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Hey everybody, Barry Friedman, Showbiz Blueprint Module Four. Really excited for tonight, because we are going to dig into what is the heartbeat of our business? What is the blood that runs through the veins? What do people see when they look at us? And we’re going to handle this with a guest who … once again we’ve exceeded the top red marker of where we needed to go for guests to help educate us in certain areas of this business.

We’re going to do a post booking funnel, what happens right after you book the gig? You don’t just sit around waiting for the gig, I’ll tell you that right now. We’re going to talk about branding, we’re going to talk about the importance of branding, how it shows you from the inside out and what people see when they look from the outside in and we’re going to look at where we are today. In this program, in life and it’s going to be some heavy stuff. All right, let’s do a quick reflection of Module Three because there was so much in there with Larry’s connection challenge.

Hopefully by now you’ve had seven new connections, right? Did you do seven days of it? Did you reach out to someone in your life? And you can start with the safe stuff. You can start with the low hanging fruit, but where’s the risky one? Are you going to risk out to reach out for a conference, to a business, to an author you like, to a speaker you may have seen one day, to a producer? That’s when the connection challenge starts to get really interesting. So if your still in it a week later, congratulations.

Did you outsource at least one thing? Yeah, you know we got to talk about it in Tuesday in our live group, but did you take more steps? Did you take that first step? It’s very important. The sales funnel, the homework … I kind of pounded you on that thing. Hopefully you’re producing content at this point. That would be excellent, and I really like seeing the graphics that we make. You know I gave one sample of it, but there’s a 100 ways to do this and what’s the one you chose? Did you share it in the group?

Did you get some feedback on it from your accountability group? Really these are the big ways to tell ourselves that that part of the brain that is scared of all this stuff, that wants to hide and deny that we’re growing, that’s the way to challenge it, is to show this stuff off and just dig in. So I’m going to be announcing, I think it’s next week right after week five, we’re doing the tech call for the CVI. Really how to make it, how to dig in, the exact triggers I use, the psychology, the timing, when we mention things, why we mention them and most importantly how we pace it so that they are heard by the person watching it in a way that serves both of us. It helps them make a decision and if it’s done well, it helps them decide on us.

And let me ask you this thing, how full are you versus how hard can I push you? That’s one thing I really try and balance as a coach in this program is, you know, am I filling you guys up to much? And I love that we have the live groups and the Facebook group so I can keep my fingers on the pulse and see what’s going on, but I’ll tell you, my goal is to push you, because you can always come back to this content again and again and again. Today’s agenda, let’s dig into this, the post booking funnel. After you sign that contract, where going to dig in deep. The main point we want to do here is build anticipation.

Then we are going into a special guest. Kerrianne from Kickass Impact, you’re going to love this lady. She’s British, she’s sparky, she’s just a great communicator and we love everything about her. She has gone on to do some amazingly powerful private work with many members of Showbiz Blueprint over the years and she’s one of my favorite people to share. She speaks in our language. How to light up, how to dazzle, how to kickass if you will, so pretty fun in that.

We’re going to talk about communicating value and desire and it gets a little bit heavy, but I trust you to do that and I’m going to end by talking about where we are right now. So, let’s talk about the post booking funnel. This happens the second the ink is dry and it really defines when the whole impression, the after impression of who we are as we’re going to be working with this client. This is when it actually begins in a whole different level, because now they’ve put their John Hancock on the line and we are committed to doing work together.

This funnel happens quickly, it begins right after the signature and it can be set up using the email tools that we used to set up the first funnel. Again, doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re going to take small steps on this thing. I’m going to explain it in great detail here and grab the pieces that you can use right away and then let’s start filtering in the next parts so we know. This funnel serves a number of important purposes in the post sale functions. It squelches buyers remorse, which is massive. It continues our already proven ability to over deliver and it goes beyond expectations and that’s one of the biggest things ever and powerfully, in the last step, it builds anticipation.

Can you imagine going from how you use to handle right after you’ve signed a contract, to having those four important triggers leading up to your arrival? Big time stuff. So lets go look at a post booking funnel live.

Okay, let us dig in to a post booking funnel. A very powerful tool as I mentioned and I’m just going to show you in this screen capture how to do it. By the way, you will always have access to all the funnels here under resources and you’ll see funnel sheets and you’ll have them all listed here as they’re revealed in the program, but this one we’re digging into right now is the post booking funnel.

So a number of tools you can use for this thing, I don’t get stuck on tools. Some people may do it in Outlook, some do it in Gmail. Some people may just put it on their calender and have them ready to go. Gmail has a great tool called Canned Responses, which I used for years. Then I got into Boomerang, now I use something called MixMax and there’s Mago Funnels, Mago:Talent that automatically does this stuff, so all kinds of tools. What I’m showing you here is the content and then you can of course modify the tools for your liking.

Good, so let’s come in here into Gmail, make this a nice big box so you can see it. I’m going to get rid of my signature because I use this, MixMax let’s me just put in here “Post”. Post booking one. I put it in here and it’s all filled out. We’ll see you in, I’m just going to make this “Nashville”. Then I’m going to make this “Cindy”, and this is all good, I mean this is stuff … wherever I put the brackets I need to fill this in and I just come through and do this really quick. At the event for … let’s call this “Ford Sales”. Yep, good.

Below is the information, so this is just touching base, this is a quickie that goes out and you can see it right here, I have all the timings of this funnel down here in this sheet, you’ll be able to see this. This is day after the contract is finalized in email number one. Right after the contract signing it goes out. Email number two goes out four weeks prior, we’ll get to that one then we’ll talk about it. So this one would be all set up. So this one I would just go ahead and send now, I wouldn’t even bother scheduling it, but let me get rid of that one because we’re not going to do that here. And let’s compose, get this thing nice and big again and we’re going to come down here and we’re going to do semicolon and post.

And we’re going to grab number two. Okay, so this is the one we’re going to dig into. “Cindy”, I’m going to put the same name there. “You knew we were planning to customize the show for you right? We dug into your website and found just about everything we’ll need to customize our show to the point where the audience will probably think we work there. That’s said you’d probably have some insider information that isn’t on the interwebs, for that I’m asking you to complete this questionnaire”, and this is already attached in my template, so it’s all ready to go.

Once again I think I have the regular signature in here that I just get rid of. And so this one I’m going to schedule. So using MixMax here is very simple. Using Boomerang it’s simple, using Outlook is fairly simple, using Mago:Talent of course you can just have these all ready to go and set the date for them to go and this thing, I’m just going to put in here. You know, I’ll just make up a date in the future. May 15th at 10:00 am. That’s it and you can see right here, Monday May 15th, 10:00 am. It’s all ready to go and I’ll hit schedule email on there, which I’m not going to do right now because I’m just showing you these things.

So let me run through the rest of these a little bit quicker. I will put the text to these emails all … you know what, just look at these in the video. As I say, I don’t want these to be exact templates you guys all use. Customize this to make it sound your own way, whatever that is. That’s my suggestion, you know you can of course use this. You’re in my world here and this is what I offer you. You may want to just brand this, make it sound a little bit more like you. Let me do number three on here just so you get a chance to see it, and I’ll just say semicolon, post number three, and here it comes.

“Hey name, look at this, can we help you build antici … pation. Do you love that from Rocky Horror? Would it be useful if Daniel and I recorded a funny thirty or sixty second audio commercial that you could make available to your attendees. It will be well produced, customized for your event and you can use it as you wish. I suggest posting it on the event website or emailing the link directly to your attendees. We can record it within the next few days and send it right over. Let me know if you’d like it”.

We used to get taken up on this all the time and it was just so fun. We would get on the phone and bs know a little bit about the date, maybe do a screen capture if we want to make it a video, but we would just have some fun with the name of the event. Maybe some things we’re going to do there, some people we’ve heard about who are going to be there. It’s never scripted, it’s always freeform and it’s always just so appreciated. So that’s the one we play with for number three and as you can see in the guide here, this goes out three weeks prior to the show. It gives them a little time to produce it and we’re going to head in here to email number four and we’re going to do this one, one week before the show.

Let me compose that. I didn’t make that last one big for you, but that’s how I’m rolling. And this one we’re just going to hit in here, semicolon post booking four. Good, so and this one … “I woke up this morning and started laughing at an idea I had for your show. I read something on your website last week that had my brain just transmuted … into the perfect topper to an already hilarious routine. Okay, probably didn’t need to write you and tell you about it. Just know that we are going to arrive with a show that your audience will always remember. Let me know if you need anything as the date approaches”, and the contact info get in there.

So you guys you can see this post booking funnel that continues to stay in touch, it continues to build the connection. Stays of any form of buyers remorse, continues to provide value, build anticipation, we offer them something. So pretty darn powerful. I’ll enjoy seeing you as you guys launch these out. Let me see, do I … you know, I have notes on this page, so you’ll get to see what I do in these and I think I even have some of the text in here. Yeah, I have the text right in here. I’m better than I thought. So enjoy this. These funnels are powerful and let me show you one more thing.

