598: (Solo) Your Brand Is Not a Logo: Why Most Founders Get Stuck Before They Even Launch

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0:39Just head to omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey guys, Nathan here. Welcome back to another episode of the Founder to Founder solo podcast, where I break down what I'm seeing, what I'm learning and testing when it comes to building great companies. And I've been building founder over the past decade. So today I want to talk to you about something that trips up so many e-commerce founders, and that is branding. It's not design, it's not logos and color palettes. I'm talking about like, how do you actually build a real brand, the kind that earns trust, it drives conversions, you've got that word of mouth, people are talking about your product, They're talking about your brand and it gives your store that just undeniable feeling of this is legit, this stands out, this is special.

1:33Hear the stories, learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan. To help unpack this, I want to share something that I've learned from working with our branding expert, Camille Moore, who's just released a brand new program inside Founder Plus called the e-commerce branding blueprint. So I want to talk to you about a few things that I've learned from her. And then when I reflect on my own journey, just how true this is from building multiple brands myself. So the first lesson is your brand is not your logo.

2:14Most early stage founders, they confuse branding with design. and they think, you know, if I've got a good logo, if the colors match, if I, you know, hire somebody perhaps from Fiverr to make a mood board, then that's branding. But the truth is that's just a surface level polish. Your brand is how you make someone feel when they first come into contact with you. Like, does it look legit? Do they trust it instantly? What kind of feelings and emotions are invoked? Do they feel like this is for me? You know, one thing with founder, some people say to me when they first find founders, it's like, oh my God, where have you been my whole life?

2:50And Camille calls this brand discovery, where it's going deeper than just visuals and finding this real connection point. So the first key takeaway I want you to have is a pretty logo means nothing if your customer still feels uncertain. And when I think about building brands, I want people to feel excited. I want people to feel, wow, this is cool. This is interesting. You know, as I said, where have you been my whole life? And when I think about one of our successful students, Tori Gill, who we interviewed on the podcast a while ago, her brand son and daughter, she has done a fantastic job where when you first come into contact with it, you can see it's for moms, it's for kids, it's fun, it's fresh, it's cool, it's different, it stands out.

3:39And, you know, she's really killing it in the sunscreen space and it's such a fantastic product. So I just can't stress enough, it's how you make people feel. The next lesson I want to share that Camille talks about that hits me hard that really resonates is people do not buy when they understand you. They buy when they feel understood. I'm going to say that again. People don't buy when they understand you. They buy when they feel understood. And that's what great branding does. It removes doubt. It makes your product page feel intentional. Your emails sound aligned. Your social content actually matches your store.

4:19And if customers are bouncing or hesitating or abandoning carts, it's not always your price. It's because they don't trust you yet. And the key with branding is it's a shortcut to earning that trust fast. And the key takeaway I want you guys to have here is you have to stop obsessing over new tactics. You want to fix those trust signals first. So there's a really, really cool company. I interviewed the founder. It's called Hexclad. So Danny Wider, he started this incredible brand called Hexclad. And I was doing a test with our students on a group coaching call the other day. And I said, have any of you guys heard of Hexclad?

4:58And they're like, oh yeah, yeah. Isn't that the Gordon Ramsay thing? I'm like, boom. So he broke down in that podcast how he got Gordon Ramsay as an ambassador. And great brands have incredible ambassadors. That's how you can build trust really, really fast. That's how you can associate your brand with thought leaders. Now, am I saying that you got to go out and get a Richard Branson or a Gordon Ramsay famous person to be an ambassador for your product straight away? No, Danny didn't with Hexclad. He found over time from building a great product that Gordon Ramsay was following them. They DM'd him and they had a conversation and then one thing led to another and he became an ambassador.

5:40So when it comes to branding, just know that your brand develops and builds over time. And I think that's a really great thing to take away. And when it comes to building trust, that's where it's at. And what are the things you can do over time to build trust and make sure your brand is aligned? Next thing I want to talk about is Camille says that branding is a system, not a vibe. And that's what I love about her blueprint, which she breaks down in her program, the e-commerce branding blueprint. It's a repeatable system. It's not just, here's some inspo. She actually has frameworks you guys can implement, like the three levels of branding so you know where you're at now, the four brand pillars, product, story, experience, consistency, visual identity that doesn't just look good but converts.

6:27it's not just a rebrand it's about positioning your entire store around trust and intention so when you launch your company if you do your branding right it's not just a one-off it's a structure you can build on and another really cool thing that i can't stress this enough is so many founders think that you have to go to like a big branding agency you need big budgets Camille, she's helped everyone from Fortune 500 companies to first-time founders. And the truth is some of the best brand signals, they don't cost money like clear product messaging, strong packaging photos, cohesive copy, predictable branded emails, a founder story that makes people feel connected.

7:12And none of that requires like a$50 ,000 or$100 ,000 agency. It's just the right system. So a professional brand isn't about how much you spend. It's about how clear, consistent, and credible you are. I talked about Tori before, right? She founded Son and Daughter. So consistent. Go check out our business. Go check out our website. Go check out her social. Sign up to her email list. Check out her product. It is incredible what she's been able to do with that brand. It is so consistent. The copy is on point. The packaging is on point. The product messaging is on point. Her story is on point. It makes people feel connected, right?

7:47So there's this instant trust, this instant, oh my God, these guys get me and that's where it's at so you don't need a huge budget and in this incredible program Camille breaks down how you can do this so if you're feeling stuck right now if your store looks good but it's not converting if you're just like kind of working on your brand and you start to bring your product to life but you're not kind of quite sure what those next steps are and you want to create something you're truly proud of it might be time to stop you know working through the tactics and start fixing your brand. And Camille Moore's course, the e-commerce branding blueprint, it's officially available now inside Founder Plus and it's a system we wish every founder had access to before they launched.

8:31It's designed to give you clarity, the confidence that you need to finally help you build something people can trust enough to buy from again and again. So if any of that resonated with you and you want to sign up, which I highly recommend you do, you can go to pages.founder.com forward slash e-commerce dash branding dash blueprint. We'll leave a link in the show notes to get instant access as part of your Founder Plus membership. We've got a special deal going on just for this week. If you sign up to this incredible program, make sure you sign up. I can't wait to see you inside the program. You're going to absolutely love it.

9:09So if you're not a found a plus member yet. This is one of many reasons to join. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you are enjoying these episodes, please do take the time to leave us a review. Shoot me a note on Instagram. Shoot me a DM. We'd love to hear from you. All right, I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I'll see you on the next one.