 Hi everyone, I'm George Cao and today I'm here with Esther Lemons. She's a visual brand consultant And she is a member of my MasterHeart client group coaching program Esther. It's so great to have you here Thanks, George. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. So Esther is going to be sharing some of the lessons She's learned in the journey of her business and I think it'll be helpful for all of you who are consultants coaches service providers as well, so before I we get started so I wanted to Read out her bio so that y'all have some Context of what kind of work Esther does so here we go So Esther Lemons is a visual brand consultant with 20 years of experience in graphic design and creative art working Which is the technical and detailed process of preparing documents for print Esther has found that her true skills and passion are in the brand application and Implementation which Esther I'm going to ask you about and what that means Working with entrepreneurs and business owners who care about consistency and excellence in their visual presentation Helping them get the best out of their brand online and offline and her website is Zesty branding dot co dot UK and I'll put a link to that in the notes of this video and Esther I'm going to have you probably share some branding tips, which you know Most people watching this are working to build some business or share their message So I'm sure we have barely enough time to get into anything around that but we'll do our best here But I always want to just start with your own lessons from growing your own business and we were You sent me a few notes about this Before hand and one of the things you mentioned is That you had to learn to slow down in order to speed up and maybe you can talk about what that means for you Yeah, of course, and I've got my notes on the side here on my screen as well Yeah, and I think well for years I I mean I know my my stuff like my skills and my my field, you know design and branding But building an online business, that's a whole different story really and the way I go about that because I do sort of Work as you know consult consulting contracting and so contracting is what I've been doing for a long time working in local agencies And having my own clients as well and doing sign and branding work for them But translating that into an online business and repackaging it as such That's that's a whole different ball game really so I think for years I was just doing doing doing lots of, you know, consuming every course I could find Just you know 24 seven really just all the time learning stuff researching things and I think I just pretty much exhausted myself and But I found a lot of this the information out there is very you know, there's like a blueprint for this and a system for that and And it I don't know just none of it really resonated with me and and the advice you get and I just couldn't bring myself Plament it just didn't feel right and it just didn't feel aligned and I was really resistant to it And I think when I started finding more authentic marketing like what you do That's when I realized this is why that stuff is not resonating with me because it's all about selling and about, you know yourself rather than other people, you know, it's about You know getting the money in and getting the clients and getting the numbers Rather than thinking what can I do for someone? How can I serve people? How can I help them? so That's why I found that the stuff that you teach. It's kind of like a breath of fresh air really There's not a lot of it out there as far as I found yet I think one more people are catching on now, which is really good And that's just been really really helpful to me. So yeah, yeah Yeah, and yes, this idea of Taking the focus away from the numbers to the people is a paradigm shift You know, because it is so different from what we usually hear out there. So much of marketing is really coming from like Corporate the corporate world in terms of originally that you know are bigger businesses where it is they're trying to get They need to get tens of thousands of customers to make something work, right? But when it comes to us solopreneurs We can't you know serve tens of thousands of clients We can serve a few clients at a time serve them. Well, and so it is about so talk about that How has how have what have you learned in terms of? Looking at it in terms of people rather than Rather than trying to sell, you know the people Rather than, you know, you're connecting and said but tell us about that Well, it's kind of how I found your you know, your your master heart group program really because I started Consuming your your content watching your videos and thinking oh my gosh. Yeah, this guy talks a lot of sense And just just sort of it kind of it's kind of it keeps things warm, doesn't it? There's momentum. You've got a lot of content out there yourself. So, you know You come across it a lot, especially if you follow your page So more and more of that I think it's sort of plant a seed in your head and if you then think about, you know, George cow You think about authentic marketing. So that's the connection gets made in that way and When I I found Master Heart basically you were not selling Master Heart really anywhere You just mentioned it that it's it's one of the things you offer and it was me actually asking you Tell me more about this Master Heart. What is it? And then I did, you know, like a little Trial week and then, you know, I joined because that was it was the right thing for me to do So you didn't have to sell anything really you just have your content out there And you've got your services