That’s using a MixMax, let me just show you. Gmail has something called Canned Responses. I have to use this old compose though because I’m using MixMax and that takes over my browser, but if you use Gmail’s standard compose, there’s options down here. One of then is Canned Responses. You may have to turn this on, you may have to go into Google Labs and turn this on, but just look up a video on how turn on Canned Responses in Gmail. I used to use this one all the time. Post booking one, you’ll see, it sticks in the same information, it’s all ready to go.

One thing that Canned Responses didn’t do, it didn’t handle the subjects as well as MixMax, so I always just put the subject right here as the first line. I cut it out and I just placed it right here. So it was a little more work, but the same thing and I would have to use Boomerang, which I don’t have turned on anymore. It’s what I used to use to schedule emails out in advance. That’s a nice little plug in too. Very cheap just like MixMax, very cheap and someone showed us recently that you can do this stuff in Outlook just the same and certainly Mago:Talent.

Lots of ways to do it, lots of tools. Always lots of tools and what counts is that you do it and that you have the wording. The triggers that we use and the psychology and the timing. Get all those things locked in, pick the tool of your choice and then find yourself ready to set up your very first post booking funnel.

All right you guys, so that’s the power of a post booking funnel and that’s really a 101 version of it. This thing can continue to mature, but this I always felt like this is a wonderful place to bring you into it and are there more layers we can lay into it a year from now? Oh yeah. There’s a lot we can do in the post booking. We can book next year. We can bring other entertainers in, in the post booking funnel. We can find ways for them, even bigger ways than what I’ve just talked about, to help them really expand their reach. We can become a valuable asset at this stage in the agreement.

So let me introduce this amazing guest, Kerrianne Cartmer-Edwards. Kerrianne talks about the three essential branding secrets you must use to position yourself as an A level player in this niche and get paid accordingly. Does that feel like a wonderful wash? How to easily and elegantly tell people exactly what you do in a way that gets the right people saying, “Tell me more” every time. We talked about that when we talked about the conversational call. When we can get people to say, “Tell me more”, we have won!

She’s going to talk about the nine crucial pillars of kickass branding that’s stands out from the crowd and announces you as a one off original. Create your very own competition free zone. So without any further delay, let me introduce you to this wonderful interview aimed specifically at entertainers with Kerrianne of Kickass Impact.

Kerrianne:                           How cool is that?

Barry Friedman:                This is one step above morse code friends, we are here, we’re making it happen. I love it.

Kerrianne:                           Okay, so I am delighted to be here. I’m very excited. I love how technology allows us to do this and we’ve got this kind of cool work around of, you know, being able to do whatever we need to do and get it done. So what I’m excited to share with you today are the branding secrets of six figure success. There are actually like three major secrets I’m going to share with you and nine core pillars and I have a ton of really great stuff for you and I think that you’re really going to enjoy it.

I’m certainly already just thriving on this amazing thing that’s been put together by Barry. I really want you to learn a lot and I want you to see some new possibilities to really getting clear on your brand and your message that you can attract clients that are awesome clients who really want to pay you what you’re worth, and in turn of course, give them what they need. And so what I’m really focusing on today is how you can get more bookings as a result of this training.

I know you’ve got your workbooks handy, because Barry’s taking care of that and so let’s kick it off!

Barry Friedman:                I love it, thank  you.

Kerrianne:                           Yay! And just making sure you can see my slides change here. Okay.

Barry Friedman:                There you go.

Kerrianne:                           Right. Yes good, okay. I’m so heartened by that. Okay so the reason this topic is so important is that there are a couple of really big reasons that people get stuck in their businesses. Number one, perhaps you’ve been in business for a few years now and you’ve taken the time to really educate yourself about the things you should be doing. So you’re doing that marketing, you’re networking like crazy. Maybe you’re blogging, perhaps you’re creating videos and posting crazy all over social media and handing out business cards everywhere, but it just doesn’t seem like no matter how much time and effort and money you throw at your marketing, it’s still not really attracting those high paying clients.

So you might be left feeling like this, like you are banging your head on a wall and saying, “What’s going on here? I am just giving everything I’ve got, so how come it’s working for other people but it isn’t working for me? What am I missing?” Or number two is that you are bringing in plenty of clients, but the problem is more like you’re not charging what you’re worth, which means that you’re kind of trapped in your business. You’re working a lot of hours, but you don’t have that leverage in your business to really break through and create the six plus figures.

Then you look around and you see the other people in your niche, and some of them, maybe they’re even just like providing half as much value as you are, they are the ones, they just seem to have all the five figure clients they can handle lining up to work with them and you want to know how are they able to do that? You want to understand how you can position yourself as an A level player and finally get that income that you know you’re capable of and actually really just start enjoying your business again.

So no matter which one of these you are and where you’re starting from, I promise you that I’m going to make sure that it gets covered for you today, so that you do understand exactly why it’s happening and what you can do about it. And so what I’m covering today is the missing link and this is why so many people are frustrated that their marketing isn’t working for them and they’re not able to earn what they’re really worth.

Now on the other hand, wouldn’t it just be totally awesome if you could create a totally different scenario and in, say three, four months time you had your kickass brand up and running that really grabs you all the right kind of attention and suddenly your marketing is working for you and attracting these awesome four and five figured clients really consistently so that you can get your business up to six figures and beyond. And so what this training is about, is how to bridge that gap from where you are to the business and, actually the lifestyle that you want to go hand in hand with it, that you want for yourself and you want for the people around you.

What we’re really talking about is how to get more freedom, to how to get the money that you deserve and also make that big difference that you want to make and a great income doing what you do best. Your brand is the number one tool to help you make a bigger impact and create more abundance and so that’s what we’re going to cover is what exactly is a brand and how to create a total congruent and authentic message that, when you do express it to people, it really grabs people’s attention and they go, “Ah man, that’s just exactly the person I need. I’m definitely in the right place”, and of course they say yes to working with you. That’s what we want to get.

And it’s brand that actually inspires people to choose you over all the other options, because there are a lot of options out there and it inspires them to pay you what you’re really worth. It positions you. We’re going to talk a lot more about that positioning piece and they don’t even quibble about what you say you’re going to charge them. There’s no questions asked. That’s how powerful it is, and so in essence what we’re really talking about here is building credibility. It’s about transforming people’s perception from seeing you as just one more option in an endless sea of options that they have, to you standing out, getting their attention, gaining their trust and them saying yes to working with you because what you’ve done, to them you are the one over and above all the other choices in the market place.

And so that is the brilliantly amazing result that we want to get for you today. Well, you know, get you started on it. Yay!

Barry Friedman:                Yes. Yes. Yes.

Kerrianne:                           Yes, yes, yes!

Barry Friedman:                That’s good, that’s awesome.

Kerrianne:                           Okay, so let’s see. I think we’re going to be together around an hour, we’ve probably taken a bit out of that now and if you’re serious about creating a brand that does get that consistent, “Yes”, from high paying clients, then I really hope you’re going to love this training and also if you’d like some more support with your brand, I do have a very special invitation for you if you hang in with me right to the end.

This is why having a high credibility brand is so important in today’s marketplace. Number one, there is so much competition out there. Number two, people have a really short attention span now and number three, they make snap judgements and they’re actually deciding how good you are before they’ve even met you. So that’s where we want to go out and meet people at that point with our brand and really the common wisdom that I’m sure you’ve all heard in one why or another is that you need more visibility in your business right? But the irony is that if you have a weak or confusing brand, that dilutes your credibility and repels high paying clients, then more visibility isn’t your friend, because visibility without credibility is a liability.

If you just take a so-so brand and you make it highly visible, it can just mean that instead of repelling a few select potential clients, you can now be repelling masses of them and of course that would be completely tragic, right?

Barry Friedman:                That’s what we want to see, efficiency and not repelling.

Kerrianne:                           Yes, so this is what we’re going to be avoiding and this is what I’m going to be showing you how you can absolutely side step and so we’re going to cover the three secrets of a kickass brand and how to position yourself so that you can broadcast you’re attention grabbing, crystal clear message about your value so that high paying clients recognize your worth and say “Yes” for hiring you. But just before we dive in, I just want to tell you a little bit about where I come from in this process and the transformation I’ve made in my own branding, people find that really helpful.

And this is really going to help you I hope to learn about what you need and what this journey could look like for you, because I tell you what. If I can do it, you can definitely do it. The thing is, people meet me on an event like this, a webinar, or they meet me live on stage or they see my video and they think that I was just always this raging, natural extrovert and-

Barry Friedman:                You’re sparkly self.

Kerrianne:                           I bet you get that a ton Barry, as well.

Barry Friedman:                Oh right of course, yeah. We’re always this way.

Kerrianne:                           Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, and it just couldn’t be further from the truth for me. As a kid I was really totally raised to blend in and not to draw attention to myself and to just stay out of trouble. Definitely not to stand out too much, so that’s me in the white shirt next to my sister and my dad was a blue collar kind of Jack of all trades guy. He was actually forced to leave school when he was age just 14.

He was put out into the world to make his own way and so mostly I remember him as a store man in a large auto assembly plant and my mum, beautiful woman, she had the soul of an artist, but she did not have the confidence to carry it off and so she actually ended up working in a factory for much of her life too.

