IAM2529 – Branding Consultant Helps Clients Communicate Their Awesomeness

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Tiffany Hoeckelman Teaser 00:00

Same solopreneurs do what they didn't want to do or didn't know how to do, but this time it was about how to communicate their awesomeness.

Like how to figure out who they are, how to communicate that both visually, because that was my background, graphic design, but also verbally and how to get the message to the right kind of people.

Because we all get into business for what we love to do, we don't get into business for all the other stuff. And branding was one of those other stuff that people didn't know how to do really well.

So that is where my passion lies, and that's what I love to see people be able to grow in.

Intro 00:35

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. Gresh 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 01:02

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tiffany Hoeckelman of Lone Orange. Tiffany, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 01:11

Gresh, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor and privilege to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:15

No problem. Super excited to have you on, and the honor is definitely all mine, and you'll hear why. I'm going to introduce Tiffany so you can hear more of the awesome things that she's doing.

And Tiffany gets out of bed each morning for one purpose, to help solopreneurs create an amazing client experience by knowing their own powerful brand identity.

Starting out in 2010 as a virtual assistant and freelance graphic designer, Tiffany witnessed several businesses undermining their success with poor graphic design.

She soon recognized that small business owners needed help delving deeper than just their visual identity; they needed to identify and cultivate their purpose.

Driven by this mission, Tiffany has built a virtual team offering brand consulting and implementation.

Her secret love for systems and spreadsheets ensures her clients can deliver on their brand promises.

Tiffany, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Tiffany Hoeckelman 02:05

I am ready. Let's do this.

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Gresham Harkless 02:06

Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 02:13

Sure. Well, you just gave a great introduction of what we're doing. So, I was thinking about this earlier, and my CEO story really started probably back in high school or college.

And so, if you had to put a theme to my story, it would be evolution. A new lesson at every turn.

Like, that has just been my whole evolution. So, I got my degree in graphic design, but when I couldn't bear doing that for a profession.

So, I ended up in small businesses where I was handed an organization, and they said, here, make this grow.

And so, for about 15 years, I was in charge of very small organizations, learning a lot. And when it came time for me to move on, I decided to start my own business.

And so, I actually started as a virtual assistant because I was able to take all of those skills, and I wanted to be able to help sole entrepreneurs, although I didn't know that term at that point, to be successful in their business by helping them with the stuff they didn't know how to do.

The back-office sort of things, if you will. So, about a year into my business, it was actually going great. I was just about at capacity, but I realized two things.

One, I didn't love what I was doing. And I thought, well, I'm the boss, this is a problem, so time to figure this out.

And two, I was actually hit with a trademark infringement issue. Which was big and probably a good topic for another story, the reason why you should do some trademark research.

And, but it forced me, it was actually good in hindsight, again, evolution and a new lesson. I was forced to change my name.

So that is actually where Lone Orange was born. So, I actually started the company about in 2010, so about nine years ago.

Then two years in is when I completely rebranded and shifted and started Lone Orange to really help, again, those same solopreneurs do what they didn't want to do or didn't know how to do.

But this time it was about how to communicate their awesomeness, like how to figure out who they are, how to communicate that both visually.

Because that was my background, graphic design, but also verbally and how to get the message to the right kind of people.

Because we all get into business for what we love to do, we don't get into business for all the other stuff. And branding was one of those other stuff that people didn't know how to do really well.

So that is where my passion lies, and that's what I love to see people be able to grow in. And so now we're, as you mentioned, a virtual firm.

I've got a team of vendors, providers, team members all over the country who help me out depending on what the client needs. And my clients are all over the country as well.

Gresham Harkless 04:58

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I love the fact, obviously, probably when bad situations sometimes happen, as you mentioned with the trademark infringement, it's probably super frustrating.

But at the same time, usually when you look back in hindsight, you can definitely say that happened for a reason because you've been able to build such a strong brand.

And all the awesome things that you're doing and helping people find their awesome as well, too, is definitely something you could appreciate.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 05:21

Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. I mean, truly everything, I've learned something that has got me to this point today.

Gresham Harkless 05:29

Yeah, yeah. And I love too like all your background because I know we talked a little bit more about it offline.

But you just being so system-driven because I think a lot of times when people start businesses, they have their passion, their thing that they love to do, and they forget about all the other back-office stuff, often that also is essential to being able to grow a successful business.

