Branding Your Business: What to Let Go Of
“By building a brand, you are ultimately creating an emotional picture within a potential customer that influences their decisions in a positive way toward that brand. The most important thing to consider is what problem you wish to solve and who your target audience is that needs that problem solved. Then you can start to develop a product or service that solves that particular problem and begin designing your brand.” - Juliana Rogers, Online Branding Expert.
“To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to be able to accept help when you need it without blaming yourself for not knowing every single little thing. Learn more about the common mistakes entrepreneurs make when creating a brand and the steps you should take in order to create a successful brand that people feel they can trust.” Watch the full episode and learn more here.
Are you an entrepreneur, start-up, or business owner with a great founders story? Follow this link to get featured.
Common Questions About Branding Your Business as an Entrepreneur
Q: How important is branding for my business?
A: Branding is essential for any business. It creates an identity for your business that allows customers to recognize you, trust you, and establish a loyal relationship with the business.
Q: What steps should I take to brand my business?
A: The steps you take to brand your business will vary depending on what your business is and the goals you have set. Generally, it is important to create a well-defined logo, craft a purposeful mission statement, and create meaningful content to convey your mission and values.
Q: What are the benefits of branding?
A: Branding provides numerous benefits, including higher brand recognition, improved customer loyalty, higher customer trust, and increased marketability. Additionally, branding can help your business stand out from the competition, allowing you to differentiate your business from your competitors.
What are some mistakes new business owners make when they create their business brand?
1. Not understanding their target audience: Many new business owners make the mistake of not understanding their target audience’s desires and needs. As a result, the brand messaging can be off-target and the products or services won’t appeal to their desired customers.
2. Not having a clear brand story: The brand story is a key element to building a successful business brand. Without a compelling and consistent story, customers won't be able to connect to it.
3. Not being aware of competitors: To stand out from the competition, new business owners should be aware of what their competitors are doing and how their brand compares.
4. Failing to develop a recognizable logo: Logo design should be aligned with the brand's core values and ethos. Without a recognizable logo, customers will not easily recognize a business’s brand.
5. Skipping basic brand elements: New business owners may not realize just how many elements contribute to a successful brand, including a mission statement, company vision, brand pillars, and more. Failing to flesh out these elements could leave customers confused and unable to connect with the brand.
“Certain things I was able to do for myself, and certain things I wasn’t. And I think the important takeaway here is to let that happen and to be fine with that to happen and not to blame yourself.”
FULL AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
0:01
all right I'm with Juliana Rogers she's a online business brand strategist based
0:08
out of Germany um also a former ballerina so I definitely want to dive into that because that's really fascinating
0:14
um how are you doing today I'm very good thank you what are you doing
0:19
I'm I'm good it's uh it's Thursday morning here so I'm guessing it's it's
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getting close to to Wine time for you um so yes
0:31
this is gonna be fun um all right so so I like to start every
0:38
um episode I stole this question from from a former guest I want to start with
0:43
what did you want to be when you were growing up everything
0:49
everything that was just my dream my passion
0:56
and I think I I started when I was three and there was no question about doing
1:02
anything else what what about dances did you love the
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most I'm curious you mean what
1:13
what or doing because friends oh both yeah okay so doing definitely
1:20
Classical Ballet um Oriental dance so
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um I love that I loved uh when I studied we had afro dance like African
1:35
um originated dance I loved it my body kind of refused to do the moves because
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I was rather used to doing Classical Ballet moves
1:46
which create a totally different pattern in your body and
1:53
um and uh standard dances so when I have a partner
1:58
and uh really doing the the standard dances that was I don't know I I just
2:03
loved it I had to do it from from my family side they said that's a cultural Baseline and you have to do it and I
2:10
said I don't want to do it and they said we don't care you have to the ones I had started I loved it and um
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yeah so and watching I very much enjoy
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watching um watching hip-hop sometimes
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um and I've seen some some some art performances some dance performances
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where they merged um where they merged various Styles
2:39
um based off classical ballad and I loved seeing that it was just that's
2:46
just fireworks in my eyes to be honest I'm curious kind of from your love from
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for for dancing um into kind of your brand career kind
3:00
of paint that picture of that Journey kind of how did you get there
3:07
and uh no when I was born so I'm an 80s lady
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um it might sound like that can't be um but I had plenty of time so I um
3:21
obviously you can't you can't be a dancer for your for your whole year because there are just limits to
3:29
physical limits uh and and you will have to face to Pivot into another career at
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the beginning of your 20s some people at the end of their 20s it depends and so I
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decided to study dance and movements pedagogics and uh for rehabilitative and
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preventional purpose and I loved it but these studies were really really tough
3:55
like physically and I love the intellectual um stimulus we had because I studied
4:04
um I also studied sports medicine and all that so I love that but physically
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it was Beyond The Challenge and so I um I just heard and I heard badly I hurt my knees
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I had an inflammation I hurt my back I hurt my shoulder and there was that moment when really nothing went on and
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my doctor said Julie I know you don't want to hear it but you have to start like now
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and I don't want to see you going to University tomorrow and um as hard as it was and as much as
4:38
my world crumbled in that moment I was never a person to sit down and go into
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victim mode and cry and and don't find any ideas to to move on
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because I was super young I was I was uh and 20 like 26 27 back back then
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and actually I had never earned my living from dancing because dancing well it's it's
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arts and it's one of those Arts where you rather have something to earn your
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bread and butter with and I earned my bread and butter with being an interpreter because uh I was born and
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raised in Cologne which is in a city in Germany for international trade shows
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and very close to that are three more cities for international trade shows and back then international trade shows
