How to Become A Brand Consutlant - Free webinar with Matt Davies

I hope you can hear me all right. Um,

I've had a number of issues. It was all working fine. The stream was working. I

working fine. The stream was working. I

even got this lovely graphic, a whole presentation ready for you guys. And

then um yeah, for some reason Zoom decided not to um stream live to LinkedIn. So I do really really

LinkedIn. So I do really really apologize for uh for that. Um I hope you are all in. I can see quite a few people are joining. I don't even know if you I

are joining. I don't even know if you I don't know if you can you can comment or do anything just to let me know that you are there. That would be wonderful. Jump

are there. That would be wonderful. Jump

in the chat. Yeah, Phil, thanks for uh thanks for that. I can see you all.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Um I am recording this so I'll pop this up later as well. Um so I really appreciate you

as well. Um so I really appreciate you joining this webinar. Um Warren says, "Thanks for pivoting so well." I I don't think you would have say that, Warren, if you'd have just seen me literally tearing what little hair I have out just

a few moments ago because I know there's a lot of people that were interested in in this. So, um very very frustrating.

in this. So, um very very frustrating.

So, lovely to have you all with us and as I say, thanks for uh thanks for joining um even though it's on a different platform to perhaps what you were expecting. I'm now I I am pivoting

were expecting. I'm now I I am pivoting like mad. I'm literally having to add

like mad. I'm literally having to add people in. There's there's quite a few

people in. There's there's quite a few people now coming in. So, great that you could join us if you are just joining us. So, thank you very much and I will

us. So, thank you very much and I will do my best to get everybody in and do the webinar all at the same time and hopefully deliver some value as we go.

So, thanks for joining. Um, this um is all about um how to become a brand consultant and um yeah, as I say, like I've had a few technical difficulties if

you're joining us just now and I apologize for that. Um I'm Oh, hey, hey.

Hi, whoever that is. Lovely to have you with us. I'm going to try and encourage

with us. I'm going to try and encourage people to stay on mute if possible as we go through. Uh, as I say, I'm pivoting

go through. Uh, as I say, I'm pivoting like mad at the moment. So, there we go.

But let's let's get through this. So,

um, first of all, um, yeah, look at this animation that I'd even done for you guys. Look at this. Look, it counted

guys. Look at this. Look, it counted down and did all this stuff. We can

throw all that out now because, yeah, clearly I failed miserably. But,

nonetheless, enjoy the animation. Here

we go. And then how to Oh yeah. Nothing but nothing but the

Oh yeah. Nothing but nothing but the best uh for you guys. So um what is this all about? First of all, you know who

all about? First of all, you know who who am I? Um hi. If you don't know me, I'm Matt. Lovely to meet you all. Um I'm

I'm Matt. Lovely to meet you all. Um I'm

based in Wales in the UK, but originally born and bred in London. Um I have a background in graphic design, uh both freelance and agency, but I've really not touched the tools for some some

years now. So don't ask me to do

years now. So don't ask me to do anything too technical. um with uh with with with Adobe. Uh but I can get by. I

can do enough to to do some damage. Um

what's my background? As I say, based in graphic design, but I also founded and ran my own creative agency for almost 10 years, I think it was, until I managed

to sell it um in I think it was 20 I'm going to say 16, which was a an amazing experience. I then went in-house for a

experience. I then went in-house for a bit. Um, I ran the creative department

bit. Um, I ran the creative department at a digital agency, a much bigger digital agency than my my boutique creative agency. I was then head-hunted

creative agency. I was then head-hunted and I ran a corporate department, a design department uh for nearly a year.

Um, and now well for the last sort of eight years or so, I have basically been consulting like a solo freelance brand consultant. So that that hopefully gives

consultant. So that that hopefully gives you a little bit of uh gives my credentials a little bit. I I'm not an academic although I have done a few courses. I've done Mark um Mark Mark

courses. I've done Mark um Mark Mark Ritson's mini and brand. I've also done uh Marty Newmier's uh uh um stuff for

level C which has been amazing. But I'm

not academic. I'm a practitioner. I'm

out there often. You'll see me traveling around uh the UK or around the world and I am delivering consultancy. So

hopefully that that gives me um basically an ability to to share some of my thinking with you today. Uh you may have also heard from me because I have a

partner in crime, Jacob Cass, and we have a award-winning podcast called Just Branding. So some of you may have heard

Branding. So some of you may have heard me on that. That that's pretty popular.

