Ep. 149: 3 Tips for Rebranding as You Level-Up
At various points in your business you’ll begin to realize something no longer feels quite right with your brand.
It could be that you’ve pivoted and the message no longer aligns perfectly, or your positioning is different and the visuals no longer match.
Or you just feel like your business has grown up a bit and needs a vibe that matches that growth.
I just went through this process myself, and concept to completion took about six months.
In this episode I’m sharing my best tips with you on how to make the process more successful and less stressful.
Links: Plan for Profit Training
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And this week's episode of sell it. Sister, I am going to take you behind the scenes of my recent rebrand and share some of the biggest tips that I learned so that you can have tons of success whenever it's time for you to do a rebrand of your own, or, you know, in conjunction with experts.
Uh, many of whom I will be talking about. So, uh, my website went live just a few weeks ago, so it was in, um, early March and, uh, of 2022. And it was awesome. It was so well received. Uh, it was definitely like. A project, like a community project in the sense of like, it was a whole like team effort of people, um, who were all working on it to be able to make it happen.
And I absolutely love it. And you might be thinking about, you know, Hey, it's time for me to rebrand. I'm like upleveling and pivoting. It's just, you know, my, my brand just doesn't feel like it is suited to me anymore. And that obviously comes with a lot of other questions, right. When to do it, how to do it all sorts, all sorts of things.
Um, and you know, if it was as simple as just changing. The visuals, uh, that would be one thing, but as you start to get to those higher and higher stages of business, it is definitely more than just, you know, going into Canva, picking a new color palette and then swapping things out. It's there's lots and lots and lots more to it.
So some things that I want to talk about, the three main things that I want to talk about today are. Around thinking about where you want to go with the rebrand, um, the types of help that you can get with the rebrand and then making sure that the other assets like photos and your copy also align with your rebrand, which is sort of nested under like help you can get, but I wanted to separate it out and you'll, and you'll see why.
So first things first it's, you know, it's really important to think of. Where you are wanting to go in the future, not where you currently are, because since this is such a huge process, you don't want it to feel outdated once it's done. Right? Like as soon as it's done, you don't want a few months down the road to be.
Oh my gosh, it, it already doesn't feel like me. Right? So, um, you don't necessarily have to think like what's my five-year plan. Cause she might not have a concrete five-year plan at the time of recording this. I do not have a concrete five-year. So, but the more you can have an idea of the direction that you're headed, the more that your brand strategist, web designer or copywriter and photographer can help.
And it's important to think about what really matters to you and the type of work that you want to be doing, and with whom in order to think ahead for where you want to go. Right. If you have been feeling like, like you, you currently might still be working with a type of client that you enjoy or doing work that you enjoy, but you're like, I kinda don't, I don't want this to be my thing forever.
Right. I want to. Uh, like what I really have my sight set on is doing this instead. Right. It's like niching down on my ideal client or it's, you know, niching down on the services I offer or maybe it's a combination. So think about, you know, maybe like if five years feels way too far out, think, you know, one year, 18 months, two years, something like that.
And I'll give a real life example. So my first coach I ever had Megan flat, we were, so I was in her mastermind in 2018. And at one point she said something about, you know, call yourself a strategist and a speaker, because I had been doing speaking for free, like people's podcasts inside people's groups, like whatever.
And I was like, I really want to be a paid speaker one day. Like that's in my dream. And she was like, we'll just put it as part of your thing right now. And I was like, wow, I can do that. Like, you know, all this, like imposter stuff came up and she was like, yeah, you, you can, you can do that. So when my friend Megan Dowd in, I think it was early 2019, I believe.
Um, she no longer does, uh, branding, but she had. She did my branding for me. Um, and that was the, like, if you've gone to my website pre March, 2022, you'll know what I'm talking about. Or if you have like older worksheets or anything like that. So she did all of that. And so my logo at the time was like strategist and speaker.
