021 Your ‘Why’ Just Changed… Now What?
Your business "why" isn’t set in stone—so what happens when it shifts? Let's dive into how to navigate this change with clarity and confidence.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is a sign that your business “why” has changed?
A) You feel disconnected from your original mission
B) You’re making a lot of money but have no customers
C) You haven’t changed anything in your marketing for 10 years
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Answer: A) You feel disconnected from your original mission - we grow and change, so should your driving force.
Your Business ‘Why’ Just Changed… Now What?
If your business motivations have evolved, you're not alone! In this episode, we explore how to identify when your "why" has changed, why it matters for your brand, and how to adjust your marketing and messaging accordingly. Whether you're refining your personal brand or shifting directions entirely, this is your roadmap to embracing the evolution of your business with confidence.
As small business owners, our motivations and goals shift over time, and that’s a good thing! When your "why" changes, it’s an opportunity to refine your brand, reconnect with your audience, and double down on what truly aligns with your values. The first step is recognizing when this shift has occurred—whether it’s from outgrowing your original mission or discovering new opportunities that excite you.
Once you’ve identified this change, your next move is to adjust your messaging. That means ensuring your personal brand reflects your new direction, aligning your marketing efforts with your updated goals, and embracing new strategies with confidence. Consistency is key—small, intentional actions will keep you moving forward even when big milestones feel far away.
Most importantly, trust yourself in this process. It’s easy to second-guess your decisions, but if your new direction feels right, lean into it! And if you need guidance on refining your personal brand, marketing strategy, or just figuring out what’s next, let’s chat. Book a session with Zoë Wood at VCC.training and let’s make sure your brand stays as bold as you are.
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🕒 00:00 – Welcome & Acknowledgment of Country
🕒 06:00 – Why your original business "why" may no longer fit
🕒 12:00 – Understanding the difference between starting a business and growing one
🕒 18:00 – How personal branding plays a role in redefining your business direction
🕒 24:00 – Small wins to celebrate when evolving your brand
🕒 30:00 – The role of consistency in keeping your brand relevant
🕒 36:00 – Signs that your brand messaging needs an update
🕒 42:00 – Having faith in your marketing even when results aren’t immediate
🕒 48:00 – Creative ways to test new directions in your business
🕒 54:00 – Wrapping up: How to stay motivated when your "why" evolves
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Zoë Wood 2:00
Zoo.
Zoë Wood 2:07
I promise I will continue to work on my delivery. G'day everyone, and welcome I promise I will continue. G'day everyone, and welcome to this week's video, confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing your marketing goals with killer. I promise I will continue to work on my delivery. Y of that elevator pitch. G'day everyone, and welcome to this week's video, confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing your marketing goals with killer video marketing strategies. pitch, because obviously I. this week's video, confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing your marketing goals with killer video marketing strategies. and for those who are watching at home, I like to do an accomplished over this past week, because we. confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing your marketing goals with killer video marketing strategies. I promise I will continue to work on my delivery of that elevator pitch, because obviously I worked on creating it, and I need to be able to present it. But for everyone who is watching us new or if you are a seasoned professional, welcome us. Welcome to this weekly live stream that we do from 10am to 11am Australian Eastern Standard Time every Friday where you get a chance to watch and listen the live stream live on LinkedIn or YouTube or hashtag replay when you can watch it on the replay afterwards. Hi to everyone. So this is your chance, your weekly opportunity to discuss video marketing, personal branding and anything to do with your business. With me. Zo, make sure you comment any of your questions or thoughts or ideas for podcast topics for the unborn your brand podcast or other live streams, maybe where you want the opportunity to sit and actually chat live with me about your business or about your brand and what the things that you want to do. Marketing wise, I'm always happy, and I've got, I think, a couple of opportunities lined up in March of this year, where, or maybe earlier, depending on how we go, where, I'll have the opportunity to run an interview with someone sorry, run an interview with a potential client, or maybe someone I'm currently working with On another collaboration project, and we get a chance to chat live and answer your questions as we see them. If you need more information about our live streams, our podcast or events or other things that we have going on at the video confidence coach, you can check it out at Vcc dot training. Speaking of which, you can check it out. Hi. Other camera. You can check it out here on zo the website, which, of course, I am doing very well on actually updating it and making sure it is up to date with everything. I'm very good at updating the show notes, not so much on everything else, but we're getting there. So thank you everyone for your discretion during this time, as I continue to grow and market myself while also catering to other clients, Before we officially begin, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the water rung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I conduct my business. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands and working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them in their fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land, Run a live stream every week. Though this is an opportunity that I honestly have every week to answer your questions that I come across during the week, but usually I'd like to give maybe three to four minutes to be able to just go over what we've accomplished over this week, because we are recording this and we are also live on the 21st of February, 2025 it's already the end of February. We're hitting the road hard, and everything's kind of hitting at once. But in regards to what we've accomplished this week, of course, our focus for this quarter is our glow and grow branding session, which is available for anyone who wants to just get their marketing sorted for 2025 you can check that out on my website, BCC, dot training. Over this past week, I have definitely been working a lot more on the client. So, so I've been working in the business, as opposed to on the business, definitely this month or so this week, and though, I have been doing a lot more collaboration meetings for projects that are in q2 of this year. So if you are Rick Ainsley and John, hi we you'll be seeing them maybe on my feeds, but also just on my social media feeds and in my email newsletters over