Business Owners - Create a Strong and Successful Brand That Converts with These Simple Steps

0:00It's almost impossible to have failure without success and vice versa because you only really know joy if you've known sadness you only really know success if you've known failure. Jim James, what he focuses in on is about how you get noticed. What's your personal brand? What does your brand mean out there in the marketplace? Recognize that you don't have to be Gary Vee. You don't have to be on stage if you're not comfortable with it. Choose the metier. Change the format that appeals to you most. We only accomplish in proportion to what we attempt. Whether it's your personal brand for your career, whether it's your business brand for getting more customers, Jim James, he's going to take us through it.

0:38So Jim, how do you define success? Brad, for me, success actually is leaving a person or a place better than when I found them. You know, it's really about helping either an individual or an organization or a place to have achieved more, to have experienced more, to have a better feeling for themselves, more self-confidence, maybe more joy than they might have done before I entered the room. Okay. So let's take a look at your area of expertise then, the branding side of things, getting noticed in business. What's success for a business when it comes to getting noticed? Success when it comes to getting noticed is really having the right kind of customer, employee, partner approach the business owner for the reasons that the business owner wants to do business with that person.

1:34So in other words, we're getting people to come to us that are in alignment with the values that we've got within our organization. We've got someone that when we work with them as a customer or as a partner, they come and join us as a member of the team. Everybody is in alignment with in terms of their purpose and their values, Brad. That's really what I mean when I'm thinking about getting noticed, because it's not just about getting noticed, it's getting attention and recognition for the right reasons. Yeah, yeah. Anyone can get noticed, it's getting noticed by people who want to buy from you, stay with you, be with you long term and are good customers and build a good relationship with them.

2:12So if we think of success in your life, Jim, where do you think success became your standard? Like when did you choose to be a successful person? Well, you know, Brad, it's a little story where my grandfather was mowing the cricket pitch in Sussex. And someone walked by and said, you know, thank you, Bill, for mowing the lawn. You know, he didn't have to do that. You know, he didn't have to mow the communal cricket pitch. And I was about eight or nine years old in my shorts. And I wondered why he was mowing someone else's lawn, why he was mowing the cricket pitch. You know, but the reaction on the Saturday when everyone turned up in their whites to watch and play cricket, and my grandfather was sitting And they're quite quietly watching.

2:56And people came up and said, you know, thanks, Bill. We couldn't have played this match without you mowing the lawn during the week because no one else was going to do it. And I just thought, here's a man who has made a contribution very quietly, but has got a great deal of joy from what he's helped to create. And as a result, people came up to him and were really grateful, genuinely grateful for his service, his selfless service. So actually, that was for me a turning point about the value of offering quietly and, you know, not necessarily seeking anything in return and seeing the joy that you can create for other people.

3:36So that was for me kind of how I started to define success, Brad, was how other people and I can enjoy a condition or a situation through through work that I can do. So that was for me a kind of turning point on that little cricket pitch in West Sussex. Yeah. Since then, obviously, you've thought more through this, but what is your formula or what's the method that you think makes success happen? I think, first of all, you've got to have a sense of where your contribution is going to be most worthwhile. There's no point in trying to create something that other people don't want. So first of all, success starts with you knowing what kind of input, what kind of impact you'd like to make.

4:24And then you've got to find an environment or conditions that might be receptive to that. So, you know, for example, in China, when I moved to Beijing, there was an amazing British business community, but there was no celebration of what the British community was accomplishing. So I asked the chamber, I said, where are the awards? I'd moved from Singapore where we'd actually won an award. And someone said, we don't have any awards. And so we had a community and we had a situation. And with what I knew how to do, that became my little cricket pitch. So I got the ambassador to be the patron. I got the embassy and everyone involved.

5:05And we created a big 400-person sit-down dinner. And actually, those awards are still going. So I think you have to have a motivation. You have to have circumstances. is you also have to have the community, Brad, that wants to engage in that to make that a success. And the British Business Awards are still going now, what, 10, 12 years later on. So in a way, that's kind of the hallmark, isn't it, of success when you're leaving a legacy where what you created exists well after you've left. So when you think about creating success in your world and for your customers type thing, What is the tipping point in most cases that take people from just doing it to moving into that success realm?