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um were still the thing where business was made right and so I
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uh when I was at the beginning of my 20s I started working as an interpreter on trade shows because I was raised through
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lingual I was raised uh I came from from an interpreter's uh family so
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we were talking like five languages at the dining table and so I was I was
5:57
raised with three languages and it was just the logic thing to do and the same logic then applied I think back then I
6:06
took less than a week to think okay what am I doing now and um
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so I decided okay let's get a degree as um an interpreter and maybe also
6:17
translations and so um I applied for two universities uh in Germany there was
6:24
none in a cologne where where I could do that and I also wanted to I kind of
6:30
wanted to close the chapter completely and move to another place I
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don't know it was important to me and um I got a seat uh in a university
6:41
actually you should have to study three years and I they gave me permission to
6:46
enter at a later Point within the studies within the program so I only had
6:52
to do one year and a half um because during the during the entry
6:57
test they found out and I told them listen I've been working as an interpreter already for years
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and during this these years by the way I also worked um as a so-called liaison
7:09
officer um for the German government for various um political
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um uh um Gatherings and and and
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events and so um and I had all that on paper so I could demonstrate that I was
7:28
that I was there that I had already learned and and had so much so much of
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um of so many so many years back with being an interpreter and
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um after that uh once I once I finished that um I found I couldn't find a job and um
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so I started I thought okay you need to learn something more so I had this
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creative background then I had a non-connected thing which was interpretation and translation and aside
8:01
from that the business of international trade shows was completely being disrupted and going down you still have
8:08
international trade shows but it's no longer the it's no longer the the bread
8:14
and butter to find new clients because we have the online world now and so things totally shifted in business and
8:21
then I started project management because I understood okay you need something that is based on economics
8:27
based on on on a rather logic and strategic standpoint in business
8:35
and it turned out that that was interesting to me because there was this communicational thing and
8:42
and when you study project management 50 of that is leadership and communication
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and that was very interesting to me because that then had a connection to me
8:54
wanting to become a um a dance movements pedagogue because it was working with
9:00
humans yeah that to me was the connection working with humans
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yeah now a couple of years down the road um I then went into
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um business strategy because I had picked that up from working with with
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clients on international trade shows because they understood that there was something in me that
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um they wanted to work with me on a longer basis because I didn't only help
9:28
them translating the words from their prospects and clients on the trade shows
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but I really took in creating contracts and all of that and I really gave them
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and I gave them an insight to or you should think about that you should consider that and so I became a go-to
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person when they wanted to uh wanted to do international business and without
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having a a education and dad that was my
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educational ground actually and so um I started doing um business business
10:04
development and um I was actually good at sales I would say I'm not
10:12
particularly into sales and it's nothing that I enjoy but that was also part of
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the training that I got on working on trade shows in understanding how does
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good sales look like how does good sales work and how do rather not so rather be
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sales people work and I have very clear understanding or again the clear
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understanding of the of the differences and of distinguishing a good salesperson from a bad sales person
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picked up a lot of that and then I think um
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and my first the first business that I started was I had the idea of helping
10:55
companies to um to go on trade shows and and and and be there and represent a company over
11:02
there and it completely failed I must say that was a huge fail due to so many
11:08
reasons but it's fine it's good so when I'm looking back at it I can definitely say okay because of this this this and
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that but it was just part of the Journey of becoming an entrepreneur and it was part of the Journey of
11:21
growing the backbone I would say to understanding okay you fall and that
11:28
also goes back to me being an answer I think because I learned I gained the muscle of falling down and getting back
11:35
up and not caring so I'm looking back and just don't blaming yourself or if
11:40
you blame yourself if there is something to blame yourself about clearly then
11:45
just learn from it to do it better the next time because this is what you do as a dancer
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most time you you spend in being a dancers training and training goes by
11:56
failing and trying again falling down falling on your knees getting back up
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and say oh and just you know just carry on and that's just part of the deal and
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um and then I remember in uh 2000 I think it was in 2018 or 19. I had this
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client where I saw wow there is everything wrong in his business
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strategy in his design there is no what's actually the strategy
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and what's about the brand the name was misaligned the actually everything was
12:34
misaligned yet the business itself the core offer was amazing and was a huge
12:40
demand and uh the thing is that he was my parents best friend
12:45
and so he gave me that's the thing and he gave me this this
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I don't know this this this ground to to develop something that I hadn't actually
12:57
yet learned yet it was clearly in my head and he gave me this space for for
13:03
development for making error making mistakes and and going the wrong directions but the outcome was amazing
13:12
the outcome was an aligned brand the outcome was an aligned business strategy
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with three core offers so that if one of the offer is in Decline which in
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business is normal um which is why you want to have more than one offer
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um and um the design was just amazing uh it was I didn't want to say was just
13:35
amazing but it was aligned with what he had and um
