 3, 2, 1, whenever you are, wherever you are, thank you for joining. This is our bi-monthly LinkedIn live and also live on other platforms as well. And I want to make this session as interactive as possible for the folks joining. So whatever channel that you're watching or listening, please drop an emoji or where you're tuning in from. So today, we are going to talk about Brand Strategy and the event name of this is Brand Strategy Live Workshop and Ask Me Anything. It's a bit different from what we typically do, but I think you guys would really, really enjoy this format that we're trying. And if it's your first time here, we do these events twice a month. Maybe we can do it more if you guys really, really like it. But to get notified for the next event and the upcoming events, check that out. And I'll also leave a link in the description below. But without further ado, let me introduce myself if I take this off, give me a sec, and we can get into it. So I'm Chris, the founder of UX Playbook. Before that, I was a computer science dropout, term business graduate, term product designer. And eventually in 2022, I quit my head of design gig. So in 2020, I quit my head of design gig. And now it's been most of my time helping designers navigate a fuzzy UX queer with UX Playbook, the thing I'm showing on the screen here. And that's really enough about me. If you follow me already, you know what I'm about. But today, I'm joined by Tamara. A brand strategist, an art and creative director, and also a designer. And we're going to bring her on stage and hear more about her and what she's doing. Okay. Hey, how are you doing? Hello. Hello. Thank you for having me, Chris. I'm so happy that we are finally doing this together. So I'm so honored that I have been invited to your podcast. Is that the podcast? What is this for? I don't know what this is, but just a chilled call that we do, you know, twice a month. We've, you know, senior designers like yourself, right? Or now you're positioning yourself as a brand strategist, which is really awesome. So why don't you sort of give the audience a bit of background about yourself and how you got to where you are? Yeah. So, yes. Thank you. Basically, I am now positioning myself as brand strategist, so I am pivoting my career from art and creative director. I'm still full-time employed and I'm sitting in my office right now, but I open the company for brand strategy because I want to impact as much as possible companies to build successful brands. And that means basically that if you want to build a brand, you should build a strategy first. And I will try to explain this in a few words. So that is a foundation of your brand. That is who you are as a brand. So imagine if you are a person and if your brand was a person, who that person is. And then your audience, that is your, like, ideal customer persona. And that person should fit with your brand persona. They should fit like they go on a date and they have a good date. If the date is not good, then they don't fit. And my idea is to help companies to find this good fit with their ideal customers. So that is what brand strategy is about. About me, I live in Vienna in Austria. I was, my background is in design, actually. I was a normal graphic designer. Then I became an art director. And now I'm still hired as an art director doing brand awareness campaigns for B2B business. But hopefully also more smaller businesses that I can help. So I guess that's it about me, I don't know. If there's anything that I could add or Chris can ask me, that's it. Yeah, well, if you guys want to find out more about tomorrow's background, drop a comment below and we'll get to any other questions at the end. So let me just set this up for what we're going to talk about today. So, like, if we think about building a brand strategy, it's, you know, I think for a lot of folks, like it's kind of clear, but it's not super clear. And me and Tamara have this idea of like, OK, well, why don't we take a brand, like a real brand and a real example, and we can kind of tear that down and then speak about that and then kind of she can walk us through what that process looks like. So it's much more real for you guys to kind of take away and do with your own companies or the own brands you want to start. And so this is making me kind of nervous because the best example I think we could use is a real one, as I said, and we are going to try and do it with UX Playbook. And yet again, I'm flashing it here or I can flash it somewhere here for you guys to check out. But I think, yeah, and if any other questions as we speak about this subject, please drop them in the comments and we'll get to them. And typically how this call is going to go is it's broken into two segments. The first, we're going to talk about the brand strategy topic. And then the second, we'll get to all the questions and we'll answer as many of them as we can so you guys get the most value out of this call, right? So where do you want to start today, tomorrow in terms of tearing down UX Playbook and, you know, I'm going to be very vulnerable here today. So I hope the audience is OK with that. But OK, where do we start? No, I will start with my evil green. So first of all, this is the first time I'm showing my face in LinkedIn. I mean, I showed my face so many times in my pictures, but this is my first video call and people actually can see my evil green because I think that through my posts, you don't see really my personality. So I will I will really like now show how how I do this really. So if anyone wants to work with me, that's it. That's how it is. So I had a look. I had a brief look at your website and I will now start analyzing like in real time what I see and ask you questions. And you will tell me, am I right? So basically your website, UX Playbook is aimed to for UX designers so they get skilled. If they're self-taught. Then I see here that you have worked with famous brands. So you actually positioned yourself as an expert. That you were you worked also with startups and Fortune 100s. Then you put your picture and a little bit of your experience to make this brand a little bit more personal. Then I see the testimonials that people are very happy with your product. OK, so you pinpointed the problems of your customers. Then you save them how they can save money. All right. And then you have different kinds of products. You have those three kinds of product. Fast Track Bundle, Junior Designer Bundle and Senior Designer Bundle. Is that right? That's correct. Actually, no, but we can we can talk about that later. But yeah, these are the ones that I'm like, hey, the best value for money. I see that Tommy Chico is and that he also absolutely loves this. So this this product must be very good. I didn't test it yet yet. Um, so what I as a brand strategist would analyze is obviously your so who is your target customer? The first thing I guess is it clear based on