Alora 0:00

welcome back to the podcast. Today I have a special guest, welcome Eva to the podcast. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in the industry. What is your journey to becoming a business owner and a designer?

Eva Couto 0:14

It's not as long of a story as I feel some people might have. First of all, 'cause I'm not that old, sadly. I don't know.

Alora 0:22

Sadly

Eva Couto 0:23

no, I just, people always think I'm much younger than I actually am.

Alora 0:28

same.

Eva Couto 0:28

I always get those comments.

Alora 0:30

Wait. How old are you? Paused?

Eva Couto 0:32

going to be 29 in Nove in, yeah. November. Oh my gosh. I didn't know my own birthday anyway.

Alora 0:39

It's hard. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, you look like you're in your early twenties.

Eva Couto 0:43

That's what I get usually, but I have my makeup on right now, everyone says, oh, but that's good. And I just, I haven't felt the benefits yet. 'cause everyone thinks

Alora 0:52

in our fifties. Yeah, it'll hit then. Not right now.

Eva Couto 0:55

we're hoping it happens sometime soon. But as a 29-year-old brand and marketing designer all

Alora 1:02

Yeah.

Eva Couto 1:02

Portugal, so we're further away from each other as Believe your typical guest, ever since I was an actual child, I have always been kinda like the artsy one out of the group, One that just like sits in her little corner doing like drawings and stuff. Was not popular by any measure. Didn't even have a large group of friends. And so naturally like it, it felt just like a natural thing for me to do. Just follow the. Art path. And once I it kicked in that, oh, design is a thing right around college time. That was the blend between what I liked about the artsy world and like subjective colors. It's fun and computers. 'cause I can a huge tech nerd, not to the point of coding, but to the point where when a new CRM drops, like I'll The first one to

Alora 1:58

Yep.

Eva Couto 1:58

out and move all my systems and it turns out to be a disaster every single time. 'Cause we never do it to the

Alora 2:05

Yeah.

Eva Couto 2:06

it's actually useful. It's just to the point where it's fun and then it stops being

Alora 2:10

totally.

Eva Couto 2:11

to me is like art made useful. One thing that we learned, like I think it was on the first year of college, is that design, the ba, the main difference, oh my God, I can't speak.

Alora 2:22

Words.

Eva Couto 2:23

art and

Alora 2:24

I.

Eva Couto 2:24

is that design solves problems. It's not just like pretty for pretty sake and like that whole. Problem solving is really appealing to me and getting my brain to work in a different way. That's just like the whole thing. Once I left college, I had a nightmare two month internship that just left me. Actually questioning if I was even like, good as a designer. And I quit on Christmas Eve as a gift from me to me. no joke.

Alora 2:56

I would do that.

Eva Couto 2:57

I was like, then I was in my early twenties and it was actually my boyfriend, current still who turned to me and said, Eva, if you're going to make a huge mistake of just quitting your only job. Might as well do it now and

Alora 3:12

Yeah.

Eva Couto 3:13

10 years time where we might have a house and Bills to pay and, 'cause at the time I was still living with my parents kids, who knows? And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna try this freelancing thing. And that was almost seven years ago. Yeah,

Alora 3:29

I'm like so curious about this design journey though. Like how I know you're artsy and you remind me a lot of my daughter, she's very introverted. She makes a million books a day. She has a desk in her room like it's it. Chaos, that pin boards everything, but like how did you know that you wanna go in the direction of design specifically? Did people ever ask you to do their logos and stuff, or was it just

Eva Couto 3:48

when I was in school, it was mainly like posters, so like

Alora 3:52

yeah,

Eva Couto 3:53

promoting school events.

Alora 3:55

I,

Eva Couto 3:55

even back then, like if you wanted to get something remotely professional looking, you needed to do it on the computer and then print it And so it was like, again, art plus computer equals design to me. And so then it was just. A matter of me going from like general graphic design, so posters doing stuff that then gets printed out and like more print collateral to the branding side of things. So my college degree is actually in communication design, which

Alora 4:26

Oh.

Eva Couto 4:26

to be honest, I think it was just like a cool name that they came up with. Not to say graphic design but we did a lot of just digital design. Just print design. We did web design and so I got to try out a lot of the fields, including brand design, which at the time I was really like, oh, this is like itching all of the right places because of that problem solving aspect. Like you have this person in front of you who needs to rebrand because something in their business is not working the way it's meant to. Like they have a problem. They might not know what the problem is yet, but something isn't working like it's supposed to, and then you get to be the person that has this outside perspective. Like I always say, we are all our own worst clients, even if it is just because we're so inside the thing and so close to it that we can never get the outside perspective. That potential clients leads, even current clients have of us. And so my first job as a designer is really to just tell you, Hey, here's what my first impression was when I stocked your socials, stocked your website. Does this align with the message and the vision and the person that you're trying to portray? Yes or no? And then depending on why, yes, why no. We can then dive into how can the brand support what you're actually trying to say.

