Alyssa McGrew

Secrets of Successful Branding with Alyssa McGrew

About the episode

In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Alyssa McGrew discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.

Alyssa McGrew is a mom of 5 who runs a successful branding and design agency. She finds deep satisfaction in helping other moms succeed in business using a unique formula that she developed through extensive research.

In addition to designing for businesses, she also coaches small business owners who want to DIY their own branding. Alyssa is an author, podcast host, and enjoys creating art and reading psychology books in her free time.

 You can connect with Alyssa on her websiteInstagram, and Facebook

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Listen to the episode

Show Notes

SPEAKERS

Rita Suzanne, Alyssa McGrew

Rita Suzanne  00:01

Welcome to the Mom Owned and Operated Podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I’m your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics.

Hi, I’m Rita Suzanne, and today I have my guest Alyssa with me. Thank you so much for joining me today. Can you tell everyone all about you, your business and your family?

Alyssa McGrew: 

I would love to. So my name is Alyssa, as you said, and I live in Central Texas. I have five kids who are 18 all the way down to three, so we’re doing all the ages and stages all at once, which is a little mind blowing sometimes when I’m potty training and driver’s ed training at the same time. But that is, it’s fun and exciting and life is always different. So I am a brand strategist and I work primarily with startup business owners a lot of women who are starting businesses out of their homes for extra money or sometimes as a complete career change, and so my goal is really to help them get up and running with the right foundation. Or sometimes they come to me and they’re struggling a little bit in their business and they’re not quite sure why, and so we really dig into like how to course correct and get them the right visuals and the right messaging to be successful. So that is what I do. I love it.

Alyssa McGrew: 

The best part is like watching other women succeed in business and watching their businesses really take off. And that’s really personal for me because about oh, I don’t know almost two decades ago now, I had my own business that was really failing quite miserably and I spent a lot of money to hire some branding people to get me on the right track and it worked Kind of completely turned my business around and that was like the catalyst for me to want to understand what branding and marketing can do for a business. Like I wanted to know how it works. Like I was really into the and I still am into the psychology of it. Like how do people think, how do they hear what I’m saying, how are they interpreting it? How do people interact with a website? All that sort of thing. And I’ve put a lot of that learning into the branding and the strategies that I teach my clients.

Rita Suzanne: 

I love that. I feel like I always say that when people are struggling with their business, what they don’t realize is that it’s their brand. It’s always their brand strategy and I don’t know if you run into this, but people think the first thing that they think when you say branding is logo. Right, they think it’s their logo, but what? Let’s talk a little bit about brand strategy. What is a brand strategy?

Alyssa McGrew: 

Well, your branding is everything that you put out into the world, like everything that you say, everything you show people. It all falls under branding. It’s far more than just a logo, right, and I? I run into this objection all the time. People are like what, oh, like like how I’m spending all this money and I just want a great logo. And I’m like no, no, no, no, no, your logo isn’t going to fix anything. And so when clients come to me, we always start with that foundational stuff, like what is your mission statement, what’s your vision, what’s your value proposition. And they’re like wait, what? Like I just want a logo, but it’s everything. It’s everything that you’re putting out.

Alyssa McGrew: 

And if you’re, if you’re, if you’re sending conflicting messages out right, or if you are communicating in a way that doesn’t make people feel emotionally connected to you, feel safe, buying from you, all of those things will keep you from getting sales all day long, no matter how fabulous your logo is. So you got to go back to that foundational stuff and then you build the logo, or you create the logo to communicate all that other stuff. And I think that’s where you know it’s so easy to miss the mark because you’re like I have this beautiful logo. Why is nobody buying? Well, because it’s not. You’re not sending the right messages.

Rita Suzanne: 

I find that the thing that people are mostly missing the mark on is their target audience and their messaging. Is that something that you find is the common problem, or are you running into different issues?

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, I do see that, and the other thing I see a lot of times is that people will be following all this really popular advice, right, but it makes them sound like everybody else. So, for example, one of the very common messages to online business owners is one of the very common messages to online business owners is you know, don’t market your product, market the transformation or market the emotional results, right. But even that, I think, falls a little short, because there’s always going to be 10 other people or a hundred other people, or a thousand other people selling the same transformation. And so what I like to do, what I like to tell business owners, is everyone has competition and, at the end of the day, no matter how much you love your product or your service, the only thing that’s really unique about your business is you, right. So I like to take people all the way back to like what’s different about you as a business owner or as a service provider, and how do we communicate that Right?