So, it's great to see that you're implementing that you did implement that and then you're also helping businesses to kind of find a lot of those things as well, too.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 05:55

Exactly. I think it helps them to kind of accelerate their stronger foundation. They can get into business and do what they know and learn, and there's all kinds of free resources.

But to be able to figure out who they are and then to start systematizing that so that they can scale faster and that they can grow faster, that's what's exciting to me.

And because I geek out on systems, which is kind of odd for a creative, but I do, and I have seen the benefit of systems in my own business, so I love helping other people kind of ramp that up a little faster than I did.

Gresham Harkless 06:29

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm a big systems geek as well, too. And I usually say I love systems because if you have them in place, you get to be even more creative because you don't have to worry about all those other things.

So that's why I definitely love it. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper to hear more about how you're serving the clients.

I know you kind of touched on branding. And I think a lot of times when people hear it, they think, OK, well, I already have a logo. But I feel like, correct me if I'm wrong, branding means so much more than that.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 06:54

It does, and you're right. And you could probably talk to 10 different people and ask them the question, what is branding? And you'll get 11 different answers.

Because branding is so broad and so vast. It's certainly the logo and the brochure are certainly part of that, but it's also your greater understanding of who you are as a company.

And especially for solopreneurs, who I love to help, when your brand is so integrated with who you are, like you've got to be able to pull that out of yourself to know how you're going to communicate that to other people.

Because in business, as with in life, like is attracted to like. So if you can better communicate you, then you're going to attract people who are like you, who you want to be able to help.

So, ultimately, what we do is help create a client, an amazing client experience. But to do that, we got to back into, first of all, knowing who you are.

So, knowing who you are. what your core values are, what your brand story is, who you best serve.

And so, knowing that, and then be able to communicate that, both visually and verbally, and obviously as a graphic designer, I'm big on the verbal communication as much as the, excuse me, the visual communication as much as the verbal communication.

So, you have to know, communicate, and then you have to be. And this is the part that I think a lot of branding exercises, programs, whatever, don't focus on.

And again, this is kind of where I geek out, is helping is now taking that brand and making it the experience and systematizing it.

So, as you said, you can have the freedom to be more creative and not reinvent the wheel every time you're doing something.

And you're able to bring on new people, so you can scale faster. You'll one be able to vet the right kind of people because you've got your core values in place, and so you can make sure that they're matching that or complementing that as you need it.

And then you'll be able to train them better because you've already got your systems in place. And they're going to do it the way you want it done, and they're going to be able to not dilute your brand.

I find that that's one of the scariest thing for solopreneurs is I wanna grow, I wanna grow my team, but what if I hire somebody that hurts or dilutes my brand?

Well, by having those systems in place from the get-go and knowing and understanding your own brand, you can hire and train those people a lot faster.

So, the know and the communicate, and the be are kind of our big things to get that client experience.

Gresham Harkless 09:32

Yeah, and I absolutely love that, especially because a lot of times, especially with like having the systems and everything in place.

Because I find too that you often also are able to understand if it's a client or maybe a team member that may not necessarily fit with you, largely because you have those systems.

So, systems come from who you are, what you want to be, as you said, and a lot of times you can try to figure out fairly quickly if it's a good fit or not, because they either align or they don't, and then you, kind of are able to make decisions based off of that.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 10:00

Exactly, and it's always a learning experience. So never beat yourself up if you make a bad hire.

Gresham Harkless 10:04

Yeah, I feel like it's always going to be a learning experience when it comes to running a business, it seems like.

So, would you consider that to be like your secret sauce? What you feel kind of distinguishes you, the fact that you have those systems in place, and you have that background?

Tiffany Hoeckelman 10:17

I do. I do. I think our secret sauce, especially if you put us up against other branding programs, it's definitely the client experience.

And essentially what we're selling, what we want to drive home, is client confidence, is our clients to be confident in who they are, how they're delivering, and that they're confident in the team, us, that they've hired to help them get there.

So, client confidence is kind of what every one of my team is focused on creating.

Gresham Harkless 10:43

Yeah, and that makes perfect sense. And I love the fact, and especially like what you touched on before, the whole being thing, because I also feel like when you're tapped into that as well too, not only is it for the clients that you work with.

