A Deep Dive into Brand Identity with Laura Hulleman's Revolutionary Strategy

Embark on a transformative journey with us as we sit down with Laura Hulleman, the mastermind behind the Endotype Formula, and unravel the true essence of branding that goes far beyond eye-catching designs. In a candid conversation, Laura shares her evolution from personal trainer to branding guru, underscoring the vital connection between a business owner's persona and their brand identity. Dive into the revelation of how aligning your brand with your inner being can not only create a magnetic presence but also resonate deeply with your audience, whether you're a health professional, freelancer, or web designer.

Branding is an art, and with Laura's Endotype Formula, we're painting a masterpiece of authenticity. We dissect the power of this personality assessment tool, showing how a five-question quiz can illuminate core behaviors and the true nature of a client's business. This episode is a goldmine for those seeking to integrate genuine, compelling branding into their work, surpassing the traditional process of mood boards and endless questionnaires.

Finally, we share the success story of Angie, a business owner who, with her vibrant endotype at the helm, reimagined her brand and watched her business soar. This compelling tale exemplifies the potential for web designers to infuse branding services with unparalleled value, elevating their clients' businesses to new heights. So tune in, take our endotype quiz, and begin the journey to brand enhancement rooted in self-discovery and authenticity.

Transcript

Cathy Sirvatka 0:01

branding One small word with so much behind it. It's the thing that makes a business recognizable. It's a look, a voice, a feel. As freelance web designers, we either do this for our clients ourselves, when needed, or bring on a graphic designer to handle it. It depends on how confident you feel with your skills, coming up with an accurate look and feel for a business, as well as getting the right voice and everything else that goes with branding. I have both hired a branding designer and also done it myself, depending on the needs, but I have to say, either way it takes quite a bit of time.

Cathy Sirvatka 0:38

My guest today is Laura Hulleman, author, podcast host and creator of the Endotype Formula, which is a comprehensive personality assessment tool that not only speeds up the branding process but also helps bring you to the most accurate persona of a business. She works with web designers and marketing professionals to improve and speed up that branding process for clients and even for their own businesses. When you listen to her story, you'll see why it makes perfect sense. Here we go. Welcome to the Web Pro Savvy Podcast. This is your host, kathy Cervatka S. As in Sam I-R V. As in Victor A-T-K-A. All right, laura welcome.

Laura Hulleman 1:27

I am so glad to be here with you today, Kathy, and talking with your lovely audience.

Cathy Sirvatka 1:31

Oh, I'm excited to have you too. I was really interested in our conversation. You and I talked recently about a way for web designers to integrate branding with their web projects and even add branding as an add-on service, which I know. For a lot of us that didn't maybe go to graphic design school or don't know specifically about marketing and branding, that's kind of a huge thing, and it's also something we try to get through. We try to do, but maybe aren't doing well or maybe we're spending too much time on it. So this is something I'd really love to go over with you. But first, can you just tell us a little bit about you and what brought you to where you are today?

Laura Hulleman 2:14

Sure, so I am a Midwest gal, I live in Wisconsin and have lived here my whole life. I don't know why. As we are recording this, we are in the midst of cold, wet Wisconsin weather, and this is not my jam. But this is where I am for now, not forever and I have been a small business owner for most of my life.

Laura Hulleman 2:42

I fully realized about eight years ago when I was considering I had, you know, kind of gone through a divorce and was closing one part of my coaching business because of the divorce, and I thought, you know, maybe it's time for me to go get a job, and I fully realized I am unemployable. I am now, at this point in my life, totally committed to staying self-employed and a business owner, and so, having worked in a lot of small businesses, I've made a ton of mistakes. Marketing has always been a challenge for me to be able to understand how to put those offers out that really attract the clients, and I was a personality profiling geek, and so all of those things kind of converged into a superpower of understanding who people are and then helping to understand how to elevate that for small business owners in their branding.

Cathy Sirvatka 3:44

Wow, you said a personality type.

