Episode 205: Pulling Power: Unleashing the Secrets to Building a Brand that Attracts and Retains Customers

Today is all about storytelling to build your brand.  Is your goal to be wealthy?  Owning a brand plays a huge role in making that happen.  We will be talking today with Ericka Saurit who has spent time building brands like Air BNB, Tag Hauer, and Estee  Lauder.  

We will learn if your business is: stuck and not growing; marketing, sales, and operations are at odds with each other chances; you have a brand problem and what to do about it. 

Links and Resources:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Website
  
  

If you are interested to read the book, Psycho-Cybernetics, it's available on Amazon https://amzn.to/3yQvsrn

Square footers. Wanted to talk to you today about an older book that I just finished called Psycho-Cybernetics. I know it's a bad name. This book has been called The Godfather of Self-Help Books. It's known as really the first self-help book that was written, and it's a really fascinating story. It was written in the sixties by a plastic surgeon who realized.

There were instances where he had successful plastic surgeries and he had unsuccessful plastic surgeries. Now we're not talking about the actual surgery itself from a physical standpoint. The patient looked perfect right there. Whatever the ailment was, whatever the thing was that they were trying to fix, looked perfect.

It was a perfectly well-done job. The problem though, was that he noticed. Some people stepped into their new world, right? Where they had the confidence and whatever it was that was fixed, if it was a nose or forehead or whatever it might have been, they never, they didn't notice it anymore. It didn't bother them anymore.

It wasn't always on the back of their mind. Right? Whereas other people seemed to, Still see themselves as being quote unquote ugly or still saw themselves with the nose that they didn't like or whatever the thing that was, was fixed. They still saw that as part of their, as part of their life. So the author actually got very, very deep into psychology.

He actually, I believe had his master's. He might have even had a Ph.D. by the time it was all done in psychology.  and what he found was that the people that were quote unquote successful in their surgery, again, meaning that they, didn't see the ailment anymore, had more confidence. Those people actually saw themselves prior to having the surgery with this new life.

They actually pictured what life was going to be like without the noise, nose, or whatever it is that was ailing. So psychologically these people had gone through and did the healing work that they needed mentally in order to be able to embrace and live the life that they always had wanted prior to having the surgery.

What he found was that the people that still. Had the ailment or still saw the poor nose or whatever it is. Those people had not gone through that exercise and had not actually seen themselves and what life would look like after the surgery was done. So what this tells us is that the mind has a huge part in it.

Being able to realize and live out the life that we truly want. Mindset is a huge, huge part of it. So in the book, what he, what he distilled this all down to is that you want to. In, visualize yourself living the life that you want to live. Having the, you know, if you, if your goal is to lose weight, having the body that you actually want to, to have, uh, if you want to invest in multi-family real estate, envision what your life looks like once you invest in that opportunity.

and what he found was that you want to do this for 18 days. So that starts to get your, uh, subconscious programmed so that you're constantly working on whatever this issue is and, and living out that life that you want subconsciously so that you don't technically have to, you know, truly be working on it.

Obvious. You do need to make steps forward, but your subconscious is going to have a huge impact on being able to get things done for you and take steps toward accomplishing whatever that goal might be.

 On Invest in Sqft, we unlock the secrets of wealthy entrepreneurship. I'm Matt Shields and my mission is to help business owners like you protect your wealth so that you can invest passively in multi-family real estate. Today we're talking storytelling and not just any type of storytelling.

This isn't Hansel and Gretel. We're talking about storytelling. To build your brand, if your goal is. Having a brand and owning a brand is a key step in being able to accomplish this. ERICA SAURIT is a brand-building expert who has experience with Airbnb Tag Heer, I believe that's how you say, tag Heer and Estee Lauder, just to name a few.

Today we're going to learn how to overcome a stagnant business. You might be noticing in your own company that marketing and sales, and maybe even operations are all conflicting with one another, and there's a good chance that that is a big indication of a brand problem. So we are going to learn actionable strategies to build a successful brand that not only attracts customers but also more importantly retains them.