Alyssa McGrew: 

So for myself, as a brand strategist, you can go and find another great brand strategist, absolutely. You can find somebody else who’s going to get you a good result. So what I try to focus on is what’s different about working with me and and that is my biggest selling point right, and it’s so different from what we’re taught. But I think today’s online market is so crowded Like this online space, no matter what you’re doing is so competitive that the thing that I find works the best is to take clients back to that only unique thing you really have, which is yourself, and build on that personality.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, I think really, people are just buying you. They’re not necessarily buying what you’re selling. They’re buying you. If they like you, then they’re going to purchase from you. And I found that to be true, especially when I was designing websites and I would have a, you know, an inquiry call with them and they would like me where do I sign? Where do I sign? Right away, you know, and it and it really wasn’t even. We wouldn’t even really talk about the websites or anything else. It would just be really about us connecting and and that would and that would be it. And I think that a lot of people don’t put enough value into into that and selling themselves and putting themselves out there, especially women.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Right, and people don’t understand how to do that. On something like social media, right, we all understand how to communicate the result that people get from working with us, but it’s a totally different thing to try to communicate what it’s like to work with you, and sometimes we need a little help in figuring out what that looks like.

Rita Suzanne: 

So share some secrets Like what are some suggestions?

Alyssa McGrew: 

you know secrets like what are, what are some suggestions? Well, one of the things I like to do with my clients is make them come up with five adjectives that describe them as a business owner. Like you know, are they creative? Are they funny? Are they detail oriented? Like, what is it about you?

Alyssa McGrew: 

Like we define it with some very specific words and then, as we’re building out their brand, like we’re writing a mission statement, we keep going back to those five words and we say, okay, are these five words, these core values that define who I am? Is this reflected in my mission statement? Is this reflected in my value statement? And then, as we’re building colors and then eventually the logo and all of it, we keep going back to those five words because it results in this cohesive brand that has your personality all the way through it. And when we start putting that out there, then on social media that’s what people see, right, and the focus then is totally different than on this is what I’m selling, and so it just changes. It just changes a lot in how you’re putting yourself out there.

Rita Suzanne: 

So, when they are putting themselves out there, do you have tips for them as far as conveying not their product or any of those things conveying themselves and selling themselves online? What do you suggest that they do for that?

Alyssa McGrew: 

One of the most effective things is to create content that talks about what it’s like to work with you, Like what is the experience like? For example, I call my free consultation a coffee chat right, Because I went. Working with me feels like sitting down and having coffee with a friend. If you are someone who really wants that formal business, like experience, like I’m not your girl, but if you want to feel like you’ve just had a chat at Starbucks with your best friend and accomplished a lot, that’s me, so I do. I focus a lot on social media about that, with that experience aspect. You know everybody knows that they can come to me and get a logo design, but I talk a lot about what it’s going to be like, what you’re going to feel like as we work through this process.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, let’s talk about since we, since we brought up logos a little bit. Let’s talk about your program, because we were talking about it a little bit before and I love it so much. I want to dive into that because I think that it would be maybe beneficial for somebody listening who maybe can’t afford to hire you for a full brand strategy logo session.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, so I created the brand collaborative, really, from seeing a lot of social media posts where people were trying to kind of piece it together for themselves, or the posts in business groups where people are like I did these four logos in Canva. Which one is better, right, I?

Rita Suzanne: 

hate those, because I’m like, that’s not even your target audience. I’m screaming.

Alyssa McGrew: 

And I’m like well, all four are terrible. You’re getting a lot of unqualified feedback. I have 57 votes for A, b and C, so that wasn’t very helpful. So that wasn’t very helpful. And I also talk to people sometimes in consultations where it’s clear that branding will really help them, but videos that walks people through every step of building a brand, and then I created a live coaching element of it so that they can walk through those modules. Then they can come throughout the month and talk to me about what they’re doing and get that feedback.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Because what happens is when you’re trying to do it yourself, even when you’re watching a video, you get stuck on something and then you stop right.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Or you get stuck because you don’t know if it’s good enough, or you don’t know if you’re really done or if there’s more work to do right. And so I wanted it to be this interactive experience where people could end up with a great brand that was really going to benefit their business and be confident in it, like, no, okay, I’ve had some really solid professional feedback and I feel confident moving forward. And I like to say, too, that you know there’s no reason to be in the collaborative and get stuck because you can hop on a coaching call and get unstuck. Sometimes it’s as simple as you know someone coming and being like I have this mission statement, but I don’t really feel great about it and a couple little tweaks in five minutes on a Zoom call and then they’re off and running again. And so, yeah, I tried to make it the best of both worlds for business owners, where they can take control and do it themselves, but also get really solid feedback that they can feel confident in.

