“Your brand is you” – Julie A. Broad
Hello FNM community,
I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Julie Broad (MBA), an accomplished speaker, best selling author and real estate mogul. She is author of the International Book Award Winner and Amazon #1 Overall Bestselling More than Cashflow. Over the past decade, she has helped business owners, sales professionals and real estate investors have more impact and have more influence. An award winning entrepreneur, Julie has been featured on Entrepreneur.com, Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine, and countless TV, Radio and Newspapers across Canada from CTV Halifax to the Vancouver Sun.
For those of you who are starting a new business, looking to accelerate your real estate journey to the next level built on a solid foundation for success, I will say this after having read her book: “The New Brand You: Your New Image Makes the Sale for You”…it has everything to do with building your personal brand the right way with the right tools that is right for you.
In this interview, you will learn:
Why developing a brand is a crucial component for boosting your career and your income;
The MOST important things you can do to improve your brand right now
The lifeline to branding that you didn’t know about until now…
How to make a change right now with the special branding formula ‘MAGIC’
Learn about Julie Broad’s next adventure
And much, much more!
And … for anybody who picks up a soft cover copy of ‘The New Brand You‘ by August 1st (And submits their receipt to info@Revnyou.com with a note that Tracy Ma sent you) will also receive a 52 page workbook I created on Joint Ventures. This workbook was actually part of a $497 workshop Julie Broad ran a few years ago so it has a lot of great info in it for anybody looking to raise money with joint ventures. 🙂 Please note this offer does not apply to the Kindle version.
Over to Julie Broad – The New Brand You
Tell us a little about yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?
Once you read both my books I don’t have a lot of secrets left … I’m pretty open about my life and experiences in both More than Cashflow and The New Brand You.
Many people may not know that I bought my first investment property before I bought my first home. Getting my money working for me was my number one priority. Not something that is top of mind for all 25 year olds, but my financial present and future was always on my mind. When I graduated from University, I kept living like a student with a mattress on the floor, wooden boxes for furniture, and no cable TV. My only splurge was that I started to highlight my hair! Everything extra I earned went into paying off my student loan as quickly as possible and starting to save money.
Despite my early interest in real estate as a way to create financial security, I actually never loved investing in real estate (and I still don’t). It’s a great means to an end. I appreciate what it has done for us and will continue to do for us into our retirement, but what I really care about is impacting people. I write, teach, and speak because I really want to share knowledge and help others reach their goals.
If you could travel back in time, what advice would you give yourself when you were starting out building your brand?
Be you – you’re the only person worth being.
I travelled all over North America taking training and learning from the smartest marketing minds. Educating myself was smart, but I molded myself into the person I thought I had to be in order to succeed in real estate and as an educator and trainer.
I molded myself and to a point it did work. Both of our businesses were growing, but I lost myself and my voice in that. And I started to feel really unhappy.
When you’re pretending to be something or someone that you’re not you’ll feel like an imposter, and you also won’t have a unique voice that stands out from the crowd. In order to have a great brand, you have to have a perspective, a voice and a message that isn’t like everyone else.
So – be you. There’s always going to be people who won’t like you. Ignore them and focus on those that need to hear your message and who will adore you for being brave enough to share it.
What is the biggest thing that people THINK they know about branding, that isn’t so?
First, many people don’t think they need a brand. The problem is you already have a brand – your personal brand is YOU. And if you’re not consciously shaping that brand then you’re leaving a lot to chance. If you’re not getting great results in your life or business, your brand needs a tune up!
Second, when people think about branding they usually think about logos, websites and Facebook posts. Those are tools you can use to get the message out about who you are and how you help, but your brand is not a logo. Your brand is about connection. How are YOU connecting with the people around you and people who come to your website?
Why is developing a brand such a crucial component for boosting your career, making a bigger positive change and your income, can you share how it helped you and how it applies to FNM readers?
If you’re in a role where you have to attract leads or lead others, you need a strong personal brand. The stronger your brand the more opportunities will come your way (And the more money you’ll be worth!). If you have a strong brand – people know who you are and the value you bring to the table – you are more likely to negotiate a stronger raise, attract new clients and hear from headhunters on a regular basis.
In real estate, a strong brand means your phone rings with people asking if you’re interested in buying their house (saving on realtor commissions!), tenants looking for rentals (less time spent advertising and showing), and people with money looking to invest with you (capital for deals!). As my brand grew, we found that we had so many unexpected and cool opportunities find us. We also found ourselves with a network of experts who became friends – and we could ask for their expensive advice at no charge over coffee or with a quick phone call. That kind of access is invaluable!
For those interested in exploring your book, where should they start? What if they already have a brand and need to build upon it, where can they start and massively increase their personal brand (and value)? How can they use your book if they had it right now?
They should start on the first page. My book is carefully crafted to walk you through some really important elements. Even if you have a brand you should start on page 1 because I walk you through some really important questions and exercises that will catapult your brand to new levels. Plus, much of the book is really about covertly selling what you do so you never feel like you’re chasing people or trying to get the sale. It’s really a crash course in influence and impact.