 The firm that did the Holocaust Museum sort of transformed the, um, the way people experience stories in space. They, Ralph Applebaum is the designer who started that firm. He really thought like, how do I take a story that's so powerful? That's a piece of history. So important and really get people to pay attention.

And so what he did was he took interior designers, he took architects, he took product developers, he took content like historians, a whole multidisciplinary team of people and put them together and said, okay, we're gonna create a space that gives people an experience with a story. And it really changed the way museum exhibits are from science museums too, I mean, if you look now at how experiential and learn like how.

Much of your body and your mind is engaged in that kind of space. Like his firm really did that. And so I got a job working in his office when I graduated and I, after a couple of years after I graduated and I thought like, this is, this is it. I've, I've been able to put together this sort of conceptual artist side of myself with the more functional design side.

Um, and so I ended up doing, With his firm in China, in Beijing, um, I moved back to New York and did that in New York for. Another firm there, for a few years. And then I found myself back in China again in Shanghai, um, working around the year to 2010 for the Shanghai, um, multiple clients, uh, cultural clients there.

And what happened was I eventually started doing more pitching to clients. Um, I think that they realized I was really good at putting together presentations, like pitch decks really quickly and selling stories to clients, and I kind of stayed in the marketing side of things for the rest of my career, and that was.

Over 10 years ago, I went back to school and studied marketing and realized that, okay, I have a really special position. I have a really unique skillset. I have this sort of fine art-making design side where I understand kind of big stories and space, but I also have this marketing side where I understand kind of the idea of how to tell stories.

You know, do that across multiple channels. I have this like technology side, so I was able to work in a variety of industries, um, related to home furnishings. Um, I worked for manufacturers in-house doing brand marketing. Um, And then I was recruited by a tech company in San Francisco to build out, to support a team, um, to kinda sit between a marketing function and a design function to help kind of guide a pr, a new product for this.

Um, it was for Airbnb and um, Did that for a few years, and then covid changed the way obviously hospitality worked. And so I said, okay. Um, now is the time to kind of. Come back to doing what I wanna do and not be kind of, um, at the, you know, at the whim of other large companies swayed by, you know, global factors.

Um, they, my entire team, my entire, this entire product we were working on was completely deprioritized, completely out of my control, so I thought, I think it's time to work for myself. I've, it's time and that's when I started my business, uh, sorry. Creative, which is, a boutique agency focused on, like I said, um, storytelling for interior designers and um, home furnishing manufacturers, brand marketing.

love it. So, so, you know, obviously I, I, I feel like storytelling is, is an art that, you know, not very many people realize how intertwined it is.  in all parts of their life. Right. Um, you know, and obviously with marketing and, and businesses, that's all that, that basically is trying to convey that story, get that emotion across, you know, or, or even add emotion to some type of physical thing.

Right. Do you know? Yeah. Yeah.

That's, sorry... How do you go about establishing, you know, this is going to be our voice? Right. You know, and again, there are all kinds of different, different ways of looking at that.

Right. You know, some people might be more ed edgy or some brands might be edgier or more technical or whatever. How do you, how do you go and say like, yes, this one. This, this is us. This establishes, you know, and captures us. Like how do you, how do you start that?

Yeah. Um, so I will say brand storytelling, you're right, it is an art. Um, if you look around at everything in your, in the room where you are, and this is for you and for everyone listening, look at what you're wearing. Look at where you're, what you're sitting in, look at. You know, the computer you're using, look at the devices you have, what are you listening from?

Um, what are you reading? Like every single thing around you was based on a purchase decision that was driven by a brand story, a story that they were telling you. Maybe multi-generational stories, things you've heard for years and years and years. If it's Apple or Microsoft, um, or stories, you know, relatively new stories, like the stories that Yeti tells.