the next coming weeks to months, as we finalize a couple of the projects that we're working on together. So I look forward to working with these beautiful marketing professionals in the work that they do, and hopefully be able to bring you an opportunity to improve yourself in your marketing right here. Another thing that I'd like to touch on is one of my clients, Nadine Riley, Aboriginal artist, is having her exhibition opening today, so if you're watching this live on the 21st of February, 2025 she is having her exhibition opening available to the public at so she's in Glen Iris, which is a suburb of Melbourne, and she is at the Maribyrnong no mirror Digi art exhibition space, the gallery, which is at 100 High Street. So you can check that out via the show notes below. Or you can check out more information via googling Nadine, Aboriginal artist, and you will find her exhibition details there. Best of luck tonight. I look forward to seeing you there. You can also see me at other future events over this past over this next coming week, I should say so if you are a member of the one roof networking group in Australia, you will definitely see me about I will be at all of the events. And now that we've done a lot of in client work, now be able to spend a bit of time doing some power up sessions and looking forward to meeting you all virtually this month, as we get going, also I will have my social sorted out. For those who may not know, even though I am the marketing person I find myself when it comes to social media, particularly and social media marketing, it's very low on my priority list, though it is where a lot of people see me. So I finally got my crack together. Ta, da, you will see more of my face and more of the work that we do over this next, you know, week to hopefully for the rest of the year. But knowing me, I will put my client work ahead of that and just completely negate it, like I always do. But if you do see me, say hi, drop a comment and let them know, and let me know if you saw me on the video. Confidence, connect the upcoming podcast this week, which will be released on 3pm on Sunday this week. Unfortunately, my apologies at the podcasts, they were all ready to go. They're all scheduled in, and then Spotify went no and then proceeded not to share them. So I found that out Monday morning, so I had to fix that. So apologies if you are looking for your podcasting fix and couldn't get it from the video confidence coach, my sincere apologies. Hopefully that won't happen again. Spotify You better not. But this week on the unboring your brand podcast, my weekly podcast, we are going to be touching on why templates are guides that are meant to be broken. So if that subject intrigues you. Of course, I will come up with a much SEO friendly name by that point, because I'm working on it this afternoon. Then you can definitely check that out on Sunday, when that is released. So again, that is the UN boring your brand podcast, and you can check it out. It's from the video confidence coach. It's got my face on it. And we're also my sub project, sorry, my whole subject, it's fairly big project at the moment, is Vic podcasters. So if you are a podcaster in the Victorian region of Australia, then check out our Facebook, LinkedIn and email newsletters, where you can find details about upcoming grants, news and points of discussion and a community of like minded podcasters. And we have a weekly podcast that's a five minute podcast, something that's meant to get you up and get you going, and we're currently on a series about rebooting your podcast after a long break. Of course, we haven't taken too much of a long break, but in the event that you as a podcast are wanting to get back into podcasting, what are the things to think about before jumping back in to what you may have. Doing previous to your break. So this week is going to be a tech and mental refresh, getting back into the groove. So let me know how you go on that front beautiful. So I will do so as we're going to go. So the next thing that we're going to touch on today is we're going to touch into some community questions. And I want to thank everyone from live and replay of last week who checked out our community questions. So essentially, what I did, for those who were unable to catch it, I just did a series of community questions I have received over the past week, over the past year, and I put everything into just my community question note area of my with my little internal wiki that I have, and then I just pulled a bunch of questions that people have asked me, and I used last week live stream as an opportunity just to answer all those questions, both long and short, and be able to provide some context for vehicle. And then what I will do over this next week or two is me and my editor will break those down into smaller videos that we can then hand over to people and make it nice and easy for everyone. So today we're going to just do one community question, which is, what small wins should you celebrate? And don't worry, I'll give you some context as we jump into that, and then the podcast recordings that we're going to do today. So I usually use this live stream opportunity as well as answering your questions in comments. Is the opportunity to answer or record some podcast episodes for the unborn your brand podcast. So we've got a question that a lot of people have asked, or a lot of people I keep finding, especially with my clients, over this past start to the year, because it's been a little bit slow. Feel free to correct me if that has not been the case for you this year, but it's been a little bit slow, not in regards to things happening, but more people's energy and how tired they feel at the start of the year, which is not a great sign, because it's supposed to be the start of the year and you're supposed to do stuff. But in that opportunity, take this opportunity. I wanted to take this opportunity to record a podcast about why starting your business and why you keep growing your business are two different questions, and I'll clarify that more in the podcast itself. And I will also be recording a slightly shorter podcast about having faith in your marketing and what that means for you. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this opportunity to take pause make sure everything is working for us and making sure that the background doesn't disappear on me again. Alright, see it a bit not everything is going to be perfect at the gate. When you first started your business, were you crack hot straight away? Did you not make mistakes? Did you like the first thing that you ever created, that you ever serviced, that you ever did for your business, was it absolutely perfect? No, can anyone argue that what you do now is perfect? No, the reason I ask that is because when it comes to marketing your business in general, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to make pitfalls. But hopefully the work that and the message that I put out there is that if you're willing to make mistakes, that ultimately, in the end of the day, don't harm yourself and do not harm anyone else, then it's okay to make mistakes you
Zoë Wood 13:36
