Episode 12
Season 2
Creating a Celebrity Brand
Welcome Courtney Wolf, CEO Courtney Wolf Coaching, to Saturday Soundbites!
Courtney is passionate about helping people find their voice and ensuring their authenticity shows up in their branding. All too often entrepreneurs and business owners invest time and energy into building a brand, and not doing the work ahead of time that establishes the values of the brand. Without this work, there is a missed opportunity to genuinely connect with their audience.
Join Veronica and Courtney as they discuss the importance of keeping it simple and connecting with your brand. This helps you leverage your messaging to keep your ideal clients engaged. We look to the traditional celebrity brand and see the basic processes they use to keep it simple. We can overlay these processes over our marketing and visibility strategies to get phenomenal results.
Courtney brings her marketing background to her coaching business and works with clients to bring their brands to life. Follow Courtney at www.courtneywolfcoaching.com.
[00:00:00] Veronica: Hello. Hello and welcome to Saturday soundbites. I'm your host, Veronica Sofer. And here on Saturday soundbites, we talk all things, public relations, marketing, advertising, branding, essentially all of the parts that make up a good strong visibility plan. And I've got a great guest for you today. I've got Ms.
[00:00:19] Courtney Wolf. Who's joining us and she's going to talk about. Some fantastic tips and strategies to create a celebrity, a list brand. That's exactly what all of us are working towards. For those of you in the entrepreneur space, you know exactly what I'm talking about for those of you in the traditional brick and mortar space, you're trying to define your place online, trying to find out how you can show up and really grow your brand.
[00:00:43] Using some of these digital strategies. And Courtney is going to teach you how before we get started, I do want to go over. And remind everybody that if you are listening on a podcast, please hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday soundbites. If you hit subscribe, you'll get a reminder.
[00:00:58] If you're watching on YouTube or Facebook, please make sure you give us comments that Courtney and I can go back and connect with you. We will go ahead and bring her onstage now. Welcome Courtney to Saturday soundbites.
[00:01:11] Courtney: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:01:13] Veronica: Well, you know, we love talking about tips and strategies that are going to help us grow our visibility.
[00:01:18] Cause that's what we're all trying to do. We're trying to get our story story heard. We're trying to be seen. And I know you've got a great resource in the work that you do. That's going to help our, our listeners and our viewers. So tell us a little bit about.
[00:01:31] Courtney: Yeah. So first off, my name is Courtney. I am a wife, I'm a mom to four kids, and I'm also a business coach for other mom entrepreneurs.
[00:01:40] And so the work I do is I help moms turn their brilliant ideas into consistent income, through weighing a strong foundation. And of course, one of those pieces is getting visible, attracting clients and feeling really clear, confident, and consistent in how they're going to do.
[00:02:00] Veronica: I think that's fantastic.
[00:02:01] And you're speaking my love language. Cause as a PR professional, that's exactly what we're trying to do. How did you get started? How did you get into this space? What's your
[00:02:09] Courtney: background? Yeah, so my education is in marketing and I have an MBA and so I went into the corporate world for all of eight months, decided.
[00:02:18] Not for me, no way I laughed. And I was actually pregnant with our first child. And so then I kind of fell in to virtual assistant. And over the course of almost six years, I worked my way up to COO of the brand. I ran everything behind the scenes, the team, and then there just came a time where. I need more.
[00:02:40] There's something more here. I can feel it. The pool is there. What is it? And it just kinda came to a head where it was stepping out and starting my own brand and becoming an entrepreneur for myself. That's
[00:02:52] Veronica: fantastic. I love that you had some background in it, but then really started implementing what it is you wanted.
[00:02:59] And I think a lot of other people will resonate that that message will resonate with them. So tell us a little bit about what does make up an, a list celebrity brand. We, we talk about it. We read blogs and hear podcasts about influencers and what it means to have an, a celebrity or a list celebrity brand.
[00:03:16] But what does that mean to you? And what does it look like for your clients?
[00:03:19] Courtney: Yeah, so I, my philosophy is simple. That is what we are building. So any type of business, it needs to be simple and it needs to be solid. So in that, a piece of that is your brand identity. How are you stepping into your brand identity?
[00:03:35] What does that look like? Right. For me that's looks like, do you want a very calm, a very, maybe low energy. Full brand or do you want a really fun, energetic, vibrant brand, right? These are the types of things that play into what we offer and how we show up and who we're going to call in. So we want to call in those who like attract likes, right?
