S3E2: One Brand, Many Hats: How Caz Builds a Personal Brand That Connects Multiple Businesses

0:00Caz Grant:Welcome to Brand You, the ultimate personal branding podcast. I'm Caz Grant. And I'm Toby Lee. Together, we're here to help demystify personal branding. And to make it accessible and effective for everyone. Follow along as we guide you through creating your own personal branding journeys. So, let's get started. Let's Brand You.

0:25Caz Grant:Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Brand You podcast. proudly sponsored by Spark House, a brilliant co-working and office space here in Lincoln where we film the podcast. In today's episode we're going to be talking about Kaz and her experience with personal branding because not many people will know this because you're very good at keeping your audiences sort of slightly separate but people probably wouldn't know that you have three businesses on the go. So first of all talk us through like where did this sort of come from? How did it come about? Yeah sure so this is the thing isn't it?

0:57So one of the things that I try not to do with my personal brand is to confuse people and I know I've got quite a lot of things going on in my world and as a human as well we've all got lots going on so I do try and spread it out a bit so first of all I run a personal branding agency called Quirk and that is the main business the main crux of it what we're trying to get off the ground and just build over the next few years so that we're bigger helping more people with their own personal brands and really helping people shine online but in alignment to who they are and that works for their ideal audience as well so that's the number one thing so mostly I share that on LinkedIn and Instagram a little bit as well and then also one of the founders to Quirk is Marketing Labs which are a digital marketing agency so instead of helping individuals personally brand and shine online they help businesses and they help businesses as a whole with all of their digital marketing so whatever digital marketing needs they have we will help them again spread their message online so those two are quite cool because they kind of tie in together a lot of people that I speak to with Quirk or with Marketing Labs might need one of the other services to pay depending on again their business their goals their objectives so that's quite an easy one to kind of I don't know kind of bounce around and also to show online and again I mainly put that across on LinkedIn as well so those are my two things basically if you want to shine online come see me let's chat yeah digital marketing might be for you personal branding might be for you

2:40Caz Grant:or neither and whilst whilst your clients you can kind of push towards either business do the businesses have any collaboration on anything or are they just sort of kept separate at this point because of their focus being on like the individual and then more business yeah separate at the moment but again it depends so some people that we're working with need business marketing first of all you know they haven't got a website they haven't got any kind of online footprint so we'll get them set up for that first maybe getting some ads out and getting some instant like sales wins if that's their main goal with their like whole presence is sales growing their business digital marketing route first and then we'll look at right 10 5 10 years down the line what are your actual personal goals oh right you want to be a thought leader in that space in that industry yes your business is a part of that but actually you want to create your own kind of ecosystem there online as well right well then let's look at the personal branding later down the line yeah and we'll always work with them at the point in time that that's right for that to come in likewise you know they might not be clear on their personal brands and they might be like a service-based business or something where you know that instant trust and recognition and the the collaborations that you're going to make is more important than necessarily the sales instantly.

4:04Yeah, absolutely. So then we might direct them to personal branding. But then along the way, might be like, oh, well, I need a website. I need this. I need some ads. Let's integrate that into it as well. So yeah, they cross over quite well. And it's nice to be able to offer businesses and people those two elements.

4:21Caz Grant:Yeah. Because there's not one size fits all for everyone. Yeah. So then the third part of your, the Kaz Enterprise. Kaz Enterprise, I'm going to keep that one. that's brilliant that is third part is a network marketing business as well so that came first right okay that was in the mix before either of these came into the mix so that's kind of like my initial baby and almost like that step into the entrepreneurial business world because before the network marketing business I wouldn't have even thought that I would be a business person but I just wouldn't have put myself in that bracket like no we not me no yeah so my upbringing was very much like mum and dad had jobs and they went and they worked jobs and they came home and then they paid the bills and blah blah blah job job job job jobs so there was no like entrepreneurial family background or like you know I wasn't selling lemonade on a corner I was getting pocket money based off of the jobs I do around the house you know I wasn't that kind of that way inclined It's a bit different to me though, where I would offer to wash my mum and dad's car and then give them an invoice after.

5:32See, and I think that's it.

5:33Caz Grant:I was always thinking, always thinking. Do you know what, I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs now who have their own businesses, that it did stem from that very first, like you were invoicing your mum and dad for the car wash. They thought, well, a great child we've raised here, offering on a Saturday afternoon to clean the cars for us. Oh, what's this? And you're like, Bill comes through the post. But they were, you know, your dad's got an entrepreneurial background. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you've obviously learned that from him. It's an option in learning, yeah. Yeah. And those are great skills to have, aren't they?

6:04Like, incredible. If your path's led that way or if you can open that path and that interests you, go for it. But so my background was military.

