither will your clients. The thing is guys, you don't want to blend in. You know, one thing that makes grassroots students so successful is everybody's digging. Like everybody's zigging that way. Grassroots is zagging and they are very outspoken and they believe what they believe. Now. It doesn't mean political issues or whatnot, but they are very outspoken. They, they talk, they talk with the boldness, they talk with authenticity. So one thing you want to do is if you have no idea what you stand for, like your boundaries, for example, neither your clients. Okay. So we have to attract in the people by drawing the line to the stand. Okay. So let's talk about clients, something I want to get into really quickly. Getting into nitty gritty T Hills, because here's the deal about your here's the deal. Everybody, every brand has a hero and this is something I just introduced. So if you think about, okay, I am a pet sitter, I'm the hero because I swoop in and I do the services for my peeps and I, you know, help them when they're busy. I love my clients. Great. Here's the deal guys. Not you. Who's the hero of the story. Oh my God. I know mind blown people dropping off. Probably not like I want to be there. It's cool. I get it. You guys are all empathetic, but your brand hero is your perspective clients, and you want to consider yourself when it comes to any of your branding experience when it comes to any of your marketing, when it comes to any of your content development, your blogs, your SEL, whatever. Your job is to be your brand heroes guide and you take them on that journey through your branding experience. So how do we take our co how do we take our hero on a branded experience? Okay. So first and foremost know who the heck they are at a deep, deep level. I don't care if the biggest thing I see a lot of people do when I talk to people, I'm like, okay, who's your brand here? Um, well she's busy pet owners and she works and she's got kids and they love their pets. Then no, no, no. We got to go deeper. We got to go into a micro level, not macro. Macro is demographics. Micro is psychographics. So start to think about, okay, who do I want to attract into my business? What emotions do I want to attract? What are the things that are keeping that person up at night? How can I solve that? So how can I solve that problem with my solution and take them on a curated journey? Okay. So start to think about that. Cause it's like, yeah, they have a problem. Uh, they need somebody to watch their dog. They need somebody to walk their dog and for the day, okay. Maybe the dog's barking now they're working home from zoom and they can't trust their husband to take the dog out or whatnot. But I want you to start to think about, okay, who are they at a deeper, deeper level? Who are they? Like, if you could close your eyes and you can create a book around your hero, what would that book read? What would be the start of their journey? Who would they, what would they look like? What would they sound like? How old are they? What are some of their deepest, darkest freakin secrets? What are their, some of their deepest, darkest desires? And I give you a really quick hint to this. It's not about the pet at all. It's not about the pet. So when you start to create your brand experience for your brand hero, think about what emotions do you want it to elect in your niche now? Because of 2020, normally we want to solve problems. Well, there's a lot of problems going on right now. So you want to focus on the joy. You want to focus on the desires on what they really want, because they're getting bombarded by a whole bunch of crap on the external. So start to focus. Okay. What's going to make them happy. How can I do it and manifest it through my services? What also, what do you want to elect in that right now? And I want you to think now it's like, okay, so I have ABC dog walking. What emotions am I looking at my niche right now? Or am I my target client? What emotions is it like? Okay. They know they can trust their Furbies for babies with you. Okay. Cool. But if you think about that elevated perspective that we just talked about going back to your whole self discovery, where's the misalignment there. So start to think about, okay. How is the missile, like where is that misalignment? Where is the area for improvement now? How aligned is your brand to your current, your niche. So start to think about that stuff, guys, like how can you start getting more aligned? What type of images you might use? And we're going to go through an exercise in just a second. But another thing I want you to think about too, is are you actually talking to your niche? Like, are you just being generalized just to get, you know, website views and whatnot, maybe have like 20,000 website views, which is cool, but are you actually talking to them like a human level? Like understanding them like as a human, like, Oh my God. Like I understand, I understand where you're coming from. And another thing about your, your brand's hero is where are they hanging out? Now, if you're targeting somebody who's like myself who has a few different businesses, I have a lot of things going on. I travel exclusively. I work about 16 hours a day. Got a huge team supporting in the background, one hanging out on next door. Okay. I'm not hanging out in free Facebook groups at night. I may be on LinkedIn. I may be on Instagram. Cause I look aesthetic. I like this statics. So start to think about where there is somebody like you like hanging out online because when we pepper in every different