Laura Hulleman 3:49

Yeah, I have always loved personality typing, taking almost every assessment out there that I could get my hands on, until I created the Endotype formula, which is my personality assessment, that we use for branding, do you?

Cathy Sirvatka 4:04

have a background in branding.

Laura Hulleman 4:07

No kind of. Quite the opposite. One of my most successful small businesses was a personal training studio. I had become a personal trainer and started my own fitness studio and when I had a business coach come in, she was like, why is your gym weird? And I said I don't know what that means. And she's like, oh, you don't realize it yet. And I was like I guess not. And it was a lot having to do with my brand and being able to.

Laura Hulleman 4:46

I created very functional businesses functional for me but didn't understand how to brand a business, to be inviting and to be, um, to see the business how clients saw it.

Laura Hulleman 5:01

And so it was at that point that I was like, oh, if I actually want this to go, I'm going to have to do a lot of research and a lot of self-study to be able to understand how to build my brand, and have spent a ton of money, lots of programs, a lot of time with business coaches and branding professionals both in that business and then in future businesses, business coaches and branding professionals both in that business and then in future businesses and done some things right and done a lot of things wrong and felt like I wasted a lot of time until I came across this system or saw how my endotype profile could fit into that system. So I don't come with a branding background. In fact, I don't do any of my own design work. You wouldn't want to see anything that I designed because that is not my gift in life. But the brand system allows for me to be able to work with any designer and be able to create branding and identity aligned branding, which is our specialty for a small business owner.

Cathy Sirvatka 6:05

Okay, I see so all the elements of branding that aren't the artistic aspects, the artistry of it, but that's huge. I mean, that's really, that's the foundation of everything right For somebody's business.

Laura Hulleman 6:19

Yeah, I mean, especially for small business owners. Being able to have marketing that reflects who they are is the foundation, and the only way to be able to consistently do that is through having a fully developed brand concept. I'm sure that your web designers have seen this. Before their clients come to them and they design a beautiful and functional website for that individual, and then you friend them on Facebook, friend them on Instagram, wherever it is, you start tracking and following and the social media content that they're putting out looks nothing like the website.

Laura Hulleman 7:01

There's this brand disconnect that starts to happen.

Laura Hulleman 7:04

The languaging that's on the website doesn't even sound like what this person does anymore.

Laura Hulleman 7:09

And there's this disappointment that can happen because you know that they're losing clients because of it. Because anytime a client or a prospective customer runs into a brand disconnect a point where either the website and the social media don't match the website and the individual's energy doesn't match Anything that makes them think, like that business coach who came into my gym said huh, this is weird, it weird, weird, it weird. That's weird translates as untrustworthy to that consumer's brain and people don't buy from those they can't trust. So by not having a cohesive, identity, aligned brand concept that is then implemented, not only in the website, but in the social media, in the languaging, in the languaging in the subjects they talk about in their PowerPoint, if they're going out and speaking all the different places. If there's any of those places that it's not implemented, well then all of a sudden that's where a client attrition point, that's where they bring clients along in their sales process and then, poof, all those clients disappear instead of saying yes to the sale.

Laura Hulleman 8:30

Yeah, exactly that's funny Weirdness translates to Now my family and I are pretty weird and we wear it as a badge of honor as far as we march to the beat of our own drum, but from a client perspective, when they're consuming our marketing, unless the brand, and no lie. My brand is a little bit weird because it's a little bit me, but we keep that weirdness level consistent.

Cathy Sirvatka 9:00

It's a consistent, weird yeah, that way, no, but that's a really good way of explaining it though. Thank you.

Laura Hulleman 9:07

You're welcome.

Cathy Sirvatka 9:09

So you created this thing called the endotype formula. First of all, what does the word endotype mean? Because I know this was. I told you this was like a voodoo word. What is this thing?

