Crafting an Authentic Personal Brand: Insights from Lauren Davies' Transformative Journey

Ever wondered how to build a personal brand that truly resonates? Join us as we sit down with Lauren Davies, a branding maestro and the visionary behind Lauren Davies Creative, who shares her transformative journey from a teenage vinyl record store owner to a personal branding powerhouse. Having met Lauren at various industry events and over delightful brunches, we recount her inspiring evolution and her ingenious strategies for marketing during tough economic times, like the 2008 recession. This episode is packed with Lauren's invaluable insights into crafting a memorable brand and navigating the transition into the personal branding sphere.

Discover the core principles of creating an authentic online presence that speaks volumes. We highlight the pitfalls of chasing social media algorithms and the importance of staying true to your message and target audience. Lauren emphasizes meaningful engagement over vanity metrics, showing how aligning your content with your passions can lead to real business success. Hear firsthand how prioritizing authenticity can set you apart in a crowded marketplace and lead to genuine connections and collaborations.

Finally, we delve into the essence of self-assessing your personal brand to enhance discoverability and maintain relationships. Lauren shares practical tips on ensuring a streamlined and engaging online presence, from your photos and bios to the functionality of your links. Embrace the concept that everyone already has a personal brand, and learn how to align it with your true self for greater professional fulfillment. We wrap up the episode with heartfelt thanks to Lauren for her wisdom, and a reminder to our listeners to subscribe, rate, and review to keep the conversation flourishing.

Connect with our Guest: Lauren Davies
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldaviscreative

Podcast:
https://laurendaviscreative.com/show/

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Chapters

• 0:03 Business Growth Strategies and Personal Branding
• 14:25 Building an Authentic Online Presence
• 22:47 Building a Strong Personal Brand
• 35:27 Embracing Authentic Personal Branding
• 50:51 Engaging Podcast Etiquette and Interaction

Transcript

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:03

You're listening to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. We're your hosts and business coach experts Mary Fan Grant and Laura Bay Shore.

Laura Bashore: 0:16

We're sharing all our insider tips from 20 plus years in business, including how we successfully scaled our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:27

Sure, you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success. Or you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts, because we promise they're really awesome.

Laura Bashore: 0:38

So grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show.

Mary Fain Brandt: 0:43

Welcome back to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. Hey everyone, what's going on? How are you doing? I'm Mary Fainbrandt and we're excited to bring you a special guest. But first, where are you, Laura? This way, this way?

Laura Bashore: 1:01

I'm over here, so I'm Laura Bayshore and, yes, we do have a great guest who will be on with us today. Lauren Davies is going to be on and she's a branding expert and founder of Lauren Davies Creative, so really excited for her to come on and share all her topics. She's helped speakers and entrepreneurs establish memorable brands that result in magnetic engagement and lifelong clients. She's also the host of the Real Personal Branding podcast, so let's bring her on up and introduce her to our guests.

Mary Fain Brandt: 1:38

Let's get her there, lauren. Hey girl, it's been a while I haven't actually seen you in forever.

Lauren Davies: 1:45

I know we. I didn't make it to San Diego this year, so I I think that may be best. Why? But yeah?

Mary Fain Brandt: 1:51

I didn't go, I didn't either.

Mary Fain Brandt: 1:56

Oh okay, okay, and that's where that's. That's how we know each other. So, laura and I, we were, we were talking before the podcast. We always, we always joke like we need to tell our audience where we find our guests. It's not like, you know, we have a dart and we're throwing it or we see someone on social like hey, they look like an expert. We actually vet our guests and Lauren and I first. This is going to be fun. I've got Laura and Lauren, so I'm not going to mess it up. I am not going to mess fun. I've got Laura and Lauren, so whoo, let's see if I'm not gonna mess it up. I am not gonna mess it up.

Mary Fain Brandt: 2:31

So, lauren, we first met at social media marketing world in San Diego and you came to one of my brunches or dinners I am pretty sure, like I always do that dinner like, hey, I'm in town, or when I live there, hey, who from out of town, let's go hang out and break some bread and have a good time. And this not this year, but last year. We got to know each other a little better because I went to a little gathering that you were going to with Andrew and Pete and Amanda, and we sat there and I got to know you a little better and I just I cherish that time that we had when I got to hear your full story, which was amazing. And then Laura, I know from you know, san Diego, and I invited her to brunch. So you guys got to meet at my, you know, brunch, my favorite meal of the day, because it could go as long as you want, right.

Laura Bashore: 3:25

Yeah, it was fun. We bonded over talking about music and kind of just going in that direction. So it was a good conversation and I was happy when Mary threw you out as possibly coming on to our podcast, because obviously still follow you on LinkedIn as well and interact in that way. So thrilled to have you here today and have you share a little bit about how you help those entrepreneurs and solopreneurs and, however we want to refer to ourselves, stand out with personal branding, which is so important.