out there for people to find so the right people can connect with that and with you and Then it kind of sells itself. I think yeah, that's what I think. Yeah, that's so so true. So Let's get into some of the things that you talk about in terms of branding and Yeah, I think that'll be really interesting for for everybody watching. So tell us how you What is branding? I mean people I've heard of it and I think probably a lot of people think branding means the logo Isn't it the logo or the graphic design of something? Yeah, and it's probably part of it but but you've thought a lot more about branding and Yeah, and consistency in branding for for for people including solopreneurs like us So now give us your definition of it or your description of it. Yeah Well, I think your brand is kind of like your business personality. Really. That's how I see it and this this if you consider it a person It has a way of speaking and he or she or they have their own, you know the way they dress maybe and the sort of The physical side of it and the way a person might dress if your brand were a person That could be the visual representation of your brand like your logo your fonts your colors the photography you use Yeah, and then there's the tone of voice in the way your brand communicates, you know What if it were a person, you know, would you like that person? Would you connect with them? Would you resonate with them? so Yeah, that's kind of how I I like to see it and and kind of explain it So a logo is part of a brand, but it's not the whole thing I think a brand is really hard to define to be honest and there's a lot of definitions out there But it's kind of like the total package I see it as the total package of someone's business and it includes their values their vision You know their ethical policy everything really so yeah Wow, so What have you seen to be? You know as you look at various Other solar solopreneurs coaches mentors healers consultants authors speakers, which is I think most of the folks in my audience What do you see is like? How do they need to work on their brand? Maybe I know it's a bit kind of a general question What have you seen kind of again and again like oh gosh so and so should do this or is there a pattern of Lack of understanding about branding in the solar printer world or entrepreneur world yeah, yeah I think there is I think Because entrepreneurs as entrepreneurs we kind of have to do a lot of stuff ourselves especially in the beginning So even before you outsource anything or subcontract a higher VA or an accountant or anything like that You still have to know what's involved and how it all works because that helps you You know to find the right person to do it for you and also to obviously have some sort of quality control over what's going on And and I think tools like canva Make it really easy for people to do their own design And I mean I haven't used it much myself because obviously I use my own software not my own software But you know I use the Adobe create cloud software and but that really is really helpful little tool for people to get the basics in place and it helps them You know get sizes right so it takes a lot of the thinking work out of it, which is really really helpful but also just just because they use canva doesn't make them designers and You know some people have a real feel for it and they make really good stuff But others not so much and I think it's also a matter of people Recognizing or you know being honest with yourself and thinking okay. This is working for me or it's really not and The main issue that I find is that people are not really consistent with their branding Which means that they might know up to put their logo on their you know flow charts and worksheets and downloads and everything But they might not be using the fonts consistently. They might not be using their colors consistently and that's the main thing And also it's it's how you apply it It's kind of it's kind of an art in itself I find because even one of my services is I help people with social media graphics and you know all the channels have their own individual sizes and specs and It's it can be quite a challenge to make it work for every you know There's no one generic image that you can use for every channel basically So what I do for people is I I set every image up individually So the Facebook pages Facebook groups LinkedIn profiles Twitter and you know everything really and That's that can be kind of challenging because people think oh, I really love this photograph For example, and I want to use it throughout all my you know all my hedges and everything like that Which is great because that brings consistency in But then they find that it works in sort of a you know square-ish format But if you make it into a really thin banner, it you know It doesn't crop it right and you it takes it out context and you don't really get anything out of it So it's important especially when people choose photography That they allow for I think it's important for stuff to be kept in the center, especially horizontally and Well, but with horizontally and vertically but especially sort of vertically actually so yeah, there's just little things to think about and Yeah, so that that's the biggest thing that I see out there that people need to you know, keep in mind really because I think if you You know, it doesn't have to be super You know super special or super clever design. I think simple is often the best But there is a way, you know, you can you can get it sort of right But if you get it wrong you can do your brand more honed and good So it is a bit of a balance to find for people Especially if they're