What Is Branding? - Bijal Patel - Launch

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Sebastian Bro. DJ, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Thanks for having me, Sebastian. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hey, thanks for taking some time out of your busy branding day to hang out with me for a few minutes here at the Beyond the Story podcast. I'm really excited to chat it up with you. We became friends a couple months ago. We're in the same mastermind group, Apex. We were instant besties because, well, you are my people. That's just how it works. So it's good. I'm excited to chat with you for a few minutes about what you're doing in the world of branding. Branding's extremely important. I don't think people understand all the aspects of it. But one of the very first things I was fortunate to meet Gary V early on in my career. And one of the first things that he told me was that your personal brand in perpetuity is your reputation. So if you're going to build a business, great, make sure you're building your personal brand in addition to that, because that's what people actually buy from. So I'm curious to hear what you know, your what how you got into all this. But let's back up a little bit. Let's help our listeners better understand a little bit about you and your backstory and what really brought you into the world of branding badass. Is that a word? It is now.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

It is now. It's it's a Sebastian word.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

So how'd you get started? Where did this all start?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

I did actually, I did interior design, commercial interior design for office spaces, like office spaces, hotels, all of the places you go and visit. I did that for like a solid 13 years, Sebastian. Uh working the corporate America lifestyle, doing really well, had the high paid salary, wanted to like climb the ladder. And after having my second kid in 2018, I got boom, abruptly fired because the boss felt like I wasn't showing up as much as I used to work. Apparently, uh he didn't understand uh what it was like to actually have two little kids. So I kind of got shoved into entrepreneurship, even though this is this wasn't the dream, dude. I didn't want this. So after that happened, pulled myself back together, decided I was unemployable and I was no longer going to work underneath anybody else's banner. Um, so I started my own firm launch in 2019. So three months, boom, started my own company, hit 10K a month the first month, right out the gates, hit 100k a year the first year. And I proved to myself that I could do it on my own. I could build my own business. I didn't know all the parts and pieces of building a business, but I could learn it just like I've learned all the other things that I've learned in my career and had applied at that point in time. So that's what I did. I did an interior design business. And then another thing happened about it. You know, everything felt like it was going great. I had my first six-figure year. I was like, oh my God, I made it. You know, I thought I was like just gonna turn into a freaking fairy or become a unicorn. That didn't happen, by the way. Um, but March hit of 2020, COVID happened. I knew commercial real estate industry was just gonna be like just decimated. And during that time, I got, I bought somebody's like, you know, low-end, front-end $47 program, hopped on a call with a sales guy, and boom, I ended up in a mastermind program. That's when I got exposed to the world of digital businesses, of online businesses. Um, my plan was to bring interior design online and to help people set up their workspaces in their home offices so they could work better during COVID. And that fell a hundred percent flat. And meanwhile, while I was scrolling Facebook, learning what the hell organic posting was, I thought organic was an aisle in the grocery store. Like, no literal clue what any of this industry was. And then VAs, you know, they'd be like, oh, get a VA. I'm like, they really care about the Venturans um administration in this online world. No clue what a VA was. So a funnel. I was like, why doesn't like who's cooking and what's happening to this funnel? No clue. As I was scrolling Facebook, I would see literally all these fugly logos of people being like, what do you think? Option A, option B. And I'd come in there and be like, option zero, your stuff sucks.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Like, start over.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Option no. And I was like, all right, I'll just like help a couple of these people out since I had done some you know brand work back while I was doing interior design and then decided to give this a three-month shot, and boom, now I have a branding agency.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Let's go. And things have been going great too. Didn't you didn't I hear you say something where you like invested like the last like lump of cash that you had to put into your business and it paid off? Did I hear like a story about that?

