Finding Purpose & Meaning Outside the Capitalistic Work/Life Balance Illusion

[00:00:00] Hector: Um, and so we are here with, uh, on our week two, um, guest expert q and a with Amanda Rivera. And, uh, for those who weren't on the call, I met Amanda when I got into the internet marketing space in 20 15, 20 16. And, and when I really enjoyed about her was her ability, uh, for herself to really create and, um, Create and display a really heart-centered, uh, purpose-driven, awesome brand that when people saw Amanda's posts, when people saw Amanda's stuff, that they really resonated not only with Amanda's brand, but also with her, her personality in her person.

[00:00:44] Hector: And I think that that's something that's, So possible in podcasting if done the right way. And so when I was thinking about it now, her, uh, maybe I'll have her catch us up, um, a little bit about what she does, but at a high level, she helps. People to get, um, she helps, you know, experts, like a lot of you guys are, uh, to get students enrolled in high ticket programs.

[00:01:04] Hector: So they're paying, you know, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars to work with Amanda's clients. And Amanda is the, the mastermind behind the branding and the messaging and putting together actually all the components. So, um, I'm going. Ask her some, some questions, just high level about branding and, and messaging and, and, and personal branding.

[00:01:25] Hector: Cause I think that's a lot of what we're building here. Um, she sent over some podcasts that she thought did really well and some podcasts that we thought, um, are great examples to look at. And then if anybody is brave enough to submit their podcast for submission to Amanda, if she's willing, I'd love for her to kind of give some, some.

[00:01:48] Hector: Uh, if anybody is willing to put themselves through the, uh, through the grinder here, but, um, we'll kind of play it by air and we'll see how that goes. But we'll, we'll get started, um, with some, uh, you know, some other podcasts so we can warm up to that. But Amanda, is there anything bio wise that I missed that you thought might be relevant for the conversation?

[00:02:10] Hector: Yeah,

[00:02:11] Amanda: for sure. Um, so I am an O B M, so online business manager. Coo O, chief operating Officer, and I specialize in seven figure coaches and healers. So my target audience is spiritual entrepreneurs who are at the seven figure or above level, and the work we do brings them to the eight figure level. So I've worked on seven figure teams that we're hitting the eight figure level, and today, , we're gonna be discussing branding, which is something that I.

[00:02:42] Amanda: on the daily with my clients. Um, when you are selling high ticket offers a good portion of that. Yes, it's messaging, but it's also your branding when you're selling luxury. Items of any type of sort. Branding plays a huge role in terms of your audience perception of your offer and their feeling around your offer.

[00:03:07] Amanda: Um, and when you're selling a high ticket offer, you're selling like a luxury offer. You're selling mystery, you're selling the emotion, you're selling feeling as part of that sales process. So just wanted to share that and kind of tie it to what we're doing.

[00:03:21] Hector: Yeah, and I think it's important to give, um, some context cuz some people are not in the position or not, they're not selling you.

[00:03:29] Hector: 10, 20, $30,000 programs. But I think something that's come up in our, in our discussions is that they're always selling something, even if that selling is to come back or to subscribe or to share or to promote the show. Right. So there's always, and I wanna give credit to Kevin because Kevin, this is actually came from Kevin's brain here, but, uh, Kevin, you know, really brought up that idea that it, it's always a, there's always some sort of transaction happening mm-hmm.

[00:03:54] Hector: And the more and the clearer that our. Is the more likely they are to do whatever it is that, that we're asking them to. Right. You know, if it's to join a high ticket program or to listen or whatever it is. Um, So how, for the context of your clients and for you, how has podcasting, if at all, played a role in, in developing that brand?

[00:04:18] Hector: Or when you look at podcasting, how do you see podcasting fit into, you know, um, building these kinds of, you know, these brands, whether personal or for a business?

[00:04:27] Amanda: Yeah, that's a great question. So in terms of how I view podcasting, podcasting is your pillar content, right? So we all know you have to be present on social media.

[00:04:39] Amanda: Social media. You're building your community, you're building your audience. But whether you are doing a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a blog that is considered pillar content, it's content that, um, when you first start doing it, you might not see traction right away. And. , you might not get that immediate hit that you get from social media, but it's content that over time creates a snowball effect in your business.

[00:05:08] Amanda: So raise your hand . If you've ever seen one of your friends or somebody in your industry, or one of your referrals, or even somebody in your newsfeed, start a YouTube channel and then 10 years later, they grew it massive. So these pillar pieces in your content strategy, they create a compound effect for your influence, your brand positioning, and how people interact with you.

[00:05:34] Amanda: So having a podcast, a blog, or a blog, um, is super important for your strategy.

[00:05:40] Hector: Yeah, I think ha um, you know, understanding. The internet is a vast place and you can't be everywhere. But podcasting is one of those unique places that allows you to be a lot of places without necessarily having to create or recreate a lot of different things, um, as well.

[00:05:58] Amanda: And it cr and it gives you a space to have a longer form conversation. You know, in a social media post, you can share like a couple of ideas. You could probably go deep here and there, but in a podcast, right? You're in somebody's ear, right, in their morning routine, in their afternoon, in their evening routine, and it feels like that one-to-one conversation.

[00:06:21] Amanda: So you're creating that emotional connection with them on a much deeper, deeper level than an instant grand post can do. .

[00:06:29] Hector: Yeah. Mm-hmm. guys. Uh, today was gonna be a little bit different in the sense that we might stick around together a lot, a little bit more than usual on our, on our, on these zooms. We've been doing some breakouts, but I'd imagine that we might, we might stick around together just so everybody can benefit from everyone's questions.

[00:06:46] Hector: So if you have a question for Amanda mm-hmm. , um, raise your hand or unmute yourself, I wanna encourage you guys to do that. We're gonna jump in and, and Matt actually. Really quickly, I want to give a quick credit to Matt because he is the genius behind all of the structure and all of the, the actual implementation.