I think it's time for you to celebrate some small wins, not just in your brand or your small business, but in what you've been able to achieve in however long you've been trying to grow your personal brand, G'day, it's Zo Wood. The video confidence coach and I wanted to help you narrow down this question. So I got a question in a long discussion I had with a bunch of lovely girls, but I'm gonna consistently point out Alyssa, who we had a chat afterwards. So we had a 15 minute obligation free chat. So check that out on my website, VCC, dot training. But essentially, what it was is that she was wanting to know how to measure six measures her success in growing her personal brand, especially since she's only started out over the past couple of months, and she wanted to know what it meant to actually be successful in that space. And so obviously we chat. And of course, personal branding is my thing, and as someone like myself, who has been doing it for about 15 years, it took me a while to kind of get down to the nitty gritty of what actually she was trying to ask and what it meant. And ultimately, I came to the conclusion, and we both came to the conclusion, I should say, is that she wanted to know what small wins are reasonable to celebrate when growing your brand, be it small business or be it a personal brand, and it can always be very. Intuitive to focus on big, flashy milestones, like big numbers or, you know, numbers either generated by money or vanity metrics. Vanity metrics being on, say, social media, their follow account you have, doesn't really matter how many people follow you. It matters at the end of the day, how many people pay you. So that's kind of where the focus mainly should be when it comes to those big numbers, but those big numbers don't come very often, which is why they're very big and why they're impactful for us in our brand. What are some small wins that we can focus on and what are worth celebrating, especially when it comes to both setting goals for your brand and small business, but also just in general, when you come across, what are some small wins that you can genuinely focus on to help you get through the day to day of running your brand, running your business. So the way that I like to think about it is these following items. Now I can rush through them a little bit for you to use, just so I'm not taking too much of your time, but when it comes to celebrating the small wins for your personal brand is, have you been consistently showing up, showing up in both your marketing efforts, but also making sure that you're like, consistently nurturing your leads, responding to people? Have you been showing up consistently, and if that isn't the case, that is okay. But do you plan to in the future that is a small win that you could reasonably achieve over a short amount of time? And then when it comes to specifically consistency, have you been regularly, consistent with your posting, with your filming, with engaging your audience, of both potential clients as well as current clients. The consistency is key, and also it takes a lot of effort to actually show up and consistently show up. So having that little small win of knowing that in your day to day running of your brand, you've been able to do it consistently, another one is hitting publish on your first piece of content, your first video. And of course, the video confidence coach comes. Video Marketing is kind of the my stick, but posting your first video, your first reel, your first carousel, which is a series of images or series of videos in a social media post, or even just hitting publish on a blog post on your website, if it's the first one, that is a really big milestone for you to be able to achieve, even though it is a very small win. Now, I know that makes it counterintuitive, but I want you to think about how much energy and how much time and knowledge and practice it took to get to that point. It may not be the perfect, the perfect and best thing ever. I'm currently working with someone who is reinvigorating their podcast, so they're very much in the same area, but they're completely like, shifting and pivoting their ideas, and they're reviewing and looking back at a lot of their older podcasts, and they're cringing, and they're going, oh, like, I don't like, I don't want people to find these. And they were, they were going to delete those podcast episodes. And I said, No, no, no, the information is solid. The knowledge is solid. It's evergreen, so it's something that can be used over and over again without too much world or political context. And it's okay that you sound a bit crap. It's okay that you don't look the best, because you are growing and evolving, you are being consistent and you hitting that publish on that first piece of content is the first step on a long line of steps that you are going to take to market yourself. Getting your first comment like or share from a stranger is a really like, nice, small win that can make you feel good inside a stranger, someone you have no connection with, has shared your message, has lacked your content, and has taken that time to comment and interact with you. What beautiful. That is a beautiful first step, and hopefully you will have more coming as you build consistency, but you have to make sure you hit publish in your first get seat. And I'm linking these all together. Work with me here. Receiving your first positive feedback or review from a client that you've gotten is a nice, good, small win. You can use that, not just in marketing purposes, but also just to keep in your smile file. A Smile file is what I like to recommend. A lot of my clients use as something that they can refer back to when maybe they're not having a good day running. They're not maybe they're not having a good day, or they're just not doing well as they thought they did. Look back at your smile file, see all the reviews and the positive feedback that you've got from what you do. You are passionate about what you and the reason that you are running this personal brand or this business is to grow. That is because you want to share that message and influence the people to be able to help them achieve what they need to achieve, to serve them. And in those moments where you don't feel like you crash or you're doing too well, looking at that smile file will definitely help you get. Back on Track emotionally, we'll worry about everything else later. Feeling more confident on camera requires practice, and to practice, you need to do it. So when you get to this point, and I've definitely checked in with clients that I've worked with, say, a year or two ago, and I've checked in with both how they're marketing themselves, but also checked in with them via email, via a phone call, and they say that it feels so so much less daunting than what they initially thought. They put so much pressure on themselves to perform, and now they have no problem putting on the camera. They have no problem talking in a zoom or virtual meeting with their clients, or even just pitching themselves online. They have no problem with it now, because I've been able to practice, but also they ultimately feel so much more confident. And when I bring up this fact, it's like, wow, you've come a long way in X amount of time, they go, oh yeah, good point. So that is a nice, small win for you to feel nice and toasty inside when you feel confident enough to be on camera. Another thing that I want to draw your attention to is also being able to find your voice. Now I'm not talking about your voice that's just coming out of your mouth. I'm talking about your brand voice, your personal