If you have like a, a, you know, a cooler or something. Um, These. Are emotional, they have to be emotional, they have to be driven by, you know, a certain understanding of a client or a customer, um, and those core emotions or core motivations that are gonna drive them. And that's where the stories come from.

So my process for. Helping a brand def define or determine what that story looks like, I will say starts with three pieces. And they're very strategic pieces that are not just tied to the story., they come from understanding the brand itself. Um, and once you. Crack the code of what your brand is about.

Um, once you change your mindset from being a business to a brand, then this idea of storytelling and once you kind of really get, again, the strategic piece is so much easier. Is it  Super easy? Um, because you'll understand not just your own motivations as a business, but what benefits you offer. Um, what your clients are really looking for and how you connect those two is like really what makes a successful brand.

So those three pieces are, um, what really defines you, uh, as an extraordinary brand. What makes you, uh, Stand above your competition, right? When that's really like your differentiator, what really makes you different? And sometimes when I talk to clients about this, we, make a list of like, what are the positive associations of your brand and what are the negative associations with your brand?

And if you know that perhaps the negative associations can be flipped into positive things, let's say you've just started out and you don't feel like you have. A large team or you don't have a lot of, um, client work or you're, you're, you know, struggling to kind of be seen in a bigger kind of industry.

Flip that and say, well, you know what, I, I'm a smaller company, or I have a smaller team, which allows us to focus more specifically. You're not gonna get lost like in a big corporation. Like that's how you take a negative and turn it into a positive aspect of your brand. That's just one way. So that differentiator or that list of competitive alternatives.

Are what makes you extraordinary. So it's a first piece and I, all these start with an e  to try to get people to remember them. So extraordinary is the first one. The second one is emotional, and that's the piece where you really key into what is the core motivation behind someone's really wanting to buy what.

What you've made, what you've offered, and I, I'm speaking from like a home furnishings point of view. So what makes 'em wanna buy one sofa over, over, over another? What makes them wanna choose one interior designer over another? Um, it's not, in a sense, and I'll speak from the design side, it's not, people don't typically hire an interior designer just because they want.

Um, you know, more space in their garage, or they want to transform their garage. No, The, real core motivation is that, um, you know, maybe their kids are growing up and need a place that's more private, where they can hang out with their friends and feel more independent. Um, that's a core emotion. Or maybe, um, you know, one of the, you know, maybe the kids are, are leaving and they need to transform it into an office space, right?

There's. Core emotion behind that, where the drive is like maybe there's a new business that needs to be started. Maybe there is a man cave that needs to be started. Like there's an emotional side of what's driving them. That is more, usually more important than that functional reason. And every business has this.

Every client that comes to a service provider or buys, as I said, a product is gonna come with some kind of core emotion that you as. As a brand need to understand. Um, and that's what's gonna give you, again, that connection between what you offer and what they're really looking for. So once you figure out that emotional side, so you have what makes you extraordinary, you have the emotional part of your brand story.

The last part is the experience. And so this is something that describes how it's really more of a kind of a, like a marketing call. Like how will you build a story around each of the touchpoints where your clients will find you? And that experience can be. How you show up on social media or how you, um, design your website, right?

It has an experience to it,  that needs to be emotional and, um, extraordinary. Um, or how do you, you know, welcome clients into your office if you have a physical workspace, right? What is their experience like and is it tied to your brand? Shows up in the welcome mat, and it shows up in how you offer them coffee or water.

You know, it's, it's about how your brand kind of promises and, and your emotion of your brand and your extraordinary, extraordinary. I made that up.  sounds good. That, that thing that makes you different, how that shows up across each experience because that is what people are going to remember when they think about you later.

And that's what the brand is. The brand is again, that story they tell themself about you after, like, who was it? Oh my gosh, what's his name?

Anyway, he said the brand is what?  brand is. What people say about you when you leave the room. Um,

I, that sounds very familiar. Was that, was that Richard Branson maybe? No.

oh my gosh, I can't believe it, I can't remember his name. Um, Amazon,

Oh. Uh, yeah. Um, Oh no, I forgot Bezos. Yeah, Jeff Bezos.

