Your brand is building a reputation whether you do anything about it or not. 

So why wouldn’t you aim to have some level of control? 

Join myself and Darby as we talk about building a brand (with impact) for 2025 and beyond.

This is part of our new campaign - Around the World in 90 days - your ticket to good content marketing! 

Welcome aboard flight CQM222, I am your pilot, Mariah - you have your ticket to good content marketing in hand. 

While on this flight the flight attendants will be here to assist you to get off the content creation hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom-based lifestyle. 

Each week you will be given a new stamp in your passport and by the end of the 90 days you will be on your way to explore the world of Content Marketing as a solo traveller. 

This is week eight - get ready, it is going to be a wild ride! 

If you LOVED this part of your trip (the episode), make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @darbylyndon.

✨ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GET YOUR TICKET TO GOOD CONTENT MARKETING⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ✨

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ What is a brand? 

✨ What brand “trends” to look for in 2025 

✨ How content marketing helps you build a brand

✨ How to find your unique edge as a business 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

• CHECK out Darby’s website -⁠ https://www.darbylyndon.com/ 

• FOLLOW her on IG - https://www.instagram.com/darbylyndon/ 

• FOLLOW her on LI -⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/darby-lyndon/ 

• JOIN US for the next 90 days! -⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sales.contentqueenmariah.com/90days⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Find out more about how to WORK WITH US -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.contentqueenmariah.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Connect with us on INSTAGRAM -⁠ ⁠ https://www.instagram.com/contentqueenmariah⁠⁠

• Follow us on TIKTOK - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@mariahcontentqueen ⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Connect with me (the host) -⁠ ⁠ https://www.instagram.com/mariah_contentqueen/

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

ABOUT THE GUEST

Darby is a brand strategist, pasta lover, and small business cheerleader. Over the past 8 years, Darby has helped countless service-based businesses create strong, authentic brands that attract dream clients and position them as leaders in their industries. She’s all about strategy-led branding that reflects your vision, highlights your expertise, and helps your business grow without relying solely on referrals. Darby’s approach is warm, collaborative, and full of creativity, and she’s here to share her insights on building a brand that works as hard as you do.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is your pilot speaking. My name is Mariah and welcome to this special series of the content queen podcast. You have boarded flight CQM 222 and you have in your hand your ticket to good content marketing. We hope you have a safe journey on this 90 day trip. Strap in and get ready to experience all the strategy and learnings that you need to enter 2025 with a direction on how to create content that is unique to you and your business.

While on board you have complimentary access to all the learnings that will help you attract your own passengers, grow and expand your own trip. While on this flight the flight attendants will be here to assist you get off the content hamster wheel and onto a new way of marketing to help you live a more freedom based lifestyle.

Each week you will be given a new stamp to your passport and by the end of the 90 days you'll be on your way to explore the world of content marketing as a solo traveler. Seatbelts on, we are ready to take off. Hello, gang. What a treat. Our first guest of 2025. And I couldn't have picked a better person.

Now, we're talking branding.  A quote from Jeff Bezos. Very interesting. Your personal brand  is what people say when you're not in the room. Same with your business.  If you are not trying to influence your brand, people are going to make their own judgment.  So you want to try and have some level of control, right?

So  I've brought in a special expert, a branding strategist, and this branding strategist is going to give you a really  clear view of what brand is and how you can really have impact on it in 2025. So let me introduce.  Darby Linden, who is branding strategist, pasta lover, and small business cheerleader, which I love that.

Over the past eight years, Darby has helped countless service based businesses create strong, authentic brands that attract dream clients and position them as leaders in the industry. She's all about strategy led branding that reflects your vision, highlights your expertise, and helps your business grow without relying solely on referrals.

Darby's approach is warm, Collaborative and full of creativity. And she's here to share her insights on building a brand that works as hard as you do.  Let's have this amazing conversation. You're going to love it. Thank you for coming on the podcast and thank you for being patient with my crooky voice.

Thanks for joining. Uh, we've known each other for quite a while now. I'm surprised I haven't had you on the podcast before, but, um, I'd love for you to tell everyone your story, who you are and how you got to where you are now.  Beautiful. Well, first of all, thanks for having me on Mariah. You're right. We have been in the business world together for a long time.

So it's exciting to be on your podcast, which I've been a long term listener of.  So me, I've been in the marketing brand space for about eight years. So I first started out in. Kind of digital advertising agencies, which I loved. It was a great first job, but I guess what I learned on the job was that you can pour as much money as you want into advertising campaigns and as many team members as you want for the big brands.

But. When you don't have a strong brand, it's really hard to still connect with the right customer and convert them and attract all the right clients. So even the big brands, they can pour a lot of money into it, but if their brand is weak, then they're not going to get the return. So that's why I kind of.

Stepped into more of the brand space when I realized that marketing is, is nothing really without a strong brand that has a consistent message and all the things we're going to talk about today. So stepped into that and then when COVID hit my full time employment got dropped down to part time, everyone had to because of COVID and all the things.