Rita Suzanne: 

So you’re holding their hand along the way, but you’re not necessarily, you know, doing the actual thing Right. You’re taking them along the journey so that they’re getting the professional results, but you’re not leaving it up to them to actually do the thing, which I love, I think is wonderful.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yes, yeah, when they get to the logo design in the program, I teach them how to go to Fiverr or to Upwork and know what to look for right, know how to pick out a designer that knows what they’re doing. We go through, like I actually record my screen and go through designer profiles and show them like this is what you’re looking for, this is what you need to avoid. And then we talk about how to write a design brief so that you can you understand the terminology and you can clearly communicate what you’re looking for. A lot of the bad, negative feedback that websites like Fiverr get you know when it comes to logo design, I think a lot of times it’s because there’s such a communication gap between the client and the designer. There’s a lot of very talented designers on Fiverr who are doing very reasonably priced logos, but if you can’t communicate effectively what you want right or effectively direct to them when they send you drafts and that need editing, it’s sort of a lose-lose proposition.

Rita Suzanne: 

Right, you’re not going to get what you want if you can’t explain what it is, yeah, that you want, right. Exactly that’s why it’s important, because you’re able to kind of translate for them.

Alyssa McGrew: 

You know, you’re the mediator in between the process saying, okay, say this right, yes, and then my favorite part of the whole program as a designer is when people come on these work review calls with their drafts. They’ve gotten back from the designer and we can look at them and go, okay, this is why this works. This is why this doesn’t work. We can figure out what they want and then I can help them translate that to the designer and get the result they’re looking for. I love that. I geek out about that totally, because it’s so fun seeing other people’s work and and interpreting it for, for the, for the students in the collaborative yeah, I that’s.

Rita Suzanne: 

That’s interesting too, because oftentimes when I was doing design and more technical stuff, my clients used to love that I would not speak in technical jargon to them, because I would speak, just you know, I would simplify it for them. And it sounds like that’s what you’re doing, Like you’re translating for them in regular speak, but you’re still providing the technical jargon for them to use with the designer in order to get the best results designer in order to get the best results.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, and there no-transcript you know you need this kerning over here. Put some space in this blah, blah, blah you know, you know. But yeah, you need to tell them to say this in order to so that they understand. You know the designer understands what you’re looking for. Otherwise it’s just going to be, it’s not going to. The result just might not, you know, come back.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, it’s like trying to order your food at a restaurant when you’re in a different country, like if you don’t have anybody to kind of translate. You know there’s only so much you can do with sign language.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, yeah, and that’s why I think it’s so brilliant, because it’s, you know, it’s the best of both worlds, right? They get somebody to do the thing for them. They’re not having to go out and try to create a logo for themselves, which is what most design classes are. Most design classes are like oh, you want to create a logo? Here, I’ll show you how to create one on Canva, which is really simplistic, really basic. Hey, use the template that that Canva has over here and modify it for your use. That’s not necessarily, that’s definitely not going to get you where you. You know where you need to go, but it’s good enough. Right, it’s good enough, but it’s not necessarily a good representation of your actual brand, right.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Right, exactly, and if you use something like a Canva template, honestly, even if you modify it, it’s still going to look like a hundred other people’s logos and a Canva template. Yes, I spent enough time in Canva. I can recognize one of those templates a mile off. In fact. I had a client recently. They just wanted the website. They were like we already have all this other stuff and I said okay. So I said send me your logos, right? They sent me three options that someone else had put together for them and every single one of them. I was immediately like those are Canva templates. And within five minutes I had gone in canva and found every single one of them and I was just like you can’t use these like, not like this.

Alyssa McGrew: 

And they were like why? And so then we had the whole conversation I had I actually have a little coaching note, an extra video in my course about why we don’t use templates. Um, because that’s a question that people have like why, well, why not right, looks fine, yeah, not Right.

Rita Suzanne: 

It looks fine, yeah, because the whole point of branding is to stand out by definition and it’s unique to you, and you know, and, and I think that a lot of times, though, when you have a and you tell me I’d love to hear your perspective on this when a business first starts, they would come to me and they would want this big full brand package right, but then, in a year or two years, their brand has completely pivoted and changed, and so, at this point, I don’t think that investing in a brand package from the beginning is probably a good idea for anybody. I feel like you need to wait. Maybe you know, get a start or something, and then you invest later, when you get everything kind of figured out.

