Hey, amazing business owners. Welcome to today's episode. I'm a mess. You can see I have glitter all over me. If you're listening to this in audio and you want to see what the hell I'm talking about, go to bold with brooke.com/youtube. And you can see the video of a mess that I have made. Oh my gosh, there's glitter everywhere. Oh, that's cute. I kind of like it.

Welcome back to another episode of business straight up, which is now officially filled with Brooke. Today we're gonna talk about alignment, why you might not be comfortable with sales. Why you might not be wanting to actually add people into your business and book those new clients because things might be stopping you. We're going to talk all about my rebrand. Why the hell did I change from business trade up to build as Brooke, I'm so excited that you're here. I have new intros for you and new pictures for you. And apparently I just need to take a big giant picture of me with clutter all over myself. I'm so pumped. I forgot my phone. I can't wait for you to hear this episode. Let's dive in. Hello there gorgeous business owners. Welcome to bold with Brooke the podcast for creative business owners to learn the marketing and business skills they need to get more clients and design their lives on their terms. So we can actually make a living doing what we love. Am I right? I am your host Brooke summer, and I'm an entrepreneur, educator and champion of women reminding them to embrace and step into their power. I'm bringing almost 20 years of business and marketing experience straight to you to help you get more clients and run a sustainable and successful business without burnout or overwhelmed. Let's jump into today's topic. Hello there gorgeous business owners. Welcome back to another episode of business straight up which is now officially called the bold with Brooke podcast. Okay, I don't know who's gonna clean it up. I don't know. Maybe that was a bad idea. Especially my studio. Oh, well. We're going with it. There are little stars all over now to like take a behind the scenes. Maybe that was about it? Yeah. Oh, here we are. I am so freakin excited to announce this rebrand this new name. I know you've been hearing it for a little while now it's not new to you. But today we're going to talk a little bit about where that brand came from, where the rebrand came from and the real alignment with what I want to do most. Ultimately, it all comes down to alignment. So today we're going to talk a little bit about what that really looks like, and how to drive success using alignment in your business. But first, I want to officially say thank you to all of my loyal listeners week after week, including the weeks when I didn't host an episode, I am currently working on doing things so far in his hands that when my brain decided that today just isn't going to work, there's already content ready to go. I've done it in other parts of my business because Hello ADHD business owner, the podcast is the one place that I haven't really implemented it on the level that I want to. So that will be changing moving forward. I'm currently working on it now. And hopefully, if everything works out the way it should, I will help content week after week after week, even if I'm not recording week after week after week. So first let's talk about alignment. Why you must be fully aligned with what you do if you want to see this success that you want. And you guys I am so sorry. I'm really, really distracted right now, because this was so much fun. I feel like we all need a little more glitter in our lives.

So fun.

Let's start out alignment, because that actually is part of the alignment. It's so funny. So many people really, really, really hate glitter. They call it the herpes of the craft world, which is fine, more glitter for me. But that is the reality is I love it. And I do what I love. And I talk about what I love, and I enjoy what I love. Have you ever worked with someone and you could tell that they just weren't super jazzed about what they were doing? Maybe it was a teacher, you could tell they weren't really present in class, or someone else that came to fix your furnace. And you could tell that they would literally be rather doing anything else.

This is often way so many people feel really shitty about sales in general. Because if you don't really believe in what you're selling, you'll not only see really crappy results, but you'll be saving life in the process. And that energy moves through into the people that you're talking to as well. We've all known that person that is selling a skincare product that were like, This is the dumbest thing in the world. And yet they absolutely love it. And for that reason, they're pretty successful at it too, even though the rest of us are like That's great. And that's okay, that's amazing for them. Personally, I'm not really a skincare person, I'm more of a water on a washcloth kind of girl.

Maybe you really, really love what you're selling. And you really believe in the product or the service, but you're overwhelmed. And so you're not really in love with the way things are going in your business. It's just too much, you feel super scattered, and you're trying to get it all done, and it's overwhelming. Both of these are separate symptoms of a lack of alignment in your business. When you truly believe in what you do, you will want to tell everyone about it, you will be so excited about it, that you'll have processes in place to support all of those people that you're selling to because you're telling everyone about it. And you want to be able to properly serve and support those people when they come to buy whatever it is that you're selling, because you love it so much.

Being fully aligned with your business. And having proper boundaries will mean more clarity, confidence and excitement.

Simplifying those processes will open that up even more. And this will change over time, you might start your business with one overall goal and vision, I think grows and evolves. And that's normal. And that's even a good thing. It's preferred. Because none of us stay stagnant forever. We crave growth. And dare I say that the people who start businesses want it even more. Running a business is one of the biggest personal development journeys you will ever embark on voluntarily or not, you're going to be going on that journey.

