208: Your Ticket to Good Design in 2024 | Lauren Felter

How can you save time with content creation? 

Start with your branding! Build a consistent brand that you (and your audience) loves AND makes it easier for you to create with (because you don’t have to scroll Canva templates for hours). 

We are giving you your ticket to GOOD branding in 2024 (and content marketing) 

This is part of our new campaign - Around the World in 90 days - your ticket to good content marketing! 

Welcome aboard flight CQM222, I am your pilot, Mariah - you have your ticket to good content marketing in hand. 

While on this flight the flight attendants will be here to assist you to get off the content creation hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom-based lifestyle. 

Each week you will be given a new stamp in your passport and by the end of the 90 days, you will be on your way to explore the world of Content Marketing as a solo traveller. 

This is week eight - get ready, it is going to be a wild ride! 

If you LOVED this part of your trip (the episode), make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @felter.unfiltered.

✨ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GET YOUR TICKET TO GOOD CONTENT MARKETING⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ✨

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

  • What makes good branding in 2024

  • The branding “trends” 

  • What to do and what NOT to do with your branding 

  • How having a consistent brand can save you time (and still have impact) 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

ABOUT THE GUEST

Anyone can create a logo or website – Lauren Felter’s superpower is using design to attract and convert your ideal person. That’s why she’s the designer that non-designers love.

As the owner of Felter Unfiltered, she prides herself on a no-shame, no-shade approach to her web design, branding, and design education. She helps business owners, freelancers, and 9-to-5ers ensure design does the selling for them. Because good design does more than just look good – it gets results!

Felter is also a proud former ladder climber. She spent the first decade of her career overseeing marketing, operations, and technical systems for a university admissions office, while also teaching design as adjunct faculty. After following the traditional path to success but only finding intense burnout and an identity crisis at the top, she blew it all up in January 2020 to do it her own way.

When she’s not fangirling over a font or explaining the difference between teal and turquoise, you’ll find Felter conversing in Office quotes with her boyfriend, watching Kardashians for the hundredth time, adventuring with friends, or enjoying a good podcast.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is your pilot speaking. My name is Mariah, and welcome to this special series of the content queen podcast. You have boarded flight CQM 222, and you have in your hand, your ticket to good content marketing. We hope you have a safe journey on this 90-day trip strap in and get ready to experience all the strategy and learnings you need to enter 2024 with the direction, how to create content that is unique to you and your business.

While on board, you have complimentary access to all the learnings that will help you to attract your own new passengers to grow and expand your own trip. While on this flight, the flight attendants will be here to assist you to get off the content hamster wheel and into a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom-based lifestyle.

Each week you'll be given a new stamp on your passport. And by the end of the 90 days, you'll be on your way to explore the world. Of content marketing as a solo traveler. Seatbelts on, we are ready to take off. Hello gang,  welcome to this amazing episode.  And another ticket to good content marketing.  Now, if you've noticed over this theme, we've had guests with specialties, come on and talk about their field.

And we've had things like content marketing. We've had, uh, Instagram, and now we're diving into branding.  So.  We're going to be talking about good branding in 2024 and give you the clarity you need to create more of a consistent brand. Now a bit of backstory, this was something that I was very lucky to have from the very beginning.

I had a good friend that created my logo and my branding and because I'm the queen of consistent Consistency. I found it quite easy to stay on track with those colors. What I did struggle with was to create things like Canva graphics and stuff like that that would work for my brand because I am not a graphic designer and I'm not very good at it.

So instead of scrolling Canva for templates, I got some made up and then that made my life so much easier until I could outsource. Now, this brings a really good level of consistency because people are very aware of your content over time. If you look at,  you know, brands that do it well and brands that get good engagement, they actually create the same type of content.

They just change the topic. So that is what we're going to dive into today. But before we do that. If you are ready to get content ready in 2024 and learn how to create At least two weeks of content to plan and execute have the perfect workshop, which is our new workshop content in Casa. Casa means house.