6:13Caz Grant:Yeah, so very different. Completely different. I learned to wear what I was told to wear, be where I was told to be and just do what they told me to do for 12 years. Like almost the opposite of entrepreneurial. So it's taken me a long time to kind of, first of all, I was in for 12 years. So that's 12 years of that kind of conditioning and like, you know, just that way of being. And then I left and I got a couple of normal jobs on the outside. and again it was like that first step into like Sibby Street and this world of like oh other people that I'm working for have businesses and they started them themselves and they ah it gets your head turning doesn't it and I think with the first one of the first jobs I got was a fundraiser for a children's charity and that was the initial point where I thought I have to raise money for this charity if I don't raise money for this charity this charity is gonna close its doors and I thought well how do I do that like I need to get out there I need to get the charity out there and I'm probably gonna have to be the one that gets the charity out there yeah so it kind of like pushed me into this space that you know to almost save the children yeah yeah I was having to do the uncomfortable things that would grow that presence and your own presence within the community as well so like starting networking and going to in-person networking events and stepping onto social media because for years in the RAF social media was like I do not go on like really yeah top secret if we let everybody go on social media in the in the beginning days of social media in the military it's like what are they gonna share yes what are they gonna tell the world like all this stuff's gonna come out um so it was very much like don't go on it just don't showcase anything So if you like I scroll back to my beginning of Facebook now and I look, it's like a status of like, I'm so tired.

8:13Like ridiculous. And that's it. Yeah. There was no personal branding strategy back there. It was literally like I'm on Facebook. I'm not really supposed to put much on there, but I am tired because I've just got back from Afghan. And I know I can pinpoint that. So that's when I got back from my detachment. And I was like, oh, so that was like as much as I was allowed to. I thought I could share that.

8:32Caz Grant:interesting it's so interesting so then when you were working your charity job and that was what kind of encouraged you to kind of get out there and start networking with businesses was that easier to do on behalf of a charity because you're talking about the cause aren't you you're not there selling cars or selling your services particularly so you're kind of talking about something external that everyone should care about or feel something about was that easier than when you started pushing your own services a thousand percent yeah if you've you often do more and get out of your own comfort zone your own way more for something else or someone else than you will do for yourself something I've learned over the last few years actually what drives me and pushes me to do the scary stuff is often not because I have to for me yes yeah someone else needs me to or the charity needs me to or the founders of quirk are going to be watching so i need to do it for them and all that stuff kind of drives me more than me doing it for me which is interesting isn't it and something to consider if that sounds like our audience because how do you motivate yourself to do the things without having maybe that external is a child children's charity yeah is a big one isn't it you're like well I need to do this yeah and it was things like just little things but so it's like the little things that you don't realize at the time are going to push you out of your comfort zone to eventually learn the skills that you'll need like 10 years down the line so I can think of a specific time where it was about eight years ago now I walked into a corporate office in Nottingham and as the sole fundraiser for the children's charity like they They were our biggest corporate sponsors at the time.

10:20This was a huge deal and a huge contract to have. So every time I went in there, even though they were amazing and they were just the loveliest people, I'd be like, imposter syndrome, imposter syndrome, kicking off. Anyway, they said, right, oh, Kaz, welcome back to the office. We're just going to give you a tour round and juice you to some people. And then it'd be great if you could just say a few words, like five minutes or so of what our support means to the charity and things. everyone's going to toss down and they're all going to come and join us to watch you this is an office space must have had minimum a couple of hundred maybe more people wow okay so I used to in the rap hide from public speaking I would I hated it when I got promoted to corporal because I thought oh no I'm gonna have to start speaking and I'm gonna have to like go and learn and do a presentation and I hated every second of it but there I was in this corporate partner like there is no option b this is on me I'm gonna have to do it suck it up but I can't like this is it so I did it and it happened and you know your stuff anyway from being a fundraiser you know the buzzwords you know all the things that you're doing so it rolled off and I did it and I survived nothing bad happened and then I went home and I was really proud of myself and I was like oh that's okay and then the more times that kind of happened and the more public speaking like that that happened I guess that's what sort of led to today now as well when people watch us and things that we're doing and they maybe watch me on a stage giving a presentation at Mission Business the other day was about 120 people in the audience military non-military all kinds of backgrounds and again I was like oh out of my depth but I wouldn't have been able to do that if it wasn't for those initial things so I think sometimes we underestimate those small steps in our personal brand for getting us comfortable for the biggest steps later down the line yeah it can be really easy to kind of

12:23Caz Grant:aim for the sky try and you know really project yourself but actually like you say you've got to have that I guess anything with business isn't it you've got to have that foundation that structure in place in order to succeed some people it does come easy to yeah you know they can just put themselves out there and with an idea that's fresh and new and it works and it it comes across authentic and they are likable and yeah but sometimes we need to work a little more at it and that's okay yeah it's being okay with it it's being okay with it yeah and know that you sucking at the beginning or like maybe not being as polished and great yeah will lead to you being that level yeah on the line but you won't get to that down the line unless you do these bits yeah yeah you've got to haven't you have you found that with your acting career because acting to me would be like yeah so i think it goes back to what you were saying about with the charity stuff being external it's a lot easier to kind of communicate and sell almost or to talk about and be lead a conversation on whereas with acting like networking, God, networking and acting in a sense was horrible.