looking at that website? So for me, I think it's clear that Junior UX designers who are self-taught, are your target group? Is that correct? Um, that is our most popular customers. But because of how long I've worked on this, it actually covers more than just juniors. It's like basically, in my perspective, all designers of those levels fall into a bucket. Really depends on the problem they're trying to solve. So UX playbook, in my perspective, can help a lot. Like, let's just say you're a senior designer and you've been working your whole career, but then you get laid off. So you've never had to build a portfolio. So you still have to build a portfolio. That's not a junior only thing. It's a how comfortable are you building your own portfolio? Right. So that's where one of the use cases could not just be for junior. But you are right in terms of it's mostly juniors kind of looking to level up, right? So I, for example, this is the first thing that you mentioned, that it could be seniors that are building a portfolio that don't have it because of the NDA. I had that, for example. I can show only a few campaigns that I did. And I have 14 years of experience. But so that is not clear on the website. So I think that the website actually showing more that you are helping juniors. So you could have a better messaging to point out that you are solving that problem too, because that's an interesting problem. And I think many people got actually laid off and have NDA. So I think that that could be a plus to add to your website. So one of the constraints I have, right? Let's just say if you want to build for everybody, you're really building for nobody or you're really targeted. That's right. So yes, because UX Playbook started with just like UX methodologies and tactics, I have kind of expanded that product set. There's a lot of things there and a lot of people. So I've got folks to roast my landing page a bunch of times. And that's all that what they said. They said, there's too many things here. What do I do as a user? But I'm like, well, like, I guess my question for you tomorrow is, how do I balance like all my products? Or do I just go for like on my homepage, just kind of like one persona and then kind of split it out based on problems? Like I'm not really sure how to show what this company is. For example, if you look at Stripe, the payment platform, they have so many products, right? So like it's hard. Like, what do you drive customers to? So any insight from a brand strategist point of view? Like you've got so many things, what do you tell people that you're like? How do you get known? Right? This is very good question. So basically, it also depends on your budget. How much budget you have for marketing, because the easiest thing is to start to basically and I say that also to my clients to niche down, to narrow down really and focus on one brand persona. And then why? Because then you know who you're talking to exactly. But you go like, I will I will demonstrate that on our demonstration workshop. But when you have one person that you're talking to, then it's much easier to form your marketing plan and the whole communication and the messaging and the website. Everything is for that one person. But obviously, if you have a brand and more products and more personas, because for example, you are a B2C business because clients, customers are buying from you. So it's not B2B. B2B is easier because somehow you have like less segments, but you have a million different kinds of UX designers. So if you are lower on budget, I would suggest you to start with one persona and try to create communication aimed to that one person. But then to go broader when like to add up, let's say. So, for example, everything is meant for, I don't know, junior designers. But if you had experience or if you like this product, maybe you can use it for blah, blah, blah, blah. So like start like narrower and then add up because obviously also like bigger businesses or banks or I don't know. I worked for a FinTech that started as a crypto platform exchange. And then they even they added stocks and things. But the main thing is that you are only adding up and you're not mixing from the beginning. So you build up. OK, and my line here of position yourself as a skilled, scrappy, self-taught UX designer. Does that like is that effective? Am I saying too much? Am I not saying enough? How do you feel about that? Well, as a brand strategist, do you know like what I'm doing or is it understandable? So I know what you're doing and I know what you're doing also because you're a designer and I'm a designer and maybe also your target group knows, but I do still think that it could be clearer. Because it's like quirky and fun and I'm a fun person. But you can be a fun person. But if people somehow feel that it's not clear, they will feel dumb. And then that might make them leave and you don't want that. So I think maybe like position yourself as a skilled, scrappy, self-taught UX designer. I think scrappy you don't need. Maybe position yourself as a skilled, but self-taught UX designer, so scrappies, maybe too much. Yeah, yeah, it always I always struggle with this where it's like, do I tell them exactly what it is at the top or do I intrigue them and try and hook folks that might fit this? And that's interested, right? Because at the bottom, I was like playbook courses and coaching. And then I say like the things that go on. And then, of course, there's this visual quick take from you. What like what does the visual tell you? Is it OK like perspectives on the visual? So I think what beyond the visual, what actually bothers me is playbooks, courses and coaching, building your first portfolio, you lost me already. So too many things at the first glance. So I think that you should actually focus on the benefit or from your audience and then add your services because you are now talking about the services. And then they don't know what they like because the benefit is building your first portfolio, getting hired to master your experience and being a design leader. So that's a benefit. So I think that you should actually emphasize that. And then below somehow with playbooks courses and coaching. Got it. Got it. That makes sense. Yeah. Also, maybe even less benefits because you have a lot of benefits there. So choose maybe one and then write something, what you're offering and then write another benefit after that. So keep them scrolling through with gaining benefits from you without like giving them too much information so they get lost. Yeah, this is what a lot of folks have told me as well. And I have tested this. So like here, like down the page, I say actual systems for ambitious designers, right? Resources for your entire UX career, you'll never not refer to them. And then I basically show, you know, a array of products. Actually, we have more. I could show nine products. I thought it was OK. Yeah, exactly, right? But