EPISODE #03

THE BRANDING

JOURNEY

EPISODE #03

The Branding Journey – What to expect when you rebrand

 

Disclaimer: Work Wife Wine time promotes the responsible drinking of alcohol but allows you extra bubbles when you’ve nailed your branding because your business is going to thrive. 

Rowena [0:23] – Hey ladies, welcome to episode 3 of Work Wife Wine Time. This episode is all about the branding journey and stepping you through what to expect. Before we start, I have some questions for you, and I would like you to have a really good think about whether any of these sound familiar to you. You make an excuse for your business card when handing it over, you explain the state of your website before pointing people in its direction, you avoid directing people to your social media and you dread sending anything with your logo on it. Sound familiar? This is called brand shame and it is doing your business a disservice. This episode is all about how branding, that is a true representation of both you and your business, can take you from a place of fear, hesitation and scarcity to one of confidence and pride. This episode gets you amping to get your own rebrand ready to rock and roll but you have no idea where to start. Best thing to do, jump on to www.workwifewinetime.com.au\rebrand and you can download my free checklist that will help you figure out exactly where you need to invest to have the most impact in your brand.

Rowena [1:38] – So the first question I have for you Mikala around, before we met, which feels like it was forever ago, are about your experiences with design and branding before you came to working with Pretty Creative?

Mikala [1:53] – Well, when I first started my business, I really wanted a logo to get started and I kind of looked around and just got some general ideas and then I went to, it was something like Fiverr I can’t remember what it was, but it was just one of those websites where you put up the job that you want done and a few people sort of audition with concepts. And I did that.

Rowena [2:23] – If this was a video, you’d be seeing the shocked and disgusted look on my face but carry on.

Mikala [2:28] – Well, you know, I didn’t know any better back then. And so I guess that was my first real introduction with designers. So I just I narrowed down the people that submitted entries and found one that I sort of liked and then just worked with the person on the style and the colour and it was a very basic design, like really basic and, you know, cookie cutter and flat, like there was no life or anything to it. And it was basically it was really just a logo. And I sort of used that for a few years while my business was still sort of in the hobby stage and then when I decided to step it up and actually make my business a business a couple of years ago, I engaged a designer and went through the process with her. Yeah, it was interesting. Like I really, I really liked what I had initially. But like I said, it was really flat. It just sort of sat on the page. There was no life to it. It kind of was a little bit reflective of me, but not really. It was really difficult working with her because I wasn’t sure — I wasn’t sure what I really wanted. And she suggested that we do some mood boards, and I struggled with that because as you know, like, I’m just not a design person. So trying to find other brands that I liked was really difficult. But yeah, we eventually ended up I sort of showed her a few and she did up I think, I don’t know four or five different sort of concepts, and I just sort of chose the one that I liked the most out of those and went with that. So, like, it was a, it was a design that I liked, but I certainly wasn’t wedded to it. You know, it didn’t, there was no connection with it. Like, I liked it and I thought, well, it was better than what I had. But there was no real connection. I didn’t feel passionate about it. And I didn’t feel like yeah, this is me and this, this represents who I am and what I do, and it had pink in it. As you know, I hate pink with a passion. I don’t know how I let her talk me into it. But anyway…

Rowena [4:52] – So the next question, I would say, that flows from that is, so you’d had some experience with design before and you’d come to certain points, but you’ve realised you needed something more. What made you feel like you needed to go through this process again, and what was the pivotal feeling that you felt that drove this process for you?

Mikala [5:13] – As my business has grown, and I’ve grown, and I’ve gotten to know myself more and what I’m about and what my business is about, I just realised that the design I had just wasn’t reflective of that. I mean, it was pretty and when we, when we designed it, my designer was really focused on my target audience. So you know, which was at the time mums and women in business, and so the focus was a lot more on what would appeal to them, rather than what reflects me and what I do.

Rowena [5:51] – What was the emotion behind you personally feeling like something wasn’t right?