Alora 5:54

Wow. Okay. So when I think, 'cause I also went to school for web design

Eva Couto 5:59

Oh, wow. I.

Alora 6:01

Oh, did I not say that? Like we were talking about the weather off screen for so long. There's a tornado, there's a flood watch currently right now in Michigan. Yeah, so I went to school for that and then I actually ended up doing photography and weddings and then I was like, oh yeah, let me just wrap up this degree and go forward into my dream.

Eva Couto 6:19

it.

Alora 6:19

But. Like when it comes to web design I learned how to build a website, not like the basics of graphics and all that other great stuff, how did you get in the direction of like bold identity graphic branding? Because most brand designers, the Pinterest board, the typical fonts and your stuff is like very unique, one of a kind can recognize, versus oh, they got a rebrand, got a little font, got a little thing, like, how did you,

Eva Couto 6:47

all thank you. Biggest

Alora 6:49

welcome.

Eva Couto 6:50

ever. I just think, don't know I am a very colorful person like me, I like, I don't know if people are going to see the video version of this podcast recording, but like I have a bright orange couch in a

Alora 7:05

It is cute.

Eva Couto 7:06

like arm chair. I have a actual, like my couch, so I'm in my living room recording. I have this little podcast nook. In my actual living room. I have a couch of this exact color. And it's like huge it's very rare for me to be caught in beige. I just there's so many wonderful The rainbow that to me actively choosing brown, just, isn't there. However, when I was in the process of learning graphic design, one of the main styles that you learn is Swiss style design and very long story short, it's basically a grid layout. Everything has a system. Everything is organized. And it facilitates the reading of the person on the other side. I had a design teacher in college who taught me one of my most valuable lessons ever, and it sounds so paradoxical, taking into account my own design style, but he went on a long journey to basically say that the best design is invisible, meaning. Bad design will get you caught up in the mistakes. You will stop reading. You will stop en engaging with the message that the design is supposed to emphasize because of a mistake. It can be like a spelling mistake and you notice it and suddenly your thought goes like out of what you are actually reading. It could be a font that's unreadable. It could be like the space lettering. It could be the leading, so the space between lines. There's all of these different design choices that we make that could influence how someone on the other side of the screen, the paper, whatever, and reads the message that you're trying to convey. The whole point of design is just to make it easier to. Transmit and to communicate whatever you're trying to communicate. And so if it actually becomes an obstacle in that communication, then it's not doing its job and a design that facilitates communication. It's probably not that noticeable 'cause you just read the thing.

Alora 9:17

So the whole point, is to be subtle.

Eva Couto 9:20

I think the whole point is to. Make the message that much stronger Away from it. A mistake will take away from it. And I think sometimes bold design when it's not, 'cause there has to be a balance, otherwise, like I'm not just going to vomit the whole rainbow on a brand that doesn't work

Alora 9:39

Sure.

Eva Couto 9:39

Even if

Alora 9:40

Yeah.

Eva Couto 9:40

the goal is to stand out from the online business, whatever space Putting a bunch of colors just 'cause it's not gonna work either. So there has to be a balance between, I'm trying to visually make a mark and I don't wanna take the focus away from what I'm trying to say. It has to compliment it.

Alora 10:04

Okay, so my brain just summarized this as keeping the reader's attention,

Eva Couto 10:09

Yeah.

Alora 10:10

that good design? Okay.

Eva Couto 10:11

and keeping it.

Alora 10:13

Ah, Love that. Okay, cool. So in addition to having those two important key aspects of design. How did you stand behind having a bold identity? Because like I said before, it's very safe to see what everyone else is doing and do that be aware of the trends and do that, but how does one become apologetically themselves and their own brand identity? It's such a very loaded question

Eva Couto 10:37

a mega loaded

Alora 10:38

now that.

Eva Couto 10:39

and I feel like a disclaimer needs to be needed. Like I'm

Alora 10:42

Yeah,

Eva Couto 10:43

you know, being unapologetically yourself is not my realm.

Alora 10:47

totally.

Eva Couto 10:48

When I started freelance, and I think anyone starting their own business online comes across this a bajillion times. It's very hard to get the attention that you

Alora 10:58

Mm-hmm.

Eva Couto 10:59

Just

Alora 10:59

Mm-hmm.