But it also probably manifests itself in the clients, clients, so to speak, the people that they're trying to bring in as well too, because when you are that, you start to attract like, as you said.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 11:04

Absolutely, right. In fact, and I even had a client recently she went through my program, and at the end, so she had been a business owner, like she had started a couple other businesses in the past, but she was getting ready to start something new that she was super passionate about.

And so, because of her past experience, she knew she needed some of this in place. So, before she even started the business, we worked together, which is unusual.

Usually, I work with people who have kind of had some success already, but she was savvy enough to know that it was time to invest.

What was cool is that after we worked together and got some of those systems in place, that as soon as she started getting new client interest, she was ready to go.

She already knew exactly how to handle a new lead, how to take them through a sales process, how to onboard them to a brand-new client, and how to start doing service delivery.

And to the point where within a couple of months, she's just about a capacity and is ready to at least start thinking about bringing new people on.

And so, having those systems in place meant that she could accelerate her success rather than, oh goody, I've got a new client, now what do I do?

Gresham Harkless 12:14

Exactly. No, that definitely helps out because I think a lot of times being successful in business, it's not necessarily knowing everything yourself, but knowing who you can call on, who you can tap into, and having somebody like you, you know, on the speed dial definitely helps out.

I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack, and this might be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 12:38

Sure. One of my favorite things, I could come up with a bazillion, but one of my favorite is using Asana.

And you've probably heard it from other people before, but I love it because it is my way, because my team is all over the country.

It's my way of being able to delegate and keep things moving, whether it's me overseeing it, whether it's my assistant and project manager who kind of helps move things along. And so, it's our communication tool. And it's free, at least to a point.

Gresham Harkless 13:06

Yeah, I would definitely echo that. And now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Tiffany Hoeckelman 13:15

Yeah, oh, so much again, a gazillion things. But in thinking about this, the motto that I've adopted for myself, probably just in the last two or three years, is failure is my guru.

For my whole life, fear and fear of failure has been a constant companion. Like just the idea of not succeeding has paralyzed me in a lot of different things. But what I finally realized is that failure is actually where I have learned.

Gresham Harkless 13:46

Yeah, I love that motto, especially when you say failing fast so that you can learn to do something different.

And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Tiffany, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Tiffany Hoeckelman 14:01

Very good. So that is a good question. And it's one that's been hard for me to learn. I think to me a CEO is the maestro.

It's the vision holder. It's the one who holds a vision and then kind of guides the rest of whoever your team is, whatever that might look like, even if it's your spouse or, your the team members, your employees, contractors, whatever, but that you're then guiding it to get to that goal.

And I've always been a technician. That's just kind of been the kind of person I am. So, the doing has always been a lot easier for me.

So, the idea of what a CEO is, is kind of been something I've had to grow into, but making sure that you're holding the vision and making sure everybody's on track to that vision.

Gresham Harkless 14:44

Definitely appreciate you for sharing that with us. And again, I appreciate your time.

What I wanted to do was pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 14:55

Sure, well, as I said, our big thing is helping solopreneurs, service-based solopreneurs, really help to know, communicate, and be their brand identity so that they can best serve and best fulfill their mission in the world.

And so, I would love for people to check out the website, of course, which is just loneorange.com, and that's Lone, L-O-N-E, orange.com, like the Lone Ranger, this is Pete the Lone Orange.

But also, I've got a free checklist out there. So, if you're interested in learning how to know, communicate, and be, and what all that entails, and all those aspects of your business to look at, I've got a free checklist.

We just call it the Know, Communicate, and Be checklist. And so, you can get that at the website, again, at loneorange.com/kcbchecklist.

And, of course, follow me on Facebook, just at Lone Orange. I do Facebook Lives and videos, and I even do some free coaching.

So, certainly follow me there, and I would love to interact with you. If you've got questions, I'd love to interact with you there, too.

Gresham Harkless 16:08

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Tiffany. I truly appreciate it. And we'll have those links as well in the show notes.

So, you can also go down there and follow up with you and connect with you, and meet the Lone Orange as well, too. And I truly appreciate your time again. I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Tiffany Hoeckelman 16:22

My pleasure. Thanks so much, Gresh. Have a good day.

Outro 16:24

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 at 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.

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