just starting out or they haven't got the funds yet to hire a designer So yeah, just getting the basics in place is a really good idea. Yeah So let's talk about the the stage of someone's business where they Where you would recommend they start thinking about brand What would you say somebody just starting out? Well, that's just a couple of stages. Let's say one stage is they're so trying to figure out What they're what their offerings going to be Another stage is okay. They've got they've gotten a bit of an audience They've got an offering you want to get out there. They want to grow that and another stage would be of course much further along They've got you know, regular offerings that are working and maybe they even have small team So so at what stage or or maybe there's different thought, you know, sort of different considerations for each stage But how would you talk about that? Yeah Well, I think it's good before you even start thinking about logos and colors and things Although it can be a fun thing to do and I noticed from from my own point of view I'm a very visual person. So I tend to even doodle and draw things that I don't might never use but it's um, I think it's a matter of Having the basics in place like I like to call them brand pillars really it's like Who you know, who are you first of all and what what are your values? What are your desires and what do you want to put out there in the world? And then it's obviously your audience who do you want to serve? There's what is it? You're offering? How do you do it? What's your why? You know get all those things in place and then you can think about how to translate that almost into a Visual logo that really corresponds your, you know, your brand personality well So logo colors fonts again, and then the next step is how to implement that across all your You know your material whether it's your your social media channels your website or if it's business cards or anything else Printed that you have and get that consistency Throughout that so it becomes recognizable and memorable And for all the right reasons so not in a way that people think oh dear God that is awful, you know But rather like oh, yeah, I've seen that and it's just it's more of a subconscious thing, isn't it? so it just sticks in people's heads if you use something consistently like You know your fonts and colors especially because I think people may think their logo is most important But it's it's the whole you know those three things are really core to you know the visual side of a brand Yeah That's great. That's that's so this is something that you love working with clients on right What you've just talked about the the sort of the brand pillars like You mentioned for example, who is their audience? What do they what do they stand for these are things also? You enjoy kind of working through with clients Well, I kind of like clients to have that in place already so right before that Yeah, then you can work on that the brand part of it Yes, then they need to translate that into a visual brand some people already actually look my clients already have a brand or have Part of a visual brand, you know, they might have a logo in place. They might be not quite sure what to do with their color palette Because it's not just a matter of choosing a few colors they one have to you know work together well And the next thing is using them well throughout all your material So not too many, you know and make them make them sort of a nice nice combination So I always like to say to people to use You know start with a theme if they're not quite sure what to do with their color scheme Then start with a theme and make it not too generic like you know seasonal colors That's a bit generic because you might choose a bit of summer and a bit of winter and a bit of autumn And it becomes a bit of a mess But if someone were to say actually I like autumn colors So you get your lovely, you know your your reds and browns and your yellows and oranges and that can be quite a nice combination So that's how I like to tell people to you know sort of as a as a starting point for finding out what colors they really want to use And and as for fonts, there's some good guidelines as well. So also again, not too many different ones two or three is enough And and just make make sure you use them consistently Like one for header fonts one for header titles One for body copy and maybe one for quotes highlights or special, you know memes or pictures And yeah, just just keep just stick to it and make it consistent So that's the main thing. That's very helpful to kind of hear those examples So anything else you want to say about your offerings as we kind of close out the Um, I don't know. I think I've covered most of it here Already like the the main thing I'm focusing on is helping people with their social media graphics and website sort of bringing consistency and all those channels throughout so that's That's kind of what I'm really into at the moment because I see that a lot of people are asking me about that really so Yeah, that's great. So if anybody watching this is seeing the power of having the consistent visual brand throughout the Um, different touch points that your audience has with you contact esther and you know get a consultation and See how you can unify your your your brand so that you can Be more memorable essentially for people and and actually come across as more professional as well Absolutely. Yes. Thank you esther. I'll be sure to put your links In the notes of the video and I just appreciate you doing this, uh call with us Thank you for interviewing me George. Yeah, it was great. Thanks. Thank you