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S2E15: Committing to a Vision With Brand Language Lab's Felicity Wild
175 Plays1 year ago
Buckle up, cosmic travelers. 🚀🌎
On this week's journey through the Content People galaxy, we've onboarded an extraordinary navigator: @Felicity Wild, our Captain and Chief Tone of Voice Nerd.
Felicity's the creative force behind Brand Language Lab - a brand language consultancy company.
Think: Copywriting consultancy. But also an immersive, branded experience modeled on a 1970s sci-fi adventure.
In this convo, which is a bit more focused and specific than other eps, Felicity and I dive deep into the origins of her imaginative branding and website.
It’s … out of this world. (I'm done! I'm done.)
Our convo covers:
🪐 The brand’s origin story.
🪐 How a short break from client work gave Felicity the time and energy to reimagine the business's next chapter.
🪐 The creative potential of really long walks.
🪐 Turning to art for inspo (rather than competitors).
🪐 A healthy reframing of personal branding. And why it doesn’t need to be so personal.
Follow Content People or Meredith:
Content People Newsletter: https://meredithfarley.substack.com/
Meredith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-farley/
Felicity's Website: https://www.brandlanguagelab.com/
Felicity on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicity-wild/
Felicity's Newsletter: https://www.brandlanguagelab.com/lab-notes
Felicity's Course: https://brandlanguagelab.podia.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Meredith and Felicity
00:00:04
Speaker
Hi and welcome to Content People. I'm your host Meredith Farley. I'm a former chief product officer turned chief operating officer turned CEO and founder. My agency is called Medbury. At Medbury we work with founders, execs, and companies who want to tell their stories and grow. But Content People is not about me or Medbury, it's about the creative leaders and professionals that we interview every week.
00:00:28
Speaker
We'll delve into their journeys, unpack their insights, and ask them for practical advice. If you like it, please rate and subscribe. Let's get started. Lift off. Hi, everyone. Felicity, I am so thrilled to be chatting with you. Thank you so much for coming on. I'm excited to be here.
00:00:49
Speaker
For folks who don't know you, can you say a little bit about who you are and what you do? My name is Felicity Wild. I'm the founder of the Brand Language Lab. And at its most simple, I help people work out what to say and how to say it when they're writing for their brand in a way that fits with their brand, works for their audience, and gets them the results and moves their business forward. I know that a lot of founders and creatives feel like their website is
00:01:17
Speaker
a big stumbling block to them defining for themselves and their audience who they are to getting something that feels like it's a good representation of their brand. Your website is a site to behold pun intended. I'm obsessed with it. And so I've first
00:01:33
Speaker
reached out to chat with you because I was so intrigued by and enamored with your website. It is truly such a cool brand experience. I'm just so excited to have you on the show to talk about your website and the work that you do. How would you describe your website to others? And I'll say now is a moment where I'm like,
00:01:53
Speaker
Every now and then I feel like I should do a video podcast, but this is all funny. So how would you describe
Felicity's Unique Branding Approach
00:01:58
Speaker
it? I'm really pleased that you've used the word experience because I think the best way to describe it, the website specifically is as an immersive experience. And in some ways.
00:02:09
Speaker
For me, it's an experiment in testing the limits of my craft and how far you can take things. So to people outside the industry, I just say I'm a marketing consultant. When I start talking about brand language consultancy or brand language strategy, it starts sounding like a made up job. So that's for people outside the industry. Inside the industry, people who know what copywriting is, I
00:02:30
Speaker
describe it as a brand language consultancy set in space. And when I pitched the idea to my partner, who's very much outside of the industry, I said, is brand language consultancy set in space? He was like, whoa, why is it in space? And the answer to that is why? Is it not? Why not? I love that it's in space. It's so cool. So
00:02:56
Speaker
One, I think everyone listening, go check it out. And so you have this concept. It's in space. There's a space station vibe. There's a bit of, as the user, you're suddenly an astronaut. You're probably the best place to go to get a good idea of this is my about pager. I've called it captain's log, which tells the story of the brand language lab and like how it came to be formed in this fictional world that actually how it came to be formed.
00:03:24
Speaker
So it was my company is called Tone of Voice Nerd Limited. I used to be just ToneOfVoiceNerd.com so it talks about the Tone of Voice Nerd as a starship like cruising through the galaxy doing some kind of copywriting and it compares brands to like stars shining brightly in the sky and I use a lot of kind of sci-fi spoof
00:03:47
Speaker
to compare brands developing their branding and their language to stand out and to beat the competition. And there's a lot of like parallels there. It's kind of, yeah, space exploration. And yeah, I think the best answer is to just go and read that story. I know. So I'm pulling out the website now. Because I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to tie myself in knots trying to explain it.