Yes. Oh my gosh. I can't believe I forgot that. Forgot. I remember what he said. That's not good for him he hasn't been in the news quite as much recently, so you know

Oh my goodness. Okay. Anyway, that, um, that's my process, and it, I, I distilled that down into something that feels. A little bit more digestible, but of course it's, it's, it's a bigger process and it takes a lot of, a lot of questions, um, that, you know, I, I, I work with brands too, to uncover it's, and it takes, it takes a while.

It takes a couple of, you know, it takes a couple of weeks minimum to get to really defining what those things are. It takes a lot of different stakeholders at the table to really help make it clear if a brand or a business has not. You know, really thought about these things before, maybe they've grown really quickly or they grew more organically.

Um, and, and that's okay. Um, they're doing the work, when they get it when they get to it, or perhaps they are, you know, wanting to rebrand and they have to rethink how to make themselves relevant to a new set of customers or a new set of clients. So, at what point? Like what, what stage would you say it would be important to? To establish your brand. And I, I mean, obviously that there are all kinds of different levels to that, right? Like you just sort of went through where, you know, maybe there's a rebranding, uh, exercise or, um, you know, again, you've, you've grown quickly.

And now you want to establish that brand. Um, you know, from your perspective, do you think that this is something that you, you should do as soon as you have the funds to do it, or, you know, maybe you've even taken in some, some VC money or something like that. You know, should establishing this brand be one of the first things that are done?

Or is, you know, is it more important to. You know, focus on the business, you know, the business side of things and, and establish, you know, how things work and all of that first, does that make

Uh, yes it does. Um, and I'll tell you, marketing always thinks that everything they do is the most important thing in any business. Um, operations, sales, that lots of people will fight back on that and say maybe it's not true. I think it has to happen as a collaborative process. It needs to start as soon as possible.

Obviously, you know, if you're setting up a business, you need to think that it's gonna. You know, well, but I will tell you that a brand can help drive business decision-making. It can help with training new employees, um, because it gives them a sort of purpose, um, and a mission to, you know, make priorities in their own, um, you know, workday around.

Um, so the brand is really critical. Um, and it is an investment. It takes time to build a brand, right to build. I mean, think about like, Disney and Apple, and I mean, these brands have been doing brand building F for a really long time. Um, but as I said, there's, there are newer, fresher brands that have invested very heavily in marketing.

I would say Yeti is really a good one. They have really, really, really put a large number of their resources toward marketing because they see it as a value. It's, it's building value, it's a sales tool. Um, so you. Again, invest as, as much as you can, um, in brand as early as possible, is my answer

Mm-hmm... And you, you made me think of, and I believe that it was Airbnb. I think, if I remember correctly, I was listening to a story, um, about them and or about the business. Like I said, I think it was, I think it was Airbnb. Um, but they. , they consider themselves a design-focused, um, company, right? Rather than, you know, maybe a, a service-focused, uh, company.

Right. And that's, that's kind of an interesting designation. Obviously, you know, it's a technology. They're providing a service, but, but taking, I guess, the user exp experience and, you know, that brand side of things.

Mm-hmm.

you know, above all of that. is, you know, again, one of those, one of those sort of foundational decisions on, you know, what is going to sort of Trump, you know, the other, the other thing in our hierarchy, um, do you have any insights into brands that might have gone down, we'll call it again, this, this, you know, more brand focused, um, path sooner rather than later, as opposed to someone who gone, you know, went out and, and obviously like taking Airbnb, right.

They were extremely successful very, very quickly. And I don't know if that was. You know, a, a, a decision to make it more of a design-focused company right from the beginning, or if this was, you know, sort of an afterthought. So I'm just, I'm curious from your perspective on, um, You know, again, what that relationship or what that, that, that, uh, what that looks like from a company that did this sooner rather than someone who waited to, to, you know, start having these types of conversations and, and, you know, establishing what that brand stood for and how it was emotionally felt, or the stories that are being told or all of that type of stuff.

