The Brand Operating System

Think of your brand operating system as the GPS for your business journey. It provides a clear roadmap, guiding your decisions and ensuring you stay on course towards your long-term goals. Join host Juliet Clark and Tiffany Neuman, founder of Your Legacy Brand™, as Tiffany empowers women entrepreneurs to create a legacy brand operating system that transforms their expertise into a sustainable business. With a background as a creative director, Tiffany reveals the essential elements of building a brand that endures, focusing on scalability, sustainability, and sellability. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from a master and chart your course towards a truly remarkable business journey.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

The Brand Operating System

In this episode, we’re going to talk about branding with one of our experts. Before we get started, I want to remind you that we have this terrific package we put together for the holidays of 2024. It has all of our courses in it like AI platform building, social media for authors, email marketing for authors, content development for authors, and building your author avatar. I’m forgetting something and I don’t remember what it is. We have all of those inside at DIY, one package for the holidays. It’s a $3,000 value. For $9.97, you can get it all and work it at your own pace. You can find that at AuthorBuzzBuilders.com.

Our guest is Tiffany Neuman. She’s a visionary branding strategist who helps driven women entrepreneurs make their message a movement. After fifteen years in the corporate world, working with brands like Adidas, Stoli Vodka, and Burt’s Bees, she left to establish a revolutionary branding business that stays one step ahead of the trends. Tiffany works with clients across the globe to help them 10X their sales and shine even brighter as thought leaders. She is a contributor for Entrepreneur and has been featured in Forbes multiple times as a branding expert. Stay tuned for Tiffany.

—

Inspiration And Goals

Tiffany, welcome. I’m excited to have you here.

Thank you so much for having me, Juliet. I’m so excited to be here.

We know each other from Shannon Procise’s group. You’re a mentor. I am but you are too. There was a lot of collaboration going on over there, which is what makes all of us very successful with all of the points where we intersect and help each other. Tell me what inspired you to create your legacy brand. What do you hope to achieve with it?

I spent almost fifteen years in the corporate world as a creative director. I worked my way up from intern to creative director as a designer. It’s always been in my blood to help brands. I got burnt out in corporate like a lot of us did. Also, I had a child and an older bonus daughter already. I realized that it wasn’t meant for me. I wanted more freedom with all of the things that we think about, those of us who are entrepreneurs.

I decided to leave and start my business. When I did that, I joined a few masterminds and realized that entrepreneurs are my people, specifically women entrepreneurs. Although I do work with some men, I found that especially those of us who are true experts but don’t love visibility or being seen necessarily, it’s harder to create a personal brand and get ahead. Those people who love being in the spotlight, love marketing, and maybe who aren’t true experts sometimes tend to get ahead. That was the case for me when I first came into the online world, to be honest.

It wasn’t until I put my foot down and said, “No, I am a true expert. I’m going to put myself out there.” My career skyrocketed. I decided that I wanted to help women do the same and create a legacy with their brand rather than creating a personal brand. There are some different pillars that I look at in our businesses, which are scalability, sustainability, and then sellability that I have baked into the process. When we talk about having a legacy brand, it’s so much more than colors, fonts, and making things look pretty. It’s establishing a business that’s going to stand the test of time in the long run.

You probably found many of the same people that I did when I first started. They’re good at influencing and selling. They’re horrible at service and caring about their clients. That was my experience. That’s when I got out behind. I was hiding behind a corporate brand of my own. I was like, “No, I’m going to get out there and be a real person.” It is scary. I have to congratulate you for surviving your internship. I remember when I worked at Chiat/Day Advertising, we abused the heck out of those interns. We paid them next to nothing.

Luckily, my internship started at a smaller company. I worked my way up to creative director there. It’s a very long story but I manifested. I was like, “I want to be a creative director in a big company.” I thought I was going to go out, pitch, and apply but it turns out the man who owned the smaller company sold to a larger company, and I became a creative director there. It was amazing. In the internship, I cried but looking back, I’m so grateful for it because it showed me my work ethic and taught me all the things that I didn’t learn in college. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

What was funny about Chiat/Day is this was back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s so we all abused each other terribly. We would tell them, “You’re making next to nothing for the privilege of having us on your resume.” We were very bold about it.

