This is an interview with Hilary Hartling. She is obsessed with helping you shape all the thoughts and ideas in your head into a clear and cohesive brand that resonates. Her superpower is messaging that  positions your brand to speak the love language of your ideal audience, so that you can grow your business, doing what you love and creating the impact that you desire.

The topic of discussion is the three common brand mistakes made by entrepreneurs. Additionally, Hillary’s three key brand building and messaging strategies that she utilized during her 15 years at Disney marketing movies from global entertainment brands that worked for entrepreneurs of any size.

Everything you do for a large brand is the same as it is for a small one. As a result, they will be carried out at different levels, but the concept and method will remain the same. Make sure you understand your messaging and how you’ll begin to resonate with your audience by  building a brand. That means a lot to them. 

Entrepreneurs get confused about where to start because there are so many pieces and parts. That is why she created a step-by-step lesson to build things in the proper order.

Many people want to jump right to the logo, but she recommends the opposite. It’s also fine if you’ve already completed your logo. But, if you have a choice, she suggests not to start with your logo because you may want to change it by the time you’re done with your brand strategy.

The first mistake she notices is assuming that your audience knows what you do, what you’re talking about, and what you’re offering. You may be using insider lingo. According to her, the easiest way to resolve this is to get out of your own mind and identify where your target audience sits and their current understanding so that you can speak their language.

Clarity should take precedence over cleverness, according to Hilary. The strategy should always be clear  and straightforward, rather than being overly creative. It’s not worth it to sacrifice clarity’s positioning.

To resonate with your audience it’s a combination of things and it depends on the business,  but the main thing you’ll do is figure out what your greater “Why” is. To become a version of your ideal client. It’s what she referred to as a “mirror test.”  You have to identify who your ideal clients are because that’s a part of the process.

Another approach is to do informational interviews with your customers to learn more about what they’re dealing with and what their number one challenge is when it comes to  what you do. You must  listen to the words that are coming straight out of their mouth. Those are the words you’ll use to create your messaging.

Join the Facebook communities where your ideal clientele hang out to conduct this market research. It’s all about asking and reaching out. So, whether you’re just starting out and trying to figure everything out, or you’re growing and evolving, you need to stay in touch with your audience to stay relevant.

Make sure to be in the context. Be relevant to what’s going on with your clients and what their biggest problem is so that you can help them solve it easily.

Second mistake that people do is targeting and speaking to everybody. Hilary said that you can’t  speak to everyone and actually resonate with them all because different brands also have different audience segments. 

The third mistake is the mindset that your brand has to be perfect. You can’t plan everything in isolation. You have to release it into the world, perfect or not so that you can get the market research and the feedback to help you tweak to help you evolve, to help you grow. 

Furthermore, it is essential to think about your vision because it tells you to show up on a daily basis to do your mission.