brand. Voice, the messaging that you want to think the folk, the people that you want to focus and help and serve, when you actually find what sounds more like you and how you want to spread that message that is a beautiful, small win that will serve you as the person doing the work for however long you plan to run your a personal brand or your business. Highly beautiful if you're another small win is landing your first or recent collaboration or opportunity of that like maybe it's something that doesn't necessarily lead directly to cash, money or leads, but being able to say guest on a guest feature, guest on someone's podcast or work with a another marketing collaboration or opportunity with another business that is not necessarily your competitor, but nice and parallel to you, that is a beautiful, small win that will help you a land more collaborations in the future. Because you've done it before, you know what pitfalls are not to do. But also you're able to see what people are able to see that, hey, this person works really well, and our communities have both grown together. So use that opportunity to your advantage. Last two that I want to touch on is seeing small growth in your followers and engagement. Because, again, going back to the consistency thing, you are being consistent, and there is growth happening over time. Now, of course, those vanity metrics are not necessarily the be all and end all, but they are a nice, small win for you to feel better about what you're doing because you're reaching the right people and in those events that you are working your butt off and you're not seeing any return. I do recommend having a 15 minute chat with me again. You can check that out on the website, VCC, dot training. But it's not necessarily your fault, and we can take the time to go back to your message, go back to your customer and see why maybe they're not gelling with your message or your voice or what have you. But seeing that small growth and small, steady, consistent growth is way better than any sort of viral fame, where you go
Zoë Wood 23:22
and it doesn't work out for you, so I want to bring your attention to that, and the last one for this particular section is getting a message like this really helped me. Thank you so much for sharing this, or getting proof that your brand is making a difference by either a DM so this is a direct message on the social media platform, or maybe an email, or even if it is just a free offer that you give to potential clients. When someone says, Thank you, this was really helpful. That's a beautiful, small win, and hopefully give you that strength and energy to continue going and continue to help more people, because I don't know what the statistics are, but something is like and every like 25 people that you help, especially with free or lead magnet type products. Lead Magnets being products that you offer for free in exchange for, say, email addresses or Constant Contact details, I have the 25 people that will download, maybe one will even respond. And even then, out of that work group, it's very rare for people to take the time to go Thank you. This really helped a lot, even if it did help them a lot. I think people are just, obviously, people are very busy. But also, when it comes to free, people expect, oh, you're gonna just email me later on. You're gonna remind me, oh, I should get back to you. Thank you, that type of thing later on. So don't take it against anyone in particular if you don't get immediate feedback on that front when it comes to your activities on the marketing front, and as I said in that last section, for people who are starting out early on in building their brand or their personal brand, it can be very hard to feel like. You're growing because it's obviously you're starting, usually afresh, or you're maybe very well known in your community or your niche, but you need to expand out to be able to reach the people that you need to talk to and serve. So when it comes to success, early on, looking at engagement numbers. So these, especially on social media, being able to look at the engagement numbers. So this is specifically in your analytics, so the back end where all the numbers are. I'm aware it can be very overwhelming, but taking five to 10 minutes just to look at a YouTube tutorial is highly recommending, like just to be able to lay your fears when it comes to all the numbers, to be able to focus on engagement number overall is all over all and see those engagement followers go engagement go up is the best sign you don't want to engagement to go down, engagement to go up, because the more people interact with your stuff, the more you'll be seen. Being able to measure success early on is track how often you are creating and showing up, be it in a calendar, or maybe looking over or regularly taking the time to look over your past work, over the past week or month or what have you. Can give you that like, again, a small win of I've been very consistent this month. I think I feel really good about it. I think I can continue this. Or if it's burning you out and you're saying this isn't working for me. Okay, what is your new goal for, like, consistency and being able to meet that and consistently meet that, and again, making sure you look back and go, Oh, I did really well. I don't feel as burnt out. I'm going to keep doing this. Why? Because you measured and you checked. And the last thing that I want to for you to notice when it comes to small wins within your brand, is to notice how you feel. Are you getting more comfortable with being on camera or just talking to potential customers? Are you feeling more clear on your message that is progress? Progress is above all what you need when growing your brand, because doing nothing is stagnation, and stagnation is not growth, and you can't help people if you're doing nothing. And that's one thing that I would like to remind people when they receive any sort of backlash or comments that are just making them not feel good. Are diminishing any of the small or big wins that they have achieved. They are not doing the work. They are not putting in those hard yards that you are to serve the community that you want to foster. So in that case, maybe you shouldn't listen to them. Just say it. But when it comes to success, big numbers and overnight fame and virality, which is not something that you want, but virality is not never and very rarely, is it an overnight success? It is all about momentum. It is all about celebrating the small steps, because everyone will bring you closer to your goals and what you want to achieve with your business, not just your marketing goals. I'm the marketing person, but I want to thank you so much for watching this video. Check out all the details and the show notes for this video, probably at Vcc dot training. I look forward to seeing you then and bye. Terry says, I'm not a camera person. I like voiceovers, and that's alright, and that's okay too. You've still got your energy, and your voice is still a personality of you. And when people are calling you a messaging you are reaching out to you, to work with you, they're going to hear your voice. So a voiceover is usually okay for most instances, especially for example, like cherry, who works in graphic design, where most of her services of graphic design, which is the output, usually speaks for itself. Most of the time you
Unknown Speaker 28:59
music.