In some sense, part of the abuse is not always necessarily but it’s true in a sense. I had internships in my position as I went to the ranks and it was the same thing. Although I did my best not to make people cry.

I don’t think I made anybody cry.

I didn’t either because I had experienced that. I was like, “I’m not going to do that.”

Success Stories

We didn’t personally get an intern of our own in my department. I didn’t have the power to make them cry but I had a lot of people over me that made me cry. Can you share one of the success stories of someone that you took from that building or impacted a legacy brand?

I’m grateful that I have a lot to share. One of my best-known clients, which I have a couple of, would be my client, Selena Soo, who’s in publicity and things like that. Although she does it differently than Shannon does. She has a big following. She came to me and she had already been somewhat successful. I don’t work with brand-new entrepreneurs. Usually, they at least have some stance. They’ve been selling some and they know where they’re at.

With Selena, she was fairly well-known but she wanted to take her business to the next level. Hers was a rebrand. She moved from New York to Puerto Rico. The brand needed a visual facelift but also brand messaging and strategy. That was amazing to take somebody who was already somewhat successful and help catapult it to the next level. I’m excited because she’s shifting again in her business and we’re having talks about the next phase.

Once you have what I call a legacy brand, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. We rebranded her and we’re in discussions. She’s pivoting a little bit again. She’s talking about Rich Relationships, which is her new book that’s coming out, which I’m excited to talk about. With that, we’re doing a little refresh. There are some new things that need to happen but it’s not like she has to completely pivot again. One of the core pieces of having a legacy brand is we all evolve and are going to change things.

One of the big mistakes that entrepreneurs make is that we like shiny objects. We get bored. We want to reinvent the wheel and change everything. That’s what hurts your brand because it confuses your audience. When you keep the common threads, evolve, and shift, that’s what a legacy brand is. She’s one great example. I have a lot of examples of people who are a lot newer and went from completely unknown to shifting, changing their trajectory, getting known, and stepping into entrepreneurship in a bigger way once we install the brand.

I noticed you said you don’t work with this many newer brands. Newer brands are hard. I find it from my days in advertising that they don’t do the proper market research they need to do. The messaging is muddled and hard. We developed a course called Build Your Author Avatar, where I went through, in a nutshell, all of the areas you keep looking at and should be looking at.

The problem with a lot of people who are helping when you’re brand-new is they focus on demographics and psychographics. They don’t go into all of those other things that are important. I had a call with someone else who was talking about how your first course is usually a copy of someone else’s. I feel like that’s what happens when you first launch an entrepreneur. You’re looking at someone you like and be like, “I want to be like them,” but you can’t be them.

From a brand standpoint, I talk about being a category of one brand. If you’re trying to be like someone else, you’re not going to stand out at all. I have a program also. It’s for newer entrepreneurs. When you first start, I say, “Go for it. Get some sales under your belt, see who you want to work with and what you want to teach, and then it’s time to invest in your brand and take it to the next level.” I 100% agree.

That is tough. Several years ago, you might remember Danielle LaPorte and the sticky notes. Everybody was doing sticky notes and it’s like, “Wait, that’s hers.”

I see that a lot with card decks too, all of a sudden. James Wedmore did some card decks. I’m sure other people did it too but that’s a big thing.

We were doing quizzes for a while. That’s pretty much in 2020 when people jumped off of COVID and didn’t have a digital presence. We did a ton of quizzes. It does go in and out. I knew somebody who did cards back in 2016 and they were beautiful. They probably copied her.

Maybe.

Essential Elements

What are some of the key elements that you think are essential for creating that successful legacy brand?

The core pieces are having a well-rounded vision. Everything and everyone talks about vision. We need to start with a vision and knowing where you want to go but especially with the brand, I see so many people branding for where they are. It does them a disservice rather than branding for where they want to be. I love to help people like, “Look at that vision. Where do you want to be 3, 5, or 10 years from now? Reverse engineer it.” You are stepping into that brand sooner, showing up as the thought leader that you want to be and where you want to be. It happens a lot faster.

I’ve had myself and a lot of clients who thought their ten-year vision was way out there and then doing the work. It happens in two years. You have to put it on. Branding is a shift in identity, not just pretty pictures and logos. We do the messaging, demographics, psychographics, brand story, visuals, and all those things but ultimately, it is stepping into a new identity and owning that. If you do all of those other things and don’t do the identity work, then you’re not going to get the results.