5:51Actually, you know, Brad, it's funny. Most people, everyone has the answer in their heart, but often their mind is holding them back. So when I'm finding success, when I'm coaching with clients, which I'm doing at the minute, for example, one of my clients, they're really brilliant at what they do. but they thought that everyone would only buy if they had a kind of a slightly corporate face. And so they were looking and feeling like everybody else because they thought that's how we do it. We have a Canva design. We have all these pictures. And the light bulb moment for this client was realizing that actually their backstory was what people wanted to buy because that was the authentic moment.

6:32And then, Brad, we had to get them to feel confident that they could share that backstory and that other people would resonate with that. And it's just that moment where people have to feel strong enough, confident enough, courageous enough. And that's where people like, you know, yourself and your teams at Action Coach or where I come in and give them reassurance that actually being themselves in public is actually the right part of the strategy to building their business. And that's a wonderful thing because then they settle into that. The enthusiasm comes because it's coming from the heart.

7:05And so they get the energy and they get the passion. So, Brad, it's just that inflection moment where people start to believe in their own story being the value in the business. Jim, I want to dive deeper into that being yourself thing, not just for business, but in normal everyday life. What is it that people, I don't know, you deal with this every day. How do we get people to have the confidence that being yourself is not just OK, it's what you're supposed to be? I mean ironically enough Brad you actually can't be anybody else can you really so it's actually very tiring trying to be someone else isn't it and and trying to I know we're supposed to model other people and we're supposed to copy other people's habits and follow successful people but ultimately I think it's just also about taking the time as I'm sure you've done and I spent some time I went to India for a while for example to spend some time and just letting go of all the influences and just starting to listen to what really is the true self.

8:08I know it sounds a little bit rah-rah, but there does come a time when you have to kind of stop listening to everybody else and just reflect on yourself and say, who am I comfortable being? And not worrying about, will people like it? Because that's the second part. But the first part is just saying, who do I think I am? And getting comfortable with that. And I think one of the joys, Brad, of getting to be older. I'm 56 now and I've done 30 odd years of business on three, four continents now. One of the great things about successes and failures is that you kind of get comfortable with that, right?

8:42You go, okay, here we go again. I guess this is part of my journey. So a big part of it, I think, is just self-acceptance and saying that who I am is who I am. So let's look for the best parts of that and let's amplify the best parts and use the results from that to overcome the insecurities and the anxieties as they affect us all from time to time. Buddy, you mentioned failures and success. What in your mind is the relationship between failure and success? How do they go together or how do they work or are they totally separate? What's your theory? Well, Brad, you know, I lived in Asia for 25 years.

9:17It's the yin and the yang, right? I mean, it's almost impossible to have failure without success and vice versa because you only really know joy if If you've known sadness, you only really know success if you've known failure, because it helps you to calibrate what those two things are. Part of it is we're motivated by the anxiety of failure, right? So part of it is this desire to succeed. I have a huge rush in the morning where my adrenaline goes, come on, get out of bed. You need to succeed today, right? On the other hand, we want to have a visualization of what success might look like, because if it's only motivated by fear, then the deer in the headlights sprinting.

9:55it doesn't have a great deal of direction and may get into an accident so we really have to have a vision of where we want to go and what success feels like and looks like but also to not get to the stage where we become um kind of too self-satisfied with that maybe first or second stage of success because as an entrepreneur Brad you know and you've built an amazing business worldwide when you get to the first level of success it's do you stop do you put it in in cruise or do you keep going? You know, when I was 25, I moved to Singapore to start a business. And at 40, I said, what do I do next?

10:28And actually, I decided to go to China to start my next business venture. So, you know, there's some failure, some success, but I think we have to have them both and live with them both and be kind to ourselves when we have failures and celebrate when we have successes. You're on the Big Success Podcast. We'll be back in a moment. And Jim James is going to talk to us about getting your personal brand out there into the marketplace. Serious income success for you will come through Brad Sugars' scalability event, massive business growth, and understanding how you turn your business into a commercial, profitable enterprise that works for you so that you don't have to.