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and that was when I when I when I understood okay that's where I want to go into because turned out that with all
13:48
of the efforts that I made in In classical business so to say one piece
13:53
was missing and it was creativity and um what I what I only found out two
14:00
years ago and I had to build an online business to find this out and I need it took somebody else to tell me that
14:07
because I didn't realize because for me it was the most normal thing was
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hey girl you have two brains and you are strong where everybody wants to be
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strong because you have this logic brain and you're creative so you're both and
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everybody's dreams of being that and I was like wow you know to me it was this yeah well
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that's just me you know I didn't realize that was
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number one something special number two I didn't realize that um that was that
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it had value and number three I didn't realize that it was something that I
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could base an offer of and that would make me um particularly good in certain things
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so I would say universe delivered in very small chunks but it made me go if I
15:03
look at back at all of that Journey now from from this standpoint as I look
15:09
at it now today it makes all sense it just things just align
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and the Final Chapter until I became where who I am today and
15:22
where I am now in business was in 2020 even before the pandemic I
15:30
was sitting at my desk and somehow nothing was working like nothing and I have this picture of my granddad
15:38
um his deceased already but he was this resource this intellectual and yet
15:44
benevolent resource of you can do whatever you want you can do it Whenever there was something whenever I
15:51
fell he said you can do it you know and he was from him I have my
15:58
original name which is in the meaning the veiling here the strong benevolent
16:04
Warrior and the interesting thing is that the meaning there are in in various
16:10
languages is the same name which is Rika
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Rogers and that's it and it has all the same meaning and by the way in my family
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that's the names so somebody married somebody and they
16:28
were Jerry somebody married somebody and they were liquor you see and um
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so I was sitting at my desk and I had this it's it's in the back over there I
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had this Compass of my dad of my granddad and it was broken and I carried
16:44
that with me since he he deceased when I was 17. and I always had it on my desk so by the
16:51
way I moved cities and I think all all in all I made 22 moves but I never lost
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this thing oh wow so when you wow you might lose a whole box of stuff that is important to you
17:06
but I never lost this thing and it was always it moved with me and it always had its place on my desk so I had this
17:13
moment of nothing goes and I'm sitting in front of my in front of my computer at my desk and I'm looking at the
17:19
picture of my granddad it's it's in front of me here and I have one question
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and the question was what should I do and in front of me I had just clicked on
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something and there was a workshop running or the community where you can
17:38
learn how to build an online business and that thing was running with me in front of it being actually at the point
17:46
where I think like okay here I am and I don't know how things shall proceed and so I I put this
17:54
question not verbally just in my head and my in my heart I put it into the universe and
18:01
I grabbed a compass and believe it or not the compass moved for the first time
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ever I had seen the compass and it showed North and by the way North was exactly where my computer was
18:15
so that was that was a yes that was to me that was a cosmic yes and to me that was
18:23
um that was this is what you have to do so with literally my last money
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I grabbed my my Mastercard and I knew this was my last money but I also kind of knew
18:37
you will you will you will earn this five times just don't ask just do this
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and I answered my credit card uh details and I and I purchased the the membership
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and the course that came with it and that was the moment when I started building an online business and that was
18:57
the moment when I understood that what I was doing was brand strategy because
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then I entered a whole new world of people and that was the moment I finally
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which I never had before came in touch with people who belonged
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to what I would say the crowd that I belong to so I found people like you people who I
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resonate with people who have the same fears and frustrations the same Powers the same drive to do things and
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um the same benevolence to really helping people
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um and the same level of creativity and intelligence and applying that for a
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greater purpose so I love it a long speech
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no but I love I love the journey so much because you know it's funny because when I read you know
19:55
some of the notes about you being a ballerina the thought was
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I bet you that's where the resilience comes from like that ability to fall
20:06
down get back up fall down some more and get back up and so I appreciate you kind
20:11
of sharing the whole journey because it does make a lot of sense when you kind of look at
20:18
um kind of The View kind of from this vantage point just like okay you've got the resilience from being a ballerina
20:25
and a dancer you're an interpreter so you you naturally are connecting with more
20:31
people and translating what they're saying to communicate to someone else
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you've kind of got this okay I'm sitting at a computer this feels a little bit right okay I found people
20:45
they can't communicate their kind of Core Business values in a way that
20:51
resonates with someone else boom like it makes perfect sense it makes perfect sense
20:57
and uh the creativity and the the number one thinking I mean tough I mean
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sometimes they have to be a nut tracker to uh I mean The Nutcracker uh I didn't
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mean that an analogy Classical Ballet
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even though I have done I know she will yeah but you have to be that that the
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literal Nutcracker into getting into people's heads like of the owner of a
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brand the entrepreneur and also getting into the heads and souls and minds of
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the of the ideal customer and understanding okay this is the brand
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this is the owner of the Brand This is the brand this is the purpose this is what the customer needs and how do we
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put that now into a flow um that's on display so everybody understands one another
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and that is um that is a job that is both strategic and logic and has to do