That’s the other piece that’s important for most brand strategists. I believe I haven’t heard people talking about it as much. It’s the inner and outer work together. If you’re not stepping into that, your energetics are going to be off and then people feel that. You’re pretending to be that person. What I look at is capturing people’s true essence. The brand reflects what you’re saying and who you truly are, rather than trying to be somebody. Many people are emulating somebody else and they’re always going to feel imposter-y because they’re not being themselves. Those are some of the first foundational pieces that are there. I could talk about colors, fonts, color psychology, and all of those things but that’s a given.

People are looking for that alignment. When they meet you, your marketing matches who you are. I encountered that at so many events. I would see somebody’s marketing and then I’d meet them, being loud and proud. I’d meet them and they were meek. People don’t realize how much that doesn’t foster trust. You’re right. People do feel it. It’s the difference between I’ve always been good at sales, not because I’m a salesperson but because I care and I love helping.

Back when I was in real estate, I was a high-end real estate broker in California. My ex-husband used to always say, “You just sell them.” I’d have to say, “No, I’m not a salesperson. I’m a problem solver.” You can’t get somebody to buy a $5 million house with a sales job. There are a lot of problems in the interim. Once you own that and what you’re doing with it, that’s when people feel that alignment and, “I trust you, I want to hire you,” type of thing.

I love that you pointed that out. I got back from an event in New York City myself. I feel like the opposite is true too. I had a woman who came up to me and she’s like, “I come to these events because I get so many new clients when I’m in person but that’s not reflecting online.” Sometimes, it’s one way online and it doesn’t reflect in person or they show up in person, people feel their energy and are attracted, but that’s not reflecting in their marketing. It goes both ways.

Legacy Brand Vs Traditional Brand

It’s funny that you said that in person. When we work with our authors, one of the first things we do with their platform is how we are going to get them out there with a monthly Zoom call and some training, something where these people show up and you can talk to them on a one-on-one basis. People are so focused on digital marketing but a click is not a relationship. How can you draw those people in with something you have and be able to start talking to them? Probably at least 90% of those people who show up on calls end up being our clients. It works when you get yourself out there and talk to them. How is a legacy brand different from a traditional brand?

I looked at what was working from the corporate standpoint. I worked with Burt’s Bees, Stoli Vodka, Chase Bank, Adidas, and a lot of bigger brands. I would consider all of them as legacy brands in some way, whether you enjoy those brands or not. The legacy brands truly stand the test of time. With normal brands, and most entrepreneurs too, especially online, there are trends and things that are happening. I’ve seen so many people go through these iterations. They keep shifting and changing. They’re not building that solid foundation, not only for themselves so they don’t go crazy but for their audience.

Even if you do, you’re going to evolve, shift, and have new offers but you need that solid foundation that doesn’t change for people to get to know, like, and trust you. They’re not like, “What is happening with this person? I don’t know who they are and what they’re doing.” Like Target, for instance, you’re never going to see Target’s logo randomly switch from red to purple. I love the idea of Levi’s jeans. They’ve been around for hundreds of years. Their logo changes slightly and their messaging has to stay up with the times. They shift and evolve with that foundation. Their legacy is always there. They’re not changing their values, long-term vision, and those pieces. They’re not changing the core of who they are.

A lot of times online, people get caught up in trends or what’s happening. Without realizing it, and this is usually always subconscious, they try to almost change who they are to see if that’s going to help their results rather than standing true to the foundation of who they are and what their brand is. Also, try different marketing strategies and things. Yes, you’re going to have new offers and that’s the foundational piece of a legacy.

I think about the impact that we’re making in the world. The world needs it now more than ever. What’s that legacy you’re leaving behind? It doesn’t mean necessarily having your face carved into a mountain or this big ego. It’s more about the ripple effects that you’re making. What are you leaving behind? If you were creating a book, that’s something that somebody could pick up 200 years later and still have an impact on. That’s crazy. I thought that when I first started, I wanted to make an impact. How is branding going to make an impact? It does because if I can help my clients have more success, that’s the ripple effect. They’re helping more people. It goes out from there. That applies to all of us if we want to make an impact.