11:05Visit bradsugars.com to attend this program as a standalone or as part of Brad Sugars' Entrepreneurial University. Way back. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. You know, Jim, branding and your personal brand, And we've talked about being your authentic self. And I think people have got to get over that need to be like other people or over that thing. But in a business scenario, how do we let our personal brand come through? Let's start with like a salesperson or anyone in a business. How do they live their personal brand so they build a great career, I guess? You know, it's a great question, really, Brad, about how you kind of have this two brand strategy, right?

11:45So in a way, you need to have a personal brand, but it also needs to be part of, if you're a company, you need to be representing that company brand. If you're an entrepreneur, then you're also representing the company. You have a company brand as well. So I think, first of all, as an individual, it's really important to have, if you like, a little brand identity, right? I mean, so you have some idea of what's going to be consistent over time. So one of the problems that people have is that they start with one thing. they wear one kind of clothing and then halfway through the day or the week or the month or the year they change so one of the keys to having a brand identity at the beginning is to think about some simple things like what kind of colors do you want to be seen wearing what kind of clothing do you want to be seen wearing what kind of typeface do you want to have for your emails so you can always use the same one what kind of logos are you going to have on linkedin facebook twitter Instagram, TikTok, and build, if you like, just an identity kit.

12:43Actually, you can have someone on Upwork, for example, even create for you a personal brand kit really, really inexpensively. And also headshots. It really doesn't matter anymore where you are in an organization, or if you're a freelancer, you need to have a great presence online visually, right? So you've got to have a photograph. You can get that taken and use some of these AI-assisted tools to help you to tidy that up. But I think, Brad, the first thing really is consistency. And the second part is authenticity. Again, it's about not trying to be who you're not, right? So it's not about trying to be a muscle man if you're not.

13:19It's not about trying to be a glamour woman if you're not. It's about just being who you are. If you wear odd-shaped glasses, because that's what you like, wear that. And the third part, I think, is just about trying to be a little bit creative, about taking a little bit of a risk. Because so many people are so keen to fit in because they're worried about being called out, that it's very easy to end up looking homogenous and looking like part of the crowd. And, you know, I'm into the unnoticed entrepreneur, right? A big part of what I believe in is that you need to stand out because it may not be the best, but at least it's a little bit different and you can hone whether it's better later.

13:56But to have a little bit of creativity and a bit of fun with your personal identity, I think is really key. So we've got some consistency, we've got some authenticity, and we've got some creativity. So if I'm wanting to build my personal brand, should I author things? How do I build that brand into something out there in the marketplace? How do I get it out there? Well, Brad, I think you're a past master at this, as you know. So I think the first point here is that we all like to communicate in different ways and that there isn't a formula, although people will sell you a formula. Actually, what really matters is how do you feel most comfortable presenting yourself?

14:38Yeah. Some people are very happy spoken but not seen. Some people are very happy to be seen and not spoken. And some people are very happy to write. Some people are very happy to draw. Some people are very happy to support. So what I think first of all is to recognize that you don't have to be Gary V. You don't have to be on stage. You don't have to be everywhere if you're not comfortable with it. choose the metier change the format that appeals to you most the second is that you need to start as they say in china you know even the longest march starts with one step so don't worry about it being perfect it really is better to start even if you're writing one short blog post of 250 words just start one of the things that i do with clients is i help them to use things like ChatGPT, for example, and Claude as a prompt.

15:28Yeah. Or even Dali, for example, for visuals. Because one of the great things that we've got now with AI, Brad, is that anybody for next to no money at all can have support. You know, it used to be you had to farm out to a journalist or a freelance writer or a designer, and it cost a fortune. But now, ChatGPT, give me three ideas on what I can say about furniture design, for example. So first of all, start with whatever format you're most comfortable with. Second, if you're struggling with getting started, use one of the tools to give you a little bit of a prompt. And the third thing is not to try and be in too many places at once.

16:10So choose one place because you need to engage with the reaction to the content. So what happens often is people go, I need to be on all these platforms. So they put this content on all these platforms. But when people comment, they're not there to answer. It's like going into a new town and trying to make lots and lots of friends, but not answering anybody's phone call. It's really better to go to one pub or one tennis club, get into a match, get some good mates on the play fours and build the relationship slowly but surely. So building a brand takes time. And so start with where you're comfortable and just build it incrementally and use the technology to help, Brad.