People have used what’s in the book to raise their fees (one client by as much as $10,000 per gig), raise money for their deals, attract new career opportunities and land speaking gigs.
It depends what point you’re at in your business how this will apply, but there are chapters in the book that will help just about anyone involved in business to make more money and be more confident and persuasive.
What are the biggest branding mistakes that you see people make? Can you please share your wonderful ‘MAGIC’ formula to help readers right now?
To help you get clear as you create your personal brand, I’ve developed the Brand Magic Formula:
Message
What You Say and How You Say It To have a strong brand you need a clear, concise and consistent message. You also must choose which media are best for you to use to communicate, and what you can say and do to gain attention and connect with your ideal person.
Appearance
Attractive people are more well-liked and are seen to be more trustworthy. In one study, the conclusion was that the more attractive someone was, the higher the offer they received in a negotiation – even if they did not ask for more!
But here’s the piece that I think gets lost in the discussion about appearance:
Everyone looks better on the outside when they feel good on the inside. And while it might feel superficial, the more care and attention you take to look good on the outside, the better you will feel on the inside. Think about how good you feel after a great haircut or after a good workout. It’s a circle that feeds itself.
Google Results
It’s not about having a website or a cleverly crafted logo, but your brand will be impacted by what is coming up in the search engines about you, so it’s an important part of the formula for your brand.
I am an expert in (and what I am not an expert in)
This is more about choosing a niche and focusing. By doing that, you will rapidly become an expert, but you don’t have to start there before you build your brand.
When you focus on a smaller area, you can more easily attract the right people and avoid wasting time on the wrong people.
Character
It’s about consciously choosing what values are important to you, so you can make sure this shines through in everything you do. When you are consistent, you don’t have to tell people what you value; they will know.
A lot of our readers are hitting financing walls, short on cash to fund their next investment, what is the #1 thing or top things they can do right now to improve their personal brand and attract more money to fund their deals? Do they have to start a blog, make videos, have a podcast and sign up for five social media accounts and sell hard like a sleazy salesman? How do they build trust??
There are several chapters inThe New Brand You that will help with building trust and establishing yourself as the expert. Specifically there’s a chapter called “But Do They Trust You?” and another called “Listen to Me”. These will walk you through some essentials to help you raise money.
But, the single most important skill to develop to raise money is your ability to connect with people. To raise money, you need to be able to have comfortable conversations that interest and intrigue others. It has absolutely nothing to do with a website or social media. You don’t need to reach masses of people to raise millions of dollars for real estate. You just need to do some strategic networking and focus on finding a few people who have a lot of cash to invest (and there are a lot of these folks out there right now – on the West Coast where I live there are people selling Vancouver homes with so much money it feels like they won the lottery and they are looking for smart places to put their new found wealth).
Once you understand how to build connections with people and create interest in what you do, you need to understand what’s most important to them and to you. It’s about finding a fit not about selling someone on investing in real estate.
It all comes back to connection and communication.
Readers often associate ‘branding’ for big companies, building awareness and costing a ton of money. How does branding makes the sale for you, when you do it right with the guidance and tools you offer in the book, can you explain this?
It’s about being chased, not chasing. When you are spending money on advertising, you’re chasing customers and business. When you have a strong brand and people tell others about you, you’ll be chased. It’s not expensive to do but it does take effort. It takes a conscious effort to clearly communicate who you are and how you add value to others. And, ultimately, it does take consistency, but none of that is expensive.
Give us an interesting fun fact about your book.
The title changed after it had already gone to layout. It was initially called ‘Brand New Brand You’ but I kept getting tongue twisted on it.
What can readers expect from this awesome book?
This is a crash course in influence. One Amazon reviewer said this, “There is a great section on creating the right mindset, figuring out what you really want and setting great goals. I questioned some long held beliefs after reading this. And, of course, lots of great technical information for building your brand.”
Another one said: People just seem more interested in what I have to say …
The book will cost you $30. If you apply just one tip from the book I can guarantee you’ll get 100x’s return on your investment if not a lot more! Where else can you get a return like that?
What is your next big adventure, can you please share here.
Well with my husband pursuing a career in acting, we’re working on moving to Los Angeles. The Visa application process is time consuming so it’s going slower than we expected, but I think by 2017 that is where we’ll be full time.
Personally, I’m pretty excited about being closer to Disneyland, and only a four hour drive to Las Vegas (which you’ll read about a few times when you read The New Brand You).
Where can readers find you and connect?
The best place to connect with me is at HaveMoreInfluence.com, but if you’re looking for real estate tips there are hundreds of videos and articles at revnyou.com.
This book is full of inspiration, guidance and actionable content that acts as your own personal branding workbook. Take the next step and buy the book here: ‘The New Brand You: Your New Image Makes the Sale for You‘ You’ll be happy that you did.
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