[00:04:00] They're going to be attracted to what we do, but we have to know what that looks like and how it influences our content, how we show up. Offer to our clients. So that's one of the big pieces. And then, like I said, I feel like it's just getting so solid on who are you serving? How are you serving them? How are you positioning yourself to be unique, to stand out, to be different, right?
[00:04:26] To make sure that you are getting in front of who you need to be in front of, and that they know immediately upon finding you. You are the one for them. You are the one that they have been looking for, who can solve their problems. Right. That's what we're after. And then it moves into, again, that client attraction strategy.
[00:04:44] How are you getting visible? What are the daily action steps that you are taking to ensure that you are getting in front of that ideal client that you already identified?
[00:04:56] Veronica: That's so true. And how do people when they're starting, because I know this question comes up a lot when people are starting, they think their brand looks and feels a particular way, but it doesn't always, and sometimes it takes some growing pains to figure that out.
[00:05:10] How do you work through that with folks?
[00:05:12] Courtney: Yes. I believe that if you can really dig in the deep work from the get go, it's going to make it easier as you continue on. So we all know there's always going to be some of the working out of the kinks and whatnot. The longer you go through your business and pivots and changes, but if you can take the time to really dig in and identify.
[00:05:35] What is my brand identity? What do I want it to be? Right. I even one question I'd love to ask my clients is what type of brand are you building? Are you building an empire? Do you want this to influence anyone and everyone who is in your ideal? The space or are you okay? Which is building something a little smaller based on referrals and connections, and just bringing in and doing the work you want to do, right?
[00:06:00] Because how you build those two different types of brands is going to look very, very different, but you have to know. And so I like to dig deep, ask a lot of questions, a lot of journaling and really uncovering what I believe is already in every entrepreneur. They just need the. Space to bring it out, to create a solid foundation of what's already there to then build on top of it, to create the brand they're wanting.
[00:06:26] Veronica: And that, you know, that process is, is sometimes challenging for people and a little overwhelming. What do you say to people who want to have the end result, but don't know that they have the capacity to do the.
[00:06:39] Courtney: Yes, that is a huge piece of it. Right. You have to be able to take the time and dig into what it takes.
[00:06:47] Right. And so for that, I would really say, what do you maybe need to put off? What do you need to wait on? I see a ton of entrepreneurs that in my opinion, kind of go out of order, right? Where. Big fancy website, but we don't have the foundational pieces. Right. They'll come to me with a logo and a name and colors, and I'm like, well, who's your ideal client?
[00:07:10] And they don't. We've got to start there. We have to actually have the foundations of our business set in stone before going to some of the more fun, sexy for business, the flashy shiny pieces that I think most people think of a successful business. That's what they think of, but it's actually the. What creates a successful business is going to be creating strong foundations that can hold the dream business.
[00:07:37] You're thinking of, right. We think of an actual house. If you want a multimillion dollar house, you're not gonna slack on the foundation of that house. You are going to take the time, the energy and put off the other stuff. Right. Have the process take longer because you understand the importance of doing it right from the gate.
[00:07:56] Veronica: No, that makes complete sense. And I'm a firm believer. How do you work people through that process? If, if, if someone has. Interested, but they've never done this kind of work before. What would it look like the day? Day-to-day what can they expect?
[00:08:10] Courtney: Yeah. So the way I do it personally with my clients is like, so we do a lot of journaling and a lot of questions to take.
[00:08:18] I believe that every entrepreneur has what they need inside of them to create this successful business. But sometimes they need a coach to come along and give support to give accountability. I don't know about you, but if I have someone that I have to turn something into, or I have to say what I did this week, I'm going to do it.
[00:08:36] And some of us, some of us need that. That's why personal trainers are, I think because we need that accountability to actually reach the goals we want to read. And so we go through. Well week by week of here's questions about the ranting, about the identity, about your client. Sometimes we just talk through, if I, a lot of entrepreneurs are verbal processors and they need to actually verbally hash out because what's thinking in their head and even with the write down, it doesn't always align.
[00:09:05] And the pieces aren't really there. And I think a lot of times as entrepreneurs starting out, we don't know what we don't know. So it's always helpful, obviously, in my opinion, to hire the coach, to get the support and the accountability in the strategy, you need to do the work and to be able to have someone help you figure out what's already inside of you, what you're dreaming of, what you're building.
[00:09:29] And then just to kind of make it clear and to put all the pieces in place to actually create what your dream.
[00:09:36] Veronica: I love that it's a wonderful process and I'm I'm definitely a visual learner. And so when I can talk it out and then write it out and have it blocked into sections, and then I see it, I, I, it processes, I can process a little more clearly.
