230. How do you grow your brand with AI?
Ever wondered how democratized content and AI can shape the future of small businesses? 🤖 Today marks the final episode of Brand Therapy, and after 230 episodes, it’s time for a change. Join me as I reflect on our journey and share why I think content accessibility and using AI are key to the future of small businesses.
Episode transcription
phil
Listener, we've done it. I almost can't believe it. Two hundred and thirty episodes. Over the course of several years, I can't even count. We've arrived at the final episode of Brand Therapy. Listen, if there's one thing about me, it's that I can always find the secret. Silver lining in every situation. And while there won't be any new episodes of the podcast, you know, from our previous episode, we talked about some of our plans moving forward.
Lauren focusing on her project, Book Huddle full time. Me, I'll still be around doing lots of media, live streams, collaborations with brands like Adobe, and I certainly plan to guest appear on as many podcasts as possible. As I can, as it makes sense, in continuing with a limited number of client projects to help people and companies position, build, and promote their brands.
So we'll still be around, both of us, don't worry! And the beautiful thing is that we have this amazing backlog of over 200 episodes that you can go back and listen and learn. So many of these episodes are evergreen and one of our projects over the next year, I'd say, it's going to take a little while, we're going to turn every podcast episode into a really wonderful detailed blog post that we will keep live on our website, including the audio. And the RSS feed, or the whatever feed, whatever it's called, will stay live so you can listen to previous episodes.
So in this final episode, I thought I'd share a few thoughts. Does that even make sense?
First, this idea of, democratizing content, something I've been thinking about the last few months. And I've realized that the future of small businesses really involves two things, democratized access to educational content, as well as artificial intelligence.
I think it is here to stay. There's no doubt about it. And it's amazing in the last year, how my. Focus and my, my shift into AI, not just staying up to date on the latest, greatest geeky stuff about chips and technology, but more so how you, a busy, small business owner, solopreneur or small business, how you can stay on top of this and implement AI solutions and stay productive, but without it dominating your world.
It's just by chance, by fluke, I don't know, by something, that over the last three years I've dedicated much of my YouTube channel and my content creation, excluding this podcast, around AI tools.
So many of them have approached me, I've done brand deals, and I've had the opportunity to try these out and make informed recommendations to you on my social media platforms. In fact, we've even written a book called AI for Small Business, and that comes out in the fall, so stay tuned for that. We're in the process of updating our website. That will reflect this kind of renewed focus on my personal brand, and I can't wait for you to see that.
Something else, I don't have an MBA. I've never had a boss or a salaried job. I've literally built my agency, and I've helped hundreds of others build their brands by trusting myself to jump in and find the right solution.
So that's really what I'm leading with moving forward. It's kind of crazy, because I, nowadays I don't believe that everyone needs to invest 20, 30, thousand into branding to have a successful business for some people. Yes, it makes sense. Cause the process of building a brand is introspective. It's not just creating beautiful visuals, but it's also really picking apart and organizing and reprioritizing the important things to set up a business for success. Visuals and branding are our means of doing that, but it really runs so much deeper.
So I think for sure, we're going to have this democratized media, but we're also going to keep that high touch experience. I expect to continue having my one to one clients. It'll be more limited than before, but they want that experience. But it's not necessary for everyone.
And so that's why I'm really excited to shift this year, shift my focus of my business to brand masters, which is a membership community that will launch by September. It helps business professionals build and scale their online business. As I said before, branding has always been my means or my method, my method to the madness. But really, there's so much here that's transformative in our work, and as you would have heard from many of our clients that were interviewed on this podcast, they'll vouch for that.
So for sure, let me just clarify, I'm still going to offer agency services, but in a limited capacity because I genuinely believe in the power of membership communities.
This will replace my courses. This will complement what I talk about on YouTube and on my social media. And it's going to provide access in a way that I've never been able to offer my clients and my community. I'm so excited!
The idea of Brandmasters came from a gap in my agency's offerings. So currently people and companies can pay for like a one to one experience where my team and I fully brand them, build their website, or you can watch my content online.
Those have been the only two paths. There's really been no kind of middle tier that's offered an accessible price point. while getting personalized access to what I've learned in the last 10 years of branding people. So Brandmasters is kind of like my middle tier solution for this gap. So basically for a monthly or an annual fee, you'll get access to the best lessons that I've learned on building an online presence that includes things like how to design a logo or how to design a logo system, selecting fonts, setting up a photo shoot, launching a website, growing on social media. You'll have access to all of these resources that you need to position, build and promote your brand yourself. That feels so good to say. And then while being able to jump into monthly calls with me and other entrepreneurs in a virtual capacity, I can't wait. Let's talk for a second about AI. This is clearly transform my business, particularly over the past year. And I really think that this is major for small businesses.
And we all need to embrace it, but not let it dominate or distract us. Brandmasters is going to majorly focus on how to use AI to solve business pain points. Those pain points are common among many entrepreneurs. So I'm really looking forward to this. It's going to be coming out this summer. I don't have an exact launch date because we're still building it, but we are in progress. It is my focus over the summer and it will continue to get better and better. I will definitely notify you about its launch. So make sure you check out my website. That's where the information is going to be and make sure we're connected on Instagram. That's the place that I'll talk about it first.
So How about I sign off on our final episode of Brand Therapy with some thank yous. First of all, thank you to Igor, our faithful, amazing podcast editor over the years, as well as Bubé, his wife, who's helped us create all the short form content to promote it. Thank you both for being so invaluable to us and a part of our team. And I can't wait to find another project to keep you busy, because I just, You know, I've counted on you for years. I really appreciate it.
My mom, Sue, who transcribes the podcast and updates our show notes. Of course, I have to thank Lauren for being my wonderful co host over the years. I'm so excited, genuinely, for her next entrepreneurial adventure.
And maybe I'll just wrap with this, some words of motivation. Through branding, you can reinvent yourself at any time, anywhere. The only thing that's holding you back from building your dream business is Is you a little reminder. So I hope that you've learned in our 230 episodes before this, that there are countless entrepreneurs out there, just like you who've had an idea, saw it through and continued to reiterate.
You can do the same. If you want to change your clients, you can. If you want to sell something new, there's no one stopping you. If you want to improve your business, there are resources out there. That can teach you how. Don't settle. Always believe in yourself.
And I'll wrap on that note and say a thank you to you, listener, for sticking with us for so many years.
I can't wait to continue to stay in touch with you. There will be media. I will not be quiet. And I look forward to seeing you around.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us on Brand Therapy.