I see this a lot with people who are starting. They think, “Online businesses are super lucrative. I can sell the heck out of something.” They’ll come to me with a book three years later. When I ask them, “Do you have a list,” they’ll be like, “Yeah, but it was that old thing I was doing. I haven’t kept in touch.” It’s like, “How are we supposed to sell this book when you have no platform?” A lot of that has to do with them not getting in and establishing that niche audience early with it.

When I first started, I floundered in that way. I had this caricature that I had done, the Santa Monica Pier, the little jars. It’s all the attributes of Kathy. She was in a convertible waving like a happy entrepreneur. I had all the things underneath like the psychographics and demographics. Once I started being able to look at that picture, when I was talking to someone, I would say, “You’re not Kathy.” In business, I started attracting more Kathy once I visually started doing that. A lot of times, we don’t do our research well enough when we first start and it fails.

I 100% agree. We do it, get a good start, and then get bored and move on. Many entrepreneurs do something, build it, and then get bored. That’s in a lot of our DNA but not everybody. It breaks the mold and it’s not giving that solid foundation. I don’t know about you but I’m here to play the long game. What it takes is planning on that and then sticking to it in a sense.

I’m one of those boredom people. I have to admit to you.

Me too.

I have a schedule that beats the boredom. I work my butt off during the snowy months, create new things, go play golf, and hike the rest of the year. I created it. I’m going to do the classes but I’m not going to get reinvested in my boredom and create something new that won’t. I have something new every year that I can go on.

Allow yourself to grow and play. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater every time. I’m the same way. I like to change things up but you got to find other creative ways to do that.

You have to be congruent in your creation so it doesn’t seem disjointed. I have someone who changed brands three times since 2020 that I’ve known her. One of them was the day her book was released. She’s like, “I don’t think I want to do that anymore. It’s like, “You wrote a whole book.”

It kills me to see that. I don’t even think they realize what they’re doing sometimes. I see it all the time too. It is out of boredom. That’s where I created something that we call a Brand Operating System. When we create the brand, it’s a whole ecosystem. It’s not just the colors, logos, and fonts. It has a framework. If you want to add something new, you can do that but we look at how that fits into the ecosystem so you can keep creating but not constantly changing lanes and pivoting. It’s like, “Let’s add, expand, and evolve without changing everything.”

Role Of Storytelling

Here’s a trick question that I know you’re going to answer well. In your opinion, what role does storytelling play in your legacy brand?

Storytelling is a huge piece of your brand. There are two distinct types of stories in my world, which are our personal stories. I also help people craft signature talks that they can share from the stage as part of their brand typically because you have to be able to do that once you have the brand. Get clear on what part of our stories is relevant to our audience and what’s going to speak to them.

We’re told to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is key but sometimes people are too vulnerable and/or sometimes the stories aren’t relevant. People are like, “What does this have to do even with me and my business?” As your ideal audience, people want to hear what’s in it for them, ultimately. Your story is relevant but people want to hear what’s in it for them.

The other side of the puzzle is the brand story. For instance, who is your Kathy? What do they want to hear? What’s the story that we’re telling them rather than these marketing messages where we’re throwing spaghetti at the wall and trying to pitch things inviting? I call it pull marketing rather than push marketing. Rather than pushing on people, it is all about storytelling and how we can have empathy with where they are and show them how we can support them.

I don’t ever try to sell people. I don’t want to work with people who don’t need my services and try to coerce them into working with me. It’s more about inviting them in and saying, “If these are the things that you’re struggling with, I’m here as an expert to help you.” We all need experts. I need experts too. Telling stories in that frame of mind is important.

Along with all the foundational pieces, storytelling is a huge key to a legacy brand and branding in general. If your brand’s not on point, then your marketing’s not going to work. That’s what it all comes down to. A lot of people confuse branding and marketing. The way I look at it is your brand marketing is part of your brand. If you have the brand clear, the marketing will work.

Gift For Audience

You have a gift for us. Where do we find that at?

You mentioned quizzes earlier. I put together a quiz. It was also during the pandemic. I found people were getting over PDFs, downloads, and things like that. For certain businesses, it could still work but nobody needs more digital dust. People love personality tests and quizzes and learning things. People are busy too. For me, I thought, “What’s a quick win that people could get to understand what their brand operating system is?”

