Navigating the Seas of Personal Branding Success with Ann Carden

Ever dreamt of carving out an influential personal brand that sets you apart from the crowd? Hold on tight, as we navigate this entrepreneurial journey with our esteemed guest, Ann Cardin. With a whopping 32 years of hands-on experience, Ann dives deep into the realm of personal branding, enlightening us on the importance of strategic positioning and finding a unique niche. Tune in as she generously offers advice on how to start building an unassailable brand from scratch.

As we sail through this enlightening episode, the winds change direction towards credibility establishment and thought leadership. Ann, our guide, arms us with potent strategies to bolster our presence in our field. Discover the power of social proof, the impact of authoring a book, the subtle art of hosting podcasts, and the significance of crafting a proprietary system or process. Ann also unravels the secrets of embracing your values and opinions as the bedrock of your brand while positioning yourself in the crème de la crème of the market.

As we reach the final leg of our journey, Ann guides us on how to make our mark in the high-end market. She emphasizes understanding what high-profile clients value and the importance of offering something unique. Get ready to learn how to understand market dynamics, create an elevated brand, and surround yourself with the right people. Ann also shares practical tips on maximizing social platforms, creating compelling content, and understanding your true value. So buckle up, embrace this enriching conversation, and sail towards your personal branding success.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, Chris Anderson. In this show, Chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, Chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:28

Alright, welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host, and today we're going to dive into the importance and how you can build a personal brand, because you see branding, you see social media, you see everyone out there growing and personal branding is a huge component to that, and we brought on an expert guest to kind of guide us through that and give us some easy things that we can implement to grow our personal brand, do it better, build a bigger one and more powerful personal brand. So we brought on Ann Cardin to talk about this today and welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:05

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here, super excited.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Yeah, glad you're here. You know we've been waiting to have this one happen, and so I'm excited that we finally got it going and look forward to just diving into this. First, for those who might not know, you share just a little bit about who you are and why personal branding.

Speaker 3: 1:23

Yeah. So, first of all, we have opportunity today to build a global brand and to work with clients and customers all over the world, and that hasn't always been the case. I built a lot of businesses before I had this luxury, and so it's super, super important, but I still see a lot of people that aren't taking advantage of what we actually have in front of us and available, especially as a business trying to grow. So I have been coaching and consulting for almost 14 years. I started with small business owners. Now I work mainly with professional entrepreneurs coaches, consultants. I do still have some small business clients, but I came into the online world after building multiple other businesses brick and mortar businesses. Well, my first business was global 32 years ago.

Speaker 3: 2:12

So I've been an entrepreneur for 32 years and I know the power of branding, and I know the power of branding yourself, because the reason my businesses were successful is because I was always the face of the brand and people knew me, and so, even when I came into the coaching space from selling all five of those other businesses that I had, it was really easy for me to transition into coaching people in their businesses, because people knew me and they knew what I had done and so that's really the power of it and I tell people I've been teaching marketing boot camps and things for many years and I would say brand you always, because people do business with people and you want that. You want your personal brand. I always say either you create it or someone will create it for you and you don't want that. So you want that brand to follow you, even if you change companies. If you're a professional or if you change businesses. It can be a really easy transition If you've built that strong brand.

Speaker 2: 3:15

And that's great to kind of get us on that starting off point, because my mind goes to you know, you hear, and I probably have said it too is when people are starting out, you should focus on one thing. So focus on and my mind goes to social media platforms, because there's so many now. So with that, you know you have your business's brand, what that looks like. You know your Apple versus your Steve Jobs. You say it's still important to build a presence online for that business itself. Say, like, we'll say, an Instagram page for the business and also for you as the founder, CEO, head, honcho, whatever you call yourself. Is it important to have both, or should you stick to still just doing one thing?