Any, thoughts there?

Well, my first, my first thought is to say, you know, there's a graveyard of brands that died prematurely because they didn't, well, I would say they in, it's hard to diagnose really. They, Overinvested in perhaps scale or operations, prioritize those things over the experience of their customer.

Um, or of the kind of, um, it's not necessarily about the marketing story, but it's about how the brand really resonated, Um, I think it's easier to talk about the success stories, the brands that have really, like, like you said, Airbnb. I think what Airbnb has done is to say, okay, yes, we do provide a service, and that is not something we can continue to build and scale on, but what we can.

Make you know what our ex, what makes us extraordinary is that we have placed our brand and we've looked at that like the third piece, which is experience. We've looked at how to use design to optimize the experience across every single touchpoint of someone who comes to us and will. Differentiate ourselves, we will become like leaders in this.

I mean, there are other, you know, marketplaces that offers a very, very, ooh, similar experience. But Airbnb always stands above and beyond because there is such, a clear focus on how the product works, um, how easy it is to use. Um, and that's, that's design. So I would say you're right. That's a great example.

Um, Could we talk about others? I mean, I think Disney is one. Obviously, Apple is another. Um, and again, these are big, big, big, huge, massive global brands that have million-billion dollar budgets. Um, so it's really hard for, you know, to compare them to smaller businesses. Um, Patagonia's another

Yeah. Obviously, they've, they've or controversial one,

I feel like, and maybe this is just a personal thing, but everyone, you know, they, they, they wanna focus on whatever the thing is that they, you know, that they're, um, creating or offering or whatever it is, we're gonna, you know, focus more on the service or, you know, put more into the software or whatever the thing is, right.

You know, is there, is there maybe like some things that we can check off? Like, yeah, we, we've made it to this point. We have that, we have that now we should start doing this, or should, should start looking at this or, um, I don't know. Thoughts? Thoughts? There.

Yeah. Well, I mean a good, a good way to tell, I mean, is your product growing? Is your business growing? Are you, uh, getting sales in the way that you are building systems to bring in sales from? Right. ? Is your sales process working? And if it is, then. Something's not broken, but most of the time, you know, it, that kind of either product-market fit hasn't happened or people are, um, they're finding that.

It's all accidental. They, don't know, they can't, their sales team and their marketing team, and perhaps operations are not all aligned. They're having just some wild string, of great luck. Um, and that's difficult to scale cuz you don't really know what's working. Um, so I would say, you know, the f and one, there's no bad time to do this kind of work, to do this sort of strategy work.

It just takes. Buy-in from, you know, the people who make the decisions and, and need to be able to kind of slow down the machine enough. Because sometimes in doing strategy like this, you find that things have to change and that's also difficult, especially if you've been in business, for a while. So, um, When it comes to, so I work mostly with, as I said, interior designers who run medium or small businesses.

Um, and they are finding that they're not, and this goes for any kind of service business that the. , they're not getting the right clients. The clients that are finding them or coming to them are coming to them for maybe smaller projects than they wanna work on things that are outside of, you know, the scope.

And, that's a messaging problem. That means that they are not able to communicate clearly enough that, the benefit of their service or the scope of the services that they wanna work on are projects that they want to do isn't clear. Um, for someone who makes products or manufactures Things, um, again, that shows up in a little bit of a different way, like are how is your sales process working and, and is where can brand support and brand and marketing support an additional kind of, uh, push on your sales?

So they're two different problems there, two different, um, with two different approaches. From the brand side, from the messaging side, it always needs to come from, again, the core motive. The stories you tell need to speak to people, so they need to be about the benefits of what you offer as a service provider or the benefits of, what you're selling the product.

