Elevate Your Brand: Essential Tips and Strategies with Katie Soyka
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Hello bold goal crushers, we have another Exciting episode of the bold gold crusher podcast, but this one is a little different. I'm doing a series where I am giving the mic to my friends and they're taking over as the host and I know you're going to love our very first one. Our guest host is Katie. So it got an incredible brand photographer, my friend, and she has extensive experience helping women own businesses elevate their brands in this episode.
Sara Mayer: She breaks down the key differences between a brand and a business. And why having a strong brand can save you time, pre qualified leads, and add massive value. She dives into the three essential components of branding, your brand's impression, your visual identity, like logos and color psychology, and client experience.
Sara Mayer: Plus, she's sharing actionable tips on [00:01:00] staying consistent. And leveraging your unique qualities to build a memorable brand. So if you're ready to take your brand to the next level in this episode, you are going to learn how to do that. Let's get started. Katie, I'm so excited to hand you the mic for you to take it away.
Katie Soyka: Hey, guys. Welcome. Welcome in. I am so excited to be here. Thank you, Sara, for having me. I have known Sara for years. I love what you do to help business owners raise their voices in business. I have a very similar message. And of course it's more specific to photography and branding, but I am thrilled to be here to share my best tips and tricks with your audience.
Katie Soyka: So thank you so much, Sara, for having me today. You guys are going to talk about if you have the bold goal to elevate your brand. How do you do that? How do you do it? So in this, I'm going to cover what is your brand? How is it [00:02:00] different from your business? It's not your business. And why is it important to know what your brand is?
Katie Soyka: What does having a strong brand do for your business? And then I'm going to give you three different ways to think about your branding and my best tips and strategies for tackling each of these three. So I'm going to share concrete examples of how I do this. Through my own rebranding and how my clients do this a brief aside.
Katie Soyka: I am a brand photographer who primarily works with women owned businesses to help them create strong branding through visuals, capture clean, beautiful photos, and most importantly, raise their voice in business. And so that's the perspective that I'm coming. at this from, but I encourage you to find, hopefully you will connect with some of those nuggets.
Katie Soyka: I hope that you will be able [00:03:00] to take away a few strategies of how these can apply to your own business, no matter what your business is, no matter if you have a product or a service. And so let's go ahead and dive in. What is branding? Branding, as I already alluded to, it's different from your business.
Katie Soyka: Your business is the exchange of your product or service for money. It's I do this service and I get paid this, but your brand is bigger. Your brand encompasses all. It's outside of the actual business transactions because it can house many different businesses. It is. The way your product or service is perceived by those who's experience it.
Katie Soyka: It's the overall impression. And so when you elevate your brand, which is our goal for this podcast, getting you to think about how you can elevate your specific business. [00:04:00] When you accomplish this, you do two things. You send the message that you invest in your brand, just as you're asking people to invest in your business.
Katie Soyka: And the second thing that you do. It happens to all of us. We might think that we're above this, but we're not. It raises the perceived value of your product or service. You could be doing the exact same thing, the exact same way, but if your branding does not look good, people are not going to have that high impression of you.
Katie Soyka: Ultimately, Why is this important? Why should this be one of our bold goals in 2025? Strong brands save you time. If you have clear messaging, it can eliminate the need to explain over and over again what you do. And Your leads are prequalified. They're coming in. They know exactly what you're all about.
Katie Soyka: And so your energy is going to what matters, which is building value for those ideal clients and your [00:05:00] business. So before I talk about the three different ways to look at your brand and my specific tips and strategies, I want to be really clear in that everybody has a brand. Whether or not you have focused on your brand in the past, Let me rephrase that.
Katie Soyka: Everybody has a brand. And if you're like Katie, I haven't really focused on that. I've just started doing my business and whatever my branding as it is, you have a brand just because you haven't focused on it. It doesn't mean you don't have a brand. It just means that you have an unfocused, unclear brand.
Katie Soyka: And so that is what I want all of us to move away from as we elevate. And so let's dig in, shall we? I told you, I'm going to talk about three different ways to think about your brand. The first is the impression of you and your business and what you do. This is the quote by Jeff Bezos that your brand is what other people's.