And you know the highest aspiration that they had for me was maybe that I would one day become a secretary or maybe work in a shop and certainly to get married in my early 20’s, have kids and just be like everyone else. But I have actually had other ideas on that, so completely against tide I started a career as a fashion designer in Sydney, Australia. Right after graduation I opened my first boutique selling my own designs in Double Bay which was Sydney’s answer to Rodeo Drive at the time and within a couple of years I had a second store in the city center.

I don’t know if you’re into clothes Barry, but especially as a girl, just imagine what it was like being able to make exactly what you want to wear whenever you want.

Barry Friedman:                Wow.

Kerrianne:                           It was completely just heavenly.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, didn’t want those doll set, accessories sold separately. You said, no, I’ll just make them.

Kerrianne:                           Exactly, it was so cool.

Barry Friedman:                Awesome.

Kerrianne:                           And then this kind of sliding doors moment came in my life and … I can make it to another couple of my designs there … and Romance stepped in and called me 10,000 miles away to where I live now, the green and rolling hills of England where I actually got married and I threw myself into a new career as a full time mother to my three beautiful, amazing, funny, adorable kids and they are absolutely my most precious and treasured gifts and I was a wife to a very nice man who, although we are no longer married, is still a great friend.

And they were just really wonderful times, but those of you who are parents might understand that I felt like there was a part of me that really took a step into the background. And so my third career, and this was by far the most challenging, it began in 2008 when I entered the world of this new kind of entrepreneurship and I didn’t start out with much. Well, I had enthusiasm, I had a can do attitude, but I had no computer skills, no marketing knowledge, no clue actually how much I was biting off.

It was a rollercoaster. There were triumphs and tears and thrills and disappointments and dreams and busts and you know what, it was so much harder than I thought it would be, but throughout all of it, I was and actually I still am completely besotted with this ever changing world of [inaudible 00:27:27]. People who were just up for it and anyway, long story short, by chance I found a business, marketing, personal development conferences online. I ended up doing that three years, taught me a lot. I learned about marketing, I learned about people, most importantly I learned about myself and as a result of that I found myself being really drawn into the world of coaching and speaking.

So then in 2011 I took a really big leap of faith and I struck out on my own and kind of piece by painstaken puzzle piece, I acquired this whole new skill set and so I became a speaker, an author, a videographer. These are all the things Barry you’re teaching to your people is, it’s amazing how different our lives are and yet we’ve developed these core common skills. Script writer, networker, sales strategist, web designer, motivator, mentor and it seems like all of it really, I was really positive and I was committed and proactive and I knew I delivered great value and I was creating amazing content.

And I was just sure that now I’ve developed so much expertise on my topics that, you know, finally I would have the credibility and word would spread and high paying clients would start beating a path to my door and break it.

Barry Friedman:                There you go, yeah.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah. Hard lesson learnt is that it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you don’t know how to stand out and inspire the right people to hire you. And so meanwhile everyone around me was telling me to give up on this crazy entrepreneur thing and what they didn’t understand that this lifestyle that we’ve chosen it’s so much more than just about having a business. It’s really much more like a dream. And so it’s a dream of freedom and it’s a dream of being able to make your difference your way and of creating a great income doing what you love.

I felt like real success was just sitting inches beyond my fingertips and then finally, finally I had my light bulb moment, and at long last it kind of dawned on me that without a hot brand and as long as I looked and sounded pretty much like everybody else, it didn’t matter how much time and money I plowed into marketing or how hard I worked or how much value I delivered. I was never going to really stand out and be taken seriously, you know, never going to be able to really consistently attract the high paying four and five figure clients that I needed to really take my business and my income to the next level and I’m sure a lot of people on the call can really relate to that.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           So the big shift that I call … like from when I moved from best-kept secret to supernova, is when I finally … I actually enticed my inner fashion designer back out of retirement. We all have so many skills and it’s the way you put them together. So I brought her out of retirement and I put her eye for detail to work on my graphics, I put her flair for the dramatic to work on my words and put her creativity to work out on figuring how on earth I could pull together my kind of crazy patchwork of skills and passions and expertise into a single, cohesive, kickass brand and finally get the right words to let people know.

So I went from this to this, and finally people did start taking me seriously and within two months of nailing my brand, I landed my first $10,000 VIP client and everything began to change. That was just a huge turning point for me, because before that the most I’d ever made was like $1,500 in like one time and so that’s the difference it makes. That’s when I knew that I cracked it and just really never looked back.

Here’s the shift that it enabled me to have and now I feel very blessed to travel the world, to speak on awesome stages, I teach other entrepreneurs how to do just what I did and here I am coaching a group of 300 entrepreneurs on how to use one of the exact techniques that I’m going to share today. And I just get such a kick out of doing this, but I wasted years struggling with a so-so brand, just stressed out, worried about where the next gig was coming from before I finally figured it out and now my book’s published on three continents, I’m often asked by people such as yourself Barry, to share my expertise with their communities and I’m able to charge more than quadruple what I was charging before.

So really being able to pick and choose the clients that I want to work with and that’s what I want for everyone here on this training, you know.

Barry Friedman:                What’s funny, Kerrianne, just a note to folks on the webinar. I encourage you to stay very focused with Kerrianne as she guides us through these next steps, because this is one of those moments you have this time put aside in your calender. Don’t think that you’ll do this later.

This is the time to gift yourself with presence right now and dig in, from someone who when I reached into my network and said, “Hey, who’s the biggest person that I can talk to about teaching branding and will be fun and will show up to entertainers?”. I got all kinds of notes back from people, who were about this person you know, and it just looked boring. It didn’t look like someone entertainers wanted to hear about and right when I landed in your world, I was like, “Okay, this is the person who can talk to a world audience of magicians and jugglers, ventriloquist singers, comedians, musician, everybody”.

So you guys, dig into this because it’s awesome. Thank you Kerrianne.

Kerrianne:                           I’m so thrilled to be in this group of people that I’ve never really come across before. It feels amazing to me. I love it when worlds collide.

Barry Friedman:                You’re within circus folk, enjoy. No, I’m kidding, it’s not circus.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah! So I guess one of the big things I want to say is, if people are not saying yes to you, it does not mean you’re not valuable. What it really just means is you haven’t yet shown them why you, you know, why you, and whether they should say yes with their money and that’s a beautiful moment when that really happens in your business. So these secrets that I’m going to share with you, they’re why I now get to hang out with some of the very coolest people in my industry and really just have given me the ability to do what’s really important to me.

And this is where it begins and ends, being able to look after my family, spend time with them and this is a big drive for me Barry, I bet you’re the same. I want to show my kids that they can be anything they want to be and they can follow their passion and make a fantastic income doing what they love. That’s a big motivator for me.

Barry Friedman:                Where it’s all heading my friend and I think entrepreneurs are going to be new … it’s going to be the job for that generation that’s on the screen right now.

Kerrianne:                           Yes. Yes, it will brake my heart if they did something else, I must say. So yeah, this is why we’re having this conversation and we’re going to dive into that kind of that real nuts and bolts now.

Barry Friedman:                Cool.

Kerrianne:                           First question. Most people have heard of branding, but they don’t exactly understand what it is. So what exactly is a brand? So what we want to do first up is really get clear on the definition of a kickass brand. A kickass brand is a crystal clear message for your ideal clients letting them know who you are, what you stand for and why you’re worth it. Who you are, what you stand for and why you are worth it.

Now so-so brands, they do not have a crystal clear message for a specific ideal client. They have a kind of hazy, one size fits all position that actually attracts no one in particular and they try and please everyone, but they crumble when they’re trying to explain the benefits they provide because of that. So they end up feeling overlooked and undervalued, because actually they’re not very clear themself. Your brand really must embody a unique and irresistible representation of you, your story, your dreams, your values and the way that you choose to make your difference in the world.

Then put that all together and communicate it in a way that reaches out to people and they can feel it, they get an emotional reaction to it. And so that’s what a lot of people don’t understand about brand, is that your brand is what people feel about you. So if your brand doesn’t reach out and connect with their hearts, then their heads are never going to come to the party.

Barry Friedman:                It’s good [crosstalk 00:37:26]. Good line.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah, and it’s so true isn’t it?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, say that line again.

Kerrianne:                           Real life here.

Barry Friedman:                If you don’t connect with their hearts …

Kerrianne:                           … then their heads are never going to come to the party.

Barry Friedman:                I love that.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah, we’ve got to make people feel. And so we put all of that together in the brand and all of that information must come across seamlessly throughout all of your marketing in visual, verbal and in written form. So in the three ways and they got to be singing from the same page. Any disconnect is going to be jarring and break it to people. Another really important thing to know, for the record you already have a brand, and so whether that’s even intentional on your part or not, is irrelevant because what people feel about you, what they say about you and how they remember you, if they remember you, is your brand.

So good, bad or indifferent, you already have a brand and the only question is, is your brand working for you or against you? If your brand’s working for you, it is sending out a clear strong message about how amazing you are and making you really stand out in the crowded marketplace and attracting those high paying clients that you would love to be working with and if not, the question is, is it watering down your credibility? Making you look pretty much like everybody else and maybe even turning people off from hiring you.

Check in with yourself and think about when was the last time you paid top dollar for an average looking product or service that was sending out mixed messages about what it could do for you?

Barry Friedman:                Wow.

Kerrianne:                           Like probably never, right?