We get quite a few thousand downloads a week on that. You possibly have heard of uh my book uh Story Strategy, which you can grab on Amazon. I wrote that a few

years back around how to use story to unlock uh a brand strategy. Um what else have I done? I have I' I speak a lot on LinkedIn. A lot of you have interacted

LinkedIn. A lot of you have interacted with me on LinkedIn. Um I'm a top branding voice on LinkedIn and um yeah, I've uh I've been on LinkedIn as a platform for quite some time. Ah, hi. If

you're just joining us, I'm just going to encourage you to jump on mute. I'm

pivoting today because I had a number of tech issues as some of you can imagine uh and realize on uh on LinkedIn. So on

uh yeah LinkedIn. So apologies for that.

So I'm going to just hit hit you on mute. Um so bear with me. Right. Um the

mute. Um so bear with me. Right. Um the

other thing is is a lot of you downloaded this free ebook. So, what

happened was the the origins of this webinar are that I I put this ebook out there and I just like I'd written it actually for something I'd done with another kind of community and I thought, hey, I'm just going to offer that to my

LinkedIn community as a free download and I made that kind of silly mistake of saying like jump in the in the chat and type consultant, right? And um then I had to found myself replying to lots of

messages. People wanted to get this

messages. People wanted to get this ebook. you can still get it there by

ebook. you can still get it there by getting to that going to that um URL. Um

and uh it suddenly went viral uh to the point where I I felt really stupid not setting up like Dripify or some sort of AI generated um solution for the funnel.

Uh so yeah, so some of you got this uh others of you uh didn't. So I apologize if you didn't get it and I didn't get round to to pinging you a link. You can

grab it here. Um and yeah, please forgive my uh my rut. As you can tell, technology and me are not like we're not like up there. But hey, you know, I'm doing my best. I'm doing my best. And uh

I'm quite impressed that I managed to get an inscreen kind of thing uh streaming on top of my slides. So, I

hope you are also. Anyway, so feel free to grab that free ebook. Um I can ping up a link later on to that if you if you're interested uh as well or or DM me if if you want to kind of get a bit of

an insight on that. But this this webinar Oh, let me just as I say, let me I'm doing this like mad. Everyone that

comes in, I have to manually Oh, mute all. There's a button. Found it. Mute

all. There's a button. Found it. Mute

all. There we go. So, what what what I I sort of thought we'd talk about in this webinar is I was going to share with you um some tips and tricks and answer some big questions around brand consulting.

There's a lot of interest in it. As I

say, I think nearly like 3,000 people in the space of like a week downloaded that ebook, were messaging me, which was amazing. Um, so I know that there's a

amazing. Um, so I know that there's a lot of uh a lot of interest. So I

thought, hey, I'll put this on start of a new year. A lot of people investing in themselves, a lot of people looking ahead. Perhaps some people thinking,

ahead. Perhaps some people thinking, hey, um, it'd be really interesting to to know how Matt Davis get has got into brand consulting because that's something I'm looking to do. He's been

doing it for for for for over seven years now. So maybe I can learn off of

years now. So maybe I can learn off of him. So I thought, hey, I like I like to

him. So I thought, hey, I like I like to share and uh and so I thought I'd do that. So, as I say, in my past, I was a

that. So, as I say, in my past, I was a I'm just going to kind of simplify things and and see if this resonates a little bit with you. I was a graphic designer. So, what what that really

designer. So, what what that really meant was, if you think about the grand sweep of uh of kind of delivering uh uh kind of like marketing or brand stuff,

uh it really led to me being really about tactical delivery. So I was right at the end of a long chain of thinking which led to me basically creating either a logo or a brochure or a website

or wherever it might have been and perhaps some of you um also find yourself at that end. So I was all about delivery. This is going back like 20

delivery. This is going back like 20 years. I was about short-term projects.

years. I was about short-term projects.

I love to just come sit at my Mac and just have tons of stuff to just churn out every day. Um very low fee though.

That was the problem. And as I say, this this I I worked in agencies and ran my own agency and I found that it was very hard to to command premium pricing.