Katie Soyka: Your brand is what other people say about you when you're [00:06:00] not in the room. So this is marketing that is working when you are not physically there talking to somebody, marketing that is working when they are not physically on your website. It's what is perceived value of you, what people are saying about you.
Katie Soyka: So how can we as business owners tackle this? How can we take control over this? What our impression is. Here is an exercise that I do with all of my brand photography clients before I have a photo shoot with them. And I think it's very helpful for you to get clear on your branding and the impression that you're putting out there.
Katie Soyka: It's called your three brand essence words. So your brand essence words are descriptors. They're adjectives. They could be words. Feel right. It's not sentences. It's not paragraphs. It's not explaining what you do. It's just simple, clear words that describe your brand. How do you want people to experience [00:07:00] working with you?
Katie Soyka: And for example, the brand essence words of my business elevate brand photography is positive, empowering and beautiful because that's how I want people to see my work. That's how I want them to feel working with me. You might have it. Brand that is bold and vibrant or showy, or you might have classic traditional, you might have one in the whole foods that it's natural, it's, earthy or I don't know.
Katie Soyka: There's it really runs the gamut, your brand essence words, but sit down, make a whole list and then go ahead and just circle those three words that really define how you want people to perceive you. And then that's something that we use when you're coming up with your look and your photos and all of the messaging that you put out there.
Katie Soyka: The second way that you can take control over the impression of your brand is through [00:08:00] Social proof. What are other people saying? This is asking people for client testimonials, asking for reviews. If you are not that far in your business yet, you can talk to your friends and family and say, what do you what is the impression of the work that I do from your point of view?
Katie Soyka: Because a lot of times we're too close to it, right? We don't see it. And the third tip that I want to give you when it comes to the impression of people that have the third tip that I want to give you when it comes to what impression people have of your branding is the content that you put out. Has a major effect on how people perceive you.
Katie Soyka: If you want to be seen as helping a certain kind of person, then you better be putting content out there that aligns with that. And what do I mean by content? It can be anything, right? It can be an Instagram post. It can be an article on LinkedIn. [00:09:00] It can be writing a blog. It can be Being a guest on podcasts, it can be speaking engagements.
Katie Soyka: The third way that we can really control the impression out there is through your content. And what do I mean by content? It's what you say. It's Pieces of information that you put out. It could be a social media post. It could be an Instagram video. It could be a LinkedIn article. It could be your blog.
Katie Soyka: It could be your email list. And I don't want you to get bogged down into all of the ways because clearly we cannot do all of the ways as business owners. I heard somebody say it really one time when they said, choose one thing that you will focus on and then it should be something that you enjoy or you're not going to do it.
Katie Soyka: So my tip is this, Every week I find one piece of content. I find one thing that I can talk about and I share that on an Instagram reel. I call it a raise, raise your voice video. And so [00:10:00] I just record a little 90 second. Here's me talking about this topic. But then I take that piece of content and I reuse it.
Katie Soyka: So for me personally, that is what I link into my weekly email and then I just add a little personal flair to my weekly email and then once a month I'll look at all those videos and I'll take that contents and I'll write it into a blog. And so if you just find One topic to talk about each week and put it out there.
Katie Soyka: That is a way to live your brand essence words and show your ideal clients that you are there for them to help them to educate them. And so being consistent with that content is very important when it comes to the impression of your branding. You're not just sitting, you're not just sitting back in your website and letting that do all the work for you.
Katie Soyka: You are out there in the trenches, sharing relevant content to your ideal clients. [00:11:00] So I hope that was helpful. The second thing I want to talk about when it comes to defining your brand is the look, right? So this is probably what you thought about when you first clicked on this, because it's what everybody thinks about with your brand, your logo and your colors and your photos.
Katie Soyka: So this is very important when it comes to branding. But it's not the whole picture. So we talked about first the impression, what people think about you when you're not there. And this is what do you look like? What are the actual visuals of your brand? So again, it can be colors, logos, your designs, your photos.
Katie Soyka: So how do we elevate your look? The first thing that you might want to do is conduct a brand audit to see where you stand. A brand audit is just thinking about all of the places you live online. All of your client touch points. Where do people see [00:12:00] you? You might have an email signature. You might have a website.
Katie Soyka: You might have a social media profile. You might have LinkedIn trying to think of other ones, your podcast cover. You might have a mailer or a flyer or a sign outside your store. And so these are all of the client touch points they should match. And how do they match with logos? And colors and fonts and photography your photos.
