IAM1809 – Marketing Expert Helps Entrepreneurs Evolve Their Businesses

Why it was selected for “CBNation Architects”:

In this episode of CEO Chat Podcast + I AM CEO Podcast, host Gresham Harkless interviews Blaire Brown, a brand strategist and marketing expert who specializes in helping entrepreneurs evolve their businesses. With over a decade of experience in New York City's competitive business environments, Brown's career has been primarily focused on entrepreneurial endeavors, marketing, and PR.

Throughout the interview, Brown shares valuable insights on branding and marketing strategies that entrepreneurs can use to evolve their businesses and better connect with their target audience. She discusses the importance of having a clear brand message and identity, and provides practical advice for building a successful brand through consistent messaging, storytelling, and engaging content.

The episode also touches on topics such as the challenges of entrepreneurship, personal branding, and the importance of forging genuine connections with customers and other entrepreneurs. Brown shares her CEO hacks and nuggets, which include the importance of staying organized, making time for self-care, and maintaining a growth mindset. She defines being a CEO as having the privilege and responsibility of creating and leading a mission-driven organization.

Overall, this episode provides valuable insights and practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to evolve and grow their businesses through effective branding and marketing strategies. Brown's experience and expertise in the field make this episode a must-listen for anyone looking to build a successful and impactful brand.

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Transcription:

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Blaire Brown Teaser 00:00

When you surround yourself with like-minded people that are also go-getters, or maybe they're pushing you a little bit more than you push yourself. I think that's crazy important as a CEO, because, if you work with people like that, that are thinking bigger things, then you're going to realize that it is possible to achieve what you want to achieve.

Intro 00:17

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:42

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit over 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them, the business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, and what I like to call a CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month we are focused on the visibility game, a.k.a. Marketing, Advertising, PR, and Sales. I often just say the name of the game is being found and these tools will help you to do that. We have heard the philosophical question, if the tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? If there's a really, really great product or service and no one knows about it, how great is it really? What impact does it ultimately make? This is where we will go into this month looking at visibility, branding, marketing, public relations, sales being the lifeblood of businesses building, meeting companies and so much more.

This is probably one of the most exciting and probably the most excruciating topics, but we hope this month to demystify, or maybe even vanquish the fear and hope and arm you with the tools to be able to increase your visibility. So buckle up and sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Blaire Brown of blairebrown.com. Blaire, it's great to have you on the show.

Blaire Brown 02:10

Hi, thank you so much for having me today.

Gresham Harkless 02:13

Yes. Super excited to have you on as well. Before we jumped into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Blaire. So you'd hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Blaire is a brand strategist and marketing expert that specializes in helping entrepreneurs evolve their businesses. With over a decade being spent in New York city's fast-paced competitive environments, her career has been primarily based in entrepreneurial endeavors, marketing, and PR.

She recently created and launched her focus branding online course that helps new female entrepreneurs set their brand messaging foundation for success. Blaire creates value for brands through marketing consultation services, strategic writing that maximizes brand objectives and as an expert at building brand stories to help you reach targeted audiences. She's currently based in Annapolis, Maryland.

Blaire, great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Blaire Brown 02:56

I am. I'm pumped.

[restrict paid=”true”]

Gresham Harkless 02:58

Awesome. Let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Blaire Brown 03:05

Sure. So my background is really, I've never really had an option but to be an entrepreneur. To be honest, it's just in my blood and my heart and I really can't help it. It goes way back to when I was 16, I started a handbag company back in the day and I ran it for about eight years. I loved it. All the time, I was just cranking out purses and in that time frame, I made hundreds of handbags and sold them globally and it really just took off. So I thought, this doesn't feel like it's a job. It's something I love. I'm going to pursue it in school. So I ended up going to New York and falling in love with the fashion industry.

I went to school at the Fashion Institute of Technology. From there, I switched my career paths a few times. I hopped into product development, I worked in marketing PR, I covered the shows at fashion week. So I did fashion journalism. It was all around the board, but fashion related mostly. And, I always came back to, I need to start something on my own. I can't work for somebody else, I can, but it's killing my soul a little bit. So I ended up In my last corporate job, starting a business through Amazon FBA, selling unicorn party supplies as one does. I did that for awhile and I realized having both a business and working at my job was really hard to do.

So I just had it one day and I just did the jump. I was like, I'm just going to go all in. I'm going to vote for myself and just start something. I thought it was going to be freelance writing and then it all worked out when a friend reached out to me and asked me if I'd be a consultant for her fashion brand. So I talked to their founder and then that's how it spiraled into what I'm doing now.

Now I run my own agency and I help other entrepreneurs that have that same drive and passion to start their own businesses. I help them find ways to launch their business through marketing and branding. So that's where we are today.