Barry Friedman:                Does that hit home for anybody right now? Just that question that’s right there on the screen. Yeah, maul that one over. Good.

Kerrianne:                           It’s a tough question, isn’t it?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           So you know, here’s the reality check, so if your brand is weak, then you are either actively repelling people or they probably had now idea you even exist. If your brand is mediocre, then you’re kind of attracting that ordinary and it’ll be with the majority of your competition, struggling for clients, having to endlessly convince and chase people up and forced to compete on price and work with whoever comes along just to make ends meet. And it’s only when you have a kickass brand that you’re really positioned up the top there, standing out from the crowd, attracting high end clients that, you love them, they love you and finally that is the place you get paid what you’re worth.

So a kickass brand is this fast track to greater credibility, to more high paying clients, faster new client acquisition time and – ta da – increased referrals and recommendations, which is just the life blood of the speaker/entertainment business right?

Barry Friedman:                Amen.

Kerrianne:                           So I really, yeah.

Barry Friedman:                No people, it’s all such a risk. There’s always someone on a committee that says, “Really, a comedy act?”, or you know, “Really, this songwriter/performer?”, or “This person who’s never performed at this Art Center?”. There’s always some risk to be taken, so the brand, I mean what I’m getting from you so far is already  that the brand is the … that’s the trust point.

Kerrianne:                           It is, yeah. This is your credibility piece that goes in front of you, before they’ve even met you, it’s right there convincing them that you’re going to be awesome and so as long as you live up to that, it’s like one piece of the puzzle is already checked off for you. I mean that is really awesome, isn’t it?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, it’s amazing.

Kerrianne:                           So I hope everyone’s seeing how really crucial this is, because if you want to charge premium prices, you must look, think and act like a premium brand. So that just makes sense, doesn’t it?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah. It’s perfect and it’s maybe one of the pieces that’s holding us back when we think, “Well why can’t I book these gigs?”, or “Why are other people doing it?”. So this is one of those things that we get to see when we look under the car, we’re not seeing nice paint job or the leather seats right now. This is incredible, thank you.

Kerrianne:                           Mm-hmm (affirmative). So just cast your own mind back and you probably wouldn’t consider handing over your hard earned cash to someone who had a weak, confusing or boring brand. Like someone who didn’t inspire you and didn’t wow you and didn’t fill you with confidence and there might be a part of you wondering why your own business isn’t getting the results that you hoped for and the reason could be right there under your nose, because you’re so close to it.

It is really, really hard to see your own stuff, but I want to serve you as best I can today and so the un-sugarcoated truth is it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do, or how many people you tell about it, if people aren’t taking you seriously. That’s what we’re here to talk about today.

Barry Friedman:                Good.

Kerrianne:                           So let’s dive on into branding secret number three. And that is that first impressions are lasting impressions. Now the reason this is so important is because Harvard studies showed that within two seconds, yes that is two seconds, of finding you, people have already begun to form an opinion about your credibility, your competence and your trustworthiness … and one and two. Not a lot of time, is it?

Barry Friedman:                No.

Kerrianne:                           No, and further more those first impression are likely to stick. So it takes eight subsequent positive interactions to counteract one bad first impression, this is Harvard study. Eight. And so if you kind of mess this up, this marketplace is very unlikely to give you eight more second chances. So this is not something that you want to mess up. It’s like how people feel about you in those first crucial seconds is like the front line make or break moment for your credibility.

And every time that you market, without a credible brand, it’s not only a waste of money, but you’ve actually wasted an opportunity to make a credible first impression. So this is something that you need to get fixed right now.

Barry Friedman:                Way more [crosstalk 00:44:39]

Kerrianne:                           And you need to make sure that you’re visual, verbal and written branding support that first impression that you want to make, right out of the gate, because there might not be a second chance. So what we’re going to do now in this section, is we’re going to take a look at those three keys to a killer first impression and they are hot visual branding, powerful written branding and clear verbal branding, and we’re going to look at some simple ways that you can actually begin to upgrade yours immediately.

Okay, so first up, hot visual branding and by this I mean high end graphics that really grab attention, they create engagement and they position you for six figure profits. Okay, so common scenario. Too common, tragically common. You type in someones website, the page comes up and what do you see? So their website looks average, like maybe their cousin’s next door neighbor gave them a good price on it. Their graphics are forgettable, the colors are bland and their photographs was taken five years ago and just total and immediate credibility killer. So breaking news, it’s like if your cousins next door neighbor actually did make it for you or you hired a cheap designer of Elance or [inaudible 00:46:05], it shows. And you can really see it a mile away and it positions you as a low end player, it’s not where you want to be.

Same goes for your business card and if you’ve been wondering why maybe you haven’t been attracting the level of clients who are willing to pay you what you’re worth, then this is seriously the first place to look. I’ve look at hundreds of people’s websites and Facebook business pages and I have to say that probably over 95% of people are really struggling in this area. It’s not hard when you know what to do, but their visuals they don’t reach out and grab attention, the colors they use don’t tell a story about what’s on offer, their fonts are all over the place, it’s kind of no pizzazz to their presentation.

When you add that up, it isn’t really very surprising that they’re not able to attract premium clients, is it?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah. It’s congruent.

Kerrianne:                           It is. So I’ve got a question for everyone here and just really think about what you have right out there now, representing you and just internally on a scale of one to 10, just what is your wow factor? Just pause and think about that for a moment-

Barry Friedman:                And that’s contemplating the visual, verbal and written, are you saying?

Kerrianne:                           Yeah.

Barry Friedman:                Okay, just wrap it up-

Kerrianne:                           It’s all got to be there. Well, just the visual at the moment.

Barry Friedman:                Ah, visual, okay.

Kerrianne:                           Let’s focus on one bit at a time and then give people clues about how we can work on each of these parts.

Barry Friedman:                Perfect.

Kerrianne:                           If you’re not wowing yourself, it’s a pretty safe bet you’re not wowing anybody else either. That’s kind of the benchmark, and so I know that this might feel a little bit uncomfortable for some people, but I hope that it’s really sparking some new ways of getting some perspective on your current brand. Because we are so close to our own brand, it can be a little difficult to get that distance and some times a little bit of tough love is what’s needed and I say this with love in my heart and I’m just really taking a stand for you and the possibilities that you might be exploiting from your business and your income by not having this awareness of really what makes your brand stand out from the ordinary.

So now I want to give you a few tips to make sure that your visuals are headed in the right direction. A hugely important thing is to choose a look an colors that flatter you personally. Now that might sound like a bit of a thing that a fashion designer would say.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah exactly.

Kerrianne:                           But it’s so true and it goes for men and women, that the colors that really suit you and flatter you and the look that is great on you, choose that and brand yourself in that. I mean you want to look your best, don’t you? Well these color you actually see surrounding my PowerPoint slides, they’re colors that I actually wear a lot and they really are representative of me. When I show up and I’m wearing these kinds of strong, vibrant colors, there’s a recognition factor, people say, “Oh my God, you’re Kerrianne”. I stand out in a crowd. It’s not accidental that I do, I’m very intentional about everything I do, but just a simple thing you can do.

If you know you look great in crisp white shirt, wear a crisp white shirt. If you know that you look horrible in white, do something else. Just because other people are doing one thing, you don’t do it, and get your look that’s a bit quirky and unusual and think of … I also have a friend who’s a speaker adventurer and he always wears a vest. It’s just that part of his signature. Les Brown always wears his red tie, doesn’t he? You know, I’ve always got my red lipstick and my sparkles and these things make you really memorable, stylish and they make you look great. Okay.

Number two. Select fonts that reflect your personality. So however you do, whether you’re really playful, whether you’re quit refined, whether you’re very bold or you just kind of go with the flow, there’s a font out there that perfectly portrays your message to the world. So really take your time and pick and choose and find just the right one that really says you on it. And number three, photos are so important. Head shots in particular, most people end up looking pretty confident in their head shot, but what they actually lack is warmth. Some of that indefinable feel that makes you really want to get to know someone more and so the quickest, most effective tip that I can give you to appear both confident and warm in your head shot is to look directly at the camera, but don’t open your eyes up super wide.

It’s a funny little tip, but it works so well, but think about this and actually do it now. Smile and open your eyes nice and wide as if you’re looking at a camera, because that is what most people tend to do. So just hold that for a moment and kind of feel into it and you might also be starting to get the feeling that you’re looking slightly kind of surprised actually, and unwittingly that’s what most people do. Now, just imagine that you’re smiling at an old friend, or smile at Barry, he’s a friendly guy, or somebody you just really care about and can you feel your eyes shifting here and your eyes are actually closing slightly and the muscles around the eyes are lifting into your cheek. That is how you get the most awesome shots for your head shots. Most fabulous photos and they really engage with people.

So they’re my three killer tips for instant lift on your visual branding right away and I actually have a hot final bonus tip here and so this is for all of your business branding.

Barry Friedman:                Ah, yes. Find an ice glazier somewhere in the world with your brand on it. Perfect idea.

Kerrianne:                           Do you know how long and hard I had to look for that Barry?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, how did we all not think of that?