When I started specializing in boudoir photography in 2009. I knew that I wanted every woman to see herself as beautiful while creating a business where I could make a living and support my family. And I could share that with anyone and I usually did because I believed in it so strongly. That was my vision for a long time. And it was amazing. And I was truly in alignment with it. When my daughter was born in 2014. I watched that vision change. Involuntarily I didn't ask for it. I didn't look for it. I didn't read a book like hoping for a new vision. It changed because the circumstances in my life changed. We all know that certain things in your life will force you to grow. And it's no secret that having kids does that exponentially. At least for most people. My vision shifted from wanting women to see themselves as beautiful to wanting women to remember their power, because that's what I wanted for my daughter to stop spending mental time and energy on tearing themselves down and to embrace their power and strength.

Shortly after I started teaching more and more because I wanted female business owners to have that same experience. Although instead of a photo session, I now work with business owners to market and grow their businesses. Because what is more powerful than a woman running a business she loves on her own terms while creating the income and schedule she wants for herself and her family. That's crazy powerful. I want every woman to have the quote, fuck you money so that she can get out of any situation that is potentially unsafe, harmful or toxic. I want every woman to feel empowered to move in whatever direction she wants to in her life without worrying about what everyone else is concerned about. With that change in my vision, my photography evolved, and I can literally see it in my photos in the way that I was working with women and the photos that I was taking. And my business changed as well. I was so excited to be teaching other photographers and business owners that I taught all the things, all the things marketing rights, which sounds like a good idea. Because marketing is a huge umbrella of a lot of things until like you may have experienced in your own business. It's just too much. That's the other part of alignment, right. I ended up with four paid courses, all of our tough students, and all of it I loved. They are all parts of marketing, because marketing is just so many pieces. And I was teaching SEO, website strategy, email marketing, and overall, one on one marketing.

If you run a business was several offers, you might be able to relate to what's coming next. I had so many courses that I became very frustrated and trying to market and offer all of them appropriately. This was a launch cycle that I was in constantly and eventually became overwhelming. And this is not a badge of honor. I'm not sharing this with you as like something like hey, I'm really good at this. But when I get overwhelmed, I do nothing. I just don't do anything. I call it overwhelm paralysis, that shit is very real. And it really really affects me. And so what happened is I had all these courses, and I was teaching and I loved doing what I was doing. But launching them and marketing them became overwhelming to me and so I didn't do any of it. This is why I usually recommend that my students niche down for their marketing. Does it mean that you can never do anything No, it's definitely not. But it makes marketing so much easier when you have a set offer and ideal client, when you know who you're talking to, and what problem to help them with what offer Do you have, that will help them solve whatever they're facing, knowing. And I mean, really knowing like really, really, really knowing who you serve, and how you help them is a cornerstone to successful marketing. And having too many offers dilutes a strong marketing message. This is especially true for smaller businesses. If you're Nike, multisite million, maybe even billion dollar business, you can start with shoes, and then add an apparel and maybe an app and other offerings. And we've seen that with Apple, right? They started with computers, that's what Apple did. I had an LC three in middle school. Although Apple Macintosh LC three, I'm probably dating myself with that one, but go with me here. And then they moved into iPods, right, and they have other offerings and computers as well. But they were under that umbrella. And then they added on iPods. And they're like, hey, this iPad is really taking off. And yes, I did say iPod for anyone super young listening to that, and that ipad ipod. They're like, Hey, this is really taking off and doing really well. Let's add ones that have video. And I actually have one of those this. So they added the iPod with video. And then people were like, We want a bigger screen and smartphones started to come in. And then they offered the iPhone. And now they have the iPhone, and they have different iterations of it. There's the plus and the max and all the things. But they're not building another phone. They're sticking with the iPhone, they're sticking with what works. And they also have computers, but they're sticking with what works. They started with one thing, I got really good at that one thing. And then they added other things. And when you are these bigger businesses like Nike and Apple, you can do that. Because you have several people working on the marketing, and who those messages are going to you have entire departments, sometimes outside companies that are doing your marketing. I don't know about you, but I don't have a full marketing company that is handling everything for me, maybe one day, but not right now. And even when I had a team of five, not everyone was working on marketing, there were other parts of the business that were being handled. Someone was handling my customer experience. And my client experience, someone was handling social media, someone was handling virtual assistants stuff, someone was handling all of my editing, everyone had their different lanes, I did not have a marketing team, fully aligning your business with what you love, what you're excited about. And what you have processes in place to handle will create a business and life that you love. So why am I telling you all this? Why do you care? Why am I coming to you from my studio now with multiple glitter stars in my hair? And by the way, if you're listening to this in your earbuds, and you're like, What the hell is she talking about with this glitter? I invite you to go to YouTube, just go to bold with brooke.com/youtube because I keep changing my URL on me and check out the glitter because it is it's gonna be lodged in my boobs for like a week. I don't know why that but I love it.