Zoë Wood 29:12
Starting your business is all about survival, curiosity and just proving to yourself that you know what you're doing. But growing your business is different yet the same. Stick with me on this one. Welcome to the unborn your brand. Podcast with me, your host, Zoe wood, the video, confidence coach. And today, I am shifting some things to talk about. So what I mean by this is when it comes to your brand, be it a small business or your personal brand or whatever you are coming to, the unborn your brand. Podcast for there is a good chance that when you started your brand, your why your driving factor, is going to be different now than when. You were when you started. Because when it comes to your brand, and how you evolve, both as a person, but also how you evolve your brand, will definitely change depending on the weather, but also depending on who you actually want to serve and how you want to serve it. So let's go back initially to what is your why? Zo, that is a question. What do you mean by that? When I talk about your why, there was a gentleman called Simon Sinek had popularized this term, but this is something that's been going on for yonks, but he was able to just still it into one particular word when it comes to your business. Why? This is a question that covers both your messaging and reasons and motivations for wanting to run your brand, but also helps people understand why you want to serve the people that you're serving. For example, the why for video confidence coach is I want to serve and embolden women and non binary superstars, and I should look at my own thing here, with killer video marketing strategies that empower them to show up, stand up and smash their goals. Now, of course, that is a very elevated pitchy way to go about it, but that is how I explain myself, how I pitch myself, at networking events, at meetings, at particularly generating events like any opportunity that people need to know who I am and what I do. I bring out my why, and even though they may not be directly in my target market, like the person I'm speaking directly to may not be the person who's ultimately going to buy from me. People talk to people, they are going to know people who are going to fit this mold. They are going to have friends, they're going to have family, they are going to have co workers, they're going to have people in their lives who fit this mold. And if you are clear on your why, you can be clear on your messaging, and you can be clear on your messaging, you can market effectively. And when you start your business, you're not necessarily, maybe you kind of know your why, but you don't have enough knowledge or ingenuity to be able to clearly express that, or maybe you haven't had the time to maybe you have an idea of you want to serve this particular niche or this particular community, but you don't know how, yet you know that you want to, and you have that drive to want to serve them and help them, but you haven't quite figured that out yet. Compared to if you've been running your brand for, you know, couple of months, couple of years, couple of decades, you have a much better idea of your why, why you're serving people, and also you'll have plenty of processes and marketing materials to back you up, which is why your why will shift through time. What I when I initially started the video confidence coach, I initially started my why was I wanted to serve women in FinTech, specifically women in FinTech. So this is financial technology, because those are the people that I was currently working with at the time in my old business, which is where I was running a business called zebrafish digital media, where I was doing videography. So I was doing all the video and all that work behind the scenes, and I was spending honestly 80% of my time coaching people to get in front of the camera, giving people like creating very complex marketing strategies, because I would give them the videos or give them the final product, and they would do nothing with it, because they just were overwhelmed. And they had spent 1520 grand with me and kaput, nothing had happened. And then I would say, so, that's 80% of my time, which I am not being paid for, I'm not being billed for, and sorry I'm not billing for, and then the output of like that, that video process, it just felt so demeaning. And I don't mean demeaning on their front I mean both on our parts of just, why are we doing this? So I created video confidence coach specifically to help women in financial technology be able to have that confidence both going into recording a video or a message, but also have the knowledge and the structure to back it up, to have the strategy to back up what they wanted to do and what they wanted to achieve. And it's only in the past two to three years where I've honed in on specifically personal branding, and when it comes to the video confidence coach, but specifically being able to serve and help people who want to, like grow themselves, specifically through video marketing strategies, people who want that knowledge and the drive to want to be able to grow their personal brand. So that has changed over time. And as you can imagine, those particular Whys are very similar, but one is a lot more clearer and a lot more niche than the other one. So going into it when versing like, why you start and then why you keep going, are two different questions a lot of people, especially when you're first starting out, when you bring. The first year of business, have a tendency of conflating the conflating the two, because there's not a whole lot of time from when you started to where you are now. But I'm going to tell you now someone who maybe has started growing their personal brand. And I want to stress that just because you're in tune and have knowledge of, oh, I have a personal brand, I should probably work on it. You've always had a personal brand throughout your life, through whenever you've worked in corporate, but also whenever you've worked and worked with people, you get a reputation. Your personal brand is just a way of funneling that reputation into marketing. Hi. Here I am again. So when it comes to when you first start out and the people that you want to serve, when you when you want to help, is going to be very different to where you end up. And I know I keep beating my dead horse. Zo, focus. Focus on the notes you have in front of you. Zo, so when starting out, maybe it's necessary to start your business. We just maybe you started your business because you needed cash, for example, like myself, I started my first business when I was 14 because I needed cash. I needed cash to eat and to live. You maybe started your business out. You maybe started your brand out. I should say, because you it's your passion, it's what you love. You love helping the community. You love serving the people who ultimately benefit from the work that you do or the skills that you have, and you wanted to do it and make it your thing. And maybe you started your brand because you wanted to control over your own time and your own life. You saw maybe someone else, either in your industry, or maybe someone you know personally, take this opportunity to grab their brand by the horns and be able to make and cultivate a time and life that they love. Now, of course, it takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort, not dismissing that, but when it comes to now that you've done it for six months, a year, a couple of years, decade, couple of decades, why you keep going is no longer just about your motivations of why you started your brand. It's about seeing the impact of your work on others. It's about building something bigger than yourself. And I'm not talking just a business that you can hand off to your kids. I mean building something bigger in the communities that you're wanting to focus in being able to provide people the tools to make a difference. Because you yourself personally, in your brand and also yourself as an individual, have grown. You've achieved goals. You've achieved your goals, but also you now have new goals that have evolved into where you see yourself and where you want to be,
Zoë Wood 37:47
and it's no longer just about making money, which may have been your starting reason for starting a business. It's about making a difference. So when, with all that in mind, and especially when all that shit happens, you can understand the questions that someone is asking at the start of their business to when they're very much deep into it, those are going to be two different types of mindsets, and that's why, when I speak on my podcasts and on my videos, on my live streams, or whatever I'm doing at the Time, whatever my marketing channel is, I need to clarify when I'm speaking to people, when it's like, you know, have you been growing a personal brand for a long time, or are you just starting out? Are you researching because I came across your feed and you're intrigued about the messages that I'm able to present to you about growing your personal brand, specifically using video marketing strategies, and if so, when did that shift happen for you? And being able to identify that your personal brand is no longer just you. That shift. When that shift happens, you're able to have that in mind so that when you market yourself, you become more confident in your marketing message, but also in just the way that you hold yourself, because it enables you to help others succeed. That is why you do that's why you're running. That's why you're doing this thing right, and if you're not, and if it's purely about the money, apologies, and if it's purely about the money, hats off to you. I don't know how sustainable that is long term, but hats off. Best of luck. You're probably not my target audience, so have fun. But to keep that fire burning and to keep that motivation for you to continue to grow your brand, you need to be able to have that selflessness for others, that empathy for others, that care for others, and especially that care for people who you are serving. So if you're ever finding your stuff, finding yourself feeling stuck or uninspired, ask yourself, has my why changed? Has my brain? Ending why changed. And the chances are, if you're feeling stuck or uninspired, it has changed, and that's a good thing. So with that change, spending 510 minutes even, or maybe longer if you have that opportunity to sit down and really think about what is my why? Now it may relate to what you did when you first started your business, but why? What is your why? And writing that down and then sharing it with your team or your supporters or on your marketing efforts, sharing that why is going to bring you more leads and is going to help you grow your brand over time better than any type of you know, what is your pain point? Or you should trust me, because I have 25,000 years experience. People care about people, and hopefully you should care about people too. Thank you so much for listening to this kind of rambling podcast episode, but make sure that if you really enjoy the unborn your brand podcast, and I haven't completely talked your ear off, please check out Apple podcast and Spotify podcast to give us five stars, really oppression. Absolutely love it. And if you have any comments on ways that I can prove please let me know, because, God, I need to improve, but you're here regardless. Bye. So you've heard that the algorithm on many socials favors faces, and yes, that is definitely true. Because humans like to connect with faces. We like to see other faces, and we like to see what they look like, what they're about, and on social media that, and especially the algorithm, is based on our actions and the actions, or whatever the social media or the Lord wants us to do. But I digress. So if you are able to get your face onto camera and you're confident about having your face out there, then do it practice a couple of times, maybe even film a different couple of videos before you put anything out there. And then once you put that video out there, make sure that you share it with the community like us here, or you share the video to other groups that you're a part of, maybe just to get some feedback on what you can improve on in a nice way, of course, because people are willing to support other people, and the algorithm favors a lot of things at any different time. I highly recommend that you don't dictate your actions of creating content or videos based entirely on what the algorithm is going to do, because, unfortunately, it's a beast all in itself, and nobody knows what it's doing at any given time.