13:35Caz Grant:You were kind of expected to turn up to press nights, try and meet directors, try and meet producers, you know, try and get those awkward conversations going. But all the other actors are doing it as well. You're in a bar full of kind of like people fishing almost. It's, you know, like slowly walking over to try and start a conversation. It's so different now. Like I don't have any problems talking about myself or what I do or how I do it or my services because I don't know I guess one I really believe in what I do but also there's the evidence there in my photos that it's kind of like that that speaks for me almost whereas unfortunately acting my my career is so premature that I don't have the credits or the show reel of films to show for it but yeah it's an interesting it is interesting and that's interesting because it's like all those people in that room pouncing on the same people yeah and you see it in networking today don't you and again you see it online and in networking today and that's again what you're trying to counteract with your personal brands stop pouncing on the same people and just yeah spread a bit of like your personality and a bit wider and show a bit more human and the right people will be more attracted to you than pouncing on yeah well I think I understand now like about having something to offer do you know I mean like if you're in a conversation a networking sense with people you've never met before you don't have to you don't have to agree with everything they say you don't have to kind of just go oh wow that's great everything they say but you also don't need to disagree with them it's just about contributing something of your own into the mix do you know I mean that's what I find is a good balance for building yeah building relationships but yeah absolutely and it was interesting when you said as well about the doing it for other people or for something else because I think that's a good thing to touch on as well because with our personal brands it's our personal yes yeah and we're going to have to do it for ourselves yeah and actually this probably isn't for anybody else so when you do lose the consistency when you do go missing in action for a few months easy because it's you yeah that you're letting down or you're not doing it for we don't mind letting ourselves down do we but it's finding that accountability and that voice almost and offering that value so that it's not self-promotional and just like me me me and this this, this, this, this.

16:11It's some value to people. So it's important that we share it. And then also keeping yourself accountable to keep going when there's nobody on your back going, keep this going.

16:23Caz Grant:We've all got big ideas for where we want to be in three, five years time, haven't we? But we've got to look at what we're doing day to day and go, is that actually on track? Or if we're hiding now, there's no way we're going to be there further down the line. So it's just doing those little bits, isn't it? and just pushing ourselves out a little bit more. If you're starting a business or just want a space that helps you focus and grow, then you will want to check out Spark House at the University of Lincoln. It's right in the heart of the city with creative energy and practical support. They've got flexible office spaces, specialist business mentoring with physical tenancies.

17:02Caz Grant:And they even have virtual office options if you're not quite ready for a full-time desk. Having supported over a thousand businesses since opening, Sparkhouse has a track record for helping startups succeed. If you need an office space in Lincoln, email sparkhouse at lincoln.ac.uk and check out the show notes for that email address to get in touch. So going back to your three businesses, your CAS empire, how did you sort of accumulate those roles amongst those? And also, in terms of that process, when another opportunity comes along, how did that change what you were already doing to implement the new one?