Eva Couto 11:00

Off the ground. And if you. Are not a part of the corporate bro marketing, slightly unethical tactics, then it gets even harder. 'cause you cannot just come around and say whatever the hell comes out of your brain. 'cause

Alora 11:18

Yeah.

Eva Couto 11:18

some of those stuff aren't really good. Even like sales tactics, marketing tactics, like there's a lot of stuff that's just noise. So what else can you use? Me as a designer, I was like, I'm trying to promote my own design services, so the best referral I'm going to have is my own work, is my own portfolio. So what do I like

Alora 11:43

Yeah.

Eva Couto 11:43

And at the time I started out as actually as a lettering artist. So I did like lettering quotes on my iPad and posted them. A couple got picked up by like people with much larger followings than me on Instagram, and they reposted was a different time. And the social media

Alora 12:02

Yeah.

Eva Couto 12:03

And I started noticing that the ones that. People tended to engage with the most. Were like the big, bold, colorful ones, not the like subtle, minimalist black, white, gray, beige 'Cause those looked like a thousand other posts online that just Much bigger accounts that existed already. And

Alora 12:24

Sure.

Eva Couto 12:25

I caught up on this theme and pattern and quickly realized, oh. My work is better when I actually enjoy what I'm doing, and I'm not trying to just fit this mold of what professional looks like, what I should be looking like for online. What a. business looks like. I just started doing that. I remember my first ever website, like the hero section of the homepage was like a big hand lettered quote, like my USP in a sense. It was just an image and it occupied the whole screen. Big thing. And then I guess it just naturally evolved. To the point where two years ago, I, so before that I was just my name design, so Eva Cotu, which is my last name, design, and I started feeling very attached to having my name as my business name in the sense that a business failure became my failure. And it was stopping me from trying to, pitch people, pitch opportunities, go out and grab stuff. Because it just felt very attached to me as a person.

Alora 13:31

Yeah.

Eva Couto 13:32

I rebranded myself, which cannot tell you what a monster of a project that was into flying colors, creative. I hired a creative director again to get that outside perspective that I didn't have on my own, and we came up with this whole circus theme that's like super uber fun, and even though no one would make the direct correlation between circus branding designer it's just the, that the dots are not connecting that directly. However, finding that common thread, and again, problem solving means that now I've carved like this little piece of the online business world where people see circus related stuff and they send me a DM and it's

Alora 14:17

Yeah.

Eva Couto 14:17

fun dms ever. And it just, it gives me that feedback loop that in terms of memorability and being recognized, it's working. And I think to me, the thing that, Boulder colors, boulder design does really well. Is just that it gets you recognized for something, but then you have to walk this limbo of not trying to be recognized for everything. Like you have to keep your lane and keep your path. There was the time, and I'm sure you know this as a photographer of

Alora 14:52

Yeah.

Eva Couto 14:53

hour photos or Everyone's like personal headshots, we had our arms crossed and like at a three quarter

Alora 14:59

Yes.

Eva Couto 15:00

LinkedIn.

Alora 15:01

to the angle.

Eva Couto 15:02

exactly why, and. That might have worked in a certain time, but now thank God we're just out here trying to put our personalities at the forefront of it all, and that's the main differentiator as a personal brand, as an online service provider.

Alora 15:20

Yeah, we share this common thread, of course, that like standing out is the best thing you can do for your business because it makes people. Curious about what you're doing and why you're doing it that way, why would you feel like safe branding is a risky move?

Eva Couto 15:36

I think first of all, I think it's important to know that it's really normal and natural to. Turn to the safe option. 'cause Probably the option that you know of. And you Online and it's what everyone else is doing and everyone else has bigger following and more success. And they're all praising to the heavens, like the bajillions of dollars that they're making a month.

Alora 16:00

Sure.

Eva Couto 16:00

It's very natural to see, oh, they look like this and they have these results. Therefore, I must look like that to Results. Just because something works for them doesn't mean it's going to be working for you. Otherwise, every single business in the world would look the same, and it would be really easy to be and build a successful business. It's not, it's hard work

Alora 16:21

Yeah.

Eva Couto 16:22

finding out. about you compels your audience to hire you? Is going to be your biggest advantage, and I can guarantee you, 'cause it's just the same with designers, with copywriters, with photographers. It's not the deliverables it's not even your price. Most of the time people relate to you and so they wanna hire you over someone else who might have the exact same offer, with the exact same price. And you know the exact same quality of work, but they see you. Not necessarily like on social media talking to camera. That's like personal preference, at least for me. But if I can read the personality off of a carousel, off of an email, I can hear your voice on a podcast. get, it's I know you, even though I Like you and I, we just chatted on threads and on email right before this call. And we're here and we're just vibing and laughing together, that's the relatability that I think people need to lean on. putting your personality at the forefront, putting your, not necessarily your face, but

Alora 17:35

yeah.