yeah, I haven't like so the reason I tested this in in terms of I simplified it to just three products. And it didn't move the needle at all, right? Like we that so it seems like when I show six products, the performance of the business is actually better. Right? Even if I like like this, like I've tried to change it in different ways. But for me, this kind of thing works. And I wonder what is it about that kind of like kind of like showing six products like up front works versus showing three products? Because three products is way easier to make a decision on clicking, right? Just cognitive load wise, right? You're saying, hey, there's three things to choose from, choose one of them. But I've chose six. And I guess from your perspective, I I'm not doing best practices, right? Like I'm just saying is everything I have to ask you why is that working better? Are you shifting different six from those nine or it's always the same six and the first three are always the same? Yeah, great question. So the first so there was six, right? Then I changed it to three different things I wanted like folks to click on and performance wise, let's just say, you know, the bottom line performance is sales, right? So when I changed it, it negatively affected conversions and sales. And I was like, OK, this is interesting. So then I was like, OK, I'll put it back there. And then I found that, oh, it normalized, right? And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? Then I changed the ordering. And now I've changed which things I show because there are different offerings that I would like to kind of point people towards. So with this now, currently, let's just say this month of me putting it there, the UX portfolio critique are what people are kind of inclined towards. So I haven't this is the first time I've tested the ordering of like what to show first, right? And I think I should test this more, but it seems like six products has been working better than another configuration. So remember, I showed you these three products. So I'll just quickly flash it on the screen, these three products. This is what I changed to and people didn't like it in terms of me showing it first. They're just like, I don't know. I don't know what this is. I don't want to click on it. Maybe it's too intimidating, not sure what it was. So that's why I kind of went back to this. And this has an interesting approach where there's testimonials under each of them, right, actual people who have bought it, used it and said about that product. So maybe it's that to answer you, you know, to be quite honest, I don't know why this one is working versus the other thing I was doing. So I have a question for you. You said that UX portfolio critique is the best product that at the moment. So performing the best. Did you ever like, did you have that when you only had three products? No. OK. And do you think that people that take UX critique, portfolio critique, they like how you do that and then they buy from you again? I think so because it's way easier. And me and Lex spoke about this. It's way easier to offer someone a service and then them saying, oh, actually, you know what you're talking about, and then repeat buys versus they buy something like, let's just say UX playbook, like the basic product, and then buy a service from that. Like it's way harder to understand position from a digital cell to a service offering, but it's way easier to go from service to like, oh, yeah, like I trust you. So I found that to be true. Yes. Yes. And why do you think is that now? Now I'm now doing my thing. Why do you think is that? I think it's just developing trust report and UX portfolio critique is like, so what it is, let me try to explain what it is first and the audience can get some context here. It's basically like what you're doing now to me, I basically go through a designer portfolio and I roast it. I give my feedback on what a hiring manager would care about, how to position a personal brand, how to position your design work. And so usually it's 20-ish minutes. Usually I go over, like last night I did one and it was like 40 minutes. And I just like send that video with a bunch of notes to the designer and then they can go off and work on it. So, you know, it's quite thorough, I think, and I spend an hour preparing my notes and then like half an hour recording the video. So, yeah, maybe that trust over time or insights that they like. And then, yeah, typically they after that, they're like, OK, well, he knows what he's talking about and there's some other products that solve my problem. So that I think that's why they buy. Not to say that all my customers from UX portfolio critique has bought again, but a lot of them do, right? Like a higher percentage does, but not everybody. So I have to comment on that because first of all, I think it's because people see your face. And I think it's really important. As I said before, when we were not connected here with the audience, I think my posts where I show my face perform better than the graphic visuals. And I think also now me talking to you here and if anyone sees this video, I think it's much better than just than just a visual than just a post because we are just social beings. And they they tasted your experience, but also your personality. And they somehow it felt that they worked with you. And if you once work with someone and you like their work and somehow you feel that you fit together, those people will buy again. But of course, you have to you have to offer quality service. So that's not negotiable. But just from some something, some template or some resource, to something more personal, I think it's it's much better to to to offer like for a service and then other things. So I think that video content for you will will perform very well. You have to show your face more. And also, plus I now can tell you that when I was like just starting out and no one did this roasting with my portfolio. So I had to roast myself on that. That's why I all did my content all the time and also my designs because I I did it for myself for years. And what you're offering now is such a premium service because that didn't exist 10 years ago. No one was doing this. So this is so much help. It's it brings so much value like everyone would pay for that. And I do think yes, but I do think so. So I think that that should be your first selling unique selling point. Yeah, yeah. So that should be one of your USP. So this live roasting. Yeah. And yeah, sorry. I just want to say that like since this is very good thing and you're selling it and you sell other things after that, I think that that should be more visible on the landing page. Yeah, yeah. So not only the benefit and like you should maybe have a product and with the benefit how they like what they really get from that on the landing page and then the rest. Yeah, I think that makes sense. I think I think you're right in