Mikala [5:57] – It was that my logo was really feminine. And flouncy, I suppose. And that’s not me at all. As you know because you’re laughing! Like I’m down to earth and I’m practical, and I’m probably problem solving. And I didn’t get any of that from my brand. And so when I was trying to explain what I do to new people that I wanted to impress, like, whether it was by networking or to a new client, I felt like there was a real disconnect between who I was and what I was trying to get across, and what my branding and therefore my website portrayed. Yeah, it was, it was mainly the look like I got my business cards printed, and I’ve hardly handed any out because I just, I think that the main word I can use is that it felt really inauthentic. Like it was a really nice logo, and I could see why she did it. And, you know, the fact that it would appeal to my target audience made a lot of sense, but it just wasn’t me and it really did feel inauthentic. Having that as a representation of me and my business.

Rowena [7:13] – And the point I would make here is that you’re not alone in that. A lot of people who come to me at a stage of business feel the same way. And a lot of ways when people enter into a new business, they have this internal checklist. They have the checklist when it comes to branding section where it will say, logo, website, other and they will be tick boxes just sitting there waiting for them to have achieved that thing so they can move on to other things that they deem more important. And the thing is, is as you work through business, it’s not just an independent business growth journey, it’s a personal growth journey. And you start to become really strongly interwoven with your business. I mean, what would be the point, otherwise?

Mikala [7:58] – Absolutely!

Rowena [7:59] – And these days, I see a lot of people talking about personal branding, and then talking about business branding, a lot of what I believe is that the two aren’t able to be defined separately, they should be one in the same in a lot of ways. Because when you are in your business and you have a brand that you love, that is a true reflection of you, you feel a lot more comfortable to be yourself. And then people that you want to connect with and your business and your ideal client, they see that from you. And they go ‘oh me too!’ And they feel that reflection of who they are. They feel a real connection with you because you feel a connection to it.

Mikala [8:43] – Yeah, and I get what you’re saying. Like, I mean, you’ve probably noticed this too a lot of business coaches and mentors, they talk about who you need to be for your client.

Rowena [8:53] – Yeah.

Mikala [8:54] – And I think that’s where this whole, like, to me, that’s where my flouncy logo, flouncy pink logo came from. It was like, well, I need to be this person to my client, but that person’s not me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t need to be them in inverted commas. And I think what you’re saying makes total sense. And I think that’s how– I think that’s how this disconnect happens. It’s because you’ve got these people going, you know, ‘who do you have to be for your clients?’ instead of, you know, ‘what parts of you is your client going to connect with?’

Rowena [9:30] – And really, I feel like a lot of it comes from because the majority of my clients have come from a corporate background. And in a corporate space, there’s so many expectations of what is right. And I feel like we squash so many parts of ourselves down that we have to have secret personas, let’s be honest, we’ve all been out on a night on the town and then walked in the office, in our corporate suits the next day and pretended that it never happened.

Mikala [9:58] – That’s true!

Rowena [9:59] – Whereas, this is about a personal AND professional journey. And if you want a brand that’s going to grow with you, it always needs to be a true representation of who you are in your business. The two aren’t separate.

Mikala [10:14] – Yeah.

Rowena [10:15] – So when you first came on board with Pretty Creative it was a new a new system a new way of doing things that you possibly hadn’t done before. And it’s something that’s come from my years of experience, where I realised that designers were often– we kind of had an ego about what we did. And we deem that from a few line brief, we know best. Whereas,

Mikala [10:42] – Yeah.

Rowena [10:43] – I feel like so often people don’t get to know people. And that’s where there’s, it’s a really hard thing to go away and come up with five logos when you don’t know that the person hates red. When you came to me initially, you’d already had some experience with working with other designers before and you probably noticed that my process was a little bit different and it was a little more in depth. And for me, that’s where you take a step away from your to do list and move on towards a complete strategic brand. And that’s where you start to dig deeper. So, initially, we did a brain consult, and our 15 minute meeting rolled into two hours, let’s be honest. But that was because we had the connection and I also feel that that’s a really big step. And when you’re outsourcing people, don’t just hire the person that people tell you is the best or whatever, you need to have that connection, otherwise, you’re not gonna understand. And when people go through a branding process in the past, and they have that checklist to go through, it’s very disconnected. It’s part of a very structured to do list. It’s very much disconnected from you personally. It’s just, ‘I have to get the shit done.’

