1:14

That is freedom right there guys. So making

1:17

the decisions and just doing

1:19

this hard work up front will

1:22

hands down help you

1:25

uh, outsource. It gives

1:27

you freedom to where you don't have

1:29

to physically do all the things. What?

1:32

Yeah. Guys, we don't have

1:34

to do everything for our business. Hi,

2:20

podcast friends, it's

2:22

Nicole today, and it's just

2:24

you and me. And I am so excited

2:26

to talk to you about what

2:28

I have planned today. It's going

2:30

to be just a little, a little chat,

2:33

We're going to run through what

2:36

you need in your brand guide. And this

2:39

is stuff that I talk about with clients all

2:41

day long in our brandstorming sessions.

2:43

And we work through a lot

2:46

of. the troubles that they're

2:48

having in making these

2:50

important choices of

2:52

what should be in our brand guide. And,

2:55

um, if you're just starting

2:57

out with us, then maybe you don't even know what a brand

2:59

guide is. So I'm going to go ahead and just start

3:02

right at the beginning of what

3:04

the heck is a brand guide. Why do you need one?

3:07

And, um, ultimately

3:09

why it's important for small businesses

3:11

who are trying to look legit to

3:14

stick with rules in

3:17

They're branding in their business. So

3:20

let's back up to just starting a business.

3:23

We're starting

3:26

a business. We get like what? I I'm let

3:28

me just like screech back all

3:30

the way to 2009 when we started our business.

3:33

Frannie and Nicole, just a couple of young

3:36

20 somethings who

3:38

are just trying to.

3:41

Make a name for themselves, trying to actually

3:43

pay the bills. The really, what

3:45

we were trying to do was to make jobs

3:48

because 2009, if you guys

3:50

don't remember, it was a little tough out

3:52

there for anyone who wanted to get

3:55

hired. It was a recession and

3:57

it was especially hard for graphic

3:59

designers, um, which were not

4:01

in high. High

4:03

demand as a couple of

4:05

design students who had

4:07

just graduated from university, literally

4:10

four plus years learning about this

4:12

stuff, you would think that we would

4:15

know all there is to know about

4:17

why you need a brand guide. We would have had

4:20

one right from the beginning, but you know what?

4:23

It just doesn't work out that way because

4:25

we had the new business blinders

4:28

and any of you business owners

4:30

that started your own business from the beginning,

4:32

you probably know what this means. It's like

4:35

you have those, it's almost

4:37

just like survival. It is

4:40

like looking out a windshield and only

4:42

being able to see the windshields and not

4:44

focusing on really the big picture

4:46

of what you're building in a lot of cases. Okay.

4:49

Not all of you. Some of you are super smart.

4:51

It's weird. It's funny cause Some of the small

4:53

businesses that I work with for brandstorming who

4:55

book us for shoots, it's like a lot of

4:57

you guys are doing it right from the beginning. But

4:59

you know what, Frannie and I, we didn't do it that

5:02

way. We were just, you know, what

5:04

did they say? Like pulling it up

5:06

by the bootstraps and just trying to

5:08

figure out what the heck we were doing.

5:11

Well. What happens

5:13

when you get two creative people with

5:16

way too much power

5:18

at their fingertips for creating things? I mean,

5:21

we both had Adobe Illustrator,

5:24

we both had lots of ideas. You're

5:26

going to ultimately end up with a little

5:28

bit of flavor of the week. So

5:30

every single time we would design something new,

5:32

it was like. Honestly, we had the ability

5:35

to create

5:37

just anything and everything that was cute. Like,

5:39

it's like, oh, well, I like this brand,

5:41

I like this color. And even though

5:43

we did have, you know, our logos

5:45

and colors and everything, we still

5:48

kind of would bend the rules

5:50

a little bit. Okay, so.

5:53

What, what we quickly found

5:55

out was that we really

5:57

needed to have a set upon set

6:00

of rules that we both agreed upon,

6:02

that we both followed. And it's

6:04

multiple times in our business that

6:07

We would go astray and

6:11

it's like, okay, now all of a sudden, you know, Franny's

6:13

using this script and sometimes I like

6:15

this font all in caps and

6:17

sometimes I like it spaced out and sometimes

6:20

she likes this version of, you know, um,

6:23

and so we, we

6:25

have run into this problem multiple times in our

6:28

business and these are people who know

6:30

design, these are people that know branding

6:32

and, um, I will proudly tell

6:34

you that we are a lot better

6:36

today than we were in the past, but

6:39

I will let you know that you're not

6:41

alone. You're not alone in seeing

6:43

freaking cute things out there and wanting a piece

6:45

of it. We still are guilty of,

6:47

you know, kind of changing up the colors

6:50

here and there, but there is a really good way to

6:52

do it. Okay. So

6:55

today we're going to talk about brand guides, why you

6:57

need one and what should go in it. A

6:59

brand guide is essentially a

7:02

Guide. It can be a physically

7:04

printed guide. It can be a digital guide.

7:06

It can be whatever format you

7:08

want. But it ultimately

7:10

has the same key

7:13

things in it that are agreed upon

7:16

in by all of the

7:18

leaders of the business like the owners of

7:20

the business and

7:23

then followed by all the people in the business.