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yep. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

That's I was I was eavesdropping a conversation while you were filming a video at the last fly-in.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Yep. No, I had 13, I had 13K left in my business account, and I had a decision to make whether I was gonna spend seven or eight K to make a super fancy website, or I was gonna drop 10K on this mastermind thing that was gonna help me grow my business. And for whatever reason, dude, that sales guy compelled me. I'm still friends with him to this day. He's actually taught me sales, and I'm a beast at sales. Um, so it it just I went, I had a direction left or right. I went right, and it was the largest sum of money, Sebastian, I had ever spent without asking my husband.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

And you're still married.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

And well, I came out the door and I was like, I'm in a mastermind. He's like, What the hell is that? I was like, it's an online coaching thing, they're gonna grow my business. He's like, What? How much did you spend? And I was like, $10,000? He was like, What? And I'm like, you know, I didn't need permission. That's not how our household works, obviously. Um, not in my world, but it just I wouldn't have made that big of a decision. I'm like one of those micro purchasers, like I'm like one of those women who will buy a hundred things at Target or a hundred things on Amazon, but I don't want to like just go out and buy a big purchase like a car. Like I have to like wait until my husband drags us to buy a car. And then look at look at me now. Now I'm 10K ing it left and right. I'm like, oh, okay, slide it on the Amex, we're good.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Right, right. So yeah, it's kind of like Target. I don't know what I need at Target. Target tells me what I need.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Oh, yeah. Worst strategy on the planet, by the way. Um, but yes, I'm the same exact way, right? Big purchases scare the crap out of you. So I tell people often if you're starting out in business, get into a mastermind program. Like that's where I met Sebastian. That's where you meet quality people who are working on growing themselves. Like you need to be in an environment like like-minded entrepreneurs and your current friend circle, that ain't it.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Yeah, not at all. Well, you know, I was I was reminded of this in the book Think and Grow Rich, which I still haven't gotten all the way through, but I'm we're working on it. It's been a couple years. Anyway, I did get to the part where they talked about joining a mastermind. Like, how many bazillion years ago was that book written?

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

So it's clear that a language, and I've always been a networker. I mean, I've built my brand over the past 10 years of shaking hands, kissing babies, and trying to be in the right room, but it's all local stuff, you know what I mean? It's not at a level where people are looking to take their life and their business to a next level. It's it's very self-serving. It's very, here's my business card. I'm sorry, what was your name again? You know, before you've even introduced yourself and have a had a conversation. And I think that masterminds have really changed the landscape of that. And they've been around for decades now, but even more so, you know, today. But being part of a mastermind that helps you grow, not just build these relationships and grow your business, but actually grow as an individual and also, you know, your business. So let's talk about branding for for a second. So why do why does a business need branding?

SPEAKER_01 8:10

It packages your reputation so that you're actually creating trust with your consumer, with your client in the marketplace. A client is not going to buy your product unless they have trust installed. And that's literally what the process of branding does in a super simplified way.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

So, what kind of things do you do for clients? I mean, you create a logo for them, you do all kinds of you know the branding related things. But like if I came to you and I'm like, hey, I my branding sucks, or you told me my branding sucks, because well, you're pretty vocal about about uh about your opinion of brands, as you should be. People ask me about their podcast, I give them the same feedback. Start over. Um but uh what are some of the things that uh you know you tell people when they're initially coming to you and going, hey, what's this whole branding thing all about?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yeah, that's a great question. People don't understand it. So let's let's start with that. It's people often are like, Are you gonna make us a logo? And I I laugh. I'm like, uh yes, and that's like the least important thing here. So the way I describe it is we're going to build you a brand strategy. So we're gonna understand, we're gonna pop open the hood of your business, we're gonna go deep, we're gonna go under, we're gonna spend time understanding who you are, who the business is, what are your offers, what is your audience and their most ideal audience, and what are their pain points and what are they really, really seeking to get from you and your business. And when we do that and we delve into the brand strategy, that allows us to understand the owner and the business at a way that they've never been asked these types of questions, Sebastian. So we're going so deep. We're defining their vision, we're defining their mission statement, positioning statements. What is your secret sauce? So let's give an example. A lot of this is intangible, and it's intangible things are where massive growth lies. And people don't understand that. Like if it was easy and everyone could get access to it, everyone would be a seven-figure or eight-figure business, but they're not. This is one of those things that pops people up from being multiple six figures. So you're at like 500k a year and you want to get to a million, or you're at one and you want to go to three million a year in revenue. This is the type of strategy you use as a branding strategy. But if you ask someone, hey, what makes you different? So let's let's use you as an example, okay? There's a lot of people, Sebastian, who who do podcasts, they help people, they're podcast coach, they're a production company. What makes you different?