Understanding Endotype Formula for Branding

Laura Hulleman 9:19

Right, well, and so endotype is a word that has existed in science for a while and it basically means like a subtype of a subtype. I didn't know that until after I had coined it for my personality profile system. I went and used the Google machine and was like, yeah, that still fits, but one of the things that the endotype formula can do. It's a very simple quiz. It's five questions that ask you do you think more like this or do you think more like that? And it just provides two answers. However, what we understand, what I understand and those of us who understand the endotype formula, is that we're not just thinking beings. The endotype is a way to be able to see the whole person, the thinking parts, the emotional or energetic parts, the archetypes, what kind of drives our thoughts and the predictable patterns of thought that we have and how all of that connects to our body. Thought that we have and how all of that connects to our body, that mind-body connection that health coaches and psychologists sometimes are telling us about. But it's a predictable pattern through the endocrine glands. So our brain connects to the communication centers of our body being, the endocrine glands and our nervous system, in a very predictable way. So from five question assessment we can predict a whole lot about how you operate, including your endotype, so endocrine type.

Laura Hulleman 10:55

I told you I came from a health and fitness background and so, as I was developing the endotype formula, that's what I thought was going to be. Its primary use was like oh, I'm totally going to bust open this gym. That's what I thought was going to be. Its primary use was like oh, I'm totally going to bust open this gym. You know like this is going to be amazing. And as it continued to develop, it was like oh boy, this does so much more than tell me about people's bodies and their mind body connection. This tells me about how they operate and move through the world and can be used for so many more things. But that's where the word endotype came from.

Cathy Sirvatka 11:30

That's really cool. It just seems like it would be good to know working with people, especially if you're in an office, you know you're working with certain personality types and you know just a way to see into people and be able to communicate better with them. In can alter my communication style to fit them.

Laura Hulleman 11:48

But even as a parent, I've raised two teen boys and for the last nine years I've understood their endotypes real well and understand how I need to parent this one different than this one, how I can't use this word with this one because it's going to trigger a very big emotional challenge for them that they may not even talk about, right, some of those woundings that we experience and it doesn't happen to this kid over here in the same way. It's something completely different. So, yes, any kind of human experience, the endotype formula has some value and merit too. It's just that the branding division like helping predict people's identity, aligned, brand and really get that people energy into the brand is kind of the first division that we really pushed out and created a training for.

Cathy Sirvatka 12:59

Well, that's and that's the meat of it for us as web designers. We're trying to get somebody who doesn't have any branding and we're trying to help them pull something together. And you don't want to just start with design first because you don't know anything about the person, send a couple of questionnaires and ask for things like favorite colors and that kind of thing and try and pull something together from that. But you have a different process with this endotype formula. So can you describe it in a nutshell? It sounds like it's really huge, but can you describe it for us?

Laura Hulleman 13:38

Yeah, absolutely so. Where other systems focus on what do you like? Where other systems focus on what do you like, tell me about you right From that client perspective. You're asking your client tell me about you. As humans we kind of stink at self-awareness. We're not usually the best evaluators of ourselves and also we're always looking to make the best impression. So I might tell you a little bit about me, but I'm not going to tell you the things about me that I think are the bad things. But in business they still come along right. Like maybe I'm very outspoken and I have some judgment on the fact that I'm an outspoken person. So I try and hide that in my brand and make I want my marketing to be all nicey nicey. But if that's not the actual experience of me if I'm pretty straightforward, which I am then that needs to be the experience of my branding as well. But when we're just interviewing the client to be able to get there, we're not getting that inside track, we're not getting that inside picture.

Laura Hulleman 14:45

So with endotype branding we start with that five question assessment Before you hop on the first. You know kind of discovery call or getting to know. You call, sales call, whatever you want to call it. You say do me a favor, I have all of my. You know all my people take this endotype formula quiz. Take that five question assessment and that individual, that prospective client, gets back their quiz and they go geez, that was only five questions and they know a lot about me. So that client gets their, they get their results back and they go wow, this person knows a lot about me already and that's impressive to them.