7:25

Okay. And anyone that you hire

7:27

to do work on behalf of your business. The

7:30

reason that we want to have a brand

7:32

guide for our business is that so we don't fall

7:34

into that flavor of the week situation. So

7:37

Franny and I, we had the,

7:39

um, fortunate slash unfortunate

7:42

ability to create the flavor of the weeks

7:44

ourselves. Now you've Friends,

7:47

my friends, have Canva at your fingertips.

7:49

Those of you who haven't discovered Canva,

7:52

um, I highly encourage that

7:54

you do, but do it right. When you

7:56

open up Canva, Canva is a online

7:59

digital platform in order for you to make

8:01

your own graphic designs online. It

8:04

is a fan... It's

8:07

a free version that you're able

8:09

to use. The issue I

8:11

have with it is that it is

8:14

way too easy to go off brand. It

8:16

is so simple to go on, find

8:18

a template that looks cute, plug your info

8:21

in it, and you know, download

8:23

and hit publish. And as soon as you know

8:26

it, you have a hot mess express

8:28

Instagram that doesn't

8:30

look cohesive, professional or trustworthy.

8:34

So we, what we want

8:36

to do and how we can use Canva

8:39

for us and not against us is

8:41

to decide what your

8:43

brand attributes are in

8:45

a brand guide and then plug

8:47

all of these Things

8:50

into your Canva so that way

8:52

it has rules to follow and it's

8:54

easy to find your fonts use them correctly

8:57

Use your high high resolution versions

8:59

of your logo your colors all of those

9:01

things and you can plug those right into The

9:03

paid version of Canva and it makes it

9:05

so much easier to create on my on brand

9:08

assets So I really

9:11

recommend Um, just

9:13

sticking with me, let's decide

9:15

what we need in our brand guide, make some tough decisions

9:18

and start creating cohesive

9:21

looking assets for

9:23

our business. So with

9:27

branding, I mean, ultimately there's a lot of

9:29

pieces that go into a brand. Your brand is

9:31

made up of your voice and your visuals.

9:34

Okay. And. Um,

9:36

with both your voice and your visuals, there are

9:39

three, we

9:41

call them the, I mean, it's, this is kind of, this

9:43

is branding one on one. There's the three C's

9:45

of branding. Okay. You can remember this. We've

9:47

got clarity, consistency,

9:49

and constancy. So that means

9:52

that we want to be very

9:55

clear in what we're doing. We want to be

9:57

very consistent in the way that

9:59

we are showing up and we want

10:01

to be constant in the way that we're doing it.

10:03

So that way we are. Clients

10:06

or potential clients, followers, people

10:08

who just consume our content that

10:11

they know what to expect when they.

10:14

follow us, when they do work with us, when they interact

10:16

with us, your brand is every interaction

10:18

in all forms. So the

10:21

way that we are able to have a trustworthy

10:23

brand is by being clear, consistent,

10:26

and showing up constant.

10:28

Okay. So we want to create

10:31

a recognizable, memorable, and cohesive

10:33

brands. And in order to do that, you're going

10:35

to have to have rules. You're going to have to have parameters.

10:38

Um, Everything

10:40

that someone would need to know

10:42

to make on-brand content for your business

10:45

should be all in one place and, and

10:47

easy for them to, to find

10:50

and to follow the rules.

10:52

So, okay, our brand

10:55

guide. That I actually just

10:57

finished a revamp version of

10:59

our internal brand guide for ampersand studios.

11:01

And we ended up getting ours printed

11:04

into booklets and we've distributed

11:06

to all members of our team. So

11:08

they all have a personal version

11:10

of our brand guide. And that way they can

11:12

see exactly what color codes our

11:14

colors are. They know what types

11:16

of fonts, how to use them, all of these

11:19

things. Um, and it just

11:21

makes it really super simple to make sure

11:23

that. Everything that we produce is on brand.

11:25

Okay. Let's break it down

11:27

to what should be inside. Okay,

11:31

our specific brand guide at Ampersand

11:33

Studios, we divide it up into

11:36

our voice and our visuals. Like I said at

11:38

the beginning, your, your brand consists

11:40

of the voice part and

11:42

the visual part. It's not just

11:44

your logo. It's not just your colors. The

11:46

voice is a huge part of

11:49

the way that you operate and the way that you present yourself

11:51

and the way that you're perceived by other people. So

11:55

in the brand guide, we have it starting

11:57

off with your mission. Vision

11:59

and values. Your mission

12:02

is why you exist in the first place. So

12:04

here at Ampersand studios, we believe

12:06

even the smallest of businesses deserve

12:09

big brand strategy. That is the whole

12:11

reason that we exist is to make

12:15

branding. easy, digestible,

12:17

affordable and achievable

12:20

for small businesses that are really,

12:22

really good at what they do, but maybe

12:25

don't have exactly the right tools

12:27

or resources to market themselves

12:29

effectively to reach their ideal customer.

12:32

They don't have all of the same

12:34

branding and marketing expertise that we

12:36

have. So in fulfilling our own

12:38

mission, we try to have

12:41

something accessible for Businesses

12:43

who are just barely starting out with

12:45

no budget to businesses that have been

12:48

in business for a long time and maybe

12:50

have some more resources, there should

12:52

be a Starting point

12:54

to work with us from free all the

12:56

way up to premium price tag. But

12:59

we wanted to create a space

13:01

for small businesses that maybe aren't

13:03

quite to that big marketing

13:05

agency quite yet. So your

13:07

mission should be some,

13:10

some sort of reason why you

13:12

exist, why. You started your

13:14

business in the first place. Okay. So,

13:16

um, your mission, your vision would

13:18

be, you know, where you're going, where are you headed?

