How to Stand Out, Elevate Your Brand, and Become a Breakout Success in Your Industry

Briana Dai [00:00:01]:

You have to ask yourself the question, like, not only why are you doing what you're doing, what impact do you want to make, and how are you going to make it in a way that's so unique to you and only you?

Kym Yancey [00:00:13]:

And it's all about how you think about what you do and how you can reimagine what you do and the words that you use to set you apart.

Sandra Yancey [00:00:24]:

I remember when I interviewed Mark Cuban and I asked him, I said, Mark, what do you think it is? Why, why, why aren't most small businesses successful? owners successful. And I'll never forget like that. I mean, he just without hesitating, he said, Well, welcome to She Means Millions.

Briana Dai [00:00:51]:

I'm hanging out with the trifecta and we're going to talk about something that was kind of inspired by the OG. And it was really a topic that's, you know—

Kym Yancey [00:00:59]:

Oh, oh, is that what OG means?

Sandra Yancey [00:01:03]:

OG.

Kym Yancey [00:01:03]:

Gosh, just learned about goat.

Sandra Yancey [00:01:08]:

My goodness.

Kym Yancey [00:01:09]:

You are something else. Go ahead. She's busted me on our podcast.

Briana Dai [00:01:13]:

Yeah, I love y'all. So—

Sandra Yancey [00:01:15]:

oh, I said that in case we have new listeners and they're listening to us and they're not watching us and they don't know. Yeah, I was trying to look out for you.

Kym Yancey [00:01:23]:

Oh, thank you.

Briana Dai [00:01:24]:

Good looking out. Always looking out. So the topic of today, back to the topic of conversation, we're going to talk about what we have witnessed time and time again, and that is there's so many talented people out there, but few really bust out as the breakout star in their field. So what does it really take to be the bust out in your field, the breakout in your field? How do you really stand out from the sea of people that offer similar or the same thing that you do to be the best in brand? And there's one person over here, the OG, that is an expert in that and really has— He's really cracked the code on the science behind how to build celebrity. It's very formulaic, to be honest. And so what's the first thing that comes to mind to you when you think about helping people break out?

Kym Yancey [00:02:19]:

Well, first of all, when I talk about celebrity, I, I'm not talking about the Hollywood types, you know, the Hollywood celebrity types. I'm talking about being a celebrity in your lane, in your business with what you do. Like, how do you stand out? How do you bust out? From that. And I think fundamentally there's some things that have to come obviously first, and that is your strategy. And Sandra, you've heard me talk about this before. One of the things we do when we are working with people to help them bust out is one of the things that we, that we do is we really talk to them about their endgame for a minute.

Briana Dai [00:02:51]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:02:51]:

It's so important to know, hey, you know, when are you going to crack that champagne open? When are you going to raise your glass and say, I did it? You know, I accomplished it. I hit the mark. I hit the goal.

Sandra Yancey [00:03:03]:

You know, what does that look like? What have you achieved? Who have you served?

Kym Yancey [00:03:07]:

And I'm, I'm forever surprised by the numbers of people who don't know. And that doesn't mean that anything's wrong. I'm just saying they had not thought about—

Briana Dai [00:03:20]:

Even cast the vision for themselves.

Kym Yancey [00:03:21]:

Yeah. The vision for themselves. You know, that point when you celebrate, and I mentioned, and you guys know this one, The band I was in on Capitol, we had our gold album. And I'll never forget the day we had the pictures in the president's office at Capitol Records. And we're taking a picture of the album. And we, even in that moment, talked about what was next. In other words, we didn't even celebrate the gold album moment.

Sandra Yancey [00:03:53]:

Hmm.

Kym Yancey [00:03:53]:

That was like, oh, we got a picture for the gold album. Next, it's platinum. We want to go platinum next. You know what I'm saying? We didn't go to dinner. I don't even care if it was a fast food restaurant or an In-N-Out Burger. It didn't care. We didn't celebrate the moment as big as that is. I mean, how many people do you know that have a gold album? I mean, it's a rare thing.

Sandra Yancey [00:04:15]:

Right.

Kym Yancey [00:04:16]:

So, it's knowing when you crack that album. First of all, so everybody can be clear about what success means to you. And it helps people who are helping you Also, no. The other thing is aligning with people that can give you moment-by-moment feedback, who can give you feedback on what's happening. There's a concept around creating flow in your life, and that's where you know moment by moment if you're making progress or you're not making progress, if things are going right for you or they're not going right for you. How do you course correct? But, you know, In this world of what I call the river of sameness, here's the real big test. The big test is take what you do and then remove your name and put someone else's name. All right, take what you do, remove your name, and put someone else's name because they do what you do.