Gresham Harkless 04:55

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I absolutely love that and to hear your journey and the steps that you took to get to where you want to be. I myself, my first official, maybe entrepreneurial journey, I started to do a lot of freelance writing and it evolved into what I ended up doing now, but I absolutely love hearing that you had that entrepreneurial blood in your DNA and you didn't see any other way.

And it's just a matter of finding the lane rather than knowing that you're going to start something and kind of taking, the bull by the reins, it sounds like, from there.

Blaire Brown 05:18

Yeah, when you have it in you and it's just talking to you, like you got to do it and then it taps on your heart, remember you wanted to do that.

And then you just think about it all the time. And, at one point in your life, I feel like you're pushed into it. Then you're like, this feels right, even though it's totally scary sometimes, it's right. My whole family is entrepreneurs, oddly and so we all just are supportive of each other as you're like, yeah, that does sound crazy, but you can do it. So you got to have that community.

Gresham Harkless 05:44

Yeah, absolutely. That community is definitely everything. I think we sometimes, so many times we forget that, success is a quote and quote team sport and to be able to have all those people that are rooting you on and being able to even understand some of the struggles that less than ideal times that we sometimes go through, I think it's so key.

Blaire Brown 05:59

Also, you don't know what path entrepreneurship is gonna take you. Sometimes you think, Oh, this is gonna be my path. I honestly thought I'd be having my handbag business forever. And then, it twisted and turned in different ways. But if you look back at it in a very detailed way of my background, everything led up to what I'm doing now, as far as marketing, operating a business in this way, working with these kinds of clients.

So it just works out. So never think that it's going to go one path. It could go many paths. You just never know.

Gresham Harkless 06:28

Yeah, absolutely. And I think so many times we can look at life and our journey in silos. But I love that you said that. Steve Jobs has this commencement speech that he talks about, sometimes we don't realize things are happening in alignment. So we look back and start to connect the dots from there and we start to realize that, okay, this helped me out here. I didn't realize how that would be connected, but it starts to all be in alignment.

So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched on a little bit and hear a little bit more on how you work with your clients. Can you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like and how you serve the clients you work with.

Blaire Brown 06:56

Sure. So how I work with my clients, I work with them in different ways, but the main way that I work with them is I'll be in contact with these entrepreneurs and founders. And they're usually in the earlier stages of their businesses, but sometimes they are more moved along, but I'll hold a discovery call with them just so I can learn about them, you know, what they've already done for marketing and branding initiatives, where they're at, where their goals are down the line soon, sooner, and then also years down the road.

Then we have a consult call brainstorm session, which means I meet up with them. I do a lot of research in advance on their industry and based on what they've done and what they want to do, I come up essentially with an entrepreneur road map for them. And I'm saying, Hey, this is where you're at now, why don't we try these different strategies and that way you can get here. Then from there, we go from another list of strategies. Just moves them along the way because the people I work with are awesome.

They are so fired up about what they're doing. They're passionate there, they have all of these ideas out there and I'm over here. They're like, that's awesome. Go for it. However, let's bring it in a little bit. You have to have a little bit of a road map when you have that passion. And it makes it less overwhelming than just having them all spread out. So that's the main way I help my entrepreneur clients out.

Secondary way I help them is just if they want me to help them with little projects, they don't have enough time. They're a solopreneur. Things like that, coming up with their branding marketing strategies. And then I also have the online course that you mentioned. It's called Focus Branding and it helps mostly solopreneurs come up with how can I share my brand story? How can I get it to the right audience instead of everybody? You need to niche it down, how you do that effectively and continue to attract these clients. So those are the main ways that I work with people.

Gresham Harkless 08:39

So, would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce, which can be for yourself or the business or a combination of both, but what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Blaire Brown 08:47

I'd say, my secret sauce, I guess it would be, go in with a giving mentality. I think something like that is very important. Because giving advice is free. It helps people out and nothing feels better than building other people up. And then even if you're not aiming for it to come back to you, it always does in the long run. So I think going with the giving mentality would be my secret sauce.

I love helping people and it just makes the entrepreneurial community so much better. There's always clients for everybody. So it's not like you can't go in with a competitive mindset, go in with a giving mentality.

Gresham Harkless 09:19

Absolutely. I love it. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Blaire Brown 09:30

Okay. I just think, bounces off of my secret sauce is just building a network of like-minded people. When you surround yourself with like-minded people that are also go-getters, or maybe they're pushing you a little bit more than you push yourself, I think that's crazy important as a CEO. Because, if you work with people like that, that are thinking bigger things, then you're going to realize that it is possible to achieve what you want to achieve.

Being an entrepreneur is difficult. It has its challenges oftentimes because you have to push yourself to accomplish these goals that you have for yourself. So having these people in the background, cheerleaders just in general, or just to bounce ideas off of and to make you realize you're not crazy and that you can go after these things. That would definitely be my hack for sure. Because if you're doing it alone, you're going to feel like you're on an island and that's hard to push through.

Gresham Harkless 10:20

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self, or potentially you might tell a client as well.