terms of like this didn't exist when we were in the industry, when we got in and it's not just any other designer giving you their two cents on your website or portfolio. It's like the the reason I think people like it is because and the reason I think it's works for me is because like I've hired a ton of designers, right, we go through the OK, well, what do you think of this? And you know, if you ever run design teams and try to hire people either for your own business or your company, you go through this all the time. So I've done the reps of like learning and a large portfolio. So I think for a lot of people trying to find jobs, especially even if you haven't done a portfolio and you never had to look for a job because you've been so lucky, the market now says like, oh, you need to compete with all the other designers by building a portfolio. Right. And it's really hard because hiring companies don't give feedback on portfolios. No, they've never done. So yeah, like, yeah, that's actually a really good point. I've never thought about it, right? Because yeah, I've just I've just never thought about it. I'm like, OK, it's one of the things I do, but it's not the the main offering. But you're right in terms of like how that is the main offering. This is such a special thing. It's special because it gives it provides so much value. And it also is special because people after seeing you will want to work with you. And imagine like maybe someone will actually book a workshop after that because they see that you took time to analyze this properly. So I think it says a lot about you, how you work. Plus, you have that many years of experience and you are selling that. So you were hiring manager because I have a team of seven here at the company and you are right. We never provide feedback why we didn't hire someone. So I received like for the last position, I received more than 100 applications. And I, yes, but like I think 80 were like for me not considerable. But I couldn't try to those 80 people. So I will say here, maybe we have two new designers here. So people apply when like it's a senior role, junior supply for senior role. Like if you're a junior, don't apply for senior role. You are cluttering the space. You are wasting someone's time who is like poor and sitting from nine to five just going through those applications like why this person applied. So do the roasting thing with Chris. Let him analyze your portfolio and then you will know exactly what level and like what kind of job you can apply because I think people, designers, especially should be courageous, like they should apply more. But let's also be honest here. Like if you're not a senior, senior start somewhere and then build up. Yeah, absolutely. And hiring managers, because we've done this so much, right, you just said a hundred applications because we've done this so much. We can almost instantly sniff out immediately, right? We just scroll top to bottom and we're like, OK, we kind of know. And then we basically try to confirm what we already know by just, you know, just looking at the work. And I had this analogy the other day doing one of these roasts. It's it's almost like they start off with a perfect score. OK, everybody starts off with a perfect score. And then when we go on to your portfolio, we immediately start minusing points, right? And the quicker like and the quicker we can minus, then we're like, OK, we don't really want it, right? So versus you guys start at zero and then we just plus points to. Yes, yes, we don't do that. We it's minusing is a lot easier and just a lot quicker. So if you make some of these basic mistakes, then, you know, that kind of sucks, right? Like you should know better as a senior. So that's very, very interesting. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And let me ask you about like if we're talking about brand strategy and specifically talking to like designers, because I think a lot of folks on the call would want to know, is brand strategy like would you have the same approach to personal branding or like what would be different? It's different. It's different. So I chose to work with companies because companies have like bigger markets, more customers, I don't know. And also businesses are less vulnerable. So they should show that somehow they connect with their customers. They should have touch points. They should be more human like Ryanair. But but it's still a business and personal brands, they actually should show more vulnerability. They should connect, but it's a smaller thing. So it's a smaller market. But still like I told that to my CEO, but he doesn't want to post in LinkedIn. He is stubborn. I told him that it would be good if if they were it's five co-founders at the company where I work, if they all posted about their idea, the purpose of the company, how they started, what are the key learnings, blah, blah, blah. So it's like really nice to connect with the audience on that level. But when you have a bigger business, that will bring you a little, but it wants like bring millions because you built a personal brand on LinkedIn, despite, despite people saying you will have earnings of, I don't know what I help founders, I help CEOs, like my CEO, he sells one license and let that like this whole content thing is like. So it's not it's simply not true. But if you're a small business, I think it's very important that you build a personal brand and the strategies then different because then your audience is a little bit more colorful. You have like it's it's B2C and it's it's a little like you do communicate person to person. So it's not like business to client, but actually person to person. And people buy from you like they they they bought this service from you. They will buy again because they saw you. So I think for personal brands is is very important to show up all the time consistently. Yeah. But I I didn't do brand strategy for personal brands. So this is this is now the first time the time talking about that with you. And just quickly before we dive into the audience's question, how was your journey from being a designer yourself to like art director, creative director to now brand strategies? Like what what has that been like? And I guess why did you choose this kind of route for the folks that also might want to do the same? Right? Yes. And I hope they will like more, more, more strategies, please. So first of all, when I was doing like the graphic design work and and campaigns and everything every time, like we designers, design team was the last to know the changes. So we were never included from the very beginning. It starts somewhere in the top. The marketing people don't communicate enough. They don't include us in the briefing. Then we get the briefing, then it's not well done. And I was always struggling to be included from very beginning in the process, even though I was hired as an as an art director. So I thought