Building a Unique Brand Strategy

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Welcome to the Wedding CEO podcast , where we discuss all things marketing , sales and scaling so you can become the CEO of your life and business . I'm Elora Rochelle and I've been a wedding photographer for over a decade and now I'm sharing all of my secrets so you can stop sacrificing your time and make more money like a CEO . Hey guys , how are ya ? Today , we're going to be talking about three reasons why you need a unique brand strategy now . So let's get into it . Number one you are nervous to sell without being salesy . Well , you're in luck , because having a strong , intentional brand will actually do the selling for you . This is what I like to call the attraction marketing strategy , but really it is attraction marketing . Your brand will be so compelling that people want your service because they're drawn to what you have . They're drawn to your online presence . They're drawn to the way that your brand is perceived . So once you're able to showcase this , the client that you're trying to reach with your brand is just going to be like I want it , shut up and take my money , and you're going to bring in those clients effortlessly . So that's the easy one . Number two you have no idea who you are or who your business serves and why you're even doing X , y and Z . The biggest conception about a brand , I feel , is that people think that they just need a font and a logo and a color palette and boom , I have a intentional brand . But it's actually so much deeper than this and it's fine if you think this way , because this is what has been taught to us and it's fine . It's marketed everywhere . Every time I feel like something is marketed a ton of places , it just becomes the online business law of some sort . Nobody knows where it came from or how it started , but it's so easy to go on Etsy and buy an entire brand suite and you're like , oh , this is my font , this is my font and now I'm a brand .

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But the truth is there's actually a lot of components that come together , which is called brand strategy . That's actually going to attract the client that you're trying to reach , but also the right client for your company , your business , your photography business , whoever you serve . You want your clients to say to themselves oh , this is right for me , or I want to work with them , and no one else versus you just saying , hey , I have a brand and it looks nice , hire me . It's actually not that simple . So what does that mean ? You want to have a business where I don't want to say necessarily like an ideal client avatar , but like you want to know generally the people you want to work with , think about their personality , think about their style if you have to , but I use my style and the way that I am as a person to create my brand strategy that I want to put out there and attract people that are like me , like laid back down to earth , whatevs , but also like pretty decent style , because it's important , the important things as well as knowing things like your mission statement that's the part that nobody ever gets involved in is like oh well , what's your mission ? Like who do you serve ? Why do you do this ? What's your impact on the world ? People are like , oh , I don't know that . I just know my font logo or I know my brain colors and I'm like , okay , cool , so you don't know why you do this . Okay , well then what is your core values ? And my clients are like , uh , what ? And I'm like , okay , so you don't know what's important to you or what your business stands for . Like this is the business brand foundation , but it's like the ugly backend . Right , it's not the stuff that's front and center , like ooh , colors , fonts , stuff like that . But this is important because you need to know at the end of the day , like why you're doing this , who you're doing it for , who you are as a brand and business , who you want to work for . Do they align with these things ? Are they who they are and what they want ? And it just I don't know . It gives you a better clarity and it's the foundation .

Speaker 1 4:00

I believe in having a very strong foundation . First , knowing your prices , knowing your cost of doing business , knowing all those things First . That's like a non-negotiable how much money do you need to make to pay your business bills , to pay your home bills , anything Like how can this be a business that actually supports you , versus you putting out packages out there and you're like , yeah , I charge this much and it doesn't even cover your expenses , let alone your rent . That is the important stuff . Having just a nice fancy website and a fancy brand on the visual side is not enough . There's so much more and it's the ugly stuff that nobody wants to talk about . But that's why I'm here . I'm here to tell you you need more than just a font , a logo and a color palette ? Okay , no-transcript .

Speaker 1 4:45

You see someone who's killing it in your space or your niche and you decide you want to hire someone to replicate that . This is awful . You want something uniquely tailored to you , as I mentioned before , and your client's desires . You also need to figure out what lights you up , what doesn't light you up and , once again , who you want to serve , and the strategy behind this is why , like why did you start this ? Why do you want to do this ?

Speaker 1 5:13

Why , in the Wedding CEO program , we have a deep dive guide that is about 10 pages long . I know it's a lot of work , but it's something that has to be done because it's going to help you answer all those questions in full detail , like why did you get started ? What do you love about this ? What don't you love about this ? And you're going to realize , while you're filling out this document , that , wow , I actually don't like this and I sell this or I provide this as a service . I don't like engagement sessions , but I sell a bunch of them because they're on my website .

Speaker 1 5:45

Why , though ? You have to figure out why . You have to start with why , and if you really don't know what , why is like ? People care ? What is it ? People don't care what you do , they care why you do it . Look up Simon Sinek . He has like some TED Talk on this . He has also a book on it , but the TED Talk pretty much summarizes the book based on the reviews that I was reading . Yes , I'm the millennial that's always looking at reviews to see if anything is worth my time , sue me . So it's important to even know what is holding your business together and people will connect with your , why . I promise you Watch that video .

Speaker 1 6:15

Okay , and , like I mentioned , this is what I call the business foundation . Of course , because we all want the pretty stuff , but we got to have the backend stuff because once the pretty stuff falls apart , the backend is going to hold it together . So this is why I feel like I see all the time photographers having a new launch , a new rebrand , a new rebrand , and they have a completely different look every year . And I'm not calling anybody else , I'm calling myself out because I've done the same thing . I did not start with why , but what they're not doing is they're not understanding and looking inward to who they actually want to serve .

Speaker 1 6:49

So I encourage you today to do the work figure out why you're even doing this who you're doing it for and I promise you the pieces are going to start to come together . You'll stop trying to copy what everybody else is doing because it's trending . You'll start trying to replicate exactly someone's business and tell a designer hey , I want this . First of all , just an FYI , it's their biggest pet peeve . Just do what is aligned with you and your brand and if you want more information on it , apply . We are definitely accepting one to two more people into the program before our huge launch , so apply . With the link in the show notes , it's LauraRachellecom slash Wedding CEO . We hope to see you inside . And it helped you figure out these things , because it's hard to do them on your own . But if you have me guiding you , if you have the homework , you have the trainings , you will get this down . It'll all be clear and will help you develop a brand that nobody else has . You know why ? Because nobody else is you All right , that's my bite size podcast for

Invitation to Join Wedding CEO Program

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you today .

Speaker 1 7:45

Enjoy the rest of your week and keep killing it in your brand strategy . Bye , wait , don't go yet . If you loved today's episode , I would love if you took five seconds to leave a rating and a five star review . If you do send me a DM so I can give you a virtual hug and , of course , a shout out . Now , if you're ready to grow your photography business , I invite you to join the waitlist for the wedding CEO .

Speaker 1 8:14

The wedding CEO is my signature program for wedding photographers who are ready to scale their way to 100K . You're finally ready to work less , make more and live your dream life . If you've seen my Instagram , then you'll know we have students making five bigger months , launching their dream brands , doubling their prices , taking vacations and more , which are lifetime skills that you can take with you even if you decide to leave the industry . Join the waitlist for when we open the doors on November 14th to the waitlist only , and you're going to get an exclusive , advanced , private training on how to scale to 100K , booking less than 20 weddings a year . And , trust me , you don't want to miss this Link in the show notes . I'll see you inside .