So. I want it to feel into like, claiming that title for myself. And I also created, um, on that website, there was a whole speaking page, right. It had like, kind of like a smart speaker, like one sheet, uh, it had links to. Podcasts I had been on and other things I had done that were at like speaking events and it still exists.
Now. It just got moved over to the new site. Well, I just, at the time of recording this last week, got to speak to the Tory Burch foundation. And then in early April, I get to speak for women entrepreneurs, Inc. And. Then a few weeks after that I get to speak, uh, for a good friend of mine inside of her, um, her like membership, mastermind community.
Right. And all paid. Right. So this now I'm like, oh yeah, this is it. Like, this is, this is real it's happening. Right. And that's something that I still want to keep doing now, granted my new logo in terms of the rebrand, it doesn't, it doesn't have any titles as part of it. Like it's just the local. And I'm, I'm totally cool with that because I feel like it's just something I embody now.
And, uh, but I had to, I kind of had to like look into the future and say like, that is the point that I am working towards. And so I'm going to claim it for myself now and infuse it into what I do so that people know, Hey, I am available for. Speaking, and it's something that I want to do. So this might be totally different for you, but I would again, just think into where you want to be in the, you know, not too, too distant future so that your brand doesn't feel outdated as soon as it's done your new brand.
Okay. So number two, get help. I. I cannot stress this enough, especially because if you're an established entrepreneur, you're working with clients, you do not have time. Or even if you do have time, it's not necessarily the best use of your time to figure out brand strategy and all of that for yourself.
Just shop around for brand strategists that you resonate with. Like, Uh, see if you resonate with the person, essentially be having to work with them, see if you like their style, like all of that stuff. Right. Find somebody that feels like, oh, this is somebody I want to work with. Right. And hire. And, uh, really good ones that are going to ask you lots of questions.
So they can both like, get to know you and your business and everything and the direction you want to go. So back to step one, think about where you want to go, so they can do their job better. When you have an idea. Of where you want to go. So some, some things I did that were really, really helpful. We're making Pinterest boards of visuals, both for my brand strategist and for my photographer.
Now you don't necessarily have to make two separate ones. Like you could just make one altogether. But the cool thing about Pinterest is that as you start to pin stuff into a book, It will show you suggestions it like its algorithm knows, and it will find other things that look similar to what you're pinning and then you can be like, oh yeah, I like that too.
I like that too. And you could add it to your board and really what I was doing. I was thinking about a mood or a tone that I wanted to convey. So if you know, my previous brand, it was very like bright colors, kind of like rebellious punk rock vibe. And what I wanted to go with was they still wanted to keep that sort of rebellious, weird, different vibe, but like she's grown up, right?
Like she's not the like feisty teenager anymore. She is a little bit older. She's wiser. She's more sophisticated, but she's still different. That was like the mood and the tone that I wanted to convey. So some of the stuff in my mood board, it wasn't like what you would think of like, oh, this has to do with business.
Like, no, no, no. I had things on there that were like all these, like. Beautiful like blue velvet couches, or like a fuchsia, like a plum colored velvet couch or, um, these really like decorative, uh, moody, floral arrangements. I had vintage looking cocktails. I like all of these things that you would look at them and be like, that has nothing to do.
Sales and marketing strategy, but it was like the ambiance of what I want to. Like the vibe that you get when you land on my, my brand, I wanted it to be sort of like dark and sultry and spark your curiosity, but also feel like fun and inviting all of those things. And then it's also good to think about, you know, the price point of your offers and the people that you'd love to work with and the opportunities you'd like to call in because.
If you know, of any brand strategist or you follow them and they are putting out content, uh, that is really like, kind of explaining the importance of brand strategy. It really is so much more than just like, oh, it's the logo. It's really, it's all of these things. Right. And yes, the visuals play a role in that, right?
Like, uh, Different visuals convey different moods. And you can just do this on your own, like, think about brands that you like or that you know of and go to their, uh, website, go to their Instagram and see like, how does this make me feel? These colors, these textures, all of this stuff. Like how does it make me feel?