So our first step we had a brand consult, it rolled on, we realised that we were a good connection. So then we went into a deep dive questionnaire and I was wondering if you could tell me from the stage, how you’re kind of feeling, what was going through your head when you got asked three sheets of questions?

Mikala [12:18] – Well, I actually didn’t mind it because like, when I say I’m clueless about design, I’m not overstating things. It’s like, I really am. I really don’t know. And because of my experience in the past, I really didn’t know what I wanted, like I was really lost and confused. So answering those questions, it really made me think some of them were like, ‘okay, this is apparently relevant,’ but it was, it turned out to be. Like, yeah, I found it really helpful because it gave me an insight into what your thought processes were going to be around this and it just made it feel like it wasn’t going to be a surface level thing that it really was a deep dive and it took a while to do. But as you know, I like using words in emails and I think I wrote reams for you but anyway. Once I got into it, it was really good. It’s helped me unpack a lot of things that I hadn’t really thought about and sort of put a lot of things down on paper, which I hadn’t considered before and look at things from a different perspective, like different parts of me and my business. So yeah, I found it to be really helpful.

Rowena [13:38] – At this stage just give everyone context, Mikala has done a complete rebrand with me. So this is from logo to socials–

Mikala [13:46] – Everything!

Rowena [13:47] – So we’ve got a logo, we’ve got a new look website rolling out, we have social media and all of the documents associated with the business has a new look and brand, which brings us on to the purpose of a mood board. Now a lot of people that I mentioned the word mood board, it’s a foreign concept to them. And I feel like as designers, we often throw these terms around that often don’t get described. So the purpose for me for a mood board and everyone, every designer or, you know, interior designers use them and architects use them. It’s really to pull together a variety of concepts as inspiration. And it creates something that’s unique for each client. So, you know, if somebody tells me that they really– in Mikala’s case, she told me that she really was about using tech but using it mindfully. And it really put me in that zen space of things being really clean and fresh. Often when you do tech brands, there’s a lot of cliches around it. But that was a concept that was something that was quite unique to Mikala and so I figured out ways to visually represent that for her. And the way that we could consistently do that across her brand and the mood boards that I presented. Would you like to say a little bit about how you felt when those came through?

Mikala [15:04] – So the first thing when you mentioned that we had to do mood boards, I think I like rolled my eyes and was like oh really? But um then they came through and at first I thought I had to pick one that I liked. But then I looked at the questions that you asked about each one. And like that was so helpful, because you were saying, what parts of this do you like? Why do you like it? You know what resonates with you in these. And that actually got me thinking and that helped me start to drill down. And to start off, I was a bit, ‘oh, I’m not sure.’ But as I went through and answered your questions, it actually became easier and easier and easier. And I think by the time I got to the final mood board, I was like, ‘ah, well!’ you know, ‘type, type, type, type, type.’ Like I had plenty to say by the end of it. So for me, that really helped because mood boards are something that makes my toes curl and just makes me want to run and hide. But you stepping me through the process and asking me those questions, that actually got me to think about things, so what’s the thinking about it like flat images in front of my eyes. I was thinking about the emotions that they evoked and all that sort of thing. And, yeah, that made it a lot more pleasant for me

Rowena [16:23] – A lot of what that does, as we move through into the design and concept phase, you will notice that I keep asking questions, and I’m full of questions.

Mikala [16:35] – Yeah.

Rowena [16:36] – And the reason for that is, is because I want you to take ownership of your brand. And to do that you need to feel invested in the process. And by having your opinions and your thoughts expressed in a visual way, which a lot of people struggle with. It means that when you see options and you start to actually develop your design brand around things a little bit as well, you start to take ownership of it because you feel really involved in the process. And this carries on through the concept phase, and it carries on through every single thing. And suddenly you just have this brand, that it’s instinctual. It’s all the different parts have come together. And it’s almost like magic, I would say doing things this way around rather than just feeling like you have a few options forced upon you to make an eenie meenie miney moe choice between. By being actively involved in this process, you feel seen. And by you feeling seen, you feel involved., you own it. And I’m all about people owning their brand. Not the other way around.

Mikala [17:46] – Yeah, no, that’s exactly how it feels.

Rowena [17:51] – Yeah?

