Founder’s Thoughts: I've changed my brand strategy and something unexpected happened.

“Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas.”

— Charles Kettering

February was a really great month.

At the beginning of this year, I’ve changed the brand strategy for Visuable and as a result, we’ve became busier than ever before. So much so, that I am writing my February journal on the 1st of April, around the time when I should be writing my March reflections (the struggle is real!). But anyway, I didn’t want to miss an entry, plus I wanted to share my learnings and what I am up to with you so here it is:

This year, I’ve decided that I want do the least marketing activity possible yet be more effective than ever before. I was so tired of constant posting on social media, hanging out in the same old groups and participating in chats that didn’t lead to anything. Don’t get me wrong, I do LOVE a good chat and I enjoy building business relationships with entrepreneurs alike, but I’ve been feeling that the amount of online chatting I was doing, did not translate into profits, whilst I had a business to run and salaries to pay. So I’ve decided to dedicate the time I’ve been spending to giving out value on social media to seeing my friends, getting back to fitness and business and self-development activities.

I also stopped getting fixated about having 1:1 business coach support, something I previously thought I needed in order to be successful in my business. I’ve done tonnes of business coaching whilst at the NatWest Business Accelerator plus privately over the last few years. Recently, I’ve been feeling that I need a break from it. I’ve realised that I have more than enough knowledge to carry myself forward into the next stage of my business growth.

Very often, when we start working with a business coach, we soon start to rely on them to help us make ALL important decisions in our business. I’ve felt that this is what was happening to me last year, after such a long time spent at the accelerator and this resulted in me feeling a little lost when it comes to my vision and direction when I’ve finally graduated in October 2018.

So I’ve spent the last few months of 2018 reflecting and dreaming out a new vision for Visuable, whilst also deciding that in 2019, I’ll not only not hire a 1:1 business coach, but I’ll start mentoring entrepreneurs myself.

I’ve launched my brand mentorship programme towards the end of 2018, and it has been a hit! I have signed 6 clients right at the beginning of the year with no marketing at all (all bookings came really naturally, off the back of conversations I’ve been having with potential or existing clients). My initial brand mentorship is a 3-month programme which includes 3x90-min sessions to define fundamental aspects of brand strategy - brand identity, target audience and product range. Once those fundamentals are in place, participants can continue to be mentored by me, whilst developing innovative strategies to market their brands. So far, those who graduated from my programme have transformed not only their brand vision, but also their mindset, confidence and skills and I was so happy to see them excited and inspired to market their brands more effectively.

I also stopped writing our bi-weekly newsletters. This wasn’t intentional, I do love writing our newsletters as I always get such kind responses from my subscribers. I stopped sending newsletters as I simply did not have any brain cells left to write them to a standard I would want them to be written. As I mentioned before, this journal entry comes with 30 days delay, as it’s my March journal that should be coming out now! I didn’t want to outsource the newsletter writing tho, as Visuable Newsletter was always a letter from myself, the founder and its goal was to share our news, inspirations and offers. So I gave it a break too - just for now. And nothing happened. My business is still here - stronger than ever before!

I do look forward to getting something out to you soon, it might happen in April ;)

Now, going back to my NEW brand and marketing strategies. What did I start doing instead of hanging out on social media..?

I simply claimed my Brand Expert status and offered myself for all sorts of opportunities:

Podcast Interviews
Expert Fb Lives
Expert Webinars & Interviews
In-person Talks & Workshops
Award Nominations

The above activities, demanded less time and efforts from me than daily social media engagement, yet resulted in an increased exposure that created the right brand image of me in people’s minds - instead of being a widely available Facebook group member, offering value to everyone and anyone who asks for advice, I became an unavailable, highly regarded and sought-after Brand Expert who makes appearances on shows, podcasts and interviews. I’ve transformed the way people look at me and this resulted in more enquires and much higher sales close rates - everyone wants to work with an expert, right? This does not mean I wasn’t an expert before, I just wasn’t publicly acting as one.

What else I’ve been doing with my new found free time...?

I business and self developed:

Studied for my MBA Degree - I delved deep into systems, structures and operations needed to run a successful organisation.
Joined 2x paid business and self development Programmes Fearless Business and Lifestyle Designers Club (so whilst I disappeared from the ‘public’ social media eye, I was well active in those private groups, working on myself and my business, building new relationships and offering my advice to communities within them).
I sharpened-up the copy, design and visual style of our website, to align it with my new brand vision.
I’ve updated my website with extra credibility building assets, what made my sales calls more effective, resulting in securing more projects.
I product developed and launched a NEW digital product, which found success with our audience already, check it out below:

lidia-drzewieka-visuable-london-new-york-personal-branding-coach — Are you confused about your brand identity, target audience, and product range? We can help!

We have created a quick and easy online quiz with an instant report! Our brand audit is a tool to help you understand all of the different components that are needed to create a successful brand that will win the hearts and minds of your audience. In 9 simple questions (around 3 min of your time) you can assess where you are on your brand journey and what step to take next!

Let's go!

After making all those improvements to everything that Visuable is and does, I’ve also increased our prices. Why?

Well, once I looked at and read the new version of our website, I was persuaded that we were simply too cheap as a company with expertise such as ours, offering packages filled with an immense amount of value, that drive amazing results for our clients and above all, brilliant customer service. Check out our website and: www.visuable.co and let me know what you think!

As I said, February 2019 was a great month. All the above activities contributed to doubling our turnover too, what made me even more focused and excited about putting my efforts into building Visuable further in the coming months and years ahead.

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.”

— Tom Peters

There is no travel update this month - can you believe!? I didn’t go away in January and February (fear not tho, I’ve been sitting on a plane, flying home on March the 4th - I’ll write some updates about my trip in my April’s journal).

I celebrated my 35 birthday on February the 15th. It was a small gathering with closest friends. We’ve spent our afternoon hanging out at Bocca Bar, having nibbles and drinking wine. I’ve had a great time and I was grateful for meeting so many amazing people on my journey.