SPEAKER_00 10:39

I mean, first I say I'm Sebastian Rusk. I mean, they're the only one in existence. I think I met one in Poland on MySpace one time, but it's it's it's in a I and I I'm I constantly re-repeat that. That what what separates you from the rest? I think that my personal brand supports my business as a podcaster. I host three shows as a professional speaker that's been doing it for over a decade on the topic of podcasting. Someone who writes books and creates content consistently on a daily basis supports all of the entire uh uh I forget what the word I'm looking for right now. It supports what I do as a brand and as a business. So I think that's what separates, because I think a lot, there's a lot of podcast companies out there, but is the face of the brand actually a practitioner of what they're actually doing?

unknown 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

And I think that's what makes it different. And then I've created a strategy where I don't care about your downloads and sponsorships and all the stuff that doesn't really matter. I care about you doing one thing radically impacting your life and your business because you made a conscious decision to launch a podcast. What's going to happen on the back end of that, I have absolutely no idea. However, I know something radical will take place because I've lived it. So I think that, you know, what separates me from the rest of the crowd out there is that it is my life's work. I'm not only a practitioner, but I'm also the teacher, coach, whatever you want to label that individual. Is that the right answer?

SPEAKER_01 12:02

I love it. That's a great answer. And I'll and like this is a great demonstration because when you answered the question, you can see and people can feel, the audience can hear your energy level went up. Your passion went up. The passion is there. And passion sells more, and high energy sells more, and trust sells more than any stupid funnel I've ever seen or any pretty logo will ever sell. So putting it like into terms, into real terms, most people don't understand how to how they're actually differentiated. And Sebastian, they'll say something like, Well, we're really good at customer service, like our clients are really, really happy with us, like we're really great communicators. And you're like, um, okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Cool story, bro.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Cool, really, really cool. You should put that on a t-shirt, you know, and it's like lame. So what happens is when people don't know who they really are, how the heck are you supposed to take that to market and then start to become an influencer? How are you gonna start to wield the public's opinion to change their mind from a prospect who has no idea who you are to KLT, no like trust and then buy from you? That's what branding strategy does. It put it positions you in a category of one. That's what we do for people. We take who they are, we figure it out a deep level, we re-inject passion and belief back into them because they're starting to understand their core values too. And when you understand core values, not bullshit like, oh yeah, we believe in integrity and we believe in customer service. That's not detailed enough. It's very generic. We go very deep to understanding and defining what that is. It gives a blueprint for your culture, which means you're then hiring the right type of team, which means you can finally scale. So that's the majority. 90% of what we do is related to brand strategy. Now, all the beautiful stuff that comes after the logo, the icons, the colors, all the font families, the tagline, everything visual. We that's like the decoration on a cake. We frost it at the end, it's all good to go. And people end up with 200-ish files. They end up with the raw files of design. They've got, they've got an eight-page plus brand guideline that they can hand off to any kind of VA or somebody on their team or a web developer. So then they have consistency and congruency across all their platforms. Because ain't nothing gonna make you look cheaper or like a noob than you not having world-class branding visuals, and then on top of that, not having consistency across your platform. You're just gonna look like you're a newbie.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of brands that suck out there, pun intended. Um, but you you mentioned the word influencer, which that just that word just gets me going. Uh rattles my cage. It's probably because I I was doing influencer type of work when influencers didn't exist, and now there's too many. But I also think that we're entering into an era into a phase where everyone's sick of the guru and everyone's sick of the influencer, and I hope they come up with a new word. I think creator may be the replaced word for that. I know a lot of platforms, specifically LinkedIn, um, uh YouTube, being able to, you know, enter this creator economy where your branding is absolutely vital as a creator on here. The influence, I don't know. You made a you know, you had made a pretty engaging post yesterday about uh about people posting specific types of content on Instagram uh just for likes. And I it was funny that you say that because I I told a joke the other day and I was like, if you want engagement on Instagram, you must be in a bikini or cooking a steak, or both. Like if you can if you can cook a steak in a bikini, your shit's gonna blow up. That shit is viral, y'all. Um which I may try. I gotta get a wig. I have a wig, actually. But um, yeah, anyway, I I think that it's just more of this the the likes. You know, I I've said that for a long time. It's like we we're living in this digitally addicted world where we walk around with this computer in our hand that we never are three and a half feet away from at any given time, and we post something on the internet or on social media, and then we sit and we wait for that first like to give us that shot of dopamine that goes right to our brain. It goes, I am fucking awesome. And we continue to rinse and repeat that process over and over and over again. I think uh uh my my buddy Bruce Cherkow, who's a brilliant, brilliant branding mind uh and was a mentor of mine for for a few years, um, heavy on the conversation of branding. A lot of his fact I was thinking about him this morning um uh when I was getting dressed because uh he he opened up his keynote talk at the National Associ uh National National Uh Speakers Association annual conference. If you're on the main stage, that's like the rite of passage in the world of speakers. So and I'll never forget that he came out and he did a differentiation between the Volkswagen logo, the Mercedes logo, and the Audi logo, and how similar yet different they all were. But I'll never forget that he walks out on stage, everyone's clapping the whole nine, everyone takes their seat, it's quiet, and he looks at everybody and he says, Your brand is not about you. And I never thought about it. And I and I never I never forgot that. And then he followed it up with to say, you know, a good brand makes people feel good. A great brand makes people feel great about themselves. Big difference. Um and I never ever forgot that because I think people are confused what branding is when it comes to the eye of the beholder. It's for the how people are actually perceiving you. So, you know, based on what Bruce said and continues to say, your brand is not about you. Um, you know, what what what are your you know, what are your thoughts on on that on those sentiments?