Mikala [17:53] – Yeah, that’s spot on.

Rowena [17:54] – If you feel like your brand is a ‘should’, a ‘could’, a ‘have to’, then, it’s not representing you truly. And if you’re going out and being fake, people these days smell fakery a mile away.

Mikala [18:09] – Yeah.

Rowena [18:10] – When you make your best connections, it’s when you’re being truly yourself. So if your brand can be truly yourself, you’re removing one extra hurdle that’s in your way with your business.

Mikala [18:21] – Yup.

Rowena [18:22] – So the next stage was, or the very first stage of approval, was to get you a logo that you loved. So after having mood boards, and we found that cross section between what you liked, what was going to work for your business, and it really is a cross section, let’s be honest, it’s finding a bunch of little smaller components that come together and create something that’s truly you and truly your business. So we got a logo, and we had your first concepts come through, talk me through how you were feeling when that all came through and as we work through creating the logo that you now have.

Mikala [18:58] – Actually, I think the first time you mentioned the ideas you had for my logo was you were sending me a message and you just went ‘paperclips!’ And I went, ‘okay, nothing more.’ I was just sort of left with that. I’m like, ‘okay, paperclips. How do I feel about paperclips?’ And then I started thinking about paperclips, like, you know, they’re really versatile. They keep things together and keep organised and you told me some of this too when we’re going through the concept design. And like, yeah, you can use them for everything like you can straighten them out and use them to reset your modem and all that sort of thing. So they’re really versatile. So I really liked that. And then when you showed me the– my final, what ended up being my final logo, so the love heart with a paperclip, I absolutely love that because I love my business and I love what I do. And that to me still portrayed the feminine thing because my target market is still female entrepreneurs. But it wasn’t feminine in a flouncy pink way. So, yeah, I really connected with that logo and the ideas that you had because we talked about it, you didn’t kind of just send it through. I mean, after the initial ‘paperclips’, you sent it through and then we had a discussion about it. And you told me your thoughts behind it. And I was able to think about it and to, I suppose, evolve an identity around the logo that really connected with me, and really made sense. And like I just love it.

Rowena [20:48] – You’re now at the stage, you’ve got a logo that you love, but as you now know, branding is more than a logo.

Mikala [10:56] – Yes, so much more than a logo.

Rowena [20:59] – So from a design point of view, we’ve already talked about the range that we’ve now applied that to, another concept that a lot of people struggle with is the idea of a style guide. Would you mind in your own way saying what you have with a style guide and what it is and how it has been useful for you to take ownership of your brand?

Mikala [21:24] – Okay, well initially, you just supplied me with a one page thing which had my fonts and my colours and all that sort of thing like the really, you know, useful when you’re doing different things, these are the colours and everything that you need. Then you provided me with my full style guide, which is just, it has made my life so much easier because when it comes to things like social media and Instagram and stuff, like stuff that I actually have to do for myself that I can’t go, ‘hey Rowena, can you mock this up for me?’ like, having, in writing and also in visuals in front of me, the way in which I should be using these things– Because I tried before we kind of got to the point where you provided me with the style guide when it was still all sort of new and I was just playing with things, I’d kind of have a bit of a play and it just, it never sat or looked as good as when you did something for me. But then you sent through the style guide, and it’s like, ‘ah, so I need to have it only on these backgrounds. And when I have the photo, it needs to be like this.’ It just really brought it all together. And so now because like you’ve been designing the pages of my website, but I’ve been creating them, and every now and again, I just go, ‘ah, I need a new page on that.’ And I just throw something together, even though I then get you to look at it later. But to start with, I’m able to use that information that you’ve given me to go, ‘okay, well, this needs to go with this. And if I’m using that, then I need to do it this way.’ And it’s been really helpful and because I don’t do all of my social media. I have my daughter who’s a virtual assistant who works with me. And I come up with the content and she creates the tiles. And so being able to hand her the style guide, and go, ‘okay, so when we use a photo, this is what we do with the photo. And this is how we present it when we have a quote, this is what we do. And this is how we present it.’ It’s just like it’s, it’s just made it so easy to communicate these things instead of me going, ‘oh, you sort of kind of got to do it kind of like this,’ just having it all in one place, I can just hand that off to someone and they just know how to treat my brand. And I mean, the kind of work that I’ve done, I’ve worked with style guides for other people as well. Not many businesses like I think I’ve only come across two other businesses that have had them. But when I’ve done work for those businesses like creating web pages or whatever, it has been so amazingly easy to be able to do that for them because they’ve got the style guide. And yeah, that’s what I find with yours.