You are doing your marketing in-house and I'm here to make it a little bit easier for you. And by a little bit, I mean a lot. So this is a 90-minute workshop. It is 35 Australian dollars. I'll put the link in the show notes. It is on February 1 at 10 AM Australian Eastern daylight savings time. So if you're in the United States, which I know a lot of you listeners are, because I'm doing my metrics.

That is around, well, it depends on where you are in the world, but it's going to be around 6pm  EDT  and, uh, you know, a couple of hours before. So, if you want PDT or PST, are we in ST? I think so, yes. EST, not EDT. So, you can join, I'll put everything in the show notes, but really planning and executing content is something that I know you're all struggling with.

I know you struggle with ideas, struggle with time, I get it. And I'm here to make it a little bit easier for you. So you can check it out via the link in the show notes. And I hope to see you in Content Casa. You can join my house. I'm in Colombia. We're going to really, um, yeah, dive into all things, uh, content creation and make it that much easier for you.

So, let's dive in and I'll introduce you to our guest Lauren, who is going to talk all things branding for us. So  Anyone can create a logo or website, but Lauren Felter's superpower is using design to attract and convert your ideal person. That's why she's a designer that non-designers love. I love that because, yes, non-designer here and I loved my chat with Lauren.

As the owner of Felta Unfiltered, she prides herself on a no shame, no shade approach to her website design, branding, and design education. She helps business owners, freelancers, and 9 to 5 ers ensure design does the selling for them. Because good design does more than just look good, it gets results.

Felta is also a proud former ladder climber. She spent the first decade of her career overseeing marketing operations and technical systems for a university admissions office, while also teaching design.  After following the traditional path to success, but only finding intense burnout and an identity crisis.

She blew it all up in January, 2020 to do it on her own.  When she's not fangirling over a font or explaining the difference between teal and turquoise, you'll find Felta conversing in office quotes with her boyfriend, watching Kardashians for the hundredth time, exploring with friends or enjoying a good podcast.

She did travel a lot over the Christmas break as well. So let's talk to Lauren all about good design. All right. Welcome Lauren to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. Can you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do?  Yeah. Thank you for having me. So my name is Lauren Felter and I own Felter Unfiltered and I am the designer that non-designers love.

So I do done for you branding and web design, and then I also have courses specifically for non-designers on branding design and DIY in your own website.  Yep. We already love you. I hate design. Also first thing I ever had sourced a little like not for me creative in so many other ways, not visually. So we all have an origin story and why we started our business.

So what is your story and how did you get to where you are right now?  Yeah, so I started out my career working for a university, overseeing marketing and technical systems for an admissions office, and then did kind of a quick stint in corporate consulting, and while I was working at the university, I also taught as faculty, so I was teaching communication students design, so essentially design for non-designers, and then through the pandemic, as You know, many of us kind of like re-evaluated life and what we wanted and all of those things  kind of had found myself piecing together several different part-time jobs.

One was teaching online at the university, um, doing like freelance marketing, and then one of the other things was, you know, designing websites and doing branding for other people and kind of worked with a career coach to help me figure out like. You know, ultimately I wanted to be a business owner and own a business that had a purpose that I felt good about that.

I could be creative, but that, you know, helps people and empowered them to live better lives, like, you know, all that good stuff. And so she really helped me to realize like, Hey, this thing that you're teaching to college students, this could benefit.  Business owners and freelancers and virtual assistants.

You know, this is a skill that not a lot of people have. Not a lot of even designers have the ability to talk to, you know, regular people and explain to them why these things matter and what have you. So, uh, the, kind of the first, um, thing that I did was I launched my course create with confidence, which is a design course for non-designers.

And then I later rolled out done for you branding and web design. And then I've since. I had my branding and website courses as well. So it's been a, a fun journey. Wow. That's amazing. I love that. And it isn't, it's so interesting how a lot of the times the things that we're doing in our, you know, working life, we don't realize is the answer to what we can do in a business.