there must be a way to get like in the beginning of this process. I have to present something different. I have to I have to do something else. I have to get paid for my thoughts and not only for my work, because as an art director, you do concepts for for brand campaigns, for example, or for ads or for something, but always someone before you decides what kind of ideas you should go like the direction of the concept. And I wanted to decide on that. And then I learned about brand strategy and how you actually build the brand and the why behind the brand and why are you different? So about the positioning and I was learning about that. And I really got passionate about that because I always wanted to know the other side, why things are like that and why some campaigns work and why some not. And then when I learned how the brand strategy works. So it's it's almost like 90 percent marketing strategy that overlaps with with brand strategy. And that meant that I would then be the one that would make decisions regarding the brand awareness campaigns and include then designers together. And that made me the other that that I wanted to to be there from the beginning. And then I got into brand strategy really. And it was so interesting how it's done. This whole thing about the workshops where you talk with CEOs and founders. They somehow open up to you the ways that you can't even imagine. So, for example, my workshops, if I have Chris here and I ask him, why did he start in the first place with with UX playbook? And then he says something. But then I go further and deeper with my questions. So I get like really some emotional aspect of him, why he's doing what he's doing. And then I ask him, how does he want to look for his customers? How is his brand persona? And then like with the questions, I really get the story like. And then in the end, I have a full story about his brand. And he didn't he didn't have that story in the beginning because you really extract the most important parts about the brand without even like knowing those things as one. And that's how brand strategy is done. So in the end, when I deliver this PDF of brand strategy, it's basically, you know who you are as a brand. Why are you different than your competitors? Because like it or not, you have to be different. If you don't offer anything different than your competitors, then what is the reason why they would buy from you? But if you have something that differentiates yourself, either the way how you're doing things like some some different way or something in your offering that no one is doing, like you have to find this small cut out in your niche that no one is doing and that you say, I'm doing this. And for example, for Chris, he's doing this this roasting in like on video with comments. And he's doing it so professionally that he takes time to even like make 40 minutes video if needed. So that's like this dedication and this like very live aspect of doing it. That's the the positioning for him. And you get to the positioning, obviously, when you when you analyze the market and everything, so it's not just that I say, yes, you position yourself as that. But this is what differentiates yourself from from the others. And then you say, OK, my my target group is a junior UX designer that studies design or just they just finished blah, blah, blah. And then I really go deep into the question. So we imagine the person how they look like and how their day looks like. So, for example, you imagine like that we have a fresh finished grad students that is searching for their first job. But they somehow like to search for the jobs from cafes. They would like to have remote jobs. They I don't know, they're animal lovers. They like you really go deep into the persona defining. So you imagine like real person standing in front of you. How do you see them? And then when I do the market research for the positioning, I search for those kind of people. Where are they if they're on LinkedIn, if they're on YouTube, if they're in some like live events, I don't know, workshops, university, because it doesn't mean audience. It doesn't mean that audience has to be online. Your audience can also be offline at the university cafe talking about how they can't find another job or the first job. So I think like that's how you find the audience. And then like you talk to them. So you extract those few people that you found and you really talk to them to get real insights so that could be one one type of research I have for. And then when you get your insights, then we sit again and talk about the positioning. So it's not like I want to position myself like this. And what like if the audience doesn't exist for that for that kind of positioning, then what what do you do? Right, exactly. So it's quite fascinating how you I guess like going through the the products and stuff really just a really quick look and your media was like, oh, you should do that because you're doing it differently, right? The critique and that could be your USP. That was really interesting. And actually, I don't know if I've thought about it that much. I'm just like, OK, well, this is what I do and there's a bunch of stuff that I do. So yeah, I like I like how you helped me kind of break through that because, obviously, it does take a lot of work services, as you know, right, where but it's true that there are fewer people that do this kind of thing. So do you suggest testing different sort of, you know, value propositions and different USPs because like this could work, but it also might not work. So based on, you know, you go through my website, so this is one like critiquing is one. Did you see anything else or like, are there any ideas that you can help me hear today, like, say, how else am I different? Because sometimes I don't know. I'm just like, I'm just doing this stuff. I've just been doing what I've been doing, right? So any ideas or any suggestions? So this is this is very interesting. I've been doing what I'm doing. Everyone is like that. Everyone. And I'm also like that. So if I don't audit myself, I'm like, I'm just I wasn't auditing my posts for LinkedIn for some time and they all look the same. And I just write them and then I publish and then they don't perform. And I'm like, they're not performing. I don't know. And but actually, like, you have to take time to analyze things. So for you, I partially can help you because I think that the best information, the best, best extracted information is in those workshops. So we can actually have one separately where I ask you those questions, because actually we don't think about so many things as businesses. And then when I ask you those questions, you get to answer things that you never thought about. And even at this live, you get to some like new things in your mind because you didn't even think about this as a differentiator. So basically, yes, maybe people are doing this too, what you're