Alyssa McGrew: 

What are your thoughts. I think that’s really true, especially if you are just starting out on your own. I mean, it’s a little different, I think, if you have corporate investors and you’re going for the big bang right away. But that’s not where most of us start, and I think any entrepreneur can tell you that their business has pivoted many times. And so one of the benefits of the collaborative and the program is that you have lifetime access to the videos. As long as the program’s running, you’ve got access. That you have lifetime access to the videos as long as the program’s running, you’ve got access, and so if your business pivots in six months or a year, you can go back through the program and use those videos again to adjust what you’re doing and make it fit with your new purpose or your new vision or whatever that looks like looks like.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, I think the whole thing is is wonderful. So one thing I wanted to ask you is what unique strategy has helped grow your business since you started?

Alyssa McGrew: 

Oh, that’s a great question. So I think, really, that personality thing has been key for me, um, and I I discovered this really sort of through trial and error, because I tend to be I’m an introvert, I tend to be a fairly private person, and so it was a big hurdle for me to lead with myself and my personality. But, um, but I started seeing how it worked, how effective it was, and I also started noticing and this was really interesting to me because I didn’t think this was it was an unexpected benefit, I guess but what I started realizing is that when I led with my personality on social media, my close rate on sales calls went way up, on consultations went way up. And what I discovered is that I think it’s because there was no more incongruity between what people saw on Facebook and what they experienced when they got in that call with me. Right, they felt like it was the same person, it was a seamless experience and that builds confidence and trust with that other person.

Alyssa McGrew: 

I mean, I can see it from a reverse perspective, right, if you were following someone on social media and you thought, oh, I want to work with them and you get a call, and it’s a completely different experience. That would make you feel a little unsettled, right? You wouldn’t be quite sure if that’s who you wanted to work with make you feel a little unsettled, right? You wouldn’t be quite sure if that’s who you wanted to work with. And so when I started to do that and lead with personality like, my close rate on sales calls was up over 90% because I was creating this seamless experience and building that connection and trust with people, and so I don’t know how much of a secret that is, but that really has been like the biggest game changer for me in building my business.

Rita Suzanne: 

Well, I think it’s a good strategy to use, because what I think and this kind of goes in with what we were talking about earlier with women not really putting themselves out there, because while they put themselves out there, sometimes when they do, they’re very safe about it, right. And so then when a client or a prospect meets with them in person, they’re not the same right. Maybe that’s when they actually see their personality, because the person that they are online is very safe, and then they meet them in person, they’re like, oh okay, like she’s actually not the same right.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Or it’s scary, right, because if you lead with personality and then people attack you, it feels like a personal attack, right, and so you have to kind of develop a little bit of a thick skin. But I think that’s true of business, a little bit of a thick skin and but you know, I think that’s true of business owners. Being a business owner in general, if you’re going to take things personally and not have a thick skin about it, that’s going to impact your whole business. Like most people that I see that are very successful in business have sort of found a way to get past that and not take it personally when they encounter criticism.

Alyssa McGrew: 

And I have even moved very recently from I used to do the block and delete thing, you know, when I would get negative comments, and now I’ve moved into just replying, you know, like being confident enough in who I am and what I’m putting out there to just reply. Sometimes I’m a little sarcastic about it, but I call them out on their behavior, which is also my personality right. So I’m growing more and more into this leading with my personality and being confident in myself and my marketing, which in turn is a cycle right that attracts more people. I’ve gotten a client just recently who read one of my replies to a hater and picked me because of how I replied. I love that, but it’s not safe. It isn’t that and that’s absolutely true. Like you have to be okay with the fact that you’re going to get negative feedback.

Rita Suzanne: 

Right and and and. That develops over time. I think that a lot of times when, when we start our businesses, we we don’t realize all the things that we have to be right, all the hats that we have to wear, we assume we’re just going to do our thing right, whether that’s design, websites, design, brands, whatever. We don’t really understand that now we have to be a content creator, we have to be a marketer, we have to be a salesperson, an accountant.