And I so relate to that. Cause that happened to me with like, when I wanted to start something and a guy's like,  Just write for people. It's like, oh yeah,  and it takes someone to tell you that.  Yeah, I'm like the poster child for imposter syndrome, because I was like, well, I don't have a degree in graphic design, so I can't call myself a graphic designer, and she was like, but you've been doing it for over a decade, and people are coming to you, asking you to do it, and they're paying you to do it.

So yes, that does make you the, and you teach it like, yes, that does make you this thing. Yeah. You, you actually teach it to people that are getting a degree. Like, you know, it's so interesting. I have the same with marketing because I did PR and communications and journalism, but not marketing, but I worked in corporate marketing because that's what always happens.

A lot of journalists and that's like that career path too, especially when you're in comms and things, you always go into those creative spaces. So I absolutely love that. Thank you for sharing your experience. I also have a degree in PR. That's so funny. Is it? It's so funny. You know, we connected for a reason.

I know that, but it's, and it's funny how those career paths lead down that sort of marketing space, because I think communication is the core for marketing, right? Yeah. And if you're, you know, with journalism PR, you get really good at communicating, relaying a message. So naturally we become good marketers.

Yes. Which is great.  So at the moment I'm running a campaign called around the world in 90 days, your ticket to good content marketing and branding obviously plays a really big role in content creation, you know? Um, so what does good branding look like if we want to have a good ticket, like a content ticket to good content marketing, what does good branding look like?

How would you describe that?  Yeah. So. My main tagline that I lead with is good design does more than just look good and good branding would fall in line with this. So good branding is going to attract your ideal client. The person that you want to align yourself with in business, your branding, if it's done correctly, it's going to attract them.

It's going to keep them engaged with your content long enough to actually read. Your experience, your story, how you can help them, all of that. And then it is going to actually seal the deal. And so it's really not one of those things for a buyer or a client that is a conscious decision that they're making, but when they are going from your Instagram to your website, to book a call, and that is a seamless visual experience.

Not a single question is going to pop into their mind of is this person worth the thousands of dollars that they want me to pay them. But if they go from your Instagram to your website to book a call and it's disjointed looking, it's not quite the same thing every step of the way, that's when kind of those doubts and those red flags pop up for someone and when better branding could have helped you.

It's so true. And even, um, a lot of people that find me, find me through Google. So the first thing they see is my website and. Yes. There are businesses that run without a website, but not for very long, you know, it's like a short term thing to get going like scrapping action, but, um, and investing money in my website, it's like  a really good investment because obviously it's your shop.

It's your store, you know, at a store, you want it to look nice. So we have design and then branding. How would you, you know, if someone's like, okay, well, what's the difference between branding and good branding and good design? I know obviously they work together, but how would you describe the difference between the two?

So I would say that branding is the design foundation for. A business, it is a lot of decisions that get made on the front end of what are we trying to communicate and then design is the vehicle that carries out the branding. Does that make sense? I've actually never been asked that question before, so that's a good answer.

I love that. That's something to say. And so, and, and I think a lot of the times, you know, And I've been caught in this when we think branding, we think the logo and the colors, but there's so much more to that, right? Like, why do we decide these colors? Why do these make sense? And all of this stuff. And a lot of people are like, I don't know, just like went into Canva and put some things together, which is, you know, scrappy action, but sometimes like, you know, things have a deeper meaning, you know, um,  why we were doing some stuff for a client recently.

And it was like, these elements made up the brand and these colors being these things. And that's why we went with that.  Oh, that is so cool. Like there's so much meaning and so much purpose, but like, that's what you want to convey when you're creating content for your audience. Like, and another thing, you know, when you're scrolling the feed, you want to look like it's your content, not all that use this color this day and this one.

And then yesterday they use like who, what's happening. I'm very confused with what they're doing. And that often, as you say, it can be a reflection of work as well. And like, people can have doubts. So I was like, I'm a little bit confused as to what's happening here.  So yes, with good branding, I'm doing these little like, um, air quotations because like good branding, like what's the definition.

Right. But  I want to talk about it in 2024. What do we need to know now? Are there any tips or trends or things around branding or core elements that we need to take into consideration when we are creating our brands in 2024? Because we're always developing them and every year something new happens. Is there anything you're seeing coming up for this year?