doing. But maybe you are doing something different, because then I would ask you how do people react when you send them this? I'm now obviously I'm not prepared. So how do they react on this kind of comment? Are they happy after they receive? Like, how are their comments on you being a little harsh to them? Are they happy with that? Then when they buy another product, what kind of product do they buy? Why is it connected? So then with all those answers, you get another differentiator. So it's not only this critique, it's also something else. And then you extract that and that is your differentiator. OK, I can analyze a little bit better, but I need like also more time to analyze. So it's not a website only. It's actually the storytelling. Yeah, I don't know if you follow Jason Fried from 37 Signals. Every time he launches a new product and he's been doing this, you know, he's been in business for like 25 years or whatever. But every time he kind of thinks about something new, launches a product, writes a writes a book about a certain subject, specifically, he's launched this SAS software. Actually, no, it's not a subscription. It's just software that you used to buy. So like, do you remember back in the day when we bought software on a CD ROM and we put it into our computer and that was it. We pay for the software. No subscription, basically not renting, but actually buying. So he's released that again. And his way of storytelling is from the past. Yeah, his interesting way of differentiation and storytelling is a founder's letter. Something's wrong with the world. Here's how it should be. Here's the product, which is like really, really refreshing. And I've been thinking about writing a founder's letter because then it will force me to be like, well, what is UX playbook? How are we different? Who are Nemesis? Why do we exist? I haven't gone around to it. I have some ideas and I've wrote this on my LinkedIn about, but I really want to formalize it and turn it into, you know, the thing you're saying, like differentiation and value proposition. OK, so we have to move on because we love chatting to each other. But let's address some questions. And I realized that I never played the intro video that I spent a while making. So let me play that and then we'll go into ask me anything. So let's do that. Yes, please. Of everyday people. A sound right, boy. OK, again. Of everyday people. A sound right, boy. OK, well, the intro didn't work. You can you can turn me off before I check what what happened to me. I think it's makeup. OK, no worries. Let me take you off and I will dive into some of the cool questions. Tomorrow you have some fans. I just want to show you as you're checking your eye. Hopefully everything's OK on your end. Great. We have some folks from all over. That's good. So I guess one of the first questions I have from the audience is quite interesting. How does the brand ensure consistency across all touchpoints from marketing campaigns to customer service interactions? Let's bring it back tomorrow. This this is a good question. So basically you as as a business, I really recommend building a brand strategy because if you if you have brand strategy in place, then you know how to be consistent because it's very difficult to be consistent if you don't have a document who you are and who you're talking to. And when you know that when you know in the middle of the night who you are and who you're talking to, that's how you ensure consistency across all touchpoints. And for example, brand strategy is delivered with next steps. So I also suggest people what kind of marketing campaigns they should do next for brand awareness and to market themselves. So like after you know who your customer is, then you know how you can talk to them slash marketing campaigns. I hope that this was a good answer for you. Mm hmm. OK, let's go to our next one. This was a bit longer, so I'll read it out. So here are some questions. So the first question, let's go to that first. What are the key elements you should consider when developing brand strategy? I think you already mentioned that, right? You said the story, the users, some of the insights from research. Was there anything else that are like key elements that you can think about? So the first thing is the purpose. So that's my my my first workshop. Then personality, so brand personality. Then after I do then persona, so ideal customer persona, then I do the market research, then I do the positioning. So that's the key element. And then in the end, I I packed that up as a product. So that's it. OK, and the second part of this question is I think there's a dot dot dot, but I can read it out. Can you share examples of successful brand strategies you developed or been a part of and what do you think made them successful? I have one very successful example, but it's being built for years. And I'm so proud of that project because at the company wherever before, they were nowhere and nothing like I joined. It was maybe 80 people and they only had cryptocurrency exchange, but like a small one because like you have you have much bigger ones. You have Binance that is huge and Coinbase in the US and we were a European startup called with Panda. And we were nowhere. And then we started building a brand and no one trusted really like that. No one trusted in crypto. It was like so shady. And our only advantage was that we were European and Austrian. And Austria and Germany are somehow famous to be trustworthy. So we decided that we will use that in our advantage and build our story on trust and on our position like where we're from. And we started talking about trust, but we were so transparent about fees, about hiring people, about everything. Like everything was so transparent that people started recognizing us as the most transparent company trustworthy. Like because we were like banks are having like hidden costs, this and that. And you have to go to the bank and blah, blah, blah. But we we are always online and this is how much does it cost? This is for free and always this transparency was like in every kind of communication. And we had like because this is a huge project like it took years. We had million users. Then when I left, we had three million. So we then decided to build trust also on our YouTube channel to talk about everything possible to teach like we had the academy. We had like news in finance world. Like we wanted to be perceived as financial startup like so fintech, so not like crypto shady thing. And then in the end, like it felt that we were a bank, that we just only in in the end, now I don't work there anymore. They have a collaboration with ifys and bank. This is like a bank and they have a white label with this company. So bank wants to work with the crypto company. In Austria. So I think that's like huge, huge success that we but it took time. So my opinion for building like I always say that also in my LinkedIn, it takes