16:46Hey, just a quick one. When I look in the back end of this, something that's quite surprising to me, I noticed that it says that 82 % of you who watch the channel regularly haven't hit the subscribe button yet. So one favor, click that button. If you've watched this show before and enjoyed it, just please click that button to subscribe, hit the notifications bell, and make sure you're a part of it. Because as the show gets better, your success gets better. Jim, before we get into the whole thing about how to get your business really well noticed, being noticed for who you are, my, let's say I'm a normal size, small business, mid-sized company.

17:26I'm trying to be, let's just imagine Jim, they're trying to be a little too corporate, like the example you mentioned before. How do I make my brand more authentic? How do I make my brand more about me? What's the process? Yeah, Brad, it's such a common problem where you see a person who started a company tries to make the company look more corporate by not having themselves kind of anywhere on the website, because they want, and they also buy into this idea that if I build a company that doesn't have me on it, I can sell it. You know, you know, there's a lot more to selling a business than the fact that it's got a name that's not yours on the door, right?

18:05So the first thing then is to recognize what role in the business do you play? If it's a service company, an accounting firm, or a legal firm or an ad agency, for example, then people are buying the time with you. And so part of what you need to do fairly upfront is to be not only telling your story, your pictures, but also having other people, clients, friends, partners, explaining how you've added value for them. Because what most people have a problem with is going on the website and saying, hey, I'm brilliant, I'm perfect. Most of us really struggle with that, especially us, we Brits, we really, really struggle with that, right?

18:43So what you can do is have other people explaining why they like to work with you as testimonials and videos. If you're selling a product or running a company, which is, say, manufacturing where you or a logistics business where you're an operator within a bigger company, people still need to understand that there's a vision behind this big workflow and process of different people and parts. so having your story of why you're running this business is still really really crucial if you look at shopify for example you know that they're doing billions of dollars a year they've just launched a campaign where on the website the founder of the business has a long video they have like a how i started the business of shopify a video of him in the coffee shop where he started the first order and so on so you can make a story about how the business got started and the founder can feature in that story.

19:41You can make it very, very low cost now using your phone, really, and some very low-cost editing tools like Veed.io. So there are different ways to build yourself into the brand's story depending on the kind of business that it is. It doesn't have to be selling you, but somewhere in there, the customer, the partner, the employee is going to know that there's a person with a vision and a heart that's trying to make a difference, that's behind this business because ultimately that's what they're going to join. You're on the Big Success Podcast. Jim James in a moment, how to get your business noticed out there in the marketplace.

20:18Jim James started East-West Public Relations in 1995 and has opened offices in Singapore, China, India, and the UK, serving over 500 clients. He is a published author and is a coach to young up-and-coming entrepreneurs. To learn more about Jim James, visit linktree backslash Jim A. James. And we're back. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. Jim James, you're all about helping companies get their business noticed, right? That's the key. What is it that gets some companies noticed and other companies just hide in the background? Well, it's so often, isn't it, that a company with a great product or service isn't getting great turnover, and yet a company that maybe doesn't have such great product or service is doing really well.

21:06And, you know, Brad, perhaps the simplest phrase for this is positioning. You know, in retail, when you go to a store, people pay to be at the checkout. When you go to the airport and you go and rent a car, certain car brands pay money to be in different parts of the checkout hall. so that when you get off the plane, although Sixt and Avis and Hertz all have cars for rent about the same price, you go to the one that's closest and looks most convenient and most well-lit and so on, and the staff are friendly. So first of all, it's about positioning. The second part, really, I think is about the energy in a brand, Brad, you know?

21:48And I think I mentioned earlier about how people still buy people and somewhere in the branding, the founder needs to be a parent because, you know, employees, let's face it, they're a huge part of any business. But on the whole, employees don't bring the energy, right? They might bring enthusiasm, right? They might bring commitment, but they don't bring the energy to the company. So I think the second really big part after positioning is that someone's bringing energy. It radiates. The business radiates energy. And whether this was an apple or a musk with his businesses, and we see them even in our hometowns, great bakeries, great coffee shops.