So I would probably not recommend to align yourself with trends. I think You know,  a trend that we've seen recently is this very high-end look of a lot of, like, neutrals and blacks and, like, these very really slender kind of serif fonts, like, we could all kind of picture that, like, that is something that I see  kind of With a lot of people.

And if that's what yours looks like, if that's what, you know, you're conveying with your brand, like it's all good. But I think that by aligning yourself with trends, you're not really going to stand out. And so I  probably wouldn't recommend being like, Oh yeah. Like the trend is, you know, um. Like a gradient pastel.

And so you need that. No, I mean, if that's not like your brand and then you don't need to look like that. And  so, I mean, what you really need for your brand is, and this is what I do with my done for you clients. And I teach in my branding course is. You need to decide what are five words that you would want your ideal person to use to describe your brand when they get your Instagram, your website, they see anything associated with you or your business, what are those five words, and then from there, we're going to choose two to three fonts, six to eight colors, and three to four design elements, and bam, that's our brand, and we're going to use that consistently across Thank you Instagram, our website, our lead magnets, our podcasts, like every single thing that we have.

And like,  sounds kind of easy, but like people don't realize it. They slap a logo on something or they have only two colors and they get sick of the fact that everything looks so do a tone. So then they just start introducing random colors or they didn't pick anything with intention. And so they just went, I mean,  I did a website for a social media manager earlier this year, and whenever we do our onboarding, you know, it's like, okay, tell me about your brand.

Where, where did these elements come from? Cause I like to be able to navigate the situation delicately if it's. It's really not working for them, but they're not aware that it's not working. So it's just helpful to have that context. And she said, please don't make fun of me. I literally went to Pinterest and I searched social media manager color palette and it's like, yeah, well if you want to look like every single other social media manager, that's what you're going to do.

But if you want to look like high-end and classic and you know, approachable and you know, those were like some of her words, it's, we're going to have to do something different here. Hmm. I love that you say about the trends because you know, sometimes we, yes. And as you say, if it makes sense to the words, the values of your business,  great.

But if it doesn't, we're just gonna look like everyone else. But also we're going to confuse our audience when maybe our service is different to what we're seeing. I want to ask you a question about this though, with, with branding,  when we see social media trends like Barbie and like, um, everyone was Barbie and things like this.

What are your thoughts on this? I'm keen to know. Cause I, I didn't go down that trend because it didn't match my brand, um, for me to go into, even though I've got pinks and everything in my thing, I'm like, no, that's not for me. But what do you say to clients that are like, Oh, but what about all these things?

Can I, you know, engage in those? I'd love to know your thoughts on, on things that we're seeing when, you know, Barbie comes out and she's got a filter and everyone wants to use it or, you know, things like that, that come out, you know, what, what advice do you give to people, business owners, especially.  So like, I'm the type of person who I wouldn't even go see the Barbie movie just because I knew that they wanted me to see it so badly and I needed to stick it to them.

So I'm kind of a little bit like, I'm a bit rebellious. You're anti-marketing. I love it. And so, I think that, you know, if your brand is bold and fun and creative and whatever, sure, like, do the Barbie thing, do, I don't know, I can't even think of, like, other trends, like. The newest one, or not new now, but, you know.

But if your brand is buttoned up and professional and serious and people are paying you. 10, 000 minimum for the thing that you do. No, you don't need to be hopping on the Barbie trend. So I think it's being aware of your brand, not just visually. I mean, I had this question or in our course that we teach about creating your own website, we were talking about brand images.

And we got into a whole discussion about, you know, what you wear in the photos that you take, you know, for your images, for your website needs to also align with your brand. Like you don't need to be wearing athleisure if your brand is professional, but if your brand is like fun and approachable, then you can, you know, like it's, it's just being so clear on what you're trying to communicate and making every decision from that standpoint.

Yeah, no, I love it. And I think, you know, some people will be like, Oh my God, that makes things hard, but it actually doesn't. It makes things easy. It's like Steve Jobs knew he was going to wear a turtle neck every day. Like, you know, you have like my glasses actually became part of my brand, the ones I'm wearing now, and I've got new ones coming.

