Nowadays, people tend to work with someone visible, and they’re comfortable with, even if it means that they have to pay more. This is a living testimonial of how important personal brands are at a deeper level than what people are used to seeing. Sometimes, attracting clients boils down to how you position and connect yourself with the people around you. Kolbe Certified Consultant, Alicia Couri, sets you up on how to build a strong and powerful personal brand. She goes all the way to the beginning and shares the things that she personally did to become confident and make herself visible. Learn about the three Ps that she practices and tactics on how she evolved from being someone in the background to being the first person you notice.

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Be Visible: Boosting Your Personal Brand With Alicia Couri

I met our guest at an event. I was impressed by her style if you could see how she dresses and how she looks. Her name is Alicia Couri and she is a dynamic empowerment speaker, Kolbe-certified consultant, author, actor, beauty and style expert, and a personal branding expert. She shares her message on overcoming low self-esteem and lack of confidence, which has created massive opportunities that inform, influence, impact and transform all the lives that she touches. Alicia’s work with her company Red Carpet CEO, which is trademark by the way, has transitioned her into a corporate market as a Kolbe-certified consultant, consulting them on mitigating stress, conflict and overwhelm for employees and teams that are all around the CEOs.

Alicia has appeared on copious network television and radio stations hosted by her own radio/TV show, Unleash Your Audacious Confidence. She has two books that are focused on self-development self-care and are fun and easy reads that are both simple and profound at the same time. Alicia’s personal branding expert mission is to influence, educate, inspire and entertain. She helps her clients build visibility powerfully so that they can attract more clients and close more sales. Get ready to boost your personal brand and income with Alicia’s three P’s to profitability in personal branding. That’s cool. You’re going to have to tell us about those three P’s. Welcome.

Thank you, Juliet. I was impressed by you, too, in meeting you at the event. I’m honored that you invited me to your show.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Tell them about your crown.

I was named Ms. Florida Woman of Achievement 2019 and the national competition was 2019 to 2020. The national competition is in November of 2019. I’ll be competing with other women of achievement around the United States for the national title.

We all showed up in jeans and Alicia was stylish. I’m excited. You have two books and one of them is around style, isn’t it?

Yes, it’s around confidence and style. The book is Your Signature Style: Unlocking the Confidence, Style & Influence of the Savvy CEO. It was all about my journey into stepping into confidence. I went to fashion school and I’ve learned. I used to do styling on photo shoots and video production. I then went into the beauty industry for a long-time doing hair and makeup on-site for photo shoots, weddings, video shoots, and red-carpet events. I wrote the book not just from the angle of style and beauty but also from the angle of confidence because I realized when I was attempting to brand my business in a stronger way, what I ended up doing was branding myself.

I ended up doing personal branding and not so much business branding. Through that process of doing the personal brand, I realized how many fears, limiting beliefs and things were holding me back and how low my confidence was. I said no to many opportunities that came my way because I lack the confidence in myself, in my worth and value to think I could do it. It was easier to say no instead of facing my own fear and stepping into that opportunity and failing. It was easier to say, “No, thank you. It’s okay. I don’t need to do that.”

This is why being Ms. Florida is a step for me because instead of just saying, “I don’t need to do that. I’m running my business and I’m doing all right,” I’m stepping into something that I’ve never done before. I’ve never done a pageant before. I’ve never had myself judged before in that way. I’ve grown up thinking I’m being judged, but I’ve never put myself out there to be judged. I have to overcome that. If I’m going to live with audacious confidence, I can’t be afraid to step out and not enter this pageant for fear of being judged.

I see many entrepreneurs out there who are teaching something. They’re presenting something who has exactly the same problem and they haven’t overcome those fears, good job with that. The style led you to create your branding business, which is huge right now. There are many people who I see in the publishing industry or with our quiz platform that don’t understand that. They’re trying to hide behind that corporate brand when the real reason people are buying is them. What they need is a lot of personal branding.

That is what I try to do. They hide behind, “This is my business and this is what we do.” You hide behind your deliverables and your benefits but people don’t necessarily buy your benefits. They buy who you are and they buy how they can connect on a personal level with you. If you’re going to keep leading with, “This is just what I do,” as opposed to, “This is who I am,” you’re missing out on a whole segment of the population that wants to get to know who they’re working with. They want to get to know you on a more personal level so that they can connect with you and build a stronger and longer-lasting relationship in that. They talk about the sales cycle. They’ll have a longer sales cycle with this person if they connect with you through your personal brand rather than, “You sold me this,” end of story. “That’s it. I don’t need to get anything else from you.” That’s why it’s become important and that’s why even CEOs and some heads of companies are looking at personal branding to help boost their company for people to get to know them better. They’re going out and being speakers. They’re going out and becoming the face of the company.