Rowena [24:16] – It’s the inspired office rule book.

Mikala [24:19] – That’s right!

Rowena [24:20] – As I’ve called it in other jobs and without having any, like, religious people arc up about this, I call it your Bible because it’s basically got your rules to live by in your business.

Mikala [24:29] – Yup.

Rowena [24:30] – And the whole point of this process is not to make things harder. It is to make things easier. So that rather than feeling like you’re scrambling, when you’ve got these little things, you literally have to turn to your rulebook and it’s not reinventing the wheel. The purpose of a brand is consistency,

Mikala [24:50] – Yes!

Rowena [24:51] –  communication and doing that in a clear way so that people understand that this is you.

Mikala [24:59] – Yep.

Rowena [25:00] – I’m owning it. And if you are presenting an inconsistent look and feel, people kind of wonder if you’ve actually got your shit together.

Mikala [25:09] – Yeah.

Rowena [25:10] – Whereas when you look the same across the board and it is a true representation of you, so when they see you, or meet you, or you pop up on Instagram stories, ‘why that person, after seeing her website and that’s a true representation of her and her business, and I’ve seen her on social media, it’s also a true representation of who she is. This is person I can trust.’

Mikala [25:31] – Yeah.

Rowena [25:32] – ‘This is not bullshit, this is not fake, this is the real deal.’

Mikala [25:26] – Yeah.

Rowena [25:51] – So brand style guides. I’m a huge fan, obviously.

Mikala [25:54] – Ah, me too!

Rowena [25:56] – What would you say are your biggest realisations and ‘aha’ moments that when brandings done right, the effect it can have? So we’ve already covered a few with the brand style guide. What’s some of the other things that you may have had those ‘aha’ moments or actually come to learn something that makes all the rest makes sense?

Mikala [26:19] – Um, well, I think, like you said it’s the way I appear across everything, it’s the consistency. Having the colours and the styles and the icons and the illustrations that you’ve made for me as well, it’s like, I can put my brand anywhere and it will always link back to everything else. Like, you know, it doesn’t matter what platform it goes on and what the constraints of that platform are, because I’ve got this toolkit that you’ve given me, you can see that it’s me everywhere, at a quick glance, and for me, that is just fabulous. And just, taking the thinking out of it, too. That’s a huge thing.

Rowena [27:14] – It’s not meant to be rocket science. The thing is, is that it may seem like a lot of work for a small period of time, but when it’s done right, it can have a long standing effect on your business.

Mikala [27:27] – Well, design for me is a lot of work. But now it’s not, I was putting together some things for my social media feed, and I just had to open my file of photos and icons and things that you’d made for me, and it was so quick! It’s just all there. I’m like, okay, I want to write a post on this. Beautiful! I’ve got that icon there. That’s what I’ll use in the social media, like, you know, I don’t have to troll the internet for hours trying to find a photo or an image or something that reflects what I’m trying to say. It’s like, I’ve just got it, I’ve got everything. It has just made my life so much easier. And, you know, I look at my Instagram feed now, and even though it’s only sort of been a few weeks that I’ve really– I changed over the colours a month or two ago, but it’s only really been the last few weeks that the new layout and everything and the logos are starting to appear, not the logos, the icons, and it just looks great! Like it really does! But yeah, having the toolkit, the brand guide, and all the assets that you’ve created for me, it’s just made my life so much easier. It’s really taken the stress out of when I have to present my business.

Rowena [28:47] – Now, we’ve talked about how this can affect your business and how it can affect you personally within your business, but looking outwards, like so often we look inwards when it comes to branding, but the realisation is it’s actually for your clients. So have you heard anything from your clients about what they think about your new look and feel?