SPEAKER_01 17:53

I I agree completely with what Bruce said. And you know, there's a famous quote by Jeff Bezos that I think encompasses that really nicely. It says, your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room. Your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room. And there's so much power in that because the brand is intended to celebrate the client and celebrate the customer. And I think oftentimes it can get a little bit confusing. Let me let me add another layer to that of depth. People get confused on the personal brand. Well, isn't that, you know, you mentioned, hey, I have a personal brand, Sebastian Russ. I've got a personal brand, Bijel Patel. Interestingly enough, the Bijel Patel personal brand is still not all about me. It is, it is a curated version of parts of me that I am putting out to create a certain interest, a certain persona, a certain audience. I'm putting out Bijel Patel in a curated way, again, to serve my audience. So even if it's a personal brand, you have to think about it from the other person's point of view. Because, like you said about that in uh post I did, it literally has turned into with them, what's in it for me. So if someone is digesting your content and they don't get that, like, what's in it for me, they're gonna keep scrolling. They're not going to engage, they're not gonna like, they're not gonna consistently engage because they don't, they can't find themselves, their story, their emotions being moved. They can't find it within the stuff that you're posting. So um utilizing your personal brand, great, but just remembering a brand is built from the eye of um the consumer.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yeah, I've actually I just I've I just found that keynote uh for Bruce's talk to about 2015 at NSA. I just sent it to you. I just texted to you. That was hands down the best keynote talk um that that I've seen. I mean, it with around surrounded by peers specifically, but it was just you know, it's brilliant. There's one thing about doing a good talk, and then there's a good thing when you're able to extract an incredible message from that. But I never ever forgot that your brand is not about you. And people are like, huh? What do you mean? It kind of throws people for for a loop a little bit. So um what are you excited about for the rest of 2022? At least the time we're recording this episode going into 2023. I mean, branding is obviously at the forefront of all of that, but I know that uh you're experiencing some explosive growth right now. What are you excited about?