Katie Soyka: That's why people come to me, but I'm not talking specifically about photos today because I can't help you with that because I'm not photographing you. But what I can help you with is when it comes to your website and your color. Here are some tips.
Katie Soyka: So once you've conducted your brand audit, you might realize that you have a strong brand, or maybe you need a little bit of help. And so the thing that I want to help you with is colors, because 80 percent of brand awareness is influenced by [00:13:00] your colors. So if this is something that you need help with, Have some tips.
Katie Soyka: First of all, do you know color psychology because color psychology can help you to pick brand colors that align with the essence of your brand and your messaging and the overall impression you want people to have. So I'm going to buzz through some colors really quickly. I'm going to tell you a color and then I'm going to tell you some traits that are associated with it.
Katie Soyka: So maybe if you want to bring those out in your brand, that's a brand color that you could focus on. Blue is loyalty, stability, and tranquility. Red is passion, aggression, intense. Yellow is happiness, optimism, and youth. And I've also heard that yellow makes you hungry, which kind of explains McDonald's.
Katie Soyka: Green is healing, success, and hope. And I would add natural. The natural world and the earth. Black [00:14:00] signifies power, mystery, it has a professionalism that's linked to it. Purple, I love purple. Purple is royalty, spirituality, and luxury. Brown is stability and natural reliability, again, of the earth. Orange is energy, fun, and warmth.
Katie Soyka: And I love that Sara's Sara Mayer's brand colors have this because she does have a lot of warmth and energy. And white stands for purity, cleanliness, innocence. Gray is neutral. I don't know if you want your brand to be neutral, but I guess it has a little bit of calmness to it. Neutral, practical, and quiet.
Katie Soyka: Pink is love, kindness and femininity, and so my brand colors are a royal blue and pink because I want people to raise their voices in business, and I primarily work with women. So I'm not afraid [00:15:00] of embracing a little bit of pink, but I hope that was helpful. A color palette for a strong brand should really have about five brand colors.
Katie Soyka: You're going to have two colors. Main colors and then an accents that you throw in. That one might be a little more bold and then a light and a dark neutral. Because if you have five colors, you can really fill out that website. You can really fill out those social media posts. And also keep in mind that you want to have plenty of contrast among your colors you want to have when you're looking through your website.
Katie Soyka: You want to have light and dark and you don't want your colors to be too close together because you want it to be very legible and easy to read. We do not want to confuse our ideal clients and we certainly don't want to make them mad if they have to squint at what we're putting out there. So if you need some colors, I want to share with you.
Katie Soyka: a couple of websites that I share in my build [00:16:00] your brand course, because if you need brand colors from scratch, you can go to this website. It's really cool. It's coolers. co. So www. coolors. com. dot c o. You start the generator and it gives you a brand palette and then you just keep hitting the space bar and you switch colors.
Katie Soyka: And so it'll tell you what colors look good together. And when you see something you like, you can lock in a specific color and then keep hitting the space bar. If you really love this green, then you lock in that one and then you keep hitting space and then other colors. Fill in. And so I just think that's a really cool place to play.
Katie Soyka: Another website that you might find helpful is a website that gives you different versions of an existing color. So when I first started getting my branding together, I was given two colors. I had a blue and I had a pink, but I didn't have five different brand colors. And [00:17:00] so I went to this website. It's color hex.
Katie Soyka: com. So it's www. color, C O L O R. dash hex h e x dot com. And what you do is you can put in the hex code. A hex code is just the name of your color. If you are on Canva, you can click on it and you can see the hex code. You enter a hex code and then it'll give you shades and tints of that exact same Color shades just means darker versions and tints just mean lighter versions.
Katie Soyka: And so this is really helpful when you're creating content, or if you're doing a flyer or social media posts or anything artistic for your visual branding, you might want different versions of the same color to really fill out those patterns. To make your business look more appealing. So we have talked about the first [00:18:00] two ways to define your brand.
Katie Soyka: The impression what people are saying about you when you're not in the room and your look your visuals just to wrap up to get that look really nailed down something that you can do is create a mood board for your business. You can find those templates all over. All over online. You can find them in Canva and your mood board is going to help you pull together your brand colors, your logo and your thoughts because you want to be recognized instantly by your ideal clients.