What are the assumptions that I have when I see it? Does it. Lux, does it look more budget? Like, you know what, whatever it is, and there's nothing wrong with either of those things. It's just, this is, these are important things to be able to, um, convey because like, if you have high ticket offers, you don't necessarily want your brand to feel like it's budget.
Like things should be at a low, a low price point. Right? All, all things to consider. And again, a good brand strategist is going to help you navigate some of this. But the more that you are clear on, like, you know, your core values, the direction you want to go, who you really want to serve, the type of work you, you want to be doing the easier it will be to work with your brand strategist.
And then lastly, in terms of other ways that you can get. And, uh, this could even be like, you know, different levels of help. I don't necessarily mean like, you have to go out and spend like thousands upon thousands of dollars for all of this, but it's good to think about like, even if this is like a done with you kind of a situation or like, um, a DIY ish, but you're like learning from an actual.
It's really important to make sure that the photos you use and your copy on the website are really in alignment with the new brand. So for instance, if you were, you know, you have this beautiful new brand and you're like, yes, I'm like, I'm upleveling, I'm raising my rates. I'm a lot more clear on like, who I really want to work with, who I want to call in all of that stuff.
And then you just have like iPhone selfies taken in the front seat of your car. Right. It's it's going to be a mismatch. Now. There are ways where if you're like, I, I don't have anyone nearby to like, do brand photography or like, it's just something I really can't do right now, then. Learn from photographers, like find photographers who can teach you how to do it on your own and learn from them where you can actually use like a smartphone camera, like a high quality smartphone camera, and some like editing apps to at least get some things in there.
That are going to work, uh, like in the interim, right? Because you don't want it to feel like this mismatch because subconsciously people will get to your website and there will be this like a disconnect happening for them. And then with your copy. So I actually feel very comfortable and confident with writing.
Um, I know I'm a good writer. I like writing all of that stuff, but as it was coming down to the 11th hour with my brand, I, my brain was so tired. It was so down with making decisions. I was also relaunching rebellious success. I'm finishing up the first draft of my book, like doing the final edits and like everything.
And it was too much and I was overthinking it to death, to death. Like I just, I was like, no, this is fine. I have like a Google doc with notes. And I have, like, I had talked to my coach about stuff and I was like, I can do it. I just need to sit down and do it. And then I was like, no, I don't want to, I need this off my plate because.
My brain is going around and around, around in circles. And I don't know, like I was struggling to edit it down and like I was too close to it. So I reached out to a friend and I was like, Can you do this for me? Can you please help me? I have a document. I have some ideas and everything, but I need, you know, homepage about page services page.
And, uh, she was, she was awesome and she did it and, um, handed it off to my team and then my team put it on the website and it was super, super awesome. Uh, also I will just say. Speaking of like my team put on the website. So I'm very fortunate that by my business manager also knows how to build websites and she's really good at it.
So I outsourced that part of it to her because my brand strategist does not also do that. Right. So some, some do, some will do like the whole thing. Um, and then other times you might need, you know, one person who does the visuals and the strategy, and then another person to actually like build out your website.
Especially if you are established and you like, you know what I mean? But as like, again, you're working with clients, uh, you're like really working in your business. You have less time to work on your business now. And you've probably been in business for a while. And so you've amassed a lot of stuff on your website, having somebody else move all that over was phenomenal.
I there's. No way I would've ever gotten around to it. Like there's not a chance, not a chance. Um, and even if I had it wouldn't have looked as good as the final product. So I would just say like, like sort of to like to wrap it up or like my biggest takeaway is, again, you don't have to spend. More than you're comfortable with, like with your rebrand necessarily.