SPEAKER_01 20:27

I'm really excited about our my team right now. I've got a I've got a world-class team that I've been visioning, manifesting, doing the work for, and they're here and they're ride or die team. So we're taking everything that I've built and we're we're documenting it, we're systematizing it, we're putting it into a curriculum. Like we've got two main programs. One is Brand Fluencer, where we actually do the branding part, and it's a done with you, done for you type of thing. Our other program is called Organic Fuel, which, you know, back in the day, two years ago, I had no idea what organic marketing is. And now I have a literal program where we teach people how to find their empowered voice. You know, what is the style of content that fits you? What is the type of thing your audience wants to hear? What's the tone of voice you should take? So we're taking both of those programs and really up-leveling the experience there and creating solid, solid, solid curriculum content so that people can take what we do and be able to get explosive growth in their business by consuming more of branding and being able to apply it in their business. So um, that's one of my most exciting, um, exciting things here is that we're doing that. And the other thing is, is we're launching all of our ads on different platforms. So we're ready to scale. So we're we're gonna be on Facebook, we're we are on TikTok ads, we're gonna do YouTube ads. So really being able to put on that paid marketing now, because we built the brand, it was. Built off my personal brand, but my my brand is called Launch. And I intentionally named it different than me, uh, than my name, because if in case I ever want to sell the business, it's not all based on me being the centerstone and me being the face. Uh, that's not what I wanted for my brand. So um, yeah, we're like launches ready to launch to the next level. So to be able to take on more clients and create more positive brand experiences for other customers out there, it's exciting, super exciting.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

I love it. You mentioned you help people find their voice. I love that. I I do too. Yeah, pun intended. Yes, but I actually do. In fact, our our mutual friend, Stacy Raski, in fact, we're gonna be together in in Tampa in in in uh November. Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

We're sharing a stage together. We we we certainly are.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

And Stacey was like, hey man, I don't want to, I don't want to tell you what to talk about, but I'm gonna tell you what to talk about because I just want to stretch you a little bit. So I need you to craft a talk on how people can find their voice by starting a podcast. And I want you to connect it to your personal story and really, you know, walk them through the park on this whole process, not just this how to. And I was like, challenge accepted, Raski. Let's go. Let's go. She asked me for feedback on her new branding. I gave her feedback on my new brand on her branding. I said, her the little insignia looks like the recycle sign. That's what I see every time. That's what I see. And she's like, I love my little recycle sign on here.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Um, you know, we designed, we know, you know, we designed the I know, I know you did.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

I know you did. That's why I didn't die, that's why I didn't jump in there when she first started posting it because you guys were still working on it. But then she sent me the landing page and there was like, I don't know, it was outdated content that was on there. And I had stuck, and then this goes on to a full-blown, like two-hour text conversation. We go back and forth. It worked out great. I mean, it was all positive feedback. You guys did a great job with that. Um she was like, What is your feedback? And I was like, You're open to it. And she's like, Bring it on. And I'm like, okay, cool. Here's what I see. Here's just what I see when I first look at this right away. And uh yeah, I mean, it's I think it looks great. I'm excited about it. I like the colors.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Thank you. Thank you. It's thank you. It really encompassed her fiery, independent personality, and we really used her colors to make sure she stood out because she stands out in a room because of her energy. So um, it's really exciting. And her past, you know, her past time as like a war veteran. So we have the star there to kind of emphasize uh, I mean, she's a star in her own right, but uh yeah, it was really fun working with her.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Yeah, she's she's great. She's great. I'm excited for uh for November. That's gonna be a fun event. Well, um, I would say we're out of time, but I call the shots around here. We're not really out of time, but I have a therapy appointment. You can't miss those. Um, so uh but uh it's been so great to hang out with you. I'm actually gonna pick your brain a little bit this week. Those are two phrases you and I both hate, I know, but because we I was like, oh my gosh. Because we both hate them, we can actually we we can use them on each other. That that's like the only that's like the only caveat. Yeah. Uh but I'm curious on what it would what it would look like for, you know, what is finding your voice with a podcast, you know, look like. So I'm unpacking this as I put this talk together. So I look forward to hanging out with you this week. I'm excited. Always a good time. We get to fly in quarterly, hang out with our Apex fam. So we got some things uh got some surprises planned. So it's gonna be a good, exciting week. And uh bring your cowboy boots and your cowboy hat. Well, you're already a Texan. I don't need to get you acclimated to Texas.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

I'm already a Texan.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

This is true. Beijil, you're amazing. It's such a privilege to call you a friend now and uh and to be in your company and to uh to win with you. Keep up the great work and uh I'll see you this week.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Awesome. Thanks, Sebastian. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Anytime. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.