So I really started ramping up my freelance work, working for small businesses and medium sized businesses in the service space area, really helping them to build strong brands and get them out there and, um, attract the right clients, which was so important during those COVID years. And then a couple of years later, I, uh, went full time with the business.

So it's been a couple of years now of just me on my own.  As a brand consultant helping yeah, small to medium sized business owners to create a really strong brand and get it out there and grow their business. So yeah, I definitely wouldn't go back to working for anyone else now. Hopefully fingers crossed.

I love the business world and yeah, for reasons that you love as well, being able to travel and that flexibility and that freedom that I get to create for myself and for my clients as well. So yeah, absolutely love what I do.  I love it. And isn't it so awesome to have that sort of You know, background knowledge being working for, you know, someone else and you learn to appreciate the journey and it's always nice to reflect on.

I love that. And I remember, yeah, when we connected, um, we were both freelancing, but you were still, you know,  Um, job at the time and we had a conversation and then yeah, all of a sudden you were full time in your business. And I was like, that was so cool to see your journey. Um, and we've both been on the similar journey together, which has been really cool.

So I love that. So yes, let's talk about brand. Um, I'm running a campaign at the moment, which is around the world in 90 days, your ticket to good content marketing. And I wanted to give people a chance to, yeah, Look at their brand differently in 2025. And, you know, during this campaign, we've had things around mindsets, general, um, content marketing, Instagram.

We've talked about lots of different things. Last year we had more of like the design side of branding come on, but I really love how you talk about building brand. I love on your podcast, you get people to come on and you talk about brands that have done it really well. I know you've done stuff on like who gives a crap and a duolingo things.

Like I think there's. Bigger businesses that are doing a really good job at creating brand. And we as small business owners, entrepreneurs have the power to do this. Really easily without approvals, without, you know, 101 cooks in the kitchen. So I really want to dive into this and talk about why business owners need to think a little bit more about their brand in 2025.

So  in 2025, what brands should we be taking inspiration from or watching? What ones are you loving watching at the moment and seeing them evolve from big business to small business, anywhere in between.  Yeah. It's so interesting. And first of all, your campaign, I think is very on brand. I love, I love that it's connected to the travel side of things.

I think that's part of it as well with, with brands that are able to have that really consistent message that's aligned with what they believe in and everything like that. But I guess a brand that I love to talk about at the moment is Fate the Label. Do you follow? Yeah. So Fate the Label is a clothing brand for women.

It's Australian based. It's Founded by Brittany Saunders and they cater for women of all different sizes. And that's something that she's really passionate about. So that's, I guess, the first ingredient is having for a strong brand is having that purpose and that message that her community really believes in as well.

So she, I mean, she's amazing. She's got a lot of personality that kind of brings the brand to life with her personal brand. So she is on camera behind the scenes in the warehouse. It's doing funny things with her team. She's got her own podcast as well, but with their content, I guess she's in the warehouse.

They're packing orders. They're, you know, slipping fun things into people's packages. And I guess it gives people an experience. It's not just I'm buying a piece of clothing, it's, Oh, I'm investing in this brand. That's, you know, creating a really fun experience. They're helping. Yeah.  Create different sizes for different women and making people feel happy.

And it's, I guess the story behind the brand that comes to life with what they're doing and the support of the personal brand, I think is a really good example for what I guess the future of branding is going to look like, because, which I'm sure we'll talk about today, the personal brand side of things is so, so important because people really want to connect with personality and they, you know, rather than thinking of fake label and, you know, A logo popping into their head.

They're going to think of Britney in the warehouse or those characters that they see on Tik TOK or whatever coming to mind, because I think a lot of people  think traditionally a brand is a logo and, you know, a color palette or an Instagram feed, but that is just shifting, you know,  faster than ever into something that's more about a story.

And when you picture a brand, you think about. The experience, you don't think about the color as much anymore. So I think they're doing a really good job of creating an experience and using personal brands and personality and content to create something really special. So they're one that I really love following at the moment.

Yeah, me too. And I've never bought from them to be fair. Maybe when I'm in Australia and I see a store, but like.  It's so true what you say, and there's a really big trend and shift in EGC, which is employee generated content that we're seeing a lot more of. And this is where that founder journey really comes to life as well, right?

We're all the founders of our business, even if we're one person or we're two or three, or we're a couple of contractors or we're a big team, we're the founder. And really, Brittany did a very good job, obviously, of building her personal brand for many years as an influencer  and then her content and how she brings it to life and how she even brings her team and her partner, like we all know her partner, AJ, um, and it's so funny because I actually didn't follow her as an influencer back in the day.

My friend did and told me about her years ago, I think it was 2020. And that was when she started to create fate in that sort of lockdown y type period.  And now she's this business woman. She's not an influencer. She's very grounded, you know, she's, she goes to all those influencer events and she talks about them from a different lens.

Even the brand is doing not, um, influence trips. They're doing customer trips where they're getting customers to come on their trips rather than influencers like brand trips. And it's so cool to see that come to life, even though she had a very big following to begin with. We can learn a lot from these brands that are doing things differently, bringing their team and making everyone involved, sharing the founder's journey and adding that personal life, not private life.