Speaker 3: 3:58

That is such a great question and the answer is it depends. So you have to think about what is the vision for your business and where you want to go. So if you want to basically become the face of your brand, you want to be a speaker, you want to be an author, you want everything built around you. Think about like a Tony Robbins will have a very hard time really exiting his business ever, because he is the face of the brand, he is the person. Now he doesn't do anything except what he wants to do.

Speaker 3: 4:30

Right, you're the perfect business, but it's really important to know where you want your business to go, and so right now I have a personal brand and I also have a business brand which is expert in you. So you can probably, if you're looking at the video, you can see it behind me coffee mug, everything I do is around my expert in you brand and that has pieces that at some point could be sold. So I have an expert in you podcast, getting ready to launch a magazine really shortly here, have expert in you programs and coaching programs, and so that is more of a company brand. But it is like people do identify me with the logo, with the brand, but they still know me. So the short answer to that in a long winded answer, is you really have to know what you're trying to accomplish and that will determine really how you want to build that brand.

Speaker 2: 5:28

Yeah, I think that's a great way to look at it because, yeah, it's like with elevate, you know we have its own social media presence. It's not as strong as my personal brand but with that thought process in mind, eventually possibly being able to sell. You know what we do there, if I was to step away or something like that, and so that's kind of like the thought process behind that, whereas some people, if like they are the face and they could just kind of do it in one, you recommend someone doing, say, if we just did an elevate page just to do the Elvete page, or you would recommend them to do that and the personal brand Well, someone has to still build the brand right.

Speaker 3: 6:08

Someone still will have to be somewhat the face of the brand or at least get it built up to a point where now people recognize the brand. I mean, if you think about Apple, of course people know how Apple became so big. But even if you think about, like future generations unless they research that right, they know the brand. And so Nike. You think about some of the brands that have been around forever. If you haven't ever researched them, a lot of people may not know well, how did that brand get started and how did it get so big? So again, there's no right or wrong answer to that. But with a brand like Elevate Media, yes, that is a brand that would be able to stand on its own. But until you build it to that point, someone still has to be a face of that brand. It's super important because that is what people will identify with.

Speaker 2: 6:56

And so now I kind of thought with that, that's a great point. So, like I've got you know, I'm building my personal brand on my personal Instagram but we have Elevate. The face has kind of been me on it. I've been on some of the reels and things like that In the day and age. We are now could Elevate and we've kind of played with this a little bit. Could that face be AI? Could that be an avatar, Like? Is that something that could still be a quote unquote face of the brand, now that we are walking into that space.

Speaker 3: 7:25

I think it's a possibility. I think if you're talking about a brand where you are connected with people, then I don't think so.

Speaker 2: 7:35

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:35

If you're talking about Geico, right, right, yeah, the little. What is he? What is he?

Speaker 2: 7:41

Gecko.

Speaker 3: 7:43

Gecko. Yes, if you're talking about that, you know that works for them, right, but you have to again. This comes down to who are you targeting? What do you sell? How would your people respond? How would your clients and customers respond? And that will answer a lot of those questions for you. Would people want to buy my programs if I was an AI figure on social media? I doubt it, because I'm the person that's helping them in their business. I'm the person they would have to know, like and trust, not some AI figure. So I don't believe that. I'm not saying you couldn't play with that and how that is part of you know.

Speaker 3: 8:23

Just some of the fun of the brand yeah. But do I think that would take over your brand? No, I don't.

Speaker 2: 8:29

Yeah, that's a good point, that's a great point actually thinking of like from your audience perspective, how would they see this, whereas maybe if you are like an AI, maybe you're teaching AI or the importance of whatever that could maybe fit better. So I think that's a great way to remember is to think of it from the audience perspective when you're building that brand, always For your business, 100% and personal as well. So with that, you know, as we're building our personal brand, we'll just kind of focus on there. Of course, like you see, I see these, you know these Kardashians, these Jake Pauls, Logan, paul brother, you know all these big names and it's hard sometimes for me, like, I know they've went through the trenches, I know they put in the work, but it's like man, now they do so much and it's just like now, everything they do just explodes, like so what's it take to build a powerful personal brand, to get to that point where then you have the following to be like hey, I'm putting out this sports drink, I'm putting it on, it's tequila.