area just to get like the whole shotgun effect. So we're all covered in different platforms and we don't focus on one or two. That's where you're missing out on those peeps. This is starting to think about, okay, if this is this person, this is my mission. This is how we aligned together. Where is that person hanging out? Where are they? Where are they talking about? Like, Oh my God, I just need somebody to watch my dog or whatnot. This is my favorite because stories and messaging and content is just the ultimate ingredient. So I'm going to go through this quickly because I do want to leave time for questions. I know you guys have questions. So the first thing I want you to ask yourself is what type of content are you known for? So I know there is. A lot of people do blogging or is it just like basic content or are you doing stories of updates of dogs and you know, you know, fluffy mic, butter pants having the time of their life walking with you. So start to think about, okay, how can I drive that content re flip it and make it into a brand experience. Again, everybody's been doing that stuff for a long time. Guys. This is not why I'm here. I can told you that ish long time ago, but. If you ha you're doing that and you get a lot of tire-kickers coming in, or people that are asking you how much you cost or whatnot, you want to start flipping your content strategy, turn stories, to actually curating the images, the content around to that person. We just talked about in this slide, and then who's aligned to this person. So start to think about that. What type of stories are you telling through your content? Cause you don't even have to have, you don't even have to have content that tells stories. You want have to have written words. It's part of it. Of course. What type of platforms are you using? What type of lead gen are you using for this? So it starts to think about what type of stories are being told. Now I want you to have content guys. The one thing I want you to take away with this slide is when you have, I want you to create content that when somebody reads it, they're like, Oh, damn, they get me. Thank you. I've made. Cause that's where the magic happens. What stories do you like to tell? How do you like to tell people you don't have to be, you know, super confident on camera or whatever. You can be strongly, you can write. It's cool. That's your more powerful thing. Maybe you're more bubbling. Maybe you do have a face made for camera and you're super excited on there. What would you like to tell it? Like, what do you like to talk about? What formats do you like to talk about? And are you using words to connect your niche person? Because I can tell you words matter, hashtag words. We say this in grassroots all the time, hashtag words. So start to think about, okay, what content feels represents you and also represents that perspective brand hero. What do you feel represent your brands and what story are you telling with your imagery and your content and your pictures? Okay. So as you transform your brand experience, I wish I could do this with every single one of you guys. This would take me a year. Is identify your superpower. You're probably like, Oh my God, it's hold this work ready. I can't do it anymore. It's okay. So this is where your super power comes into play. Just like I talked about Heather, what is your super power? What is your origin story? One of the one fun exercise like people to do is the origin story. If you are a superhero. Tell your story, like how you became, who you are. Maybe you were that shy, introverted kid, and you always fought, felt like had solace and animals. Like they understood you. Maybe you were heard as a child and you went to animals for safety, and that's why you're doing what you're doing. Maybe you were a corporate CEO and you lost your job in 20, uh, 2009 when the market crashed. And now you're this incredible, incredible, uh, pet business empire. So start to craft your brand, your, your super power power for your brands. Um, another exercise I like to do with people, especially when they go through personal branding is what are three words that describe you. If you guys went back and listened to beginning of Beth, Beth was like, she's uncensored, she's brash, she's truthful, but she's disruptive and transformational. So start to identify. Okay. What are the three words that identify me as a human being? All right, wrapping it up. I promise getting the baby home. We're getting there guys. Or the practice line. So, this is what I want you guys to start to think about as you move on. And now you can start thinking about your logo and your visual ideas. So what I want you to do is go back, assess your current state. What we provided grassroots provided for all of you guys is we provided a workbook. I believe it's. In this somewhere around here, I'm sure Beth can hand handed off to you guys and do a brand swap now, old school SWAT, if you guys ever been corporate. Yeah. You ever did business one-on-one strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, eat section consists of questions. And they're literally a treasure trove. Now, again, this is where you need to start being objective and understand. Okay. Who am I? You know, what misalignments do I have? Going back to your personal identity, going back to your niche, going back to your content, your visual identity and everything like that. So go through and assess your current state of your business. There's also going to be different. Uh, touchpoints and what I can do too. I didn't, I don't