Right. Kind of like, okay, I kind of view it like a wedding, right? When you, when you're doing a wedding, obviously everyone has a different wedding budget, but you got to think of like what your non-negotiables are, what your splurges are going to be. Right. So maybe you're like, well, I'm going to. You know, um, DIY the like wedding favors or something, because I'm going to splurge on the photographer that I really want.
Right. Or we're going to change the food. So it's going to be like, you know, um, I don't know, past like appetizers and like, um, sort of like grazing boards and things like that rather than a sit down meal, because I want that. Beautiful venue, or I want this particular, I don't know. Right. It's been a long time since I got married and my wedding was very simple and, and like quirky and different, no shocker there.
Right. So it's really good to think about like, where are you going to get help? What is your budget? Like? What are your non-negotiables? What are some things that you're okay with maybe. You DIY a little bit for now, whatever, whatever it is. Um, and also just know that like, you don't have to rush right out and, um, and rebrand, uh it's.
This was from start to finish. It was about six months from concept to completion. Mine was like about six months. Oh, because one thing I also want to add about photos. I got to work with a dream photographer of mine. It was so great. Um, we had our session last October and I aligned it to what I thought the brand was going to be.
I wasn't starting with my brand strategist until December late, November, early December. I think it was. And then once I started the brand strategy, I was like, oh, some of these photos don't quite fit any more for the website. Now there's still work for social. But not for the website. And then I got the great fortune in January to work with my other dream photographer.
Um, and so those are like the primary photos on the website. She did them. Uh, but that, so again, that was something that was like, oh, I probably should have, well, in hindsight, it wouldn't matter because this was like the timing with the photographers themselves. But. If you are planning ahead, and if you are giving yourself a longer runway, I would suggest giving yourself like a long, a long runway with this really map out and like research all of the people that you want to use and then like, figure out your timeline and build in extra time.
Because truthfully, our original plan was like, end of January, early February. The website would be, everything would be done and it didn't actually happen until the beginning of March. So again, big enough runway, um, and just get yourself set up for success there. So that's what I would say. Um, again, I wasn't loose it wasn't like I was losing business because my new website wasn't up.
Right. So if you're like, I just, you know, like, I, I feel like it's time to change. I just, I can't quite do this project just yet. Like that's okay. Are there things that you can start to change? Like, oh, actually one, I forgot about give you an actual example. The sort of background main color of my previous brand was white, but we also had black in the brand.
So earlier, like, I don't know if time feels meaningless now it was either 20, 20 or 2021. My business manager. Started to switch out on all of my, like, uh, Canva graphics and stuff, and my like head or somebody's website. The background went from white to black. Cause I knew the direction I wanted to go was this like darker mood of my brand.
So like I couldn't yet do. The full rebrand or like, I was not ready to do the full rebrand, but we started making shifts towards the direction I knew I wanted to go. So if you're like, I'm starting to feel like I've outgrown my brand, but I can't quite do this whole huge rebrand project just yet think about where you can start to shift things.
And one thing that you can do is, um, a lot of times brand strategists will have just the strategy component without the visuals. So you could potentially like work with a strategist in the. To start making shifts in the direction that you want to go, that will help you, like sort of realign, like your positioning, your messaging, things like that.
And then all of the visuals and like that heavy lifting. Can come later. Um, so on my new website, there is, um, under the about me like tab thing. Um, there is a whole separate page that says acknowledgements and I list all of the people who I work with. So you're welcome to go check them out. Um, I also know so many amazing entrepreneurs, so if you're like, I don't know.
Do you have any other suggestions? I can also, I'm also happy to share those with you as well. Yeah, really. I think it comes down to the future vision, uh, getting, you know, as much help as you reasonably can and also just giving yourself enough time and space, uh, and support so that what is a really large undertaking doesn't.
Totally overwhelm you and lead to massive, massive burnout. All right, there you go. If you have any questions, let me know. Uh, I, you find me on Instagram, Erika Tebbens consulting. Say hi over there, screenshot this, put it in your stories, tag me so that I know that you are listening and as always happy selling.
