Transition Table Podcast - Season 2, Ep. 4: Building Your Brand with Emily Griesing

In this episode, Diane speaks with Emily Griesing to talk about how building your business branding is a good strategic move. They discuss what branding is, why it matters, and how to resonate with your target audience. There are some great tips for any business looking to stand out, and Emily's contact information is below.

Emily discusses how she determines how the business fits in its market, who is the target market, what can people expect from the brand when they interact with the business.

Her key takeaway is: Branding is meaning beyond a name.

Here is Emily's bio: 

Emily Griesing is a marketer and brand strategist with a passion for propelling organizations and professionals forward by crafting and amplifying their unique brand voice and positioning their offerings to stand out in a crowded market. As the Owner and Chief Strategy Officer of Bossible, a branding, marketing, and business development consultancy, she crafts custom strategies that grow clients' reputations in a competitive marketplace. She advises clients on how to develop their messaging to stand out, reach their target audience, and scale their businesses. By thinking strategically, managing projects effectively, and writing persuasively, she has established herself as the ideal partner for business leaders and professionals seeking to level up.

You can reach her at emily@itsbossible.com 

Her social handles are @itsbossible

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. This is the transition table, and I am Dion Hart's Warsoff, your host. And today I'm thrilled to have Emily Gricing, who is the CEO of Bossable, to talk about company branding. Emily, why don't you give a little intro first?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Sure. Thank you so much for having me, Dion, and I'm excited to be here today. So I run Bossable, and we are a brand strategy and thought leadership company, and we work with small to mid-sized businesses nationwide on figuring out how to position themselves in the market to stand out so that they can grow and reach their goals.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

That's perfect. And one of the things I think that a lot of business owners don't think about when they're looking to build a business that can run without them, or what differentiates them, which makes that business more valuable, is their branding. So what are some of the things that you think about when you are working with business owners in terms of their company branding?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Totally. So before I start to build anything, so any tangible asset like a logo or a website or a campaign of some kind is I always do brand strategy first. I'm a strategy first person, my background's in market research. So that's where I like to start. And the reason for that is I like to really get granular with the owners and the C-suite about some of the big questions. So things like who is our target audience? Why are they our target audience? How do we fit in the marketplace? What makes us stand out? So those are our value propositions. So what would make someone hire us or buy our product versus somebody else? As well as what's sort of the personality of the brand. What can people expect when they're working with you? Is it more formal, more tech oriented? Is it more open and warm and personable? Kind of thinking about some of the intangibles as it relates to a brand. Because when I present on branding and brand strategy, really the term that I use is branding is meaning beyond a name. So again, when you see the word Nike, it didn't mean anything until we had just do it and all the visuals and words and tone that come around something like that. That now when we think of that brand, we have a feeling around it. So I do that, and I think it is important for businesses of all size sizes to create that. You don't have to be a billion-dollar company to make a brand that resonates with people. So that's generally how I begin my process.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

That sounds great and more unusual. So it sounds like your value proposition is that you look at all of those things before you even develop a strategy.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

And so another question is obviously developing a strategy is important. And then implementation is always the hard part. So what are the ways that you help businesses implement their strategy based on what you found out from your brand positioning?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Sure. So, like I said, once we've agreed and identified what the feeling and look of the brand is going to be, as well as who we're trying to target and why, I start to figure out. So we've figured out these are the types of groups that are the ideal client for us. Where are those types of clients? So if it's a B2B type business, which is what I am and what you are, where are the places that those types of decision makers operate, both virtually online as well as in person? And then I try to identify the places that make the most sense to resonate with that audience. So that might be certain events, that might be writing in certain trade publications, that might be joining organizations and getting your name out there in front of people who are your peers or potential customers or clients. So I basically by identifying that or online, right? A certain customer might be in one channel and really not might not be focusing in another. So especially for a small to mid-sized business that doesn't have the dollars and the budget behind that some of these big machines do to kind of be everywhere all the time, is to really think thoughtfully about what are the right places to promote what you do and why you do it and why you're helpful so that you're in the places that you're most likely to attract the type of person or customer that you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

