Need to know how to build a brand in 2023? No need to fret. These steps will get you there! You can build a successful brand in 2023.
Tip #1: Have a Purpose and Story
Your brand needs to have a purpose and a story that resonates with your audience. People want to connect with brands that have a mission and vision beyond just making money. So, take some time to really think about why you’re in business and how you can make a difference in the lives of your customers.
Tip #2: Pick an Area of Expertise or Niche
Trying to be everything to everyone is a surefire way to fail in business. Instead, focus on a specific area of expertise or niche that you excel in and that aligns with your purpose and story. This will allow you to become known as an authority in your field and attract the right customers.
Tip #3: Have a Brand Archetype and Aesthetic
Your brand needs to have a consistent look and feel that reflects your purpose and story. This means choosing a brand archetype (e.g. hero, rebel, caregiver, etc.) that aligns with your values and personality, as well as creating a visual aesthetic that reflects your brand personality. This will help your brand stand out and be easily recognizable.
Tip #4: Have 3-5 Content Pillars That Support Your Brand
To build a strong brand, you need to create content that supports your purpose and story. This means identifying 3-5 content pillars that align with your brand and that you can consistently create content around. This will help you build a loyal audience who trusts your expertise and turns to you for information and inspiration.
Tip #5: Pick a Platform Based on Strengths and Alignment with Your Brand
Finally, when it comes to promoting your brand, it’s important to choose a platform that aligns with your brand values and strengths. Whether it’s social media, email marketing, podcasting, or something else, choose a platform that you enjoy using and that your audience is active on.
So there you have it, my tips on how to build a brand and grow your business in 2023. Remember to focus on your purpose and story, pick an area of expertise or niche, have a consistent brand archetype and aesthetic, create content pillars that support your brand, and choose a platform that aligns with your strengths and brand values.
Now go out there and build a brand that you’re proud of!
What To Do Next?
Now, if you’re wondering, “how I can create a business and brand that truly lights up my soul and allows me to naturally attract my soulmate clients,” then I want to introduce you to The Product is YOU.
How many mistakes have you made so far in your business journey? When it comes to starting a business, much like life, you live and learn along the journey. You wouldn’t be the amazing soul you are right now without the lessons BUT why do it hard way when you have me to help you … riiiight? Yes, I have made many mistakes — all of them — and learned the lessons. Now, I can help you through them. In this video, I break down the 5 common mistakes when starting a coaching business.
Mistake #1: Consuming And Not Creating
If you find yourself tuning in too long to the tube or endlessly scrolling on social … then you’re spending too much time consuming content … instead of creating it! Remember, your job as a creator and business owner is to create and show up in your business, so you can help others. Often when you’re in consumption mode, it’s because you’re thinking that you’re not good enough or
don’t know enough. This is often connected with shiny object syndrome, when you’re always searching for the next best solution to counter your alleged shortcomings. You may also catch a mean case of comparionsitist — a lovely term I coined years ago which means that you are comparing yourself incessantly to others in an unhealthy way, mirroring a disease or disorder. Oh, yes, just stay far away from this soul-crushing rabbit hole!
Solution: Stay One Step Ahead
Remember that as long as you’re one step ahead of your audience, that’s aaalllll that matters. That should keep you feeling confident. Take comfort in knowing that you have knowledge that another person needs and is looking for. Yes, you are good enough — exactly as you are. You have all you need to be a great coach.
Mistake #2: Not Having A Content Creation Strategy
When you do actually show up online, it matters that you have the right approach. Don’t start from scratch over and over again! If you have to think, and overthink, before you post on social media then you don’t have a content strategy. As a result, you will randomly create content on the fly, which can become overly time consuming and stressful.
Solution: Have An Intentional Strategy
Be intentional about the information that you are sharing by creating a content plan. Take a moment to come up with 3-5 content pillars, which are the overarching topics that are connected to your business and always addressed. Within these pillars, you can creatively touch upon an array of sub-topics and themes. With a content strategy in hand, it will make it easier for you to show up online and stay on brand!