have it in the book, but I can totally, you know, post it in the group later on. If there's going to be different touch points where people connect with you. So make sure you identify those. Now, when you do your SWOT process, this is something I want every single one of you guys to do is make sure it's objective. Um, and just by the end of the activity, you're going to have a visual reference. It's just going to be incredibly powerful and don't do with emotions, do it from a higher state, that higher self. The next thing is your credibility markers. Again, going back, what is your super power? How long have you been in business? What type of skills have you developed over the years now? Especially for all of you guys that have been doing dog handling for a long time, especially at dog walkers. I'm looking at you guys right now. You guys are probably highly skilled in dog training. So potentially you can elevate your brand to have a, more of a holistic, a dog care slash training slash handling sites. People are looking for that. The next thing you guys are gonna want to do is go through your niche redefinition and do your brand's hero homework, and start getting aligned with that. Now this is my favorite, favorite, favorite exercise too. Is your future self, patient pacing and vision. Who do you want to become versus who you are now? So what I like to say is, all right, if I was this elevated brand professional, this pet business brand who I really want to step into what decisions would I make, what actions would I make? For example, you're like, you know what. If I'm this elevated pet business brand, I need to be charging more. So maybe I need to do a 30 to 50% increase in my, in my services because chances are you guys probably need to do that. What actions would I take? What, how would my sales processes work? Would I actually start to connect with people on the phone and see what. This type of solutions, if they're a good fit or not, what type of courses would I take to elevate my own professional experience? What type of emails would I send? Would I be sending just newsletters or would I be sending emails that connect to my niche client, to my hero person? What type of content? What type of marketing? How would you show up? How would I show up? Would I show bullied? How would I sound? And what would my confidence look like? Okay. So this is where you can start also doing more of your visual identity. So do an evaluation of your content strategy. Are you hiding behind your brand? Are you hiding, hiding behind immature logos or immature cartoony type things? Or maybe you're just hiding behind the dogs or the cats or whatever? So start to evaluate, okay, what is my content? Do I actually have a strategy around it? How am I speaking to people through my content? Am I speaking to them as the brand hero? Am I speaking to them using the words? Am I speaking to them using the visual representations? So for example, going back to Andrew and Brit, we were talking about there. They're brand hero and we call them the nada Karens and it was like, okay. They type thing. And I know you guys are probably cracking up about this, but whatever, is there the type of people that, you know, that she's in her, like 40 to 50, she's attracted to words like a bad-ass for example, but she would never use them. She's a little bit more conservative. She's attracted towards like abundance or, you know, higher power, higher self, or she's maybe she wants to be kind of wooey but yeah. Through their brand through Andrew and Britt's brand, uh, Brit represents that higher person she wants to become. So she would show up in pictures being a little bit more, um, more edgy, like having more of a rocker effect. Cause that's what the person really wants to desire. Maybe there'll be kids in the imagery. Maybe there'd be kids in dogs and imagery. So start to think about that. And also other touch point areas. Whoops. Sorry about that. See how fast I'm going guys is what areas? Website lead-generation content, social media, referrals, SEO, social proof. And you want to go through this content through the eyes again, remember that exercise we did in the beginning, the eyes at your customer's touch point, like through the seat of your parents, see through the seat of your client. So if I was to sit down, you were to sit down, you would want to look at it from a non-emotional objective viewpoint of that client. Now identify future messaging. Since you've done all the work already, where are they spending the time on social media? What platforms again, be very honest about it, because if you're going after the high end clients, chances are, they're not spending their time on free free Facebook groups is I see a lot of people doing that. I'm like, ah, don't do that. And. What type of content do they want to see? What's going to like disrupt them. You got like a nanosecond to get somebody's attention. Doesn't even have to be a dog. It could just be a black square or a white square or a pink square. It could just be, you know, a tattoo or something like that. So how do you going to get their attention? What messaging. And again, start to realign the visual identity, future pacing, niche authority, meaning what would your niche clients look for? What colors would they be attracted to? What type of font would they be attracted to? Would they be attracted to more of a, kind of a non-shared font that I'm using here or they'd be more attracted to that cursive font? Or would they maybe be attracted to a bolder font or whatnot? What kind of logos