Rita Suzanne: 

We’re bookkeeping, we’re doing, you know, like we’re doing all of the things at one time and and at the same time, we have to make sure our mindset is intact and we have to take care of ourselves. You know all these things that it takes in order to be a successful entrepreneur and run a successful business. It’s a lot of things, and I don’t think that we realize that when we start our businesses and when you start putting yourself out there, then that’s, you know, if you become more confident, the more you do it, the more confident you become. But it’s so scary, it’s so scary.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, and you know I was also thinking, while you’re talking about that, that when I started my business I was like, oh, I can charge X amount per hour, this is going to be great. My business. I was like, oh, I can charge X amount per hour, this is going to be great. And what I didn’t realize is there are so many hours of work that I don’t get paid for as a business owner.

Alyssa McGrew: 

I just had this conversation with my son actually he’s in his junior year in high school and he found out that if he goes into irrigation he can charge people about $100 an hour here. That’s the going rate in our area and he was like, mom, I can make $100 an hour if I just pass the irrigation course and I can start my own business and I can da, da, da da. And I said, hang on a second, like you need to understand you’re only you’re probably going to work at least 50% of your hours unpaid because you’re doing the marketing and you’re doing the accounting and you’re driving to appointments and you’re like it could still be good money but doesn’t quite look like what you thought it was going to look like.

Rita Suzanne: 

Right, it’s not nonstop 100 hours.

Alyssa McGrew: 

you know you’re not making $800 a day, so unfortunately, no, nobody’s paying me to do my accounting or create my social media posts.

Rita Suzanne: 

Right, I, I, and I think that that’s you know, just, it’s just the reality. But it’s just like with anything. You know, the more you do it, the more comfortable you get, the more you put yourself out there and the more confident you will be, and and and that’s where the personality starts to shine. And I think that’s where it takes that time right. It’s like takes time for us to kind of get the courage to actually start doing the thing. And you know, it’s like everybody thinks that creating a business or running a successful business is so easy, it’s so simple. You know I’m going to be sitting on the beach with my laptop so soon and it’s going to be so simple. And you know I’m an overnight success, you know, in no time. And it just takes so long and there’s so much work in it, not just the things that we already just mentioned, but everything else that goes into it. The mindset is like a big thing that can really slow you down and just really mess you up Totally, yeah, Especially if you start focusing on like.

Alyssa McGrew: 

For me, when I was first starting out, I was like I sat down one day and calculated and I was like I made like $3 an hour this week. Sat down one day and calculated and I was like I made like $3 an hour this week. And it’s so easy to just get bogged down and discouraged because you’re looking at other people with their laptops on the beach, like you’re talking about, and what we don’t realize is that very often, the people who are doing that have been at it for 10 or 15 or 20 years. Yeah.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, and that and that’s the thing like we, we look at you know, they put out their highlight reels and and glamorize all of the things. And then we’re over here, you know, in the woods, in the thick of it, comparing ourselves, thinking like why? Why am I a failure?

Alyssa McGrew: 

You’re like, you’re not I feel like it’s so easy to quit, I think, right before. I think so often people quit right before the the, the moment when things shift right. Cause I have noticed I mean, I’ve been in in, haven’t had my own business, been an entrepreneur for two decades now in three different businesses and every time about the time I felt like quitting was right before things finally shifted and started working. And I think most of that is because of trial and error, like we. You start to learn what’s working and what’s not and you start to get confident and put out, put your personality out there and all these things. It’s sort of like that snowball effect right when you’re, you’re gaining momentum and you’re gaining traction, even though it doesn’t feel like it, and then suddenly it’s like oh, wait, a minute, here come the clients. Where have you been for the last three years? Right, so don’t give up three years.

Rita Suzanne: 

So don’t give up. You’re going to stop Right, and then there it goes, okay. So I love talking about self-care. Like I mentioned before, one of the things that you know I started this for was because I wasn’t really taking care of myself too much, so I love to hear about how other moms are able to make time for themselves, especially moms that have five kids in such varying ages. What are you doing, alyssa, for you?

Alyssa McGrew: 

Well, a couple of things that I have done. Actually, I’ve had a. I’ve really had to focus on this more especially in the last year, because I started to see. I’ve really had to focus on this more especially in the last year because I started to see myself getting really run down and so I had to make some changes. One of the things I did it sounds so simple, but I spent $60 a year on an app that does meal planning for me okay and it’s called emails.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Actually it it’s not a promotion Hashtag, not sponsored, but it actually plans all my meals for me, sends my shopping list to Walmart for me and it sounds like such a simple thing but, like getting that mental off my plate, right, I can plan healthy meals and not think about it the rest of the week. That was huge and I’m eating so much healthier because I’m planning ahead, which is a big self-care thing for me. It’s very easy when you’re busy and you’re like eating at the computer in the middle of work all the time, to choose unhealthy options. The other thing that I did that was really big for me is I started like a no work after 9 pm rule, which is hard because sometimes the kids aren’t even all settled and in bed until nine o’clock.