17:43Caz Grant:How's that process been? Sure. So first of all, there's only kind of two in the enterprise and one I'm kind of like I've infiltrated. I'll get to that in a minute. So when I was networking for the children's charity and I was getting out and about, the first thing that I came across that dipped me in to that entrepreneurial way of thinking was I went to a women's networking group and I was sat there next to somebody who did network marketing and I was like oh interesting because I was sat in a room with lots of other women who had their own businesses and my brain was almost in that room thinking wow like these people have all got their own thing like how would i ever get my own i could i do maybe i could do something because they had their own thing and it was all in alignment as well with what they were and who they were like you i just think you fit so well with your brand and you're in alignment with it so much that it it works really well so it was like it being in a room if you were a woman with lots of other Toby women and it was like I was so interested so when Claire next to me said oh this is what I do um I'd love to tell you about it at some point I was like yeah let's let's grab a drink outside of here let's go and hear more about it so I heard more about it and it was that initial intro into the network marketing space now the network marketing space is you have your own business for it but it's for an overarching brand so you're like an independent advisor consultant whatever for that brand yeah but it's your business so you do whatever you do with it you grow it if you want to you don't grow if you don't want to any advertisements or anything it's all on you to get the message out there it's not on anybody else you can't pay for ads and things like that so you need to start a personal brand um so i i took a look at first i was like well you should tell me about this and it didn't kind of like it didn't it didn't compute but then again that was my initial look into it I didn't know what I know now a little while later I was working um a different place and it wasn't quite I'd gone kind of almost backwards once I when I got married I took a part-time role as a receptionist at beauticians right that's not a step backwards for some but for me it was a step backwards it was a part-time role it was just something so that I could get a bit of spending money and have time to support my husband at the time yeah so that was all it needed to be and I was happy with that also got lots of free treatments which was great um yeah so so that was great but while I was there that I guess that fire that had been started by being in that room of all those other women and seeing other business people was like I'm not fulfilling my potential here at all and there's more to life than this so I want to do something so I got back in touch with Claire and I started the network marketing business that was seven years ago this year so I've had that business for quite a long time is it where I want it to be no there's it's like a business and it's all on me there's nobody else motorboding me so it has been like that and I've been through an absolute roller coaster with it but the more I've gone along with it the more it's aligned to who I am so I it's within the health and wellness space just like you we go to the gym and we live a relatively healthy wellness lifestyle important to us it's at my core it's like and I want to help others do that as well so it just aligns really well and actually from that because I had been personally branding stepping online showing up consistently networking I'd met someone again when I was initially networking for the children's charity who then came to me with an idea of quirk and I was like ah okay out the blue completely random you never know what opportunities are out there when you are showing up you literally don't have a clue because I'd been made redundant from another role and I'd written down on a piece of paper like what do I actually want to do and there's no like be a doctor be a musician like I don't know that but there were things like work remotely work with people um all these little things like that that don't add up to one specific thing but actually when I look at that list now I'm like quirk yeah aligns yeah and because I was visible and because I'd got clear on what I wanted this opportunity just kind of came along so started quirk they got me into quirk because So there's three founders to Quirk and they are busy with their own businesses doing their own thing.

22:30And they haven't got time to start another business, but they had the idea and they have the funding to start another business. So they got me in to essentially build Quirk and get it up and running and off the ground and go. And they are there to support me should I ever need it, which is, again, from somebody without a proper entrepreneurial background, there's still an element of me personally where I like that that supports there yeah yeah I've got a piece of quirks pie I've got the flexibility and the freedom to grow it and have all these ideas and run it how I want to run it but they're there should I ever need that sounding board or that advice or what should we do so so that's the other thing so we've got I'd love that

23:12Caz Grant:I know just having someone with with you or above you to just go is this the right thing here that I'm doing or wanting to do you know just to give you that boost of confidence sometimes yeah and you know what that's all it really is actually that boost of confidence because most of the time they're like what do you think or that sounds great go for it yeah yeah yeah and it's like wow yeah so this is what owning a business is like you just actually have an idea and it aligns with stuff and then you go for it whoa okay let's do it um but that's cool so so Quirk was doing that One of the other founders of Quirk is Marketing Labs, so the digital marketing agency.

23:50So that's where I'm an imposter. So I don't own Marketing Labs. I've just been taken on board by Marketing Labs a couple of days a week now. So Quirk isn't quite at full capacity yet with clients. So yes, you can always work on a business 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even if you have no clients, because you can do all the marketing in the world and all the stuff to try and get everything through. but what we've done is because they need help with their business as well in the way that I can do it the client person they've got me in a couple of days a week to do that nice while still giving me time to do quirk as well and again that can be quite flexible so it depends on the workload for client work that we've got I can do a bit more of that on those days or a bit more of that on other days so that's quite cool so those are the three but without the network marketing without Without, you know, going into Sibby Street, I wouldn't have gone networking and the fundraising world wouldn't have gone networking.

24:43I wouldn't have started to put myself out there. That then has grown all of these opportunities like eight years later. So again, when people are thinking about their personal brands, they're thinking about instant wins and like, why haven't I got all these opportunities straight away? I've been personally branding for a month. This has all happened eight years later.

25:03Caz Grant:Yeah. and yes okay eight years later I'm out there a lot more than I was even eight years before but this still takes time for those opportunities to roll through and I was speaking to someone this morning as well and they were this they had a comment on my post and it was about um service-based business needs personal branding because you've got to grow trust and stuff but if it's a product-based business you probably don't actually need personal branding and I was like no that's cool for a business point of view but what if your goal with your personal brand isn't to make sales yeah what if your goal for your personal brand is to get future investments to your business investors great point yeah what if it's to get professional friendships because you actually you could do with some more friends in your life what if the goal is to create some charity endeavors that you then make a huge impact to the world so again it's looking at your goal with personal branding I think sometimes we think personal branding sales sales sales sales yeah it's not and it's not always the case is it so that's all we've got time for on today's episode of the brand new podcast proudly sponsored once again by sparkhouse make sure you follow the brand new podcast on linkedin where we've got a separate community group so you can ask any of your personal branding questions and also make sure to follow along with myself and toby on linkedin as well here's to branding you