13:21

What are your goals? Uh, and

13:23

your values. So what do

13:25

you value? What kind, what kinds of words

13:27

would you use to describe your

13:30

business? The people that you work

13:32

with, the people that work there,

13:34

so your customers and your employees,

13:37

um, how you want people to

13:39

feel when they interact with you. Those are values.

13:41

These are things that every,

13:44

every interaction should have with

13:46

your business. Um, so

13:48

that should all be laid out in the

13:50

voice part of your brand

13:53

guide. Um, we, um, also have

13:55

a culture section, um, that

13:57

just gives a little bit more brand

13:59

personality. Um, just

14:02

says like what we want to emulate,

14:05

what is important. This is also

14:07

a place for you to put your brand story.

14:09

So if you have an origin story of,

14:12

you know, maybe how you started out,

14:14

what is the story that you want told about

14:16

you by, you know, your employees

14:18

who ask, like, what is the go to?

14:21

elevator pitch. If somebody wanted to

14:23

know a little bit more about your business,

14:26

then you've got tone. So

14:28

this is your Like,

14:31

how do you sound? How do you,

14:33

how do you speak? How do you not speak? What do you say?

14:36

What are some things that you would never say?

14:38

Um, you know, do you use a curse word

14:40

every now and then? Are you funny?

14:42

Are you serious? Those would

14:45

all be things that... go

14:47

into your brand tone. And so

14:49

your tone would be carried into your brand

14:51

messaging, your brand personality.

14:54

Um, then we have our favorite

14:56

part. We call this your

14:58

really cool thing. So a

15:01

really cool thing would be, or

15:03

also called an RCT. This

15:05

would be the same thing as like your unique

15:07

selling proposition, your purple cow,

15:09

what sets you apart? What is that

15:11

thing, that one thing that you do that

15:13

no one else does or that you'd be remembered

15:15

for? What are people saying about you when

15:18

you're not in the room? Your really

15:20

cool thing should be something that you can

15:22

say over and over and over again that,

15:24

um, that really set you apart. Will sometimes

15:27

your really cool thing be the same as someone else's?

15:30

You know what? We hope when you come up with it, that you

15:32

can come up with something that's really individual

15:34

and unique to you, but every

15:36

now and then we have copycats, we have

15:38

things that catch on, um, and it just

15:40

happens and we just kind of have to find

15:42

that thing again and constantly,

15:45

you know, um, ourselves, we are reinventing

15:47

ourselves all the time to

15:50

figure out, you know, how do we stay on top?

15:52

How do we stay one step, um, step ahead

15:54

with our customers? How are we serving our customers

15:57

the best? And what can we say that

15:59

we do here at Ampersand Studios that no one

16:01

else quite does? So that

16:03

RCT or You're unique selling

16:05

proposition, your really cool thing

16:08

should be something that really sets

16:10

you apart. Something that's memorable.

16:12

Okay? So if you are a real

16:14

estate agent, we have a lot of real estate agents, um,

16:17

that I get, I get asked a lot,

16:19

like how, what is my really

16:21

cool thing? If I'm a personal brand, if I'm one

16:24

person, how do I

16:27

set myself apart from people who are

16:29

literally selling the same? the

16:31

same inventory that I have access to. And

16:35

the answer to that is to

16:37

share yourself. No one is

16:39

exactly like you. And if you're a personal

16:41

brand, find those things that you're comfortable

16:43

talking about again and again, that

16:45

are memorable, that, um, build

16:47

personality that set you apart from your competition.

16:50

Maybe you do something in business

16:52

that's different than somebody else. Like maybe

16:55

you. Maybe you

16:58

show them, I don't know, maybe you show them real estate in a helicopter.

17:00

Maybe you skydive. I don't

17:02

know what all those air things are, but, but,

17:05

but is there something that you do that's

17:07

different from anyone else? Um,

17:09

maybe you have a unique story.

17:11

Maybe you have a past

17:14

life that, you know, you had

17:16

a completely different career that maybe led

17:18

you to selling real estate. Like what are

17:20

those memorable facts that you can pull

17:22

from yourself to be

17:24

remarkable to someone else? Okay,

17:27

next after the really cool thing, RCT,

17:29

we think that your brand

17:32

guide should include the experience

17:34

that you want to offer. So

17:36

if there's something unique about the experience

17:38

that you offer or what you want your customers

17:40

to experience, that would go there. Those

17:42

details of what it looks like

17:45

to work with you, what, uh,

17:47

what are, are those five senses

17:49

things that you want

17:51

to be. associated with your brand.

17:54

Okay. Next we have, this

17:56

is going to be, this is kind

17:58

of a, uh, like

18:01

mind blower for a lot of small

18:03

businesses, especially a lot of the businesses

18:05

that I get in brainstorming because

18:07

they don't recognize how important

18:10

this is for brand voice. And

18:12

that is your dream customer that

18:14

were, um, in marketing, we use,

18:16

um, ideal customer avatar. So

18:19

this would be an imaginary customer

18:21

that Maybe it's based

18:23

off of customers that you've worked with in the past.