00:04:10
Speaker
And Captain's Log is the about page? Yes. Captain's Log, stardate 11,957.3, abort the tone of voice nerd.
Inspiration and Aesthetic Influences
00:04:23
Speaker
After months marooned in the void belt, a new mission is finally in motion.
00:04:29
Speaker
Exclamation point. I feel like the exclamation point's not fair. With Starbase coordinates locked in after a routine website copy audit, a mysterious distress signal rippled across our subspace comm system today, it's urgency impossible to ignore. Mayday, brand voice indistinct, adrift in the celestial sea of sameness, requesting a media assistance. I could keep going.
00:04:55
Speaker
Everyone should go read every word on this website. This is why it's difficult to explain without going to read it. You have to suspend a bit of disbelief here because there's not solid parallels between a brand and a star. You've got to go with it and get the feeling.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yes, and it reminds me, I am so obsessed with the hero's journey like so many people in storytelling. And you've created this feeling similar to what Star Wars did with the OG Star Wars where it's like episode four, you're jumping right into the story.
00:05:29
Speaker
in searching for maybe a brand copywriter, you have stumbled upon this incredible story that's already in motion with an incredible point of view. And so if you're in branding and listening to this, I would go read the site. The experience is awesome. It is so fun. And I think that's so important too, because
00:05:51
Speaker
To your point, like I imagine your ideal customer as someone who's had perhaps established a business for a while and are like, okay, I really need to invest in branding, but there's always so much like resistance and stress around. I shouldn't say always, maybe not at all for some people, but I think for a lot, because they're like, it's expensive. I think I don't quite know what it is. I don't want to get hoodwinked because I don't understand it. And I don't really know what I need. And so.
00:06:21
Speaker
It's then you read a bunch of really boring websites about brand something, blah, blah, blah. And they're all the same. And then you come to your website and it's just, oh, now I'm just reading a story for a few minutes and like the relief. It's amazing. Also the aesthetics though are so cool. So I know it's hard to explain words or really cool aesthetic, but
00:06:45
Speaker
Could you talk about that a little bit? It was quite heavily inspired by the 70s vintage sci-fi posters. Actually, the colour scheme two years ago, we moved into a 1970s house that hadn't been touched, like a total time capsule of a house. And the colour scheme actually comes from this house. And all the wallpaper that we peeled back. But that kind of works with the 70s sci-fi posters.
00:07:11
Speaker
And yeah, it was just a kind of rabbit hole like gone down at that point. And it really spoke to me and I couldn't see anybody else doing anything like that. And that's always a big driver for me. I think if you can't see anyone else doing it, then that's an excellent opportunity to do it. How would you describe the brand Breathe?
00:07:30
Speaker
Okay, so I had a dig back in my notes from when I was like brainstorming and trying to work out what the hell, like grapple with this kind of big idea that like walked into my head one day that I just like, I need to first work out what this is and like how I'm going to bring it to life. So the brief is to balance the clear and the practical, which is very much my old brand tone of voice nerd originally was very clear, very practical.
00:07:56
Speaker
with a sense of adventure and endless possibility, which is this kind of new theme that was introducing. Imagine a daring captain standing at the hill of a starship, sharing tales of wonder from their far off voyages and inspiring you to embark on an adventure of your own. So it's developing your brand language and having fun with an adventure. I wanted to really capture that sense that like it can be fun and you can be really creative and you don't have to listen to everyone
Writing Style and Creative Strategy
00:08:22
Speaker
else. So the brand
00:08:24
Speaker
voice subset of the brief. How would you describe the voice that you're working with and writing in? Yes, there's two layers to it. And I think when you're doing something pretty creative and out there, it's a good idea to do it this way. Because I have my non-negotiables, which are pretty much my old brand, unambiguous, and personable.
00:08:49
Speaker
So I actually write everything in a pretty straight voice to begin with. It has to be unambiguous, it has to be perceptive, and it has to be personable. And then I have a second layer, which I call the added magic, which is the sci-fi spooky language. And I also like to put in some knowing little nods. I do quite frequently break the fourth wall.