Zoë Wood 42:59
You gotta have faith. You gotta have faith. George Michael, please don't sue me.
Zoë Wood 43:13
Welcome to the unborn, your brand podcast with me, your host, Zo Wood, the video, confidence coach, yes, like I said, Let's have faith, and specifically faith in your marketing. Me talking about marketing never so today I wanted to talk about in the podcast is specifically having faith in your marketing endeavors. Not everything in marketing can be measured down to the decimal point, despite what Google insights and meta insights and all of those platforms say that they can do, yes, they can give you a bunch of numbers and a bunch of analytics and a bunch of data, but not everything can be measured with numbers. Despite how fun people feel, sometimes you just have to trust the process and take a creative risk and see what happens. So what I recommend for those who are listening or watching our podcast today is, if you're able to, if you're driving, don't do this, but if you're able to grab a pen and paper or maybe a note app within your phone to be able to write down some of these ideas that are generated, if at all, during today's podcast, and if none of the ideas that I give you today do not resonate, that is okay. I'm sorry if that's the case, but I do hope that I'm able to give you something to work with here, specifically about having faith in your marketing, but also having faith in your creative ability as someone who is maybe doing the marketing themselves for your brand, or maybe you're hiring someone else to do that work for you, you still need to be able to be creative in your own ways, to generate ideas, to help lay out plans to because one thing that I recommend for people at all, even if you are handing over everything to someone else because you absolutely are poor marketing, you absolutely hate it. Yes, please, for the love of God, check in with it. Make sure that you agree with what's being said, that they ask you plenty of questions about why you're targeting this person who is your like, customer that you want to bring in, who is going to generate leads. Because your marketing is the thing that is going to generate you leads is spreading your message far and wide. So you need to have knowledge of it and control of it. But if you are doing it yourself, or you're having someone else do it, please do your best to write down these ideas and hopefully give it to them or utilize it in yourself later on. Make sure you schedule in time to do so. So trying something different. So why? Faith in your marketing matters. And this may seem a bit contradictory as someone who is in the marketing field, but I am a fairly creative person. I trust the process of what others have done or what others have shown but not everything in Marketing provides an instant result. Not every single action that you take is able to help you give to the minute detail to make business decisions with. And I'm not talking just about digital advertising. You may think, you may think I'm just talking purely about ads, but these are about any activities that you're doing that is able to give you any sort of metrics to measure by. Not everything is able to gonna is not every single marketing activity that you are going to do for your brand is going to move that needle straight away, or is going to get you seen by anyone and everyone, or that million dollar client who's going to give you all the money and not hassle you and be the best client ever. The rewards aren't always instant and but letting that non instant tandem, I forgot what the word is for that one, but it's going to take some things, take time to build momentum, and marketing is definitely one of them. Creativity can't be measured, and when you are doing it, especially you're doing yourself in an area where there's maybe not a lot of resources or tutorials or examples out there, it can definitely feel isolating. But your creative creativity, even though it does not have a metric number to it, is not valueless. Honestly, it is more valuable than anything because people crave, and I'm talking people broadly crave creativity. They crave freshness. They want genuine ways to connect with other people, but also with other brands. Now I might that may seem a bit contradict, contradicting, because people don't want to connect with brands. Zo, no, I focus in on personal brands. People want to connect with personal brands because they want the help that is the, you know, the way to solve their solution. But people also want something unexpected. They are going to pay attention to the things that are unique, that are interesting, not just the cookie cutter of everyone else around them, or in some cases now, what the AI spits out at the end of the day because it is trained on all the data that it already exists, all the creativity that's already out there. It's already done, and that's boring, and that's not going to get you seen, especially when your message may be similar to your competitors. There is no unique way of standing out. You don't have a very clear why message so why you are doing, what you're doing, who you're serving. You don't have any of those lined up. It's going to seem really generic, and when it comes to the creativity that you're going to do, you're going to find that you're going to be shouting out into the void because you don't have any direction. You don't have anywhere to focus your creativity. So one thing that I would like to you to do, or take the time to do, is to start experimenting. So I like to use the 10 to 20% rule. So when it comes to your marketing budget, and in those of our cases, people who maybe don't have a marketing budget established, maybe thinking about what you can use as the, you know, crux of your ability to start marketing, you know, give yourself an opportunity to be like, Okay, I need to generate leads. Some people's marketing efforts are different, depending on, you know, the regular what people pay on a regular basis with you and your business for me and the people that I work with, it usually is around the $502,000 mark on average, just because of the knowledge that me and my customers can bring but that may not be the case for you. So there's still this. I'd say this still applies to you, no matter what you are eventually selling, but for those who you know, take that time. So back to the rules. Zo, 10 to 20% of your marketing budget should be for creative marketing experiments. Take the time and opportunity for 10% 20, 20% so this can be of time, this can be of money, combination of the two, whatever your marketing budget is. So if you're doing free ways of marketing yourself, you're gonna have to be a little bit more creative and spend a little bit more time doing it. But again, the 1020 rule still applies. Give yourself permission to try new ideas without the pressure of immediately getting return on investment, and especially for a lot of people, and especially if you are starting out and you're down on funds, I can understand that need, or that drive to forgo creativity and