I also did that. In the first two years, I was a publishing company but I didn’t tell my story. People didn’t know how I got into it. In the third year, I was sitting with somebody I knew who is a personal branding expert. She’s like, “Tell me a little bit about what brought you here. What was your employment background?” I told her and she’s like, “Why didn’t I know you wrote a book where you killed your ex-husband and worked at traditional publishing? All of that makes you interesting.” The company itself is not interesting.

It makes you unique because you need to separate yourself from the noise. There are a million publishing companies out there, but what makes you different? What makes me, as a female entrepreneur, want to use you as a publisher as opposed to anyone else out there? It would be, “I’m connected to your story. Your story is my story. You understand me. I am more inclined to hire you to work with because we have a connection now. You understand where I’m coming from. You can help me develop this book or this product even better because you and I are on the same wavelength.” It’s not just selling a product.

You’re selling yourself. I see a lot of CEOs out there. I’m working with one, who wants to develop a book. The book is to generate more income for a different segment of his business. It’s interesting that he understands that this has to be about him and how interesting he is, but most of all, that he’s developed a $100 million company before. He can do it for you as well. People don’t get that part of the story. When you’re storytelling, what are some of the questions you dig out of people like you get the answers to that you think are important?

Your Signature Style

I talk about the 3 P’s. Posture is the first P and the reason I talk about posture is that it’s all about you. It’s all about developing a strong core for yourself when you look physically at posture. If someone doesn’t have a strong core, they slouch or they’re not sitting upright and straight. You need to have a strong core, which is your confidence. It is your orientation. How do you think? What do you believe? How are you oriented? What are your results? You talk about $100 million, what are your results? How do people get to know what you’ve done? I have two Rs that’s in the core. What is your relevance to me in developing your story? What are your expertise and experience? In developing your story, we have to look at your core. We have to look at why you have confidence in this. What is your confidence? What is your big why? What is your big reason for doing this? When you develop what’s your reasoning, what’s behind all of this, then you have confidence in what it is that you’re selling, showing or presenting.

To me, developing your core is knowing all these things about yourself. Sometimes, we don’t know all these things about ourselves because we live and not think. We don’t dissect it. We don’t think about all the different areas of our life. My first thing is digging into your core and into those different steps. I spell core as CORREE. We dig into all those things so that you can start mapping your story and build your posture. After your posture, I look at your presentation. How are you presenting yourself not just online but offline? You mentioned that whenever I walk into the room and everybody was in jeans and a t-shirt and everything and I was not in jeans. I always think about that. How am I presenting myself when I meet someone for the first time? You have seven seconds to form an impression of somebody.

It’s not in a pretentious way, this is my authentic way and this is who I am because I used to hide. I would dress down, I would walk into a room and want to be unnoticed, which is counterproductive to networking. It’s counterproductive to going out and being there. I made the switch in my mind that in order to be audaciously confident, I need to stand out. I need to stop hiding who I am. I make an effort to dress in a way and red is one of my brand colors. I do wear red when I am in a situation for the first time and when I’m meeting people for the first time. I do my best to wear something red to represent my brand. That’s memorable.

Before we went to that event, I went to another event in Carnegie Hall in New York for three days. I was noticed as the one in red. Even one of the speakers who was the Vice President of American Media, Dylan Howard, he ran the National Enquirer, OK!, In Touch Magazine, and Life & Style. He was the guy at one time for all those publications. I stood up and I asked a question and he gave everyone his email. I sent him an email message and I saw him later on that day. We were taking photos and stuff. He’s like, “I got your email.” He remembered me because I said that I was the one in red. I seek to stand out. When I am coming out for the first time, I make sure that I am memorable to others. I’m not just going to blend in anymore. I’ve told you about my age before. I spent much of my life trying to hide who I was. Being audaciously confident, I have to do the opposite which is to stand out and choosing how to dress to make that first impression.

That’s part of the presentation for me online and offline. I got to stand out and I can’t shrink any more. The last P is positioning. Where are you positioning yourself to be successful? Are you speaking in front of the right people? Are you in front of your audience? Are you doing things that position yourself and your message correctly? Do people understand the message that you’re giving? Maybe you’re not positioning your message correctly for people to get what you’re saying. Those are the 3 P’s in branding that I focus on. Everybody does branding differently. Those were the things that I found important when I started to develop my brand. That’s the area that I work with people. Your posture is the biggest and deepest work that we do, your presentation and your positioning.

By the way, we all weren’t wearing jeans until day two.

On day two, we all wore jeans. Once the first impression was given, I can wear jeans.

I just thought I’d mention that because I was thinking back at the picture we took.

Day two, we were all casual. We were all in jeans.