She's not talking about maybe her ins and outs of her relationship and the problems they talk about when they're, you know, behind closed doors. But she's sharing her personal life. And I think that's so important. Super powerful. So I love that as an example, she is kicking goals on social media. And, um, it's good to see like an Aussie brand do that because she's now known in globally.

Right. And it's really, I think a lot of good Aussie brands are doing that. There's one else. So I follow, um, they're a bit of a bigger team. They're the nappy brand rascal something. I can't remember their name, but they do nappies. And their content's quite funny. They did like a marathon for Taylor Swift and they played like, and nothing to do with nappies.

Like they suddenly put the content in, you know, every now and then they'll do like, um, they did those things where everyone in the team had to create a cake that looked like the nappy box and they all looked terrible and just stuff like that. I think it's really cool to see. And everyone will be like, Oh, well, it's just, that's not going to bring in money.

Um, what do you say to people that say, you know, Doing stuff on social media for fun is not going to bring me any money. Um, do you ever have those comments or what would you say to people thinking that? Cause I know it happens, especially in bigger business. I imagine the CEOs of some of these, you know, if they're not, uh, um, you know, a younger generation, uh, built company, they'd be like, well, where's the money.

How can that generate me any money? What are you talking about? Um, and obviously we're still entrepreneurs and business owners, we can kind of get it, but what do you say to people that think that about these kinds of brands that are creating really fun stuff online?  Yeah. Well, I think it does depend on the essence of the brand.

And if you are a fun brand versus a brand that's. Might not be so fun, but I think everyone can inject a little bit of fun in their own way. You know, even if we're talking about lawyers or something serious, you can still bring your own flavor of fun. So I guess it's first of all, determining what fun looks like for you.

But I think it's just the reality of social media is that it is social. It's meant to be fun. We don't click on social media.  you know, sometimes we're there to be educated, but we really want to be relaxed. And in that environment, when we're scrolling social media and brands are starting to learn that as well, and how to tap into that so that people actually do stop and listen.

And once they're entertained and they're interested, then that will take them. To the next layer of potentially wanting to purchase or learn more, go to the website. So I think it's just, as time goes on, it's becoming more and more important for people to be able to speak to people in that mindset of when they're scrolling social media and be like, actually, this is a brand that gets me.

They're relatable. They're fun. I want to learn more.  So important for any type of industry to find that little layer of fun, or maybe it's a lot of fun, depending on what they're selling nappies. That sounds like a good example of one that you can play on a bit because it is playful. Um, but even like, um, I've done a podcast on who gives a crap and they're like, they're selling toilet paper, the most basic product ever.

That should really be boring because we're talking about the toilet, but they make it so fun and cheeky and playful. So there's. There's always ways to do it. And I definitely do encourage people to get creative and have some fun with it because it's, it's just social media and there's a lot of room for experimentation and yeah, that's what people want these days, I think.

Yeah, it's so true. And I actually really love it when they say I start working with a client or a business and they start getting all these creative, fun ideas that are so far from having to sell, because that's when I feel like you kind of get it, you get, and I think what's happened over the years is We've spent a lot of time  using it for our own good, right?

Using it to sell, sell, sell, sell. We've forgotten what the actual platform was designed to do, which was connection. As you say, when we, and we forget what the consumer is there for, we forget what they're there for. Now, obviously a lot of us, if we do market to business owners, they might be there for some information.

So it's important to understand why is your audience on there. What are they looking for and how can you meet them? And  I talked about this the other day with a client. Sometimes we know what our client needs. You and I know our clients need strategy, but they think they need to know how many hashtags on Instagram they need, or what kind of logo, you know, like something brand related.

That's not deep brand, you know, surface level brand. And we're trying to teach them here, but we kind of have to, you know, level the playing field in a way because we're, we want to meet them where they're at, but bring them to where they need to be. And a lot of times we come on these social platforms or we create content with the lens of how can I get the most out of it rather than how can someone else actually get the benefit of it.

And that's why I think your example of fate, the label is doing, they're just here to entertain the audience. And I actually saw. Brittany Saunders do a really interesting campaign of taking an audience through how she's running ads for black Friday and boxing day. And she actually went in and she did all her ads and she explained what she was doing.

And that was quite interesting because she would actually have. Like a lot of us are entrepreneurs and business owners as well, or we're in there. I imagine her audience, a lot of them are marketing girls. I can imagine. And she sort of knows that. And she's, and I watched, I said, Oh, that was really cool to see.

And, um, she's doing some really interesting things in that aspect as well to also promote her brand in a really. unique way that wasn't, she was promoting her sale on Black Friday by talking through how she was running her ads. Like it's very clever, right? It's very interesting. I like that because I feel like a lot of people, even my friends who aren't in marketing, they're like, they get ads about something we just spoke about at lunch and they're like, Oh my God, they're listening to me.

Like, everyone's curious about how that side of things works outside of marketing. So I guess that transparency helps people who are shopping to be like, Oh, I actually get that now. It makes them a bit more empowered and people just, they love that. Transparency with a brand as well. So I think that's a really good one.