Sandra Yancey [00:05:11]:

Hmm.

Kym Yancey [00:05:12]:

And if you don't see any differentiation there or anything that sets you apart, that's another clue. I mean, one of the things is to get real clear on What's working in the marketplace? What's working for you? What does your customer desire and want most?

Sandra Yancey [00:05:30]:

Mm.

Kym Yancey [00:05:30]:

You know, because everything's gotta be grounded in how this serves the person that I wanna help. How does this serve the person that I wanna bring on board as a customer? What am I doing that is creating an enthusiasm, an excitement within this person that not only do they like what I do, but they like what I do so much they wanna tell their other friends about what I do or what I'm bringing to the table. And people don't, in general, take time out in their own brand to really do the analysis, the strategy around what do I wanna accomplish? How do I wanna get there? What's important about the way that I wanna accomplish this? How does this serve at the highest level for my customers? And the biggie is, How hard do you wanna work? You know, 'cause so many people don't wanna put the time in. I mean, think about when we started eWomen Network. We had no design on doing events.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:32]:

Oh yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:06:32]:

You know, it was—

Sandra Yancey [00:06:34]:

It wasn't supposed to be an event company.

Kym Yancey [00:06:35]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:36]:

It was supposed to be an online company.

Kym Yancey [00:06:37]:

Completely.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:38]:

We were just 20 years before our time. We needed COVID to happen in order to go online.

Kym Yancey [00:06:43]:

Well, and think about when we told people there were no meetings and women were saying, oh great.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:48]:

That's why we did it. That they said, no, don't do one thing That requires one more meeting.

Kym Yancey [00:06:53]:

Yeah. You know, but you listen to what they say, but you watch what they do.

Sandra Yancey [00:06:57]:

That's right.

Kym Yancey [00:06:57]:

And no sooner did they join the network and women were joining in our neighborhood, they joined eWomen Network. I'm a member of eWomen Network. They were saying, hey, I'm going to have a little get-together in our pool house at such and such, or I'm going to have a little get-together over here.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:10]:

With our members.

Kym Yancey [00:07:11]:

Yeah. See if you guys want to come together. Remember we had one neighbor in particular who called us and said, hey, I've invited some people that are in eWomen Network, you know, for a little, just a little get-together.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:26]:

Little holiday thing. Yeah, it was in December.

Kym Yancey [00:07:27]:

Be great if you guys could come down. And we literally, we could have walked to her house, but we decided, oh, it's 3 blocks, let's drive.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:38]:

It was actually cold, Kim.

Briana Dai [00:07:39]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:07:42]:

So we drove. And both sides of the street were jamming with cars. We couldn't figure out, and we thought, man, somebody is having something going on down here.

Sandra Yancey [00:07:51]:

Holiday party.

Kym Yancey [00:07:52]:

Holiday party. And we had to park, and we thought, man, that's really gonna mess up, you know, there'll be people who are coming to her little get-together like us. They're gonna say, oh my God, it's packed over here. Am I gonna go to this? We go there and the place is packed with people coming for eWomen Network. They weren't there for someone else's party. They were there for eWomen Network for that little get-together they were having. We're like, oh my goodness. You know, you were giving a—

Sandra Yancey [00:08:16]:

I was standing on her fire— Sheila. Yeah, I was standing on her fireplace hearth. Someone said, could you, could you tell us about eWomen Network? There's a lot of people here that have been hearing a little bit about the local— we were just a local chapter, the first chapter ever. I was the managing director. Would you tell us, you know, what you're doing? And I remember standing on her fireplace hearth and people down the stair steps, you know what I mean? All listening. And yeah, and she went and, got made copies of memberships. And, you know, some of those people, I'm thinking of Mary Boggs. I mean, some of those people are members to this day, 25 years later.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:55]:

You know, isn't that crazy?

Briana Dai [00:08:57]:

That's crazy.

Sandra Yancey [00:08:57]:

Yeah. I mean, it was a, it was a thing. We couldn't believe it.

Kym Yancey [00:09:03]:

I mean, we thought, uh-oh, because it was clear. Oh, you guys aren't having meetings? That's great. Not really. Because we want to meet and we want to interact. And, and do you know that—

Sandra Yancey [00:09:17]:

For its time, that was viral.

Kym Yancey [00:09:19]:

Yeah. For its time, that was viral.