Eva Couto 17:36

about? You Having your audience learn that and grow with you, like it won't happen overnight. You need a couple of passes and to try different things, but all of that is going to grow your brand. People are going to start to recognize you and remember you for stuff as well, and that's what matters. I think.

Alora 17:58

Yeah, I think right now what we're dealing with in the industry as a whole is, luxury looks the same. So they're like, I don't wanna be a luxury photographer because I'm gonna have to change my branding. I have to shoot film, I have to have a black and white aesthetic presence. And I'm like, you know that there are luxury brands that look like what you're doing right now.

Eva Couto 18:21

First question for that person would be just, why?

Alora 18:24

why?

Eva Couto 18:25

Why do you think that a luxury brand looks a certain way?

Alora 18:29

Yeah.

Eva Couto 18:29

because every other luxury brand see looks that same way? I can come here and give you a bunch of examples to disprove that argument. And I think sometimes people just need permission. You Like, because every single thing around them looks a certain way. Then they feel like there's this unsaid rule. They have to look that same way, and sometimes you just need to disprove that argument to them. A lot of my work as a designer is just saying, try and leave your preconceived notions outside the door before you come in and start to think of what that design for your new brand should look like. It's the same conversation with like people who have personal brands. And they want, I don't know, their favorite color to be the

Alora 19:18

Sure.

Eva Couto 19:18

of the brand. And that's not a wrong or right decision per se, but we just, we need to dive in a little deeper than that. Like again, why asking

Alora 19:28

Why?

Eva Couto 19:28

your biggest

Alora 19:30

Yeah.

Eva Couto 19:31

ever for every single business decision? Even to me, a lot of the color versus beige debate. Is rooted in stuff that's a lot deeper than just the online community or the design world. if I ask you your favorite color, it is

Alora 19:47

Blue.

Eva Couto 19:47

okay. My favorite color is red,

Alora 19:50

Yeah,

Eva Couto 19:51

anyone

Alora 19:51

I

Eva Couto 19:51

li listening to this podcast episode, not one of them said white, black, gray, or beige or brown. Most of our homes, most of our wardrobes, most of our businesses look white, black, beige, brown, And there's a reason for that. As we grew up, we started perceiving color as frivolous, childish Even like the word playfulness doesn't exactly scream, being an adult and when you're trying to. Build an online business, wanna portray a certain reputation, a certain credibility. You wanna, you want the world to acknowledge that you know your stuff. You're not just out here vibing of a random online course. You did the work, and now it's time to reap the benefits. And those two things start to correlate with each other, and that's where we make those mistakes of. Having the LinkedIn photos everywhere with crossed arms and a three quarter angle, having the same script fonts because it's a personal touch and it's feminine, but it's luxurious. Or having the gold accent or I don't know, like whatever the stereotype for luxury, successful money making. Brand looks like. However, if you look at like the huge corporations in this world, I often give the example of just like food. So if you look at like the main fast food restaurants, they're like, I dunno, billion dollar corporations, I have no idea. They're not exactly beige. In case you didn't notice.

Alora 21:34

McDonald's is yellow and red.

Eva Couto 21:36

Burger King. And even if you look outside of even banks, like most of them are There's a really popular bank here that's red or there's another one that's orange. And so again, it's just about this proofing that belief that color is childish. Not necessarily, Not just, I don't know, children related. Brands that get to use fun illustrations and fun colors and fun patterns, like how much of that you add in if no one else could tell you, like this rule of what suc a successful business looks like?

Alora 22:12

Okay. I wanna dive into this because I am huge on color psychology. Because I have had to study that for my own. I am a serial rebrand, recovering and so I used to rebrand.

Eva Couto 22:23

help with that.

Alora 22:24

Can you retire this for good? But I used to rebrand every six months to a year. And so I ended up diving into color psychology, realizing that certain colors evoke certain feelings, certain moods, which is why I was gonna say the reason why I just have this memorized, but like blue and branding represents like honesty I think, or safety or something. Trust. Yes. So that makes sense for the bank. 'cause they're like, trust us with your money.

Eva Couto 22:50

companies,

Alora 22:52

Oh yeah. Blue Cross Blue Shield is literally called Blue Cross Blue Shield. I can't get more trustful than that. So is there a way that you approach that when it comes to getting people over being scared of using color? Like I'm actually curious about that process of what you tell people who are like opening up to the idea of using color in their business and what it conveys and how it makes people feel.

Eva Couto 23:16

I think it's worth like just saying as a disclaimer that it's not that I just hate white, black, gray, brown, beige. It's that

Alora 23:23

Ah.