Speaker 3: 9:28

Yeah, yeah, no, it really does, yeah, so let's dive into that.

Speaker 3: 9:32

Yes, it takes money. So here's the thing when you're first starting, and in your first starting to build up your brand, you have to build that to a certain level where now you have the money to multiply not only your presence but your money. And so if you think about like a Grant Cardone, he's got a big marketing team. And if you think about Gary V, he has a huge marketing team, right, that is. And they also have content businesses, so they have media companies as well. And if you think about any of the big names, they have media companies. Along Alex Hermosi, you know so many of those people. They have media companies now, which is a next level for them, right? But if you think about that, they built that brand to a certain level. They made a certain amount of money, and then you can explode that because now you can hire the team that you need. I mean, gary V puts out something like 80 pieces of content a day.

Speaker 3: 10:27

Now, seriously, what small solopreneur or entrepreneur or small business just getting started would have the funds or the bandwidth to do that? They wouldn't. And so that's why you can't look at that like. You can aspire to be that or do that if that's what you want, but you can't compare yourself to people that have been in business for many years and have been making multiple millions of dollars. They can buy anything they want, they can do anything they want. They can run these big events where they bring in 2000 people and they give away tickets. Those are the things that explode their growth even more, but they have the money to do it. So I'm sorry if that burst someone's bubble, but that's the reality. Money multiplies. When you make a certain amount, you now have the money to multiply it and it multiplies faster. So the faster you make it, the faster you can multiply it.

Speaker 2: 11:25

Absolutely. So I'm sure there's, like you could do, an average threshold of what that money would look like, how much you're trying to get to before you get to that level kind of thing. But before then, whatever level, that is, what would be some practical things that people could do right now to start building that powerful brand, to get to that, as they're bringing in more money, as they're building their business, like, what are some things that they could do to start, on their own, building a powerful brand?

Speaker 3: 11:54

Yeah. So if we start with some basic fundamentals, one would be what do you wanna be known for? What do you want to be seen as the expert? What is your niche? What is your message? Who is your market?

Speaker 3: 12:07

Get very clear on that. People that try to be a jack of all trades are really nobody for anybody. And so if you don't do this and I see so many people make this mistake they're in. And I made this mistake when I first started coaching. Oh, I coach small business owners. I help them grow their business. Well, okay, what does that mean? Exactly right, and so get very clear, very dialed in on your specialty and on what you want people to see you for and know you for.

Speaker 3: 12:37

And when you do that, you wanna make sure that whatever social media channels you are on, whatever content you're putting out, whatever message you have, everything that people see. It's called positioning, and you want a strong position in the market and you need that online presence. You cannot number one. You've gotta make sure that online presence is powerful and really dialed in. But strong positioning will actually speed the know, like and trust, and it will make you a lot more money Because it builds the trust faster. It is not confusing to buyers or when people check you out, and so strong positioning will bring you more opportunities, more partnerships, more money, more clients, more everything faster. But the other thing, when you get that dialed in, make sure that across channels, everywhere, people see the same thing from your website to your banners, to your social media platforms they really start to know what you become.

Speaker 3: 13:36

You know what you do, like there's no question, write a book If you don't have an expert book. Like I have to know what I can buy from you or what you do, and so an expert book is a really, really great way to start building a powerful brand. A podcast You're doing it right now A great way to build a powerful brand. But here's a little thing that your audience can do. If you know how to pull up an incognito window on Google, okay, pull it up and just Google search your name, that will be a huge eye-opener as to how powerful and strong your brand is. If it's confusing, if there's multiple things out there, if people can't really see what you do, the outside perception is the positioning. So people might be great at what they do, but if people can't see that from the outside, you'll miss those opportunities and you'll miss out on that money and on those on building your business.