[00:07:04] Hector: So if you guys have seen any of these worksheets or had done anything like in the program, that's all Matt, because otherwise I would've just been like, Hey, let's show up on Monday and we'll all have a grand time. Um, but there's some good stuff. I have the structure. You do. And so I want to give, uh, space for you or make space for you to say anything that you think is important before we kind of just jump into this q and a here.

[00:07:26] Hector: Yeah. I

[00:07:26] Matt: mean, I don't know if, if you've seen, I don't know if you shared with Amanda the worksheet that we had, but. , the way we set up this week for branding is we kind of wanted to think about personality as it relates to the show itself and the, and we used the, the Kay Putnam archetypes. I'm sure you've heard of that in some capacity.

[00:07:46] Matt: And, uh, thought about like the energy that they wanna create. and we also want to think about the visuals as well. And so we've had them kind of create like a mood board and get some ideas of other covers that that inspire them. Colors and the meaning of colors and like does yellow evoke this particular emotion?

[00:08:07] Matt: And then we've also kind of had them think about music and how a particular genre might create. An emotion or a connection to the audience that aligns with their ideas. So that's kind of the framework that we've given them to kind of think about this week. Now, as Hector said, some of it is some of the people here already have podcasts that have been around for a while, and then we have some people here that haven't started theirs yet.

[00:08:31] Matt: So it's kind of like we want. Maybe you have some ideas on some of those areas. I'm sure Hector will be more specific, but some of those areas that might be helpful for both. Someone that hasn't created it yet, but also for someone considering rebranding in a

[00:08:45] Amanda: way. For sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, I remember doing an interview, um, with this guy who had started a podcast and it pretty much went viral right within the first year.

[00:09:00] Amanda: So if we're talking about somebody. Started a podcast and then it had like massive traction. And when he was talking around branding, he, he said one of the best things he did was make his branding simple. So when he first started out, um, he didn't have a photo of himself, like how most of the guru will teach you in like personal branding space.

[00:09:24] Amanda: It was just his logo. For the podcast, he had it very specifically focused. It was mission driven. The reason behind it was, um, I think it was tiny leaps. Big, big changes. Um, and he had a book deal off of it too, and he just wanted to talk about the power of compounding. Right? Tiny leaps that you take every single day will lead to big change.

[00:09:52] Amanda: So as that relates to branding, whether you are a newbie or you are a seasoned entrepreneur that's thinking to rebrand your offer, there's always going to be a version one, version two, version three, version four. If you go onto the app store, like this is one of my favorite exercises, if you are ever feeling.

[00:10:12] Amanda: Low or if you were ever feeling like, Hey, Amanda, stressed.

[00:10:16] Hector: Mm-hmm. . So I just pulled up Greg's cover art and I think he's a great example and I, I would love for this to be Oh yeah. We should analyze it. Yeah. So let's take a look at it. Good example. Perfect. So here's, here's Greg's and Greg is a great guy and I remember this happening and I was mm-hmm.

[00:10:30] Hector: frankly jealous cuz we were spinning our wheels, uh, doing Facebook lives. But Greg was smart and started a podcast. Podcast. But anyways, neither here nor there. What do you like about this? Why doesn't it? Uh, and then I'd love for anybody to chime in what they think is going on here, but Amanda, um, what do you see here?

[00:10:46] Hector: What's happening? Okay,

[00:10:48] Amanda: perfect. So, from the newbie level, I remember when this first came out, this did not look like this, this, uh, this podcast cover, right? It was way more simpler than this. It didn't have like, the background on it. It didn't have like that. Um, light orange box behind it. It literally just had tiny leaps, big changes, and then a simple one color background that's as simple as he did it.

[00:11:18] Amanda: So that was his version 1.0. This, I think is probably his version, like six. Maybe, I'm not sure I've ever been following him that

[00:11:29] Hector: deeply. Um, what, what would you, what would you say to that kind of evolution and, and is that, you know, would you have kept it simple? Do you keep when I think that's actually something that a lot of people are mm-hmm.

[00:11:39] Hector: are dealing with now. When is, when is a good time to update your cover art then, and.

[00:11:45] Amanda: Yeah. So when you are starting out, um, I'm a huge fan of hiring a designer. So somebody who, that is their skillset to design the branding for your podcast cover. But say like, you're on a budget, simple is best. So if you're on a budget and you're trying to like, play around with a design, your design is gonna look way more sleek if you go the simple route.

[00:12:10] Amanda: So picking a font, perfect. See picking a font and then a color. He only had two colors in his original design, and he had a simple font that's as simple as it can go when you're first starting out. Now, when we are talking rebranding, as we look at his new concept, right, um, his new concept, It's still the same thing, right?

[00:12:41] Amanda: It still has the same essence of version one. It's just a more elevated design. So now we're playing with more complexity, so we're playing with maybe different colors, so be beyond just the orange and the white. We're playing with like that light shade of like blue, gray. We're playing with that. Uh, yellow, um, there's texture in the background, and that's the next version.

[00:13:06] Amanda: And the next e.

[00:13:08] Hector: Amanda do. Mm-hmm. . I, I remember, I think this is something either Greg did intentionally or, or, or maybe not, but I know that we were, we were all kind of starting out and this was his, this was his, I don't know. I, I, I, hopefully he would not get offended by it, but like, this is how Greg.

[00:13:28] Hector: Became Greg, right? In the sense that he didn't have a personal brand when he was starting it. Now he wrote a book and he is done all these things and he is, you know, having events and you know, he is got all these followers, but when he was starting it was, like you said, really mission driven and it was really focused on the content, not him, right?

[00:13:44] Hector: There's no pictures of Greg, like anywhere on here. He's a good looking guy, but he, he, I, I think he chose to really lean into the mission and lean into the concept. And I think that that's, that can be valuable when someone is just starting out or what do you think?

[00:14:01] Amanda: 100%. Um, I remember, uh, which was his good memory, , 2016 years ago.

[00:14:10] Amanda: Um, I remember him talking about how it was very intentional not having a photo of him. Right? So the reason why. Behind that is when you see in the industry, you'll see people have photos of them. That's because they're, that's a personal brand, right? So that was a personal branding choice. But when he just focused on the fonts, right, the font, the simple font that was branding the podcast.