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with numbers and paying close attention to to these logic questions yet it needs
22:10
the the creativity to then translate that into words into the right colors
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um into into all of that the the interesting thing is that so many people when they when they think of I want to
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start a brand I think in terms of name brand name and logo which is
22:33
um just this is that's brand design but that's not brand strategy oh actually yes it is bread it is part
22:41
of the brand strategy but that's not building a brand that's that lives within a brand strategy Under the
22:48
Umbrella of um brand design and when they then turn to a designer
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and say this is my business this is the purpose they are expecting the designer
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to then understand which colors would go into that but they would not
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ask what is your your brand archetype because the archetype the brand archetype determines the colors
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and it makes people frustrated I have I've seen it so often that both the the
23:21
entrepreneur and the designers they get so frustrated because
23:26
something is off and the client keeps saying oh I don't feel it it's not it it's not it and the the designer then
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um most understandably gets frustrated because they could deliver something if only
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they had more information if only they knew this is the color colors that we
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need this is the range that we need this is the shapes that we need we're talking about let's say a spiritual business
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which is totally different from let's say an I.T business the pattern that you
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would use the fonts that you would use the colors you would use are completely different
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and um that's just that's what I found so interesting and being around stretch
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that I and being given the the freedom to you creativity and not being a so to
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say starving artist which I was back in the day so I mean these days are gone
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and it makes me proud it makes me also it makes me understand okay if you
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persevere you can do it you can you can you can end being a starving artist
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yeah so I'm I love it that's got me thinking so
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um I know that you kind of focus and and are passionate about serving kind of the
24:48
the creatives the Consultants the coaches um and one of the things that I'm often
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thinking about with my business is you know there's my personal brand and
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then there's my businesses brand and in some ways they're very override because
25:07
I kind of leave this business but I'm curious on your perspective of
25:12
kind of this distinction in an online environment where the personal brand is so important
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how do business owners or entrepreneurs kind of manage that distinction which is
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here's my brand and my company's brand and what it stands for and this is my
25:33
personal brand because at a certain point you probably want your business to grow bigger than you
25:39
and want people to trust that brand and not always have to have you on the project or the assignment so I'm just
25:46
curious on what your thoughts on that are uh it's actually a tough question but I
25:52
would I would generally answer it by saying there shouldn't be it's really a tough
25:59
question I have to think about it sure actually the the
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I would say there is not necessary a distinction between your personal
26:12
brand and your your company brand um because yes you are as the owner there
26:20
is a personal brand and if you have with creative okay let me let me
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approach it from this way if we had an I.T company we take two
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cases okay two totally different cases if you want to start an I.T company
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so you start an IT brand that would be a moment where you focus
26:41
first on the company brand and um and um secondly on the personal
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brand and you want to make the company brand Thrive first and then you take
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time for your personal brand to maybe later down the road being able to retrieve from it or maybe even sell it
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that's the thing in the case of a um creative a
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consultant or a a coach the question actually does not apply
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because that the brand is the person and vice
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versa the person is the brand so it doesn't apply now if you choose a brand
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name or choose your your personal name as the name for the brand that's a
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totally different question and it depends on so on various on various
27:39
questions that need to be answered in terms of the goals the direction what is
27:44
it that you want to create so um and and that's the thing so there are
27:49
cases where you want to focus on the on the brand on
27:54
the company brand and there are cases where the question actually doesn't apply because the the business is just
28:01
based around the person and I would say that's that's rather the case is your business based around a
28:09
service or a thing a a product or is the the brand the company not to confuse
28:17
words the company based around um a service and offer that is that that
28:24
is delivered only by one certain person even though you want to scale your
28:29
business and even though you might want to have um you might want to have employees
28:35
um later down the road and all that but still the your face will continue and
28:40
will persevere to be the face of the of the company and therefore turn into a brand
28:46
see yeah yeah that that makes sense and it's funny because
28:52
when I've thought about that question in my own mind is you know I come from Big Consulting where you got the big brands
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in in many ways the clients aren't buying an individual they're buying this big
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huge brand that we can trust because we know the type of quality people they
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hire and now I'm on the side where it's like I'm a I'm an independent I'm a
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solopreneur um in many ways and and I know people are going to be hiring me
29:23
they want me and at some point I would like to
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pass that off and so it is something that I often think about in terms of
29:35
like how how do I kind of make that balance and and I think
29:41
I think where I typically land with it is focus on you right like you're the one
29:49
that's going to be delivering the service until you're not and then you can re-evaluate the strategy and kind of
29:55
pivot there so it makes sense I mean let's think about John Deere for example that's a brand everybody knows
30:02
and it has a personal name and without knowing I totally don't know the story
30:09
of John Deere and how it came about that they were called that way but I would assume that Mr John Deere started this
30:17
business and Mr John Deere I would assume is no longer even here it's no
30:23