So, what would that look like, say, for a smaller to medium-sized business doesn't have $10 or $20,000 a month to throw at a whole bunch of stuff to see what sticks? What if it's B2B versus consumer, how do you make a determination as to which of those channels make the most sense?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Sure. Well, for starters, I have a pretty good understanding of what the big channels are and who the audiences are that operate on them. But aside from that, just industry knowledge and research that I know and have access to, I also like to hear from the business like where have you had success or what has not worked? So as much as I can access existing data or analytics from any efforts that they've already put out, that can be very illuminating because it's not that's why I really like to dig deep with a specific brand with their workshops and strategy, is because just because you're in a specific industry, you might think, let me give you an example. So an HVAC company. So there's the local HVAC company that you know we would call up if we have an issue in our house. But on the flip side, I know of another HVAC company that only serves large data centers like the Amazons of the world. Right. So they have a very, very different customer and a very different pipeline, even though they're in the same industry. So often I like to see what has already worked, and I will assess that they might have feelings on what worked, but I try to actually look at the data to tell a story for a specific channel and see oh, okay, well, even though typically your industry might not be in this place, this actually might be a really good avenue or channel for you because this is where your customer is, or there's not a lot of competition here, or X, Y, or Z. So there's various factors that I use from industry knowledge to their own data and experience to inform what I suggest where they invest those dollars going forward.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Interesting. Now, you also talked a little bit about the business owner, and I'm curious because one of the things that we teach is that what as you're growing your business, we want the business to be less reliant on the owner. Now, I want to preface that with obviously the owner generally has the depth of knowledge, and hopefully they're going to be working with their team to help them get that depth of knowledge so that the business isn't completely reliant on them. But how do you split that apart? How do you because I know you do a lot of personal thought leadership as well? How do you ensure that the business branding is still separate from the personal branding of the owner, even if they have a lot to give?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Sure. And I talk about this a lot. So the brand positioning of an organization, a company or a business is related to, yet separate from the personal brand of the owner or members of, say, the C-suite or the sales team or whoever it happens to be. They are related and they often can fuel one another. So it's very powerful when owners or leaders are out there sharing their knowledge and it does can help fuel the business. But I always make it very clear, and even had to work on this myself in my own business, even though it's very personal to me. Bossable is a separate entity. And I have to think about what is best for the business versus what is best for Emily and my long-term goals. Right now, they are very intertwined, but eventually, like you said, I might not always want them to be that way. So I have to ensure that one, I nurture with people like you and people who are experts like you, who are the team that I can build and foster that culture around that can be perpetuated both through my skill sets and through sales that are not just dependent on me. But at the same time, a personal brand is always going to be valuable to a leader, whether they're currently in a business, looking to sell, to attract attention, to seek their next opportunity. So ideally, they're a one-to-punch. So if you're overly reliant just on the personal brand of the leader, that can be very hard as it relates to the growth that you're talking about and the transition to the next phase. Um, but it can also be very, very powerful if the brand is churning and doing a lot of different activities that stand on its own from the owner as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

So it's something that we build together that you can build together. That's what I ideally like to do. Keep you have the business and the owner a little bit separate so that there is some blurring, but it doesn't confuse prospects that you're going to ABC company, you're not going just for Bob. Yes. Because that's one of the biggest things that we have seen when we sell businesses, because we also have the trans world, the business brokerage, is if a business is too reliant on the owner, that actually has a negative impact on the value.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Sure, of course. And I think it's difficult because as business owners, we pour our heart and soul into these things. They're like an absolute style. So it also takes the business owner, and I've again been learning this myself through the Goldman Sachs program that we have both been in, that's Goldman Sachs 10,000 small business to create that infrastructure that that's critical. And that one, I can't do everything, I should not be doing everything. And if I want the business to be an independent entity that has growth potential, then I need to invest in those resources, whether they're human or otherwise, to be able to absorb a lot of what I do. That's to ensure the longevity of the business. So they are separate, but I think also equally important in terms of brand strategy as and and having a brand for the business as well as for leadership as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

That is a great point. And so I just want to ask you now do you have any last thoughts, ideas, anything that you think would be useful for our audience?

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Sure. I guess I would say, and just again, business owner to business owner, is seek experts who do the things that you don't do and do them well. And from a branding perspective, you can tell when someone has from the visuals or the tone or the way things look and function, when they've invested in an expert and you can it really draws and resonates with people versus people who kind of take the DIY approach. So if you have not set time and energy to do some of this work for the business and you are eventually looking to potentially grow and sell, then I strongly advise that you get folks that do it and not, you know, your neighbor or your kid or somebody else who you might think might be a good fit to do it because you can absolutely tell the difference, and so can your customer.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Excellent point. So I will put it in the show notes, but how can people reach you?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Oh, perfect. Yes. So it's all right here, but my business is called Bossible. All my handles are it's I t s bossible, like the word possible, but with a B. So it'spossible.com or Emily at it's possible. And then all my social handles are under it's possible as well, or I'm happy to connect with any of you on LinkedIn to discuss any of these topics further.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Great. Emily, thank you so much, and I appreciate your time today. And thank you, everyone, and we'll be back shortly with another episode. Thank you.