Laura Hulleman 15:26

Then you hop on a call and you have their results too. So you automatically know is this person action oriented? Are they information oriented? Are they, like, all focused on the big? Why, or do they need to like have the vibe of the work, the emotion of the work that we're about to do? Those all influence their brand personality. And so once I understand, okay, this person's endotype, let's say they're a visionary endotype, they're in the action-oriented quadrant, and in the action-oriented quadrant there are three brand personalities. Now I'm listening on the call to find out which of these three and we have some very specific questions. We have our licensees ask in a very specific order and you can hear oh, this person wants to collaborate with their customers. They're all about like, let's do this together. It's going to be an adventure.

Laura Hulleman 16:27

And from there, you know their brand personality, you can show them. We have created sales documents. You show them and say I think I know your brand personality, let me show you. Does this look like you? Does this sound like you? Does this sound like you? And the business owner self-identifies, they go yeah, this is what drives me, yeah, these are the pitfalls that I have in my business, these are the challenges. Wow, that's impressive.

Laura Hulleman 17:07

From there now we have kind of a base template of a vibe that we're trying to achieve with the colors. So it's not like we're locked into. These are the colors of this brand personality. They can be modified, but we must achieve this vibe, this personality type, achieve this vibe, this personality type.

Laura Hulleman 17:22

So maybe that visionary is kind of the authoritarian, they're the ruler, they are the expert, they want to, they have that big idea, that big goal. And so, through the design, the colors, the font usage and the brand voice, the words that are used, all of those things go in to create this vibe of the brand. And it's identifiable on that first half an hour to 40 minute phone call that you are going to make with your client, from the client's perspective going to make with your client. From the client's perspective, they're like dang right. Nobody's ever been able to show me who I am in business in this quick of a time span and that's very impressive. You become the expert and they're like why would I go someplace else when this person gets who I am and can now deliver on who I am to my clients?

Cathy Sirvatka 18:23

Wow, that is impressive, Because sometimes I feel like even when I'm doing my branding process, I don't always feel like I landed on it and I'm not sure that the client knows if I've landed on it either and we both kind of arrive at something that we do ultimately really like. But you know, there's always a question mark like is this really who they are? So this sounds like it's. It's more precise and quicker.

Laura Hulleman 18:49

Yeah, it's very quick and I've I've looked at as part of what I do, right, to create leads and generate leads, I offer a brand alignment checkup to people, and so I go through that same process. Right, take the quiz, we determine the brand personality and now let's look at your website and let's look at your social media. I've ran into a lot of small business owners that have beautiful and functional websites. It's a good design, it's a good website, but it's not in alignment with who they are. Good website, but it's not in alignment with who they are. So ultimately, it's a website that is working less effectively than if that brand was captured.

Laura Hulleman 19:28

That's why I think branding is the foundation piece that needs to be done before a website, before we start working on social media, before anything else, we have to establish that brand personality and, based on, again, identity aligned branding for the small business owner is the easiest way it turns people's businesses around. When they get their identity aligned branding, their endotype branding, done, they apply it into all of their marketing. All of a sudden, their business numbers shift. Their coaches are like what are you doing different? Well, there's no. That's weird point. Where the clients are dropping off, where the clients are like I don't understand what this lady does, or this just doesn't feel the same. Am I in the right place here? And so it makes that client more money. And whoever is doing that identity aligned branding? If you're the website designer that either adds on branding or just builds that beautiful website based on who they are, you're the hero.

Cathy Sirvatka 20:30

Oh, yeah, yeah, Especially because the website. That's the thing everybody sees right, whether they have brick and mortar or not, the website is where everybody goes. If you tell me you have a business, I'm going to go check out your website. That's just what I do, and I don't think I'm alone in that.

Laura Hulleman 20:45

Nope, clients go and snoop, even if you're a public speaker I work with, having been in the coaching industry for a long time. A lot of my clients are coaches, so they're like, well, I don't do most of my marketing through my website, and I was like that doesn't mean they're like, well, I don't do most of my marketing through my website and I was like that doesn't mean they're not going and checking you out. That's right, yep, right. Even if you're meeting at a networking group or, you know, speaking from stage or whatever it is, I'm going to go and I'm going to snoop on your social media and I'm going to snoop on your website.

