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So today I want to talk to you a little bit about branding right now. You've heard the word and you've probably even used it and you probably have some idea that it's really important in your marketing. But here's the thing, if you ask 10 different business owners, you're probably going to get 10 different answers. Some are going to say that it's a logo, or others might say that it's the vibe that they have for their company on their social media or the color palette of their website. It means different things to different people. But here's the thing, that branding involves those things, but it goes way deeper than that because what it really is, is, and it's hard to put into words, but it's the story that people tell themselves about who they believe you are. It's not what you have to say about yourself or your product itself. It's what people believe they can count on from your product, right? It's your reputation in someone's mind, right? So if I say to you Tide, right, that's a brand, you're going to immediately think of probably a box of Tide, right? That's the image that you're gonna have of Tide. But you're also going to probably, on a subconscious level, be able to think of how it smells and be able to think of how the scoop feels when you're going in and scooping out powder. And you might even think about the tiny bit of residue that's left on your fingers and how that feels. And so when I mention a brand, all those things happen consciously. You're thinking of what that box of Tide looks like. This image. Branding goes beyond just a conscious level, right? And the thing to remember is that your brand evolves as your business evolves. So if your marketing doesn't evolve as your company evolves, you're going to risk losing people and confusing them. Branding happens in three stages. As your company grows, I want to show you the three stages and the most common mistakes that business owners make that slowly kill trust and loyalty from their customers. So let's break it down. All right, so what I want to do is show you the three different stages, the core idea behind each stage, what you really need to understand about why people are buying and how to respond to that. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to use just a made up example. We're going to talk about Joe. Joe has this incredible recipe for salsa and he really wants to see if he can get this salsa to go nationwide, right? So we're going to start out where Joe starts out. And Joe starts out selling his salsa at farmers markets and gets a vendor's booth at a different events, things like that. And so at this point, when Joe has his salsa and he's giving people a little taste, he's in stage one of his branding, right? In stage one, if you're the owner, you are the brand, right? People associate whatever you're selling with you. So Joe gives people a little taste of his salsa at his little vendor booth. They like it. Now that's a super important part, is that whatever you're selling, whether it's your product or your service or whatever it is, it has to be really good. And, well, it doesn't have to be blow away good, but it has to be at least as good as what they can get somewhere else, right? So why would they buy your product if it's not that good? So whatever you're selling has to be at least as good, if not hopefully better than what they're able to get somewhere else. All right? So. But that is only half of the reason why people are buying. People are buying because of Joe. They like Joe. He's a nice guy, he's easy to talk to. He gives them a sample of his salsa, and it's actually pretty good, right? So the core idea behind stage one branding is that the owner is the brand, right? So your product has to be good, your service has to be good, but the owner has to be likable, okay? Because if he's not likable, people are going to get turned off and they're going to equate that. Even, even if the product or service is good, if the owner's not likable, it's not going to work. So Joe has to be likable. Now that's part of that brand, right? They're going to like Joe. They associate Joe with the salsa. Joe is the brand. Now here's the thing. When people buy it, right, they're going to be buying the salsa. You have to get into the reason why they're buying salsa from Joe. They can go to the store and buy the same brand that they know they like for the same price that they're paying for Joe's. In fact, Joe is a little bit more. So why are they buying from Joe? And if you say, well, I don't need to know the psychology behind it, I don't need to know all that psychobabble, all I know is that they're buying the product, the product must be good. People are going to buy it. That's only going to take you so far. I promise you that will come around to kill you if you don't understand it, right? What you really got to understand is that people have this place in their heart for the little guy, right? And so they see Joe, who's working hard, and he's making salsa, and he's showing up at events, and he's a likable guy, and. And they have this place in their heart that says, I want to help the little guy. I want to buy this not because it's the greatest salsa they've ever had, but because they want to help the little guy, right? So you have to understand, people are buying because they want to help the little guy. And so at this point, they like the salsa, they like Joe, but they're not buying it because they want salsa. They're not really even buying it because they like Joe. They're buying it for themselves because they want to take that desire to help someone and act on it and fulfill that desire. And now they walk away with salsa that maybe they weren't planning on buying. So they don't care that much about it, but they feel great about the fact that they helped this little guy who seems like a great guy, and they. They really like them. And so at this point, when you know that, right, you can't draw attention to it, say, hey, thanks for buying from me, the little guy, and acting on your desire to feel better about yourself, like, that would sound awful, right? You're going to kill it, right? Your response to that and how you can actually reinforce that is to turn around and just respond with gratitude. And I'm going to tell you in a few seconds how you can turn this into actually collecting their info. But you respond with gratitude. Now here's how you get their contact info. In responding with gratitude, Joe just says, hey, man, I really appreciate you buying my salsa. It really means a lot to me that you like it and that you're buying from me. This means a lot. Hey, listen, if you ever want salsa that's a little bit hotter or you want me to make something that's a little more mild, I'd be glad to do that. I'll just. I can text you if