18:25

Maybe they're customers that you haven't yet

18:27

worked with that you hope that you do. Maybe you are

18:30

basing this, um, this imaginary

18:32

person off of real people that you love

18:35

or that you would really want to work with.

18:37

Uh, you, the joy, the joyful

18:40

thing about this is that you can create

18:42

exactly who your

18:44

dream customer is. And that is. The point of

18:46

it. Okay. So, um, with

18:49

the dream customer, you want to be thinking about

18:51

location in my location specific,

18:54

or can anyone who lives anywhere

18:56

hire me? Um, what?

18:59

You know, what age range are they? And

19:01

actually we recommend choosing a

19:03

very specific age. Um,

19:06

if you want to, you can include a photo

19:08

just so you can like visualize that person.

19:10

Um, you can say, you know, if

19:12

they're married, do they have pets? Is that

19:15

important? Are these important details? What

19:17

do they do for a living? Um, what,

19:19

Um, Like what income bracket

19:21

are they? I mean, there are so many things

19:24

that we can create in the type of people

19:26

that we want to work with, that will

19:28

help us when we're creating content,

19:31

when we're creating products, offers,

19:33

services, that we

19:35

could remember to, to think

19:38

of when we're trying to serve that customer. So

19:41

if I really want to serve,

19:43

you know, Jonathan,

19:46

who lives in it. Salt

19:49

Lake City, Utah, and

19:51

he, you know, has a dog

19:53

and I sell dog stuff, you know, like

19:55

maybe I want to,

19:58

maybe he has, I don't know, I'm trying to be

20:00

like really specific, but maybe he has

20:02

a little dog and I specifically

20:05

have a product that helps little

20:07

dogs when they go on walks

20:10

so they don't get tired. And So

20:12

it's a contraption that you can

20:14

put your dog in so they, you

20:16

know, you get what I'm saying. It's like based on

20:18

what you sell, you can

20:20

create a dream customer

20:23

that is the perfect customer

20:25

who is hanging on every single one of your words

20:28

that just eats up every piece of

20:30

content that you have to put out and that

20:32

is the person that you can serve. The

20:34

best. Okay, so we that's

20:36

what we want to craft with that dream customer

20:39

This is not a anybody

20:42

who can buy my things. Okay, so if I'm

20:44

selling weird Dog walking contraptions,

20:47

you know, yeah sure anyone with a credit

20:49

card to buy it Okay, do I want

20:51

everyone with a credit card or do I want people

20:53

that are raving fans? 100

20:56

percent raving fans all day long, right?

20:58

What does that look like? Who is that person? Next,

21:01

we've got, um, your visual

21:03

part of your brand guide. Okay. So we just wrapped

21:05

up your brand voice. So brand voice

21:07

is, uh, to recap mission,

21:09

vision, values, culture,

21:12

story, tone, RCT,

21:14

a really cool thing. Experience and

21:17

dream customer. Okay, so those

21:20

all encapsulate your brand

21:22

voice. So those things

21:24

will determine the way that you

21:27

write emails, the way that you answer

21:29

the phone, the way that you train your employees,

21:31

the types of employees that you hire.

21:34

Like these are things that

21:36

are important to your brand

21:38

and your experience and that you want to

21:40

deliver again and again and again. And

21:43

The cool thing is, is when you really dial

21:46

that in, you can have anyone

21:48

write for your brand. That's. Rad.

21:51

That is freedom right there guys. So making

21:53

the decisions and just doing

21:55

this hard work up front will

21:58

hands down help you

22:01

uh, outsource. It gives

22:03

you freedom to where you don't have

22:06

to physically do all the things. What?

22:09

Yeah. Guys, we don't have

22:11

to do everything for our business. Oh

22:13

my gosh. It's such a mind blowing

22:15

idea. Um,

22:17

it's also just so helpful when you

22:19

hire, hire, uh, new people to your team.

22:21

You know, if you're doing subcontractors or

22:24

in house people, this is

22:26

just an absolute must. Um,

22:28

Okay. So next part two is

22:30

the visual part of your brand. So,

22:33

um, first off logos. Um,

22:35

what are the different types of logos that you have? Do

22:38

you have a, you know, stacked version?

22:40

Do you have like a little, maybe like a little

22:42

circle monogram? Do you have a long

22:44

version? Do you have one with a mark?

22:46

One without a mark? Like all of these versions,

22:48

maybe you only have one version. That's okay. Um,

22:51

but if there are multiple

22:53

versions of your logo, they would go in here.

22:56

Um, sometimes maybe you are

22:58

drawn to one logo type and

23:00

you have your main stacked logo with

23:02

the mark at the top. And, um,

23:05

when you hire on a team and maybe you are hiring a graphic

23:07

designer, um, sometimes we forget

23:09

the other versions exist and they might

23:12

be a better use for the

23:14

type of content that we're creating. So, um,

23:16

having all of the logos laid out like

23:18

a, Hey, here's every logo that's been created for

23:20

my business. And, um, this

23:22

is how to use them and more importantly,

23:24

how not to use them. So a

23:26

good example would be a ampersand studios.