Speaker 2: 14:36

Yeah, and I think those are great key takeaways there. And with that, you mentioned strong positioning. So what is strong positioning look like as we're building our personal brand?

Speaker 3: 14:47

So strong positioning means you, number one, are really clear on who your audience is. You know your target market, you know the things that are important to them, you are speaking their language and you are sharing what you do for them. They have to be able to clearly see what you do for them. What is the result that you can help them get? What is the solution? What services do you provide? Whatever that is, they have to be able to see what you're all about and that you're for them. So it starts there. But then the other things that are important to put into strong positioning is credibility, again, sharing testimonials, social proof, splashing that across. Don't be afraid to toot your own horn. Don't be afraid to share results that you get with your clients or what you do for your customers, or whatever your business is. It's really important that you do that. When customers or clients give you a testimonial, put that out there. People want to buy from people they know, like and trust, so social proof is huge. Case studies could be another one. I work with a lot of people that are in the corporate sector and they say well, my clients, you know we have NDAs and they're not gonna give me a testimonial, but you can do powerful case studies where you're walking through exactly what you did with that client without giving away any proprietary information, and just that detail that you put in there will show people that you know what you're doing. So you want to build that credibility and build that trust.

Speaker 3: 16:23

Also, if you have a book, speaking is huge, whether you're speaking on virtual stages, running events, speaking in other people's communities, running your own show all of those things also build credibility and they build authority. And you want to be seen as a thought leader in your space. You don't want to be seen as somebody that's copying everybody else. You do your own thing and you need to be the thought leader. You need to be the person that's getting people to think differently. You need to be the person that is making people stand up and take notice. You really want to stand out, and so this means you're not copying anyone else. You are you, and everything around you is different from what other people are doing. So I always say put yourself in a category of one. That's when you have powerful positioning.

Speaker 2: 17:13

So with that, with a category of one, you know, sometimes we get Silver saturated with what's out there and People, same way that you know, they're just seeing the same thing, especially if they're looking for your content. They see other people doing content. What are ways that we can differentiate ourselves as thought leaders? I mean, obviously said, become an author is one way, having a podcast another way. Are there anything else? Like, do we need to go to the extreme of having some wacky haircut or wacky, or like, is that just something to set us apart or there are other ways to do it?

Speaker 3: 17:48

There are a lot of ways. So I don't have. You can see I don't have a wacky haircut and but here's a good example. If you're watching the video of this, I'm in blue. This is my brand color. Right? You can see my branding behind me and, again, I shared these things. That's one way so people can start to identify with color. People identify with my blue glasses I always have on my glasses, so they identify with that. They identify with my logo because they see it on everything, including my coffee mug, my book. Those are all ways to start building up that powerful Branding and set yourself apart.

Speaker 3: 18:24

Also, if you're selling something, for example, if you're selling services, you can create your own proprietary System or process or service that is completely different from anyone else. So one of the things that I help people do is package up their own Process and system so that they stand out. Nobody else has their system, nobody else has their process, and then we give it a name and that they typically that's what they can build their whole brand around, and so that is a great place to start as well. Again, nobody, even those people, might do some of the same things that I do. They don't do my process. They don't have my exact system and or even my experience or background, so make sure all of those things show up in your positioning and in your brand and in everything that you're doing.

Speaker 3: 19:16

So those are some ways. Another way is I teach clients how to play in the top three, maybe 30%, of the market. So at the top of the market, not in the mainstream, not at the bottom, which is where 70 to 80% of the people play. And when you remove yourself from mainstream and you Elevate what you are doing to work with the top percentage of clients and the best clients, you will automatically move out of being just another name, another number, another person doing the same thing. So those are just all Some ways that you can do it. Is that helpful?