Briana Dai [00:09:21]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:21]:

Now that I think about it.

Kym Yancey [00:09:23]:

You know, and we were writing, I mean, the last thing we wanted to do, this is, this is what I'm talking about when it comes to your business and, and, and the design that you have for your business. That question about how hard do you want to work is really important. Yeah. You know, and if you can't answer the how hard do you want to work, then tell me, how big is your dream?

Briana Dai [00:09:41]:

How big is your passion? Right. Because they're going to to be a proportionate amount of work to back that up.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:46]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:09:46]:

I mean, it's a big dream. It's going to require some big work.

Kym Yancey [00:09:48]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:49]:

Yeah. It just doesn't happen, right?

Briana Dai [00:09:50]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:09:50]:

I remember when I interviewed Mark Cuban, I remember he came here to the office and it's on YouTube. You can watch the interview. But I asked him before the cameras went on, we were just chatting, remember, in my office before we went down to the conference room where we actually videotaped him. And I asked him, I said, Mark, what do you think it is? Why, why, why aren't most small business owners successful? And I'll never forget, like, I mean, he just, without hesitating, he said, Sandra, most people really just don't wanna do the work. I never forgot it. To your point, Kim, to your question, how hard do you wanna work?

Kym Yancey [00:10:26]:

Yeah. And it haunts business owners, you know, because again, listen to what they say, but watch what they do.

Briana Dai [00:10:34]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:10:35]:

In all cases. But, you know, I remember it was in Atlanta, we had a chapter, you know, like all of a sudden, I mean, the whole chapter model, We didn't understand that either at first. I mean, it kind of like people would hear about it. There would be this chatter. It's pretty incredible, this chatter. And someone in Atlanta heard about it and called and said, hey, I've heard about this and would be interested in how I could probably start something like that here.

Sandra Yancey [00:11:04]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:04]:

You know, and all of a sudden, oh, we've got to create a chapter model around this. But my point is these discoveries happened with with your business. But if I'm talking to you, I'm gonna get real clear in what your messaging is and how you serve and how you state what you do in a way that sounds uniquely different, that sounds like it's only you can provide that experience. I'm gonna push myself in driving your messaging to a place where it stands out on its own and it doesn't sound like a me too. That's imperative. Now, with AI, I mean, that equation has really gotten deep because, I mean, you know, people are writing everything from, you know, newsletters, you know, not just one a month or one a week, they're writing 'em almost daily. You know what I mean?

Sandra Yancey [00:11:55]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:11:55]:

I mean, there's so much that it can do, which, by the way, I love AI and I use it as the world's greatest copilot. So I have no problems with it whatsoever. But there's some things that you can do as a human that clearly separate you. And it's all about how you think about what you do and how you can reimagine what you do and the words that you use to set you apart.

Briana Dai [00:12:19]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:12:20]:

You know, I mean, the one thing that the president of Capitol Records said too, that day that we did our gold album picture, he said to me, he says, Kim, he says, I want you to remember something. He says, every year, there are 1,000 new I love you songs that come out. And the only thing different about them is the melody and the beat. But somewhere in that song, they're saying, I love you. And no matter how big the I love you song of today is, the world wants a brand new one tomorrow.

Briana Dai [00:12:51]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:12:52]:

You know? And so it doesn't matter if someone is doing things like you. You can reposition your I love you song for your business. You can reposition the way you talk about it, what you have to say about it, it, what you're delivering with it, and how it looks, how it feels. You know, I would say that concentration that you put on how you're being received by the audience, you know, how people receive you, how they experience you. Because, you know, we as humans, and you're going to hear that more and more, you know, until AI, I never talked about the human experience so much. But now, The human experience is the differentiator, is the game changer.

Briana Dai [00:13:36]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:13:36]:

The human experience. But you know, people pick up on the energy, energy, your energy, your vibe, your enthusiasm, your everything.

Briana Dai [00:13:45]:

And your story. Your story is really what separates you from everybody else that does what you do. I've talked about this on another episode actually, but oftentimes when we're thinking about building our brand, we think we have to build it just around the the offering or the thing that we're trying to do or be now and totally diminish everything that led us to that point and not leverage the past, not leverage your previous story. But your random past isn't random. It is the ultimate unfair advantage that allows you to break out as the expert in this space for this reason because of this life experience that I had.

Sandra Yancey [00:14:20]:

That's right.