00:09:10
Speaker
and just speak in quite a conversational tone so that people know I'm not taking myself too seriously. So I think that's an important part of it as well. I know that you know that we're not actually in space. This is all a big joke. And I think that really helps get people on board if you can have a few little light winks and nods. I know you know what we're doing here, which I think is fun as well.
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's really interesting. And I feel like such a thoughtful little approach or tactic in some way, because I could imagine if you didn't every now and then do a little wink and a nod that isn't this all a funny joke, but by the way, I'm a brand copywriter. It could feel a little claustrophobic or inaccessible. And so letting folks know that there's a person willing to break character behind the website every now and then seems like
00:10:01
Speaker
the imperative little balance to this amazing universe that you've created.
Adapting to Industry Challenges
00:10:06
Speaker
Let's go back to the beginning. How did you arrive at the idea for it? I'd love to know what that creative process was like. Yeah. Okay. This is a long story, so I hope everyone's comfortable. I think.
00:10:17
Speaker
it's important to set the scene of where this idea or where and when this idea arrived. So at the beginning of this year, 2023, two things happened at once and that was generative AI absolutely exploded onto the scene, specifically writing tools, but like for me, because I'm a copywriter, loads of AI tools just seemed to arrive at once and it like took over. The hype was unbelievable, I'm sure we all
00:10:42
Speaker
I'm sure nobody failed to notice that. And at the same time, my business experienced a huge slowdown. Like 2022, I'd been absolutely flying. I've been freelance since 2016 and thought I knew how everything worked and you have to get clients. I was really in my flow. And then all of a sudden it was like, my business hit a brick wall.
00:11:02
Speaker
if my pipeline was starting to look a bit slower and I'm held to the old tactics that I used. Previously, it felt like nothing worse. I thought that was it. My business was over. And at the time I felt these two events were really linked. Looking back now, I actually think the business slowdown was more due to like economic factors in the UK. Like I don't know if it makes the news there, but there's crisis of cost of loan crisis, spiraling inflation. Like I think businesses just stop ending.
00:11:29
Speaker
It wasn't so much to do with the AI explosion, but that's way easier to see looking back now. At the time it felt like copywriting had become a dead profession like overnight. And I know it wasn't just me because a lot of other copywriters that I speak to specifically in the UK, like business was just gone and everyone was looking around thinking, shit.
00:11:51
Speaker
I really, I think I'm glad you said that. I don't want to jump your flow too much, but I'll say I think a lot of folks in the US will really resonate with what you just said because there's not definitely the UK economy makes the news, but there were certainly similar parallels in the US.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah. What you're saying at the time, everyone was like, is this AI? Are we all screwed? And now in hindsight, it's like, the timing was there, but separate. Anyway, I think that's a really great insight, but keep going with your story. But yeah, because there was lots of tech layoffs in the US around the same time. I think that was all happening that probably contributed and said the feeling that like,
00:12:29
Speaker
copywriting might have just died and that was it. My business was over. So because I didn't have an awful lot of work coming in, this obviously left me with a lot of thinking time, which was actually cool because I'd been on the hamster wheel of client work for so long. I really hadn't had time to just sit and think about my business and like the future and think about the big questions.
00:12:48
Speaker
So I was thinking about what is the future of copywriting? Is there a future for copywriting? Where does AI come into this? Should I just retrain as a gardener or something? Like should I be looking at skills that can't be replaced by AI or is there still a place for copywriting alongside AI? So I reached some conclusions with this. I did a lot of thinking. I've got a dog, a colleague who just likes endless walks. So I think me and her must have walked
00:13:15
Speaker
It felt like thousands of miles just thinking about all of these questions.
00:13:19
Speaker
So my conclusions, one of them was that I felt that writers would start to shift to more strategic functions like tone of voice and messaging because maybe if the actual writing part was going to be done by AI, there was still going to have to be strategy at the start and editing at the end, but maybe that middle bit was going to be taken out. And it felt like that was going to happen really quickly, but now I see that was all hype and like, it's definitely not.
00:13:45
Speaker
Probably in the future that will happen. My second conclusion was that it was going to become easier and easier for anyone to write passable copy with these generative AI writing tools. So to survive, copywriters needed to bring more to the table. And there was another kind of side element to my thinking here is that I'd launched on a voice note, my original business, 18 months before this slowdown. And at the time my ideas and my words had felt really fresh.