23:29

We use our logo in black

23:31

and white only. So,

23:33

um, that is all black or

23:35

all white, like we don't make our

23:37

logo rainbow, we don't make it pink,

23:40

we don't, nothing. It is either,

23:42

uh, black on a dark, or sorry,

23:44

black on a light background or white

23:46

on a dark background. Okay? So, the

23:49

background can be a color, but,

23:51

The logo itself is never a color and

23:54

um, these are just, this is a

23:56

brand, uh, decision that we made right

23:58

from the beginning and I don't think we've ever

24:01

done anything different. I mean, it's pretty much always

24:03

the way it's been. So um, those

24:06

are important things for you to

24:08

say with how your logo is treated.

24:11

Um, you don't want to stretch the logo.

24:13

You don't want to change it

24:15

to remove. You know, you

24:18

use it in the wrong way or like, there's,

24:21

there's so many wrong ways to make a logo and

24:23

you don't know until you're violated by your own logo

24:25

being, being, uh,

24:28

stretched or, uh, lowly,

24:31

lowly resoluted, lowly

24:33

resoluted, you guys, um,

24:35

low resolution on a Instagram

24:38

post. So, um, yeah,

24:40

you. Decide those rules

24:42

for your logo. Um, next, we've

24:44

got typography. So, beyond the logo,

24:46

what other type forms are you using

24:49

in your brand? So, um, we

24:51

usually recommend having two to three,

24:54

uh, different types, um,

24:56

types of type. Uh, that could be its

24:58

own podcast episode. There's so much

25:00

that goes into fonts. And

25:02

why we choose them, what goes together really

25:04

well, why you pair certain fonts over others,

25:07

which ones are the most readable, which ones are

25:09

impossible to read, which ones

25:11

you, you know, want to use sparingly,

25:13

and ones that you could write a whole book in. And,

25:16

um, there is a, there

25:18

is an art to that. There is a lot that

25:20

goes into it. But, uh, once

25:22

you have your fonts decided

25:24

on, they should be somewhere for people to find them.

25:27

How are they used, uh, what

25:29

kind of rules are you, Are you making

25:32

for the way that they're used? Do you have a head? You

25:34

should have like a headline font, um,

25:36

and a sub subhead font

25:38

if you want. I mean, I really,

25:40

it's mainly headline and text fonts

25:43

are, are the most important. Um,

25:46

next we've got colors. So

25:48

with the colors, the color codes,

25:50

most people, I feel like. A

25:53

hex code. So a hex

25:55

would be, um, they're

25:57

the easiest to use online. Like it would be

25:59

like the way to find a web color. So

26:01

often when you see with colors in

26:04

Canva, you'll see this too. Um, there is

26:06

like a hashtag or like a pound sign

26:08

and then a number letter

26:10

code. It's usually, I think it's like six characters

26:13

long or so. And it

26:15

identifies a certain

26:17

exact point on a

26:19

rainbow, uh,

26:21

color. I don't know what you call that,

26:23

like a rainbow color chart.

26:26

And, um, and so it basically points

26:29

to an exact spot on the chart. So

26:31

that, that color

26:33

will also be able to be

26:35

translated into a CMYK

26:37

and an RGB. So those

26:40

are the things that I really recommend having. I think that

26:42

you, everyone should have, um,

26:44

should have the hex. And if

26:46

you, or ever plan on printing

26:48

something, CMYK is always a good thing

26:50

to have too. Just in case you do

26:52

ever send something to press, uh,

26:55

press CMYK. CMYK stands

26:57

for cyan, yellow, magenta,

27:00

black. K is black. So

27:02

that is another way to make

27:04

a color formula. If you

27:06

are, uh, dealing with printing

27:08

products, uh, that you would need a Pantone,

27:11

um, this often happens for

27:14

product development. So if you are creating

27:16

like containers or ordering,

27:19

uh, labels in that are being mass produced,

27:21

oftentimes the printing press will ask for

27:23

a Pantone color. So if you

27:25

plan on, you know, scaling.

27:29

Beyond measure, you

27:31

might want to have a hex code

27:33

CMYK and Pantone. So

27:36

at Ampersand, I mean, really

27:38

our hex and CMYK is basically

27:40

what, what we use here, um,

27:43

for our own brand guide, but you just

27:45

kind of want to know. What you need,

27:47

um, a hex is

27:49

a non negotiable. You have to have a hex in

27:51

this day and age. Um, and that will help you

27:53

find the correct colors in Canva for

27:55

when you make your brand kit in Canva.

27:58

So, okay, next we've got

28:00

icons. So are there any icons

28:02

or marks beyond your logo mark

28:05

that might be used on other things? So,

28:07

um, if you have like a little like squiggle

28:09

or like a little. little icons that maybe

28:11

you use for like your Instagram story

28:13

highlights like that. That's pretty common, or

28:16

maybe on your website that, um,

28:18

they're like, might be like little bullets that

28:20

have little, you know, icons or something like that.

28:22

You would include those in that area,

28:25

patterns, um. Then

28:27

photography. So, uh,

28:30

if you have any current brand photography

28:32

already, then you can go ahead and put that in there.

28:35

Um, we also like

28:37

to see photography styles.