And I had, I went with the same design. Cause it was like so many people used to like, when I showed up on stories, I had these glasses on, they came part of like my identity and like, That become little elements become part of your brands. I wear these like Teddy jumpers. They're always in my videos. Like, you know, it's these things that, um, makeup you and your brand too.

Cause a lot of us are solo entrepreneurs. So we want to convey our own personality, but I love this because I think.  Jumping on trends and going down that route is actually more time-consuming at state. We keep on the hamster wheel of content creation because we're always trying to keep up with what's going on.

But when we understand our brand, we know what we stand for. You just create an alignment with that.  It's actually so much easier and you do it. From like your own lens, rather than the lens of everyone else and all the noise around you, and you can have a break from that hemp sewer and do your own thing, which I absolutely love.

So you talk about good branding can attract and convert your ideal customers. I'd love for you to explain a little bit more about this and how good branding can do that. Yeah. So whenever I teach live workshops, I do this exercise and kind of different forms. So most recently we did it with websites where we showed two different websites on the screen and they said the exact same thing.

It said, are you ready to attract your dream clients? And one was like, Dark gray and orange. And it had, you know, this really kind of like thin modern font and like angled lines. And then the other one was like hot pink and it had like a gradient pink and yellow background and was this kind of almost like ethereal looking font.

And so we showed them one first and we said, okay, how would you describe this brand based on this website? And it was like modern, straightforward. You know, whatever. And then they saw the other one and they were like, it's more dreamy, more approachable, more feminine. And it's like, you're literally looking at the same words here.

And you got all of that from the fonts and the colors. And so that's really the takeaway is that it's so much more than your logo. Honestly, logo is almost insignificant to anything being communicated to a client, unless like, I mean, for me, like the name of my business is.  Filter unfiltered. My logo is F U.

So that does communicate something about me to my clients. Um, but it's, it's the fonts, it's the colors, it's the shapes that people see, and they are just assuming things about you. They're, they're getting all of these visual cues based off of what they're seeing before they ever read your I help statement, your about info, your, how we work with clients, like before they ever read any of that.

Hmm. Good answer. I love that. Because also you want to attract a certain person as well, because you want to work with that as that certain person. So if you're branding super corporate, you might attract corporate clients, but you don't actually want to work with them. And I think that happens a lot.

You're like, I keep attracting these certain people. Um, but the branding makes that up. The flip side, if your branding is thrown together and not elevated and not polished, Then you're probably going to attract someone who's going to question your rates and go back and forth and push you and barter and, you know, all of that.

And so it's when you appear and you present yourself as sophisticated and professional, you're going to attract those clients who are like, yeah, let's do this. Send me the invoice and they pay it. Hmm. Yeah. That's, that's a very good point too. So how does good branding work alongside good content marketing?

Yeah. So, I mean, when you were saying, you know, getting off the hamster wheel and all of that, like, honestly, the easiest way to be able to crank out your social graphics and your blog post graphics and whatever else that you're creating quicker is to have a brand foundation in place, because when you have that, then you don't have to feel like.

Okay, I have to create this feed post. So let me go to Canva and scroll for 20 minutes and try to find a template that I like and what should this color be and what should this color be? It's like we've already made all those decisions. We already know what our headings look like, our subheadings, our body copy.

We know all of this stuff. So all we have to do now is just put the content in.  Yeah, it's so true. It's like, honestly, it makes life so much easier when you know, the first thing I ever did was outsource my logo, my colors and everything. And, um. The first one I did with a guy at work, it was okay. And then one of my friends who's a designer, she said, can you show me your logo?

And I showed her and she was like, Oh no, she's like, um, answer these few questions. And then she had it back to me. And  I've had that since day one. And I've never had to think about, obviously it's evolved and it's gotten better because then I did my Canva graphics. And as I said to you, like, that's the first thing I ever outsourced cause design is not for me.