Mistake #3: Taking On Every Client Under The Sun
Did you know that most businesses take 6 months to turn a profit and there is a 99.9 percent failure rate? Yes, I know that the excitement of starting a business is fueled by the dream that you will be an overnight success. … Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way a majority of the time. Building a business takes time, and not every business is for everyone! You can’t welcome everyone as a coaching client because not every service and service provider is for every person. This is why we have endless designers, supermarkets, TV shows, etc. This cuts across all industries.
Solution: Know Your Audience
Focus your business on a set avatar/ideal client. Think long and hard about how your coaching services match up with your soulmate client. Who do you want to work with and is best served by your offers? Write down this person’s qualities and desired goals, so you can stay focused and communicate directly with this type of individual.
Mistake #4: Not Setting Boundaries
Regardless of whether you have a client or if engaging with a potential client, you must establish boundaries in your business. If you don’t set the expectations for working with you (deliverables, time, brand experience, etc.), you will overexert yourself. This depletion of your energy is particularly taxing for my empaths out there! When you push yourself unhealthily out of your comfort zone, you will end up unbalance and resent your work.
Solution: Have Set Work Days And Hours
Know that boundaries are blessings! Having boundaries will keep you and your client sane. You will also have a shared understanding of what your brand experience is and isn’t and what each of you brings to the table. Set up your work days and hours, outline each step in your coaching process, and keep the communication lines fully open!
Mistake #5: Blaming Yourself For Your Client’s Shortcomings
At some point in your business, you are likely to have a client who decides not to do the work you’ve both outlined in your program. Your client may give up or ghost you, blame their lack of activity on you, and/or self sabotage their progress. Sigh. This cuts deep because it’s tough to watch. You may find yourself taking on the blame, BUT you shouldn’t.
Solution: Be The Guide On The Side
Don’t misplace the responsibilities for your clients’ successes and failures. If your program has been piloted tested and proven to help others, you should already be at ease. Much like with everything in life, we each walk our own paths and are responsible for our actions. Remember, you can’t do the work for your clients. However, you can be that amazing, supportive, knowledgeable, and dedicated guide on the side for them!
What To Do Next
Now, if you’re wondering, “how I can create a business and brand that truly lights up my soul and allows me to naturally attract my soulmate clients,” then I want to introduce you to The Product is YOU.
The truth is: Building a biz and brand does take work … BUT it doesn’t have to be painful. You can do this with ease. In fact building an online business is faaaar easier than building a brick-and-mortar business. You don’t have to worry about a physical space or about investing a ton of money upfront to launch a business and stay afloat. In fact, the global online coaching market is a $1billion dollar industry … and it is projected to continue growing. Now, that being said, let’s dive into exactly how to start an online coaching business step by step!
Why Do You Want This?
The first and most important thing that you can ask yourself is: Why, oh why, do you want to start an online coaching business? Are you building a business and a brand full-time, or are you creating and growing a business on the side?
There are so many reasons why you may be driven to walk this path. Perhaps it’s the important of family and finance that are your drivers. For others, passion led them here (snaps!). Some may be reading the tea leaves and see how much the world fluctuates.
The reality is that life can spin on a dime, and for these folks, they rather have their ducks in order to prepare for the worst. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, hang onto why you’re doing this. What’s the end goal? Keep this as your North Star in order to keep you laser focused on your life goals.
What Do You Have To Offer?
I know what you’re thinking when it comes down to how to start an online coaching business step by step. You’re most likely saying to yourself that you’re not Tony Robbins and you’re not Oprah … and that’s okay!
You don’t need to be a bigwig to create a viable online business. You also don’t need a coaching certificate or doctorate … yes, that one stings! Everyone has a problem that needs solving. As long as you’re one step ahead of your ideal client, with the solution to their problem in hand, you have a business just waiting to come to fruition! If it’s any consolation to you, everything has been done. You don’t have to worry about reinventing the wheel.
How Are You Going To Get It Done?
When thinking about how to start a coaching business from scratch, you need to consider which business model will you adopt in order to help your clients. You have many options!