28:39

So like if you don't, maybe you don't have

28:41

professional brand photos yet. If you

28:43

were going to hire a brand photographer, maybe

28:46

you might want to just include

28:49

Uh, images from, you know, stock images

28:51

or stock, or images from, that you found on Pinterest

28:54

just for internal use that would

28:56

identify the type of look that you're

28:58

after for your brand. So

29:01

when you're choosing this overall look,

29:03

like if you want like a really

29:05

crispy black on white,

29:07

like, you know. touch of greens

29:10

architectural vibe, then

29:12

you might want to choose images that kind of

29:14

portray that feeling. I like

29:16

having a, um, what you call it, like

29:18

a mood board or like a style board, um,

29:22

for brand guides because I

29:24

think that sometimes we can get a little bit

29:26

off track in what we're going for,

29:29

or we tend to adopt the style

29:31

of whatever photographer we're working with

29:34

instead of the photographer, um,

29:36

working off of our mood board. If

29:39

you are working with a professional

29:41

brand photographer, specifically brand

29:43

photographers that are used to working

29:45

with lots of different types of brands, they should

29:47

respect your editing style. Um,

29:50

but Honestly, you should just be choosing

29:52

a photographer that aligns with

29:54

your style. Like when you go onto their

29:57

Instagram account or their website, do

29:59

you see this mood

30:01

board that you created in

30:03

this figurative world that you created this? Do

30:06

you see that vibe in their work?

30:09

If not, then maybe you move

30:11

on. So it could be a really valuable

30:13

tool for shopping for the type of photographer

30:15

that you're after. Like, does this photographer,

30:17

can this photographer make this work, right?

30:19

Or this style or this, um,

30:21

this editing, uh, technique or

30:24

whatever you need. Um, we want

30:26

to be creating the standard

30:29

and then hiring according to the standard, not

30:32

lowering the standard to meet.

30:37

Does that make sense? It's okay

30:39

to have maybe less

30:41

than what you're after. Maybe in

30:43

the beginning, like if you only

30:46

can take your own photos, like that's okay.

30:48

Like maybe your photos don't look so great in

30:50

the beginning. That's okay. But

30:53

what are we aspiring to be and are we

30:55

taking steps in that direction? Um,

30:57

so anyways, a mood board can help

31:00

us just stay on track and

31:02

stick to. What we're

31:04

what we're after the big vision in

31:06

the look of what we're going for and

31:10

Yeah, if you already have brand photos that you're like

31:12

freaking obsessed with then put those in

31:14

your mood board like hey I want every shoot to

31:16

feel like this and I

31:19

love that. So next we've got

31:21

social media Okay So if you have social

31:23

media templates I which I recommend that everyone

31:25

does you can buy a template

31:28

pack off of creative market if you have

31:30

no idea where to start and you can

31:32

change the template pack to

31:34

match your brand. You

31:36

can change it, change the colors to

31:38

match, you can change the fonts

31:40

to match, you can add your logo, your website,

31:43

all of those things and then save it out and

31:45

use that template over and over and over again.

31:47

Okay, that's, you can do that. That's

31:50

okay. As long as it matches

31:52

all these other aspects. But decide

31:54

on something and decide on a template pack

31:57

that feels cohesive. What we don't

31:59

want to do is open up Canva every single time

32:01

we need to make a template Or a,

32:04

uh, a piece of a graphic for Instagram

32:06

or a flyer or whatever. We

32:08

don't want to start from scratch every single time

32:11

and have to reinvent

32:13

the wheel. So try

32:15

to... Either put

32:17

together a template pack and stick to it, or

32:19

hire a designer to create a custom template

32:22

pack for you. Um, or customize

32:24

an existing template pack for you,

32:26

um, and just make sure that it looks really, really

32:28

good and that you can just follow

32:31

the recipe every single time. Because

32:34

consistency over anything else

32:36

is going to build that brand trust, so

32:38

just make it look like it's in

32:40

the same family. That's

32:43

what we're after. We want to be,

32:45

you know, We want to look

32:47

like we belong in the same room

32:50

or the same business. Right?

32:53

Okay. So, um, that

32:55

pretty much wraps it up for the visual part

32:58

unless you want to.

33:02

Grow a team like we are. Um,

33:04

so in our, in our brand guide,

33:06

we added dress code because

33:08

we are growing a team and

33:10

we all have different styles, you know,

33:12

which is wonderful. Like we are all different

33:15

personalities, all different styles. But

33:17

overall we have, um,

33:19

a constant standard of what's allowed

33:21

and what's not allowed at work. And.

33:24

And sadly, that just has to be the way

33:26

it is. Even with some

33:28

of our most trusted employees

33:31

styles, every now and then

33:34

there's just, you know, it's like, this is so

33:36

cute, but not for work. And

33:38

so us coming together,

33:40

Branny and I, The business owners in your

33:42

business, uh, leadership

33:45

coming together and, and deciding

33:47

on one thing and just saying like, okay,

33:49

this isn't allowed. This is allowed. We

33:51

like Holy Jeans. We don't like Holy Jeans. Like,

33:53

what is your brand? Um, there is

33:56

no cut and dry. There is no right answer. Every

33:58

brand is different. And, um,

34:00

what you're, what you allow can be totally different.

34:03

Some brands aren't even client facing and some

34:05

are everyday client facing. So

34:08

the dress code is just totally dependent

34:10

on your own brand. If you have a hard

34:12

time getting dressed, maybe you make a dress code for you.

34:15

Um, it's never a bad idea. So, uh,

34:17

every now and then I need to remember what my own

34:19

style is. So, because it's

34:21

like. You know, you scroll on Instagram,

34:24

you're like, Oh, that girl looks cute in that.