Mikala [29:08] – Absolutely. I’ve had so many comments on the paperclip logo, because people love it because it’s so simple, yet it’s so meaningful. And the new colours like they just, I mean, from my point of view, they’re just really me. But yes, so many people like the new logo and even I had someone the other day asked me about the icons they’re like, ‘so do you just use those in Canva and change the colours?’ And I’m like, ‘oh, no.’ It was done for me by my graphic designer.

Rowena [29:45] – And you have a lot of those icons.

Mikala [29:46] – I have a lot of those icons, but I need a lot of those icons. Because when I was starting to map out my digital course that I’m putting together and I’m like, ‘ah, this is brilliant.’ I was just going to town, it’s like, ‘I can use this one, that was perfect for this and that one displays that emotion that I want people to feel!’ and it’s great. Like I said, I keep coming back to it, but it’s my tool kit and it’s just got everything I need. It’s so awesome.

Rowena [30:17] – And I feel like that’s a true representation of like when you actually invest in a brand that’s actually gonna work for you. So rather than having something that’s cookie cutter and having something that’s pre-prescribed or doesn’t necessarily have the heart and soul of a true brand.

Mikala [30:31] – Yup, yeah.

Rowena [30:34] – Then it’s always gonna fall flat. But once you have those things that are quite custom to you, and you know, not everyone’s gonna need a full suite of icons, but they might need some really versatile Instagram feed posts because they want to do something that’s really special in that space. Because it’s a space that their clients are in a lot.

Mikala [30:53] – Yeah.

Rowena [30:54] – And so it’s really thinking about, rather than just thinking about that checklist, we keep going back to this checklist of you know, ‘there’s this thing and then there’s this thing and this thing,’ thinking of it a lot more strategically and you and I have talked about this a lot before and about how so often we either do one or the other will drive our branding forward, but we won’t be driving our business forward alongside it or thinking forward with it or we ignore our branding and drive our business forward and suddenly have a lot of catching up to do about how pivotal that can be to nail it because one of the things that I know that you’ve done since we’ve been working on this training is you’ve done a brand photoshoot.

Mikala [31:38] – Yep.

Rowena [31:39] – And the importance of outsourcing those other bits and pieces and I also know you’ve hired a copywriter.

Mikala [31:44] – Yup.

Rowena [31:45] – So how did doing a rebrand drive you into seeing how you can move into these other spaces and where you needed to upgrade elsewhere?

Mikala [31:56] – Um, well, basically, like for me one just led into the next which led into the next like, talking to you about doing my rebrand with my logo and everything. It was like and what came back was like, ‘well, okay, this is brilliant. This is professional, it’s clear it’s me, it’s, it’s everything.’ And then I look at the photos I use in my business and my profile picture was like this photo that was taken down at Salamanca in Hobart, and it was beautiful photo, but, you know, like, I’d crop the hell out of it and I’d made it black and white because the colouring wasn’t wonderful. But you know, that was like the best photo I had to use. And so having this logo now that is just so professional and you know, so on-point, it was like, well, I can’t put that with this, kind of a bit grainy because I’ve had to copy it and edit it so much, photo. So that’s when I just started stalking a photographer that I’d seen pop up a few times, and I really liked her style. And you know, I talked to you about it, about how her style would work in with my branding and how it actually suited me. And it ended up brilliantly because Sophie and I get along really well and I just I loved everything about about the experience of the photoshoot with her. But now I’ve got– and again, when I was preparing for the photoshoot, you’re like, ‘okay, well you need to have these colours and make sure you’ve got this and that and the other,’ and so that direction, because if you hadn’t said that, I would have just turned up in one– well, Sophie gave me a bit of guidance, but she was actually really impressed with how well prepared I was. Because I turned up with all these little bits and pieces that were me, like, you know, little Buddha statues and a teapot and things that were me but were also in my brand colours. So they kind of made my photos pop and made my photos then tie in with my branding. So you know, doing that, as I said, photos were the next step. So I could have everything looking really on point. And then it was looking at my website and going well, these words while they’re written by me, they don’t hit the mark, you know, I can talk to someone and get across the essence of who I am. But when I have to condense it and put it down in words, like my background is in politics and in government, so I can write you a brief…

Rowena [34:42] – Very dry.