Eva Couto 23:24

They've become this one size fits all To. I don't know, upleveling your business or

Alora 23:31

Sure. Yeah.

Eva Couto 23:32

There's not a one size fits all solution for anything in the online business. Sorry to break it to you.

Alora 23:38

Yeah.

Eva Couto 23:38

a magic wand. We can just wave and have a million dollars in our hands, I wish. and so I feel like that's the first thing. It's really just understanding like why do you feel that your brand needs to look any certain way? And then demystifying that particular look is the way to get them there. So I think just acknowledging that is the first step. Color psychology can be a great tool to get them over the line, I feel. But I think it also bears saying that choosing your colors off of like just color psychology is like choosing your colors just off of your personal preference. Like it just, it need, you need to dive a little bit deeper than that. For example I remember when I was studying color psychology, learning that white. It's, the fresh blank canvas, opportunity, freedom peace, all that jazz. However, in Japan, it's the color that you wear to funerals.

Alora 24:37

Oh.

Eva Couto 24:38

if you wear, or if you are a brand with a Japanese audience, it's not going to mean what you think it means.

Alora 24:49

So does that only apply to America? Wait a minute.

Eva Couto 24:52

There's a lot of things that only apply to Western society,

Alora 24:57

That is a huge disclaimer. Disregard.

Eva Couto 25:00

And what I mean, like you need to dive deeper when starting to approach the. of just inserting color. And again, it's not just like you're about to vomit the whole rainbow on your brand. Sometimes it can be as simple as choosing one main signature color that you are known of. There's a designer that I really admire. She's called Christy Campbell. The business is called Pink Pony Creative, as the name says, it's hot pink everywhere.

Alora 25:30

Wow.

Eva Couto 25:31

For, I think there, there was, what was her name? There was a social media manager. Oh, shine with Natasha whose main color is just bright yellow. 'cause it's shine, so it's sun and it like, it can be as simple as a correlation like that try and find clues in your offer's name, in your business name that you can pick up from to pick something that makes sense and just work as a concept. 'cause again, it's about what you're trying to communicate, right? And the design has to work with your words. It has to work with your marketing. They're all just like different pieces to the same puzzle. So it all needs to communicate with each other and communicate the same message outwards to your audience. you need to understand who your audience is, and this is just I know Business 1 0 1, but

Alora 26:23

Yeah.

Eva Couto 26:23

are you trying to communicate to? What are you trying to communicate and how, 'cause you know there are a bajillion other photographers, a bajillion, other designers in the world. would someone of your ideal audience. Choose you over someone else and not necessarily in a competition style approach. Oh, 'cause I'm better than them. It's not that there's a lot of people with a lot of offers and a lot of different styles. If you think about your perfect like dream client. makes them the perfect dream client? It's not just like they have the money to pay you, although, yes, obviously, but what else? Why do you like working with them? How's their personality? how do you work together? Do you prefer someone? That, you chat every single week to let them know how the project is going along. Or do you prefer to just be left alone for two weeks while you do your thing and then come back to your client? Some clients are going to need more handholding, some are more carefree in that aspect. So all of that is going to influence then how your brand looks. 'cause you give off this carefree. Approach, but then you're sending messages every single day. Your client might get overwhelmed, expectations not met, it's

Alora 27:45

Yeah.

Eva Couto 27:45

like that whole thing of communicating your expectations well with your client, I feel starts with the visual side of things. It's like when you see someone on social media on a reel, but then you get on a video call and it's just a different energy. And Okay, now I dunno how I feel about this. The same thing when you go to their media profile. I go to your Instagram, I check out a couple of the posts, and then I click the link in bio and I'm unsure if I click the wrong link because your website has nothing to do with what I just saw in your grit. Here. And the branding needs to be all the way through. Because again, you're a business, you're trying to communicate the same thing all the way through wherever people can find you.

Alora 28:32

Yeah. I'm a huge on brand consistency, but also messaging too. It's like you just need all the pieces. You need the messaging, the visuals.

Eva Couto 28:42

Because then if you don't like, and that's, it's a very overwhelming to-do list As a business owner, and that's why certain things. Gets left on the back burner and I am, I'm not going to be the designer that tells you that you need the professionally designed brand The minute that you start your business. Go the thing that you're trying to sell first and prove to yourself and to your audience that it works and it has demand. Do that first. Do all the legal, do all the accounting first. Branding is not something that you should. Be thinking of in like the first year of business, I feel. 'cause there's so much that you're going to learn and to change and to try out and experiment different things, that you are just going to become a serial rebrand and that's.

Alora 29:29

Yeah.