[00:14:38] Amanda: So the podcast became its own brand outside of him as a personal. And it really comes down to what is your business values and what is the intention you're using the podcast for? Are you using it as a personal brand to sell your coaching masterminds, retreats, and position you as. The person or the, the expert, or are you creating a specified podcast that has a specified mission and message all its own, that's beyond your personal brand.

[00:15:09] Amanda: So that's, that'll help in terms of knowing which route you're gonna go in terms of the branding for your cover.

[00:15:16] Hector: Can I take a moment? Just go to the, let

[00:15:18] Matt: me, um, build on that. I know Tommy had a question too. Um. So you said simple font. Do you have any recommendations for people that are just, you know, they right now, they can't afford to go to a designer, but they wanna play around with something and create something.

[00:15:32] Matt: Are there certain things that you would recommend that they look for in a simple font? Is it, as far as researching typography and understanding what serif, san Serif all that means? Or is it just like, pick one that you like? What are, what are your recommendations there and just in the same. Color should people go down the route of, you know, orange evokes this emotion, or, you know, red, don't do that unless X, Y, z.

[00:15:57] Matt: Do you have any recommendations in that sense?

[00:15:59] Amanda: Yeah, I mean, I love what you guys did in terms of your worksheet. I think that's a really good flow of like getting to the root of what emotion you wanna evoke. . Um, there's tons of like color wheels or like information out there that'll say, red evokes this, or yellow evokes this, or Green evokes this.

[00:16:19] Amanda: So you can relate that to your brand, like you guys were saying. Create the mood board and then from there you can choose a font that matches the energy of what you're creating. Um, I like samsara fonts just because you can do a lot more with them, right? I can play around with it being bolded. I could play around with it being regular font.

[00:16:41] Amanda: I could semi bold italics there. It's so much more flexible to create that variation you're looking for. Um, so I'm a huge fan of samsara fonts. If you're trying to DIY.

[00:16:58] Matt: Yeah. And, and the reason I ask that too is because sometimes I think people are like, Ooh, I wanna create eye-catching artwork. But also behind that is connecting what is my podcast about?

[00:17:11] Matt: So first I have to kind of give that same feeling, right? Like if I find something that's super cool, but then I start listening and I'm like, Wait a second, these things don't go together. Is is kind of like, you know, I think sometimes we're like, we just want something that looks flashy and beautiful, but does it align?

[00:17:26] Matt: And so that's kind of why I was asking like how do we, how do we draw those connections? But you said energy and those kind of feelings of like, does it feel that way? Do you recommend your clients to kind of almost like focus group it.

[00:17:40] Amanda: Yeah. So in terms of what we do for our clients, we do it based off of our branding guidelines.

[00:17:46] Amanda: So each client has their own, um, guidebook for their brand. And so whenever we are designing anything, whether it's program banners, whether it's a podcast cover, whichever, it's very intentional that we keep the same color code and the same fonts across all their branding. So we kind of are limited within the branding guidebook in terms of.

[00:18:09] Amanda: Design at that level. ,

[00:18:12] Hector: I think I'm gonna know the answer to your question. Do you think it's helpful to have something like that for the podcast where you've got some sort of document with, you know, and what and what might they

[00:18:21] Amanda: include? Yeah, I, I'm, I'm a huge fan of branding guidebooks because as you start to grow and develop your brand, you want to not, you wanna have like be known for certain colors, right.

[00:18:35] Amanda: the colors that I use a lot and not always, right. My recent masterclass, I went like more black and gold because I wanted to evoke a more tho those feelings around the posts, the banner . But I typically do like a dark blue and then a bright fuchsia pink, and that is on my website, that's on my banners, that's on my social media.

[00:19:00] Amanda: That's like on my IG highlights. That's on my IG stories. So what that creates is, um, every time you're creating content, people are seeing that color and associating it with your brand. And so you're branding the design part of it is doing some heavy lifting for you as well. I'm gonna go to you, Tommy,

[00:19:22] Hector: Jeff.

[00:19:23] Hector: Question for Amanda. Mm-hmm. , uh, Amanda,

[00:19:27] Amanda: thanks for coming in today. Yeah. Speaking of branding, your lipstick matches. Fingernail

[00:19:34] Matt: Polish. The purpose , not just a

[00:19:39] Amanda: hat rack. Um,

[00:19:41] Matt: and I did quickly . Yeah,

[00:19:43] Amanda: there you go. And Matt, for, uh, vision boards, it's recommended using yellow paper. Anyway, that's just something I learned years ago.

[00:19:53] Amanda: So my, my question, Amanda, you were talking earlier about, uh, your clients go from six figures to seven figures. What today can you. Us, you know, in, in my situation, if you can see behind me, I've got my books, uh, my coaching, uh, the podcast. But my one thing is the podcast. So how can you take somebody going from five figures to six figures, six figures to seven figures?

[00:20:21] Amanda: It doesn't sound like it's, it's a major tweak, but it's still a tweak. So how can we today? Take something away. So, so for us to go from. As I wrote down, you know, three figures to four figures to five figures.

[00:20:39] Hector: Tommy, are you okay jumping in the hot seat here and kinda, yeah. Come on.

[00:20:43] Matt: Are you ready for, I have, let's do it.

[00:20:46] Matt: I have, I have no self-respect , so, so, okay. So, um,

[00:20:52] Amanda: if I have to, I'll be calling Dave later crying,

[00:20:55] Matt: so it's all good. Oh,

[00:20:57] Hector: so. Tommy, why don't you, I'm gonna pull up your, your artwork here and your branding. Mm-hmm. , why don't you give us the one liner, tell Amanda kind of what the show is about.

[00:21:09] Amanda: Um, we use, uh, from divorce to dating

[00:21:13] Matt: to the big

[00:21:13] Amanda: day.

[00:21:15] Amanda: Nice. Okay. Who's the target audience?