Mikala [34:43] – Yeah! Like, I can write you a brief really well, but I’m not good with narrative and that sort of thing. Like I can write a casual email and I can talk for ages and ages and ages and have you in stitches. But again, that doesn’t translate to my website and it doesn’t communicate what I needed to communicate in as few words as possible. So fortunately, I found Gemma, the copywriter that you and I both know very well. I found her through you, and yeah, Gemma then was able– she looked at my branding and looked at my photos and talks to me and got to know me even better. And then was just able to bring all this together into words, and that really just rounded it out. So now I’ve got the amazing look and the colours, like the logo and colours and style that suit me. I’ve got the photos that represent who I am and get my personality across and that look really amazing. And I’ve got the words that’s you know, back it all up. So now it’s like I feel like I’ve got everything I need to take my business forward and…

Rowena [35:59] – And smash it.

Mikala [36:00] – Yeah! And smash it! It’s like now I’m like, ‘oh my god, check out my website!’ whereas before it was like, ‘well, you know, I’ve got a website.’ Now it’s like, ‘go to my website, look at my website!’

Rowena [36:12] – ‘It’s beautiful!’

Mikala [36:14] – It is! ‘It looks gorgeous. These photos, these amazing words!’

Rowena [36:21] – And it really comes down to that I feel like so many people feel the same way before they’re really considering a rebrand is that they’re very lost. And they’re very scared, let’s be honest, there’s a big fear factor in there, because they’ve possibly invested before. And they’ve had that experience before that hasn’t necessarily had a fundamental impact on their business. And so it’s kind of like, well, why bother but, when you actually are invested in the process, not just investing in a dollar sense, but investing in a personal sense?

Mikala [36:57] – Yeah.

Rowena [36:58] – The changes it can make in both people and businesses is huge. So as a final art for anyone that’s sitting on the fence in um-ing and ah-ing on whether that’s time to do a business or whether it’s going to be worth it, what would you say to them?

Mikala [37:17] – Well, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you and say that before I started the process with you, even when I was working with the last designer, I basically looked at the dollar amount involved. And it was, it was really off putting, like, I have spent a lot of money on my branding and my photography and my copywriting. But now being out the other side, oh my god, I would spend it again in a heartbeat. Like it was just, it’s so worth it. Because now I just I have this brand that I’m really proud of that really reflects me and what I do, it grows with what I do, like I’ve already had some ideas about different ways to extend things and you know, I’ve already got everything I need to be able to extend my business in those directions because the way you’ve created my brand, like, you know, it can do that. Yeah, I’d spend the money again, it is so worth it and for my self-confidence as well. You know, being proud to send people to my website and to hand over my business card, I feel like my business is represented really well now, and I’m really confident in that. So it’s you can’t, you can’t put a dollar value on that. Like, it’s just, it’s so worth it. It really is.

Rowena [38:45] – I completely feel you on that one. You know, knowing where your weaknesses are and playing to your strengths. Everything outside of your strengths is definitely a place to look at investing in someone that is a specialist in that area, you’re a specialist in yours, and you–

Mikala [39:04] – Absolutely!

Rowena [39:05] – –and when you expect people to value you, you need to value that, you know, be honest about the fact that you can’t be at all and when you are trying to do it all you kind of end up at about 50% on everything. Whereas if you can focus in your zone of genius and leave the specialists to do that work, I can hands down say that every single penny I’ve invested in people who have specialists, has supercharged my business there’s no other word for it. Like I can literally almost feel like I’m getting the whiplash going as soon as everything just rushes forward. Because when it’s aligned and when it’s right and when it’s true, there’s nothing better than that. There’s nothing better you know, you can, you can pay for coaching programs and don’t get me wrong, I’m not undervaluing those, but I feel like having people that are on your side and having people that get you and having people that want the best for you. And, you know, in a professional and a personal sense–

Mikala [40:06] – Mmm.

Rowena [40:08] – –there’s nothing more valuable than that.

Mikala [4:11] – Yep, could not agree more.

Thanks for tuning into our podcast. If you enjoyed it, hit subscribe. If you’d like to learn more, then check out our website, www.workwifewinetime.com.au. While you’re there, jump on our mailing list to receive special updates and offers from our guests. Until next time, take care, and drink responsibly.