Cathy Sirvatka 21:23

And if something feels weird, I might not buy those services or that product that you're offering. Yeah, agreed, you call it weird. I would just say, because I've been to websites and I'm like maybe just unprofessional or they don't have their act together, that kind of feel that like I don't know if I want to work with them. They don't feel like they have it worked out Right.

Laura Hulleman 21:42

When we have, as consumers, we have the ultimate like there's so many places we can spend our money now. Yes, so like if it's the coaching industry there's so many coaching people out there. The same is true in your industry, right, if you put out in any kind of a professional networking group on Facebook or anywhere else, hey, who does websites? I have dozens of people that are like I'll do a website for you. If we're going to elevate ourselves as those professionals, then, yeah, we do have to have our act together and not give people that like huh kind of vibe.

Cathy Sirvatka 22:20

Yeah, definitely don't want the huh with the question mark, things that make you go, hmm.

Laura Hulleman 22:26

Yeah, because they're just gonna, they're just gonna move on to the next one.

Cathy Sirvatka 22:29

Exactly Because there's too many. There's too many out there. Yeah, there's so many choices.

Laura Hulleman 22:34

We have to set ourselves apart by doing something different and better and more of service to our clients and not confusing them along the way.

Cathy Sirvatka 22:43

Right, okay, I like that. That's really good. Can you give us an example, maybe, of how this has worked for one of your web designer clients, or just an example of how this endotyping has worked in a real life situation?

Laura Hulleman 22:58

Sure, so one of the coaches that I worked with, a real life situation, sure, so one of the coaches that I worked with, her name is Angie, and Angie had been a small business owner for a while in a completely different business and that business got shut down by COVID. Angie went back and worked a job right, paying the bills, doing the thing, and she was also dealing with, at the same time, a recent diagnosis of her, her dad, who had Alzheimer's diagnosis, and she got the genetic testing done and she has the Alzheimer's gene herself. And so she said to the doctor okay, what do we do? And the doctor said, good luck, you know, like there's not anything really that you can do preventatively. And she said, yeah, I don't buy that. And so she went on a quest for herself and for the rest of her family, knowing that this Alzheimer's was genetic, to be able to find the things and the research-based things. And so she did and she had created, she had found all these steps, all these preventative steps you could take, and she was going to build a course.

Laura Hulleman 24:11

So I ran into her before she had started to build her course. She was working with a business coach and because she had a background in public speaking as well. They had a few speaking gigs planned for her and when I ran into Angie, she had three different websites. She had one for the course, she had one for her public speaking and she had one, I think, related to the old business that she had before COVID shut it down. None of them were on brand for who she was and the energy she had, based on her endotype, and we did her brand alignment formula, which is basically like a really souped up brand guide, which she then took right away to her website designer and said remake my whole website to look like this. And then she took it to her course person. She said remake my, as you're making my course. Follow these, use these pictures, use these design elements. She redid her PowerPoint slides before she went to those speaking gigs.

Laura Hulleman 25:14

Her business coach he's a course building guy and he's like why are you taking time and effort and money to do all these things? Course building guy. And he's like why are you taking time and effort and money to do all these things? Follow my system, my system works Because he was running kind of a numbers-based system. If you get in front of this many people and you follow this many. He was doing the numbers, which is what a lot of sales coaches will do. So she went out, she did her speaking gigs. She held her first webinar, which was what she wanted she was pouring all those speaking gigs into and the call to action at her webinar was book a one-on-one, if this is of concern. On her first webinar, she had over 100 people register for it. 99 of them showed up. Wow, and stayed till the end. Wow, 50 booked one-on-ones and 45 of them kept their appointments.

Cathy Sirvatka 26:05

Those are amazing numbers.

Laura Hulleman 26:07

From those 45 where she just had conversations and they explained their concerns. She said well, I have this course that I've built. There are preventable things you can do. She sold 27 people into her course from her first webinar and her business coach was like oh my gosh, what are you doing? These numbers are incredible. This is a 67% closing ratio. I try and get people to 60%, but you're already above and beyond.