would they do, like be attracted to, would they be attracted to more of a simpler logo of just your name? Like, Hey Kristen Lee pet-sitting or something like that? Especially if you have somebody you're going after that, the C-suite executives don't overcomplicate, just put out what you know they want and what, you know, at the deeper level they need. So, yeah, that's about it guys. And always remember consistency is key. Create clear definitions, communicate the brand to your target market and make every part of the brand experience consistent with the tone, the images and your authenticity. Wow. I went through a lot of stuff, so Beth, I want to open it up for questions. If anybody had questions so far or I can sit here awkwardly, awkwardly. It's all good too. Great. Well, we'll go into our Q and a time. Now I did wanna remind everyone if you have a question, just type it into the questions box and we're going to get to as many of those as possible. I'm gonna give you just a moment to type those in. So while we're waiting, I do wanna remind you that we will have our closing session at, uh, four o'clock, uh, following this session via the zoom link that was provided. We have one comment coming in from Susan, and she just says, thank you for your expertise. She's in the handout. Let me scroll and see if we have questions coming in. And it's okay if you guys don't have questions, I just threw a lot of stuff at you and you might be sitting there like, Oh my God, uh, we, we have a question here. Uh, let me see if I make sure I understand this question. So we talk about the client being the hero of the story. When you're working on your branding, should the focus, what if there's a disconnect possibly between who you are and who your ideal client is being, which ones should be more important? Who your, you want to blend them together, technically, because if you are going to go after a certain sector of people, just potentially maybe like, Oh, maybe I want to go to somebody who has a little bit more money, but I'm not really that type of personality or whatnot. You want to really do the work of understanding. Okay. Who am I? And what type of people I like to work with? Um, I always say something and this is something that's very true to me. Choose your clients like. You would choose somebody would go have a cocktail with, or you would go have a drink with, or who you would be friends with now don't be friendly because that's whole boundaries thing, but be honest. Okay. Who are the type of people I like to work with? Who are the people that just get me, like who is my personal unicorn and develop it from there because what's going to happen. And what I see happening. As when we potentially go after a certain sector of clients, but they're not in alignment with our authenticity and our own personal mission and values. That's where you have a tendency to get really burnt out very quickly. You also have a tendency to get very resentful and I see a lot of people burning it down where it could be prevented before that. Great. Another question coming from Jeannie, and she says that she'd recently started a monthly e-newsletter. And so she's wondering how she can use, how can she use that to show clients who she is, but she also says that. She doesn't know that she would want to write about herself or should she be doing that? Oh my God. You need to be writing about yourself. You are the expert. You are the brand authority. Oh my God. So here's the deal guys, as experts as cause you guys are all experts at the end of the day, you are the professionals there. Yeah. There's lawyers out there. There's doctors, everything like that. Everybody has their own center of expertise. And I know as women, a lot of the times too, we get really like funky around like self promotion or talking about ourselves. But talk about yourself, Janie. I mean, what do you have to offer this world to that person? Congratulations on the newsletter too. I know it was probably tough to do that. One thing I would recommend for Eugenie too, is to start telling stories. So for Jeannie to kind of ease you into that. So the resistance a little bit low around, you know, I'm like, Oh my God, I don't want to talk about myself is tell us, tell your, tell your email list. How you got into dog. Pet-sitting like, what was the story behind that? Tell the story of that one dog that got, that started all like you guys are looking at a picture right now of my dog. That's my dog that started at all. I would not be sitting here with the honor of speaking to every single one of you guys out here, if it wasn't for that, that, that lap that you're looking at. So start by there, Jeanie. And then from there, you're going to start building your voice and you're gonna start building your confidence. And you're going to get it, girl. I promise you it's Oh, by the way, guys, it's okay to talk about yourself. As business owners. We are in the business of self promotion and I I've seen really bad self promotion out there. And I know from the people at PSI, you guys aren't basil promoters. You guys are good. I have another question from Cynthia and she says, I tend to mix personal with business, which many may say is a big no-no, but it works for her. Do you have any thoughts? Uh, brandings, personal businesses, personal as entrepreneurs. We have to be very clear on our boundaries naturally. Okay. But if there is a certain thing that you've very, very strongly stand on, if there's a certain mission or value or ethic or personal ethic, Absolutely. Bring it into your business