And I've seen off the back of that, other people posting TikToks being like, Oh my God, this is so smart. She's been, you know, with her ad strategy, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I guess it adds to the conversation around the brand as well. So very smart.  I know she's got us. And it's so funny because everything just seems unpurposeful, but everything would be very, very, very intentional.

So you sort of mentioned a few things about what makes a great brand. And you touched on a little bit, like it's not the logo. It's not just the color. Like those things are kind of almost irrelevant now. So when someone comes to you and say, okay, how can I make my brand better? Or what makes a great brand?

What comes to your mind? What would you say to someone, a small business owner looking For this year to just be like, I want to build a better brand. I want to build a brand around me, my business, what I do, where do I start or what makes that great this year?  Yeah, it's a great question. And there are a lot of different layers that go into it.

And I feel like a lot of people  will jump straight to the visuals and the fun stuff. But I think the first thing is having that strong foundation for the brand, which is what I call the brand DNA. So it's kind of like the why hot. The why, what, how, and who the brand is. So you're like really going back to basics.

And the first one is the why. So the why is I guess, why you do what you do and why people should care because a lot of people will just.  You know, sell a service or a product without  communicating the essence of the brand and why they do what they do. Is it because of sustainability? Is it, you know, plus sizes for women?

Is it, um, the environment? Is it equality in some sense? There's always a why behind what we do outside of making money. Obviously we all need to  make money out of what we're doing, but I guess what's the impact that you want to have? Because  That is so evident in a strong brand when it comes through.

It's what Britney does. It's who gives a crap, like all of the brands that I'm sure your listeners love. If you think about that, they all have a why that I guess weaves through everything they do. So that's really important as well as the who. So I guess who you speaking to really knowing your target audience is important.

Which I know we spoke about before, you know, when you're creating content, you need to know like where they're at with their mindset as well.  And then it's obviously what you offer and your service on top of that. So I guess really getting clear on the.  The who, the what, and the why of what you do is really important.

And then also really knowing what makes your brand unique, because a lot of business owners actually aren't clear enough on what makes them unique. So getting really clear on that and their brand personality as well. So how can they bring their brand to life with personality, bring that fun nature into it.

And then after that, it's. It's more about the messaging and the visuals. So how can you communicate that brand essence through the messaging and the visuals, which then waves into marketing and content and all the fun things. So I guess  it comes back to those brand foundations, getting clear on the, who of the brand, then the different, Differentiation of the uniqueness and the personality, and then actually being able to communicate that through marketing and content.

So there's a lot of different layers that go into building a brand. And it's not something that you can do in a couple of hours, but I think it's just about really reframe reframing people's thinking around.  What a brand actually is and making sure that you are doing the work in terms of those foundations and what your brand actually stands for and what you want to represent before you then go on to build, you know, the beautiful logo and the website and the marketing plan.

So yeah, that's how I would, um,  That's how I would recommend business owners go about thinking about their brand. But as I said, it is something that takes time and something that takes a couple of years to actually understand exactly what you want to be. I think a lot of people DIY their brand when they're first starting, which is absolutely fine.

In my eyes, I think it takes that time to understand who you want to work with, what you actually want out of your business, what's important to you and all of those things. So.  Also just being patient if you're a new business owner and really just leaning in to what works for you when you, when you get to that point where you're like, actually, I know what I want my brand to be.

And this is what we're going to do to make it happen.  I love that you said that, because a lot of us are always like the foundations one is so important, even if it's As rough as it can be in terms of getting something, a lot of us go straight to the logo and the fonts and all that fun stuff of a brand and don't do that work.

And then wonder why maybe even if it changes and evolves, like, you know, our, why can evolve our, you know, our mission and everything we're trying to do and our products, we, and all that.  If you don't start with that, then work your way and then keep iterating and evolving. You're going to get stuck for one.

I find you get like so stuck that you then don't do anything. And also it evolves. So what you created, what I created,  Five years ago is not what I've got now,  but I'm not going to go back and be like, Oh, I'm so embarrassed. I wish I just knew it all then. It's like, that's how I got to it. And that even happens when we're marketing,  creating content, your style of content changes because it evolves with your brand and your business.

And I think we all want to know it all now. And the whole point of it is the journey. And even what mine is, and what yours is now is not going to be what it is in 10 years time. And when we learn to give ourselves the permission to be like, that is okay. That's when you can just do it and have that confidence.

I think a lot of us want everything to be perfect before we start, but then also don't focus on the foundation. So it's like foundations, accepting nothing's perfect and then learning as you evolve. And I really love that you mentioned, um, Just. Giving yourself permission. Cause I think that's what we all need.

So this year is the year of foundations and giving ourselves permission to not have it all worked out and kind of do it as we evolve. One of the things I think a lot of people get stuck on, and maybe you have this with clients as well, is I don't know what makes my business unique. I'm not really sure.

And usually a lot of it. What we say is actually not what it is. Like  for example, you know, we think it's our unique product, but maybe it's not that it could be who you are and your essence. And like the fact that you do this, this, and this, and sometimes it can be multiple things brought together, but we're looking for that one thing.