How I work to create the legacy brand is we install an operating system in people’s businesses the way I like to look at it. By taking the quiz, you find out where your brand operating system is and then the best way to start to fix it. If your brand’s not working and not functioning properly, also the system is not there, then everything else is going to be off. That’s what you learn in that quiz. It’s simple. It’s YourLegacyBrand.com/Quiz.

You are going to love this. You will, Tiffany. When we were doing all those quizzes, the people who were very well-branded rushed it. The people who weren’t were total failures. That’s why I quit doing them. You can’t expect me to build a quiz for you if you don’t know what your brand is. If that messaging is muddled like, “Why are we asking that? What are we doing,” that’s very interesting.

That’s why I don’t do them as much as I used to because so many people couldn’t nail their brand in a way that made those quizzes effective. I’ve made hundreds of thousands of dollars off my quizzes. I’m not just building them but my own that I put out there as well. Where do we find you? If somebody wants to reach out, should they go take the quiz and there’s a contact?

The quiz is great. You get on my list as well, get tips, and all of my branding tips long-term. Otherwise, I’m hanging out on LinkedIn. What I’ve been talking about a ton is being social media optional. I left Facebook and Instagram for the most part. I’m still there. I found myself left in the corporate. I was like, “I don’t want to be on LinkedIn.” About a year ago, somebody’s like, “Check it out. It’s shifted and changed.” I have been loving it. It’s a place where we can share our thought leadership and communicate with others on a higher level. If anywhere, that’s where to connect with me the most.

I got kicked off Facebook in 2020. We are starting an Instagram strategy. We hired someone and it was such a mess. I’d already opened a new Instagram account. I didn’t have anything on Facebook and it had to be attached to run the ads. It was a pain. What I love about it is I’ve gotten myself to the point where I don’t have to be there. I jump on LinkedIn. I comment, do things, and then get off. Facebook and Instagram are a time suck to be on there. What was funny about Facebook was I got canceled and then went through withdrawals. I needed rehab. That’s when I realized how much I’d been on there. It was good because I had some crazy addiction thing going on with it.

Most people do and we don’t realize it. I did that myself. My team helps me post on Instagram. It’s the same thing because I get sucked in. I’m shifting my strategy there and going all in on LinkedIn. That’s what it comes down to. If somebody is like, “I love Facebook,” that’s part of your brand too. We have to figure out what we enjoy and where our ideal clients are hanging out. Where’s that sweet spot? Think about it like a Venn diagram. For you, Instagram sounds the way. For me, it’s LinkedIn. For somebody else, it might be Facebook. We have to figure that sweet spot out. If anybody says, “It’s got to be this one way where it sells and this is the one way,” it’s not necessarily the case because we’re all unique.

I’ve had a robust LinkedIn strategy since 2019. I’ve got almost 17,000 followers. Instagram was more of my kids got me on it. I started seeing all this book stuff. I was like, “Why is the magazine not over there? Why is my podcast not over there?” I’m missing out on an opportunity. I had to weigh it with, “I cannot do another social media so I’m going to hire someone for this one.” Thank you very much for being here. I’m super excited that you could share all this information with us.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so loving it too. The books and branding go together hand in hand. To have a strong book strategy, you need a strong brand and vice versa. To have an amazing thought leader brand, a book and adding that on is inevitable long-term for thought leadership.

Thank you.

Important Links

• Author Buzz Builders
• Tiffany Neuman
• Build Your Author Avatar
• Your Legacy Brand Quiz
• LinkedIn – Tiffany Neuman

About Tiffany Neuman

Tiffany Neuman is a visionary branding strategist who helps driven women entrepreneurs make their message a movement. After 15 years in the corporate world, working with brands like Adidas, Stoli Vodka and Burt’s Bees, she left to establish a revolutionary branding business that stays one step ahead of trends. Tiffany now works with clients across the globe to help them 10x their sales and shine even brighter as thought leaders. She is a contributor for Entrepreneur and has been featured in Forbes multiple times as a branding expert.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

• superbrandpublishing.com
• Promote, Profit, Publish on YouTube
• Follow Juliet on LinkedIn
• Take the Quiz!