Mary Fain Brandt: 3:59

I think you've done an amazing job, lauren, with your branding. Done an amazing job, lauren, with your branding, and so, instead of me or Laura sharing your journey with our audience, I think it's better if you tell our audience what was your journey and how did you get into this personal branding space.

Lauren Davies: 4:18

Oh, my goodness. Well, first of all, I thank you so much for having me. I think it is wonderful to be here. I really also cherish those moments we had. Definitely the brunch stands out to me because I think that was my second year in a row that I was at your brunch and you bring the best people together, like the greatest people all kind of convene at this place right before the conference starts, and so I knew that whoever I got to meet at that brunch was going to be, you know, a good contact to keep in touch with for the future, and that is a testament to who you guys are and who you, who you have in your orbit, who's surrounding you. So I'm thrilled to be here, I'm honored to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Lauren Davies: 5:03

My story is so so, you know, maybe different than what I ever expected it to be, but when I was about 19 years old, I decided to own a record store with my former spouse and we built a record store for about 15, 16 years and in the beginning I was like so young that I almost tell people sometimes now like I was too green to quit, like I was too green to realize. Like you know, is this like a good idea? And so I just I just kept like tunnel vision, like just kept going, um, because there were definitely times like when you're that, you know, when you're 19 years, I was like working at part-time job also, working at our store, also like trying to figure out how to market a store like that in 2008,. It was like a giant recession, you know, like 2008, 2007 through 2009 was just rough for retail and especially for like something that you purchase with discretionary funds, right Like records and games.

Lauren Davies: 6:12

It's not necessarily like something people need.

Mary Fain Brandt: 6:14

Just to clarify folks we're talking about vinyl records. Vinyl records, yeah. Like the good old classic got a scratch in it. It messes up the whole record, the album cover. Sometimes they had all the lyrics inside. I just want everyone to get that visual of what you had started. I mean I remember like Tower Records in San Diego that's where you went to get records and cassette tapes back in the day.

Lauren Davies: 6:40

Yeah, and that brings up a good point is that we had to learn how to tell that story, to like tell that experience and that vibe of it's not just a record that you're buying, but you're taking a tangible piece of music, putting it on a turntable, dropping the needle on it, and then you can't just passively listen to it, you have to you listen. It's not like Spotify, right, you can't passively listen, you have to listen to it. You're, you look at the jacket or the cover, you turn it around, you look at the notes from the artist and then, when the first side is over, you have to flip it. You can't just let it play or repeat for hours and hours. Right, it's like a very active listening experience. And so we had to really sell that story and that feeling and that experience to people in our community. And not only that, but we carry purposeful gifts and gifts with a story or made by, you know, independent companies and women and, like I, just all of the different things that we brought into the store we had to tell stories about. And what happened was people started paying attention to us and we started getting media coverage and like international coverage and the news would come by and ask us for comments on things, and other local businesses started paying attention to us and saying what are you guys doing? Like, how are you getting all of these people to pay attention to your little dark music store? You know, like, this is what is this Like? What is this magic that you guys are doing? And so I started really diving into that. Like, how does this work? How is the psychology behind what we're doing work? Why is telling these stories and creating these experiences for people so exciting? And, like, why does it make them want to come back again and again? Why are how are we getting all these cute, you know grandmas to come shopping at our store and, like, buying gifts, when they could go to Walmart or Target or any of these big box stores instead? And so we were.

Lauren Davies: 8:46

I became really obsessed with this. I became just really, really interested in this, went back to school for design and for branding and marketing and business and like really dug into all of those pieces and communication, and what happened was I ended up doing a couple different things. I ended up starting my own consultancy in about 2010 because I felt that there was a deep need in my community at first for this just help being able to help business owners tell their stories and communicate effectively and tell it on their own terms, right, tell it in a way that is meaningful to them. But I also realized that there's just a big gap in the market for local business owners and how they learn to market themselves and collaborate with each other. And so I started a nonprofit for local business owners where I ran marketing conferences for about a decade, bringing in speakers that I would meet out at conferences like the one that we would meet at in a social media marketing world, or I would bring in speakers from all over the country, wherever I would go, and ask them to come speak to local business owners.

Lauren Davies: 9:52

And as I was doing this, I started working more with people nationally, across the board, and then internationally, as people were saying like, hey, can you take those local concepts that you've built for business owners and can you help me learn how to build community within my space?

Lauren Davies: 10:09

And can you help me learn how to better engage and communicate on stage? Can you help me learn how to tell better stories? Can you help me come back to social media and not hate it? Can you help me like brand myself and really be aligned inside my personal branding? Hate it. Can you help me like, brand myself and really be aligned inside my personal branding? And as those kinds of questions started coming in, I just started really leaning into that and and I really, really embraced helping speakers, helping entrepreneurs, helping small business owners just be really true to themselves as they're showing up online and sell the sell the things that they want to sell, but do it in their own way. Because if they can do it in their own way and they're very aligned with what they're doing, then they never have to feel salesy, they never have to feel icky about it.