longer around I don't know really no idea about John Deere just happened my head and still the company has this name
30:31
because they created the brand because it has evolved into what it is today
30:36
into that International brand that everybody knows and and nobody thinks
30:41
about the person John Deere who gave the brand the name today they think about
30:49
the services and goods they deliver and about and that's great building a brand about the quality
30:55
that people expect you see the if we take a similar analogy
31:01
with Porsche where quality where the a certain quality is related to the name or she or
31:09
you say Porsche right um Porsche I've heard all kinds of things
31:16
so I'm fascinated on how you're saying it
31:26
that that's just a that's just a brand name but attached to the brand name
31:32
still is not a person but a a quality perception and that's what building a brand is
31:40
about it is um creating an emotional um an emotional picture within the customer
31:49
and influencing that emotional picture um and influencing it in a positive way
31:55
so that the customer um relates to the brand in a in a certain
32:02
way in a and relates a certain quality a certain quality aspects certain feelings
32:08
and emotions to the brand and that is what means building a brand
32:14
you see so actually the the it's it's I think it doesn't it doesn't
32:20
you shouldn't you shouldn't stress out about it just see it from a standpoint of now and I
32:26
would say the coming 10 years find the right strategy and if in 10 years you
32:33
sell the company number one you can always Rebrand that's that's always an
32:38
option renaming yes you can always do that that's number one and number two
32:44
only because you sell the company doesn't mean that somebody would want this to or would want to get rid of the
32:52
the original name which might be your personal name because of the emotions
32:58
that have been attached to the brand the customers operations you see so
33:04
okay no that makes that makes a lot of sense so so let's dive into kind of
33:11
we've talked about how you landed on brand strategy
33:16
um and we've talked a little bit about kind of the nuances and and kind of what
33:22
brand strategy is I'm curious how did it feel for you doing this
33:29
exercise for yourself and for your own business
33:40
the logo was easy because of the the story that I shared with the compass
33:46
and um so I wanted to have this compass and I will I I don't think I mean ask me
33:53
in five years from now maybe I will have a new standpoint on that but I don't think I would ever want to get rid of
33:58
the the compass as my logo maybe the design might change with time
34:04
but there is this story behind this this brand was built this this business was
34:11
built because of a compass that suddenly worked and by the way has stopped
34:17
working again so obviously my friend said it's like I don't need his support anymore
34:23
it seems like looking good for him and um so that was that was one thing and
34:31
finding my customer Avatar excuse me finding my customer Avatar was easy to me finding my
34:38
um my my brand archetype came really easy to me um so there were some things that I was
34:45
so clear about and that that was so easy to me to do but when it came to my
34:51
positioning I needed another brand strategist to do that with me and by the way he needed me to do that for him so
34:58
um and it and it I don't know it's it's um it took a moment for me to understand
35:05
that I cannot do this for myself and it's logic because I was too close
35:10
to it if you were if you're that close to a thing you can't see and that's just that's just the reason so
35:18
I wanted to find somebody to work with and I was so lucky to to getting in
35:24
touch with um Sean who had the same challenge at the same moment and we just decided you
35:30
know what let's just exchange this service you do it for me and I do it for
35:36
you and we just found a um we're meeting on a weekly basis now we have we're
35:42
still working together because now we are pivoting into once you think about
35:47
my packages oh do you think that that offer goes well with that one so I don't
35:53
know it has become this this friendship and also business relationship where we
35:59
just meet on a on a weekly basis and one week is dedicated to
36:04
um an issue or a topic he's facing right now and the next week is is just dedicated to my topics and um sometimes
36:12
we work for weeks on one topic and then we pivot into the next one so
36:18
um I I must say certain things um I was able to do for myself and
36:24
certain things I wasn't and I think the important takeaway here is to
36:30
to to let that happen and to to be fine with that to happen and not to blame
36:36
yourself and to think I'm not capable I'm not good enough I am distant this and that I'm blaming you in all ways
36:43
instead and also secondly acknowledging when the
36:49
point when the moment has come that you would that you should seek some help from somebody else and acknowledging the
36:57
fact that this is the case and then just go for it and embrace that and by the
37:03
way it was and it still is it continues to be to be um
37:09
an opportunity to understand that there are certain areas where I'm really good at and some and other brand
37:16
strategists are not and also to uncover the areas where where there is let's say
37:22
growth potential where I have to to learn something more where I can grow into more so it is actually I would say
37:31
thank you Universe to delivering that to me because otherwise I would have no
37:37
other reflection surface to really understand am I am I good enough
37:43
am I am an an imposter what am I what where's me now you see so because
37:50
if people always kicks in I mean I don't know any creative who doesn't suffer
37:55
from imposter Syndrome from time to time yeah no I I wouldn't I don't necessarily
38:02
consider myself a creative person and I deal with imposter syndrome all the time it is it's one of those things where
38:09
um I think there's I think there's a value in having a healthy amount of it but I
38:15
think you have to know how to get yourself out of kind of the Spiral that it can cause
38:21
um so so I'm so I love I love the fact you know as a kind of solopreneur you
38:27
found this partnership with another brand strategist and you guys are helping each other and you kind of continue to to work together because
38:36
yeah entrepreneurship is lonely and so I like you know there's a community
38:41
building aspect of it and then there's kind of this beneficial relationship that comes with it and so my next
38:47
question kind of as you were talking about understanding your strengths and understanding you know growth
38:54
opportunities how do you determine the things that you think
38:59
this is a growth opportunity I need to learn this new skill or I need to find someone that's going
39:05
to help me with this thing because this may not be a skill that I have the time or interest to pursue and develop how do
39:13
you kind of make that distinction exactly by that exactly why by asking so simple exactly
39:20
by asking myself is it something that so first question is it something that I
39:25
enjoy or that I would enjoy is it next time a super important question is it something
39:31
or would it be something that would be beneficial to my to my service would it
39:37
add value to my to my service and help my clients um and
39:43
um also the question also has to be about the effort that I have to make and an effort can both be an intellectual
39:50
effort time effort and a financial effort so if the effort if number one the
39:57
answers already I don't enjoy doing that for example in my case it would
40:02
definitely be social media marketing it would be beneficial it's a great
40:08
great example it would be very beneficial to my business
40:13
um but I totally don't enjoy it I do not I will never be able to enjoy
40:19
it so I did the following and and the the effort by the way the effort to
40:24
learn it properly would have been well six months if not 12 months and a rather
40:30
and a rather um and a mid-sized investment financially
40:37
so I decided to do this I went into I learned it on a on a little bit more
40:43
than basic level so that I can create a strategy that a brand strategy that
40:50
implies that also thinks about um future social media activities
40:56
but I am not going to be the one to um to create the social media activities