you give me your contact info. I'll just shoot you a text when I'm making a batch. And you just let me know if you want something that's hotter. If you want a bigger, you know, you want something more than this jar, just let me know. I'll be glad to custom make it for you. So now Joe is endearing himself to them and he's collecting their contact info so he can continue to market to them. Now here's a pro tip. At this stage of your branding, when your branding is, you don't ever use the word we or I'll have someone. You are the brand. People are buying into your story, right? They believe that it's Joe that's making the salsa that's jarring it, that's doing everything and that's gonna call them. So never use the word. We always use the word I because at this point it's important that your brand stays very personal. Alright, so Joe is doing well. He's showing up at events and he's selling lots of salsa, collecting lots of names. People are enjoying it, right? So he is now, his business has now grown to where he is shifting into stage two. Hey friends, it's Dave. And I want to give something back to you, my listeners, as my way of saying thanks for supporting this show and thanks for supporting your local business community that we all care a whole lot about. So right now I'm offering a free online business readiness assessment. And what that is is it's an online assessment. It's a series of questions that you can do online that help you see exactly how sellable your business would be if you needed to exit today. Now, you might. Selling your business might be years away for you right now, but getting it ready to sell provides some immediate benefits. It becomes more profitable, it runs smoother with less stress, it gives you, the owner, more freedom. And as a bonus, when the time comes, it can be worth hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dollars more. So I'm offering this now because I want to thank you, my listeners, but I can't promise it's always going to be free or that I'll always have the time to review it personally with you. So while it's available, click on the link in the show notes, take the assessment and see where you stand and then start building a business that gives you freedom now and a bigger payday now and later. Alright, back to the show. And stage two of the branding is where your brand is now your product or your service. Right? Joe's brand is now the salsa. So your brand in stage two is your product or your service. It's your core offering. It's what you sell. Because on the one hand, people like Joe and they know his story, but they've bought his salsa enough where they like his salsa, now they want to keep buying it. Right. And so the salsa has become the brand, even though they still like Joe and they still want him to make it. But what's happening in their mind is they bought it enough times, and how they're associating the salsa with the brand, and they're associating the brand more with the product and how it fits into their life than they are with the owner. Okay, so how does Joe then take the marketing and make that shift? His business has evolved from stage one to stage two. How does he take his branding from stage one to stage two? Well, what he needs to do is as he's still continuing to go to these events, and he may. The. The. The. The demand for his product has gotten to the point where he can't go to every event. And so he does have people that he's hired to go to these events and sell his salsa. But people are familiar with his salsa, and they're becoming less familiar with him because they're seeing other faces there that the operation is now all about the salsa and not much about Joe. So they might need to see an upgrade in his display a banner, better jars. You know, he might even want to private label a brand of chips or, you know, have a cookbook that uses his salsa and 28 different recipes, something that says, this company, this business that I've created is all about the salsa. Okay? So when you make that shift, here's the psychology. It can either work against you or it can work for you. Right? So what you have to do is realize that if Joe plays it small and shows up with the same rickety folding table and puts it in the same little jars with the crooked labels, what's going to happen is people are going to go, man, I've been believing in this guy, but he hasn't grown much. He's probably going to go out of business. I'm not sure I'm really going to commit myself to this salsa anymore. You know, maybe I'll just go back to my old brand, because it's not going to be around forever. But if Joe grows, it's going to have the opposite effect. Right. If people see a nicer setup, bigger banners, they see the recipe book, they see that Joe is really ramping this thing up and he's taking the ball and run with it, they're going to feel like their investment is paid off, like they believed in this guy, they were excited for him to go after his dream, and it's actually happening, and they're a part of it, Right? So they feel invested and I know I missed the. The end there. So there we go. They feel invested. And you have to understand that the early adopters feel invested in you. And so what your response is to that is that you have to recognize their loyalty, right? So at this point, Joe is going to say, you know, something like, hey, he can put a promo out there. He's got enough email addresses and names on his contact list where he can run a little promo and say, hey, anybody that's got an old jar of salsa or a picture at one of my old setups, bring it down and I will give you a free jar of salsa, or I'll put you in our VIP club where you get 20% off or something like that. Because what that does, that recognizes people who invested in him, who believed in him. And he's saying, I really appreciate it. I'm where I am because you've believed in me. So it makes them want to keep believing in him. But it also sends a message to people who weren't an early adopter that, oh, this guy's been around a while and he's got some fans, and they become more loyal as well. Okay? So Joe has had great success. And now his exact recipe is being outsourced, made, jarred, labeled, everything. And Joe has nothing to do with that part of the process. Joe is getting his product on the shelf in supermarkets. So his company is now evolved into the third stage, right? So his branding has to evolve into the third stage. So when people have no interaction with Joe or any of his employees, how does he get them to buy his product? How does branding play into this? Right? This is where branding is all about your reputation. He has a reputation locally, right? But how does he move this thing nationally? That's the tricky part, right? So Joe's reputation, it's not enough. What he needs to do is borrow the reputation of someone else. People