Lauren Davies: 10:53

They never have to feel forced about it and they get to be themselves, and when they are themselves they really magnetize people to them.

Lauren Davies: 11:00

So that's kind of a short version of that. I no longer am with the record store, but it is still a huge like thinking about that time in my life for you know, 15 plus years it was a really, really big marker in my life of of things I learned and the experience I got experiences I would have never gotten, you know, in that many years of school, that's for sure and just learning as I went and just putting my all into it, and I'm also such a huge music nerd. So I I really, really enjoyed building that and all of the lessons that I learned from it.

Mary Fain Brandt: 11:37

I love that you said when you know they can be themselves, they're gonna. You know you're gonna do what you love to do in your own way. So, being a LinkedIn strategist right, there's a million of us, but I do it in my own way. And, lauren, I was thinking about you because I just went through a rebrand and I have a new website and when you look at it, it's nothing like what I've done in the past. It's hot, pink and aqua, with the ocean in the background and flowers.

Mary Fain Brandt: 12:08

And it's so, laura's seen it. It's so me, and I was afraid for so long to be me, because then corporate right wouldn't want to hire me. And I'm like no, I'm good at what I do, I just do it in a fun way, yeah. So I love that you're on this show to talk about branding, because I think one of the things is people get caught up on looking like other people or what they think corporate is looking at, you know, and then there's a disconnect between their branding and who they are.

Laura Bashore: 12:42

Because you've met me in person, like if I had a really static website, you'd be like well, that's not the Mary, I know, right, yeah that's a really good point, and I liked what you were saying there, lauren, about how can people get comfortable with their online personas or their online branding so that they will use it, because a lot of times I hear from those who are either starting out or looking to rebrand is they don't really like social media, but I would think that's because they don't feel they can be themselves on there. So can you talk about how being able to bring that forward increases visibility and actually helps them to gain not only more clients, but the right client?

Lauren Davies: 13:35

Well, if you think about anything that you have to do in your business, if you don't really like doing it, it's hard to show up there with a good attitude. Right, like, I know what my strengths are. My strengths have nothing to do with my calendar. I cannot. I cannot handle my calendar. I just can't. I'm so lucky, so lucky I have such an amazing executive assistant that helps me with my calendar. Because if I had to manage that, like manage all of the calls I do with my clients and stuff like that and manage all of their reschedules and stuff, I could not run my business as smoothly as I do.

Lauren Davies: 14:14

So we all have to figure out what our systems are right. We have to figure out the things that make our businesses feel good to us. And so when people say like I just don't like social media, I feel like I can't make the algorithm work. I only get five likes on my posts. I don't get engagement. And when we take a look at their profiles, what I see is like maybe it's, you know, some Canva graphics or something that somebody told them to make. Maybe it's um, that they've been showing up six times a day making reels because someone told them that they have to do only reels and no posts anymore, and what I see is like just this, very like misaligned version of who this person is, because they are being who they think they're supposed to be instead of who they are.

Mary Fain Brandt: 15:11

They're following someone's advice to to beat the algorithm or to uh, side note you can't beat the algorithm and the algorithm changes, as someone who's on LinkedIn and all of our reach has dropped this since the beginning of the year. It just has all dropped for us. And there's those paid ads. So just a side note you can't beat the algorithm. Be consistent, be you. So go ahead, lauren. I'm sorry, but I just had to throw that in there. There's no beat in the algorithm, you guys?

Lauren Davies: 15:42

Yeah, that's exactly, and that is exactly what I tell them is like that is not your job. Your job is not to control the algorithm, to hack the algorithm, because if that's what your focus is, then how could you show up for other people, how could you show up for yourself, how could you be yourself If your sole focus is to only use what the algorithm that is changing constantly and being moved around constantly is doing right? So what I want them to focus on is, like what are you truly passionate about? What kind of things do you want to communicate? What are your messages that you want to share?

Lauren Davies: 16:20

And then, when you know what your message is that you want to share, who is your audience and who is? Who are the people that this message is actually for? Not who you want it to be for, not who you you know, not who you think it's supposed to be for. Right, not like someone says like oh, you should work for this type of business, or you should work, you should bring this message to this kind of industry, but like, who do you actually want your message to be for?

Lauren Davies: 16:54

And then taking that information and really digging deep into what the behaviors of those people are online. So, if you know that you're speaking to a certain audience, how that audience actually behave online, what do they do? What are the things that they do? Because if you know how they behave, maybe, like let's say we were, we were creating something that was for Gen Z's right. Gen Z's don't as often comment on photos, but you know what they do is they share a reel or they share a photo to someone else in a message. Sometimes they even screenshot it. Sometimes they just copy the link and just send the link. They don't even share it inside the app. They share it in a text message. So, like are we really worried about likes and comments the way that you know, are we? Should we be worried about likes and comments when that is not even the behavior that people are doing online anymore?

Mary Fain Brandt: 17:52

Like again, or side note yeah, vanity numbers, so people get all hung up on that. Like, oh my God, you don't have a thousand impressions on a post. No, but I got DMS and I got people signing up for appointments, so I'm good because I feel just like your point. A lot of people I call them LinkedIn workers over on LinkedIn. They're just scrolling Right and that's okay. I mean, sometimes they'll comment, but the what'd you call them? Wait, I'm so out of it. Gen Z. Gen Z.

Lauren Davies: 18:23

Yeah.

Mary Fain Brandt: 18:23

Yeah yeah. They're not even commenting, they're just shooting the link or taking a capture of that. So the point is don't get caught up in the vanity numbers. It's working if you're getting appointments and clients, collaborations and speaking opportunities. I feel that people were so caught up in the vanity numbers. But are you getting business Well and that's the you know.

Lauren Davies: 18:51

To answer the question like, how do we show up as ourselves? Well, like, we have to know what the message is that we are wanting to share. We. Then we have to know who the audience is, but we have to know what they are doing online in order to get those bookings right, In order to get those appointments. Like we have to know what their behavior is Like, if it's easier for them to do this thing than that thing, or if they are more prone to this behavior over this behavior, then we need to adapt to what our audience actually does and what they need and what they are, what their default go-to is, in order to book those appointments. But you can only do that after you really figure out, like, what it is that you want to do and who you are and how you show up. So I think that I guess I feel like there's a lot of different answers to this question, but the one answer that I would say is like who are you really and what do you want in this world?

Lauren Davies: 19:53

What are you showing up to do for people? And I have a feeling it's not. You're showing up to get likes, like that's not what you're. You know what I mean. That's not what you're doing. So that's where I'm like okay, is this misaligned? Are you basing your self-worth on how many people are liking or commenting on your posts? If you are, then like, let's figure out what the root of that is. Let's figure out what the root of who you are talking to and like who you really want to show up for is, and then we can start figuring out what kind of content to create that really books those calls and that focuses on that behavior. I love that. So I've got a pretty straightforward question.

Mary Fain Brandt: 20:34

Sure, what would you say makes a memorable personal brand Like? Are there any like three points? Or is there a brand you can share that really makes a memorable brand that our audience can relate to so they can be like? Okay, I understand a little more about personal branding. This is like our third episode on personal branding. By the way, we did two solo ones.

Mary Fain Brandt: 20:59

We had to break it down because I feel like we could do an episode every month on branding, because there's so much to cover and there's just. You know, you can take one part of it and do a whole episode on that. But in your opinion, Laura, what really makes a memorable personal brand?

Laura Bashore: 22:26

You did it, you did the Laura and Lauren. I just want to say you said it wasn't going to happen, but it did.

Lauren Davies: 22:35

My best friend growing up was named Laura and we've always been mistaken, like our names are always interchanged our whole time growing up. So okay, so I in my opinion, there's five. There's five things that you need to consider when you are basically self-assessing your own personal brand. So I can almost call them self audit questions or self-assessment questions and you want to do this to be highly memorable and highly visible. So the first question you need to ask yourself is will people find you?

Lauren Davies: 23:09

That is absolutely the first thing, because if you're sitting and you're having coffee with someone and you walk away from that interaction, all you know is their name and something that you talked about like a key phrase, like, oh, I know Lauren and she does personal branding. I want them to be able to look up my name and personal branding in Google or LinkedIn and find me right. So will people find you? So it's a good idea sometimes to just take out your phone, google yourself or put yourself your name and maybe just your first name and a keyword, or your first and last name and a keyword, into LinkedIn and see what comes up, see who else is out there, see what you can maybe do to change. So that way, the thing that you want to be perceived as doing like maybe it's speaking, maybe it is finance, whatever it might be, comes up when they also type in your name and that key phrase.

Lauren Davies: 24:02

So will people find you Once they find you? How will they experience you once they're there? So what I mean by that is what? What do your links look like? What are your photos look like? What do your bios say? Right, how are they going to experience you? How are what? What are they going to find in those first nine pictures on instagram? Are they going to?

Lauren Davies: 24:26

If you're a speaker, do they see you speaking in one of those first nine photos? If you're a podcaster, do they see you podcasting in one of those first nine photos? Like, how are you being perceived in those nine photos as the thing that you want to be known for? Right? So that's something that you want to think about as how they will perceive you. Also, your photo like does your photo look like you? If somebody saw you in the grocery store, saw you from three aisles away I call this the grocery store test. If they saw you from three aisles away, would they be able to recognize you and be like oh yeah, that's, that's Lauren. I know that that's her and I've seen her online, or whatever it might be like I know that that's her and I've seen her online or whatever it might be Like. I know that that's the same person.

Lauren Davies: 25:08

Also is your photo recognizable from platform to platform? Do you have the same type of photo, or a photo that looks like you that is highly recognizable between platforms? It doesn't have to be the same exact picture, but people have to know that they're landing in the right place, right, yeah? And then your bio and your link is another way people experience you. I can't tell you how many speakers amazing, professional, well-trained speakers I end up talking to for one of our one-on-one calls, and the first thing we do is look at their link, and their link is like going to an amazing GoFundMe but that was like five years old or something Like they just never changed it. You know, like from somebody else, like props on them for doing that, but like the link never changed. So no wonder they're not getting leads. Nobody can find them from their link on their Instagram, right, and it happens all the time. It happens on Facebook, instagram, linkedin, all of the sites. It even happens on our own website. Links are broken. So kind of taking stock in how people will experience you once they land on you in any particular place that you are.

Lauren Davies: 26:20

The third point is how will you continue the relationship with them? Point is, how will you continue the relationship with them. So we all know that that building a business really depends on relationships. So, not just how are you, you know how are they experiencing you, but how do you continue that relationship once they have experienced you, once they make that initial point of contact? When they reply to your stories, when they reply to your post on LinkedIn, when they email you your stories, when they reply to your post on LinkedIn, when they email you back from one of your emails that you sent out, how are you kind of maintaining that relationship?

Lauren Davies: 26:53

And one big way you maintain relationship is content. So podcasts like this that you're creating, that's a great way to maintain a relationship. It's a very intimate way for people to like hear you, hear how you think, hear how you talk. Podcasts are great. Blog posts, emails, um, like whatever you choose, whichever way you choose to create content that feels really easy to you. Make that be your primary source of content, um, and then kind of repurpose from that point on. But that's how you kind of continue that relationship and really really hold people and make space for them to be who they are in your presence. The fourth part is do you have a simple operating system?

Lauren Davies: 27:35

So, in order to be profitable and in order to be memorable and visible, you have to make it easy for them to buy from you.

Lauren Davies: 27:43

You have to have some kind of system that allows you to sell them things right. So it doesn't have to be it's. There's no one system that I can tell you that is better than the other, but it has to be good for you. So, do you have, like, invoices? Do you have customer follow-up? You know CRM? Do you have a proposal? Do you have your contract? Like, do you have all those things that you need If someone is like, I want to buy this from you right now, today, do you have everything you need to actually buy? Have someone buy from you, because that's a step that's actually missing more often than not. Like, oh, I've been meaning to get that contract together, but I never did so now I'm going to enter into this relationship with a client without a contract. No, please don't do that. Don't ever do that.

Lauren Davies: 28:29

You know, like you have to have these things in place. What is your simple operating system? But also that could mean your operating system for creating content. Like maybe every Monday you post a post that is more about your, your feelings, right. Or maybe on Thursdays you post tips, right, like I don't know what it is, but you get to determine that for yourself. But like creating systems for yourself that you can fall back on, that allows you to stay creative, right.

Lauren Davies: 29:01

That's a really big part of this, because if you don't, have a system that works for you, then you won't be able to show up to do those things and you'll you'll always have pushback from yourself internally.

Mary Fain Brandt: 29:12

I feel like you just need to automate as much as you can. So when you're talking about your operating system like if you, if they buy something, they should get a thank you email right away without you lifting a finger and the calendar link and you know the contract like just automate that. And then with the content, you're right, they automate it. People are so afraid to use like scheduling tools still, and I don't know why they think it really hurts them where there've been so much research that it actually doesn't. It's better to be consistent and use the tool than be inconsistent. In my opinion, Sure, and I think there's like so many different.

Lauren Davies: 29:55

There's ways to. I guess what I would say to that is that you should automate the things that are difficult for you and keep the things that feel like relationship builders for you Right. I like that. You can't automate relationships so so, like. So. If you are automating, sometimes, if you're automating too much, you come across as very robotic and people they they still want. I mean, I always think about like how I know this sounds silly and I'm probably the only one that does this but how great of a length I will take to not use the self-checkout at the grocery store if I have a cart of groceries. Like I just don't want to do it myself. You know what I mean. I just don't want to. I don't want to look at it, it takes longer, I just don't want to do it myself. You know what I mean. I just don't want to.

Mary Fain Brandt: 30:45

I don't want to look up every fruit and vegetable with the code. It takes longer. I'm telling you, like, if you have, like you know things, like this.

Lauren Davies: 30:52

But I'm not going to do that with a cart full of groceries. I'm just not going to look up every fruit and vegetable with the code and no, I agree.

Laura Bashore: 30:58

Right.

Lauren Davies: 30:59

No. So I think, like you can't automate the service and the like, the relationship that you're building with somebody, but there's so many things in your business that you can automate, there are so many things that are very automatable, and so you choose the steps that you that are way too difficult for you or or that slow you down or that frustrate you or give you pause, right, like you got to automate those parts of it and then keep the parts that you know make a huge difference. Because I know that talking to my prospective clients, reaching out to them, like actually showing up and being there for them, that makes them an ideal client about two years in, you know, about two years in, they're going to be like my best client. I can tell. I can sometimes tell so long beforehand, right, and so I know that the relationship building and the way that I've shown up for them, or the way that they've listened to my podcast over the years, or the way that they have connected with me or downloaded some of my resources or whatever it might be, those are the things that I know have made a difference, like, and the conversation we had about the resource afterwards those things make a big difference and automate that Right.

Lauren Davies: 32:16

So that's the kind of stuff that I say like, yes, automate and think about the things that really make that difference in the way that you build relationships with people. And then the fifth part of this wheel of being visible and memorable is how can you repeat the process? So asking yourself, okay, every three months I'm going to do these assessment questions, or every three, or like, how am I going to get a few testimonials from these, this last group of clients that I just got? Because that will help me repeat this process, that'll help more people find me, that will help more people experience me that will help more people continue a relationship with me.

Lauren Davies: 32:56

So like figuring out how to repeat the process, how to get referrals and then how to even ask for those things. So like, after you've given a great talk at a speaking engagement, you can ask somebody. You can ask the room, like hey, you know that feedback form is coming out in a few minutes to your email. I would be so grateful if you were able to just rate me honestly on that feedback form. The more feedback, the better. I hope I did a wonderful job for you today, but I would love your feedback on this event so I can keep making my talks better and better.

Lauren Davies: 33:30

Asking for that, getting used to asking for that feedback. Or, my favorite question when someone is on a one-on-one call with me that I don't really know and at the end they're like now, how can I help you? I'm like well, if you liked some of the stuff I coached you through today, I would love a LinkedIn testimonial or a referral on this platform or whatever it might be. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but generally people are like yeah, I really got so much out of today's call. I would love to do that for you, and so it's great to have other people saying what they got out of the experience.

Lauren Davies: 34:02

You can even use some of their words for marketing it later, because now you know what someone actually got out of the experience. You can even use some of their words for marketing it later, because now you know what someone actually got out of that experience and you can continue building relationships that way.

Mary Fain Brandt: 34:12

And you really know the perception that other people have of you. So I do an exercise. You know, when someone's like oh, I don't really know what my brand is, I don't know what I'm known for, I'm like text 10 people or email them and ask them to give you three words that if you walk in the room they would say describes you, and that's like a basic. You know, and I say text or email depends on the generation that I'm working with Usually it's email.

Mary Fain Brandt: 34:41

But you know, and I tell them don't ask, don't tell them what you're doing it for, Just say I'm doing an exercise. And you know, I want them to ask past coworkers, colleagues, friends, family, because a personal brand isn't just your business and what you do. A personal brand is who you are, how you show up, who you serve and what you do. I feel like that's the last part of personal, like I'm known as a connector because I love connecting amazing people, you know, and that is like that's like one of the things that I I'm known for and I love to do and I love it when people and Laura's had this happen with people go oh, you're Mary Fane brand, I, I've seen you online or I've heard about you, you know.

Mary Fain Brandt: 35:23

So that is part of building my personal brand. Laura's been recognized. Her voice was recognized, yeah, yeah, where?

Lauren Davies: 35:34

were you.

Laura Bashore: 35:36

Where were you? I was at the North San Diego business chamber and just sitting at a table, uh, and somebody asked me. He said you're laura bayshore and I said, well, yeah, he's like, I recognize your voice, I listen to your b show and I was like, oh, okay, good which was really nice, because I've always hated my voice, so that really same here too, you know, yeah, that's awesome yeah, wow, I think it's so true like it is, so it is so true that your personal brand already exists, whether or not you think you have a personal brand.

Lauren Davies: 36:17

I almost cringe. I sometimes say it myself, so, like you know, I shouldn't say this, but I almost cringe when people say I'm creating my personal brand.

Mary Fain Brandt: 36:26

I'm like no no, no, no you already have a personal brand.

Lauren Davies: 36:31

You really already have it and and you are already known for things, no matter what you think, even if it's known by your family and friends, you're known for something about yourself, about your personality. You're known for who you are. So you might be developing yourself or you might be like like pulling out your, your biggest strength and sharing more about what you do, but you don't create a personal brand. You are a brand.

Mary Fain Brandt: 36:58

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Like when you start a business, you're like oh, what's my branding? What am I going to be known for? That's what you do again. That's like this much of your personal brand. In my opinion, your personal brand is who you are at the core. You know who you support, your God-given talents. It's not the learned skills, it's just who you are. And then you bring that into your business and you amplify it with what you do. That's just kind of how I look at it. So, wow, so many golden nuggets. I was actually taking notes on our document, laura, I don't know if you saw that I saw that I do, yeah, I see it?

Mary Fain Brandt: 37:40

Self-assessment Will people find you on Google Instagram? First nine photos. What do they say? Is there one about your podcast? Or speaking on stage? Those were like golden nuggets. I'm like, do I have a podcast? Like, I think every week I have something coming out about our podcast, whether it's a review or a snippet. So those, really, and the links and bios. So, with a rebrand, like it was a complete rebound. It wasn't a refresh, it was a rebrand. Got rid of all the career coaching stuff, cause that doesn't serve me anymore. I don't want to do that. Totally into AI. Certified AI consultant.

Laura Bashore: 38:23

Laura and I both are so I had nothing on my old website about AI.

Mary Fain Brandt: 38:25

Nobody could tell me right Because I hadn't done it. I'm like, okay, that's it. June 30th rebrand, put in AI, be myself with my fun colors, um, and just like that's. Yeah, I'm just I'm doing me this next five years whoever wants to come along on the ride like come on, we'll connect, I'll train, I'll teach, I'll learn something from you, we'll collaborate, but I'm just finally gonna be me.

Lauren Davies: 38:52

I think that's so beautiful, and doesn't this, now that you feel like you are allowing yourself to be who you are as as a person, and show up that way inside your business too, or like inside your branding cause you were always showing up like that inside your business, but now, inside your branding, you get to be you as well, doesn't it feel so much better and like you're so excited.

Mary Fain Brandt: 39:15

I am, I'm super excited. You know, I always thought, oh, pink, that's so girly, so feminine, probably shouldn't use that If I want to attract corporate. I'm like you know, I'm smart, I know what I'm doing. They'll see my content, they'll see me speak, they'll hear about me. That and that is what they're going to get this fun, vivacious, colorful person when I come to speak and train exactly, and I mean there's so many reasons I told myself.

Lauren Davies: 39:44

Even I just made a post about this today, actually on. Linkedin about how there's so many things I told myself were reasons I couldn't be in the spotlight or be a speaker.

Mary Fain Brandt: 39:58

I had to be perfectly fit looking before I got on stage, or have high-end outfits or have a trendy topic, or to be able to everything has to be perfect before you can do it, because if you're not looking perfect, feeling perfect, have the right topic, have the right stage, have the right outfit, have the right haircut, who are you to be up on that?

Lauren Davies: 40:27

stage.

Lauren Davies: 40:28

Or like because I was scared or something like that, or like, like and all of these things that I told myself like they don't actually exist, or or my identity had changed so much. Like I, when I, when I left the record store and like that part of my life, I thought to myself, well, like, that was such a cool thing about me. Now I don't have that. Well, no, I still did that. Like that was still a huge part of my life. Right, but like your identity has been changing, then, good, that means you're growing, right. And and yeah, some people might judge you for, like, who do you think you are? Of course, there's going to be judgmental people and and judgy people everywhere.

Lauren Davies: 41:09

Like that's every day, every platform everywhere, so those aren't the people that are paying you every platform, everywhere we go. So those aren't the people that are paying you. Or those aren't the people that are showing up when you need them, and so we don't really need to. We're not defining our life by those people anymore, right? Or I told myself that you know I needed to refine my image or be perfect or like have the best clothing or whatever, and I find that I get the most compliments on myself when my hair is naturally curly and I have a big smile on my face and I'm wearing like my outfit. That makes me feel the most confident. It doesn't even matter if I'm wearing like designer shoes or have a like, you know, fancy dress on or if I look perfect.

Lauren Davies: 41:52

So I think those are all all these things that we tell ourselves like, oh, I need to, like, I need to not take up space, I need to be small in in this space right now, like I wish I want for everyone that I work with and everyone that is listening to this to just like know that you deserve to take up space in your industry, too, and that all of those things only matter to the wrong people. Those things don't matter to anyone else.

Mary Fain Brandt: 42:16

I don't wear heels on stage. I wear sparkly tennis shoes because they're comfortable, but I like the bling too, so I do want like I'll wear. I have those shoes in five colors because when I speak I want to look cute, but I want to be comfortable.

Lauren Davies: 42:32

Yeah so exactly.

Mary Fain Brandt: 42:34

Yeah, I don't, I don't Once you, but I want to be comfortable.

Laura Bashore: 42:37

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't. Once you're comfortable and you allow yourself to show up as yourself in any space, that's where you're going to get the results from whatever it is. You're trying somewhere, or you're just coming into a networking event and trying to connect with people, or having brunch, or brunch, if you feel confident in yourself, that exudes and that's where you're going to have people who come up to you and you get the most out of the experience. And I think that's such a good good point to be at too, because just last night out at an event, I was talking to someone who's starting out his own insurance agency after he's been in the field for over 20 years, and that was basically the advice I gave him. I said it doesn't matter what things look like today, don't have to look like that in a few years from now, like you need to start where you are now and just know you're going to continue to build as you come into your own as a business owner, like that's really the best advice.

Laura Bashore: 43:41

You know you evolve and change as you grow through your business we're always like you have yeah, yeah, I think that this is a really good point for Laura to ask.

Mary Fain Brandt: 43:56

Lauren, do you see how I had to do that? Our wrap up questions. But I just want to say thank you, lauren. This has been very fun and informative. It's like I'm sure we could sit here for hours and just talk about branding. Oh, we could worship coaching speaking systems, but yeah, we I mean we would bore our listeners at some point. They don't want a two hour podcast, so maybe not, maybe not. Why don't you go ahead and wrap it up with our rapid fire questions? Don't be nervous, lauren, you've got the answers.

Laura Bashore: 44:40

Sure, all right. So these questions were put together so that our listeners could get some more insight and really figure out what it is to be their own boss and be the person who's in charge of their own business and thus their own brand. So first question we have for you, lauren, is what was the last risk you took as a business owner?

Lauren Davies: 44:57

Oh, okay, this is a good one. I've been traveling the country in a van with my partner since January. So, like, no rental, no house back home, there's no home base, just the van, which is nicer than my first apartment. Like, truly, it's so nice, the van is so nice, I don't want you thinking I'm like living in my car.

Lauren Davies: 45:23

But it's wild because you have to get used to having no routine like you can have routines, but they're not the same type of routines you would have at home. You have limited space for stuff. You have to make special arrangements. If you have podcast interviews like this or like big webinars.

Lauren Davies: 45:42

You know having like a place that is well lit and has reliable Wi-Fi and living work running my business my partner also runs their own business Like from the road, 100% nonstop, has been, maybe, I would say, like a giant risk and also an extremely amazing learning opportunity, and I would not I don't regret even a single minute of it. It's been so amazing and I'm looking forward to like, maybe nesting a little bit soon, but I also I also would have never traded this for the world and I can't wait to do it again, like if we ever get the opportunity.

Laura Bashore: 46:23

Yeah, I love that I love that All right. And so, thinking about your business, do you have a quote that you live by?

Lauren Davies: 46:37

There's this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, that is, we says we are never. We are always getting ready to live, but never living.

Lauren Davies: 46:46

And I think about that all the time, like I think about how often I am striving to like get to this point where I feel like everything is ready instead of just like being there in the moment, enjoying the moment of it. And I can pinpoint even huge parts of my life where I like couldn't enjoy the process leading up to it because I was so worried about the outcome. And so in the last maybe five years I've really focused on like being way more present the moment and trying to worry less, trying to have less anxiety about like the outcome of situations and just looking at everything as information and welcoming everything.

Laura Bashore: 47:26

I like it. That's excellent, I think. Especially as business owners, that's a really good quote to kind of check ourselves and remember where we're at, and you know it's so hard to stay present. I completely agree with that. So thank you for that. Ok, and then here's the here's the easy one. What is the number one social platform you use for your business?

Lauren Davies: 47:56

what is the number one social platform you use for your business? Oh, I think it would be a tie between Instagram and LinkedIn. For sure, instagram is like I feel like it's like my happy place, like it's like where my like, where I hang out with friends and my stories like a lot of I do a lot of very consistent, very present posting inside my stories on Instagram. So if you're ever like what is Lauren doing right now, it's probably in my stories On LinkedIn. I find the content and information to be so intelligent most of the time and engaging and just like it's a relief from all of the fluff and like noise that you see on some other platforms with the occasional noise and like with all the salespeople and dms which just drives me bonkers right, but.

Lauren Davies: 48:52

I really enjoy. Like I just enjoy it because I feel like I get to read things that expand me as a person as far as content wise, and I get to have real conversations with people on LinkedIn, and I really genuinely appreciate that.

Laura Bashore: 49:05

So both of those All right, great, and you know, obviously we're big proponents of LinkedIn, so we're happy to do that piece of it too. And then what do? What is the key to your success?

Lauren Davies: 49:23

The key to my success? Oh boy, good question. I well, I just think that when you asked me that question, the first thing I thought to myself was like I I think I'm always looking at some with a learning mindset and like I'm always going to be a constant learner and constant Develop, like developer of myself. So I don't ever I don't feel like the destination is. I hope I'm successful. I hope I think that the destination is just like where we are right now like and developing myself to enjoy all of those moments that we're in every single day and every moment, and enjoying the relationships along the way and the friendships and the connections and the interpersonal relationships, and like everything that comes with this messy life that we live, this messy life that we live. And so what makes me feel successful is just that constant expansion, I think, the constant expansion of of yourself and how you relate to others. I love that.

Mary Fain Brandt: 50:48

Well, that was a lot of fun, lauren, and.

Laura Bashore: 50:51

Laura.

Mary Fain Brandt: 50:52

Thank you, lauren. Thank you so much for taking the time and making the space to be a guest on our podcast. We really appreciate you. We will have links and stuff to your podcast and to your website in the show notes. Laura is really good about putting all that in, and I just want to remind our listeners don't forget to subscribe, rate and review our podcast. We really want to hear from you. Dm us or email us. If there's a topic you were wishing that we would talk about, or if you have a business question, reach out to us, because we want to hear from you. We don't do this just to hear our voices every week. Trust me, that's not why we do this. So until next time, here's to good coffee, great conversations and even greater success. Ciao, bye. If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we wanna hear from you. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.