22:34Why do they succeed? And it's because someone is passionate about sharing that message. I said at the very beginning about leaving places better than when I found them. the great companies always have leaders like you Brad I mean we hear you and we see you we know how passionate you are about improving people's businesses and it comes through it comes through you it comes through your branding it comes through all the people that I meet when we talk about action coach so positioning I think energy and the third part is consistency Brad because what customers need to see is the opportunity to purchase when they're ready to purchase because often we're in front of a customer or a potential customer when they're not about to buy.

23:18And you know, eight or nine times, customer journey, customer lifetime. So we need to have our brand consistent over time. And that's the part that people fail on. I mentioned earlier about personal branding, about the need to be consistent over time, because when someone doubles back, gets off that plane and goes, oh, I'm going to look, I'm going to buy Hertz. If when they come off the plane, Hertz isn't there or it's shut or the people look kind of tired and their outfits are all dirty. You go, well, I'm kind of disappointed. The brand promise hasn't fulfilled itself. So we need positioning, we need energy, and we need consistency, Brad, in my view.

23:55I'm sure there are many more fancy stories that people would tell you because you've had lots of experts, but those would be, I think, three key hallmarks of any successful brand. Yeah. So let's talk about that energy that someone brings to the table then. I know even for me, Jim, sometimes it's like, well, I don't want to overshadow the company. I don't want to overshadow all the things. Is there a balance to that or is there no need to worry about overshadowing? How do I fit that in or how do I relate that? Yeah, it's a fantastic issue that I'm working with more and more entrepreneurs. and there's this kind of need to have a dual brand strategy really, Brett.

24:38You know, I think that what's happening is that often entrepreneurs almost outgrow the brand that they started or they move at a pace faster than the pace of the organization. You know that as an entrepreneur, you're a dynamo, right? You have amazing amounts of energy. As a company gets bigger, it doesn't move at the same speed as the entrepreneur actually, right? The energy you brought in the beginning as an entrepreneur, when you start a business, you're getting everybody going, people are getting involved, and energy replaces, it's a substitute for money often, right? The energy and the enthusiasm.

25:11But as an organization gets bigger and has processes and people and so on, it doesn't move at the same speed. It becomes a larger ship rather than a speedboat. So the way I look at it is that the individual owner, the entrepreneur, needs to have their own brand. So they're speaking about topics and issues in their own right as a thought leader, in their own right as an ambassador for whatever cause that they've got. But the organization can carry on building its own brand because it has a slightly different proposition. Now, it's no longer just about what the entrepreneur wants to do. It's about what the organization, all the teams, and in your case, the coaches that you've got, they've all got huge amounts of value to add.

25:54So what happens when I'm coaching some entrepreneurs now is this, if you like, bifurcated brand strategy. So if you think of it like a rocket ship, you know, you're the pilot, the rocket takes off, gets into orbit. Actually, the founder kind of needs to let the rocket ship be in orbit and possibly get down to ground and start thinking about the next rocket and the next ship that it's going to pilot. So I think of it as having two brands. So you've got the Brad Sugars brand, for example, which you do in your speaking, your philanthropy and so on. And then you've got the Action Coach brand. And just encourage entrepreneurs to be confident about communicating to the team and the customers that your separation from the company brand isn't about reducing your impact or value to the business, but is rather enabling you to kind of go off and find new opportunities for the company.

26:46while the company then makes its own path, which creates opportunities for the management team, for example, to grow into the role that maybe you're starting to vacate. Does that answer that, Brad? It's a really interesting topic. Yeah, I mean, we could speak on that topic for hours and I would just be getting a free coaching session from Jim if I did that. No, no, you don't need to. The last thing I could do is coach you, Brad. Oh, I'm always willing to learn, buddy, and that's one of the greatest things about life. If you're always willing to learn, there's always some key bit in everything.

27:17And I feel like sometimes I do this podcast only so I get to learn things for myself, not just for the audience as well. I wanna touch on though, but a big thing is I see brands that go good and brands that go amazing. What's the difference in your opinion between one that does good and one that amplifies and goes to that amazing level? You know, in history, we've always had this issue of timing, Brad. You know, one of the issues is about timing. If you look at the multimillionaires that were built during the early industrialization in the UK, the next sort of group of entrepreneurs that made it big in America were those during the steel and oil revolution, the Vanderbilts, the Astus, right?