41:04
to create the social media strategy and I'm definitely not going to do social
41:10
media marketing so that was an example where yes there was growth opportunity no I didn't enjoy it no I didn't want to
41:19
make the huge investment both financially and time wise and so I
41:24
decided to find the Midway and also find people who I can I know I
41:29
can trust they are doing a good service who I can turn my customers to and say look this person I know this person is
41:36
going to help you this person does a very well job a very good job and we just create the brand strategy including
41:44
which efforts should be made on which platform which is the right platform for you to use based on your business and
41:51
brand strategy but hand it over to someone to deliver it yeah
41:57
yeah no I I I I I like that I like that a lot and and one of the things kind of
42:04
the first time we talked we we kind of joked about um kind of this distinction of like
42:12
marketing advertising PR and brand and how brand is kind of like this overarching kind of honestly the most
42:19
important piece um because it's the thing that that's long lasting and so I I'm fascinated and
42:26
appreciate the distinction of it's like I love brand strategy I may not necessarily like the social media
42:33
marketing piece there are some people that are super good and super passionate about that and that's where they can kind of fit into the puzzle so I I
42:39
really like the fact that you made that distinction yeah and I mean the the thing is and uh
42:46
most people who uh who are entrepreneurs that want to become entrepreneurs they will most likely come
42:52
across these posts which you just addressed let's say brand strategy versus marketing
42:59
and then to me it's so stupid because it's so it's a misunderstanding of the
43:05
whole concept there is no verses yeah there is and that was the conversation we had right it's the number one step
43:12
one and step two because marketing people will need the
43:18
information that stems from the brand strategy yet in most cases when
43:23
customers don't have it marketing people the I mean I I get it they don't want to
43:28
turn away a customer but I would highly appreciate if they could more often turn the customer to a
43:35
brand strategist and say please create the basics create that Foundation First
43:42
and once this is done please come back and we will create your marketing strategy and then and the outcome is if
43:49
that is not done in a consecutive order people just burn and it hurts my it
43:56
hurts my soul to see that they burn money in their in their marketing
44:01
activities and in ad campaigns and and all that whatever they they they spend
44:07
on their marketing activities to then find out it doesn't work and in 99 when
44:15
people came to me they had made non-working marketing efforts and they
44:21
turned to me and said I don't know what's wrong the answer in these cases
44:26
was I'm sorry to say it but because you haven't invested into creating a
44:32
foundation first a which is the brand strategy first does the customer Avatar that is a
44:39
foundation that is needed for marketing campaigns and for marketing to be
44:45
created in a strategy to be created in the right way the the archetype all of
44:51
that that are just things that go into the department of brand strategy but
44:56
will be then needed and translated in the marketing department
45:01
so that that was that that's the conversation that is just so necessary to make and
45:07
it's so sad that I hear constantly from people who build a business that nobody
45:13
told them that and I so often hear this the phrase the the sentence Oh had I
45:19
only known so I'm sorry can we please spread the word and let people know so
45:26
that they can end this suffering and that they can end the fear of oh my
45:32
goodness I have to build a brand I don't know what this is it's it's actually not such a daunting task as people think it
45:38
was so you've approached the right way you see so so with that and I I'm curious and
45:48
we'll play this little game if if I'm an aspiring entrepreneur
45:54
and you know I hear you say that and I'm like okay I need to build a brand strategy
45:59
um I may not be able to hire a brand strategist
46:06
what would you say are the quick things you could do to get started
46:14
to thinking about what your brand is
46:21
client definitely customer Avatar is so important and
46:28
rather invest into somebody who creates into somebody professional who creates
46:34
that thing professionally based on and that's the thing on your
46:40
ideal offer so think about what is the problem that I solve
46:47
who do I solve the problem for and in which way is the problem going to be
46:52
solved so is it by a Consulting is it by a one-on-one sessions I mean there are
46:59
various ways yeah and and data that are definitely fundamentals and
47:06
um so there is this book by Simon sinek and it says start with why and I 100
47:13
oppose to that standpoint because nobody cares about you know why and that is not
47:21
going to build you a business that is just making you as the entrepreneur Who
47:27
falls on his knees and has to get back up make you get my help and the why is
47:34
Maybe where where later you can say I just
47:40
want to be helpful to people I want to help people um build a freedom-based uh
47:46
business on a freedom light and creative freedom lifestyle that's the thing and I don't
47:54
want to be treated as a kid anymore I want to quit my nine to five because I want to determine what I work with
48:01
um what I am doing who I work with I want to determine all of these things and I want to get my creative
48:06
um Freedom so that's that's the that's the in my case for example that's the why because I want to help people create
48:13
a freedom lifestyle based on their abilities based on their creativity and their knowledge and all that that's a
48:20
why but actually would you choose me as a brand strategist based off of that
48:26
I bet you 100 you wouldn't because the importance for you as the client is is
48:32
she going to be able to create a quality a high quality service and that question is not being answered
48:40
by my why so start with who and stop with what
48:47
what do you want to deliver who do you want to deliver this to and why do you
48:53
want to deliver this to so and and base the the why question based off of the
48:59
problem you solve why is this service needed why do you solve why does this
49:05
this problem need to be solved in the first place now how are you going to solve a problem
49:11
how I'm going to deliver this this problem-solving situation this Pro this
49:16
solution and I would say start with that um also think about try and it can be
49:25
hard I know but try to find a brand name that is easily typable
49:33
so you would not you're an American you would not be you would not be able to type Juliana Vetter you don't know how
49:40
to spell that right not even German people like if you're on the phone they ask me how do you spell that because
49:47
there are various ways to hear that to spell that and things can go wrong so I
49:53
chose Juliana Rogers just by Translating the Name that was carried through my
49:59
family in various languages because Rogers no matter where you come from on
50:05
the globe you will be able to spell that it is easy to hear it so it is easy to
50:11
memorize that's the thing and so try not to trap
50:16
yourself into a name that is hard to memorize hard to spell because people
50:22
ultimately will have to find you on the internet and also find a find a name that um
50:31
that's unique so do your research do your due diligence is there is there another Juliana Rogers
50:39
on the internet and if so is she doing something similar to me in my case the
50:44
answer was no no no so all boxes tick Greg got the trademark that's the next
50:49
thing please people get a trademark first come first serve and who gets the
50:58
trademark for a name first is the one who then owns it now that was also
51:03
something that I had to suffer from I had a great name for the company that I started first
51:09
um it was called cocoon consult and I just love this thing because I I had this idea of I am creating a safe place
51:17
where development business development can happen and I'm creating this cocoon
51:23
you know where you can just be yourself and then you just jump out as that
51:28
butterfly with your flat with your with all of the the colors coming out you
