Embracing the Lifestyle Brand We've Become
Episode 130: Show Notes
Today on the podcast, we’re doing things a little differently. We are going to have an actual conversation about how our business is going to evolve after we were hit with some crazy new perspectives. Spoiler alert! We have an agent now, which is super weird! We brought her on to help us deal with sponsor requests for the podcast and land us some opportunities that really fit and say no to opportunities that don’t. It takes an entirely different set of skills that we simply do not possess, and so we brought her on to give it a try.
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So there you have it; we have an agent now! We were having a conversation with her to figure out who to say yes to and who to turn down as sponsors. We were kind of struggling with it because as a business focused on strategies we were thinking more along the lines of software and tools. But turns out, without even knowing it, according to our agent we are actually a lifestyle brand! What?! We had to take a step back and have a serious conversation because a B2B “business” brand is a whole different thing from being a B2B “lifestyle” brand. So stay tuned as we unpack what it means to embrace the lifestyle brand and truly focus on evolving our business to be who we are at the core.
The Evolution of Our Brand
After considering what our agent said about our business being a lifestyle brand, we really took a long hard look at why this could be true. We first went about asking our tribe for feedback and they all came back with the same response. When you think about it, we have absolutely NOT been secretive about other parts of our lives. Like, do we know our boundaries? Of course, there are some things we are more delicate about, but overall transparency has been our motto! Giving you guys the behind-the-scenes look and sharing with you how you can be successful in your business too is always our goal. But recently, we have gone from showing you how to set up a ConvertKit form to answering questions about what lipstick we wear, how we get our hair done or even the brands of clothing we wear. We still don’t really know how we feel about that because it’s not like our stuff is fancy, ya’ll! Emylee even gets a ton of questions about parenting and adoption! So when we look at the facts, the evolution to lifestyle brand is clear.
Drawbacks of Being a Lifestyle Brand
When it comes to making the shift towards being a lifestyle brand, the door to judgment swings wide, wide open. The other day when we launched a Facebook ad, Emylee mispronounced a word and people were flipping out! The thing is though, our main revenue streams still come in because we spend time talking about business. At this point, we have not positioned our life to make us money. Not saying it will never be that way but we are just not there yet. One of the main things people often request is seeing us work. They literally want us to set up a camera and see us in action. News flash: it’s not pretty! If we are not on for a scheduled video recording, our makeup is definitely not on. So how do you integrate that in a strategic way? We need to figure out how we can either make money from it or add value to our business. Truth be told, we haven’t got the answer to those questions just yet.
Exploring the Idea of a Lifestyle Brand
One of the ideas we have tossed around is to start a vlog. We talk about business so much that would love doing a vlog that is more about our lifestyle than our business. For example, talking about makeup, hair products, or even baby products. But how does that add to the value of our business? Then, we’ve also talked about having sponsors on the podcast that are non-business related and we think that will just depend on what the agent pitches us. We’ve even talked about a T-shirt shop. The thing is, we have been talking about business for two years, non-stop. However, we are paying attention to our audience when they ask questions about our hair and lipstick. We are also paying attention to the reaction when we post a picture of Penelope to Instagram, which gets better engagement. So we are actively trying to make decisions on how to capitalize that and continue to remain our brand and hold true to our values.
Asking for Feedback; Is That The Right Path?
When we first started talking about pursuing the lifestyle brand path, we posted about it in our group to find out more from our audience. The thing is, ultimately we still get to decide what content to bring forward because most of the advice we get will be contradictory anyways! We just have to decide what exactly our strategy behind it is and how we are going to capitalize on it. That’s exactly why we haven’t done anything about it because we still don’t actually have the answer to those questions. It’s honestly the most confusing thing we have ever run into in business. Normally, we can clearly see the strategy and how to leverage it. But integrating our lifestyle into our brand is simply not that strategic! So we still clearly have a bit of work to do to figure this whole thing out.
What We Need From Our Audience
At the end of the day, if you guys have suggestions, we would be glad to hear you out! Now, remember, we don’t want to hear what you don’t want from us; only what you do want to hear. Like do you guys enjoy real conversations like this? Or is it weird? The bottom line is, we just don’t know. Plus, let’s get real; if we were asked to sell a coffee mug, there are simply not enough people who would listen to us to actually make a difference. We would rather just host a webinar and make more money. That’s not to say we can’t get there eventually, but we’re just not there now. It doesn’t make any sense for us, strategically. Simply put, we just don’t know what this means for us yet but we are going to continue building a B2B company that supports our mission and our why. If it happens to be that some part of our life ends up on a Hallmark card, we will take it!
Quote This
It’s easier to be ourselves than anything else.
Highlights
Our agent said our business is becoming a lifestyle brand. [0:05:55.1]
Why the shift to lifestyle brand often opens the door to increased judgment. [0:10:19.3]
Dipping our toes into the idea of following a lifestyle brand approach. [0:15:05.3]
Understanding how to strategically ask our audience and decide what path to take. [0:25:14.3]
What we need from you guys and the type of feedback that would be most helpful to us. [0:32:55.3]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Brand evolution, Lifestyle brand, Implementing a lifestyle brand, Surveying your audience, Asking for feedback