Speaker 2: 19:56

Yeah, I thought that was very helpful and I think, obviously, if you have some something about your personality, that's you know quirky or something, that's sure that's great. I'm still trying to figure out my quirky you, you know what be you? I guess that's something there and people can see and think about.

Speaker 3: 20:12

But yeah, it's really important. I mean, if you have pink hair and you pass like a sailor, I mean, and that's your brand and that's your personality, yeah, be you. Don't try to be somebody you're not right because you want to attract the same people.

Speaker 3: 20:25

Yeah if people know they. People should also. When we talk about branding or personal brand, people should really also know what your values are and how you think and how you feel about things in your opinion. Now, does that mean that you have to put every opinion out there? No, because social media is a very dangerous place to do that. Yeah, but that doesn't mean.

Speaker 3: 20:45

If I wasn't faced with something, that doesn't mean that I would back down and not talk about it, and so I think that most of the people that follow me really know where I come from. They know what my values are, and I tend to attract those same people to want to work with me, and so it doesn't matter if your hair is pink or blue or your glasses are big red glasses or whatever that is for you. All those things are great ways for you to stand out and look a little bit different or to kind of grab people's attention, which is what you want to do, but at the end of the day, people are still going to do business with you. For what reason? Because of who you are, not because you have big red glasses, not because you have pink hair, right, right, and so that's only going to get you so far. That might grab attention, but it's only going to get you so far if there's no depth to that.

Speaker 2: 21:36

Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, do something to grab the attention, but then be you and you know, create that depth in the relationship to you. Know, foster, that you know it's like Gary Vee's. You know jab, jab, jab hooks and you know Give you enough and eventually they'll just like, hey, I want to work with you. So you said something about working in the top 30%. You know media not where everyone else is. Basically, what does that mean exactly and how can people strive to do that?

Speaker 3: 22:03

Yes, one of the ways that you can do that is start looking for where that market is and Think it comes down to everything that you're doing has to really elevate. So this is where, if you want to get the top clients at the best fees at the highest prices, you want to play in that market. You need to understand how they think, how they buy, what they value. You need to understand they value time more than money. So all of those things come into play. And they value experts and they will spend the money to work with an expert if if they really believe that person is the person that can help them.

Speaker 3: 22:42

And the other thing where I see people go wrong and this is again they're trying to do everything everybody else is doing at the same prices at the same system. A good example of this is build a Facebook group. I use this one a lot. Build a Facebook group and then sell your services in a Facebook group. Well, everybody's doing that and everybody's out there teaching that, and so you'll see these students go away and teach the very same thing that their coach did.

Speaker 3: 23:07

That is not what I'm talking about. That doesn't? That's not going to elevate your brand. You need to rise above what everyone else is doing. A good example of this is if someone is pitching that they can help people get To 30k months in their coaching business, I'm going to pitch 50k or 80k. If someone says a hundred k, I'm going to say a hundred and fifty. The reason for that is I don't want to put myself in the same bucket as the mainstream Doing everything else. So all of these things can help you start winning those bigger deals, those bigger clients, getting more Exposure with a better market. But then you have to know how to reach them, how to get in front of them, and they have to know you're for them and that's really important and a lot of people don't get into that market because they don't understand it.

Speaker 2: 23:53

Yeah, what can people do to start understanding? Is it just connecting with people and asking them questions? Is there another way that works better to do that?

Speaker 3: 24:01

That's one way, or you can work with a coach that actually can take you into that part of the market. But you can do a lot of things. Look at this who are you surrounding yourself with? Because when I first came into the coaching space and I came online, everything I was surrounded by was six figures Get to six figures, get to six figures. So where's your brain go? Where does your mind go? It goes to six figures.