00:14:14
Speaker
And I couldn't see much else like out there. But then over 18 months, it was a big success when I launched it. And as with all things that are quite successful, I then started to see my own words or like versions of my words and ideas reflected back at me from other places, from other writers. And I don't think it was plagiarism, but I think if you have a good idea, other people join in.
00:14:39
Speaker
So that kind of got me thinking about how do you make yourself harder to copy? How do you like protect your ideas? So that all of those things came together and I wanted to do something that represented what I thought would be the future of copywriting which is this more creative and strategic kind of aspects.
00:14:57
Speaker
I wanted to create breathing space for my brand. Create something that's hard to copy, hard for people to forget. That was going to push the limits because at the time I didn't really feel like I had too much to lose because my business maybe stopped altogether, I didn't. And something that the right people would get and something that reflected the work I wanted to do for others. So that kind of all mixed together with the influences of things I was interested in outside of
00:15:25
Speaker
the industry and outside of copywriting which I'm going to talk about later when we talk about like founders and if you're struggling with these sorts of things. So that all mixed together and then one day this idea for the brand language that I've just walked into my head and I was like oh that's it.
Embracing Downtime for Creativity
00:15:42
Speaker
That's how I got there. I really love that story in a lot of ways that I understand too there was probably some not insignificant like stress at that time but there are a few things I just really admire about what you're saying
00:15:56
Speaker
And I think maybe speak to a deep creative force within you. Like when you're talking about AI and the economy and the pipeline diminishing in an unusual way, I almost in my head picture, like a boulder, like the regular path forward has been blocked and, um,
00:16:17
Speaker
I really did. Have you read Rick Rubin's The Creative Act? No, but it is like next on my list. Somebody posted about that yesterday and it is yeah, on my list. I think you'll really like it. I'd love to chat after you read it. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, but he talks about even this is different, but a creative blog, like a writer's block or something, even that being something that we create and then they're, no, I'm not saying you created this folder in your business, but the idea that then we have to accept it and find ways around it. And it seems like.
00:16:47
Speaker
You didn't panic you just thought, and you appreciated the silver linings of more time to think strategically about the business long walks to just let your brain like marinate or to a little bit.
00:17:02
Speaker
And then when you say the idea then walked into your mind, it sounds like it was pretty fully formed and it sounds something your unconscious had been working on for a while. And then they're like, hey Felicity, we figured it out here. Does that resonate at all with you or was it a different interior experience? No, that's pretty much what happened. And then I guess the next part of the story is once that idea walked into my head, I just had to run with it.
00:17:28
Speaker
Because I didn't want it, sometimes you have an idea and then you forget about it the next day. I didn't want it to fade because it was such a clear image that walked into my head. I went from that moment to launch in three weeks. So absolute creative frenzy having had months of thinking and downtime and not doing very much at all. I like suddenly jumped to action. And maybe there's a lesson in there because if you're burned out, you can't like act on opportunities. You probably don't get these like
00:17:55
Speaker
creative ideas walking into your head if you are just like stuck on the hamster wheel but I think it was really interesting giving myself that space or like having that space given to me because I didn't ask for it and then what actually came out of that and like the energy and the kind of position I was in so then immediately act on it it was kind of that's never happened before because I'd never been in that situation of course it was it was interesting
00:18:18
Speaker
That is really cool. You needed like the space to be able to have the idea and then to do anything with the idea. Yeah. And I think sometimes cause I work in a create, my job is to be creative. All my creativity is often spent on client.
Evolution of Branding Philosophy
00:18:32
Speaker
So actually having no client work for months meant I could apply my full force to my own brand. And then really cool things happen, which just, I never have so like time or energy or headspace to do otherwise.
00:18:43
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm really curious when you just stand for one second when you say in your head, like, how fully formed was it? What was the experience of having the idea occur to you? What did you see? What did you think? If you can remember, it wasn't like I could see what my website would look like. It was more the like,
00:19:02
Speaker
the space kind of sides by element. I think it was because that had loads of parallels with AI and the kind of like dystopian feel. Probably since the pandemic, our life has felt quite a lot like a dystopian novel. I hadn't thought of it at all before, but now that you say it's like culmination of
00:19:19
Speaker
dystopian. It was so interesting. When it came down to actually, so you've got this amazing idea and some time to do it, what was the process? What came first for you? Design or copy? I think in general for me, copy always comes first.