[00:09:52] Well, you've done that work. I'm an entreprenuer and I've done the work and I've now got a roadmap. What does that brand actually look like when it's flushed out? How do you know that it's going to be successful in lamb? The way you intend it to
[00:10:06] Courtney: land? Yes. Okay. So I firmly believe that as entrepreneurs we are as really, even I'd like to call a CEO because to me that kind of gives it like.
[00:10:16] You're holding a roll of power, right? So when we are looking at being the CEO, you take radical responsibility of the results you create, or you don't create. And I feel like that's one of the first pieces we have to step into. And so the way I do it with my clients is we set goals for them. Big, whether they're smaller.
[00:10:37] And then we literally break them down into daily pieces of what do you need to do every single day to create the brand you're dreaming of? I think a lot of times we can look even with entrepreneurs, they're like, okay, I want to get to 5k. What do I need to do? What do I need to do? And they want this huge map, but a lot of.
[00:10:56] What's the next step you need to take. What is the next action that is in alignment to get you to that goal? It's not this big puzzle of everything that results in 5k, but it's all these little micro steps. One after another that are going to line up and create that momentum to get you where you want.
[00:11:18] Veronica: And when someone comes to you with an idea that they already have, so my branding is going to be bright and it's going to involve flowers. And then you do the work for them or with them. And you start to see that there's something a little bit deeper or that at their core of their business or who they are, it's going to look a little different.
[00:11:37] How do you have that conversation with someone when they've already have an image in mind of what they think their brand should look like? Because. A list celebrities and they're glamorous and they're bold. And they're, you know, like you said, really, really engaging, but that may not be the product or the service you're selling.
[00:11:55] So how do you work through that with
[00:11:57] Courtney: someone? So again, I it's, for me, it's just a process of asking questions and kind of allowing them to come to the conclusion. But a lot of times if they hire. They're valuing my opinion. And I think once you can lay it out or use an analogy or metaphor to show them, usually they can come alongside.
[00:12:16] Cause it's just like that. Right? If, if you are promoting a more peaceful home for moms, right. In my opinion, aloud, like bright, super energetic. I want the opposite. I want, damn I want peaceful. I want cooling tones. Right. And so if we can kind of just put into place what that actually looks like and show them even brands that may go one way versus the other, have them, what do you feel?
[00:12:45] What would you. Expect from this brand, that way it can really hit home and they can make the connection. Cause I think when we're starting out, we don't understand the connection there. It says, oh, I like these colors, but it's like, okay, those colors are very masculine, but you have a very feminine brand.
[00:13:01] Right. So how can we bring that in? And maybe we keep a few of the colors, but we, we then. A more feminine color, right. Or pop a sparkle or gold or something. And then, cause I always, I want to stay true to the client. I'm wanting to feel like it's always a personal brand. I don't care what you're doing. You are a piece of your brand and I want that to shine through.
[00:13:20] But the goal is for everything to be an alignment and for you to shine through in a way that is going to clearly attract your idol.
[00:13:30] Veronica: Yeah, I agree. And I think some people like you said, it's already inside it and they just don't know how to get it out. So working with someone like you is helpful. So what are the brand assets when, when someone's done through, or I guess we're never really done, but when they've gotten to a point to where they are, they're ready to release their brand show it to the world.
[00:13:50] What are some of the assets that a good branding strategy will have.
[00:13:55] Courtney: Yeah. So for me, what I do with my clients is they will clearly know who are they speaking to? Where do they find that ideal client, right? Where do they need to get visible? Where do they need to be positioning themselves? In the online space to be seen by who they want to be seen.
[00:14:15] Right. And then they're also going to have a full offer. They're going to have something to put out into this space to receive income, receive money, to impact. Bryant that is going to be fully completed. And then they're going to get, no. What do you need to do every single day to bring in your clients? If we hit on, I don't do much of like the website design and all of that.
[00:14:40] Most of my clients, especially from the get-go, they'll probably DIY a website and I love going through it. I'm big on making sure your copy, your messaging, your positioning, right? Some of the aesthetics let's move that picture here. Let's slide that over there. That type of thing. That's obviously included along with social.
[00:15:00] Social media is huge of how are we actually positioning you through social media as in your bio? What type of content do you need to be creating? How do you need to be showing up? Those are really all of the different pieces. I like from my eyes. Everything they want them on, on their business from start to finish, whether it's their email sequence, their website, their social media, because again, it all needs to be aligned in the more aligned it is.
[00:15:27] The stronger that brand identity is going to come through.