[00:21:19] Matt: Um,

[00:21:19] Amanda: the target audience is primarily women. Uh, the, my, my, uh, vision is single moms and showcasing, even though showcasing men, just to show that, uh, we, uh, former spouses might be idiots, but at the end of the day, we're still really good dads. That's a good mission. You know what's so funny about, like what we were talking about earlier, remember how we were talking about Greg's Greg's podcast and how he made an intentional choice to focus more on just the title and he didn't have like an image of himself.

[00:22:03] Amanda: You kind of did the same thing in terms of your branding. around just branding your podcast. So I just noticed that right away. Um, what I also noticed, especially on the image, if you pop up a creative choice, you could do, if you're open to it, is um, create way more blending in terms of the actual, uh, graphics.

[00:22:28] Amanda: So what I saw, like right away, as somebody who's never. Seen your podcast and never seen this, uh, photo, like the first thought that came into my mind. , these photo, these colors aren't blended and it says blending the family. Mm-hmm. . So I would just go into Canva or Photoshop and use a blur tool to just blend out those colors a little bit more.

[00:22:49] Amanda: That way it's in alignment with the title. And then in terms of the color scheme, um, what was the intention of the fo the colors that you. So when my wife and I got married, uh, we did what's called a sand ceremony. So my wife and I, um, we have three kids between us and during the wedding, uh, each of us had a different colored sand.

[00:23:16] Amanda: And so once the, uh, we had a jar. And then everybody, like I said, everybody had different colored sand and once we mixed him together, um, the graphic designer, I, I sent him a bunch of pictures including the jar from the wedding, and that's where those colors came from for, from all of us blending our sand into one jar.

[00:23:42] Amanda: Nice. Beautiful. Um, so what's coming up intuitively? If you were to play around with an actual, maybe like photo background of that, so of the different colors that are playing with the, the sand, that way you can kind of convey that message a little bit, um, better cuz I wasn't sure what what it was. If you don't wanna do that, you can also just play around with the shape of it.

[00:24:12] Amanda: So whether I'm not, I'm not sure if this is like a Pentagon or. I don't know. My shapes .

[00:24:20] Matt: I don't do math exactly.

[00:24:23] Amanda: Um, but I would just play, play around with the shape. If you're, you're testing out the photo and it doesn't look that great, then play around with the shape. So it's more clear that, hey, this is, um, one of those things where you like pour in and it's the sand getting blended.

[00:24:41] Amanda: But I like that concept and I would definitely put that in like a, Amanda, can

[00:24:45] Hector: we podcast? Can we talk about the description too? Yeah, let's go into it. And, because I think the mess, you know, you do a lot with messaging too. So here's the description here and. Tommy, you can, you can supplement, you know, whatever you think is here.

[00:25:00] Hector: But, but I thought that this is, these are the other parts of branding, right? You've got your, your cover, you've got your title, and then you've got your description. And those are really the three things that you have to, to potential listeners to get them to try and, and, you know, listen to a show.

[00:25:18] Amanda: Uh, switch the two sentences.

[00:25:22] Amanda: So start with blending the family as a podcast. What site

[00:25:26] Matt: are you on,

[00:25:27] Amanda: Hector?

[00:25:28] Hector: I'm on listen notes. Oh, okay. It's just, um, so Amanda, what you're saying is start, you know, the first sentence, I think if you're right, is important. Can you talk about why you, you, you kind of want to switch those sentences

[00:25:43] Amanda: there?

[00:25:43] Amanda: Yeah. So for, um, something that I do do with my clients, um, we start with what the intention of the podcast is. When somebody lands on your podcast page or they're de deciding if they're gonna subscribe, they wanna know like the thesis of your podcast, like what is it all about? Is it for me? And vice versa.

[00:26:06] Amanda: So immediately, like a quick switch that you can do is just switch those two sentences. It's blending the Family is a podcast about, and then then go into what you were.

[00:26:18] Matt: Love it. And last week we, just so you know, Amanda, last week we had them kind of brainstorm a 10 word description for their podcast and, and being very dis, you know, trying to really make it a solid, concise thing.

[00:26:31] Matt: So that could also be an option, whatever you kind of created in yours, Tommy, to be that super impactful. 10 words. If someone says, what is your podcast? You have 10 words to describe it. And there that could be kind of that kickoff point. I think if you've done it,

[00:26:49] Hector: Guys, thank you Tommy for jumping in the hot seat there. Yeah, thank you. Hopefully

[00:26:53] Amanda: that's uh, no worries. But can I get my question answered though, ?

[00:26:58] Hector: So I think his answer was, was connecting the dots. Right? How does he go from five to six to seven figures?

[00:27:04] Amanda: Ah, got it, got it, got it. Thanks for the reminder. No worries.

[00:27:07] Amanda: Okay, so in terms of growing your business, um, so I did like an IG stories about this a while ago, but I was talking about how there's not much of a difference between a multi six figure business and seven figure business. So I'll, I'll start backwards if that makes sense. So, multi six, figure seven figure business.

[00:27:30] Amanda: The difference I've seen behind the scenes of both businesses, business. Multi seven figure is, has a larger audience, right, that they've nurtured for a longer period of time. So the audience knows, likes, and trusts them. Um, they are hyper consistent, meaning if they are not hyperactive on social media daily, across multiple channels, they are buying that visibility via Facebook ads.

[00:27:58] Amanda: So they are very in your face , like their audience sees them. And they're not afraid to be consistent on social media. Um, they are making decisions faster, right? So making decisions on the spot way, way faster. So instead of like mulling on things or thinking like, Who is me, like, can I do this or vice versa.

[00:28:25] Amanda: Um, they're moving through projects a lot faster. Um, like for example, one of my clients, we are planning a ceremony, onboarding her mastermind. We're doing planning a big in-person event, and we are planning like a special sister client event that's happening exclusively for her masterminders all this month.

[00:28:48] Amanda: So we're, we're operating. Um, a much faster level, and that includes having more teams to support more and more projects being worked on at a time, at the multi six figure level. Um, what I've seen each. The difference between a six figure entrepreneur and multi six-figure entrepreneur is a multi six figure entrepreneur has signature programs, so they have programs that they are known for, right?