walk into a supermarket, they trust that supermarket to sell brands that aren't going to poison them and kill them or be, you know, or taste awful, right? So what Joe is going to do is he's going to borrow the trust of the supermarket. Just like you would take out a loan so that you can create a business and pay back that loan. So you're borrowing trust, you're borrowing their trust and say, hey, if you will put me on an end display and run a special promotional so that people know that my brand is good, anybody that's never tried it, that's never met me, you know, then here's what I'll do for you. And he works out a deal with them. And here's where the psychology of it is going to actually cost dollars. And what I mean by that is when you think of a brand, right? When you go into a supermarket, you have brands that you know and then you immediately see off brands that you've never heard of, but because you've never heard of them, they're an off brand. You're less likely to try them, right? Might be better, they might be cheaper, and they might actually be just as good or better, but you're not willing to take a chance. You stick with brands that you know. So the way that you're going to borrow people's trust in this, if people have never tried Joe Salsa, the way he's going to get them to trust him is he's going to get an end a big display which he's gonna have to pay extra for at a supermarket. His packaging is going to have to say, you can trust me, right? He can't still have hand labeled jars of salsa with crooked labels on them, right? You know that's written with a magic marker. He's got to have those, those jars and those labels that are appealing. Think of what Apple does, right? When you pay for an Apple computer, it's much more expensive. But everything, even down to the box you feels nice, feels like you look at the box, you look at how beautiful it is, how well it's packed, and the message that that sends is, wow. If Apple takes the time to make sure that the box feels great and that the way it's packed is elegant, their computer's got to be worth the extra money because they must be putting that same time and attention and care into their computer. And the reverse is true. If Joe Salsa looked crappy, the packaging was not that good. If it all looks sloppy, chances are people are going to equate that with the quality of his product. So he's got to invest in the packaging, into the promoting of it, so that people will say, this looks like something I can trust. He is borrowing their trust by doing all that so that once they do try a salsa, they go, oh, this is delicious salsa. In fact, I'm probably never going to buy X brand again because Joe Salsa is so good. But initially he needs to do something to gain their trust. So in stage three, branding reputation is everything. And you are asking people to trust you based on someone else's reputation or based on what they already trust. Good packaging promotions, right? People buy Doritos chips over another brand. It's not because doritos are that much better. Maybe it's because they trust it. They've seen the ads on tv, they know that this is a big brand. They know that that brand has gone through everything it needs to go through to be safe, to be what the FDA says it needs to do to sell a food product. So they trust it. Right? But even big corporations borrow trust because they know if you see their commercial on tv, they are now a name brand and that means you can trust them. So it's not about, it's not really about the packaging, it's not really about being in the supermarket. It's about trust and borrowing your trust because you trust the supermarket, because you trust companies that spend money on advertising. So the psychology behind this is people want to feel safe when they're buying a product, right? They won't take the chance that something might be better. They'd rather stick with what they know they can trust. And so the response that Joe needs to have is to just stay consistent, consistently advertise, consistently be on the shelves in the supermarket. The product has to look the same all the time. Now. The packaging has to always be this top notch packaging. He has to stay consistent. He's at that branding level where it's all about his reputation and all of those things play into his reputation at this point. All right, let's wrap it up here. I hope that this was really helpful for you. And you know, keep in mind, if you are a startup, you're in stage one, if you're just getting going. So the main thing is in all these stages, you are continuing to build trust. Stage one, you're building trust. Stage two, you're continuing to nurture that trust. And in stage three, you're protecting that trust. Right? But they're all about trust. And so if you're in stage one, go ahead and lean into who you really are and what you bring to the marketplace and how you bring it and show people that they can trust you to continue to do that all the time. If you're in stage two, you've got to level up as your business grows. People are going to trust when they see your level of professionalism grow. Right? So whatever your product or service is, it can't still be at stage one. Okay? They've got to see that you have grown and that your equipment that you're using or that how your product is being presented has grown with you. That's going to continue to build their trust and continue to reinforce that they've made a smart investment, investment in you. And then lastly in stage three, where it's all about your reputation and it's really about the reputation of the others that trust you, that support you, and you're going to continue to protect that trust and protect your reputation by consistently delivering top quality, whatever it is that you deliver. All right, thanks. I hope that this has been helpful. And hey, let me say this. If you're not sure where you where you're at in your branding, if you're in between stages or you're just not sure how you should be branding, I'm going to leave a link in the show notes to my calendar and just get on my calendar and let's talk. I. I have been through all these stages with my former company that I sold and so I know one I've made a lot of mistakes, so I know what not to do, but I learned the things to do right. And I'd love to talk to you and just see if I can use my experience and the things that I've learned over the years to help you figure out what you need to do. So the link is in there. Just get on my calendar and let's have a conversation. And I'm doing that because I really appreciate everybody that supports me. All right, thanks and I look forward to hearing from you. All right, well, thanks for listening and hey, if this has been helpful, leave it in the comments how you're going to be able to use the information that I'm giving you. All right, thanks.