Speaker 3: 24:23

But what I found out the hard way which is where my whole brand came from is why do I only want to get to six figures if I've been doing business for 32 years and I've sold a lot of them? Like that's an insult, right, right. And so I was bringing in the wrong clients because of the way I was thinking and the way I was being taught to build my business in the online world. And it was at that point that I took a step back and said, um, this is not going to fly. I'm not going to get beginner's prices when I'm an expert, and so it's understanding that as well, like the value that you can bring to the market and stepping into that, and everything has to level up when you're going into a higher level market. Again, everything has to level up your brand, your message, what they see. They would expect you to have a book, they would expect you to probably have a podcast. Again, I'm talking from a coaching standpoint, but knowing those things, just knowing those things, are super important.

Speaker 2: 25:24

Yeah, and that's something you know. Just what I've been thinking about recently is with my personal brand, like where am I taking it with that? And like who am I serving? Because you know, I've grown LV, we're still growing LV, but it's like okay. So, like with my personal brand, what can I do to help people? You know, obviously bringing revenue this way, and so it's an interesting dynamic in hearing you say that it's like that's kind of where my like how can I serve those who are in that area? Basically is what my mind was going to, without putting them in that percentage, of course. And so, yeah, it's an interesting like when you start thinking of it that way. Now I'm like okay, so how do I shift my content and my wording and everything to reach those individuals who have had success and now are looking to? You know, whatever it might be and where do I fit within that and what kind of bring to the table? What's my value, kind of saying.

Speaker 3: 26:16

Exactly, yeah, and I'll be really honest. This is a hard thing for people to figure out and I only know probably two other coaches that we do this.

Speaker 2: 26:25

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 26:25

Most people are again down here in this world. But the thing is with the other two that I know and I know them well they're both friends. We still target very different audiences and we have very different processes. I do a little bit more with my clients than they do like they just help them get those really high paying clients and deals I do that too, but then I also help them scale and they don't necessarily do that. So again, we're all different. So it comes down to you know where are your ideal clients? Who are they? What are you selling? If you don't have something that's going to be relevant to those buyers, they're not going to buy it right, and so your message really has to be dialed in. Sometimes that might mean changing your market and sometimes it just means elevating the market you're in. So I mean these are all things that I look at in someone's business when I work with them to help them do this, and there's no clear cut answer, because it's not cookie cutter.

Speaker 2: 27:20

Right.

Speaker 3: 27:21

When you're playing at that level, when you're playing in that higher end market, it's not cookie cutter, they're not looking for cookie cutter. That's mainstream. You can make a lot of money in mainstream. You can make a lot of money in cookie cutter. But you better be really good at what you do to be able to stand out and set yourself apart in that mainstream, because those are sharp confested waters, right, yeah, but you also need to be very good at what you do. If you're playing in that top market, but just know that you don't have the same competition up there that you do down here.

Speaker 2: 27:52

Yeah, and I'm sure you know there's probably just like anything, you know, your journey. There's progression that has to be made. So when would you say someone is ready to play in those upper level percentage markets?

Speaker 3: 28:06

Well, if I'm speaking from a coaching, consulting or professional entrepreneur, when they are good at what they do, when you're really good at what you do and you get great results for your clients, you need to move out of beginner and you need to move into expert, because, at the end of the day, people buy results, they buy solutions, they buy a fix to their problem, right? And so what is that going to? How are you different there, and what have you been able to accomplish that other people haven't? You know, one of the things that builds my credibility is I have built six businesses actually seven. I've sold five of those. I'm still running two of those, and so that builds credibility, right. When you look at only 20% of businesses are even saleable, I mean that's crazy, right? You know an 87% of entrepreneurs and small business owners go out of business. So those are statistics that have some weight to them. So those are just important things to really understand.

Speaker 2: 29:08

Yeah, I think that's really good things to look at. For sure, as people are trying to decide and I think that's a good thing too to remember is we all start there, like we start in the mainstream, like to be able to get to, you know, being really good at what we do and being that expert before we can move into that next tier.