Briana Dai [00:14:21]:

And that's the thing that makes you the only person who does what you do the way that you do it. You know, there's a million ways to make pizza. How many pizza places are there? But they're all just a little bit different and they all have their own origin story. Is it a family recipe? Is it, you know what I mean? But they, they're all uniquely different and it's the same offering. And I think in business we think, oh, I'm the only one that does what I do. I promise you, you're not. In today's world, you're not the only person that does what you do, but you are the only person who does it the way that you do it.

Kym Yancey [00:14:50]:

You are. That's right. And what's the differentiator with pizza? It might be as small as you're convenient where you're located.

Sandra Yancey [00:14:57]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:14:57]:

You just happen to be in a drive path that's easy for people to go, and therefore you're going to thrive because you're there.

Sandra Yancey [00:15:04]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:15:04]:

You know what I mean?

Briana Dai [00:15:04]:

But everyone's got their own little crust. You know what I mean? They got like Papa John's versus Pizza Hut, completely different crust.

Sandra Yancey [00:15:10]:

The sauce.

Briana Dai [00:15:11]:

Their sauce. You know what I mean? The way, the thickness of that pepperoni. You know what I mean? Like there's all these different, then you've got like the smaller mom and pop, like the E. Fratelli's, and you've got the Zelot's, and they're all—

Sandra Yancey [00:15:22]:

Or the local Marion's in Ohio.

Briana Dai [00:15:25]:

Yes. Yes. Or the local ones. But, and they all have Their own story, and people form their preferences around not only the product— the product has to be good— but a lot of times, they break out because of their uniqueness. People like the mom-and-pop aspect.

Sandra Yancey [00:15:40]:

The shape.

Briana Dai [00:15:40]:

Or the shape, right? There's just all the different ways that you differentiate yourself from everybody else for the same core product. There's a million different pepperoni pizzas out there, but yours is different because of why, and how do you tell that story?

Kym Yancey [00:15:53]:

I mean, it's obvious. You know, in our area here in Dallas, you know, In-N-Out Burger came into town and all of a sudden, the places that used to have lines don't have lines anymore. You go by, you know, you can easily get into a Burger King, you can easily get into a Wendy's.

Sandra Yancey [00:16:10]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:16:10]:

You're going to be in a line at In-N-Out Burger.

Briana Dai [00:16:12]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:16:13]:

Now, think about that for a second. Like, how complicated is that? You know, it's buns, it's hamburgers. I mean, get some great beef. How come theirs has this magic growth going on and the other ones don't, you know.

Sandra Yancey [00:16:25]:

Do you feel like you're drowning in your business? Like you're doing everything and something has to give, but you're afraid it might be you? What if I told you there's a network of over 500,000 women entrepreneurs all dedicated to supporting each other? A network of women helping women. I'm Sandra Yancy, founder of eWomen Network, And I'm inviting you to join us and become a member. ewomennetwork.com. We can't wait to meet you.

Kym Yancey [00:16:55]:

There's a lot of factors to look at. I mean, whether how they dress, how they react to their customer, the quality of the product.

Briana Dai [00:17:02]:

How they differentiate themselves with a little tray that you could eat in your car. You know, at the end of the day, they have a good burger. But I mean, like, if I'm being completely honest, they don't have my favorite burger.

Kym Yancey [00:17:12]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:17:12]:

You know what I mean? It's not the best burger in the world here, but it's a, it's a unique experience. They definitely don't have the best French fries, that's for sure.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:19]:

No, I have to say. Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:17:21]:

You know, but, but, but.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:23]:

And there is only one Coke.

Briana Dai [00:17:24]:

Yes.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:25]:

And it's McDonald's.

Briana Dai [00:17:26]:

Yes.

Kym Yancey [00:17:27]:

Yes.

Briana Dai [00:17:28]:

And so you do.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:29]:

They used to be a client of mine, so I actually know why.

Briana Dai [00:17:32]:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:17:33]:

They have a special deal.

Kym Yancey [00:17:35]:

But it is, but it is seeing, you know, what are the discerning factors around your business and what you do and in finding those, you know, I mean, I don't care who it is. The formula around it, I know from my standpoint, is one, I wanna, I really do need to know about you and your passion and what you're willing to do and why you're doing what you do. And I'm listening to why you're doing what you're doing. Why is it so important to you?

Sandra Yancey [00:18:00]:

You know what neither one of you mentioned, which is ironically, is the, the actual messaging.

Kym Yancey [00:18:06]:

Oh yeah, I hadn't gotten there yet.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:07]:

Because we recently went to a restaurant and they serve fried chicken and pizza. How's that for a combination?