Kerrianne:                           So this includes your web banner, your photo’s, your business cards, the videos that you make. If you do that after you’ve nailed your brand, it’s like then … because the visual part of your brand is kind of the tip of the iceberg and what lies below the waterline … so this is the sparkly bit, this is on top, but what lies below the waterline, the rest of your brand is what gives it substance and it keeps it upright in the water. So your visual branding must represent your core brand message and your personality. If it doesn’t do that and it’s just up in top there, it’s just kind of sparkling, but it’s incongruent.

There’s that disconnect and you end up with it confusing people. Do your visual branding last and as we move through the branding secrets you’re going to understand exactly why that is so important. Okay so now I’ve given you some super easy to implement ideas to really raise your visual brand right away, and in your workbook I’d like you to make a note of just at least one actionable step that you can take this week to really help your visual brand and just make a killer first impression. Okay, so I’ll give you a moment to scribble away there and I guess there’s just no getting around it. Humans are very very highly visual creatures and the harsh truth is that if you don’t look the business, often you don’t get the business. And it is a harsh truth and maybe it’s not even fair, but it’s the way it is.

So I want to show you now what happens when you do invest in high quality graphics that perfectly communicate your core message and values. So I know this isn’t exactly in the entertainment business, but the principles that I’m teaching you here, they work for every business. Every single business.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, it’s human nature. It works for selling soup.

Kerrianne:                           [inaudible 00:54:57] you’ve got it. It’s like you don’t mess with human nature. It’s out there, it’s going to get you. So this is actually the website of a wonderful client that I’m working with right now, who is an amazing home renovation and remodeling contractor in New York and his clients totally raves about his work. And he actually has plenty of referrals and requests for work, but the trap he finds himself in, is he’s stuck managing multiple small projects and that takes up masses of time for fairly average financial results.

And he really wanted the brand credibility to win high end multi million dollar contracts, and so this is how his brand was positioned before and after working with me on his branding, this is where his brand is headed now.

Barry Friedman:                Wow.

Kerrianne:                           So here is the question. If you were looking for a contractor to work on your multi million dollar home makeover, which would you feel more confident about connecting with? The so-so version or this attention grabbing new version with strong clear lines, impactful fonts and colors. There’s no contest, is there?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           So now you can see how he’s got the visual branding to attract upmarket, high paying clients, the ones he wants and also his new brand lets those clients know exactly why his is the best company for the job. So just [inaudible 00:56:34] tagline that we created for him, which speaks directly to what his ideal client really wants, and when they see that, they know they’re in safe hands. Compare his one before … actually I don’t know if you saw it, his tagline was “We’re a construction company that actually keeps our promises”

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           [inaudible 00:56:56] it kind of seems nice doesn’t it, it’s quite reassuring, but then you would just start wondering what it actually means, and this is the actual promise here … actually I think I did duplicate … oh there we go, so “We’re a construction company that keeps out promises” and so the real promise now is “Hassle free, high quality renovations, on time, on budget and done right”.

It lands a whole different way doesn’t it?

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, and the photography tells a story, especially on something like high end renovations. It can’t be … I forgot what that other picture was and that says a lot that I forgot what it was. It was only a second ago, but it didn’t tell a story.

Kerrianne:                           Exactly, it was eminently forgettable. Yeah. So this is the perfect segue actually into the power of written branding and what you need to now is that your headlines, your bullets, your bio, the name that you have for maybe your talk or different products that you’re marketing. All of those things have to let people know exactly what’s in it for them, because right after your visual branding, you’re written branding is the next thing people scan.

So they’re just checking you out to see if you’re relevant to them or not. And this is a critical opportunity to get under that two second radar and let them know big time, they are definitely in the right place, you’re the right person and clearly communicate that you know what they need, what they’re looking for. But what often happens more than not, is that headlines are kind of vague and bullet points are cliched and names are just really downright confusing, and this is simply because most entrepreneur don’t know how to create good copy. So they do their best and they kind of cobble together a bit of a random collection of stuff they’ve seen elsewhere and unsurprisingly they find that using that copy from other sources doesn’t really work, because it doesn’t let their people know that they are in the right place.

It certainly doesn’t stamp their unique brand onto their marketing and sadly that often means that they’ve lost that potential client in those first precious few seconds. And just don’t feel bad if you’re thinking, “Oh no, I’m guilty of that one”, you definitely are not alone. I do think the vast majority of entrepreneurs are in the same boat and the A listers, they’ve all got top copywriters who are taking care of this stuff for them, but that costs tens of thousands and most of us who are running around businesses. We only have time to learn that and so I actually give my clients pre-compiled lists of hot copy writing words and then fill in the blank templates and then teach them the short cuts to really customize it specifically to their brand.

And I know that you do a lot of that templating work for your guys too Barry, it’s like the only way to short cut in enough, isn’t it?

Barry Friedman:                Well, it’s impossible. I mean people who are great singers, guitar players, magicians, a ventriloquist, you know, where does the time come in for copywriting and how do we do that? So yeah, shortcuts are amazing. It’s something I’ve taken a liking to, but I’m a weird one, so not everyone does that.

Kerrianne:                           Okay, so I’m just going to show you how a quick way to get your head around making better headlines, and just improve your copywriting a little bit. So for example, you will have seen this kind of headline before, and it’s like “Three essential”, something or another “strategies to do something to your prefect” whatever. So this is a fairly common style and let’s see what we can do to turn into a kickass headline.

So using this simple template as a base, it’s really quick and easy to arrive at, and since we’re talking about copywriting, “Three essential copywriting strategies to nail your perfect headline”. And so what’s good about this, you’ll notice is that it’s directed at a specific audience, i.e. someone who wants to write a copy and it shows an obvious benefit. That’s what your headlines should do. It should speak directly to your ideal client, it should show an obvious benefit. So this is not bad, but it’s really easy to just take a little bit of extra time and add a touch more drama, which I always like and just totally take it the the next level with three foolproof copy writing strategies to effortlessly craft your perfect headline every time.

So see how differently that second one lands and so the thing to notice here … here’s the kick to it. Our subconscious minds are a lot like two year olds, and they are very impressed and excited by dramatic words. So really be sure to make the words that you choose to describe yourself interesting, exciting and powerful, especially through your headlines and your sub heads. And words that might seem a bit over the top in everyday speech, when you use them in copy, they just grab attention, they create excitement and they make your words really leap off the page. I’m going to calm myself down a little bit here and just ask you to reflect a little bit now, how confident are you that your headlines are sending out a clear message? Are you grabbing the attention of your ideal clients with clear, focused language or are you actually maybe sending out smoke signals that are slowly kind of fading over the horizon never to be seen again?

And then in your workbook just go ahead and make a note of one area in your existing copy that you could tweak within the next 24 hours to turn a smoke signal into a clear message that helps you connect better with your potential clients.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, and this is clearly on web copy for people who happen upon their website or follow up on a business card. This is that first bit of written communication they’ll see from you.

Kerrianne:                           Exactly, and this bit as I said earlier, this flies right under that two second barrier. It only takes a couple of seconds to read a headline. We can’t tell people how fabulous we are and everything we do, but we can hit them with a headline that says, “This is for you”. Okay so, key thing to remember, all of your written branding including your headlines, bullets, bio, brand and product names and taglines must be wrapped around what’s in it of your ideal client. So that’s the crucial “what’s in it for me?” factor is king.

And just a moment ago you saw how that impacted the Brace brand, so I want to show you another great example of how the right words can really create excitement and engagement. So this is Kim Chernecki and she is an awesome business coach and she came to me when she was rebranding and this was her site which is kind of attractive enough at first glance. Not bad visuals, but what about her written branding? A quick scan of the headlines and you’re actually left wondering why you came at all. It’s a “What’s in it for me?” free zone.

That wasn’t easy to say either, but after some kickass brand magic, not only did her new improved visuals look amazing, but her headline now leaves her clients in no doubt that they are exactly in the right place. So remember a kickass brand means that your message is created seamlessly across all platforms and frequencies. Visually, verbally and in written form, and if you don’t have all three singing from the same page, that disconnect will trash your marketing every time.

So thousands of dollars and months of time thrown against the wall for little or no results. This was a very painful learning curve that I remember all to well. So just that contrast again, “Finally reveal and clarify your life purpose”, now “Create your ultimate high paying mission driven business roadmap in 90 days or less”. Really specific, directly to her ideal client and it’s obvious which one is really going to inspire people to say, “Yeah, sign me up”.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, so this is an important distinction point here. Someone who, Kim here is marketing to, is going to relate to that headline. Those same people are going to land on your music or magic or ventriloquism comedy webpage and that’s not going to speak to them. So what we need to do is, we need to know our clients and what’s important to them just as Kerrianne has helped Kim do here. Is to find most important for Kim’s clients and to summarize that into some wonderful written branding.

Kerrianne:                           Absolutely.

Barry Friedman:                Okay.

Kerrianne:                           Okay, now the third and final key to a great first impression is clear verbal branding. That’s really annoying how to tell people what you do in a way that lands. So I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of telling someone what you do and just knowing that they didn’t really get it, and the way you know is instead of saying, “Oh, how fascinating darling, you must tell me more”. What they do is they kind of look at you blankly and then change the subject. So I want to teach you how to get your message across and really leave the other person breathlessly asking for more. No more blank stares.

Barry Friedman:                Nice, yeah.