It's not just a sweater, it has something to do. I bought this sweater for a different, you know, for an emotional reason, um, as a product, or I bought this table or this computer. For an emotional reason. Um, and so that the brand storytelling has to speak to that. And if you don't know that, if you don't, if everyone in your company doesn't know what those things are, then you have a brand problem.

Like, yeah, it's,

Yeah. not never too soon to start.

Yeah. And, and, obviously, that can have an aligning effect. F with everyone as well, so that, you know, again, everyone, everyone sort of starts thinking the same way. You, you kind of almost establish a culture, if you will. Right. You know, you, you, you, you bring this through the, through the company and it kind of sounded like, uh, you.

Would suggest that once you had a, um, a measurable business where you knew that, you know, if, if we did this, you know, we'll get this type of result. You know, once you get to that point, that's probably about the time where you start should start thinking about, you know, a, uh, you know, bringing in more brand type speak and start marketing things that way.

Um, is that fair too?

Yes. But I think even if you're just starting a business, it's a, there are components of the brand. It's again, that you need to.  understand why you do what you do and why you're offering what you're offering and who you're offering it to. I mean, those are sort of the basic tenets, of any kind of marketing is like, you really have to understand who's gonna buy from you, um, who you're trying to attract.

And is there, um, you know, collab, is there some kind of calibration between yourself and what you're doing and what other people are looking for? Um, you know, if you don't know that,

Yeah. Makes you have to step back a little bit further than just with Brown.

So, so would you say that you also, uh, provide like copywriting and, and those types of services as well? So it's kind of, again, establishing, establishing the brand. This is, you know, who we stand for. Do you, do you dive into, um, you know, creating the personas of, you know, this is our, our.

You know, ideal customer and, and all of that kind of thing too. So it's kind of, again, established this entire brand package, if you will. And, and, uh,

And more than that too. It's, um, you know, the way it's the storytelling on, on your website, the one idea I used to kind of explain this is Okay, um, obviously there are words and we, we know we can read books and we read magazines, we read blogs, we, whatever it is that you, your intake, that there's a design to how that information is, is.

Given to you. Right? And when you think about, you know, your brand message, it can be a story, it can be your about us copy. It can be your services, it can be product descriptions, it can be all of that kind of copy is part of yours, your message, and how you speak to and has to be written with the lens of understanding who your buyers or your clients are.

Um, but it also has to be designed. , like the information design has to be done properly. Because if you think about the difference between reading a novel, a page and a book and then, and a poem. You know, a poem is intentionally written such that there's a cadence and a rhythm and a way that you start to think and intake the meaning behind it.

Right? It's, it's designed, literally the words are designed in a certain way to where you are. You understand the information properly. Your copy on your website just can't be thrown there, It has to have that kind of nuanced design to it as well, because how people read it is gonna be how they perceive your brand.

So that's another, it's not just copywriting, it's visual design. It's how. Images and colors and the typography, how everything works to present your brand. Um, and that is then when design also becomes, like I said, a sales tool, um, and works as a, you know, does some heavy lifting on getting people to understand your brand.

Um, and that's an investment too. A lot of people unfortunately, don't, the power of good, you know, graphic design and information design, but it's just as important as what's being said or you know, the money you spend on photos or videos. It's important. So it's all, yeah.

and, and, and from, uh, we'll call it user experience design. Do you, do you design that entire, again, experience, like we're looking at, obviously you're focused on furniture right now like this is, this is what they see when they first, uh, you know, might open the package or, you know, open whatever the thing is.

Right. Or look at the. Look at the, uh, the piece in, uh, in man in a magazine or whatever. You, you handle all of that. Do you also do, um, like digital assets as well? Um, you know, that, that kind of thing. Wow. You

Yeah. All of it. Like, um, scripting for videos, also photoshoot layouts, photo shoot design, um, you know, how are the assets gonna be used? Are they going on, you know, social media, are they going to be in print? Um, you know, it's, there's, there's a lot of factors that go into kinda getting visual.