Eva Couto 29:30

Normal because everything is changing so fast that then you feel that the design that you're showing up with is not in tandem

Alora 29:39

Yeah.

Eva Couto 29:39

what you're doing right now. 'cause it changed again and your audience changed again and so did your offers and all of these different pieces, like we were talking about it. the main job of the design, again, is to communicate what you're here to do, catch and retain attention. you need to know what you're here to do first,

Alora 30:00

So the first question they should ask themself is what? Let's say they've been in business at least three to five years. Like they didn't just start yesterday.

Eva Couto 30:09

Uhhuh.

Alora 30:10

Okay. That's when it's okay I've had my first five to 10, maybe even 20 weddings, couples, whatever. Now who am I? Who do I serve? I gotta do the big deep work because I've always just copied other brands. I made a Canva logo.

Eva Couto 30:25

You did what you had to do to This point,

Alora 30:28

Yeah.

Eva Couto 30:29

not going to take you further than this, so you need to upgrade.

Alora 30:34

Yes my whole thing is like you prob, I don't know if you were surprised if I don't, my favorite color is blue and there's no blue in my branding at all, but.

Eva Couto 30:42

I get that.

Alora 30:43

I knew that I wanted the color to display a more mature take on like red. So being bold,

Eva Couto 30:51

I

Alora 30:51

but it's like a, what is it? Like a burgundy, I think it's like a deep burgundy.

Eva Couto 30:54

a wine burgundy type of

Alora 30:57

Like she, she's,

Eva Couto 30:58

it gives off flirty. And that's, even if you as a person aren't, that's the vibe that your brand is giving. A question that I love to ask my clients when we're at the beginning of projects is if your brand were a person, Necessarily you, but envision your brand as a person, what would that person. Look act sound dress, what is it? Being around them, like how do Feel? And sometimes it's a personality that's like a 2.0 version of your own. Sometimes it's a 2.0 version of your client. Sometimes it has nothing to do with either,

Alora 31:35

Wow.

Eva Couto 31:36

it's okay.

Alora 31:37

Yeah, I actually really like this. It's kinda like differentiating the brand from yourself. 'cause you said in the beginning, having the personal name and feeling like very personal, tied to it. Do you recommend, 'cause I know this is where the industry is headed. Actually no. I think it is like just the industry as a whole. The business industry people are. Stemming away from using their personal names, which, oh, I'm stuck and having a business name for many reasons. But do you suggest that if somebody is thinking about diving in or having a, like a rebrand, like what would be the reason, to even do that? To stem away from personal brand versus like a business brand?

Eva Couto 32:14

Yeah. That was actually a point that I was like really stuck on for a long time and why I delayed my own rebrand was I couldn't come to a conclusion on that question myself. but what I did conversing with my creative director, her name is Katie Pinnell, highly recommend her for any naming things.

Alora 32:31

Nice.

Eva Couto 32:32

is realizing that because I'm showing up with a business name doesn't mean that I'm not a personal brand anymore. And that to me unlocked a whole bunch of thoughts. 'cause to me it was like, oh, if I'm a personal brand, I need to use my personal name. That just makes sense and it does. But again, it's not a one size fits all, and if it's keeping you from your business out there, then it's clearly not doing you any favors. I also saw someone like Big in the online game recently change the other way around, and also it's fair to say. Business name Unequals, your social media handle. While we do a lot of marketing on social media, like one thing is the business name, that's, I dunno, the URL of your website. Is the handle on Instagram. Like those, they can be the same usually. I advise that they're the same. But again, if one of them is keeping you. From marketing the business, then if that's the reason, just change it. It's not that big of a deal. And if I, this other person that I saw make the reverse change, so she used to show up with the business name now shows up with a personal name, is because she wanted to feel more confident posting lifestyle content. And That a lot of people were leaning into her personality again, with those lifestyle content pieces. And so to her it made more sense. I'll just change my personal name and then, all of these different parts of my life and what I do in a day to day, like a day in the life, it makes more sense to me. I'm not tied to what a business profile should look like. So that made a lot of sense to me too. But then there's like bigger questions like, are you planning to sell your business? If you are, then a personal name might be harder to sell. There's logistical questions and then there's gut feelings and both I feel are valuable. So to me, I again found that having my own personal name as my personal brand was me from giving my own business the chance that it's actually deserved at success. And so I was nah, I need something different. I need to walk my walk and talk my talk and rebrand myself. And so I did, and I did register that business name and it's mine. We don't even realize we're not taking our businesses as seriously as we want other people to take them, and it's Hard confession to make, but it's true.