Kerrianne:                           So first of all, you need to be clear about exactly what you do, and I think most of you guys are, and who you do it for. That’s the starting point and this was one of the major areas that I really help my clients really get crystal clear on what’s going on inside the mind of their ideal client, but once you are really clear on that here’s the verbal branding technique to get them eating out of the palm of your hand.

So step number one, listen. And that means under no circumstances tell them what you do first, if you can avoid it.

Barry Friedman:                Boy do we talk about that. That’s perfect, thank you.

Kerrianne:                           Oh right, okay! Good. Well I’ll run quickly through and like how’re you going to know what they need to hear if you don’t know where they’re coming from. Step two, mirror their challenges and concerns back to them and step three, tell them how you solve problems for people not just a little bit like them, but just like them. So and I might be running over something you already teach Barry?

Barry Friedman:                Fine.

Kerrianne:                           But it never hurst to hear it again, does it?

Barry Friedman:                You’re on fire, this is great.

Kerrianne:                           Sure, okay, so here’s how this works and forgive me here if I get some details wrong, but imagine that you’re a ventriloquist with a message about mindset and you’re out networking and you meet an event organizer who tells you that they’re booking speakers for a conference and, you know what, they’re just really tired of the same old same old you can do it speech.

And so now, what’s really cool about that is you’ve really got something to work with, so you know, how interested do you think they would be if you said, “Well, you know how audiences can be kind of jaded with mindset talks and they’ve really heard all of the speakers, they’ve read all the books and really what else is there to say in a way that hasn’t been said before?. So event organizers are under a lot of pressure to find something different if they want to keep their clients happy”.

Barry Friedman:                Yep, no doubt.

Kerrianne:                           “Well, what I do is I do a mindset piece using a ventriloquist dummy and we kind of play out the positive proactive intentions versus the old habits that really slow things down. It always gets a great laugh, but the message is really thought provoking, because you know how people learn better when they’re having fun. So the audience really loves it and the company is really happy too, because they get their results”.

Whoa-ho, you think that’s going to get them asking for more? Absolutely, so listen, mirror and then tell. This is the verbal branding technique that I teach to my clients so that they don’t have to memorize planned answers and they can really customize their response wherever and whenever they find themselves and connect it specifically to the person in front of them. And I actually call it the, “What do you do one minute miracle” and it’s just really easy when you get the hang of it and just imagine what happens when you do this, people love to listen to you, because you’ve made it about them. You’re solving a problem for them and suddenly they’re finding you absolutely fascinating.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           Okay, so secret number two. Repelling people is good for business. So it might sound a little counterintuitive, but have you ever had the experience of working with a client who was just really not a good fit for you? And so I know I definitely have and what it can do, is it can really turn us, doing what we love and living our passion it can turn it into a drag, and it can really sap your energy and it can suck the joy right out of your business. And you know, they’re not getting the best out of you either, doesn’t matter how brave a face you put on it.

Barry Friedman:                Right, exactly.

Kerrianne:                           Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could only attract clients that you love. So that’s ideal right? And you can, but you need to be courageous enough to let people know what you stand for. What people do is they very often they water themselves down in the mistaken belief that appealing to everyone means more clients, when actually the opposite is true.

So your question that you need to ask yourself is, “What is the essential message and the way of looking at the world that you’re ready to share and be known for?”. And here’s how I like to explain this concept. Just imagine that you have just arrived at a party and looking around the room there are three groups of people in the various corners, and you look a little closer. One group is quite lively, they’re chatting and you can hear glasses clinking and laughter from a witty remark someone’s made. And then there’s another group and they’re sitting around on comfy sofas and someone’s strumming a guitar and finally, there’s a third group having an animated discussion, kind of maybe like a debate or something and immediately you know which corner you want to be in.

So the decision made in a heartbeat, and so we all have a preference. We have different preferences, there’s now right of wrong, but we know which is our corner. So this is what happens when you wrap your brand around a strong core message, and it’s really showing people however they come across you, whether it’s in your marketing or they meet you in person or they picked up your business card or whatever it is, the message is so clear and congruent, they immediately know if you’re the corner they belong in.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, great analogy.

Kerrianne:                           Thank you.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, I mean who can’t relate to that right away when you walk in somewhere and you’re like, “Those are my people”, and boy, in a way it’s just a time saving, it’s a social survival tool just to know where we belong and feel comfortable and it feels congruent to who we are. So wonderful.

Kerrianne:                           Absolutely. When I paint the scene this way, people often they tell me that they knew that they should have a strong brand, but they didn’t really understand exactly how it attracts ideal clients. Not just clients, but ideal clients. People we love to work with, and suddenly it’s kind of obvious. So go ahead and make a note in your workbook, maybe of an opinion you have or a character trait that you have that you would like to be better know for. That you could really work into your act and really put it out there strongly.

And something just to say here, it kind of doesn’t matter which of these corners you would prefer. It doesn’t matter what kind of person you are either. You don’t have to be all singing and all dancing, you might be kind of mellow and really relaxed. That’s not the thing, it’s just really finding out what you stand for and putting it out there more boldly and with a high level of clarity and that will work no matter what your niche is, or what your act is. It’s just this fantastic filtering mechanism.

Barry Friedman:                So yeah, this is the thing that Kerrianne’s asking you to write down right now, is what can you be know for?

Kerrianne:                           Yeah, don’t be afraid to have a strong opinion. We don’t need everyone to like us. We don’t even want everyone to like us. We want the right people to love us and just go, “Wow guys, I have to have this person. This is exactly the kind of person I want to book”.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           So just really understand it’s not important to be liked by everyone. It’s important to be liked by the right people, and so this, you might recognize it, one of my favorite quotes of all times. Oh, do you know what? I’m not up to my quote, I have to tell you about abandon ordinary. Okay, this is me, this is my message. This is what I stand for. This is my one message to the world, and you know I had that very … you know my upbringing was really about fitting in, but I realized that I was holding myself back in my business and this is what I knew. I needed to do this, this was my message to myself first.

I had to stop being ordinary. You know, I had to stop watching from the sidelines and playing small and really put myself out there and be okay with not being a good fit for everyone. Not everyone likes the red lipstick and the sparkly thing.

Barry Friedman:                Hard to imagine.

Kerrianne:                           Exactly.

Barry Friedman:                Hard to imagine though.

Kerrianne:                           [inaudible 01:16:33] And so now my favorite quote of all time, and I hope you might recognize it, “Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes everybody liked. They left that to the Bee Gees”. Isn’t that so cool?

Barry Friedman:                Awesome one, yeah.

Kerrianne:                           That’s awesome. That’s from the fabulous Garth Algar of Wayne’s World.

Barry Friedman:                Funny. That’s Garth! Nice.

Kerrianne:                           No way, yes way, that’s Garth!

Barry Friedman:                I knew I liked you when we met, quoting Garth. Good call.

Kerrianne:                           That’s so cool isn’t it? Okay. So quick example of how I actually applied this to one of my clients. So again these principals are going to hold true different types of industries but … so Career Vessel came to me because something in their brand just wasn’t really landing with their clients, and they knew they wanted to attract people leaving the military for new careers. You look at this page and your not sure if it’s for anybody who’s thinking of leaving the military or people who’ve already left or only for those who want to work in oil and gas.

So it’s like a real maybe this was for me, I don’t know. So this is what happened after I worked with them to clarify their message and identify who they really wanted to attract, and this is just for their specific client who is looking to leave the military and the next three to six months after a long period of service. And very often those people, military life is all they’ve know. Their careers have been totally mapped out for them, they didn’t have to think about it, so they feel really insecure about what which jobs to go for, what skills they can use and how they can apply. Stuff like that is just completely out of their experience.

And more than that, really drilling down, these people not only wanted a well paid civilian job, but one they could be proud of. These people have been serving their country. This is really important to them. So we renamed the business “Civilian Career COA” C-O-A, and I don’t know if you have any experience with the military, but if you do you’ll know that COA is army shorthand for coarse of action. The minute they see it, it says to them civilian career course of action. And then the taglines says what it does on the tin, “How to target, apply for and win a well paid, civilian job you can be proud of”. And of course the visuals are now completely on point.  There’s no confusion and their specific client knows right away they’re in the right place and they feel confident that they can get what they need and of course business is booming as a result of it.

Barry Friedman:                Fantastic. Wow. That one really just gave me goosebumps right when I saw it, I don’t know why. It came on and it just … the boots and the tags hanging off the COA, and I didn’t know about a COA before that. Course of action, but boy, that’s a really powerful one. There’s so much nice stuff worked into that banner. The perfect uniform on the left and the kind of camouflage feeling throughout. Beautiful.

Kerrianne:                           It’s really cool, isn’t it?  Yeah.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah.

Kerrianne:                           Okay, so moving on now. Actually just before we cover the number one branding secret, I just want to let everyone know that I am going to be giving you an opportunity to really leverage my experience and expertise if you want to fast track your own kickass brand and I really think it’s sad how many entrepreneurs, they absolutely know they need to upgrade their brand, but they don’t because they don’t know where to start or how to get the support they need and there really is no reason that you can’t position yourself as a premium player so that you can charge what your worth and get it. Yay.

Barry Friedman:                Hey, there’s one of us.