Speaker 3: 29:29

Yeah, I actually want to speak to that a little bit, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 29:32

One of the reasons I wrote my third book but my expert in new book is because I was part of a coaching organization that was trying to teach people how to be a business coach. But what I saw is that they were bringing in all these people to be a business coach, but many of them are never owned a business, and so, of course, they struggled, right. They couldn't sell their services because people didn't believe them, because they had never owned a business, and so I started working with coaches. They started coming to me because I was having success, and I took a step back, and that's where I really figured out my expert in new method, because I said these are people that have real value, like they have career collateral, they've come from corporate, maybe they've been a teacher, they've got expertise, they know they have knowledge and wisdom and value and skills that are highly marketable. But not to be a business coach, right. And so I started helping them package their expertise and build it. How do you build a business around that? And so when you come from that world, when you come with experience and expertise already, it doesn't have to be quite the progression that most people would think.

Speaker 3: 30:48

In fact, I can remember I was training in a Facebook group one day, I don't know. There were something like 300,000 women in this group and someone reached out to me after I did the training on how to bring in really high-end clients, ultra premium clients, and she said where were you three years ago? And I said what do you mean? And she said I've gone broke in this industry trying to market myself, trying to sell blah, blah blah. So I said like I ask everyone what was your background? And she said well, I'm a doctor. I have a PhD in technology. And I said what in the world are you doing? Trying to sell a $97 membership or $997 membership in a Facebook group, like somebody just steered her so wrong and that just broke my heart. But that's a lot of what we see in the market and so my mission is to just really get a hold of those people and say you don't have to start out like a beginner. You're not a beginner, you just need to know how to build a business around your expertise.

Speaker 2: 31:52

I love that yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:55

I think that's the huge thing right there. People could take away and start thinking and chewing on. Besides, everything else you shared in this episode is the expert in you. You have something. What can you or how can you package what you're already an expert in and use that to start? I think that's that right there. If that's all people heard, I think it would be huge for this episode and I've appreciated everything you have shared. It's been a really great episode packed with a lot of good takeaways that people can implement. As we wind things down for today. What would be one thing you'd ask people to or warn people to steer clear of in this personal branding journey? Is there something that you're like? Watch out for this, because it'll take you the wrong way.

Speaker 3: 32:38

I probably already said it, and that is to set yourself apart and don't try to be like everyone else, like, don't sit there and copy your coach right.

Speaker 3: 32:46

You can learn. I mean, there's nothing new that I do. Everything I've learned, I've invested in you know a fortune in mentors and coaches, and they all become a piece of what I help people do, but I don't sell their thing right. I don't go out and sell their thing. It's a piece. What I've learned is a piece, and so it's really important that you learn how to separate yourself and don't be like everyone else. To me, that is the biggest mistake you can make if you ever truly want to build a really powerful, lucrative business.

Speaker 2: 33:19

Awesome, and I couldn't agree more. Just be yourself. It makes it easier too.

Speaker 3: 33:23

You don't have to try to hold on to a show and everything like that. 100% yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Well, Ann, again, thank you so much for sharing all this Before we say goodbye. Where can people connect with you, Find out more about what you do and maybe get your help if they need it?

Speaker 3: 33:36

Yes, thank you so much, chris. Well, first of all, you can Google me and you can find lots and lots of things about me, but you can follow my podcast, you can connect with me. I'm big on LinkedIn, I'm big on Facebook, I have a huge YouTube channel, so, but if you want to book a call, specifically because you want some help elevating your brand, getting premium clients, taking your business to seven figures with a handful of clients, then you can book a call with me at acardencom.

Speaker 2: 34:03

Awesome. Well, yeah, if you're needing her help, if you're interested, definitely check out what she's doing out there, all the information she's putting out for free, and, if you're ready to take that next step, get connected with Ann and get rolling on that Again. Ann, thanks so much for being on the Elevate Media Podcast today.

Speaker 3: 34:18

Thank you, it was my pleasure.

Speaker 1: 34:20

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.