time, you have to be consistent, all touch points and always say the same thing all the time, so it's not boring. It's like really people just get to know you through that, through your content, through your videos, through brand awareness campaigns. Like you are everywhere a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. And then your friends are using it and they start to recommend you and they like your service, your customer service is great. Like it's it's really. Yeah, it's it's it's all touch points. That's super interesting because when you said like, OK, this crypto like crypto companies are seen as shady. Let's double down on the trust and transparency. Factor, so of course like, you know, transparency with fees, that's really, really important to, you know, all the customers, but the fact that you guys did this internally with things like hiring or other things that you might not think the customer cares about. But so it was just like a really holistic strategy, right? You had to say, OK, we're doing it from the ground up. If it's not trust, if it's not transparency, then we're just not doing it. And yes, did you find that? Like, did you literally reinvent everything? The company was like, we're going all in this direction. Everybody get behind it. Was that why it succeeded? Yeah, but you have to because but the thing is why it worked because you have to find that one gap and take that and and like really position yourself in this gap. So in this small crypto space that is not small, really, then you are that one that is being transparent and that changes everything. And they're huge now. Like when I left, we were more than 1000 people. So it's it's it's really crazy. So I think it's it's really, really important to take this seriously this positioning thing and like and and work on that. Like not just, yeah, I'm this and then you always have to keep in mind this thing. Like you have to repeat it in your mind all the time. I also wonder. So let's just say because there was quite a lot of crypto players at a space in time, right? Like crypto is kind of popping up, exchanges, products. So my question is, were you the first or one of the first people in the crypto space to promote transparency and trust? Like if somebody else started doing that, are you like would that work? Or do you have to kind of find your, I guess, USP within that niche? Like if Coinbase started doing trust campaigns and they went this way, do you think you guys would have grown as quickly? Or like I'm just wondering like if you yeah, if another European player the same thing, yeah, would they do that? Yeah. So first of all, they had a different market. Yep. And the positioning is also part of the market. So we positioned ourselves as a European company, European market and Coinbase in the US. So even if they started doing transparency thing, it would have affected us because we are smaller. And then we would have heard, yeah, they're copying Coinbase. So yes, that would be a minus. But I think still we would have been positioned differently because we still play on this card. We are Austrian. We are so trustworthy. And they're not Austrian. So it's already different. You have to really have clear, clear positioning. I need to check where my battery is. I have to find the right way. OK, no worries. You can you can turn me off. Yeah, let me let me dive into the next question. And maybe that would be our last question before you for your battery goes. Hold on. OK, so. Let me bring this on. Hopefully tomorrow can hear us. I have a small and perhaps recognizable question. OK, as a junior designer, I find it quite difficult to shape my own portfolio and brand, despite knowing quite well what appeals to me and who I am, I keep finding that I am consistently changing and can't find a design that instinctively suits me. How can you deal with this without having to use a brand designer and is that preventable? If so, how? OK, well, as tomorrow sort of gets sets up, maybe I can address this one first, we can go to her. So I think that's really normal. Being a designer, you kind of want to change your mind and your sort of brand evolves with you. So my, I guess, two cents on this is that stick to kind of like this version of where you want to go, like brand wise, I don't believe you need a brand designer and and just kind of launch your portfolio, right? The only way you're going to validate if that portfolio is good, quote unquote, is if it gets you a job or gets you emails or, you know, whatever you want to do from that, right, closes your clients. And we are living in a digital age where there's plenty of designers, right, that build things like templates on Framer and Webflow and other sort of marketplaces that you can purchase and then customize to fit your brand. But of course, if you buy a template, you obviously like that design first, right? And then you can just kind of reshape messaging and certain little tiny tweaks. I don't need, I don't believe you need to hire a brand designer. I think it'll be cool if you do, if you have a brand designer friend. That's a cool project to work on together. But I don't believe you need to like pay super high like price for that kind of service, right? Because you want to also like make sure you get your money's worth. But if you don't know what you like, if you can't make a decision, then hiring someone might not help you. They can they could typically unblock you, but then you're looking for a brand strategist like tomorrow, which I believe, you know, the value that she brings is enough to justify the cost, right? So that's my advice. Basically, just pick one thing like build the portfolio. That's the first version knowing that it doesn't have to be perfect. You will change it maybe next year, maybe six months, maybe next week, if you want to. That's OK. If you don't know where to start, find one of these marketplaces and then take a design that you like, make it your own. So, Tamara, do you want me to repeat that question for you? No, so I just wanted to add something because it's I think we we are making our lives more difficult. We designers. So this person that asked this, Angelique, so I think that you are procrastinating. And I think that you I'm challenging you here. I think the best work is done with work. So even if your first version of the portfolio is OK, you are fine with it. But you will improve it like you can improve and improve and improve every day, basically, with more work. But if you're waiting and if you're thinking that you have to hire a designer or that you maybe don't know too many things, it's not true. I mean, maybe it's true, but it doesn't matter because you will know more things every day while improving. So I think you should just do the work. I I love that. Yes, I think sometimes we yeah, we just need to be honest and be like, do the work first and then figure it out. Like a lot of times overthinking and not