Katie Soyka: Finally, I would like to get into the experience of your brand. The experience is how do your ideal clients experience working with you? We've talked about. the impression that they have of you when you're not in your when you're not in the room. What are they saying about you? What are your testimonials?
Katie Soyka: We've talked about your [00:19:00] look and that is your colors and your logos and the visuals are very important. But this is really where you can shine your brand and combine all of the elements. And so how do we do this? The first thing that you might want to do is in order to shine your brain, you have to know what your branding is.
Katie Soyka: We've talked about the look, but I want you to define your secret sauce. What is unique about you? What is special about how you do business? Because that is the message that you just want to keep putting out there. The more consistent you are with your look and the more consistent you are.
Katie Soyka: with your words and your messaging, the more you will be easily recognized and the stronger brand you have. And so if you have no idea what makes you special, maybe you need to start with an exercise that I call marketing from within. It's where you really go deep and you talk about your story. Why are you doing what you do?
Katie Soyka: [00:20:00] How did you get into this business? What's unique? What's unique about your. As a business owner. Do did you go through this struggle in your own life and now you want to help other women in their search? Were you you didn't have formal training and you figured it out. And so you want to help other people do that.
Katie Soyka: What is it about your story that you can translate into something that you're passionate about when it comes to Your secret sauce and what's unique about you. And then another thing that you can do is create an I believe statement. This is literally a statement that starts with the words I believe.
Katie Soyka: And let me give you an example of what I have in my own business. I believe that What is it?
Katie Soyka: Let me give you an example of the belief statement I have in my own business is I believe that when women invest in themselves, they step into their power and raise their voice. That is something that colors [00:21:00] everything I do in my business and how I talk to my clients. And so if you. So just think about a statement that you believe in that might be the perfect anchor for you to be able to define your secret sauce.
Katie Soyka: This can go on your website. It can go on your profile. It is really marketing. It's marketing help that you can use over and over again, your belief statement, and you want to infuse that message everywhere. And then. How else can we, how else can we alter the way that clients experience working with us?
Katie Soyka: It's all of the things that you're putting out into the world with your branding. For me, I create a client welcome gift. I mail them a little, I should go get it. I should show it to you right here.
Katie Soyka: I mail a client welcome gift. A crystal. And then I mail them with this little postcard that of course has my brand colors and my logo in it. And other [00:22:00] things you can do are to align yourself with strategic partners that also have the same messaging and brand essence that you do. That's another way to shine your All right.
Katie Soyka: You can get with networking, you can do events. I also really try to elevate the client experience by providing a pre shoot and a post shoot guide. And so I know that's something that sets me apart from other photographers that are like show up on this date and here are your photos. I have a whole how to prepare props.
Katie Soyka: What to wear, what to bring. And then I have, here's the ways that you can use your photos. And I help with some of that marketing help after their shoot. And so that's ways that I shine my brand and I take control over the. experience that clients have working with me. And so I want you to think about where can you really dig in [00:23:00] and leverage what makes you unique and translate it into a unique client experience.
Katie Soyka: And just to wrap up, I, confidence is huge for me. I. I pride myself in helping women feel confident in front of the camera. And so ultimately I hope that this podcast helped you feel confident in your branding. And in order to feel confident in your branding, truly consistency is the key. Once you know what your brand is, Once you know what it looks like, once you know those words you're going to use, maybe it's your belief statement, maybe it's your brand essence words.
Katie Soyka: Maybe it's that piece of content that you just keep putting out there, being consistent with it. Because when you have a strong brand in place, you don't have competition because there isn't another you. And so I hope that this was so helpful for you to think about your brand and really be. I cannot wait to [00:24:00] see how you use this information and please don't hesitate to reach out to me.
Katie Soyka: My website is elevate brand photography. I have some branding information. I have a course. I have a brand book template there where it's I'll show it to you. It is. 36 page camp, a template where you can put all of your brand elements in there and then print it for yourself. This is mine. It's just a showpiece for your brand to help you show up consistently on brand and with power.
Katie Soyka: And so with that, thank you for having me, Sara. Thank you so much for listening. And I would love to hear any questions that you have. Bye guys.