Kym Yancey [00:18:12]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:13]:

So I'm a fried chicken girl. I love a really good fried chicken, piece of fried chicken every now and then. And, and you're a pizza guy. But we go into this place and we're looking at this menu for the very first time. And they had cupped pepperoni pizza. Now, you know how they cook it and the pepperoni starts to turn into little cups?

Kym Yancey [00:18:32]:

Uh-huh.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:33]:

I don't know about you, but I was like, we got to get that one. I know, I know how a pizza is cooked when the pepperoni starts turning up the edges and making little cups, little like little— and that— and they marketed it that way.

Kym Yancey [00:18:46]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:46]:

I loved the way they, they described Wow. And it made me go, that one, I have to try that one for my first one. Right. The messaging.

Kym Yancey [00:18:56]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:18:57]:

The way you whet people's appetite, literally, literally and figuratively.

Briana Dai [00:19:02]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:19:02]:

To say, I want to try you.

Briana Dai [00:19:04]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:19:05]:

And we had a great waiter too. I mean, we happened to have a waiter that was playful and, you know, it was fun. But, you know, all these— but in our world, when you think about all the service businesses that are a part of eWomen Network wanting to stand out, wanting to be perceived a certain way. You know, how you serve yourself up for people to do business with you, especially at the level that our members wanna do business with each other.

Sandra Yancey [00:19:35]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:19:36]:

You know what I mean? The investment they want people to make into them.

Briana Dai [00:19:38]:

Mm-hmm.

Kym Yancey [00:19:39]:

You know? So you really need to make sure that you are, meeting the expectation, the subconscious expectation of your customer, because they're sizing you up. Yeah, they're making those decisions. I mean, heaven forbid you give them a skinny— what I call a skinny, flimsy business card that has your stuff on it and on the back says, yes, you too can get your free cards.

Sandra Yancey [00:20:04]:

Dot com.

Kym Yancey [00:20:05]:

Oh God. But you know what I'm saying? I mean, do you remember when you and I were talking about Beauty Boss Network and—

Sandra Yancey [00:20:14]:

Talking to Brianna, right?

Kym Yancey [00:20:15]:

Yeah. You know, like you came in as a customer. I mean, you came and we sat down and we talked and I remember I was directing your videos and, and, and all of that. But it was really focusing on what was going to be different, what was going to be your unique positioning statement that you wanted to have with the eyes. Do you remember that? Remember that experience?

Briana Dai [00:20:39]:

I do. Yeah, it's really powerful when you, um, can really get granular. You know, a lot of times we think we just have a great idea and you just want to run with it, but you don't take the time to really sit and dissect how is this going to be not only different, but something that makes people think, that is what I need, that's what I've been looking for. And you really helped me do that. And, um, Yeah, I think anybody listening, you know, you have to ask yourself the question, like, not only why are you doing what you're doing, what impact do you wanna make and how are you going to make it in a way that's so unique to you and only you?

Kym Yancey [00:21:19]:

I remember Ken Craigan who managed Lionel Richie and he got Lionel in front of the Olympic. There was one year that Lionel Richie was, did the song Dancing on the Ceiling or whatever that song, you know?

Sandra Yancey [00:21:32]:

Right.

Kym Yancey [00:21:32]:

Mm-hmm. And Lionel was the feature performer and Ken said, He said, you know, even though I got him in front of a billion people, it pales in comparison to him in one week being on Johnny Carson and one other show and another show within a 7-day time span. So he had a billion people on one day looking at him, and it did not move sales as effectively as a fraction of that audience being on 3 different shows in close proximity timewise of each other. Wow.

Sandra Yancey [00:22:06]:

He called it the power of 3.

Kym Yancey [00:22:07]:

The power of 3. You know.

Sandra Yancey [00:22:10]:

He also taught me, Sandra, don't spend your time doing anything once. Whatever you do, you need to make sure you've got 3 uses for it. 3 ways to repurpose that content in some form or fashion so that you're multiplying your energy. You're multiplying your product. You're multiplying your message. You're multiplying your reach. Different platforms, different audiences with the same content. Message.

Sandra Yancey [00:22:37]:

Very powerful. It changed the way I do business to this day.

Kym Yancey [00:22:40]:

Yeah, today, I'm gonna tell you something. Distribution is the ruler of the nest, so to speak. I mean, what we're talking about right now, how is it being distributed? Well, it's being distributed through a podcast, through a podcast format. They're hearing about it on your show. There's commercials for it. Other people are talking about it. But the distribution is the podcast network.

Sandra Yancey [00:23:04]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:23:05]:

All right? The way we're doing it.