Laura Hulleman 26:38

What did you do different? Well, she had really great branding applied every step of the way. So, between the website and the PowerPoint and the social media, all the things made sense to her clients. It all felt like her, and so, as she showed up and she poured into people her expertise and her passion, they were blown away and said yes to that offer. So, from the perspective of a website designer, you might be able to land on somebody's identity aligned branding on your own, which is wonderful. You're very skilled and gifted. If you can. However, are you able to communicate to them how to align the rest of their marketing so that that website doesn't go to waste, right, because it's got to match all the rest of the pieces? And for most small business owners, they're good at what they do. They don't understand marketing, so they need a really simple tool to be able to align all that, like Angie did.

Cathy Sirvatka 27:50

Yeah, wow, that's an amazing story. I mean, she had some really great results, yeah, so how? For all us web designers listening? Well, I can certainly imagine how we might use this for our own business then, but how would we offer it? Maybe as a service, either a separate service, or integrate it into a project? I think I could see that.

Laura Hulleman 28:15

Yeah, I have licensees right now who are doing both. I have one licensee who has this way souped up it's like a CRM system that can then also host your website pages and the CRM and the funnel, and she got the whole deal and she offers a done for you service, right? So she's going to build everything out, but she starts always part of included in her packaging now with endotype branding, because why build anything when it's not in alignment? Right? And because of that her clients are. They're thrilled, right, they're getting this additional service. And she's just built in the cost of the branding into the cost of her done for you package. And they understand, they also get that what we call the brand activation formula, which is basically the souped up brand guide. Right, that they get that as a takeaway so that anything they choose to do outside of the work she's doing inside that CRM done for you they can make sure stays on track and they understand who they are in their brand in a more effective way. So she just includes it as part of the package. She also has used it as a lead generator for the big package she wants them to buy. I want them to buy my whole CRM done for you system.

Laura Hulleman 29:44

But what I'm going to offer you is a brand alignment checkup. Let me see how well what you currently have is working and whether it's in alignment and when people can see this is who I am. This is my brand, personality and business based on the endotype branding system. Brand personality and business based on the endotype branding system. And here's my current website.

Laura Hulleman 30:06

They're like oh well, that looks busted right, like I need to do something different, and they're much more willing to pull out that pocketbook when they can actually see the difference, as opposed to, like I told you, I'm not a designer.

Laura Hulleman 30:22

I'm not a designer Because if you tell me like, imagine this, I can't imagine in my head what my website's going to look like until I see the website. So this allows website designers to show a feeling, to encapsulate the vibe, and then we're totally going to personalize it. So for your people, I could see them either utilizing it as just part of the process that everybody gets it we include it in the cost of doing business or it is a lead generator, a separate service. There's a lot of ways to be able to use it, but in all of those cases, what it does is it closes sales faster. It gets people to open up their wallets and their checkbooks faster because they can see that you have the level of expertise they've been looking for, that you can show them something before they open up their wallet and it feels like you're giving. You are offering them more value than what anybody else is offering them.

Cathy Sirvatka 31:35

And you give them something to walk away with too. I would assume you know, when all is said and done, you know perhaps you hand them off a, I guess, a document that would have everything and have their colors, you know it's, it's like a regular brand sheet, that they would have all their items on it and all that information to take along with them. Yeah, so I think that's really cool. If nothing else, I mean, that's an add-on service right there, Huge. I also think too and you said you know this process comes up with the vibe and the feel. And then, as far as getting the graphics for those of us, myself included, who are not graphic artists per se, you can certainly take this then to a designer and work together with the designer to create the graphics that go along with your endotype results.

Laura Hulleman 32:28

Yep, and when you take the endotype brand training, we show you all the steps. We have all the steps of how to design that brand, personalize that brand, because we're not trying to create cookie cutter brand styles, although I tend to attract a lot of people who fall into the ruler brand personality. They're action oriented, they're authoritarian, they love the fact that I can show them their brand before they've laid down any money. It's just who I get a lot of. So I've designed a lot of ruler brand personalities but they all look different. If you lay them all out, you can see there's some commonality. There's this representation of that authority. There's some commonality, but they all look different because it's not about creating cookie cutter. It's some commonality, but they all look different because it's not about creating cookie cutter. It's about taking their endotype brand personality, their identity, aligned brand, who they are and what they do, and creating something unique for each individual.