51:34
know the idea was great I still love it but turned out that I didn't get the trademark for the name
51:40
and so somebody else did and so I had to give it up to give it up
51:46
and that was just the thing yes I had the idea first I could have I could have
51:53
gotten into a into a um into a discussion with them I could have even
52:00
went to court and I mean do you want to do that no you don't want to do that right
52:06
so when thinking in terms of your name also the URL the URLs have to be
52:12
available and get ownership of all of the urls and so that's the thing that out what I
52:20
would definitely say first steps but always the center of attention is which
52:26
is the problem that I solve and who needs this who's the person that needs
52:32
this that's the the excuse me it should be the the center of attention
52:38
yeah no I like that it's it's it is is the question that especially kind of I'm
52:45
building a tech startup and you always have to refocus on okay
52:51
this is this is what I want to solve because I've had this problem now let me
52:56
make sure there are enough people that have had this problem to make this actually a meaningful Endeavor
53:03
um but you're right it's it's understanding like what you want to solve for whom you want to solve for and
53:10
then also reevaluating and genuinely understanding why you want to solve that
53:15
problem because I do think that the why is what's going to sustain you
53:20
to get back up in trying to solve the problem in the long term so I I think you're right
53:27
um okay so time checking um two more questions and then we'll get to some of
53:33
the kind of fun quick hitter questions um what
53:38
what does your business look like on Tuesday or what does your day look like on Tuesday five years from now if you
53:45
could imagine what you wanted to be
53:50
um good question so number one what I had
53:56
planned in the beginning and have so far I don't want to use the word failed but
54:01
I don't I haven't realized I haven't put this into into reality right now is I
54:08
really want to have my income 70 from
54:13
um passives and I must say for those listening there is nothing passive in
54:19
passive income because you have to Market it you just create a product once and once it's created the product is
54:25
created then you have to sell it and so you have to make the effort to do that um and definitely 30 from from
54:33
one-on-one Revenue so I enjoy working with people one-on-one but I want to be
54:38
more much more selective of who I work with and um
54:43
and I definitely want to live by the ocean definitely I want to hear the ocean when I
54:50
when I open my my eyes in the morning and open the windows and by the way it's
54:55
all kind of Windows I want to have these French windows and open um going to my to my garden open them
55:03
and then this there's this wind blowing in and blowing the the white long white curtains
55:09
and um I want to feel this this um concrete
55:14
pavement which is warm and soft and feels like Silk underneath my my feet
55:20
once I get up in the morning so and Thursday definitely Thursday Maria
55:26
comes along who's my my housekeeper my my good Soul who takes
55:34
care of my house and also takes care of me not not going in overworked mode
55:39
and who takes care of okay just chill this morning I take care
55:45
of this and this and that and she's just the person that I somewhat rescued from not so benevolent
55:52
um employers into being a part of the family and helping with my household and
55:58
being the good soul in the household and on Thursday evening
56:04
I definitely want to have my my Portuguese wine
56:10
as a um at a beach bar no excuse me a beach restaurant and really good beach
56:17
restaurant and I want to look at the the sunset and just hear the
56:22
the waves hitting the sand that's what it would be amazing in five years
56:29
I I I love it and what I love about the question is
56:36
I love watching where people go with it um where they explore kind of
56:43
okay what does my day look like okay yeah this is what I want my business to do but like my personal experience
56:50
like I love the fact that you could describe what you wanted your feet to touch that you could describe what you
56:56
wanted to eat what you wanted to drink or where you wanted to be the smells I I love that because I personally think
57:03
that those you know people always say try not to be materialistic and and and I think it's
57:11
when you can feel yourself doing something and you're tied to of an emotion it's not about the materialistic
57:18
nature of it it's about like this is what this is what I'm living for
57:24
this is what I'm aiming for right and so I hear a lot of freedom there I hear a
57:29
lot of autonomy there I hear a lot of I want to be able to to connect with folks
57:34
a little bit more on my terms than I am today um I love it no that that's awesome
57:42
yeah that's just I mean Freedom autonomy core values totally core values of mine
57:48
yeah um okay so my last question
57:54
um before we get into the quick headers um what what would you say you wish you
57:59
knew before you started your business and in and feel free to tap into some of those
58:06
lessons that you learned with your first business thank you
58:12
I wish I knew brand strategy um
58:17
I wish I knew more you know what let me I'm sorry but let
58:24
me rephrase the question I wish I I had known how to build an online business
58:30
five years before I know Universe has put me there once I
58:36
was ready once things were aligned for me I know that but I have to confess
58:42
that there is one part in me that says I wouldn't have to go it was unnecessary to go through all of that suffering
58:49
which there was a lot to be very Frank it was unnecessary had I known had I
58:56
known that there was this this this opportunity and I just didn't come across this I had some some endeavors
59:04
and I thought about um starting as a blogger as a fashion blogger by the way and my ex-husband
59:11
prevented me from that had I known how affiliate marketing which back then was
59:16
a thing works and that they earned from affiliate marketing had I known what this also what all of this is about
59:24
um had I known where even to find the information I had I had built something much earlier
59:33
I had I would have a team of five people who are living a freedom lifestyle who
59:39
are not being treated like kids because they are thriving in their jobs and they
59:45
are just part of my business family you see so I would have been happy to know to know
59:52
these things earlier yes totally it's it's funny because I I 100
59:58
understand that I had a um I look back
1:00:04
and thinking man why was I so rigid about not being on YouTube like I remember when YouTube came out I
1:00:11
just remember I was like I'm like I'm not gonna let people find my face on the internet Look At Me Now
1:00:18
and if I had kind of built that muscle earlier on you know
1:00:24
um who knows what you know where my career and where my life would have taken me no I'm again like I'm very
1:00:31
happy happy with the experiences that I've had and where I stood me but I do Wonder
1:00:36
man like in 2006 if I had just said let me just play with this thing called YouTube
1:00:42
um what would have happened um it's it's a very fascinating thought exercise
1:00:48
and you know what um Let me let me put a question back to you and it is who were you in 2006 and
1:00:57
were you ready for the journey where you had you developed the muscles I mean I'm
1:01:03
talking about rather the inner muscles yeah that you now need or if you think
1:01:10
about it did you need the lessons in between to even become that which you have
1:01:16
become today it's a good question I think
1:01:21
so 2006 um I was a 16-17 so I was finishing up
1:01:29
high school um I think that
1:01:37
you know what's interesting I think I have a I have the same problem I probably had back then
1:01:42
which is um a Chase for perfection
1:01:48
and an obsession with Polish um and you know I get that from my my
1:01:55
good and loving Nigerian parents and being the youngest of of four
1:02:01
um where I I try not to kind of I try not to make the mistakes I think in my
1:02:07
older age I've learned that mistakes are good and it's actually how you learn
1:02:13
um so I think that and I still grapple with that honestly I do kind of grapple
1:02:18
with that um personally so I do think that at 16.