Kerrianne:                           You can attract a consistent flow of high paying clients you love and how you can really hold your head up high alongside the top performers in your niche. And so while I as struggling on my own entrepreneurial rollercoaster ride over the years, I just thought first hand that there was really no one out there to help me bridge the gap between my expertise and my credibility, who just had everything entrepreneurs needed to quickly establish their uniqueness and position themselves for those high playing clients right from the outset.

I mean everything like the step by step formulas and figuring out your brand personality and your core message and fill in the blank templates for a killer bio and a homepage opt-in video and pre-written lists of really cool words and all the personalized insights into style and design that you want to really dazzle at the tip of your iceberg. All of that stuff just in one place. So what I’ve done for this group, is I’ve opened up seven spots on my schedule over the next couple of weeks and if you’re serious about your brand, then I’m inviting to speak one on one with me and I’m going to share that special invitation with you after we’ve covered the number one branding secret that gets these fantastic high paying clients lining up to work with you.

And I’m going to cover very quickly the nine pillars of a kickass brand so you can put it into action throughout your marketing.

Barry Friedman:                Awesome, thank you. That’s cool.

Kerrianne:                           Ta-da, branding secret number one.

Barry Friedman:                Shh.

Kerrianne:                           Ordinary is when you’re invisible. It’s like to get traction in today’s marketplace especially on the high end, you’ve got to stand out with a brand that’s unique and so anything ordinary just blends right down in with the background and that is definitely not the place you want to be. And the fastest, easiest way to stand out is to build your brand around your personality.

So you know, obvious really, and when your brand and your business match your personality, first of all it helps flag your corner, because people are already thinking, “I’m probably going to like this person”, and then secondly when they do actually come into contact with you, they get a positive experience of having that expectation met. You’ve already got a check mark against your name and that builds trust, and of course we all know people do business with people they know, like and trust.

But if your personality does not match up with everything else they’ve seen online and in your marketing, it creates mistrust and then they really don’t understand who you are. It doesn’t add up and there’s this disconnect between your brand and your personality and it just really diminishes the opportunity for people to trust you. So you need to be prepared to unleash your inner kickass and reveal the biggest, boldest version of you. It is your history, your skills, your vision, passion and mission, plus your values and character traits all of that is what makes you utterly unique.

And this unique value that only you provide is the pivot point to uncover what I call your, “Money making sweet spot”. So this is the place where you and everything that makes you unique, converges with your message and what your ideal client is looking for. This is what really explodes your earning capacity. So where your unique personality intercepts with the message you have for the world, that’s where it’s easy for you to stand out. Where your message aligns with your ideal client, that’s where it’s easy for you to build credibility and where your unique skills overlap with your ideal clients needs, that’s where you can solve their problem.

And in that place where you can stand out and solve a problem with credibility, that is your money making sweet spot. So that’s why I do what I do. I love seeing huge smiles on my faces when we nail this and I walk them through the steps of really achieving this.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, wow. Kerri, what keeps people from playing in that center spot? What keeps us … is it just lack of knowing how to do it? Is there fear? What have you found with people?

Kerrianne:                           You know I don’t think it’s fear Barry. I know that we all of us have fears about going to the next level. We push passed them, we get outside our comfort zone.  I really think it’s knowing how to do it, because we’re experts in the things we do and we’re so close to our stuff. You know sometimes it takes getting a little bit of distance. Mentorship of course, and everyone on this course here has invested in mentorship to get themselves to the next level and so I actually think it is a combination, but mainly I think it’s just a skill set that people haven’t had to use before.

Barry Friedman:                Interesting, yeah.

Kerrianne:                           In that perspective, yeah.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, I’m always interested in why answers are out there in the world and what keeps us from stepping in to them, and sometimes it’s too scary, sometimes it’s easier just to stay in the place where we are and settle. And I know that people in this group aren’t interested in settling, that’s why we’re kind of every week pushing past limits and facing fears and new challenges and stepping into them and trusting the process. This is just great to hear and see your examples. Thank you.

Kerrianne:                           You’re already a bunch of crazy mavericks. You guys take it to the max.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, there’s already clearly something going on here.

Kerrianne:                           So here’s the thing, you are one off originals. Own it. Totally, utterly, own it. Okay, so quick recap. Now you understand the three crucial secrets of a kickass brand. You have a ton of practical, actionable tips to start building your stronger brand immediately and you’ve seen how brand is the missing puzzle piece that finally gets the different parts of your business working together and really opens up that possibility to lead to six figures and beyond. And so what’s next? I just want … I should have run through that while I was speaking. Hello Kerrianne.

Barry Friedman:                No problem. You’ve been doing great.

Kerrianne:                           And so now I want to show you my nine crucial pillars of a kickass brand. So the nine crucial pillars of a kickass brand. Bold brand personality, create your attraction based message, target your ideal clients, pinpoint your money making sweet spot, create your own “What do you do one minute miracle”, have kickass brand names, product names and [inaudible 01:27:55] tiles [inaudible 01:27:58] headlines and bulletproof bullet points, a brilliant bio/about page, forget the boring about me page and make it in a about them page and they’ll love you for it and of course, the hot visual branding.

So I’m going to leave that slide up so that if people just want to make notes of that, and in conclusion I guess I want to say that I hope that everyone sees a bigger picture at how they can make an impact with their gifts now, and really play a bigger game. Mix with the elites in your industry, earn a ton more money, make a bigger difference. You’ve seen how nailing my brand exploded my business, so no more wasted time and money with marketing that wasn’t getting results and finding fantastic clients that are really happy, love what I do and really get the value.

And so, if that resonates with you and you are tired of feeling really stuck in a trap of maybe marketing like crazy for disappointing results and you didn’t really understand what was going on before, or what you could do about it and now you do and you are ready to make a big shift in your business, then I have something really special that I want to share with you that I hope you’re going to love and so for this group I’ve set aside seven private kickass brand audit sessions with me personally and so that is your one on one opportunity to have my focused attention on you and your brand, to assess the strength of your brand identity, your message and your online presence and just make some personalized recommendations for you.

So these session are valued at $750, but in reality one single nugget of the right advice can add tens of thousands to your income. It can.

Barry Friedman:                One nugget can take care of that in the first five minutes on stage on a good gig.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah.

Barry Friedman:                Beautiful.

Kerrianne:                           So if you are serious about [inaudible 01:29:59] brand and you have a multiple six figure business in mind, you can secure one of these spots, no charge, and I know they’re going to go quick. Please [inaudible 01:30:06] recommend that you do move quickly if you want to grab one of those spots. So all you need to do is just go to kickassbrandaudit.com and I think I’ve got a slide for that.

Barry Friedman:                I can put in the sticky here.

Kerrianne:                           Oh, there we go.

Barry Friedman:                Oh there you go, perfect.

Kerrianne:                           So yeah, www or http, whichever you like, kickassbrandaudit.com and if you’re worried that I’m going to try and hard sell you something I think you can tell it’s obvious that’s not my style.

Barry Friedman:                She’s not hard seller … I did this session with her last weekend and we actually had a lot of laughs and I came out of it with a page and a half of notes, because I write slowly, but yeah wonderful. Loved it.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah. And just one more thing if you’re sitting there listening to the replay and you go, “No, all those session are probably take by now”, well you’re probably right and that’s why I’ve reserved an additional four spots exclusively for replay listeners.

Barry Friedman:                Oh nice.

Kerrianne:                           So we’ve got like 12 hours from the time they’re listen to the replay. All you need to do is type the word “replay” into the top line of the application form and that why I’ll know. So kickassbrandaudit.com and I’d love to be part of your success story and a-

Barry Friedman:                You are. I don’t think there’s any way can’t be Kerrianne, even after what you’ve done for the last hour. That’s such eye opening, there’s been a great stream of comments here. I know you’ve been busy, but you can scan up and down those. Somebody had a quick question though on the miracle minute versus a elevator pitch. Are they similar?

Kerrianne:                           Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Barry Friedman:                Okay.

Kerrianne:                           I guess they can perform a similar function, but an elevator pitch is usually kind of you learn it and you rehearse it and so there are some people that it’s not going to land properly for, but the technique I teach to people is you are actually customizing it on the fly specifically to the person in front of you and all they need to say is a couple of sentences. You get an idea of where they’re coming from and so you’re tweaking the whole thing, really to speak to the problem they have and how you solve that exact problem that they’ve got.

Barry Friedman:                Awesome, wonderful.

Kerrianne:                           That’s the difference between it, it’s that customization and I’ve literally had people say to me, “Oh my God it’s like you’re reading my mind”.

Barry Friedman:                Yep.

Kerrianne:                           So that’s very cool.

Barry Friedman:                And you can read peoples mind when you are inside their head as you’re talking about here of that builder was certainly inside the heads of people who wanted high end remodels. He understood the New York market, he understood a $100,000 kitchen remodels and $200,000 kitchen remodels. So yeah, getting a message that’s congruent with, “Hey, I understand this. This is my world”. Hey, it’s priceless. Yeah. And we need to do the same thing no matter where we’re performing our shows. We need to show up to the producers and the end clients that hire us in a way that says, “Hey, I’m ready to play in this game. This is the world I play in”.

Kerrianne:                           Absolutely.

Barry Friedman:                And my gosh yeah.