[00:15:31] Veronica: And what kind of a time investment does that take? And the reason why I ask is because sometimes entrepreneurs are really excited. They're ready to hit go. They've mapped out a plan or mapped out what they think is a plan. And then someone like you comes along to support them.
[00:15:46] And you're like, actually, we need to take a step back and let's have some of these deeper conversations. How does that usually land or for folks who are just really, really excited to go ahead and get start.
[00:15:59] Courtney: Yes. So typically I work with clients on a three month increments. And so in that time span within, usually by the beginning of the actual third month, they are launching with me right there.
[00:16:13] That way I'm there to help with the sales conversations, conversions what's working. What's not, I never want to say, okay, here's your brand, figure it out. Right. I want to make sure they know exactly what to do, but it can be challenging. And see, and they want to move through. And that's where it's just a lot of reassurance as the coach of this is going to pay off.
[00:16:33] Right. I know it may seem like this is taking a while, but we are taking our time and we are really going to build it solid. But in that I move at the pace of my clients, if they want to take longer, if they don't want to do the homework during the week, and we do it on the call. It'll just move slower.
[00:16:51] I'm okay with that. As long as they are, and if they want to move faster and they get everything done and I include boxer access. So we, we just keep rolling and I move at the pace of them. But within the three months, my goal is for you to have a watch, whatever you are creating or putting out there. Or to just really be able to be implementing what we're doing so that we can, again, troubleshoot, we can remove any roadblocks that are coming up, work through sticky points.
[00:17:19] And so they feel really set and secure that by the time they're done with me, they can have what they need to create this, the results there.
[00:17:28] Veronica: Oh, that I think that's great. And in three months is a long, I mean, it's 90 days, it's a, it's a chunk of time. And so I know for some people that may seem like a short runway and for others, it might seem like a long runway.
[00:17:40] So I'm glad that there's some flexibility there. So when you get to the point to. You're an entrepreneur, you've identified your service. You've worked with someone like yourself and you've, you're ready for your launch. How do you know it's successful? I mean, we have matrix metrics and there's the standard, you know, how much did you sell, but how do you know if a brand really hit?
[00:17:59] And that's a question I ask people sometimes because we have. Perspectives on what that looks like. And you know, I, I remind people all the time, including my clients, your brand is your promise. So how do you know that promise has been kept? And then it's consistently showing up in all of your products and all of your marketing?
[00:18:16] Courtney: Yes. So for me and for my clients, I have them set their own goals with launch because I feel like success is subjective, right. Which is successful to me and what I would consider my ideal. Can be totally different for someone else who hasn't been making income. Right. So they can be totally happy. And like, I did what I wanted and I would be like, oh, I'm so bummed.
[00:18:39] I did not go how I want. And so I want that to be set by. I want that metric to be set by them because they all start at different places. Right. I have some who literally open an Instagram while working with me. I have some clients who have had a brand for a few years and they're not seeing the results they want.
[00:18:59] And so when we can make a few tweaks, they can run out of the gate and see major results right away, but it's different. So I want to make sure that whatever they deem a successful and what they want to see out of that. That's what we know how to create and how to replicate that resort to continue that income.
[00:19:19] And then I think it is to me, really, one of the biggest piece of the brand and keeping the promise are you are staying consistent. You are not getting bogged down. If you do not see the results you want, right? You are staying clear, confident, and consistent, and you are being able to, I call it holding the belief.
[00:19:36] You are holding the belief that what you are building. Is coming to fruition with every step you take.
[00:19:44] Veronica: Definitely. And what are some of the mistakes that you see happening through this process? Because I'm sure people stumble and we have to go back and do some rework, but what are some common mistakes that you see happening?
[00:19:58] Courtney: Yeah. Yeah. So for my clients who already have a brand, a lot of times why they come to me is because they've made a mistake with her. It's so simple sometimes, but for example, let's say they decided to create a hundred dollar course, and they have an audience of 2000, but they want to make 6,000. Our math does not add up there.
[00:20:22] Right? It's just, it's pure, simple numbers of a, we know not everyone in your audience is actually going to be a converting client, but B your product is too low for you to have such a small audience and make that large of a return on investment. And so a lot of times, Honestly, I get surprised by how many entrepreneurs I see that have this number, this figure of how much they want to make, but they've never reverse engineered to actually say, is this realistic?
[00:20:52] Is this possible? Can it work? I mean, everything is possible. We know that I never want to discount anything. Sure. You have to know. Your simple map of whether or not what you're creating. So if you have that high of an income goal, but your audience size is that small. You want to do a higher ticket. We want to take that course and decide, can we add extra support?