So when we're trying to work out what makes our business unique, what things do you recommend we look at to help us with that uniqueness of our brand?  Yeah. Well, I think if you are a. a service provider offering a one to one service, I think you can't ignore the fact that your personal brand is going to be part of what makes you unique.

Um, because that's an obvious one. That's no one is going to be the same as you in your personal brands. I think with a service provider that definitely needs to be a part of what makes you unique in terms of outside of that. It's also, it also depends on your stage of business with new business owners.

It is really hard to know what makes you unique because you're just starting out. And for established business owners, there's a lot that you can look back on to determine what makes you unique from the last couple of years. So for a, Established business. For example, what I often get people to do is, you know, download all of their Google reviews and their testimonials and the feedback and actually look at the common themes that come out.

Is it, you know, the community based factor of the business or is it there? Why is it, you know, That they love that 10 percent goes to charity or like, what is, what are the common themes that people who've already worked with you love about what you do? Because most likely that's going to speak to more ideal clients.

So I think doing that research and really asking previous clients is a great one  for new business owners. What I suggest is that the first step is actually asking your ideal clients doing some research. What is actually important to them? When they're looking for someone in your industry, is it,  um, you know, having a course or is it, uh, a really warm and friendly.

Service provider, or is it price, whatever it is, thinking about all the factors that are really important to them, looking at all the other competitors in the industry and how many of them are actually speaking to those points that are really important, looking for any gaps and saying like, what makes your service different when we're looking at services?

The factors that are really important to an audience, because a problem that I see is that a lot of business owners will come up with something that's unique about what they do, but does their audience actually care about that? Because if they don't care, then it doesn't really matter. So if it's something really quirky, like I used to be a pilot or something like that, that's not.

Probably not relevant for your audience and they might think it's cool, but that's not going to actually make them choose you over someone else. So it's actually more of a strategic thinking exercise to look at what does my audience care about? Like at the heart of it and what is everyone else doing to cater for these Desires and needs and wants and what is different about what I do in relation to that.

So that's a little bit of a strategic exercise that people can do if they're still trying to figure out what makes them unique and maybe something that they're designing within their service suite, um, outside of looking at their testimonials. But at the end of the day, I think Like we've already spoken about personal brands are always going to play a role for a service based business.

A little bit different for e commerce, but it's something that people can't really ignore because it's something that's always going to be unique about a service based business.  Yeah, that's really, I love those exercises. It's really cool to think about, um, you know, whether you're starting out or whether you've been in business.

I love the idea of looking at testimonials. One thing that comes up for me a lot when, you know, you get feedback from clients, they always mention Mitch, my partner. So he's like,  He's been a lot in my content, um, since, you know, probably the last year because it is a dynamic that is quite unique because we have different, we're both marketers with a different skill set and together we can help more with retainer rather than obviously the course side of my business or education stuff.

But it's this dynamic duo that people like, because they feel like there's not like any We can give them more without it just being that one person. And even though I'm still female led, cause I started content queen and I'm the face of the brand, a little bit of Mitch is always nice, especially in the content, cause sometimes I'm sick of me being on the camera all the time and I make him do stupid things, but, um, So you mentioned a personal brand as service based, which yeah, a hundred percent.

And especially even with, you know, UGC becoming something really powerful at that founder's journey. Um, we've seen this a lot, you know, you've got on TikTok, especially Kat Clark and Collade, her skincare brand, and she's an influencer. Her skincare brand is more for family. Each of them have already had their own personal brands.

Obviously it's harder to compare with an influencer because they already had their brand before they started. Um, but what are you seeing? Like, obviously the service base, we're kind of our brand where our personal brand, but this kind of correlation between, um, personal brand and business brand, what does that look like?

Like how I know some clients of mine are like, do I need my own personal Instagram?  Do I need, you know, a business one? Like I separated mine. because it made sense to me, but my strategy is in my business. Um, but in terms of creating this brand around ourselves, especially if maybe one day we want to step away from it, or we want to, you know, maybe outsource coaching is hard.

Service based can be hard, but what are you seeing or what are you recommending with this kind of personal brand versus business brand? How do we make sure that they're not always conflicting or we don't get confused with them, or we feel like we're just showing our self and it's our personal Instagram versus like a business, um, or social, whatever that looks like.

I'd love to know your take on this.  Yeah, it's a really good question. And I think it looks different for everyone. Like for example, my businesses. And I am 100 percent of my personal brand. So for me and for a lot of like coaches and consultants, it would make sense to just have their personal brand as their business brand if they are the only service provider and their business model is just them.

So that is one example of where. It's kind of just one strategy, but obviously a lot of business owners have a business name that is separate to their personal name. It might be an agency or a retail brand or whatever it is. And that's when  this question, this question arises where people are like, Oh, do I need to be the face of my brand?

Do I need to have a separate account? And I think the strategy looks different for everyone. And it's definitely worth.  Uh, strategic session for people to actually figure out what this looks like. And it is a few questions that need to be answered in terms of, you know, is this service provider or the owner,  is that part of the unique selling proposition of the business?