Sandra Yancey [00:23:07]:

Mm-hmm.

Kym Yancey [00:23:07]:

Distribution. You have to ask yourself, what is my— what is the distribution of my message? Who's getting it? How are they getting it? How are they responding to it? How are they looking at it? I find when Mark Cuban said most people don't wanna work that hard, I find that most people don't wanna take the time and the energy in really understanding How critical their messaging is. To your point.

Sandra Yancey [00:23:31]:

So if you're a listener right now, let's say this show is 30 minutes. We're not even in 30 minutes. We're not 30 minutes in yet, but let's just say it's 30 minutes. We could probably take the transcript of this show and probably extract, what, 5, 6 tips that we've shared. Now the question is, we've got This format, right? On YouTube, or if you're listening to it on, on a podcast of your choice. But how else can we take a transcript and what are other ways we could use this same content?

Kym Yancey [00:24:05]:

Mm-hmm.

Sandra Yancey [00:24:06]:

Change it up a little bit, right? Take all the different conversations out, make it a top 5, something like that. How else could you use it? I could use it as a keynote. I could use it as a message for if I'm a guest on other podcasts, I could use it as a download. A lead magnet, right? You take your content, what you're doing once, you maximize your space, you amplify your message.

Briana Dai [00:24:28]:

We're doing ours on video so we can create shorts out of it, short-form video content that we put up on Instagram. Yeah, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, if we wanted to go that route.

Sandra Yancey [00:24:38]:

So breaking out is about magnifying the message to more people in more ways, right? And you don't have to be all over the place. Doing it all. You can take one thing and multiply it through different formats and reach different audiences and magnify. And that starts, I think, kind of the breakout opportunities.

Briana Dai [00:25:00]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:25:00]:

It has to be meaningful. The message has to be right. You have to know, you know, who your audience is and you have to have the metrics to know if it's working or not. We talked about that. You can do all this stuff and then what are your measures to know whether your efforts are working?

Kym Yancey [00:25:15]:

Yeah. And, you know, some of the things that I notice with our— the photo shoots that we do, where we really transform people and we create a new, what I call, set point. In other words, when you came in, you were here.

Briana Dai [00:25:30]:

Mm-hmm.

Kym Yancey [00:25:31]:

We took you, doubled or tripled the level of expansion in how people see you and they experience you. And so, I don't wanna say it's funny, But it's kind of like, remember when we had our first apartment and we went and bought some furniture and we bought this sectional?

Sandra Yancey [00:25:51]:

Oh yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:25:52]:

And they put the sectional in our apartment.

Sandra Yancey [00:25:57]:

And we were like—

Kym Yancey [00:25:58]:

And we thought, there's no place to walk around. We gotta crawl on this sectional. You can't walk around anywhere. It's so big, it's taking over the space.

Sandra Yancey [00:26:05]:

'Cause we were used to the apartment being empty.

Kym Yancey [00:26:08]:

So let me put a pause on that, okay?

Sandra Yancey [00:26:10]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:26:10]:

The same thing when we take someone and change their look and we create this visual of them, that's them, but it's a new look. It's a new modern hit. It's a new way of experiencing them, right? New hairstyle. We put them in different clothes, different things that we've picked out to represent where we're taking them, where we're going with their brand so that they stand out a certain way. All right? I'm gonna put a pin in it there. We'll go back to the couch. So now we call the guy and we say, hey, listen, this isn't gonna work. We ordered the wrong thing.

Kym Yancey [00:26:47]:

This couch is way— this sectional's way too big for what we're doing.

Briana Dai [00:26:50]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:26:50]:

And he was very nice and he listened to me. He says, do me a favor. He says, just give it the weekend. Just give it the weekend. And if you still feel this way on Monday, we'll come and pick up the couch. Well, we got in, we experienced it, we liked it. We realized— We could lay down on it. We realized it's not too big.

Kym Yancey [00:27:09]:

It's okay. It's fine. You know what I mean? We called the guy and said, it's okay. It's fine. Well, that's the adjustment I'm talking about. We'll go back to the client who has got this new look and her girlfriend says, you know, it doesn't look like you. No, it doesn't look like That you, the old you. This is an elevated you.

Kym Yancey [00:27:32]:

This is the you that's going after this new customer that you don't have.

Briana Dai [00:27:36]:

Mm-hmm.

Kym Yancey [00:27:38]:

The ones that you do have, they're not leaving. They're gonna stay with you 'cause they know who you are. But we're elevating the way you're received in the marketplace and the way people will interpret who you are. And we're repositioning you from local Annie, right, into superstar Jazzy.