00:19:36
Speaker
But I don't think in terms of the formulas or anything like that, it's, I think of it as structuring an argument, particularly a website like a opening statement of a debate. What is the argument that I am putting forward here? And how am I going to frame this? So it's like a kind of narrative structure, structuring an argument. And that influences the design. That's how my brain works.
00:19:59
Speaker
That's super interesting. I've never heard of anyone describe copywriting that way, but as you say it, I think, of course, it's persuasive writing. Something that I think every copywriter should learn about is the philosophy of logic, which I think has had the biggest, and learning about that has had the biggest influence on my writing and the philosophy of logic. Like you don't have to go super into it because it starts getting really deep, but on the surface, it's about like how you construct arguments and how are you making what's a watertight argument? How can you pick holes in arguments?
00:20:29
Speaker
It helps you present really clear thinking. So I'd recommend any copywriter to check that out because I think it's really useful. Is there a particular book or person that if someone's interested in that, they should check out? I studied at a university and I can't remember the book that I read that was really useful. Just a general introduction to the philosophy of logic. Because really good writing is good thinking.
00:20:54
Speaker
I think that's a great recommendation. Everyone just Google philosophy of logic. Yeah, philosophy of logic and introduction or something. So the branding before you updated your current site, what was that like? What were you working off of? And also some question.
00:21:11
Speaker
I know your new site is on Webflow. Was the old site also on Webflow or did you totally change CRMs? Yeah. So my old branding was like, I'd have called it anti-branding. The original idea was like, I'm all about the words, so the words are just going to speak for themselves. So it literally was black and white, like the plainest website that you've ever seen. I didn't really have a logo. It was just like a plain font. There was like nothing fancy. So I've gone from one extreme to the other.
00:21:39
Speaker
But yeah, I think the story of like how I got there makes sense. So yeah, previously it was the words are going to stand for themselves. I don't need any branding. It's to show how the power of words alone is really powerful because sometimes I feel people put so much emphasis on the visual side of their branding and then they forget about the words or they don't have enough time or money to think about them. So I wanted to address that like words is an afterthought problem and only have words.
00:22:06
Speaker
But yeah, I changed direction now. And my old website was on Webflow as well. I like Webflow. It's a no code website that allows a lot of freedom. It's like a maximum amount of freedom you can get with the minimum amount of skills.
Hands-on Website Design
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah. I've noticed like Emily Kramer's website is on it, or I looked it up through that website and missed this and yours. And for folks who are curious about it, how tech savvy do you think you'd need to be to use Webflow and maintain it yourself?
00:22:36
Speaker
I think they have a really good free Wetslow University course. So I think if you're putting a bit of time and do that, and then you can play around with it a bit, I think you don't have to be super tech savvy, but you have to be prepared to put in some time. I don't think you can just open it up and start playing. Okay, interesting. I feel like it seems to be gaining a little bit of momentum as a CRM.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah, I like it. I think in terms of SEO, it's possibly not so good. And it's not really, it's not like a blogging platform. There is a like blogging function, but I don't think it's as strong as other options out there for that. But it is gaining momentum. So I'm sure there'll be more, more on that side to come.
00:23:20
Speaker
I'd love to get into the graphics of it a little bit. Did you do all the graphics or did you have outside help from a tech or a creative design perspective? I did everything pretty much myself. My dad helped me a little bit with Photoshop. He's a photographer and I had some questions about it. I just had a very specific image in my head for the kind of faded like background images with the stars. It's got like a kind of vintage feel.
00:23:44
Speaker
I had a very specific idea and I couldn't quite make it happen so my dad helped me get what was in my head to appear on the screen. But apart from that, I did it all myself. I am a bit fan of YouTube to teach myself how to do things. I think I mentioned the house renovation that me and my partner have been doing for the last two years. Our house is built with YouTube. We've pretty much run all the work ourselves and we've taught ourselves how to do. We've got the heavy stuff like the electrics.
00:24:10
Speaker
But actually my partner's pretty much done all the plumbing, self-talk YouTube tutorials. So I very much channel that same energy in my business when I'm learning how to do stuff, which is cool because it makes you more self-sufficient. Yeah. Yeah. So much. That's so impressive to me. Just switch gears a little bit.
00:24:29
Speaker
If someone is a founder and they
Advice for Founders and Personal Branding
00:24:33
Speaker
are feeling really stuck on their brand and they look at something like your brand and it just feels light years away from where they could get to right now. And so far as finding and excavating like the voice and energy and they're just blocked, what advice would you give?