Alora 35:06

Yeah. I feel like it's so easy to start a business

Eva Couto 35:10

god for that. 'cause that a lot more opportunity to a lot more people. Success comes from, I think, keeping at it. You are not going to wake up every day wanting to work, even if you wrote to the job description for yourself.

Alora 35:24

Yeah. Tell it to my son. He is like, why do I have to go to school every day? I am like, why do I have to go to work every day? You gotta do the thing. Okay.

Eva Couto 35:30

It's about responsibility being the grownup.

Alora 35:32

Ugh. Realizing you're an adult has really been wild. And me in my thirties realizing every day I am the adult and I have to make adult decisions.

Eva Couto 35:41

mean, just figuring out what I'm going to eat every day, twice a day is a nightmare.

Alora 35:45

I hate it. I have to actually have to do that after this call. What?

Eva Couto 35:49

like life can't be just this, those kind of thoughts. And that's why I think like playfulness and fun, like why That behind? Who that?

Alora 35:59

Yeah,

Eva Couto 36:00

Why orange couch? Why can't you like eat ice cream for dessert? Why can't, like you have adult money and adult,

Alora 36:08

adult money.

Eva Couto 36:09

You can make your own decisions.

Alora 36:11

Is my house, it's my couch.

Eva Couto 36:13

rules?

Alora 36:15

Yes. I do think having a nod to that is if you're not having fun in your business, like

Eva Couto 36:22

Wait, luck.

Alora 36:23

you know.

Eva Couto 36:23

'Cause if you're not having fun, not everything is going to be fun like

Alora 36:27

Sure.

Eva Couto 36:28

but if you're not having fun with the journey. Going to be a journey. You're gonna get bored. You're gonna get tired of it, you're gonna switch it and

Alora 36:36

yeah.

Eva Couto 36:37

So I think fun is the key to sustainability in business. It tells me a lot about how long you're going to last as a business owner if you're having fun with it or not.

Alora 36:48

tea. Do you come across clients that just hate their business and do this for their money?

Eva Couto 36:53

I have had a client I think didn't realize where he built the business to go. It's like that feeling where you climbed the wrong ladder, Like it started off great, but then as a bunch of like rules and assumptions and other people's thoughts. the business that I don't think he wanted to build. Sometimes you just need to downgrade in order to build Again. I don't know if he eventually got up to that, but Yeah,

Alora 37:25

You like whoever he is. This is why I am such a huge advocate for being the CEO of your business, like taking control.

Eva Couto 37:33

to build someone else's business, I think. 'cause it's, like. Going online and seeing what everyone else is doing. You

Alora 37:40

Yeah.

Eva Couto 37:41

Doing the things that they're doing. Like you were saying, just like I want success. No one's taking that away from you. We're To make money. Let's not just like. around with those words, but that doesn't mean you have to do it like to a T. What this other successful person who says she made six figures in a month, but like how did she spend, how much did she spend? I don't know. But you don't have to build her playbook. You are going to have to find your own playbook. And every time, every single time you think i've caught myself in this too. Like I'm seven years in. I should be further along. I should be in

Alora 38:19

Sure

Eva Couto 38:20

I should be talking

Alora 38:21

I.

Eva Couto 38:21

these things. Or this person has a much smaller following and it's talking at this event. And you get caught up in all of this and it's really easy to then go look at this other person and try to mimic what they're doing to see if you get the same results.

Alora 38:34

Ooh,

Eva Couto 38:35

to build their business, not yours.

Alora 38:37

called it out Imposter syndrome at its finest.

Eva Couto 38:41

But I don't wanna make people feel bad for that to happen. 'cause I feel like it's natural. Imposter syndrome is supernatural. Like you should be someplace that you're not. But I think it's important to catch yourself there and not five years in of building something that you didn't even want.

Alora 38:58

Yeah.

Eva Couto 38:59

Like in the designer industry. I don't know if it's the same in the photographer industry, perhaps there's like a similar correlation. But

Alora 39:06

Sure.

Eva Couto 39:07

when you are a designer, everyone tells you that a successful designer has an agency, so several Designers working for you. that's what a successful designer looks like. I don't want to run a team of people. I enjoy being glued to my computer, nudging things around to making them look pretty. I don't wanna go into meetings with 5, 6, 7 other Them to nudge things around. I'd rather just do it. so for me to come to this realization that, wait a minute. I'm not trying to build an agency. I don't wanna have a course for designers to teach other people how to do design. I just wanna do the design myself. I don't wanna build that business. I wanna build my business.