So if I, if my personality and my personal brand wasn't part of why someone would choose to work with my business, then maybe I don't need to be as front and center for the business brand.  Whereas if the founder is one of the reasons why someone works with the business, then their personal brand probably has to be intertwined with the business brand.

So there's a couple of questions to ask there. And there's also the question of how comfortable is The person being front of camera, because I have a lot of clients that come to me and it'd be interesting to see if you have the same where they're like, I am absolutely not going to be the face of my brand.

And that becomes quite problematic these days because of how popular it is and how important it is for people to show their face and tell their story. So it's a tricky one. And it does depend on a few different factors, but I think that. We all do need to have a personal brand in one way or another, whether it is linked to the business itself and whether how important it is for that founder to be a part of the brand, or whether it's having a personal channel of some kind, even if it's LinkedIn, um, some people feel more comfortable there, whether it's Tik I feel like having a channel of some kind that leans into that person's personality and their style of work is really important.

And then how. heavily involved they are with the business brand will depend on a few different things, like the unique selling proposition, um, and how comfortable they are as well. But I definitely think it enhances a brand when you do have a personality behind it. If it's not the founder, like you said, having an employee or people even hiring content creators to be that face to help.

With that connection, I think is really important and it's only going to continue to rise with the big brands as well. So  yeah, it's a tricky question, but I definitely think it's important if a brand can pull it off. I think it's so important to have the personal brand backing it. And as we saw with Brittany and other brands like Zoe Foster Blake, for example, it's just, it really sets brands apart.

Yeah, I definitely agree. One of the things that worked with me, I never knew that I was going to go separate from my thing. So you just kind of start, you become the face and then you work it out later, you know, like, because otherwise, if you, if you thinking about it now and you're sort of in the early stages of business, and then you're going to start two accounts and you know, it's a bit messy.

Like, and I have a client that has a personal brand page and her, she's a product based business, but has service, Wrapped in it. And then  I help her. So, so much easier when you've got someone doing it for you. Right. And I have someone help me schedule content queen stuff. So it's not just me trying to post across these two accounts and like, you know, I bring purpose and everything is strategic, but if you're just starting out or, you know, you're getting in that groove of consistently showing up for your business, just have that one page because otherwise you inconsistent on all the pages and it's just an absolute mess.

And.  One of my clients, you say, you know, some don't want to be the face. I have one client who, yeah, they don't want to be the face of the brand. There's multiple owners of the business. It's a shop. It's in the food industry. And when I went up there to film some content, I was like, Oh, I'm happy to be in it.

It doesn't matter to me. And then when I posted one and it went mega viral, I'm like now the face.  Cause it's reached like a million people. Like it's, and we got like, 2000 followers  of this one post. And then, so I was like, okay, well, I don't mind. So I did like some other videos of me trying oysters cause it's seafood.

And I was like, you know, social media manager, blind tastes out oysters. So now I'm kind of like this personality, but this,  that's okay. I'm okay with that. You know, obviously I can't get there all the time to film new stuff, but it's. You know, some people, if they're happy, you know, eventually I'm hoping some of the young kids that have got jobs there are happy to be part of it.

You know, if they're of age and all the things and consenting to be on there, you know, it's good to get more people. If you're that kind of business where people will be dealing with multiple people, you know, bigger brands, obviously. They have a CEO, the CEO might not be the face, but the sales people might be the face.

Because when you think of that brand, even when I worked in automotive, I tried to explain this to, um, our team in sales, like you need to have this personal brand on LinkedIn, because when people think of the brand, they don't think of the logo. They think of you because you're their account manager. So if you're on LinkedIn actively talking about it, then they're going to look at your stuff.

They're not going to look at our company stuff. So.  Even in bigger businesses, like having that sort of personal brand is, you know, even if you leave that job, it doesn't matter, you know, having that facing it just. People want to connect with people. And now with AI, we don't know what is a person and what is AI anymore.

So if at least you can try and be a little bit more human, it's that trust. And I think trust factor is something we've forgotten about. And also something that people want more of since like post COVID we're now not trusting of anything. We don't know what's going on. So we really want to be able to trust someone and we trust them.

You know, the, like I saw. You know, faceless marketing, how to build a brand and be faceless. And I've now seen in the outs of 2025 faceless marketing.  Yes. I think, I think that trust fact is a big one. And I actually think TikToks contributed to  a lot of this as well. And the way that people consume content and we want to see the raw, like I'd rather see it.

A photo of actually what's happening that day, rather than the professional photos. Like a lot of what people are posting these days is,  you know, what people want to say. It's not glamorized. It's not the Canva tiles as much as it is like the videos of the office people hanging out and doing the questionnaires around the office.

So I think it's, yeah, people trust,  uh, the real content and that's what people want to see. And I agree. I think it's really hard to be faceless. I'd like to see brands that are succeeding doing that.  And even, you know, you, you see on, um, at like TikTok now, like you've got platforms on the rise this year is live streaming.