[00:29:16] Amanda: They're not always reinventing the wheel every single month. They have their signature mastermind. They have their signature one-on-one program. They have their signature offers that either get rolled out like once a year, twice a year. Once a quarter. It's every time they go to launch that offer, their audience is primed for it because they launched it last time.

[00:29:41] Amanda: They also are building their audience. They're doing all of that jazz. They're doing their mindset work and they are showing up, right? They're being consistent on social. Um, from zero to six figure. My recommendation, and people hate when I say it, but I'm just gonna say it because it's the truth. Selling one-to-one until you have enough M r r monthly recurring revenue to switch to a scalable offer.

[00:30:12] Amanda: The biggest mistake I see new entrepreneurs make is try to sell a course, try to sell a digital product, or try to sell something that requires lots of volume. . That means lots of audience members for you to hit a livable wage versus if you start off with a one-on-one offer, so a high ticket, one-to-one offering, then you can scale it so that you can hit, let's say 10 K months, right?

[00:30:40] Amanda: 10 K recurring month. Then from there in that cash flow, then you can scale like a group mastermind or you can scale a group coaching program. Then from there in that stacked income and cash flow, now you can start heading into paid masterclass, digital products, um, courses, and more scalable offers.

[00:31:02] Amanda: Beyond that, it's, remember when we were talking about like that, that blend of sand? Have you guys ever seen. Um, that YouTube video where the guy talks about there's always time for tea, and he, he's like, is this glass full? If you have it, if you Google it, it'll pop up, but watch that YouTube video. You do not wanna start off with digital products and all these different things and do it backwards.

[00:31:33] Amanda: You wanna start off with your most time consuming offers first. And then scale from there.

[00:31:42] Matt: You know what, I think I could build on this or ask you a question about this. So, so some of us have podcasts that are, um, more of just like personal passion project, not necessarily related to products. And then some of us have in, you know, in Tommy's.

[00:31:57] Matt: Situation. He has the books and he has coaching, and he has other offers there. Uh, in the sense of thought leadership. For someone that has, uh, maybe a more interview focused, how do you recommend when you talk to your clients, how do you recommend someone that has an interview focused podcast? How do you recommend they build that thought leadership?

[00:32:16] Matt: Because, you know, often we're told in an interview type podcast, you let the guests talk. Right? So how do you help your clients make sure that they're develop. You know, what people wanna know them for or what you, what they want people to know them for. Do you have any recommendations in that sense?

[00:32:33] Amanda: Yeah, I think, um, what I've been seeing a lot in the industry is solo podcasts.

[00:32:39] Amanda: So even though you are an interview, interviewing podcasts, it's always helpful to have a few solo podcasts in your repertoire. That way people are knowing you for you. . I did like a challenge a couple years ago where , where we interviewed a bunch of people and we were thinking, oh, we're gonna make so much sales and we're gonna be known because we interviewed all these people.

[00:33:05] Amanda: We spent so much time interviewing other people that they got. Digital core sales and nobody signed up for our offer cuz they didn't see us as, um, as the expert. Right, right. Um, cuz we were so focused on interviewing other people. So definitely put in like toot your own horn, toot your own thought leadership, share your knowledge base and throw in some, uh, solo

[00:33:31] Matt: podcast.

[00:33:33] Matt: Yeah, so I, I haven't listened to all of your episodes, Tommy, but that might be an option for you too. I don't know, do you have solo episodes where you're kind of sharing just, you know, your expertise so people can really attach themselves to what Tommy offers? Yeah,

[00:33:48] Amanda: I've, I've done, um, Uh, mental Health Monday, uh, parenting Tip Tuesday, and I still haven't figured out Wednesday and Thursday.

[00:33:59] Amanda: And then Friday is always, uh, a, the

[00:34:02] Matt: guest. Oh, so you have more, you have multiple episodes a week? Yeah. Okay. So well then I guess that will help other people as well, but I think that that sometimes, to your point, Amanda, What you guys did your trial run of like, we're gonna get all these amazing people on our show and people are gonna think we're so cool.

[00:34:22] Matt: But also, you know, that making sure that people know what we provide is. Mm-hmm. is super helpful. Um, Kevin, you had something, what were you asking about?

[00:34:37] Amanda: Like how to incorporate sponsorship? Right. And I think that's part of. Uh, with these, especially with newer podcasts or podcasts who want to make money who do have an offer but aren't getting people to buy, right. So how do they incorporate sponsorship or what have you seen as far as on the sponsorship levels go?

[00:35:01] Amanda: Yeah, that's a great question. So in terms of sponsorship for podcasting, um, we did sponsorship for your live event. Actually, , we did the influencers of it. Yeah. Um, so we got Trello to sponsor.

[00:35:16] Hector: You know, that's actually a good, a good point to make. Kevin. Um, Amanda and I, way back in the day, we put on a live event, um, here in Orange County and we reached out to.

[00:35:27] Hector: We reached out to sponsor, like we reached out to companies that we thought would match who? Who would? You know who made sense, right? And, and the first one, what was interesting is the first people that we reached out to is, uh, we just asked for free stuff. I don't even know if we asked for free stuff. I think we asked for like, can we basically, can we put your name on our thing?

[00:35:49] Hector: Right? And like, I think we got some like free promo codes, but then we put our, we put their name on our thing. And then we went to the next company. And the next company, because we already had, I think it was like, you know, a Agora Pulse or some social media company because we had a sponsor. The second sponsor was a little more friendly and they sent us free stuff.

[00:36:05] Hector: And so we were like, okay, cool. So we got that. And then, you know, by the third time around we, you know, we got a few people to chip in and give a little bit of money, but we were able to kind of stair step our way. when the first sponsor was, um, you know, really more of an a, a kind of an affiliate or, or a partner.