1:02:25
I probably would have if I had gotten over the hump of oh put videos out there
1:02:30
on YouTube get out there and try something I would have been very obsessive about it I would have tried to be perfect in
1:02:37
it um I think it would probably be the same experience that I'm going through now I
1:02:45
think the biggest difference is I would have got comfortable more
1:02:51
comfortable with imperfection earlier in life that's probably the difference
1:02:57
yeah maybe I mean I mean the thing is um I don't know this is news to you but
1:03:03
most creative people are helpless perfectionists I mean healthless and think about just watch
1:03:10
any any good or not so good uh movie on
1:03:18
Classical Ballet dances I mean there is a plethora of them and what do they do they aim for Perfection and
1:03:25
um you know there's the question do you do you lift your arm like that or do you lift your arm like that so which is the
1:03:31
muscle you use and as a normal person you wouldn't even think about it
1:03:38
it makes the world of a difference you know and there's this thing and
1:03:43
I mean creative people have this tendency to to be perfectionists and
1:03:48
then I mean I I'm in it so you're kind of the club totally and so I think the
1:03:57
muscle we have to to try and and try to develop is let go
1:04:02
and rather and rather be Perfectly Imperfect
1:04:09
yeah then being um then then having this
1:04:15
perfect imperfection you see that this no there is this saying and I'm not I'm
1:04:21
not getting it rather do something that's not perfect then perfectly not
1:04:26
doing a thing that's the thing right see right perfect paralysis perfect analysis
1:04:31
paralysis because this little thing still is not aligned you know somebody else doesn't even see it you see this
1:04:38
because you created this so when people for example come into your house and your house is nicely
1:04:43
decorated they will say wow and you will think oh no because you know every cable
1:04:49
every little thing in the corners which they don't even see you know that there
1:04:55
are two holes behind the Shelf which you have put in the wall and they weren't
1:05:00
perfect but nobody sees them and you just know they are there and that applies that is
1:05:06
100 applicable to to building a business yeah absolutely
1:05:13
yeah absolutely and you actually made me think of something um it's you know I think a lot of
1:05:21
I think a lot of really good entrepreneurs and working professionals
1:05:26
generally have the trait of being obsessive and I think of like the stories that you
1:05:33
would hear about say like Steve Jobs being obsessed that the iPhone had
1:05:39
curved edges and I think to most people you're just kind of like uh that's kind
1:05:44
of weird like it wouldn't make a difference but even in the context of this conversation as I think about brand
1:05:51
the core values and what it represents there is an importance about being
1:05:57
obsessive in quote unquote trying to be perfect on certain aspects
1:06:04
because they do represent your brand in a quintessential way versus some of the
1:06:10
other things where you know um even before here I got on camera before you hopped on I got my camera I
1:06:18
was like oh I I got a little went I ran and I did a little ultimate it wasn't lit but that's just kind of mine now
1:06:24
would people have noticed the lint probably not but is a big difference
1:06:30
between making sure that I'm asking you good questions then is there a lint on
1:06:35
my shirt and so I I think that you make a very good point it just made me think about
1:06:41
um how we hear stories about very successful or famous entrepreneurs being obsessive about certain things but when
1:06:47
you think about what they're obsessing over it's quite essential to their brand and how they View kind of the the
1:06:54
meaning and the impact of their company it's true I mean um and I think this
1:07:00
this Shen is no no I I didn't think about this before
1:07:06
this way because I didn't have the conversation about it but yes I am obsessed about brand about I'm obsessed
1:07:13
about um building holistic um holistic approaches building building
1:07:20
a business from a holistic standpoint like seeing all of the influences all of
1:07:26
the angles all of the touch points and making sure that everything is aligned
1:07:32
and smooth and yes I am a crazy I have a crazy
1:07:37
Obsession about that but it's fun and the outcome is simply that
1:07:43
people get to create people get to build to build businesses but one thing I want
1:07:48
to add um is about the about Obsession and somebody like like Steve Jobs for
1:07:55
example and about success well we we always see the success but we
1:08:00
don't see the the missed successes we don't see when you know you see the one
1:08:06
time somebody somebody had a success but you don't see the 100 times they tried
1:08:12
before and I'm not the first person to say this but it's I think this is a message that
1:08:18
cannot be repeated often enough to just remind yourself when you feel like I am
1:08:25
a failure like I cannot do this when you have tried one when you have
1:08:31
tried 100 times try it once more because probably once
1:08:36
more will be the one time you succeed and there is a plethora of um of uh of
1:08:44
examples in the entrepreneurial world in the product world
1:08:50
generally in the world you see even even Evolution most probably has tried very
1:08:58
often until this came to life you see probably and that's
1:09:05
something to to remind yourself in in terms of Doubt because times of doubt if
1:09:10
one thing is for sure then it's times of doubt they are coming I mean that's just
1:09:16
ahead of you if you're building a business it's part of the journey absolutely absolutely
1:09:21
they're spot on all right let's get to some of these quick hitter so I if I don't um delay wine time anymore
1:09:30
um what uh um what are some books that you'd recommend for fellow entrepreneurs to
1:09:36
read
1:09:44
and by the way I have this in physical format and as an audio book and I love
1:09:50
hearing this thing when I drive and I can't count how many times I have heard
1:09:56
and read the book because it's an evergreen and um you can just I don't
1:10:01
know you can't hear it read it often enough then there's definitely build a story brand by Donald
1:10:09
Miller definitely donut Villa is a go-to person when it comes to marketing
1:10:15
and how marketing is tied to Brand to Brand building then I read this I read this book this
1:10:23
year and I loved it and it's the psychology of money by Morgan hausel
1:10:28
he wrote this during the pandemic and he did a really good job of self-analysis
1:10:34
and Analysis of patterns and negative patterns cancel money and the nuclear effect by
1:10:42
Scott Alford but that is a book that is not for the beginner it's definitely not
1:10:48
for the beginner it's a book to be read I would say maybe when you're one year
1:10:54
two years three years in business and um maybe a book when you feel like you're
1:11:00
hitting a wall and you can't get over it maybe that's the book for you and also I
1:11:07
have it in physical format and an audio format and I was listening to it while working on the book and using the book
1:11:14
as a workbook so yeah I love it I love it all right I'm
1:11:19
gonna check those out what um what question do you think I should ask the
1:11:25
next guest um
1:11:30
what do you think we have the most lasting long-lasting effect on building
1:11:35
lasting sustainable success that's something that would be interesting to hear from others
1:11:42
okay now what do you think what is your answer to that question
1:11:49
um understanding your core values
1:11:55
understanding what core values are understanding that core values are something you are born with and that are
1:12:02
developed over time with the the things that make you you that they are not
1:12:08
something that is um selected like like clothing
1:12:14
so there are no uh core values from the Wardrobe but there are core values stemming from the very core of your soul
1:12:21
and choosing your business choosing your
1:12:26
business model and choosing the people you surround yourself with based on
1:12:33
these core values and we're rather some on wherever and whenever something violates your core
1:12:41
values move away because you can't get over it it hurts you it's hurting and when you're not
1:12:49
working based off of your core values you will feel misaligned and everybody
1:12:55
will feel it too I love that uh
1:13:01
I I love how much entrepreneurship allows you to pull in
1:13:07
every aspect of your world and your life and allows you to kind of put it into
1:13:13
your business I think it's uh um it's like using every bit of your
1:13:18
experience before in weird ways that you could never expect
1:13:24
um whether it's in your kind of friend circles or or in your
1:13:29
um kind of professional environment so I love it yeah perfect
1:13:35
Juliana this has been incredible thank you so much tell the people where they can find you
1:13:43
I'm young LinkedIn you can find me at Juliana rogers.com and you can find me
1:13:49
on Instagram at Juliana Rogers official
1:13:55
all right thank you thank you so much I appreciate it same here