34:26

And you're like, yeah, you don't have

34:28

her body. You can't wear that. Um,

34:31

so you know, you might just want to dress code for yourself.

34:34

Okay. And then lastly, we

34:36

have content buckets in our brand

34:38

guide. Um, we've also added,

34:41

um, some, some procedures

34:43

and stuff like that. Some internal things

34:45

like. Just client journey

34:47

and and other things like that So the

34:50

the cool thing about having a brand guide is it can

34:52

be whatever you want it to be Okay

34:54

back to content buckets. So this these are

34:56

social media topics. So basically

34:59

This is also something that we do in brainstorming. They

35:02

are Uh, individual,

35:04

we call them content buckets, they're basically different

35:06

categories that subcategories

35:08

would fit under. So if you

35:11

stand for, you know, these

35:13

five to seven different categories

35:15

in your business, um, I

35:18

want to think of a good example, but I don't want to give you

35:20

guys like ideas that you can't like

35:22

stray from. Usually there is a

35:25

people aspect, like who works in the company

35:27

and then you and then Under that

35:29

bucket. So that would be the bucket. And then under the

35:31

bucket, it would be everyone's individual names.

35:33

Like, so and so, so and so, so and so. Tom,

35:36

Jenny, Tabitha.

35:40

I don't know where I got that name. Um, Tabitha,

35:43

fun fact, actually, Tabitha is the name of my,

35:45

um, my, hair

35:48

extension halo. So yeah,

35:50

it's just first first name to it.

35:53

Does anybody else name their hair extensions?

35:55

Okay, I'm the only one. All

35:57

right. Yeah, I'm weird. Anyways,

36:00

so back to content buckets. So

36:02

usually there's a people category, there is an

36:04

experience category, like what does it look like to

36:06

work with you? Like, what you know, Housekeeping

36:09

things like where, where are you located? What,

36:11

um, what can you expect here?

36:14

Give me a tour of your business. Um,

36:16

what, you know, what can you expect with every

36:18

client interaction? Um, what do we always

36:20

want you to remember when you leave? These types of things,

36:23

right? Um, and then we usually

36:25

go into specific

36:27

things to our industry. So

36:29

if you are an industry expert in any

36:31

thing, um, try to put them in a

36:33

category and then list subtopics

36:36

underneath that. That way be all of your content. Buckets

36:39

and all your topics. This is really

36:41

cool also because you can

36:43

always go back to, um, when

36:45

you are batching content or when

36:47

you're creating content or maybe you're having

36:50

a photo shoot and you can be like, okay,

36:52

what buckets do I need

36:54

more content for? What do I need to create for?

36:57

Um, also when you are repurposing

36:59

content, you, you, it can sometimes help

37:01

jog ideas. So we

37:04

like having content buckets in our. Brand

37:06

guide, but you definitely don't have to if

37:08

that's not not your flavor. But um,

37:11

I think I think it's cool because it's like Um,

37:13

if I ever need ideas for a podcast or

37:16

a blog post or Instagram

37:18

post, then we can always go back

37:20

and be like, Oh yeah, Oh yeah, we

37:22

came up with that idea. So that's

37:24

great. Okay. Um,

37:26

so like I said, we have added additional

37:29

things for like internal resources in

37:31

our specific brand guide. This

37:33

can be whatever you need it to be. So let

37:35

your brand guide be what you need it to be. Um,

37:37

ours has like signage.

37:40

Ours has. Uh, stationary

37:42

packaging, uh, for client

37:44

gifts, like things like that, um,

37:47

just examples. So that way if we

37:49

ever need to outsource to

37:51

our designer and say like, hey, we need

37:54

some custom Christmas gifts, uh,

37:56

do you have any ideas on what we could create?

37:58

These are some ideas we've done in the past and he,

38:01

he can look in the brand guide and and see

38:03

like, Oh, okay, cool. Like I see

38:06

we've already done this before. Maybe I try this

38:08

or, um, you know,

38:10

it just gives an idea of what already

38:12

exists. So if you have, um,

38:14

maybe you have products that you'd like to include,

38:17

like colorways of products. Um,

38:19

but really you want to make sure that everything that

38:21

goes in your brand guide is fairly evergreen,

38:24

meaning that it is going to be continuously

38:28

relevant. So we don't

38:30

want to be having to

38:32

update and change our brand guide like monthly,

38:34

right? Like maybe I,

38:37

I would say the goal would

38:39

be that it's evergreen enough that you'd

38:41

only have to update it once a year, but

38:44

you could update it maybe like twice

38:46

a year. I don't know. It's especially if you're printing

38:49

hard copies of it. It's not really something that

38:51

you're going to want to be updating. And really,

38:53

if you don't have any of these updates. Transcribed Like

38:56

procedure things like things. So

38:58

that's what's going to change mostly like our our

39:00

like Logo hasn't changed

39:02

in 14 years, so

39:05

it's not like you're going to be going in and updating your logo.

39:08

But, um, if there's,

39:10

if something, if you had something about procedure

39:12

in there or, um, customer experience,

39:15

or maybe you added an additional step or something

39:17

that's important, um, it really just

39:19

depends on what, the way that your operations

39:21

works and what needs to be updated.