[00:36:22] Hector: But, but I think that that's, that's, that's actually a really good story to talk about right now because I think a lot of people are, are newer and they might be willing, might be able to, um, you know, work with companies almost in a, in a partnership capacity at first and leverage that into, you know, sponsorship as well.

[00:36:38] Hector: But go ahead Amanda. I cut you

[00:36:39] Amanda: off. Yeah. Cuz then you can use it, um, for your portfolio. Like, when I first started online, I started doing WordPress websites and , like I didn't get paid for my first WordPress website. I did it for free just to build like a portfolio, but then I got paid on my next WordPress website because I was like, I did it for them.

[00:37:04] Amanda: Um, so it's the same thing for sponsorships. I would start off and reach out and say like, Hey, I have this audience. Can you give me a free trial to blah, blah, blah? Or Can you give me X or a referral code, or something along those lines where it's not a lot of pressure on their end. It's a very easy yes for them.

[00:37:28] Amanda: And then start stacking up, building up that portfolio. And then when you go to pitch next time, you can say, I've already worked with these brands. Here's my package, here's my rates. Now you're coming from a more, um, elevated place where now you ha have the bargaining chips. Um, but when you're first starting out, I think a lot of people, they get set in their ways where they're like, I have to be paid for like my first sponsor.

[00:37:58] Amanda: But I think if we play the long game, you're gonna get paid 10 times more than people who are thinking short.

[00:38:08] Hector: So good. Thanks for that question, Kevin. Um, I have a, we have a, a few other, uh, um, what do we wanna find examples here that I think we could just talk through? Or if you guys have questions, why don't we do that? I'm gonna pull up some other, um, podcast that Amanda really liked and I'm trying to find the other one here.

[00:38:29] Hector: And if you guys have any questions or you want to, um, Talk about yours,

[00:38:34] Hector: but oversharing was one of them that I think came up. Um, and then the other one was the Mind Your Business podcast, and I'm gonna pull these two up because I think that they kind of encapsulate the two buckets in the sense that one is very personality driven and one is not.

[00:38:52] Hector: And you can kind of see that one, you know, it's. Good looking guy, and you know, he is very handsome and great smile. And then over here there's no faces either. So, um, Amanda, what do you like about these two particular brands and what do you like, you know, what are some things that we might be able to take away from, from these two shows?

[00:39:12] Amanda: Yeah. So in terms of, um, the one on the left James Wedmore's podcast, what I like about this one is the attention to detail. So this one is, um, a more seasoned podcast. So it's had multiple iterations of its co, uh, cover, but as you see, um, in terms of design, Elevated design is in the details, right? You can see in the background there's multiple layering happening, but it's very subtle layering, like you see that wavy, um, opacity that's happening.

[00:39:49] Amanda: You also see in the background there's this like wall feature that's happening. There are actually, there's even three. There's um, this, this darker blur that's happening on the edge. So there, just in the background alone, there's three overlays at minimum happening. There's probably more. Um, but it's not overpowering, right?

[00:40:13] Amanda: It's like it's in the details. Uh, same with the, the logo, the Miner Business Podcast. What I like about this is it's a unique logo, right? The one on the right, anybody can create that logo, right? If I told any of us to say, go create that logo. Nine out of 10 of us can go create the logo on the right versus the logo on the left took a little bit more intentionality.

[00:40:41] Amanda: There's a little bit more pieces to that go into it. Um, and it just looks a little bit more complicated. Um, and then it also as well, like this is like my ultimate pet peeve, , like, whenever I'm like reviewing design from team, They did a good job on making sure, like his photo was well lit, right? If you've ever been in Canva and you do the remove background, And the photo is like not well lit.

[00:41:15] Amanda: It looks so weird, right on like a, a design. But back to it's the in intentionalities and the details. They took time to like fix the brightness on his face, make sure that it pops out and that it was retouched, right? So that it matches the high quality of graphic design that the photos laid on. Is there any questions on that before I move on to the one on the right?

[00:41:45] Hector: No, I just think that they did a great job of highlighting his personal brand. Mm-hmm. Or, or evoking the, the vibe of the show. You get, you get a really good vibe of the show just by looking at the, the cover. Right. Would you do, would you

[00:42:01] Amanda: do anything different on it?

[00:42:06] Amanda: Hmm.

[00:42:11] Amanda: If you could play around with the bottom, you see how they, um, but they did a great job on this. So there, there's not much I I would add to it, but you see on the bottom, um, there's a little, it's a little bit darker purple behind the logo, so it's easier to read. I would probably darken that up even more.

[00:42:30] Amanda: Not too much where it looks blocky, but just enough so that the, the logo pops out more,

[00:42:36] Hector: the words stand out a little more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the legibility of your, of your show is, is so important and I think that pe you have to play that dance between being fancy and being like cute and then being.

[00:42:51] Hector: Being legible and being easy to read because mm-hmm. , um, you know, all, all you get is that square and, and even this, if he wasn't so, you know, have such a great smile and it wasn't such a personality driven show. Right. That so, so much about him. Um, you might even say that the, the, you know, if you're asking me Moses, I would say yeah.

[00:43:16] Hector: To add on to that, I might even make. The title even a little bit bigger, right? Cause it's only taken maybe, you know, uh, a fifth of the, the, the whole space here. Mm-hmm. , you know, you might be able to expand that a little more, um, without necessarily losing that personality there. Um, so that's great. Amanda, do you want me to keep this one up here?

[00:43:36] Hector: Are you gonna go into this oversharing one? Do you mind? Uh,

[00:43:39] Amanda: yeah, I'm gonna go into the oversharing one.

[00:43:41] Hector: Yeah, I'm just gonna make this one full there.

[00:43:48] Amanda: All righty. So for this one, the batches oversharing one, this is a good example for somebody who doesn't, um, it's not a personal brand, even though it's hosted, um, by two influencers. Um, the focus is more on the branding of the podcast itself. Um, so the, the other one, its mission or its objective, is to increase sales for James Wedmore and James Wedmore's business.