How can you, you know, go live, especially like business go live. If there's no person going to be in front of it, it'll be interesting to see how Instagram does the live streaming thing. Like if we look at content creators and influencers. That's all going to come into the business world, like maybe a year after.

So anything that's, you know, they're honing in on now, we're going to see come into that business space. And it's so true. Like, I think we just want to  see people, we want to  relate to them. We want to trust them. I mean, obviously if you're a bigger business, having employees in your content can be a bit tricky, but where.

Personal brands where entrepreneurs like we, this UGC or EGC, you know, wave is so good for us because we just have to worry about us and maybe like, you know, I've got Mitch and I've got a couple of contractors. Sometimes I get them to do like. a team reel or something.  I don't have to try and rally like 50 people to help me create some content.

Like I can just do it, you know, myself. So  you've talked a lot about, yeah, that sort of content with brands. So, you know, okay. We've got the foundations of our brand and we're really clear on what makes us unique. Then where do we go with that? Like how does content play a role in building our brand? Like, obviously I'm going to sit here and say like lots, um, but I'd love to hear it from you.

It's nice to get a different person's perspective, but yeah, how does content play this role in building this brand, especially as we're consuming more, we're on our phones more, our screen time's up probably triple what it was 10 years ago. Yes, no, you're right. It's lots.  Um, so how I like to think about it is I guess your brands, that story that you've built about what you stand for and your reputation.

And then the content. Is I guess the storytelling and there's no point having a, an amazing brand if you're not actually getting it out there and communicating your message. So I think content is so important these days to be able to tell that story. So whatever it is that's unique about your business, whether it's the personal brand, um, or whatever it is, being able to tell that story, you know, the founder story, the personality side of things.

And, um, You know, the purpose behind the brand, there are so many stories that need to be told through content, but having those channels that can help you amplify your message and create that consistent story in all the right places to all the right people is exactly what people are searching for. And people are consuming content all day, every day on so many different platforms.

platforms and that's how they really get to know a brand, know, like, and trust is how they're  consuming that story and really starting to learn and build that trust with a brand. So  I think. Every brand needs to be creating content and it's more important than ever to be telling your story and showing up every day and building that relationship with your audience, because without it, you you'll have a awesome story, but no one knows about it.

So content marketing is so, so important. So.  Thanks to people like you who are helping businesses get it out there, because it's hard. It's a lot of work. Like you said, you got to do the filming. A lot of people don't like it, but it's so important. So I really always encourage business owners to block out that time and have a strategy to make it easier or get support because without it, your business will really struggle to get in front of the right people.

Hmm. I love what you say about that. Your brand is the story and content's the storytelling. Cause it's so true. Like, it's like, you know, you could have a website, you know, maybe people might find it on Google, but it doesn't, there's only so much that one thing can do, right. There's only so much that your website that you can do.

There's only so much that Instagram can do. There's only so much that email marketing can do. And that's where like bringing it all together.  Now, like, I go to TikTok. Like, we're traveling at the moment. If I want to find, like, okay, what are we going to do in the next city, I'll go to TikTok. I'll go to Instagram.

I'll, you know, I might Google. I still Google because, like, millennials, I think we still kind of are Googling.  Gen Zs, I don't think they even have opened Google in the last, like, two years.  You know, we're always looking and like, even my partner, like he'll always like, Oh, I saw this thing on Instagram.

influencer talk about this. I saw, you know, so we're always like consuming something. Like even at Christmas, I saved the corn because mum had, The,  the spice, and it was all blocked. And I learned on TikTok that the ridges on the bottom of the salt, the shaker actually unblock all the thing. And then we could season it.

So I found that on TikTok, even like my mom's going like, Oh my God, what is these channel? Like how are we learning all this stuff? We're just,  We're over consuming for sure. But you know,  even though there is a lot of noise out there, people are going to resonate with you if you show up for them and not show up for them for like five minutes, like actually consistently show up.

Because how I see it too, is if we look at all the businesses that start every single day, if you keep at it, of course, all other businesses are going to fall away because if you just keep going, and that's been a massive reminder for me over the years when some.  I feel like I'm posting to the void and nothing's getting there.

Or I feel like, Oh, do I need to, is this brand like resonating with people or what? And then all of a sudden you have this moment where it does. And then, and there's just these moments of like, you know, that doubt or.  You know, feeling like you're overposting over consuming, um, giving too much, but I really love that building that brand and always evolving it and coming back and looking at it.

It's never done, right? We can never say it's ever done. Otherwise we've sold the business. We've retired. And, um, I love how you put that because I think a lot of us are just trying to figure it all out all the time. And you know what we're always, it's an ever evolving process.  I love that. So  We know we've got to focus on building our brand.

What is the best advice around brand in 2025 that you could give everyone before we wrap up this interview? Cause you've given a lot of value, but is there anything else that we haven't touched on that you want to mention?  Yeah, I just want to encourage people. To, I guess, reframe their thinking about what a brand really is, because it's so tempting to be like, Oh, my brand is my logo, my color palette.