39:23

So, that is pretty

39:26

much the most of it, is, Um,

39:28

all of those different things. So I'm going to run through them

39:30

one more time. Um, so the

39:32

voice part one, we've got mission, vision,

39:35

values, culture, story,

39:37

tone, RCT, experience,

39:40

dream customer. And then in the

39:42

visual part two, logos,

39:45

typography, colors, icons,

39:48

patterns, photography, social

39:50

media. dress code and content

39:53

buckets. So that's

39:55

what we have, um, as the

39:57

base standard of how we believe you should make

39:59

your brand guide for internal reasons.

40:02

Some people also add like,

40:04

you know, legal things

40:07

or contracts,

40:09

contact information, brand

40:11

compliance stuff, like

40:14

consequences for not obeying

40:16

the brand guide, you know, like there's other things

40:18

that you can add. It really

40:20

just depends on Your use,

40:22

your company, and um,

40:25

yeah, basically, that's, that's

40:28

the gist, guys. That's pretty much what we've got.

40:30

But really when it comes down to

40:33

those three C's of branding, clarity,

40:36

consistency, and constancy,

40:39

how are we going to expect

40:42

ourselves to show

40:44

up in those ways? If

40:46

we don't have clarity

40:48

around our brand, consistency around our brand,

40:51

and the ability to create

40:53

the same thing over and

40:55

over and over again. And I

40:57

mean that in a, in a good

40:59

marketing repetition way. How

41:01

are we going to remind people how to buy from us

41:03

again and again? How are we going

41:05

to earn that brand trust? How

41:07

are we going to deliver? How are we going

41:10

to make sure that

41:12

From the very first piece of free content

41:15

that they experienced from us, matches

41:18

them driving by our storefront, matches

41:21

them coming into our store, matches

41:23

their experience with one of our

41:26

employees, a phone call

41:28

with us, a, uh, a service

41:30

performed, all of those things all

41:32

the way down to the thank you card,

41:35

down to the client gift

41:37

down to them hiring us

41:39

again. How do we want

41:41

to be perceived? How do we want them to speak

41:43

about us? And it all comes

41:45

down to those three C's, which is

41:47

only possible when we're all on the

41:49

same page. And. You

41:52

know what guys, as

41:54

business owners, like I said in the beginning, we

41:56

are guilty of doing flavor of the week

41:58

of not making up our minds for changing

42:00

things because we're like, you know what, guess what? I'm the boss. I can

42:03

do what I want. But the only thing that

42:05

that does is it hurts your brand

42:07

and it hurts your reputation. And

42:09

it really makes people, it

42:11

makes it hard to do business with you. And we

42:13

want it to be easy for people

42:16

to give us their money. And

42:18

they want to, they want to when we

42:20

have the best right option for them. They

42:22

want to give you their money. It's

42:24

true. Um, because all

42:27

the way back to that dream customer, we, if

42:29

we are providing the best, right, only

42:31

choice for somebody. I mean,

42:34

I'll pay for that all day long. You

42:37

guys? You with me? Okay.

42:39

Well, that's all I've got for you today. And

42:42

with that, I would love to announce a new

42:44

product that we have available for purchase,

42:47

which is our new voice and visual

42:49

brand guide template. So this

42:51

is a template that is a multi

42:53

page template that is created on Canva

42:56

specifically for the

42:58

content that I just listed. It has

43:00

placeholders. It has everything

43:03

all laid out for you in a beautiful

43:05

A beautiful package that you

43:08

can go in and fill in all of

43:10

your proprietary branding content

43:14

in it. And, um, and

43:16

we have it available at ampersand studios.

43:19

com slash brand

43:22

guide. That is ampersand

43:25

studios. com slash

43:27

guide. Brand dash guide

43:30

and you can check out a direct

43:32

link in the show notes and go check it

43:34

out If you are having a difficult

43:37

time coming up with the

43:39

content to put in the brand guide then

43:41

I would love to Invite

43:43

you to our unbreakable brand

43:46

two day and contensive course.

43:48

So it is a direct

43:51

Just full throttle over

43:53

a haul. We get dive in deep

43:55

into your business. We help you come up with

43:58

all of these answers

44:00

to fill in your brand guide. Effortlessly.

44:03

We have so many amazing ways,

44:05

just easy. Um, exercises

44:08

to, um, to just really pull

44:11

all of this yummy content out of you, uh,

44:13

to create a really unforgettable

44:16

brand. Uh, and that is available

44:18

at, on our website, uh, ampersandstudios.

44:21

com and the dash

44:23

unbreakable dash brand.

44:26

And it's also available, um,

44:28

just as a direct link in our website. So, uh,

44:31

I hope that you guys are feeling

44:33

really excited to create brand guides of your own.

44:36

Uh, if you want to go on and you can

44:38

create something from scratch, you can find a template.

44:41

I really love our voice and visual brand template.

44:43

We created it because we couldn't find anything

44:45

like it. And, um, we also

44:48

provide you with a sample brand.

44:50

It's not a real brand. So you guys are welcome

44:53

to just dive on into it and

44:55

look at it. But you can see some sample text

44:57

of maybe some ways that you could format your

45:00

own brand guide and maybe

45:02

ways that you might be able to write your, your

45:04

own content, um, to match

45:06

your own brand. So um,

45:08

enjoy that guys. I, that's all I've got

45:10

for you today and I'm signing off

45:13

and we'll catch you next time.