doing the work is just procrastinating, which you said very eloquently. So that is definitely true. I really like that. Yeah. OK. We don't have any more questions, maybe just one from me, which is like now. OK, so now I have this brand and it's kind of all over the place. Not really like like what homework do I have as a brand strategist? If you were to give me like one, two or three things, like what do I need to focus on as someone running a tiny, tiny business? So let me find something. So let's say you should focus on your business goals. So what are some of your long term goals? And where do you want to be with your company in one, three and five years? What challenges are you currently facing? And why is that important to you? So I will leave you with those three questions, basically, because and I can write them because that's yeah, I think that you you should definitely start with the business goals because when you have your business goals in mind, then you also see your website like how how you can achieve those business goals through your website, because that's your point of sale. Your window. Remember to to make a nice window because people are buying from the window. That's true. That's true. And yeah, I've been thinking about this so much like as we spoke offline about it. Yes, yes, yes. But I'm also making my website. My website score was so angelic. My website says nothing about my knowledge because I built it like I bought a Webflow template and then I realized that I can't use Webflow as I can use Sigma and I was shocked and now I have a random website that I shared my concerns with Chris, but now I'm working on my wireframes for a month now. But yeah, I'm working. So I'm not perfect. Yeah, I think. Right, right. And yeah, like I actually use Squarespace, right? As a UX designer, building like apps and software and complex systems and stuff. I'm OK using Squarespace because priority dictates how you move the constraints of the system. Just what are you what are you optimizing for? So for me, it was like time to market, right? I'm a product builder. Therefore, if I can update something super easy without custom code, like in this case for her, it's a brand designer, right? But for me, it's like I don't want to hire a developer right now. So it's not procrastinating and doing the thing. I just want to go back to those three questions. So the first one is business goals. Yes, time frame and then challenges that we're facing. And what was the last one? I think I missed that out. The last one was that we find it. Why is this important to you? I prepared myself for this. So why is this important to you? That brings this personal perspective. So and motivation about like this whole business thing, because it's not only about the goals like there, there should be this thing that is important to you. And why do you want to get there? And that's from A to B, because there is this business goal and their plans and you can set the plans and do the metrics and everything. But if it's important to you and very important to you, you will do it. That makes sense. OK, as yeah, I just want to thank you for coming on again. I think you shared a lot of things, a lot of things for me to think about and hopefully for the audience to think about as well. So before we go, how could people connect with you? Where could people find you? You want to just tell us? Yes, so you can find me on LinkedIn with the Mericramer. So I can I don't know where to write it. Can I also write in this chat or not? Yes, don't worry about it. I'll drop it in. I'll drop it in. All right. Or on my website. But that is also on my LinkedIn page. So I post almost daily about brand strategy. And hopefully I will soon start creating video content where I will share even more. But yeah, so I think follow me on LinkedIn because on LinkedIn, I share most of my knowledge. OK, great. Yeah. I'll post that after this event because I'm too many screens. I think many people already follow me from but I don't know actually how many people are here now and I don't know if anyone from I only see Masha. OK, from from my followers that is waving from Croatia. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Oh, yeah, I'll let you know like how much of an overlap that was. But I'm sure there's new audiences that that should follow you because, yeah, talking about brand strategy and how to define that. And I think as a UX designer, like the people that follow me, I think it's really healthy to sort of understand the underlining sort of strategy of what the brand is trying to do. And so of course, that dictates things like business goals and what products to launch, what features to launch the strategy. So having that kind of understanding and I think brand strategy is a good way to sort of get into product or business strategy because you're coming at it from a design perspective. So a lot of UX designers might not have this background and they're like, oh, branding, but that's not the design I am. But I think it's just easier to sort of step into that world and understand that business way better. So go follow tomorrow for all the good stuff on brand strategy, daily updates, near enough. And that's it. So we're going to say bye to tomorrow for now. And I'm just going to do some housekeeping. So thank you for joining us today. And I'll bring you back on right at the end. Just give me two seconds. OK? Yes. OK. All right, guys. So some housekeeping for us. Again, please go follow tomorrow. I'll drop a link in the comments on this. So you guys can quickly give her a follow. And I just want to speak about a few things. We're tentatively tentatively calling this a live event, the design of everyday people. And if you know, you know, it's a nod to Don Norman's book. But if you have a different name for these kind of events. But I think that's quite cool. We're speaking to senior designers, everyday designers just to peek behind the curtain of what they do. And if you're interested in jumping on a live, I do these twice a month, then shoot me a DM. Also live.uxplaybook.org is where you will scan or where you will get notified. So sign up there. And that's all I do. I don't send any other emails. It's just, hey, there's a live event joined. And there's also, of course, the recordings from the event. So if you want to leave, listen to more conversations like this, leave a comment just to let me know so I can keep doing this. And we are going to bring tomorrow back on last just to say bye. And hopefully we're here from you soon tomorrow with all the good things that you're planning on launching. Any last words from you? Thank you so much for having me. I think it was fun. I hope I helped you at least a little. Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's so much to think about. So really excited for that. But until next time, I'm going to say bye from both of us. And let me play the intro outro video. Bye bye. Boy.