And people still fall into that habit  of thinking about that as their brand. But I really want people to step back and just think of their brand as  well. I like to think of it as how people think and feel and talk about your business. So it's the perceptions that form. Your business and people really taking ownership of that because every business has a brand because it's your reputation and how people think and feel and talk about your business.

So people who aren't putting effort into their. Brand are letting other people decide, you know, what their story is. Whereas when you take ownership of your brand, you have the opportunity to influence how people perceive what you're doing and your story and everything. So I think it's just, I guess, a mindset shift for a lot of business owners to be like, what is my brand?

What do I represent? What do I stand for? And what do I want to be in 2025? Who do I want to work with all of these big questions? So I think that reframing really sets the scene for. You know, then going into looking at those brand foundations and those questions of the, why do I do what I do and how and, and what, as well as what makes you unique as well.

And those exercises will be really helpful for people. But yeah, I think really shifting that, um, that belief about what a brand is will change so much for a business owner because they start to. Put themselves in the driver's seat a bit more rather than being like, Oh, I'm the brand that's red being like, I'm the brand that stands for this.

And this is what my message needs to be. So it gives people, um, a lot of inspiration as well. When they realize that they have the power to influence how people connect with them online, if that makes sense.  Totally. And for the control freaks, very good to think about because  obviously we can't control everything that people say about our brand, but if you're not sharing anything, you're not showing up, you're not trying to create anything.

People are just going to have their own.  And this is good for people that care what others think, especially if you're creating a personal brand. Like one of the, the, the client that I ended up becoming kind of the face by posting this video is they had some really bad trolls a couple of years ago, but forced them off social media completely.

And like really harassing trolls is awful. But then.  You know, there was a mindset shift. Okay. We need to get back on or I'll get some help. And there's been nothing like, of course, they've been in business 20 years. They have nearly 2000 Google reviews.  Chances are you're going to have someone say something bad about you, but we're in the driver's seat.

Now we have, we can control the narrative. I can reply to comments in a really nice and empathetic way if there is any, and then I can, you know, someone, the viral video was too, like,  And I was like, is that a thousand dollars? And I was like, no, it costs this much. So we have the ability to respond and have that control.

Whereas before, when they weren't posting on social media, people could just make their own narrative about that brand because they haven't, they're not saying anything. So that's how I see them. And a lot of the times you can shift people's like, even though some people have their set, how they think and feel about you and your brand, but if you're in front of it, you're there.

That can shift for people. We've all changed our minds about things over the years, you know? So I think that's a really good message because as, as a control freak, it's nice to try and control some of the narrative, even if you can't control all of it. Yeah. And, and I guess that comes back to the idea that you're never going to be the brand for everyone.

I think that's where the perfectionism becomes. Tricky because people are like, Oh, this person doesn't like me, but of course, you're not going to ever be the brand for everyone. So it's about deciding who you are and who you want to work with and what you stand for. And then being able to have that clearer vision of what that looks like across socials and not getting caught up by people who were never going to work with you anyway.

So yeah, it's that clarity. And I agree that control freak, control freak and the perfectionism, there's all these things that work for you. Business owner struggle with once you have clarity, it becomes so much easier.  I love that. So that's a perfect way to end. Thank you so much for coming on and talking brand and content with me.

I loved it. How can people find you and connect with you and learn more about what you do and your amazing services.  Well, thanks for having me on today, Mariah. I had lots of fun. Um, you can connect with me on my website, which is derbylinden. com. And then Instagram's probably the next best place to find me, which is just at derbylinden.

So yeah, that's where I'm hanging out at the moment.  Amazing and talking brand. And you've got your podcast, which is great as well. So everyone can check out the pod. Um, and you have some really good, um, insight perspectives on brand. And I think that's a really good, um,  place for people to learn more as well.

But thank you so much for coming on and joining me. And, um, if anyone's listening and there's been some interesting background noise for me, I'm recording in the most ridiculous place. Thanks for being patient with that.  Thanks, Mariah. Loved it. Okay. How good was that? One of the things that really stood out for me was  finding your unique edge  and also  thinking about brand as your story and content as the storytelling.

What a fabulous analogy. There was a lot of gold in this, and I hope you're ready to really up level your brand in 2025. Seriously, this is going to be a game changer for you. So take all of that wisdom and knowledge and start implementing. But be a content queen or king and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business.

Thank you so much for joining me on this flight. Stamp your passport. And please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends. You can do this by adding it to your Insta stories and tagging me at content queen Mariah. or just tell them about it. If you do rate and review, it does help me get amazing guests on like Darby, who can share their knowledge with you for free.

And when you leave a rate and review, it boosts me and this podcast and our content into the charts and more amazing guests. We're looking to get some podcasts, see it, and I get pitched. And that's how we get them on here for you. And it really does help me when I am pitching to people to come on the show as well.

Sorry. If you haven't left a rating or a review, please do follow us on Instagram and TikTok. And if there are any topics or any guests you want me to get on, please let me know. I am planning for the content. So make sure you hit me up or at any stage I'm always planning content. So definitely message me on socials and I will talk to you next week when I have a special treat, dropping something very exclusive on the episode.

So stay tuned for that and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.