Laura Hulleman 33:33

But we walk you through how to do that in the training that we provide and then you get access to our community also so you can bounce ideas off each other. I get multiple times a week. You know like hey, can you take a look at this? Like this one was a little hard. And I can do the same thing when I'm working on a brand package right now for somebody and I'm like, oh, there's something missing and I can't feel yet what it is that's missing. I think I'm getting closer. But I can go back to the community and go okay, take a look at what I got so far. I know I'm close, but I think there's something missing here. So you have this kind of board of advisors that are all speaking the same language because they've all taken that same training.

Cathy Sirvatka 34:22

No, that's always the good thing about a community Nobody understands as much as the people in the community. Like you said, they speak the same language. You know, coming up with all this stuff kind of reminds me of the mood board concept too, but probably expanded, you know, because the mood board is, you know, we're going to have colors, we're going to have pictures that have a feel, fonts and just elements and stuff, but sounds like you take that to several levels beyond that.

Personal Branding and Self-Awareness

Laura Hulleman 34:51

Yeah, yeah, because we help them to understand. Here are the visual elements that make up part of your brand. Here's your brand's values. And show them how to take those brand values right, because there are some people that are like I don't know what to post right, I don't know what to write, I don't know what to post because it feels like I'm talking about the same things all the time. It's like okay, take what you do and then take this brand value of, let's say, compassion. How can you talk about compassion in terms of what it is you do as a web designer?

Laura Hulleman 35:30

Now, if that's that person's brand, they're going to immediately go. Oh, I know how to do that. Great, write about that for a little bit. Oh, I know how to do that. Great, write about that for a little bit. Like, make three, four posts about that. We show them how to use. We give them a whole copyright word bank and the copyright word bank is done for you. All those parts are done for our licensees.

Laura Hulleman 35:52

And say now in your brand voice right, utilize more of these words in your copyright word bank. Here's the tone of voice of your brand so that if they're outsourcing their social media, it doesn't all of a sudden lose who the person is. So, yeah, it is like combining a mood board, a brand guide, and then, because it's based on this beautiful personality assessment, it's so much more dialed in and can be easily like right, here's who you are, here's your brand you know, easily reproduced or produced, maybe, instead of that client having to jump through hoops and questionnaires. I've watched coaches that I know and love who have gone to brand people and they landed on a good brand for themselves, but they spent weeks populating a Pinterest board with all the pictures that make them feel joy. And now take your 300 pictures and I need them down to 40, your top 40. And just weeks and weeks and weeks of jumping through hoops to get to that brand. We can just do it in 40 minutes instead of weeks and tons of effort.

Cathy Sirvatka 37:17

Well, that's pretty amazing. I mean, that's really great. And who doesn't want to be branded correctly? Doesn't it always feel good when somebody comes back to you and they're like not only is this how they see you, but this is how you see you, but you didn't know it, Right, you know? Until it's presented, you're like, oh, somebody knows me. Yes, you know it's. It's good to be known. Yeah.

Laura Hulleman 37:40

Yeah, there is a huge value in that and to be able to, because each brand leader, each brand personality has both strengths and weaknesses. Right, has superpowers and pitfalls, and we explain here's your pitfalls and they're like, yep, but it all of a sudden takes the sting out of it.

Cathy Sirvatka 38:01

That can be kind of harsh.

Laura Hulleman 38:02

Well, but it takes the sting out of it because it's like you're not broken. This is just the thing that's common to you because of how you work, so keep them on your radar. Maybe you put some checks and balances in place so that you don't fall into some of these traps, but it gives them the permission to be exactly who they are, and that has great value. It also diminishes imposter syndrome. It's the fastest way for a business owner to eliminate imposter syndrome is to be branded with identity line branding, Because it's like here's who I am, not who I'm trying syndrome is to be branded with identity line branding Because it's like here's who I am, not who I'm trying to pretend to be.