But you start to, um,  Yeah, really. And even when I'm doing campaigns like around the world in 90 days, we still have all the same colors, everything. It's just, we've added some fun little graphic elements for this campaign. And I think it makes it so much easier to build marketing campaigns, to, um, create all this type of content, you know, whether it's an Instagram real cover, whether it's your podcast graphic, like even when my podcast graphic needed to be done, we didn't have to sit and stare at it for ages because it's like, these are the elements that make up a podcast graphic.

This is my font. This is my logo. Here's some pictures of me. Like, you know, you don't have to overthink it. And I love that because I think  Canva can be super overwhelming, even though it's amazing, um, if you've got too many options, but, you know, we really want to outsource those options to the, the branding, right?

The branding has the options and we use them. So I absolutely love that. One thing I just really, really want to stress is that, like, there's no scenario where every time you create something, you should be going to Canva and finding a new template and changing the fonts and the colors, like, for your Instagram, you should have three to four months That you're working with that all align with your brand in terms of like the shapes and the layouts and the elements within them for your lead magnets.

Maybe you have one or two, and then you want to make sure that your website also has that same look like the shapes and the layouts that are in the templates need to be replicated on your website. Like. I think people have this kind of feeling that being creative means mixing it up and being the same is being boring and it's like, no, being the same is creating a consistent brand presence.

I am the queen of consistency. I do love consistency. And I also worked in corporate branding where even the logo, and this is a bit far, like we don't need to go this far. Um, maybe you would say, yes, we do. But, um, you know, like the, the logo can't use logo has to be used with this background and that background, you know, they're very like, and you cannot go away from it.

The only time they're allowed to go away from the brand was internal comms. But they still had to make an internal comms brand that was more fun, but they still had to use the colors that we'd made for our values and everything. And like, that was next level, you know, like there was so many rules. Um, but when you have something to work with, it also makes a lot of us, we're creating our own content.

Yes. We might love Canva.  We might really enjoy it, but it's also keeping us on the hamster wheel.  So if you're like, Oh, I'm going to get, and some don't get me wrong. Some days it's nice to get lost in Canberra and have a good time. But then the next week we feel like, Oh my God, all I do is create content.

I'm like a content mule, you know, and we don't want to be that. We want to make our lives easier. And I think having this design. You know, outsourced the ideas, the, the templates, everything that we use for our social media, for everything just, you know, we don't have to reinvent the wheel, which is nice.  So we did touch on that a little bit more about like, um, giving us back more time, um, with, you know, having these elements.

So what is the most important thing that everyone needs to remember to create better branding for their business?  The most important thing is being super clear on those five words. What is it that you're trying to communicate about your brand? How would you want your ideal client to describe you?  I love that because often too, like I, in, when I do strategy, I say, what What are the things you want to be known for?

Right. And they often reel off these value words. Like, no, no, no, not what you want people to say about you. What do you want to be known for in terms of topics? Like I want to be known for strategy and storytelling. You want to be known for branding, you know, these words, but then often we get these two elements confused, but no, the branding displays those words.

You know, for me, it's loyal, fun. Open knowledgeable, you know, and then also they do help me create content because then you can say, am I creating content in alignment with my branding values? And then we have personal values. So of course, we're going to have business values, which then align our branding.

So I think we all need to take a minute to reflect is our.  The values that we convey presented in the branding and one other, um, really awesome thing that I heard from someone, and maybe you tell your clients to do this is like, go on the customer journey and look at your Instagram, look at your blog, look at your website, all those things and see if they actually match up.

Like if I went on my website, if I went to my Instagram, is this the same person?

Yeah, and I also think, you know, It, it also plays in line with your copy and your brand voice. Like is the design fun, cute and bubbly, but the copy is just really straightforward and flat. Like it, the, the words, the images, the design, like it all needs to come together to paint this picture of what you're trying to communicate about yourself.

Yeah.  And it's a perfect time. We're at the start of 2024. This is always a good time to reflect on that and say, like, you know, is this, and, you know, like, even though I find depending on where you are in the world, January can be busy or it can be slow, but it is this time for reflection. And I always find I don't have it all worked out until at least March.