Briana Dai [00:27:53]:

Okay.

Kym Yancey [00:27:54]:

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, but you get my point. You know what I mean? We are transforming the way you're being experienced. And they see you differently. I mean, I know you happen to like the Kardashians, and I do too. But all you got to do is look at early scenes, early looks of the Kardashians then, and who they are now. And you could easily say, oh, that does not look like you, Kim Kardashian. No, she's elevated her entire look. She's in a whole different new stratosphere.

Kym Yancey [00:28:22]:

And that's—

Sandra Yancey [00:28:23]:

Beyond the plastic surface.

Kym Yancey [00:28:24]:

That's what elevation is all about. That's what elevation is all about, you know? One of the things that I have fun with is I tell people all the time, you know, either evolve or get evicted. Because the market is evolving, you know, but the people who know you are going to want to pull you back, not on purpose, but pull you back because it's not familiar to them. You see?

Sandra Yancey [00:28:52]:

They're not comfortable with the person that you will find, you know, you need to become in order to make the impact with the number of people that you want to serve. You know?

Briana Dai [00:29:03]:

So true.

Kym Yancey [00:29:04]:

Yeah, I think people have to be very cautious and careful that they will do their marketing where they're trying to draw attention to themselves. but their branding is off.

Briana Dai [00:29:18]:

Right.

Kym Yancey [00:29:18]:

So they got marketing, they're trying to get people in there, and all of a sudden they're bringing people to their site or they're doing something and they're saying, I'm not getting the business. You know, I remember when I had my advertising agency and you try to align with your customers. We handled a big Chevrolet dealership back in Ohio, huge, like one of the largest in the state. And we put together a sales campaign for the weekend, a big sales campaign. They had, I mean, literally hundreds and hundreds of people coming into that dealership over the weekend. I mean, they're just blown away. I mean, cars and traffic, you know, cops there to tell them, hold on, you know, to direct cars in. After the weekend, I was so excited to talk to them to find out how things went.

Kym Yancey [00:30:05]:

And the guy said, We didn't do the sales we were expecting. I said, what? He says, yeah, the guys didn't sell as many cars as we thought they'd sell. I said, I went by the dealership. I mean, it was standing room only. You guys were— but he says, oh yeah, we had tons of customers here. They just didn't buy like we thought. It— we did our, our job was get the people there.

Sandra Yancey [00:30:31]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:30:32]:

Their job was to Greet the customer, sell the customer, you know, and the fall down was they couldn't even handle the customers.

Briana Dai [00:30:42]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:30:42]:

They couldn't, you know, they couldn't do it. And the other people who were selling, some salespeople were much better than other salespeople, but they were just backed up. They had a line of people wanting to buy cars. Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:30:53]:

Kind of breaks— I mean, and that applies to like digital marketing too, you know, like, oh, the funnel, the funnel didn't work.

Kym Yancey [00:31:01]:

Right.

Briana Dai [00:31:02]:

You know, the landing page didn't work. But when you look at the data, actually the landing page did great. Like the, or, or, or the marketing did great. The, you got a lot of traffic to that page, but it didn't capture the lead. And it, so it wasn't, it wasn't the traffic that you got. It was the messaging wasn't accurate.

Kym Yancey [00:31:18]:

It was the messaging was flawed.

Briana Dai [00:31:19]:

You know, or, or, or they didn't convert on the backend, or maybe they got into your list, but then they didn't convert after that. Well, then it wasn't the landing page that was broken. It was the marketing after the fact. It was the email campaign or however you were touching them after that point. Well, they engaged with the first email but not the next one. Okay, well then we need to look at that subject line. Looking at where your breakdown is and helping you really get into the granular analysis of what you're doing and how it's performing for you because we're so quick to just throw out ideas or throw out concepts or, oh, we're just going to trash this lead magnet because nobody wants it. Well, was that true? Or was it driving the traffic and then it just didn't convert because maybe your messaging was off once they got there?

Sandra Yancey [00:32:08]:

Or maybe you got them on the phone and they didn't buy because you don't have the sales skills.

Kym Yancey [00:32:13]:

Right.

Sandra Yancey [00:32:13]:

You didn't have the messaging to help them see the gap between where they are and how they can be different as a result of working with you.