Alyssa McGrew: 

But unless I have a very strict client deadline where I’ve promised something by a certain date, I don’t work after 9 pm. And a big component of that too, is learning how to like shut it off mentally, like not, it doesn’t count if I close my bedroom door to read a book or watch TV and I’m still thinking about work. So there’s been a big mindset work, some mindset work there for me, like giving myself permission to shut the door on work and just relax for a while. But there’s something really, really important about giving yourself that mental break right. Like I’m not thinking about work, I’m doing something that’s relaxing and fun for me, even if it’s just the last hour before bedtime, it makes a big difference.

Rita Suzanne: 

Well, especially when you’re doing anything creative, I feel like it’s a necessity regardless. I used to tell my clients that you cannot create something creative wise if you are stressed or pressured. It’s just. It’s not going to happen. You’re not going to be able to flow very well.

Alyssa McGrew: 

No, absolutely not. And if you’re sitting at your desk struggling, the worst thing to do is stay there. Sit there and struggle like go for a walk, drive to the beach, do something that gets those the energy flowing.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, that would happen to me every time, whenever I would get stuck on like a line of code or something. I’ll go for a walk and I would come back. Yes, I’ve got it.

Alyssa McGrew: 

So we got to like I have to remind myself myself. I have a choice right now I can sit here at the desk and tell myself I’m being productive, or I can walk away for 30 minutes and then come back and actually be productive right, like we need to get a break and walk and you, you know, get some exercise in anyways.

Rita Suzanne: 

Otherwise, I feel like you’re like me, where it’s almost like a workaholic status, but it’s just that I get so invested in my clients and you know, I feel so just dedicated to them. So that’s why I get like that and I feel like that’s how you are as well.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, and a little bit too. I had to start like realizing that my, my self-worth is not tied to how many hours I put in or how many clients I serve, Right, and that took a lot of work too on my part to like start separating that out and being like you know, like this is who I am and this is what I do, and those are two separate things. Um, which is hard when you’re marketing with personality, right it kind of all you have to really do a lot of intentional mindset work on all that, yeah.

Rita Suzanne: 

I used to get caught up in um their success, um, you know, like that being tied to my success, right, like if they weren’t successful then it’s my fault, and and I’m like, well, it’s not my fault because they didn’t do the work, like, but that’s because you know it took a while, because I, you know, I felt like, well, you know why didn’t they? You know they do it, but it’s not my fault that they didn’t, you know Right.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s. You can only hold, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink, I guess.

Rita Suzanne: 

Right, and you know, I mean who knows why? Why they couldn’t at that time and just probably weren’t ready. But okay, let’s tell everybody where you are online.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Where can they find you, where can they sign up for all the things okay, so my website is yourbrandchemistcom and then the website for the brand collaborative is yourbrandcollaborativecom.

Alyssa McGrew: 

If you go to that website, yourbrandcollaborativecom, it’s going to take you straight to a page where you can sign up to get a free training that I’ve put together. Um, that really talks about how I look at branding and how, uh, branding can change your business. Um, it’s almost an hour long. It’s a really deep dive into, like some of the myths and misconceptions around branding and how, um, what the truth really is right, like how it really works. So they can go there to get that free training and then from that training is where they can go if they want to join the collaborative. I like to send everybody through that training because I really want people to understand what they’re getting in the collaborative before they sign up. So, yeah, those are my two websites and that, even if people want to watch that training and not join the collaborative, there’s still a lot of great stuff in there that I think will really help them get their business off to the right, right start or get it, get it kind of balanced and going the right direction.

Rita Suzanne: 

Yeah, cause then they can get an understanding of branding and the importance of it in your business. And so, yeah, head over there, things will be in all the things. And then, where are you on social? Where do you spend your time?

Alyssa McGrew: 

I am on Instagram at your brand, chemist, and then I’m also on Facebook with the same name.

Rita Suzanne: 

So love it.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Yeah, I’ll send you those links as well, so people can find me there.

Rita Suzanne: 

All right, perfect. Thank you so much for being a guest.

Alyssa McGrew: 

Thanks for having me. It’s been a real privilege.

Rita Suzanne: 

And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. We all struggle, but just keep moving forward. And don’t forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at ritasuzanne.com/apply

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