[00:21:13] Can we turn it into one-on-one? Can we make it a group program? What can we do to pack in more value and really to make a more powerful transformation? That's I believe is that the value in your offers comes from the transformation, not necessarily how much is included in it. Right. But we want to make sure that that is in alignment.
[00:21:32] With what you're doing. Right. And then that's definitely the first one is just simple math. And then I think the second biggest one I see is I seem so many entrepreneurs who are spinning their wheels, doing so many things that do not move the needle forward. They will have a blog, they'll be running three blogs a week.
[00:21:51] They'll have a podcast, they'll have an Instagram and all that stuff. And then when I actually, they see me even have a large audience, but then when they come to me and they're like, yeah, I've made like five sales on like $50 products. Wow. There's disconnect here, right? Something is out of alignment and they're at the place.
[00:22:07] Usually, unfortunately, when they come to me, it's like, I either fix it or I'm giving up. Those are where I'm at. Right. And so, thankfully I love being the one to be able to come in and help them figure out where they're at, what's going on. Right. And how do we remove, what's holding them back, put them back into alignment and then allow them to create the results.
[00:22:28] Veronica: Yeah, no, I can totally see that happening. So I know we're getting close to the end, but give us two solid tips of things that you or two solid tips that you think entrepreneurs could implement right now today to start making a difference, because we all want that a list celebrity. Yes.
[00:22:47] Courtney: Okay. So my first one would be to not judge opportunities.
[00:22:52] He there's a lot where we will get an opportunity or even see someone posted about an opportunity. And we start doing the weighing in our heads. Right. And that's not to say you take everything in anything that comes your way, but I would encourage you to have a more open mind because you never know. I always tell all my clients.
[00:23:12] Numbers, like not your math numbers, but like Instagram, they lie. I've worked with too many people and I've seen the backend of too many businesses to know that just because someone has 50,000 followers does not mean that if you do an opportunity with them, you're going to make more than someone who has 500 followers.
[00:23:30] Right. Not judge the opportunities that come with. My second tip would be, especially for those starting out connection is your visibility strategy. Yes. You want to connect with so many people. It's not just gaining new followers. Are you connecting with your followers? Are you reaching out? Are you building relationships?
[00:23:53] That is where you are actually going to convert clients. More than just getting in front of them getting Visible's great. But if it does, again, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many followers you have. If you are not able to have a clear, consistent and confident process for converting your visibility into paying clients.
[00:24:12] Veronica: Yes. Oh my goodness. That's absolutely true. I love it. I love the opportunity tip. That's fantastic. I agree. Sometimes there is a great might in, in small audiences and small quote unquote connections, but really the value that they can bring to you if your brand is strong and you're on the mark is it's, it's phenomenal.
[00:24:32] It can really change the trajectory of your.
[00:24:34] Courtney: Yeah, for sure. I've seen it. Like I said too many times, don't judge the numbers. Yes. I love it.
[00:24:41] Veronica: Courtney. How can people work with you? You you've clearly got a lot of experience. You've been in this space a long time. You have a marketing background and a business background.
[00:24:49] How can people work with you to, to get that kind of support that you're talking about?
[00:24:54] Courtney: Yeah. So if someone is ready, if they are saying, please, I need help. There's misalignment things are holding me back then you can come and find me@courtneywithcoaching.com. You can also find me on Instagram at Courtney with coaching, and I will share with you more about my.
[00:25:11] CEO coaching program, which is the three month program I mentioned before, where we take you through your solid foundations, we remove, what's holding you back so that we can turn all the big, brilliant ideas you have into the consistent income you're doing. I
[00:25:27] Veronica: love it. Thank you so much, Courtney. I appreciate your time and the energy you put into it.
[00:25:32] Cause I know our viewers and our listeners are gonna appreciate it and get some growth from their
[00:25:35] Courtney: business. Thank you.
[00:25:39] Veronica: All right, guys, that wraps up this episode of Saturday soundbites as always. You can find me@veronicavsofer.com. I love talking visibility, strategy, branding, marketing, advertising, public relations, you name it.
[00:25:51] And I want to encourage you to connect with Courtney. She's got some great. And she truly has a roadmap. That's going to help you with your branding no matter where you are in the journey. So please make sure you check her out. If you are listening on our podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday soundbites.
[00:26:09] And if you're watching on YouTube or Facebook, make sure you give us some comments. A Courtney can, and I can go back and reconnect. All right. We are sending everyone lots of positive energy and light, and we'll talk to you next time.