[00:44:17] Amanda: It's to increase, um, brand awareness around him and, uh, his coaching business. This is objective of this podcast cover is to create brand awareness around bees oversharing. So bees is kind of like, um, I don't know how to describe them. They're just dramatic

[00:44:43] Amanda: Um, so it, it's the, their archetype is like the batch, right? Like, The New York bitch. Um, and they have the bitches, brides, they have lunches, like daily podcasts. This one is oversharing, so it's a more relationship driven podcast.

[00:45:04] Hector: W would you say that this one, and I'm just only guessing here mm-hmm. is more, more community driven and less personality driven, whereas, um, You know, the James, the James show is very much, I would imagine, like you said, invest in, in them trusting him enough to join his coaching programs.

[00:45:23] Hector: Whereas do, do they monetize this? Do they monetize best? Yeah,

[00:45:27] Amanda: so this is actually a company, so this is a media brand, so,

[00:45:30] Hector: so, right. So it's a very much more community. Mm-hmm. not, and, and I would imagine in that sense, right? They're gonna, you. It's, it's attached to the brand and to the company,

[00:45:42] Amanda: not to the, yeah.

[00:45:42] Amanda: Kind of like, um, bar Stool Sports is a media brand, right? So bees is more of like the media brand route, but Makes sense. Um, yeah. For this one, they did, uh, simple, dark gray, lightish, gray overlay over the, um, the, the couch in the back. They also did it over the microphone. The pink swirl, they did it on top of that graphic.

[00:46:12] Amanda: So it's very simple layering. Like the first one had like very hyper detailed layering. This one is just very simple layering. So, and it makes sense even with the logo. It's very simple. . Um, but this is on brand for a media company, so you might have multiple categories. So cuz they have the Bees Brides podcast, they have, um, different subsections of their media brand.

[00:46:43] Amanda: So they keep it very simple, um, so that you can recognize like, oh, this is the bitch's brand.

[00:46:55] Hector: Mm-hmm. , I dig it. I wanna take a stop here and take a pause. We're gonna try and pull up,

[00:47:03] Matt: I can, um, I can pull up kind of the journey, uh, for Lor. On my side if you want. Yeah. So in Lorraine, Lorraine is in the, she's driving right now, so we can't get her in, in a safe place. But, uh, she has a, a student leadership type podcast and she's currently kind of in this rebranding phase.

[00:47:25] Matt: And in that process she's kind of changed the name a little bit. So it's more focused on education. I'm trying to give you a little bit of backstory and can you allow screen sharing Hector for me? Uh, and so we wanted to get kind of some of that stuff out there. Truth be told, I helped her just throw something together for Canva on Canva, so don't insult me too bad.

[00:47:46] Matt: Oh, no. as I hurts. But we wanna help her get to a place where it fits, kind of a lines in the right place. Um, but since she has a new name, we kind of went more in that direction, so I think I can share it now. So this is, uh, her, I think you can see it. This is the original. Logo that she had for, it was originally called Unimagined.

[00:48:09] Matt: And uh, we wanted her to kind of get the fact that there's education involved in student voices, in her, in her interviews and whatnot. And peers, not fears is her company. So this is kind of more of a, I guess a business branded one. Uh, and then, so right now we have this for her, which is, oh, I love it. A little bit more.

[00:48:33] Matt: We wanted to evoke emotion with these colors. Mm-hmm. , uh, a little bit and kind of have a, cuz most of the people she talks to are kind of high school age. Mm-hmm. . And so we wanted a little bit of that younger feel to it, uh, but also kind of giving enough information about what the show is about. So this is what she's currently at.

[00:48:55] Matt: She wants some feedback on it of what she can do to kind of elevate it a little bit.

[00:49:00] Amanda: Yeah, I love it. I, um, I love the font choice. Like, looking at it, it makes me think of young kids. It makes me think of students like the education system. So that was a really smart choice to choose that font for the title, because right away when you're looking at it, you're immediately thinking, this is kid related, so thumbs up.

[00:49:22] Amanda: Um, so font choice was fantabulous. Um, and also what I love about it too, because it's easy to read, so it's legible. So the spacing that you have, um, is really good. Um, I can immediate immediately, if I'm looking from here, I can see it. If I'm looking close, I can see it. Um, so if somebody's scrolling, they'll be able to see the title real easy.

[00:49:47] Amanda: Mm-hmm. . Um, and then I also love, uh, this graphic, it kind of highlights, you know,

[00:49:56] Matt: what would you about? Would you consider not like for Lorraine's thought process, would you consider just using the name of the show without the the graphic, or do you think the graphic is helpful in this sense?

[00:50:09] Amanda: I think the graphic's helpful in this sense because you look at the graphic and you immediately know it's an education, student based podcasts.

[00:50:19] Matt: And when I was doing this one, I also intentionally put the, the little kind of like sunburst at the top. Mm-hmm. to kind of try to add an element of enlightenment, if you will. Does that come across there or does it just look like it's this bonus little element

[00:50:35] Amanda: there? I, I would probably maybe move it down a little bit, so maybe closer to the ca or find a special space.

[00:50:43] Amanda: Okay. Um, Above, like one of the words here. That way it's more connected to the name logo, um, versus it being when it's too far away from the logo, it, it, it becomes part of the background. When it's closer to the logo, it's part of the

[00:51:01] Matt: logo. My only problem there, I think when I was designing this was like, Why would it be over ca Unless this was like a California based podcast,

[00:51:12] Matt: I know. Like, I don't, I didn't know where to put it in that case. Uh, so I'll play around with that for you, Lorraine, and see if we can make it

[00:51:19] Amanda: Yeah. Even with the, I, if you wanted to do, replace that I mm-hmm. piece at the top and you can put it there. Cool. ,

[00:51:28] Matt: Lorraine, I don't know if you can speak or if you had any

[00:51:30] Amanda: questions.

[00:51:30] Amanda: Yeah, no. I was just wondering if maybe we put it over the ed, the education part. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, you can totally put it there as well, cuz then that's a shortening of it. But definitely if you, um, wanna keep that piece, uh, just move it closer to the logo.