We were all casual. We had spent the evening together. We knew each other. We had cocktails. Except for me, I don’t drink.

I don’t drink either.

We had fun around at Epcot Center with her sash on. We were like, “Walk over there.”

“You’re drawing too much attention.” Not only did I have a sash on, I had a dress on and I had heels. Who walks with four-inch heels through Epcot? Nobody. People were watching me like a crazy person.

You were on the bus back with me, too, when we were running all over the place, weren’t you?

Yes.

We were running through with Jim Beats. Scott was taking us as the super-secret back way and hailing a cab in four-inch heels. I do remember that. I’d changed my tennis shoes for the evening.

I did not bring my flats with me, unfortunately, that day. I ended up walking ten miles in heels. It develops good calves. That’s all I got to say.

Running is easier. I have good calves but I run.

I run, too, so we have that in common.

You have taken all of this confidence-building and created a TV show from it. Tell us a little bit about that.

Dreamaniac TV is the birth child of my business partner and I. Before that, I had a radio show called Unleash Your Audacious Confidence. It was on the radio here in South Florida. I wanted to start doing a podcast instead of doing the radio show. That’s how I met Tracy and Tom. In my search for starting my podcast, my friend in Australia and I decided to do interviews because I didn’t interview someone who launched her book and I did a Facebook Live with her. There was much response live with that interview that he said, “We need to interview more people like this because we get the feedback from the audience.”

Immediately, we’re able to dive deep into something. We developed Dreamaniac TV as a whim and to try to interview more people on Facebook Live. It has developed into a great platform. We have five shows that we run regularly and we’re developing more. We also have an opportunity for others who want their platform but don’t know how to do this. We will do all the marketing, the branding and do the production for you. We’ll even vet the guests for you and run everybody and everything through our system so that you can have your show as well.

I transitioned the Audacious Confidence radio show into this platform so I can have a live interaction with video and audio. I can have this live interaction with people. Some of the guests that I’ve had have been phenomenal. I hope you join me, Juliet, on that show because I look at confidence from all different angles. I look at confidence from physically whether you’re physically feeling confident about how your appearance is to what is your mindset for confidence and to your business. What are you doing in your business? Are you doing something that holds you back? Maybe you need different techniques. I have guests that come from all different walks of life.

I’ve even had people who had suffered domestic violence and abuse come on to talk about how they rebuilt their confidence from being in that situation and how they escaped that situation before they were killed. Relationship experts talk about how devastating after devastating into a relationship and how you can rebuild your confidence. We look at confidence every way. I even had a guest when I did the radio show who was a travel agent who talked about cruising. Some people have fears over cruising. They don’t want to go on a cruise because they are afraid to go on a cruise to talk about those things. I’ve had audience members ask questions about, “I’m afraid of this. How do I do this instead of that when I go on a cruise? How do I know that I’m going to be safe?” They can allay their fears and step into doing something that they probably never thought they could. That’s my mission for that show.

Personal Brand Visibility: Always think about how you present yourself when meeting someone. You only have the first seven seconds to form an impression on somebody.

Fear of a cruise. I only fear cruises because they’re boring.

You need to come on a cruise with me. You will not be bored.

I’ve been on a couple. I get stir crazy. I want to be onshore and I want to be doing things. The boat’s a problem for me. That’s the number one thing, too. Dreamaniac, you have a partner in this. I remember seeing the artwork for your partner. He looks like he just walked out of Chippendales.

He is the Almost Naked CEO.

What other shows do you have on there? What kind are you looking for?

We have Almost Naked Conversation and that is with Sebastian, my partner. We strip down taboo topics and we talk about things on a real level like mental illness, sexual orientation and things that people don’t want to talk about. He has another show called All Up in Your Business where he does an investigation into you. He does some deep digging into you and your friends, and interviews people. It’s a fun show because you have no idea what he’s going to ask you about. Next Level is a sponsored show. I look at the Next Level as your sales funnel show. If you have something that you want to launch, you can use this as an infomercial to your launch where you can come on and talk about your products, your services, your business and how you are positioned to take people to the next level of whatever it is that you’re offering.

I have Alicia Live, which is just an impromptu show. We did one, Culture Maniac Uncut, where we talk about why we’re doing what we’re doing. We invite the audience and past guests to jump on live with us and have a conversation. We’re looking for anyone who has a story or has a business that they want to promote more and they want to expand their visibility and their authority in a particular industry because we’re building this platform. We have over 200,000 people on social media that are directly connected to us. The outreach for that is 2 million. We want to continue to build this platform and build our audience because we are in a growth stage. We’re building our audience members.