just focus on the stuff that's going to give me money cool. That's what the 80% is for the 20% I want to give you that opportunity to be creative, to try new things, to see maybe what other people are doing in other industries that are not related to yours. And you go, Oh, that's actually quite cool. I think I can do it better, or I can do it differently to serve my customer. Awesome. I'm going to do that. That is that 20% working. That is that creativity to give you that opportunity to try something new. Maybe that is not necessarily within your wheelhouse. It's going to be hella scary, but it's definitely going to pay off for you, and if it works. So if that like you try out maybe a video or a unique way to get your message in front of people. And of course, I'll give you some examples as we go on. And if it works awesome, double down. See what you can do. Try some of some new things in that same area. Like people really resonated with this type of video. Oh, it's really easy to make. I can do more of that. And if it was difficult to make, okay, what can I do to make it easier on myself? So take that opportunity to double down. If it works and if it flops, you've definitely learned something. I've forgotten which philosopher said this, but when I should really stop saying but Zo, if there is failures or mistakes, you end up learning more than you did if you succeeded, and if you succeeded, quite awesome, but like you probably didn't learn as much as you did if you made mistakes or if it failed. I mean, it should actually preface that. So in that event of that failure, you can learn a lot more, not just from the analytics or the numbers or the lack of ROI, again, return on investment for the amount of time, energy and money you've spent on producing that thing. But again, it's only 1010, to 20% of your already marketing but allowed marketing budget. So if it were, if it doesn't work, cool,
Zoë Wood 52:36
but I highly doubt that none of it would have worked. So in that event, you can learn. You maybe take a couple of the bits or elements that did work, maybe you found a tutorial online that maybe, like the thing itself didn't really work, but you'd like the tutorial itself so you end up following more from that creator, and you're able to see other unique ways that you can apply that knowledge to other areas of your marketing endeavors. See, see, not everything is broken. So some ideas that are unique ways of marketing your business. And of course, I specifically, or mainly, talk to women and non binary superstars who want to grow their personal brands with killer video marketing strategies. But this will also work for people who are outside of that scope. So don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you. So one thing that I am personally using in my own business is sending physical postcards with a QR code to a surprise freebie. So maybe say, for example, you have a CRM So customer relationship management tool. So this is a way that you can organize everything, your people and your customers and stuff, or maybe you have an email list of people who and you've also got some postal addresses as well, maybe from recent marketing stints that you've done in the past, again, the other 20% that you've done in the past, what you can do is start sending physical postcards with, yes, your branding on it, but maybe a QR code to a surprise freebie for people who are, were or are, or are genuinely interested in what you offer or what you can offer. I'm currently and for those who may be interested to know, I'm currently setting up some postcards that I'm going to get delivered over the next month, maybe by the time you listen to this or watch this, I've already got them, but I'm going to be sending postcards to people who are interested in my services with color test cards. So essentially, a color test card is what people use on sets, but also when you are getting a camera and the lighting to look perfect, having something that is essentially a shape with different colors on it and different shapes and some things overlapping, so that you can put it next to your face, so in the camera. So if you're seeing me now, I don't think I've got anything that I can use as an example right now at hand, but you have this usual postcard sized card that you can. Use to be able to make sure that your lighting is good, or be able to get the same lighting and same look and feel between different shots. And it's a simple postcard that I can print through Office works. And it is both a practical tool, so people aren't going to get rid of it like a magnet, like a thermometer, like a bookmark. People aren't going to get rid of that stuff. It is useful to them also. It has my branding on the front and on the back, and also it takes a QR code on how to best use it for people who may not be aware on how to use the tool. But also allows me space on the back to be creative with my messaging. And also just say, you know, remind people of, hey, you attended a workshop, or, you know, we talked three months ago, or wanted to make sure that your marketing journey is going well. I wanted to give you a gift, a simple postcard. Maybe takes $1 and a bit postage stamp wise, but it's unique, it's creative, and people are already loving the idea. And when I officially get those printed. People will love it, too. So take that opportunity. Another one that I have is reviving old school marketing tactics. Now, of course, as you can imagine, there is a lot going on out there. People are bombarded by digital ads every day. So taking this opportunity to do some snail mail, like some write some letters or postcards, writing handwritten notes, especially if you are someone who charges a lot for their services, to be able to take that opportunity to have a handwritten note is going to change people's perception of you and your brand to the point where they are going to say, Oh yes, like, I got a letter from you, like you took the time to handwrite me a letter. I am I going to care about what you say? Because we don't get hand letter, handwritten letters as much anymore. You can also use some guerrilla marketing tactics. So gorilla marketing tactics are essentially cheap, fast, easy marketing tactics that are used to stand out and gain, also virality fame. But these gorilla tactics can be something as simple as you know, going out to a client meeting and recording their expression as you provide maybe some flowers or maybe something really important to them, maybe like that. Who knows, see how you go. Now, of course, I'm trying to nice and broad, but also nice and specific. Another one is that you create a secret digital space, a hidden page on your website, or a private podcast episode or an exclusive video message that you offer to people who have reached a certain threshold within your business. Maybe they've maybe they're a regular client of yours, and they've given you $1,000 over a cumulative amount of time, and then you give them a gift, people are going to remember the fact that they gave you a gift over