00:24:53
Speaker
I think trying to give yourself time, as much time as you can create to step off the hamster wheel, to step out of your business, to stop like spending all your energy on clients, just try and carve out a little bit of time to step completely away from everything.
00:25:08
Speaker
And do some deep and honest thinking about your business. Not like, it doesn't have to be too structured or strategic, but actually be really honest with yourself about what you want to do and who you want to be as a business or as a brand. If you give yourself a lot of time and you are really honest with yourself, then I think a lot of answers will come to you. I think also stop looking at others for inspiration. I'm a sponge and I tend to absorb elements from what they're doing. And then I find it really hard to like work out
00:25:39
Speaker
me and separating myself from that because and you get full mouth as well as human nature oh they're saying that oh they're doing this maybe I should do that I want to do that that's really cool so then you get pulled in too many different directions you're better off looking in the way first and asking yourself these really honest questions and getting like in tune with your gut feeling
00:26:00
Speaker
And then later, once you're further down the process, you can look at other people but much more in the frame of mind of finding breathing space and opportunities to be different rather than looking at what other people are doing for inspiration.
00:26:13
Speaker
So one of, I said, look elsewhere for inspiration. One of the biggest inspirations for my, for the brand language branding and stuff came from, I was watching Mythic Quest at the time. I really liked the backstory episodes and particularly was it, is it CW the writer?
00:26:32
Speaker
his backstory about his past as a sci-fi, I think it was like in the 70s like a sci-fi writer and that kind of got me into then I started looking at the vintage sci-fi art and stuff so that's that sparked off that whole little kind of rabbit hole of exploration for me and that was nothing to do with my job or anything it was something I was watching in the evening so I think being open to like inspiration from other places as well is cool and that's where you come up with really fresh ideas I think if you look
00:27:00
Speaker
to others in your industry. It's all just the same, much the same. Yes, I think that's such fantastic advice.
00:27:10
Speaker
about, I think often when people feel stuck, they then look at what competitors are doing or even just get into scrolling and like feeling bad and then like making a list of what other people are doing. And to your point, I think that's actually, it's, it's not helpful. It's actually incredibly unhelpful, pausing, listening to your own ideas and inner self, and then looking to art for inspiration is such good, such good advice. Yeah.
00:27:39
Speaker
I have another thing that I wanted to talk about. I think particularly finders struggle with this. We're all told that we have to have personal brands. So when you're a finder and you're thinking about developing like the brand for your business, there's this tension with like personal brands and it needs to be like a reflection of me.
00:27:56
Speaker
And I don't think sometimes that's particularly helpful. I think the brand language lab is a reflection of me, but not, it's not a mirror of me. It's like facets of me and my interests and my professional interests and like artistic inspiration. But it's not like me on the page. And I don't think it needs to be, cause I think that's how you stand out is by doing something, taking parts of yourself and exaggerating it a little bit rather than it, yeah, rather than it being a direct mirror.
00:28:24
Speaker
I really, I really love that. My business does a lot of. Personal branding for founders. Yeah. And I, a lot of them are women. And I think so there's this maxim in publishing that.
00:28:40
Speaker
the books that will get published for women are books where they like bear their soul. Like, you know, be deep and raw and be wholly transparent. And then according to this idea, like, there's not, they can, they write a novel or they could write a memoir that's a little less tell all. They don't need to quite reveal everything. And so there's this idea that sometimes
00:29:01
Speaker
with women were really, we need full-on vulnerability, authenticity, transparency. We need to know and see everything in exchange for our interest. I find that a really challenging thing with female founders because it's not always comfortable for everyone. It's not always right. It doesn't feel right.
00:29:23
Speaker
what you're saying I think is so interesting that like you are allowed to show up online and one can be authentic.
00:29:32
Speaker
like it being an incredibly transparent tell all of yourself. I'm not really articulating it exactly, but I love what you said there. And you have the freedom to like be creative and use discernment about which parts of yourself you amplify creatively or just in sharing as part of your brand. I think that's so cool and wise.
00:29:54
Speaker
I think it really helps with having a creative block as well. Cause I think the problem when we think of personal brands as highly personal brands is that then it's like you, then the kind of self censorship comes in cause you want to do and the self diet like, Oh, should I share this? Is this really me? Whereas if you look at personal brands in terms of a brand that you, it's something you own and you stand by, but it's not like, like I've said, a mirror of you, then it gives you a little bit more kind of creative freedom.