So we have time, we have time to reflect on this. Is there anything else, um, that you're seeing with, you know, this sort of hamster wheel concept of social media content? Yeah. Where branding can also, you know, I guess help with that, um, kind of not spending so much time on this creation and spending more time on, I guess, like implementation.

Yeah. I mean, this is less about branding, but I think just in business, I believe that you're allowed to pivot like. You don't have to do things just because like everybody says, Oh, like you have to do reels or now you have to do carousel posts or, you know, whatever it is, like do what works for you and do what actually gets you results.

Like the thing that gets you results, keep doing that thing. Like I used to have a podcast about the word should and how, you know, should is a really bad word. And I think that. You know, when you're making decisions from a place of this is a thing that I feel like I should do versus this is a thing that really works for me and I guess the way to tie it back to branding is like you can be a lawyer.

And you don't have to be super buttoned up like you can be a lawyer and be true to yourself and be cute fun and bubbly if your client is not super buttoned up, you know, and so, yeah, like it's just it's being true to yourself and to what works for you. Oh, yes, we are so aligned on that because I'm a big, you know, it's it's definitely like even everything from the channels, you know, we can arguably say like.

Most of your audience is going to be on any channel you decide, unless you're super niche. So like, go with the channels that work for you, not the ones that are, you should be on TikTok, or you should be here, you should be there because, and that's the same with trends. You get to decide, you know, I remember when threads came out and everyone was losing their minds, like, what do we do?

And I was like, well, is it part of the strategy? Yes or no? If we need more behind the scenes content, we need to connect with our audience more. Sure. But if you find you have just as much interesting conversations and you don't want to add anything else to your plate, don't do it. It's okay. Your business isn't going to like, and this is the thing I think we think.

Content marketing, things like that are the answer to more clients, more this, more that, but you could go to a networking event and probably get more clients and content is just a really good place to nurture your audience, to elevate your brand, to bring it to life, but doesn't mean it has to be the only thing that you do.

And I think having a lot of these conversations lately, and I love that you said that because I think.  We get really, um, overwhelmed. So for example, say if someone's in the thinking about a cane is a new year for me and my business, I do want to rebrand a little bit. I feel like I'm not in alignment with the current brand I have.

What advice do you have to these people?  So first thing I'm going to go back to those five words. It's a really, really important. Um, I also have a free quiz, what fonts and colors work for your brand. Right. You go to filter and filter. com slash quiz. You pick some words and then I suggest some fonts and colors for you to start with, and then give you some instructions for actually creating branding from there.

Um, but I mean, it's really, you know, spending the time to get what your brand. Figuring out what your brand foundation is because then it's going to make all those other decisions so much easier but I want to be cognizant of the fact that some people are very Um decision apprehensive like making those decisions feels like oh my gosh You know, this is such a big thing, whatever And the reality is that your brand is going to continue to evolve You're probably going to make some more significant changes every Two to five years.

And when I say significant changes, I mean, like changing some colors, changing some fonts, um, maybe adjusting your logo a bit. And so like what you create is not being etched in stone. We live in a digital world. If you decide that one of your colors isn't working for you, you can just phase it out. And introduce the new color and in Canva, it's really, really easy when you're using all of the, you know, kind of like brand suite elements.

Um, so yeah, just like get really clear on what you want, spend some time, figure it out, but also know that like, it's not the end of the world if it's not perfect, because it's probably not going to be perfect. Oh, that is great advice. And it's not like we have billboards and things like if we were a big company, like how, like, you know, a big business wants to change their logo or their colors and it's like a whole thing.

Right. And it takes them, they actually have to people like, Hey, then go, then go roast them online. Like, Oh, I don't agree with this rebrand. Yeah. Have you seen that girl on TikTok that says like, I hate this logo, so I'm going to make my own and she makes them really bad. Have you seen her? Yes. People send me this.

I'm actually not on TikTok. Oh, that's okay. But yeah. She's funny. Um, and I think it's just like taking the Mickey out of, you know, these things. But I think, um, Microsoft loved her so much. They've like sponsored her. And they like give us their stuff all the time. Um, so yes. Okay. So you've mentioned the, definitely the values.