what the actual gift was, but they're going to remember that. They're going to rave about it to their friends and family, they're going to look you up, they're going to see how cool you are, and then they're going to expand you from there, because word of mouth is the best way of marketing yourself and your brand. So in turn, make sure to stand up creatively to do so. Another way is you can unhost. You can host an unconventional giveaway. Now, of course, when it comes to giveaways and lotteries and those alike, make sure you check the laws within your state or country, because some of those things can be scams. A lot of those things can be scams. So make sure you just keep, you know, the platforms and all that good stuff, but an unconventional given away can be something like not just the tag three friends and share this post, which I don't think is very creative, very, very same, same, but it can be something fun. You can say, for example, I worked with someone who had a peach as, let's say they had a peach, like a as their logo, and they offered to their, like, very elite group of people. And they offered the opportunity to, hey, if you, you know, refer me to three clients, I will give you a secret prize. And, like, without even really describing what it was, she was able to get, like, a good 20 grand worth of like locked in referral leads and contact and what did she give these people? She gave them a box of in seasoned peaches, and they and the stories that she got back from these clients. Now, of course, keep in mind that these were people who already loved her and worked with her in the past, but they got reminded and they got given a giveaway because they already know, liked and trust her, and now she's given them an entire, like container worth of in season, ripe local peaches, to the point where people have been like raving about it for years. So that is also a useful, creative and unique tactic. And one last thing that I will get onto today is surprising and just delighting your audience. Now, this can be your potential customers, so people who you haven't worked with yet, your current customers and also your past clients as well, because your past clients have already worked. You. They've already loved you. They're more likely to share word of mouth marketing techniques and tactics. So being able to delight them with unexpected bonuses or just random acts of kindness is something that I can highly recommend a lot of people who go through my CRM so my client relationship management system. They have a bunch of small little questions in there that I provide sometimes, when people are signing up, not everyone, but sometimes, and they just completely throw them off, because I like to have a bit of fun with my marketing and what I do. And people remember that. People remember that it was fun. It made them laugh, it made them smile. They don't remember why, but they remember connecting that feeling with, oh yeah, I chatted with Zoe, or I I signed up to one of zoie's things, or I checked out some of the stuff that she did, and it brings a smile to their face. And when it comes to marketing your business, getting the leads in, but also having that genuine human connection and helping and serving people, you need to be able to get people to smile and have a positive or negative reaction to you, as long as it's polar opposites. Either way, I'll talk about negative marketing in a future podcast. But at the end of the day, marketing isn't just numbers and algorithms, though. The tech billionaires may make you feel that way, marketing is about making people feel something to spur them to action. And yes, that action may be give you money, but that action may be something that benefits them as well. Not saying that giving you money is not going to benefit them, but I allowing them to see what they can possibly achieve make them feel something with your marketing and with your messaging, take a risk, get creative and see what happens, because being Creative will automatically mean you will definitely be seen. I highly I can I can bet that I can guarantee that being creative in your marketing will lead to you being seen. Thank you again for joining us today on this podcast. Make sure to check it. Check us out on Apple podcasts or Spotify, and when you're there, give us five stars and give us a good review. In the meantime, also feel free to give me re feedback on this podcast. I'm happy to update my processes and maybe be a little bit less rambly. You can feel free to yell at me, at me. Zo, feel free to do that. Look forward to seeing you around bye.
Zoë Wood 1:02:38
Sherry says, I'm not a camera person. I like voiceovers, and that's alright, and that's okay too. You've still got your energy, and your voice is still a personality of you. And when people are calling you a messaging you are reaching out to you, to work with you, they're going to hear your voice. So a voiceover is usually okay for most instances, especially for example, like cherry, who works in graphic design, where most of her services of graphic design, which is the output, usually speaks for itself most of the time.
Zoë Wood 1:03:19
Thank you everyone for joining us for this video, confidence, connect with me. Your host, Zoe the wood the video confidence Coach, thank you for all your comments, questions, thoughts and ideas for future podcast topics or just chats that you want to have talking about personal branding and video marketing, because that is my stick. Hello to everyone on the hashtag, replay squad, and thank you so much for everyone who's been giving me feedback, either via email or DM or however you like to do it. I even though, as someone who's been doing this for a very long time, you know, I'm always here to improve. I always want to do better for you. So if there's anything that I can do to improve the way that I communicate to you or the way that I present ideas, please do let me know my email is Zoe at Vcc dot training. You can always catch me there, and I'll always look forward to seeing any of your comments or emails. If you've missed any of the stream today, make sure to watch and listen to the whole live stream on LinkedIn or on YouTube. I am looking at other platforms. I just gotta do it, which is the story of my life. You can check out any of the show notes that you have about this live stream episode, or other episodes of the lives of the live stream series, campaign, whatever at VCC, dot training, slash, video, dash, confidence, dash, connect. You can find all the things there, and you can check whichever one taxi fancy I was gonna go through my full still Spiel then, but I'm not gonna do that today, to you today. Thank you, everyone. The video confidence coach emboldens women and on binary superstars with killer Video Marketing Strategies empowering them to show up, stand out and smash their goals. See you next week.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Smashing Your Marketing Mayhem With Killer Video Strategies 🧡
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