So why am I telling you all this? Because ultimately, that is why my own rebrand happened. That is why I went from business straight up to bold with Brooke. Now will I still offer business help and tips and education straight up. Without the fluff. I have no filter. Absolutely. But I also want to encourage female business owners to be bold in their offers and marketing so that they can grow and reach and surpass their craziest dreams. Funny a little side note, my son actually came up with the name and logo for business straight up. He was about 10 years old. So there's a little part of me that's sad to see it go. There's a little bit of sentimental attachment to that. But I'm so excited for bold with Brooke. And what does all of this mean? Like what does this mean for you? Great. There's a new name. Yeah, but what else? This means that you will see everything moved over to build with brooke.com. Now I have been working on this for a while. It's been a long time coming. So you've probably seen most of my URLs are already there. If you come across something that's broken, please let me know. I want to fix it. There's always redirects happening. There's always things happening that I may have missed, so please let me know. But this also means that all four of my primary courses and books two books, which is email marketing, spiffed up your site, which is website strategy, SEO for photographers, which is SEO 101 It's gonna be rebranded to and the boudoir marketing masterclass are all now housed in one place. One thing and that place is called Bold Marketing Academy.

I'm really, really, really excited about this, because it allows me to show up and one spot and answer questions about different marketing practices and strategies without spreading myself too thin, and trying to figure out what courses coming next and what launch is coming next? And what marketing focus to talk about, and what do I talk about in the podcast and social, it was so much, I'm so excited to have one central place where all of this will be happening. And if you're listening to this, and you're like, oh, my gosh, Brooke, I'm in where do I sign up, you can go to bold marketing academy.com and join us full transparency, I'm still working on the full page for that. So right now, it's just a very simple checkout page. Baby steps, right. I also waited a long time to record this episode, because I knew I was gonna need help with the glitter. I really wanted to have my daughter like throwing glitter on me. But then I thought maybe that was a bad idea, because she'd probably throw it directly in the eye. Maybe not the best. So I'm doing it imperfectly. But we're taking baby steps are doing the things we need to do. If you need a little more information about bold Marketing Academy and you're like, What do I do here, I am going to be teaching my email marketing class that is super popular next week. Again, on May 18. It is my most popular class, it is the thing that I'm asked about the most. And the next opening for bold Marketing Academy, which will start with this email marketing class which is free. It's called Get your first 500 subscribers. This will be happening on May 18. If you signed up at the end of April, and you're like broke, what the hell happened. I have another episode very soon, about what the heck happened because everything failed all at once. Some people would say Mercury Retrograde, not sure how I feel about that one. But basically everything failed all at once. And we just figured it the fuck out. Because that's what women do. Right? We take an issue and we figure it out. I am so excited about this rebrand, and what it means to move forward with what I love the most, which is reminding women of their power, and badassery so they can create their dream lives and businesses. Thank you so much for being with me today, sharing some time with me in your earbuds, whether you're walking the dog, whether you're out, picking up the kids, wherever you are, if you're someone that loves to help other people, I would love it if you would take a few moments and leave a review. This podcast reviews are kinda like a little bit of currency, like a little tip, a little nudge. Oh, thank you for the free content and information coming to you. And I appreciate them so much. You can leave a review at bold with brooke.com/itunes. And if something in this episode really resonated with you, you're like, oh my gosh, I'm doing so many things. I'm overwhelmed, or I'm not really excited about what I'm doing. I would love it if you would share this episode. Take a screenshot or a selfie listening Show me your beautiful face. tag me on social media. It's always an honor to see the tags and love on social and I can't thank you enough. You can find me pretty much everywhere especially Tik Tok and Instagram. Those are my favorites. More tick tock than Instagram if I'm being completely honest. My handle is at bold with Brooke all one word. I adore you so much. You know what? We're just going to do another little I like I thought I'd use like half this bag but Oh shoot. Okay, that was a lot. Ready? Oh, no, I just spilled it all over my Ottoman that I have clients that on they're gonna have clutter on their butts. Okay, okay, ready? It's a party's over. Are you so much I can't wait to help you with your business so that you can grow beyond your wildest dreams. I am cheering you on every step of the way. Thank you so much for joining me today and listening in. You can find all of the show notes for this and every episode over at bold with brooke.com/podcast where you can also find all of the links or resources mentioned. I can't wait to work with you have an amazing rest of your day.