Briana Dai [00:32:22]:

And if you don't know how to fix it, then that's where you know you need to identify the person to help you. Maybe you're having have great success getting people onto the call, but you're not closing them. Well, then you need a good sales coach. Maybe you're not getting the traffic or the conversions. Well, then maybe you need a digital marketing coach. Like being able to self-diagnose where you're falling down so that you can get the right support. Because I think sometimes we just generalize and think, oh, I just need, you know, a business coach.

Sandra Yancey [00:32:48]:

Yeah.

Briana Dai [00:32:49]:

But that's— you're not really truly getting the expertise of the person who's really Excellent at solving that specific problem.

Sandra Yancey [00:33:01]:

I will say that of all the skills that we've had to learn to, you know, build and grow eWomen Network over a quarter of a century, that's probably one of the areas that we have become laser-focused in our competencies is to not throw out the baby with the bathwater. To sit— if something's not working, we just don't say it's not working. We say what's not working within the system of all of the touchpoints we have in place.

Kym Yancey [00:33:30]:

Yeah.

Sandra Yancey [00:33:30]:

And let's zero in on that. Let's tweak that and run it again. It is the power of iteration, right? Success is about getting better and getting better. If you're a runner and you're, you know, running for speed, you're going to learn that the first time you're not going to do as well. You try again, a little bit of a tweak. You try again, a little bit of a tweak. You try it and you just get these small, slight changes, these little— are, is really where your competitive edge comes in. They become, they become slight edges that ultimately change everything.

Sandra Yancey [00:34:09]:

And I do think there's a lot of let me just start from scratch, let me just start from scratch when there are so many things that are right and we don't zero in. You don't zero in on the one thing that's broken and therefore you think the whole thing is broken.

Kym Yancey [00:34:22]:

Mm-hmm.

Sandra Yancey [00:34:22]:

It's, I think it is a, it scares me all the things that get get thrown aside and all the time it takes to try to do something new and different, only to repeat that same pattern.

Kym Yancey [00:34:33]:

Mm-hmm.

Briana Dai [00:34:35]:

Can I? Oh, go ahead.

Kym Yancey [00:34:36]:

No, I was gonna say, you know, the discipline it takes to see all of your communication line up right. I met a fabulous woman. Her name is Dori at our Platinum Summit. And I had not met her before. And And she's very pleasant, very nice, and she's got a real warm personality. And we were just talking at the Platinum Summit. And as I'm talking to her and hearing her, and I'm asking her to tell me more about her business, I became very impressed with her business, with what she does, the level of coaching she does, the level of insight. And we were just talking, having a conversation.

Kym Yancey [00:35:16]:

And I said to her, hey, give me your card. I'm gonna follow up with you and learn more. about this, 'cause I was genuinely impressed with who she was. But guess what? Her branding, what she was communicating, the branding didn't match how strong she was. In other words, she was stronger. The translation was broken. Her skillset is stronger than her branding. And so it needed to be—

Sandra Yancey [00:35:40]:

I think that's true for a lot.

Kym Yancey [00:35:41]:

A lot of people, you know, their skillset is stronger than their branding. So their branding is actually pulling them down. Their branding is actually not serving them.

Sandra Yancey [00:35:48]:

Yeah.

Kym Yancey [00:35:49]:

And, you know, and Sandra, you know, for anybody here that's had to redecorate or they've gone through some changes with their home, you know, you know, when you do one room and it looks and you think, oh man, this looks cool, but the other rest of your house isn't there. They say, oh, I better do this room.

Briana Dai [00:36:02]:

Yeah. But you know what though? The, what's interesting about that is on the flip side, people with better branding will get more sales, more clients, more recognition than somebody who actually is more talented. And it all comes down to public perception.

Kym Yancey [00:36:17]:

It does come down to public But I know with this person in particular, you know, I, and I asked her a key question is, how are people learning about you? What is your distribution process for getting your expertise out to the marketplace? Zero, zero. There was no distribution in place. She's now doing a podcast. She's working on, she's gonna do a fabulous new podcast. Now, on top of that though, what I realized is that She needed a whole new photographic panel. It was a different— it was— there's a different vision we have for her to match how great her content is. And so we're going to upgrade her entire, you know, image. Yeah, I was going to say image, persona, style, the way she positions herself, how we— how she serves herself up.

Kym Yancey [00:37:07]:

That's all coming.

Sandra Yancey [00:37:08]:

I can't wait. I'm so glad you're working with her because we do— we are so close to our own stuff we can't see.

Briana Dai [00:37:13]:

It's so true. Yeah. You sometimes you need somebody to mirror back to you what you can't see in yourself because you don't just mean business.

Sandra Yancey [00:37:22]:

She means business.