Are there any other things that people should do as soon as they jump off this episode to help? Elevate their brand, I guess. Getting really clear on those, um, five words is a great one. Are there any others?  Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, just kind of conduct a self-assessment. Get a person who's, you know, never seen it before, whatever.

Like, I don't really love, like, I'm a part of a lot of Facebook groups of like other, you know, web designers and whatever, and people will be like, Hey, I'm new at this. Here's my website or here's branding. Tell me what you think about it. And it's like, okay, well, I have no context of what the goals are here, whatever.

So like. That's really difficult. But like asking for feedback from a place of, Hey, what do you think about this business? Like if you came across this website, like, what would you think about this person or what comes to mind? Like really directing it at those things. Um,  Yeah. I think  kind of self-assessing.

I love that. And I think it's not just like, yeah, what do you think of this? Like, how does that make you feel? Or what would you say about that business? I think asking the right questions when you're asking for feedback is really important. I absolutely love that. Thank you so much for sharing all your little golden nuggets.

I think, um, always, you know, new year. Is a good time to look at these things. We should be doing it all the time, but I know we get a little bit more proactive in the new year. Well, especially depends on where you are in the world. I know for in Australia, it's like a reset, but I know it was funny. I was talking to a girl from the States today and what I love about, you know, the Northern Hemisphere.

Is you kind of get two resets. You have like the January reset and then you have like this August reset after summer, but we just have one. So I like the idea of having two because it gets you motivated again. So everyone getting motivated for, um, this year and just really doing that reflection piece and.

Making it easier for ourselves. It doesn't have to be complex and we don't have to be on this hamster wheel all the time. And I love what you shared. So thank you so much. And how can people find and connect with you and get this quiz? I will have it in the show notes, but if people want to connect with you, how can they find you?

Yeah. So I hang out on Instagram, I'm filter. unfiltered and I share lots of really great tips and tricks on branding design and website strategy. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining me and, um, I look forward to reassessing my brand as well and seeing what comes up.  Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Great chat. So aligned as per usual, and I hope you got so much out of that. Now what are your next action steps? Again, review your brand if you haven't. It's a good time of year to do that. And if you're new to the branding thing, take the advice of the five things that you, five words you want to be known for.

Choose the colors and the fonts and the graphic elements that work to that. And just be consistent with it. Create some templates for you to use. Go forth and conquer. And this is super interesting because, uh, at Content Queen, we like to help our clients with their branding and consistency. And that was one of Mitch's goals for 2024  was to help small business owners and entrepreneurs be consistent with their brand.

So it is time. It's a year of consistency with brand. Don't worry about trends, worry about consistency.  So be a content queen or king and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business.  Thank you so much for joining me on this flight stamp your passport and please don't forget to share this with all your business and Entrepreneurial friends can do this by adding it to your Instagram stories and tagging us at content Queen Mariah or just tell them about it  Now, I know a lot of you are on Apple.

I've done my research I know you have time to leave a rate and review  Even if you do it while you're listening to an episode, it really does help me get more guests on because I don't think you understand the process of podcasting, right? I'll quickly explain it because if you do have a podcast, this might help you.

Basically,  it is a chart system, so you're more likely to get found if you're in the charts. Now, not just more likely to be found by other listeners, It's more likely to be found by people looking to guest star on podcasts. A lot of people hire agencies to find, uh, aligned podcasts for them to join. And I get a lot of pitches from podcasts when I'm in the charts.

And these guests are like Lauren who deliver such good quality content. So if you want more amazing guests, you rate, review, we grow in the charts together, and then we get more amazing guests on like Lauren. So make sure you do that if you can take two seconds right now. It would mean the world to me and to you because you'll get more juicy content.

Follow me on Instagram or TikTok and let me know if there's any topics you want me to talk about in the future. I would love to dive in. I'm planning out February, March content. So if there's anything you want to hear in February, March after this campaign, please let me know, but I will talk to you next week.

Bye. 

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment