Episode 75: Let Your Story Change Your Life & Bank Account

Are you ready to unlock the power of your narrative and transform it into a brand that resonates with your audience? This episode is a goldmine, revealing how to leverage your unique story to build a brand persona that does more than just look good; it echoes deeply with your target audience. It's time to learn how a well-crafted brand identity is a game-changer, setting the stage for successful business replication, amplifying your earnings, and boosting your savings.

Our conversation pivots to emphasize the pivotal role storytelling plays in captivating branding. We delve into the human psyche, exploring how emotions and relatable tales are the magnets that pull customers towards investing in a product or service. We guide you on how to craft irresistible offers and adopt effective pricing strategies that mirror your brand. We also probe into the ingenious approach of selling less for more to maximize your profits.

As we steer towards the end, we unpack practical steps you can start implementing today to build your brand. We illuminate the seven storytelling essentials and how taking the lead in action can thrust you ahead of your competitors. And guess what? We're inviting you to join us at 'Do the Damn Thing Live' for an in-depth dissection of brand-building strategies. This episode is bursting at the seams with insights and actionable tips to help you sculpt a successful brand through the art of storytelling. So, are you ready to turn the page and start a new chapter in your brand's story?

WHOOOOAAAA!!!! ANOTHER AMAZING EPISODE! Yes and more yes!!!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, you welcome to Build the Damned Thing, A place where myself, tiffany Largy and our amazing Do the Damned Thing coaches show you how to use your story to build it all. Whether it's your first six figures, your next layer of multiple six figures, or maybe you're on your way to a minute, and if it's not, that it's the life of your dreams when you are free, you are strong and you are whole. First, we're going to show you how to use your story to build a strong foundation, and then, next, we're going to show you how to use your story in sales and marketing to clean up the cracks. And last but not least, we're going to show you how to use your story to gather people, because the truth of the matter is that there's nothing stronger than being connected to people who just understand you as you are where you are, so you can stop explaining yourself. I want to remind you that, now that you're here, you are home and I officially welcome you to our family. All right, let's get started.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Money, money, money, money. What do I do with it? How do I make it? How do I make more of it? You're in the midst of a money series. I want to say one word and one word to you only brand. As wild as it may seem. And you might be thinking to yourself well, tiffany, shouldn't you be talking about savings accounts and where to invest my money, and all of the above? Yeah, but as I was getting ready for day two of this series, I said to myself you know what? What is so true? That most people think that it is their ability to do the next creative thing that is going to get them to the win, and the truth of the matter is that it has nothing to do with the next creative thing. You know what? It has everything to do with this word called brand. Let me say this and say this cleanly Brand is the name of the game. Building a brand is what allowed me to jump from here to there. Building a brand is how I left knocking on 45 doors a day myself, and then I was able to attract other people who would be willing to learn how to master the sales game and to knock on 40 doors a day as well. Brand is what will fix your hiring problem. It will fix your scaling problem. Brand will fix your retention problem. Brand will fix your pricing problem. Brand will fix your dot, dot dot. You fill in the blank.

Speaker 1: 2:33

I can't tell you how many people or CEOs come to me and they're like, tiffany, we're doing four or five million dollars, but I feel like I am drowning and I'm like, oh, I know how that feels, tiffany, I have all these things going on, but I'm still doing 70, 80 hours a week and I'm like, oh, I know exactly how that feels. And as tempting as it is for me to say, let's go build all the systems, all of the systems are the problem, are the answer, all the solution? No, not at all. If I had to bet on one thing that has changed the game for me and I'm going to say this word financially but I want to be transparent. Financially is not just in dollars for me right now. Financially also has to do with my health, has to do with my mental sanity, has to do with me doing this and lifting all by myself.

Speaker 1: 3:24

You really want to build something bigger than yourself, or you want to build more? You want to build faster? You want to fix? Whatever it is the name. Let me put this where. I want to make sure you can see it, because I don't want you to be like Tiffany. You didn't tell me. Yes, I did tell you. It is brand. Every CEO has two things. So I know this is a whole word in me fixing, changing, challenging what's happening in front of you with money. There are two brands that every single CEO needs to be aware of. Okay, the first brand is the company's brand. The company's brand. The company's brand I'm looking for a box. Yes, so the company's brand. Now, here the company has an identity and in this identity it says this is who we are to the market. We think that that's a logo, we think that that's some visual items, but you know, it's not. It is so much more than that.

Speaker 1: 4:19

I built a seven figure business. Thank you so much. I built a seven figure business in a state where I was not even entertained. A black woman was definitely not the coolest kid on the block. A black woman was definitely not the most interesting. She was not the most palatable. Can I even say that when we sit down as I say that word, because they're all even ready for that A black woman is not palatable. Well, you know what? She might taste good, but actually she might taste really good. Have you ever had chocolate? Let me just go. I'm sorry, you guys are not ready for this. We are on Tuesday, we're on just on Tuesdays, not even night school.

Speaker 1: 4:56

So the realities that I went to the state. I'm from Florida, I head to North Carolina and I said to myself holy smokes, what am I going to do? All of these people are trying to run me from this state. Instead of me focusing on just building systems and processes, I actually went to try to build a brand and apparently I built an amateur version of what I run today. I knew that having a visual identity was really important to myself and to the customers and clients, but that's not what I needed.

Speaker 1: 5:28

First, in order to save more money, in order to make more money, I needed to duplicate myself. You cannot duplicate yourself effectively without saying to a person out there in the world somewhere I don't care if this is a VA, I don't care if this is a full time contractor across the country, I don't care if it's an employee walking in your door every day, or maybe it's not, maybe it's a family. I know this sounds wild, but some of you are running huge businesses and it's a family member that comes to save the day. I cannot tell you how many family members have come to save the day, and let me just put this PSA for the person who's like oh, I don't work with family, you're nuts. I can't even begin to think about what my life would be like without building with family. That's a different conversation.

Speaker 1: 6:14

My ability to build something that allows me to build trust out in the market is what has allowed me to sell in multiple layers, to have a physical brick and mortar space that we can breathe in and out from, and without brand, there's nothing for them to stand on, there's nothing for them to trust, there's nowhere for them to go. Let me just stay there just for a moment. Brand allows you to create a paveway for you to go somewhere and for other people to come to you. Now, today, one of the companies that I own or run is a brand that is known in the market as DTDT. Right, and just in case we decide to run paid traffic to this, I have to leave the name. I can't say the name, but you can see what's here. Now, this is one of the most exciting brands that I've ever been able to build. Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 1: 7:15

It wasn't easy, because what brand does is it says to the market. This is who we are. This is our promise. Now, for me, that started with me asking myself what are we here to do? In order to sell higher ticket? In order to make more money easier? In order to attract the right type of employees and vendors, et cetera, et cetera? You have to have a brand promise that's actually real, that we can go and eat and go holy, that was delicious. Our brand promise is pretty simple. It says that we are here. We solely exist to tap into the world's untapped potential. We exist to tap into the world's untapped potential and that is rooted in every single potential. Now, if I could spell potential, it would be really, really, actually, p-o-t. I'm going to put an L at the end and call it a day. I know there's an L somewhere. So the world's untapped potential. Every time that I talk to a vendor, a contractor, an employee or someone I can't really sell or position this is where we are I really actually have to say, hey, this is where we're going. My responsibility to the market is to be clear on where are we going, what are we doing once we get there and what is in it for you?

Speaker 1: 8:34

Brand Now, brand comes in a couple of forms, but I'm going to boil them to some questions. So one of the first is voice. What is your brand voice? What does it sound like? Does your brand voice sound like 50 cent? I have to say that for the people who may not be able to handle the hood version of me saying it, but there's a voice there. Does your voice sound like Michael Jackson? Does your voice sound like Oprah? Does your voice sound like Dr Phil? Does your voice sound like Wendy Williams? There's a big difference between Wendy Williams and Oprah.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Your voice has to be clear, it has to be distinguished, and I want you to give it an award, I want you to give it an adjective. An adjective could be anything simple as nurturing, scientific, it could be profound, artistic. I want you to give to ask yourself right now do you have a clear voice, not a clear message, a clear voice. And if you say yes, tiffany, I have a clear voice, I go Eureka, fantastic, this is amazing, super awesome. Next is does it have a message? Every single business should be able, every person and every business should be able to identify what their message is to the world. That's first. The second thing that I should be able to do with ease is say and tell their entire business story in three sentences. Year today, I've probably taught well over 100,000 people directly and indirectly maybe a million on how to actually tell their story.

Speaker 1: 10:28

Here's this ridiculous idea out in the business world that we create the brand, we create the story first, we create the story first and then we go back and build the brand. I'm like what are you talking about? Every time I hear brand story, is that the right thing? I literally feel like I'm just going to run for the hills because I'm like I've never heard of something so backwards and I can't wait for the person to challenge me. I'm here and ready for it. Let me tell you why. It's not brand the story or it's not story brand. You know what? Let me be clear on the sequence. You don't decide on what the story is. You own the story for what it is. You don't decide on what the story is. You own the story for what it is. And then, once you own the story for what it is, then at that moment then you go and say great, this is the message, the tone, the essence of it, and here's the brand we're going to build around the story that already is Do not get, get, don't miss the opportunity to own the story for what it is.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Every time that I hear in the market that the market wants us to create a brand, just have the brand and then all of a sudden we create the story to go with the brand. If I've never heard of something so backwards Disney came first. It is his story. It is Walt's story that came first and then we created a brand around it. It is Steve Jobs that comes first in his vision and view with the world and then we created a brand around that.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Don't get it backwards. I have built not only so many businesses, but I've hired tons of people. I have had to sell my knowledge, a product, a widget from anywhere from five K to a million. And it doesn't change the fact that I have a responsibility to know what the story is and then allow the brand to speak for it. You do it the other way around and what you do is you present a half truth into the world that is incomplete. That means you're creating a curated version of what the story is and then you present that to the market.

Speaker 1: 12:59

And I'm not saying Fortune 500 companies and Fortune 1000 and so on and so forth. I'm not saying that there's not a place for a piece of that, but if we can just get back to business 101 and I don't care if you're Apple, it's irrelevant to me if you're the pizza shop down the street People are buying from people and no one's going to make me feel different. Humans are buying from humans. And at the other end of every transaction is some form of human emotion, the human emotion. We pay attention to that more and we pick up all the things opportunities leads in dollars as we go, because that human emotion is the decision, the person or the thing or the variable in the equation that says I'm going to buy, I'm going to buy this product, I'm going to take this product, I'm going to go to this next level. And if you really want to change whatever is happening in front of you in business and CEOs, listen, listen to me and listen to me.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Clearly, it is not the next hire, it is not painting your walls, it is not going to getting a new logo, it is not investing in the next lean, six sigma person to come and show us how to do it better. It is the company's ability to stand on a story. Translate that to a brand that everybody in your environment can communicate equally. There is not anybody who is attached to this brand who could not stand as strong as I do on any platform and walk you through what the story is and how the brand came to be. But I don't mean regurgitated from what's happening here. I'm talking about what's happening here Brand. So we have voice, we have the message and then what we have is we have the you can't deny me Offer. For me, it's the confidence offer.

Speaker 1: 15:11

One of the things that I respect the most about Apple is that any and I say this just as much as I say one of the things I respect most about, let's say, bentley. You know I personally don't want to drive a Bentley, however well, I do respect that. No matter what season it has been, they have never put out a coupon. It's true pandemic, no pandemic, like 2008 or not, it doesn't matter where the world is, bentley is never putting out a coupon. Nor are they putting on a commercial. You can buy one, get one free or an extra 400,000 miles. Now am I saying that they don't make deals behind closed doors? No, I'm not saying that. But I am going to tell you that they are not marketing to the average person, trying to get them in based on the incentive that they can do around price. They have a very clear offer and a feeling that they're going to give to the person who makes the decision to buy. You can't deny me offer. Your pricing is a great reflection of the brand that you represent Trying to move the needle and not leaving money on the table.

Speaker 1: 16:19

It's like man. If we're all going to come to work for the next 12 months, or we're all going to come to work for the next six months, or we're all going to do whatever it is here and we're going to be selling things, why not sell to the highest of your company's ability versus just selling a product? I'd rather spend the next 30 days swinging all the bats that I possibly can, pushing the limits of what I believe myself or my team or the people who I trust to represent the brand that I'm involved in. I'd rather push the limits and see what we can do versus settling what I feel like we can get. Getting to the next dollar and changing the revenue in front of us and not leaving money on the table has everything to do with us selling what the product is worth versus selling what we think we can get for it. But, tiffany, what if we price ourselves out? Will you price yourself out? Go ahead right now to go ahead right now to your browser and type in most expensive car.

Speaker 1: 17:20

The other day I was doing an exercise with some of the people who flew into the DTDT studio in Phoenix, arizona, and I was there and we got into a real mild discussion and out of the gate it was like well, wait a second, let's be clear on some facts. Right now, there are cars that are millions of dollars Though you and I may have access to all types of vehicles that will allow us for under $200,000, almost make us feel like we're flying to the moon but then there are cars today, under $50,000, that are running magic out there in these streets. Under $50,000, I get power windows, I get leather seats, sunroof. It doesn't change the fact that in the market there are people who are still selling products for millions of dollars Instead of trying to spend the next six months, and you want to make more money or you want your company to be more profitable. So you're like we're going to sell more products than widgets. What if you just sold less products than widgets and you sold your products and widgets at a premium. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then ask. If you're like Tiffany I don't even know where to start thinking about that then ask. If you're a company and you're like, well, sweet Jesus, what are you talking about, then ask man, if you're in the state of Arizona, new Mexico, california, I don't know if I'm interested in going to Utah there's a little different over there but if you're one of the three states that I just said and you're like I don't know how to, I don't even know what you're talking about, then ask. But it can't hurt to just ask. And who do you ask us?

Speaker 1: 18:50

Brand is the non-negotiable piece and it's the last thing that I brought to the table. I remember I had already crossed seven figures. I had about nine or 10 employees and there was this not quite brand agency, but they were like it in North Carolina and they kept telling me you need to da-da-da, run your brand. I was like, oh, I don't know how much is it? And I started thinking, oh, we don't need that. We need a systems, we need an operations manager, all these things. I probably took me another two years to get to the table.

Speaker 1: 19:21

I went with a company that wasn't in North Carolina and I approached them and was like I know we have logos and stuff and they're beautiful, but I really know that we need a brand, we need a visual identity. They wrapped that thing up so fast. It was so good to work with them. It was a husband and wife team and they were the nicest people and the truth is that I need to find them today because I owe them. They taught me this about brand.

Speaker 1: 19:46

I went on, I slapped a brand together. I say I slapped a brand together because I did not take the time to go as far as I could of and the emotional integrity of what could be. But it allowed me to not just get to a mill. We then got to multiples. Then it allowed me to go and buy other companies. I went and acquired three other companies after I sat down and I built a brand.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Now, what gave the confidence for the other company to go and sell to me or to even entertain this negotiated table? Cause it wasn't surely the fact that I was a woman, it surely wasn't the fact that I was a black woman, because these were two white guys. What Two white guys are not trying to come knock on no black woman's door in the state of North Carolina and be like, hey, can we partner and do something? That's not happening. So if it were me and me alone or my knowledge of my business acumen, that wouldn't have been enough. But you know what was enough? The brand that I had built. As much as I wish I had learned more or taken the time to dive more into brand at that time, I'm so glad that I didn't, because it allowed me to take that little knowledge to another level.

Speaker 1: 20:48

Today I am in front of a worldwide movement called DTDT Nation and it is definitely not. It is like my living walking proof of what brand can do in a market where no one knows you. You are brand new. You don't have the market share. You feel and look like the underdog. You don't have a office as big as the other people, you don't have a team as big as the other people and all the other things that we feel like that are in our way from getting there. Brand me sitting down.

Speaker 1: 21:21

After the first two years of us being open and making some money, I sat down and I can't take credit for myself. My best friend, my best friend. Her name is Candice and what she did for me is invaluable. I told her I was like you know, we got this thing, I got this thing and I know that there's more for me to go and build. And she said to me she was like. I was like how did you build these brands? She had built two multiple seven figure businesses, multi-million dollar brands, and she sold them off to big companies. And I said to her what is brand? I asked the right question. Me asking the question of what is brand was probably the thing that allowed me to go. Oh so, instead of focusing on more team members and more programs and products and officers, and even like officers, like offices, I actually turned my attention for a year and a half and I focused on brand. It is what gave me not just the confidence but the right to go and approach bigger projects, bigger things, bigger conversations.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Today now I have built dozens of brands for other companies and infiltrated other industries, from the construction industry to the religious industry, the medical industry. What are the brands that I built that I really, really love? That like make my heart pitter-patter? There's quite a few in the medical industry. That's interesting. Accounting industry, I say to myself, for financial industry, I say to myself that brand is everything. So, as we, as I wrap up, like what money don't I want you to leave on the table today? Like, what is the money? Talk for today it is. Do not leave brand behind. Bring brand to the front.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Where is my brand? My brand is in the midst of my tone, my voice, and then it goes on to other things. Look at this frame that we're in right now Whoa, whoa. So look at this frame that we're in right now and I'm gonna wrap it up with this. So right now I'm in a frame and you see me. I'm a bit dressed down. I have not in a dress like I normally would be on stage. I definitely don't have any DTDT gear on, but I am still somewhat shaped from figure in brand and every piece that is around me is part of the energy that is flowing in the studio that I'm in. Right now I'm standing in Studio B Every part of what you see and feel, from the tone that is coming out to my mouth, to how I physically look and everything around us.

Speaker 1: 23:56

Now, if we were to send you a piece of material, you met one of our awesome team members, you're going to see and feel the exact same thing, whether they're black or white, or female or male, or 28 or 52, like. It doesn't change the fact that each and every person is caring and floating with the same energy. It allows me to take the team that we have and do four to five times what our competitors do, simply because of the fact that we are moving as a unit, because of the brand that is woven through us, not because of who we are, or we're all this demographic, or we're all women or men or any of the above. Not at all. And for the person thinking, oh well, tiffany, that works for you, I think that I would dare say it works for all of us. It's just if we're willing to entertain that brand goes first and everything else goes second. Brand first, offer second squad third, sales next and systems last. That is the order in which we go.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Well, where do I start? I don't want to leave any more money on the table. So this part of our money series was rooted in me saying brand, like you want to change something, brand, and if you're like I can't go and build it, I don't know where to start. Well, we do, period. I can't wait to hear the next question that comes in. Tomorrow is gonna be so good because I have someone who's gonna be in our studio with us talking about all things money. It's gonna be the best Ross money conversation that there ever was. Okay, that's a wrap.

Speaker 1: 25:37

I hope that episode was amazing for you and you are closer to building the damn thing.

Speaker 1: 25:44

I can't wait to hear what your thoughts were, what part you loved and the action that you're gonna go take, because the truth of the matter is that the person who wins is not the person who gets there first, it's the person who takes action first.

Speaker 1: 25:57

Now I've got a gift for you, and it is at wwwstractpustlecom. It is imperative that you run there and you see all types of goodies, starting with the seven must-haves that you've gotta put when telling your story. There is so much deliciousness awaiting for you. I would love nothing more than for you to go ahead and give us a thumbs up and a five star review on not just this episode, but this entire series of how do you build the damn thing. Like always, if there's anything that we can do to make your weekday or month better, please let us know. And, more importantly, I can't wait to see you live, whether it's at Do the Damn Thing Live or in one of our communities, or maybe you're just hanging out with us on social media. What I know to be true is that I am meant to connect with you somewhere, and I can't wait for that day to happen and, more importantly, I can't wait to see what you build.