Brand Language Services and Risks
00:30:22
Speaker
the stakes aren't so high to getting it right or not because I think people see it as like this big risk but actually you can play you can have fun it's there's not that much risk there yeah rather than laying it all out there yeah totally it's a creative project and it it can change and evolve over time it's not like a mirror of yourself yeah yeah yeah and I think seeing it that way takes away some of that anxiety that then causes you to feel really blocked about it
00:30:49
Speaker
So I really want to promote your business a little bit. I just think you're so talented. Can you talk a little bit about what it's like to work with you, what your process is, the services that you offer? Yeah. So I have what I call the brand language launchpad, which is the program that I take clients through.
00:31:06
Speaker
And I work with clients one to one, either on a done for you basis. So we walk through this process together, but it's me doing the writing, it's me doing the thinking. Or there's a done with you option where we do the workshops together, we do some brainstorming, but then you go away and you do the thinking and you do the writing and I help guide you.
00:31:29
Speaker
So obviously those are two different budget, different price points there. I've also actually today, literally today just pressed launch on my self-guided version of the Bram language log.
00:31:41
Speaker
Tell us more. I literally press publish before coming on here. So I've opened that for presale. I don't know when this is going out. I've launched presales that the courses are launching on the 13th of October and available right now for presale for 20% off. I've had beta testers in testing all the programs and now I've got some
00:32:00
Speaker
little adjustments to make before it goes live and it was going to be a big long course where like I'd take you through the whole program but that turned into a bit of a monster so I split it up into developing your brand point of view.
00:32:14
Speaker
Capturing and defining your brand voice and then mapping out your messaging. So there's three distinct elements to it, which is the process that I take my one to one clients on. But with the self-guided courses, the workshops are recorded and it's very much like prompt and exercise based to help you do the work for yourself.
00:32:32
Speaker
That's so cool. I'm going to have to get these links from you and put them in my newsletter next. It'll be ready for Tuesday. I actually, I pressed publish just before I came on here, but I'm not going to push it publicly until Monday because there's still a little bit of behind the scenes tweaking today. I just had to press publish to get it out there because sometimes you just got to, I hate sitting on something. You've got to get it out there to get it out of there. So it's like a three part.
00:32:56
Speaker
three-part course and it's for folks who in a self-guided way want to ideate, understand, and execute a brand vision and brand voice. Yeah. So it's this, the version that I've launched is for B2B brands and freelancers. I tried at the start to cover everyone, but actually there's some differences between B2B and B2C and I got tied up in not talking about like services versus products. There will be a B2C coming, but I started with B2B.
00:33:26
Speaker
B2B brands and freelancers like solar creative service providers who want to go through this process of developing like a brand language strategy but can't afford the price of working with me one-on-one because that comes with a significant price tag so this is a much more budget friendly version. It's more time consuming because it means you have to do the work and the thinking but I can guide you through.
00:33:48
Speaker
That sounds incredibly valuable. And then is there anything else that you'd wish I'd asked on this or general like words of wisdom you have for people working on their brand? I think words of wisdom, I wish more people, but it's something that I've, that I used to struggle with and I've got better at.
00:34:09
Speaker
is take more risks. If you think something is fun or a good idea, maybe you can try it out in little ways before you go all the way, but I would really like to see more people taking more calculated, strategic, creative risks. Because I really don't think, particularly when we're talking about design or copy, things like that, the stakes really aren't as high as you think they are. People aren't as
00:34:34
Speaker
Unfortunately, sometimes people aren't really paying as much attention as you think they are. So if you do something and it really isn't a success, you can just pick yourself up and do something else. Nobody in even a week's time is going to remember about it. So I, yeah, I think like I just pressed publish on my courses, which is scary, I think to build a habit of getting things out there before they're perfect, launching things, seeing what happens for every business owner right
Conclusion and Encouragement
00:35:00
Speaker
there. I wish you that sort of confidence because I think it's a really cool thing.
00:35:04
Speaker
Wow. That's really nice. Take it a little more lightly. I think that's great advice. Felicity, I am just so enamored of you as a creative person and as a brand expert, and I'm really grateful to have got to pick your brain about this, and I hope that folks listening, go check out your site. Thank you very much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
00:35:32
Speaker
All right, folks, I hope that you enjoyed that episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you liked it, please subscribe or review us. And if you want to check out our newsletter, Content People, it is in the show notes. See you next time. Bye.