You can offer done-for-you services such as building a website. You can offer 1:1 or group coaching, where you’re taking someone by the hand and walking them through their problems. You can also offer courses for educational-based services. Oooor … you can offer a hybrid of any of these services!
If you’re wondering whether someone will actually pay for your services, just know that every entrepreneur has this thought in the beginning … and in all phases of their business. It’s a little dash of imposture syndrome sprinkled with doubt. Just give yourself time and grace to go through trial and error, which is inevitable.
I highly recommend that you also test out your program with friends who are close to your ideal clients but will give you real, raw feedback. Gotta love those loved ones! Take away the reoccurring feedback and work out the kinks in your system until you have the confidence and know-how to offer your service/product to a paid client.
Remember This!
Just remember that everyone starts at ground zero. Most importantly, deep down within — you’ve got this! If you need the detailed, step-by-step process for getting your business up and running, establishing a brand, and attracting your soulmate clients, then I want to introduce you to The Product is YOU.
Does this sound like you? You may be a finance expert, but you’re also into art. Perhaps you are a musician, but you’re also passionate about cooking. Well, the reality is that we all have more than one passion. However, when it comes to translating your passions into business, it requires niching down. It requires knowing how to build a business when you’re multipassionate! 😃
Knowing this, you may feel as if niching means that you have to sacrifice all of your interests in the name of building a successful business. Good news. It doesn’t have to be this way! You can build a business and create a cohesive brand while still holding onto your many, many passions. You can build a business when you are multipassionate.
Being A Multipassionate Entrepreneur
You may or may not be aware of this, but we’re all multipassionate to some extent. In a nine-to-five job or career being multi-talented often works amazingly well because you can wear multiple hats. While these same skills are great for working behind the scenes of your business, juggling multiple services as a new service provider can hurt your business. If you are offering services that are vastly distinct, and there isn’t a rhyme or reason as to how those differing services work together … you’re going to lose your audience.
This is particularly true when you’re just starting a business because no one knows you. I’m going to keep it real with you. When no one knows who you are, you need to provide your audience with a sole offer that will hook them, not confuse them. You will eventually become known for your single service, your one thing. Niching will also keep your business focused, save you precious time and protect your energy.
First things first. Look across all of your passions and skill sets, and see which one is the most profitable AND sustainable. You want to select a niche that you can keep doing business within for years and years to come. The next thing you want to do is ground yourself in that one service until it takes of. Afterwards, you can expand your business. You can scale up and explore other business ventures that you are passionate about.
What Did Rihanna Do?
For instance, Rihanna, the famous global entertainer and entrepreneur, started her career as a singer. She evolved into a “bad gal” of pop image that attracted a loyal fan base of people who love her — becoming the Ri Ri brand.
Afterwards, she decided to venture into acting and found acceptance from her followers as well as the public. After a brief stint as a singer-actress, she followed another passion and started a makeup brand. Unlike many of her peers, Rihanna introduced bright, bold colors and an endless array of shades for women of color — practically (and sadly) a limited of offer at that time. Needless to say, her makeup line became a hit. Following this success, she made yet another business move and entered the lingerie market, uprooting the entire industry with her brand of edginess and body positivity. Guess what? We remained along for the ride!
Why?
Once again, her audience was aligned with the Ri Ri essence. They believed in her and were sold into her brand from the very beginning. She distinguished herself because her brand is uniquely edgy, free-spirited and sassy. She found success through a core fan base that were ready to support her along her business and life journey.
Ri ri or no no, that is what you want to do for your business! You want an audience that will be onboard as you pivot, redefine, change, grow or expand.
Making All Of Your Passions Work
Now that you understand why you need to strategically build an audience first, let’s look at how you can introduce your passions when starting a business. I recommend two easy ways — My RAW BRANDED method — to use your passions to stand out without confusing your audience. You will not only have more comfort knowing that you can still embrace your many interests, but you will also help your audience to further discover commonalities with you.