Kerrianne:                           I’m at home here.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, that’s right. Beautiful. All right.

Kerrianne:                           So shall I stop sharing my screen now Barry?

Barry Friedman:                Sure, you can come back live and if anyone’s got any other questions they want to bring in, you know you were an incredibly clear presenter, thank you so much for that. Hey! You’re there, yay.

Kerrianne:                           Yay!

Barry Friedman:                I want to send you money for a chiropractor appointment for having to hold your phone for an hour, I’m sorry.

Kerrianne:                           I just love how you get to work around it, it was like no sweat, let’s just make it happen.

Barry Friedman:                Oh yeah, we’re in the make it happen no matter what we had to do. It’s all good. Yeah you guys, thanks so much. Let me just thank Kerrianne and let me just scan up here and just see … oh, some people just said they filled in … oh, what’s the code you said to type in for the app? I think that was just if you’re on a replay right? You just said to a-

Kerrianne:                           Yes, just write “replay” in the top line there if they’re listening to the replay.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, if you’re listening to the replay, but if you’re live here you’d probably good and I thank you so much. I can thank you enough for showing up so big and bringing examples and concrete steps for people to take and giving people moments to reflect. I’ve learned a lot about presenting and branding. I’m set up.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah.

Barry Friedman:                And I’m going-

Kerrianne:                           Well I can’t tell you what a pleasure it’s been Barry.

Barry Friedman:                I’m going in deeper.

Kerrianne:                           All right, so I’m going to leave you to it with your amazing fabulous community. I am actually like the dichotomy of entrepreneurship like on the one hand we’re talking to people all around to world and so now I’m going to go and look after my family.

Barry Friedman:                Yes. Yeah, good for you man.

Kerrianne:                           Oh, unless there’s questions. I just saw Jeremy, thank you for that lovely comment Jeremy.

Barry Friedman:                Yeah, some people wrote some nice things. Yep, funny for some reason I put these little dots in and go down because mine … I don’t see the top three or four, so yeah. And I know people loved it, great comments scroll down below and you can enjoy and thanks so much, we’re going to head back in and close up here with a handful of another lesson. Thank so much Kerrianne.

Kerrianne:                           [crosstalk 01:35:03] I’m really excited to meet people there and in that way, so if you’ve got questions, I’ll answer them specifically for you.

Barry Friedman:                I love it. I might toss you into our private Facebook group just for the next week or so, if you’re up for that just in case something comes up.

Kerrianne:                           Yeah, fantastic. Awesome.

Barry Friedman:                Thank you.

Kerrianne:                           I would love that. Okay. Well cheers from Blighty.

Barry Friedman:                Bye bye, thanks.

Kerrianne:                           Bye bye.

Barry Friedman:                All right Kerrianne. Did I tell you? Did I promise? Are you shaking a little bit more? Are you feeling a little more clarity about where you belong in this market? Why your here? What you’re here to do? Every single thing that I have seen Kerrianne talk about, I’ve seen put into use by members of Showbiz Blueprint. A few members have put everything into use that Kerrianne talked about and a whole bunch have picked and chosen the ones that were important and viable, that they felt at that time.

It’s an interview you’re going to want to keep on your phone and be able to listen to, because it keeps getting richer and richer. Okay, so this sets the tone for everything and when we talk about connecting the dots of our brand to our market, it literally sets the tone for everything. How we’re heard, how we’re seen, the expectations that are said about us and let’s always aim to keep those expectations high. Branding will build respect and it builds trust in the market.

A huge piece of it, is how we show up in the market, everything that we talk about in our brand. What’s the trust? What’s happening on the inside? Kerrianne talked about it, we all feel a certain way when we hear brands. When we see specific brands because of the work they’ve done, we can do that. One of one, with our clients, in small groups, on our website. It’s so easy to project a brand that is exactly in alignment with the market you’re selling to. And this should completely wipe clean your third eye about when I said we don’t put more than one market on a website, because we can’t brand properly for it.

We can’t communicate properly with that market. All right, look, it’s hard to buy something for the first time right? The first time we go to buy something there’s that wondering factor. I just recently after 15 years of android, finally went to an iPhone. It’s hard to jump brands, so something has to be done on a consistent level in the market and you guys, we can all do this.

Having a brand that is yours and feel secure, is known, it’s a safety net for the buyer and it’s probably one of the most important things that we can really do on a consistent basis, is always look at tweaking that brand and keeping it tight. Good. Let’s begin to just a few factors that go along with branding and help me communicate with clients. I want to ask everybody in this class, in this group, to always be congruent with your message. Simple ways that shows up, don’t flow between then I form and the we on our website. Don’t be “I’ll be at your party”, “We always guarantee our events”. If you’re going to speak from the first person, speak from the first person. If you’re going to speak from the third, speak from the third.

Congruency with the clients, with language, with jargon, with the marketing message. We want to always look through the eyes of congruency. Are we doing anything the screw up congruency, to mess with our brand? The safety net is always to go back to what’s in it for them? If you’re ever in doubt, ask yourself, “I’m saying this, what’s in it for them and I’m saying this so that they can get what?”, and that will always take us to the benefit. So that it always takes us to the benefit. Wanted to recall that for you.

Keep communications clear of time wasters. You know, really respect your clients time when you’re on the phone, when you’re in an email. See how clean you can be with the communications. That sort of sharp edge, and yes, let them invite the friendliness. Let them open up the relationship and be there for them fully, but always look at ways, have some order to what you’re going to say to people, how you’re going to say it. All the scripts we’re talking about here, that’s what the funnels are about. And how can we deliver it in a way that lets them know that we respect their time?

It might be a really powerful exercise for you to collect some feedback from your past clients about everything I’ve just talked about. You know, how clear are you on your communications? How clear do they feel your brand is? Do they feel there’s congruency? And if you have some clients who you’ve done a lot of work with, they’re dying to let you know this stuff. Use that benefit of having people who know you, to enhance your own business. It is so powerful. Don’t go at it alone! We’ve talked about this stuff. Use everything you have and a lot of what you have is your past clients.

Okay you guys, so where are we at right now? In this program, in this whole transformation we’re doing. We are standing with our feet firmly embedded in the fire. There are parts of our brain right now, I promise you, that don’t want you to be here. They’re scared. They fear and resist some of the change. Maybe they’re building up defenses about, “Wow, I see why that would work for Barry, but I see why it won’t work for me”. None of that! We’re not doing that. You are here for the transformation. You told me that. You continue to show that to everyone by the way.

You show up in your groups in our Facebook group, watching the modules in the live Q and A’s, and I’m not going to let you down. So live with the intention of playing bigger. The number one piece I’m asking you to, I asked you to plant that intention about being peaceful on the phone. About having a team under you and I’m going to ask you about that, to plant that seed about I am here to play bigger. No mistake about it. Are you trusting yourself to take the steps that I’m talking about in these funnels? Or are you saying I’ll get to it someday?

There is never a day that’s called someday, all right. Today is that day. I’m going to talk to you in a couple of weeks about money. About how to run your business so that you’re always profitable. Yes, so you’re always profitable. Believe it or not. A great interview with a New York Times best selling author who came on to talk to us as entertainers about always making sure we’re profitable. It’s going to require some big scary steps. I do those steps every time money comes in and it’s gotten less scary. It’s incredibly empowering now and I look forward to distributing the method he’s talking about.

So the question is, “Do you want it badly enough?”. You’re here, I believe you do and I’m going to continue as if you do. So I’m going to put on to the screen right now a couple of prompts. I’m going to also put them below on the page, but these are what I want you to pick any three of these. Go to our secret Facebook group, our SBBP group and post your answers to these as soon as you’re done watching this module, because I want this stuff to come of fresh.

What did you take away from today, from Module Four? What’s the number one thing you took away from Module Four? Second option, what’s the closest you’ve ever come to nailing your brand? Was it a picture you took? Was it a catchphrase? Was it a headline? Was it a logo? Was it a clip of video? What’s the closest you feel you ever came to nailing your brand? What have you been doing for longer than you care to imagine, that’s incongruent with the brand you want to portray to the market? What have you been doing that is incongruent with your brand?

Number four, is there anything you held back on today, because you’re playing it safe? What did I say today that triggered you? I suggested a couple of things that might have come up in your head earlier, but was there something that you heard, either myself or Kerrianne say, that you just thought that’s way too big? I can’t think about that right now. I can’t be that person. That’s a great one for you to grab. I’d love to see your answer for that one on the Facebook group.

And the last one. What action will you take in light of today’s module? What are you going to do? What are you going to do this afternoon, tomorrow morning, that you wouldn’t have done had you not seen this module? That’s a wonderful one for you to answer also. So pick one of those there are five or six that I just gave you, pick three of those, go on to our Facebook group, start a new post and say, “My three actions for Module Four are … “. Light up the group with those things. You’ll get accountability from the group, you’ll inspire others to take action and you will kill off any form of fear or lethargy that’s living inside you right now about this stuff. Make the commitment, go global, go big.

All right you guys, post funnel booking, Kerrianne on branding, where we are today and a big challenge and five days of homework coming up that’ll tweak all of these a little bit more. Module Four is in the can. Great to be with you all again. See you next time. Bye bye.