Getting the visual design and what it's communicating, it's the quality of light. It's the, you know, how the room is staged or propped. Um, are there people, are there not, are there kids? Are there pets? Da da. There's like many different storytelling elements that go into, um, you know, Selling, um, just a piece of furniture.

I would say think about, I guess a brand maybe everyone knows is Ikea. So you've got the experience that shows up in the catalog, you've got the experience that shows up on the website. You've got the experience that shows up when you go into an Ikea store. Um, you know, it's, everything has been super carefully calculated to present this story of, you know, accessibility.

Like a really well-designed function. Like when you take a product home, the package is well done, um, it breaks down easily. There's little waste. The instructions don't even have words. , you know, like they give you all the tools. They've thought of everything, which is great. Um, you know, that's a brand experience.

Like they've really got it figured out. So how, you know, how. How do you help other brands do that? How do I help other brands do that? It has to be, it's, it must happen across multiple channels.

Yeah. Interesting. Um, Do you feel like there's anything that I haven't asked that people, you know, should know about this? Any, any type of type I'm, I'm, I'm curious, like from your perspective that you know, that, that, uh, you know, you, you, you live this and breathe this every day. I'm curious, you know, is there, is there something that you seem, you see a lot of people struggling with, or, you know, something that comes to mind that. 

Well, I just, a really great place for people to start, and this can be something that businesses of any size can do, um, is just to do a brand audit. Like go and take a look at all of the ways you are talking about your brand. So far, a new brand, this is sort of more of a checklist. Like, can I be, how do I say the same thing across my Instagram bio or my, um, Twitter handle?

Twitter bi across all of my social media bios across my, um, my website copy. Do you know what happens when someone googles me? Like, what's that SEO copy? What's that say? Um, do I introduce myself at a networking event? What's on my business card? What's on my email signature? What is on like every single piece of, you know, collateral or every channel that's part of your marketing, um, you know, part of your marketing efforts, and then how might someone else talk about you?

Right? When I give you, you know, a. This cup, right? I'm going to say, ah, I love this cup because it's what, right? Or I, Hey, I'm working with this designer. She's great, she's da, da da. What are other people saying about you? Um, and are they sharing the right message about, again, what makes you extraordinary and what, like, really Kelly like drove them to do it?

you can control all those narratives, but what I see is that companies that grow really fast and don't have a, you know, haven't kind of necessarily invested in the right marketing or the right branding, those messages are all over the place. Um, people are confused, right? The answer to the confusion is always going to be, no, someone's gonna go to a brand that's really got their shit together and sort of understand that like, The best, you know, the best thing for them, cuz it's, it's, it's more emotional or more, it's easier, it's cohesive.

Right? So do a brand audit really quickly. Um, it's, you know, I, I have a template you can use or you can just write it out, um, or take screenshots and put them all together in one place. Or give this to your, you know, marketing lead,  your marketing head, um, to do and just to make sure that everything is crystal clear and that the.

you know, the clients that you wanna attract, again, based on that emotional factor, are gonna read this in all this information in different parts and pieces and really understand who you are. And you'll see quickly what's broken, and you'll see quickly what needs to be, um, prioritized, and, uh, you can go from there.

 All right, so we know that all of us interact by telling stories, but what story are you telling with your business? Is it clear? Do your customers know and understand what you stand for, and what they're going to do? Experience and get when they interact with your products. And more importantly, are your own employees all moving in the right direction?

A brand, a proper brand story can bring all of this together. You can reach out to ericka@sauritcreative.com, and that is S A U R I T Creative dot. She also is on Instagram again at SAURIT Creative, and you can even email her at erickasaurit@creative.com. And as always, if you want to understand what the wealthy do, head over to invest in square feet and sign up for our newsletter.

We include additional tips that you can only get in the newsletter, and we also reveal investment opportunities to everyone who has subscribed to the newsletter. We drop every Wednesday on whatever podcast platform it is that you use.