Believe me; I get it. I’m a marketer, writer, artist, entrepreneur, educator and spiritual being, among other passions. It can be difficult to choose among your many passions. However, in my own business, I am leaning with my passion for branding and business building. My many other passions are still infused in my business. Let’s dive into this with some options that work!
Option 1: Work Your Combo
Your first option is to combine your passions. You can combine interests that are within the same umbrella.
For instance, if you’re a therapist and you’re also proficient at guided meditation, these passions can nicely work hand in hand since the two are so closely related. Perhaps your therapy sessions can begin by offering a meditative experience.
Similarly, if you are a web designer who also loves to do graphic design, the two services can become a brilliant combination since clients often look for both services. Perhaps when you are designing a website, you can do the graphic designs for the site banners and the icons. This will allow your clients to have bonuses and a more unique experience — which by the way is what I did in my own business and it has worked well for me! It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can combine your skills and passions as long as they equally serve your business.
Option 2: The Icing On The Cake
Your second option is to use your additional passion (or your passions) as the icing on your brand experience. Use your additional expertise to add flavor to the experience of working with you. Spice it up!
For instance, let’s say that you are a fitness coach and you’re also a fan of fashion, you can highlight both sides of you. When you’re creating content on camera, you can dress in fitness apparel that speaks to your personality. Whether you’re a little bit more flamboyant or more sophisticated, you can use that style to showcase other sides of your brand.
Another example is if you love cooking and you’re also a musician. Believe it or not you can combine the two. Put icing on the cake that is YOU! If you provide cooking lessons on camera, you can play your music in the background to set the vibes for your coaching. You can always mention or discuss your music while cooking as another means of fast-tracking the connection with your audience.
So, you see. There are actually many, many ways in which you can infuse your passions within a single, cohesive brand that will make perfect sense to your clients … and will serve YOU!
If you’re interested in diving deeper into finding your niche as a multihyphenate AND learning how to build an authentic business and brand that attracts your soulmate clients, I encourage you to check out The Product is YOU.
I get it. You want to build a business and a brand, but everyone is telling you that you need to find your niche first. Sounds good in theory, BUT you don’t want to be locked in a box or go too narrow with your targeting. Starting with a niche may feel like you’re limiting your audience, so niching down to blow up your business … is blowing your mind! Have no fear. In the video above, I explain how to find your niche for your online business.
Benefits Of Finding A Niche
If you’re wondering how to find a niche market and how to find a profitable niche, then there are a couple things to consider. Here’s the thing, there are a lot of benefits to niching:
✔️ You get to be known for something as opposed to being lost in the sea of other content creators.
✔️ Algorithms work in your favor. As designed, they will serve your specific content to your specific audience.
✔️ Other brands and content creators can easily identify you and reach out to you for partnerships and collaborators … because they know exactly what you do! No guesswork.
✔️ You’re more aligned with your work, since it is clearly serving a particular service for a particular audience. This permits for a simplified content strategy — allowing you to operate with eeeease, completely in a “flow state.”
As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, it can be difficult to know how to niche down and promote your services on YouTube and other social media platforms. You may have several interests that you hold near and dear to your heart. For instance, you may love hair care, reiki, fashion, and tech. Oh my!
However, having all these avenues as your business will confuse your potential clients … and can lead to burnout for you as a content creator! You may believe that you’re sacrificing your many interests in favor of a business that doesn’t feel authentic. However, having a niche not only helps you to be known for one thing, it also helps you to define your ideal target audience, start with a simple business design, and leave room to expand your business into your other areas of interest.
How Do You Do This?
Cast a slightly wider net first within your target audience, BUT don’t go too far out or too narrow in your outreach. For instance, you can pilot test your outreach by targeting women who are interested in DIYing their homes. Once in that space, you can see if this general bucket works within the vision of your business before niching down. You may then discover that it is more interesting, fun and profitable to niche down and help professional women who have 9-to-5 jobs but want to find time to DIY their living spaces. It is easier for you to arrive at this conclusion after exploring your larger target audience.
It doesn’t have to be a challenge to nail your niche. Follow the steps outlined in this article and video above, and you’ll be well on your way!