Alora 39:55

With photography you can either build a team that brings on multiple six figures. If not some people can get up to a million using this business model of having photographers under you. You could do associate team, you could have a photography company or you could just raise your prices and book less weddings. There is the educator that you could do all three, honestly. If you're a superhero. I have done all three actually. I did all, I was like, ah,

Eva Couto 40:19

You've

Alora 40:20

that's crazy. I did, oh yeah. I built a team. I had a, my second baby. I was in education all at the same time, pregnant with my son in the pandemic. Don't recommend. I don't think I registered, like they say nine 11. I didn't register like COVID for some reason, and I just kept going. It was my distraction.

Eva Couto 40:40

keeping you

Alora 40:40

Yes. Yeah.

Eva Couto 40:42

of people who are waiting. For their chance to rebrand. Like I'll wait until I get my first five figure client, or I'll wait until I figured out what my offers look like to a t. I'll wait until it's always chasing this like perfect. When everything is aligned. Moment, That's not gonna exist

Alora 41:04

Yeah. You have to step into the identity that, you want to attract and become. I feel like before you're ready, you're, I don't think you're ever like ready

Eva Couto 41:12

I

Alora 41:12

you say

Eva Couto 41:13

ready. E If you take rebranding, which I do as the visual identity of your business, I feel like the word identity here is really telling, need to know what the business either is right now and it's not aligned with what it's looking. Or what do you want it to be?

Alora 41:32

What is one thing that someone could do this week? To start making their brand actually feel like them, or what is the question they need to ask themselves, because I feel like that's really where we're headed.

Eva Couto 41:43

I think it's really easy, or not easy, but it's. Fast ish to just look at your website, look at your social medias, like the things that you are giving out to your audience. Hey, if you wanna know more about the business and potentially hire me, go look at these places. Look at them yourself, and. Ask yourself if you're proud of them. Are you proud to put those forward Are like shop windows. If we were, a brick and mortar store, your social media profiles and your website, that's the shop window. So if someone passes through your shop window, would they want to enter two, would you be proud to have that shop window up? And depending on your answer, if it's eh, could be better. Okay, what could be better? What are like those day-to-day things? I like to say design related, but they might not be that really make you dislike what you're building right now. I know a lot of my clients just have this huge grudge with having to spend three hours designing a carousel on Canva

Alora 42:47

Yeah.

Eva Couto 42:48

and then that makes you hate the whole thing. 'cause. You can't use it. It's hard to use. And those are like, the little keywords that start appearing in your answers. Okay. It's hard to use. in your brand is it hard to use? Is it like when you put text on a color background, you can't read it well, is it the font? Is it the images? Is it the colors? Is it putting everything together? Is it video? Is it the website?

Alora 43:15

Is it everything?

Eva Couto 43:16

sometimes it is everything. Sometimes it is, but I would start there are you proud of? What are you putting up in front of your audience? If yes, great, I have nothing else for you. Go live your merry life. If no, why or where are those daily frictions coming up? Is it uploading a blog post or uploading an Instagram post? Or when you're sending dms, you don't really know how you're supposed to write that, there's a bajillion different puzzle pieces. and don't hate on the brand that you currently have just because you're unhappy with it. 'cause again, it brought you this far, It's

Alora 43:54

Yeah.

Eva Couto 43:54

Been working. You're just realizing that just because it's been working. It might not continue to work because you've changed, the business changed or you're, you want the business to change

Alora 44:06

Yeah, we talked about so much,

Eva Couto 44:09

loaded.

Alora 44:09

so good. it's very much like it's heart centered, but it's also business centered with the heart. Like you have to make those decisions, ask those questions and just figure out like what exactly do you want? And, am I showing that? Am I, replicating that? This has been such a great episode. I feel like I've learned a lot. I feel like we all need to ask ourselves some questions and decide whether or not you'd need to make a decision. And at the time of this recording, it's April, it's Q2. It's time to start thinking about do things need to change? Do things need to shift? So

Eva Couto 44:41

cleaning.

Alora 44:42

spring cleaning, which I have been doing all week, that is so on brand right now with my life. In the middle of the flood watch. eva, tell us where everyone can find you and stalk you. Get into your world. What do you got for us?

Eva Couto 44:55

Flying Colors, creative everywhere. Very circus theme that you'll see going

Alora 45:01

Yeah,

Eva Couto 45:02

I

Alora 45:02

I love it.

Eva Couto 45:03

my own podcast called The Freak Show again, circus theme a newsletter called Uncaged, where you get. Besides talk on personal branding, online visibility, a probably mildly unhinged personal story that somehow connects to all of this. I also give out, 'cause I'm trying to become the color girl, a weekly color palette for anyone to Some

Alora 45:26

That's fun.

Eva Couto 45:27

way.

Alora 45:28

See? Okay, all those links will be in the show notes. Eva, thank you so much and everybody else, I will see you in the next episode. Have a great week. Bye bye.