Blaire Brown 10:32

So what I would tell myself now and then is that everything takes time and that empires aren't built in one day. Even if you have like this monster goal up here and you're like, Oh my gosh, is it ever going to happen? I have so much to do, take the overwhelm down, realize as long as you just say, okay, what's more important today?

My dad always says, the acronym W I N is what's important now. If you focus on what's important now, and then you move forward that way, you just chip away. Then all of a sudden you're getting closer to the top of that hill and to that goal that you're going for.

So I think, something like that takes the pressure off of you a little bit, but reminds you little steps do add up, even if it doesn't feel like it right then and there. So just keep going. It doesn't happen in a day, but it'll happen.

Gresham Harkless 11:17

Yes, absolutely. If you continue on that path. That's why I love, obviously what you do with your clients. I of course, love that nugget and I think there's a quote that says the journey of it might be 10, 000 or 1000 miles begins with one single step. And I think that if we start to realize that, then as long as you continue to take those steps one after another it's not necessarily linear journey, but it is a journey.

You have to respect that journey and continue to put one foot in front of the other.

Blaire Brown 11:38

Yeah, exactly. So important.

Gresham Harkless 11:41

Absolutely. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on the show.

So Blaire, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Blaire Brown 11:51

All right. For me, I'd say it'd definitely be the freedom of being my own boss and following my passion to exactly what I want it to be. It's such a blessing and a really nice thing to have whenever you can just say. You know what this is, sometimes as a CEO, you're like, oh, I should follow this path. And you're like, wait, I'm making my own path. I can do this. You have to remember that you have the freedom and that's why you're doing this.

So I think being a CEO is remembering you can make this path your own you can go after what you wanna do. And as long as you're passionate about it, you're not gonna work a day in your life. I'm sure you've heard that a thousand times, but it's so true. So being a CEO, that's definitely what it means, being able to work to help people creatively follow their dreams is, the best feeling for me. So for me to actually be able to do that, help people level up their businesses has just been an absolute way for me to live my own dream and my passion.

Gresham Harkless 12:43

Nice. I love that. And I think so many times we forget that we have the permission or the opportunity to sometimes quote and quote, rewrite the rules, do things a different way.

And I love that reminder, obviously, and how you define being a CEO, but also what you do with your clients. I think so many times we forget that because everybody's going left, we don't have to go left. We can go right, we can go straight, we can go down, we can go up. There are so many other opportunities that we sometimes don't realize.

Blaire Brown 13:08

Yeah. That's something I'm constantly having to make sure I remind myself because it's so easy to get lost and see this is what I've always learned working in the work world. And this is how people have done it. It's wait, hold on, I can do whatever I want, and let's just try it.

If it doesn't work, not a big deal, then I'll try something else and see if that works. It's your own show and you're not going to get fired from yourself on this situation. It's just a matter of trial and error, so very important.

Gresham Harkless 13:35

Yeah. I love that. So just reminding us of that journey that you talked about so well earlier is something that really will lead us there to get present in the journey, not present sometimes in the destination and the finalization of that.

Blaire Brown 13:46

Yeah. And anytime people feel down on themselves, I'm like, pick up any book about a founder a leader, all of them have failed often. And usually, their first business isn't the one that they're still with today. It's just, you have to go through trial and error and just try things and see which one ends up sticking.

I didn't start out in this business. I started making handbags. And, that was before Etsy even existed and then Etsy exists, and I moved it over there and then it's spiraled and now we're talking about your show.

Gresham Harkless 14:13

Yes, absolutely. Yes, you never know and I absolutely love that. Well, Blaire, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time as well. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get ahold of you, find out about your course and all the awesome things that you're working on.

Blaire Brown 14:32

Awesome. Thank you. So I would just say further advice is just, if you feel that entrepreneurial pull in your heart, if there's that voice tapping on it, pulling on it, you feel like it's right, just go for it. Be smart about it, but if it's there, then that should be what you're going after, make a plan, go after it. Because at the end of the day, it'll be a lot of work, but at least you'll know you're working towards something that you love. I always think it's more important to try and go for it versus wondering what if I had gone for it? So that's my last piece of advice there.

As far as reaching out to me I do free discovery calls. If you guys wanted to chat with me about your business, I love meeting founders. It's literally what gets me up every day. I get so excited about it so that's an option. I also have that focus branding course. If you are a brand that's starting out and needs to refine your voice, that's actually going to attract clients consistently. It's a really great process and I'm happy to talk to you about that as well.

The best way to reach me would be on Instagram, which is businessbyblairebrown and, or my website. My website is my name. It's blairebrown.com. So that's the best way. I hope I hear from all these CEO listeners. Thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate it.

Gresham Harkless 15:51

We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes as well, too, to make it even easier for people to get a hold of you. So thank you so much again, Blaire. Truly appreciate you. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 15:59

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 media. Tune in next time and visit us iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at blue16media.com. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.