[00:51:49] Matt: Cool. I'll help you out with that.

[00:51:52] Hector: I don't want to throw it to anybody else.

[00:51:54] Hector: Um, but I wanna play devil's advocate here for, and ask, do, do those details matter. See,

[00:52:04] Amanda: at the end of the day, like, um, remember when we were talking about version one, version two, version three? You know, you go on the app store, they're on like version 40 for like Instagram or vice versa. The power of everything that we do in this space is there's always an another version.

[00:52:27] Amanda: So I'm a huge fan of implement Fast and then throw out a version 2.0 next. So just make a decision that feels aligned today, and then you can set a little task in like click up or Trello or Asana. For 90 days from today and then evaluate that decision.

[00:52:54] Hector: We've got, uh, one more, one more victim here. Uh, oh Lord , R one has, uh, why not decided to, to jump into the hot seat here. So, um, I'm gonna pull it up in RIS one you wanna give us. What the show's about?

[00:53:10] Amanda: Yeah, so, um, my show, Alicia Mindset, uh, it was branded low fidelity, but, uh, that's my brand. So I changed it to Alicia Mindset to be more specific about what it is, which is to help people overcome their inner struggles so they can achieve their potential.

[00:53:27] Amanda: And so I didn't have my photo on it before, but I added it in. Um, but that was more of. Trying to overcome my inner, inner struggle of not, you know, not trying to hide, but show who I am. Mm-hmm. . So, uh, that was the intention behind it. Nice. Okay.

[00:53:50] Hector: Can you share also the, uh, the tagline that we kind of, uh, came to?

[00:53:55] Hector: Yeah. Or, or, or just the, the target audience that you also kinda, yeah. Uh,

[00:54:00] Amanda: let's see. So, um, the tagline, what we came up with is unleash your mindset, helping creatives transform their lives and achieve their potential.

[00:54:10] Hector: Mm.

[00:54:15] Amanda: So with that title and subtitle, um, what's coming up is way strong is like more masculine branding, um, to match like the tagline. So this is, this is good, but what I would tap into is, . Um, if you were to visualize the most empowered version of you mm-hmm. , what type of podcast cover would co pop up if you were to visualize like you in your most, um, alpha state, or you in your most, um, empowered state?

[00:54:54] Amanda: What would that look like? And, and you don't have to have it like these al these alpha bro, like ,

[00:55:01] Matt: you know, it's not it

[00:55:02] Hector: podcast. You can't have a shirt on Mond. No shit. .

[00:55:06] Matt: You have your shirt

[00:55:07] Amanda: on , but um, you know, you don't have to like have like a, a lion on it or something like that. . Yeah. Um, but I would just connect to.

[00:55:21] Amanda: The most elevated, empowered on the top of the hill version of you, and then create your podcast cover from there so that it matches. Because what you're talking about is very powerful. Stuff like this is what activates leaders. So you wanna make sure that you're cover is calling in those leaders or activating people into their leadership.

[00:55:48] Amanda: Yeah. So I did that. I took that, um, the personality, uh, uh, quiz. Um, and I, my, my archetype came up as magician, and so I, I felt like I'm, I'm going towards that direction and yeah, colors are kind of matching, you know, the, the, the whole magician archetype. But yeah, I'll take a look and, uh, see what comes up.

[00:56:12] Amanda: But, uh, thank you so much. You got it.

[00:56:15] Hector: Good. Thanks. Yeah. That, that would be a badass. Um,

[00:56:22] Matt: anyone

[00:56:23] Amanda: else? Can I just chime in for wan? Cause I was part of him kinda defining wan. I I think you putting yourself in that, in that bottom left corner is, is not your alpha. I think you need to be in a, like the top right or just more prominent is what?

[00:56:46] Amanda: What Ashley just said. I think that's, that's what comes up for me.

[00:56:50] Hector: Okay.

[00:56:52] Amanda: Yeah. Yeah, that, that kind of goes to my own struggle of, you know, like, Leading with confidence, you know, like instead of, you know, trying to ask for permission or, um, doing it hesitantly like, you know, leading the way. Like, uh, like you said Amanda.

[00:57:10] Amanda: So, yeah, I think that's something I'll explore. Definitely. Thanks Lorraine.

[00:57:16] Hector: Yeah, I want to want to, um, jump in here while we're approaching the hour and, um, first thank all of you guys for making this, uh, an exceptional. Session in q and a and, and I know that the recording is gonna be so valuable, and I wanna thank you guys for, um, I don't wanna say sacrificing yourself , but, uh, giving yourself , uh, to, to the group because I, I think that that was the, one of the best ways that we could learn was to actually talk about real stuff and, uh, as well, um, some quick reminders.

[00:57:45] Hector: There's going to be on, on Thursday, we have our discussion that's at 2:00 PM Eastern and, um, that's gonna be focused Yes. On branding. We're gonna talk a little bit more, actually, probably a lot more about the musical and the sonic side of the branding and how, you know, how does this brand actually translate into the, into the sound of it.

[00:58:01] Hector: Cause we didn't touch on that too much today. And then if you are not in the discord, um, We have a discord that is up and running and, uh, me, Matt, and Kevin and Swan and, um, Dave are all in there. So you guys can come join us, ask questions, hang out, submit, you know, um, as you guys are gonna be creating your cover, our making updates, it's a great place to kind of submit that and get some feedback as well.

[00:58:23] Hector: Um, I wanna give a big thank you to Amanda for. Um, coming in on, on short notice and, um, and saving the day here. And, and, uh, Amanda, where can people stay in touch or connected or follow up with you if they just kinda wanna stay in your world? Yeah.

[00:58:38] Amanda: If you go to www.expansionwithamanda.com, that's my website, and then you can find me on all platforms at expansion with Amanda.

[00:58:48] Amanda: Love

[00:58:48] Hector: it. Well, thank you guys. Um, we'll probably keep the room open and you guys are more than welcome to hang out as long as you, you'd like. And Amanda, we will, uh, we'll be in touch soon and, and, um, congrats on the wedding and everything this year.