If you want to have access to that audience where you don’t have to start a podcast, you’re thinking about starting a podcast or you’re thinking about starting to do Facebook Live, but you don’t know how to gather that audience and reach out to people, that’s what we’re here for. We’re gathering an audience already so that you already have people that will tune in and listen to you. You already have people gathered that are expecting something on Dreamaniac TV so when we go live, it notifies people that we’re live and they jump on immediately. You already have that network television. CBS doesn’t have to go and find viewers anymore. People know CBS is there and they jump on. People develop their shows and get it on that platform because they know there’s an audience already there. That’s what Dreamaniac TV is seeking to do, is to gather the audience so that if you have an idea, a show or something you want to spread, a message you want to spread, we have an audience for you.

You have a gift for us. You’re going to tell a little bit about it. What do you have for us?

I have my Seven Steps to Audacious Confidence that is my eBook that walks you through the seven things that you should be mindful of when you start to build your audacious confidence. I’ll run through one of seven quickly and you can read more about it. One, know yourself and love yourself. Two, preparation is always key. Three, what is your passion and purpose? What is your big why? Why do you do what you do? Four, know your tags. I call them tags but they’re your talents, your assets, your gifts, and your skills. Know what those things are and be aware of those things. Number five, what are you resisting? What is your resistance? When you resist something, you’re physically pushing away the thing that you say you desire.

If you have resistance in the area, it will never come to you. You’re pushing it away. Six, alter ego effect. Why is it important to have an alter ego? Why is it important to develop one for yourself? Seven, learn to say yes to the things that scare you and the things that you don’t want to do but you’re doing it out of obligation, out of fear or people-pleasing. Learn to say no because no is a complete sentence. You don’t need an explanation of why. Learn to say yes to yourself. Learn to say yes to the things that are going to take you out of your comfort zone but help you learn and grow.

Thank you for being on and telling us about all this great stuff.

You’re welcome. Also, if anyone wants to get in touch with me, they can always go to my 360 site. It’s Alicia360.com. You can get to know all about me on social media and connect with me from there.

All right. Thank you.

You’re welcome. It was my pleasure and honor.

Important Links

• Red Carpet CEO
• Your Signature Style: Unlocking the Confidence, Style & Influence of the Savvy CEO
• Dreamaniac TV
• Alicia360.com
• Unleash Your Audacious Confidence
• Almost Naked Conversation
• All Up in Your Business

About Alicia Couri

Alicia Couri has a mission to help entrepreneurs’ step into their “Audacious Confidence” so they can be more, do more, have more and live their lives without limits. As a Personal Brander she seeks to create an elevated platform for her clients to stand out and “be seen and be heard” as industry leaders. She helps her clients show up powerfully and gain visibility so they can attract more clients and increase profitability.

Alicia uses her brand to Influence, Educate, Inspire, and Entertain any audience she stands before. She has encouraged elementary students on Career Days, engaged everyday people watching her online shows, on TV, or listening to her on the radio, and motivated business professionals at conferences.

As a Corporate Consultant she uses Kolbe Assessments to help individuals and teams understand their instinctive strengths to build confidence, increase productivity and better communication in their positions and organizations.

She is a dynamic Empowerment Speaker, Kolbe Certified™ Consultant, Author, Actor, beauty & Style expert, Personal Branding expert, Co- Founder and Executive Producer of Dreamaniac TV and hosts the “Women Unleashed” show & “The Audacious Confidence Show” both online TV shows.

She’s appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, and a host of radio programs, educating and inspiring the public on makeup, beauty, self-development, and self-care. She stars as the lead actress in multiple Independent Film projects produced in South Florida, hosted a webshow on “InfocusTV.online,” produced and starred in her own radio show, “Unleash Your Audacious Confidence,” every Monday Night at 6:30 pm on 95.3 FM & 1470 AM, and video livestream on Facebook, Periscope, and YouTube. Archived episodes are available on her YouTube Channel.

Alicia has written and published two books geared toward helping women find their unique voices and bringing out their inner confidence. Her first book, “Your Signature Style: Unlocking the Confidence, Style and Influence of the Savvy CEO,” equips readers with tools designed to help them rock their confidence and style. Her second book, “Age Younger: 21 Tips to Make Your 40’s Look Like Your 20’s,” offers advice on self-care and unexpected alternatives to “going under the knife.” Alicia is also a contributing author to several compilation books, including the Amazon Bestseller from the WestPoint Leadership Academy, “Smile – Shift Happens” and the soon to be released “Tech Magic”. All of her books are available on Amazon.com.

Alicia studied Fashion Merchandising at International Fine Arts College, now the Art Institute of Miami, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from Life Christian University. She is a trained and certified Makeup Artist and is a KOLBE Certified™ Consultant. Her business Red Carpet CEO is a 100% Woman-owned & Black-owned business.

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