Cathy Sirvatka 38:44

See, that is everything right there, because we all struggle with I don't care what level you are, we all struggle with that. This has been really amazing. I mean it's very exciting what you're doing, and revolutionary even, I would say, in the branding world, so that's super cool. Do you have any tips or advice for our listeners that maybe they could just take today?

Laura Hulleman 39:09

Yeah, well, I would love to invite all of them to take that endotype quiz. Seriously, five questions, less than five minutes. If they take that quiz one, you're going to understand what the system is like a little bit better. But the second thing is you're going to know about yourself a little bit more how people right. As humans we kind of think we're really great at hiding those imperfect parts of ourself or the parts that maybe we don't like so much, and we might do a pretty decent job of ignoring them. However, they're pretty transparent to other people. So knowing that it's just kind of part of who we are is a really great thing, and so it allows us to embrace all of ourselves instead of just parts. So I'd love for them if they go to endotypecom or endotypebrandingcom, they can take the quiz right there and kind of get that vibe for who they are and start accepting all of the parts of ourselves and get a taste for that client experience too.

Cathy Sirvatka 40:32

I really like that. I really like that a lot. The foibles and the good stuff and all the things that you bring every day. Maybe you don't want to highlight, but they're there, they are, they're part of who you are.

Laura Hulleman 40:44

Yeah, and we're just not really great at hiding them. You know, like until and it's not until we get some feedback on them that we know how transparent they are. My sister, at one point in her 20s she was working a job and somebody said you know what I love about you? You are so blunt. And um, and she, she, she said can you believe? They told me that. And I said, um, yeah, and she had no idea. She's like I never knew that people saw me as blunt. Am I blunt? Yeah, If you think it, it comes out of your mouth. Right? She's one of those people that we now talk about lacking filter, but she didn't know, and so, because she didn't know, she wasn't ever able to put on a filter if she needed one. And with that knowledge, she could then think, oh, am I about to say something that others would call blunt, and is this the time for it?

Cathy Sirvatka 41:40

Yeah, just being self-aware. I think a lot of us walk around, and even I, you know I've done a lot of counseling and stuff over the years. But you know there's still a lot of parts of me. If they get reflected back by somebody, you know can still hurt because like, oh, I thought I was hiding that or oh, I thought I got rid of that.

Laura Hulleman 42:01

My favorite feedback on the quiz is when somebody goes and takes the quiz and they're right pretty uncomplicated questions and only five of them and then I get back the feedback oh screw you. Because when they read their profile it's so accurate. That's my favorite, because they got this level of self-awareness and realize this is who you are, not just a part of you, that it's the weeds in the garden that need to be plucked out.

Cathy Sirvatka 42:39

It is the garden, it is who we are, and so that acceptance, like you said, is so huge going a little bit outside the framework of websites, but I think it's all part of it, though it's all. Branding is who you are. As web designers, we need to brand ourselves, we need to know who we are and brand appropriately, and that's got to attract the type of clients that we include in our niche or whatever, and then we need to brand for our clients so that they attract the right people and present themselves correctly. So I mean, there's just a lot of different fingers out I can see for this. It's important. This has been fascinating. Are you on social media? Where can people find you? You gave us your website, which I will have in the show notes.

Laura Hulleman 43:33

Yeah, two best places to find me on social, and especially in regards to, to branding, is on Instagram Endotype Branding, or you can find me on LinkedIn at Laura Hulliman. Those are the two best places to connect with me in regards to this division of the business. And, yeah, always check out the website, find the details there and take the quiz. And take the quiz, that's right Always and reach out and connect. I mean, I'd love to hear what your listeners thought of the quiz and any questions that they have after they take that quiz.

Cathy Sirvatka 44:09

Well, thank you so much. This has been wonderful.

Laura Hulleman 44:11

I've enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for having me here today, Kathy.

Cathy Sirvatka 44:18

If you're looking for that freelance inspo, you need subscribe to this podcast. Thank you for having me here today, kathy.