because I feel like for a really long time, people were like, Oh, you shouldn't have politics in your business or whatnot. It doesn't matter. Even if it's just politics as a business owner, as a platform owner, as an entrepreneur owner, we are, we should use our platform. So I say, absolutely. Cynthia mix your personal, don't give away all your cards, keep your cards to yourself. I mean, like the super, super personal details, like you guys don't know what's going on in my life, but you see what I show you and show what you want to show to your people. And yeah. Blend your personality. Cause you guys are, you guys are, people use that personality. Don't be bland. Great. Can we have another question? And I know you talked about this being a brand evolution and not simply rebranding, but again, through this process, you decide a company decides they do maybe need to update their logo, change the colors, to make it more in alignment. Do you suggest announcing a rebranding or just sort of pushing that out there organically? Should there be a big announcement of the new brand is coming or you just sort of ease into it? I would absolutely not do a huge announcement around that. Um, if. You are starting the total new business. You say, for example, if you're going into like the all training, I would start gearing the content around it. But what I would just start doing right is just showing up as a new brand. What you can do is something that we talk about. Our grassroots to our grassroots students is something called the capability. Capabilities briefings around. Okay, cool. So, you know, Beth, as one of my best clients, I just want to give you guys a heads up. We are going to be doing a different look and a different feel. Um, but you're very much part of this, uh, process. And I just wanted to let you guys know on this and thank you for helping me evolve as a professional to over the years. Great. I like that. And then I want to share, we don't want, I don't think we have another question, but we do have one comment from Amy that I wanted to share. Um, and she first says, thank you for a great session, but she mentioned, and I think this could be an issue that maybe some others listening, Hab. She says I've really been wanting to focus on the higher end client, but I was so nervous about cutting out some of the others. But based on your session, Kristen, you've given her the courage to sort of go after what she wants. I thought that was great. Yeah. Amy, Amy, Amy Love you so much. I love the fact that you found courage and I know I gave you guys all huge dopamine hits today, which is act on that. And here's the deal guys. It's so funny. Cause I talked to so many amazing professionals through just phone calls and podcasts and students is you guys don't have to settle. Like you don't have to have a million frequent clients in your roster in order to have a really profitable business. I mean, you could have 10. Incredible clients that are lifelong clients that are contract based clients that their lifetime value is a hundred K each or whatnot. You don't have to go out and just overextend yourself and then get into the whole, whole, like work of. You know, having a huge team behind you and the managing a team and all that. I mean, that's cool. Like if you want to do that school, I have a team behind me, but at the same time too, Amy, let's just go for it, girl, just go for it and just start to talk to that person now, like if I changed anybody in here today, Amy, especially you Amy start connecting to that person on your Facebook, on your Instagram, on your website today and start talking to them. Great. Well, Kristen, thank you again. We're pointing out as I'm sure you see on the screen, she doesn't have her contact information and how you can connect with her on social there. I have a feeling that as everyone processes this session, it starts thinking about their brain evolution. They're going to have reach out to you and have some questions. So I just want to make sure they know that there are ways to reach out to you as you sit here on the screen. Absolutely. Absolutely. Cause it, thank you again. We want to thank everyone for listening. Uh, and while this keynote session does wrap up our educational sessions for this year's conference, we are not quite finished yet. So be sure to join us back, uh, via the zoom that we provided at four o'clock or I'll be there with a PSI team for our closing session. We're again, we'll do a last minute Q and a, uh, and also give you some details of our 20, 21 conferences. So Kristen, thank you. And everyone else talks to you at four o'clock. All right. Bye bye. Thank you. Hey there. Thank you for listening. Another bad-ass episode of mind, Euro, dog business. If you haven't already subscribed, what are you waiting for? Oh my God. Go and subscribe now. So you don't miss out on any of our content pack. Doug business jam sessions, plus special offers that I'm going to only be sharing with my amazing Doug business entrepreneurial podcast listeners. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, Be sure to leave a five star ass review. So more amazing dog business owners, just like yourself, confine us, and starts to transform and disrupt their businesses and their lives unapologetically. And if you feel so inclined, feel free to tag me on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and holler at your girl. I'm at dog-walker coach. You can find me dog-walker coach and I'll pop up and I'll give you a special shout out. All right guys, until next time. Bye.