Um really it was low impact work and I'll I'll I'll explain that later. I

think if you'd have spoken to me 15 years ago, I certainly would not have admitted to you that my work was low impact. But upon reflection and with

impact. But upon reflection and with more experience, um actually that indeed was the case. So the the truth is is that it was low impact. Um it was very

feast or famine back in those days particularly running an agency. I I was also a freelance designer for some time and again it was the same thing feast and famine really really difficult to to

kind of get some momentum and and really feel successful in the space. Um I feel personally at the time I was often taken for granted be for lots of reasons. I'll

come on to those in a minute but one of the main ones was that you know basically I was replicatable. I was

replaceable. other people could do what I was doing at lower costs. Um and

therefore, you know, it was very tough and really that meant I found I was always overd delivering. Um I couldn't command um I guess uh the respect I felt

that my work uh required. Um and it was tough. It's tough. So if that all sounds

tough. It's tough. So if that all sounds like a bit like you then this webinar will be helpful to you I think because basically what I discovered over the years is that if I changed and there's a

whole story behind this which I'll bore you about no doubt another point um and became more of a strategy consultant um which is what I'm doing at the moment

everything flipped so instead of being tactical now I never really get involved in any tactical delivery only as an adviser so I'm very strategic with the projects that I run. I'm all about

solving problems. I'm always about all all about long-term engagements. A

typical engagement for me is six months plus. Most clients work with me for two

plus. Most clients work with me for two years. Um I command high fees. I'm not

years. Um I command high fees. I'm not

ashamed to say that. Um and I and and you know that's part of working with myself is that you will pay quite nicely. Um, and uh that's that but my

nicely. Um, and uh that's that but my clients seem to appreciate that and they they almost like are happy to pay those high fees uh because I'm doing high impact work and I'm going to speak to

you all about what that actually might look like and sound like. What is high impact work that that's led to me having a lot of lovely financial stability. I

think I've consistently delivered uh six figures UK uh for the last since I started really seven years. some of

those years I've nearly done half a million. So that's that's the reality of

million. So that's that's the reality of it which has completely been life-changing for me. Um I'm now considered as a trusted partner to my clients and I like to think and I know I am delivering a lot of value to my

clients. So I don't I'm not saying that

clients. So I don't I'm not saying that as a kind of a a boast. I think a lot of people could do this. There's certain

keys certain bits of information that you need to have though to enable you to do this. So, you know, how do you

do this. So, you know, how do you transition from, say, someone who's into delivery into consultancy? Well, it

looks lovely like this. You're looking

at me now and it looks like, oh, Matt's got it made. He's out there. I bought a farm in Wales. I I I I have a lovely life. I travel around the world

life. I travel around the world consulting. But the reality is that um

consulting. But the reality is that um it's very much kind of uh like this uh which is a bit higgledy and up and down and it's been a roller coaster. So if I

can depart some some thinking some ideas that might help you um I will be uh you know really really happy to to to do so.

So let's just kind of get through this introduction. Um first of all a couple

introduction. Um first of all a couple of things. Um I found very early in my

of things. Um I found very early in my career that this idea of brand was often considered to be a logo and some fonts.

But um after doing a lot of research and thinking and and a lot of training um a better definition that I've kind of started to use and I've been using say for the last I can't remember the last

10 years is that really the brand isn't the logo and the fonts and the colors which is what a lot of people think the brand is. They're the brand codes. The

brand is. They're the brand codes. The

brand itself really is the meaning that people attach to the offering of of you or your your client. For example, it's it's in the eyes of the beholder. It's

the customer's view or the ideal customer's view on what's on offer. So

the brand for me is is a lot of a wider definition and that's helpful and you'll see why in a minute. Uh so that's brand.

But what's a a consultant? Well, this is a good definition. I think somebody paid to improve a client's condition through expert advice and guidance. Now notice

that advice and guidance there. The idea

here is that you're not actually delivering a product. You're not giving the client sort of something tangible.

What you're doing is advising and guiding them, which you're probably doing anyway, even if I I was doing that even when I was at the sort of the start of my career as a graphic designer. But

what you've got to realize is is that you can transition from not delivering kind of stuff to actually becoming more of an adviser uh as time goes on. And

I'm going to talk to you a little bit about that now. So, a brand consultant, if we put those two things together, hopefully this all is starting to make sense, is a strategic advisor who helps

businesses build, improve, or reposition their brand. That's basically what

their brand. That's basically what you're doing in terms of um improving their condition at the very highest level.

Now, um there's a couple of things here that's worth worthy of note. Like why

why is it great to be a brand consultant? Like I I I love what I do

consultant? Like I I I love what I do and you know, yes, for for a number of reasons. There's high in income

reasons. There's high in income potential, a lot of diversity of work.

Uh if you want to kind of get up and do the same thing every single day and go home again, this is not for you. You're

going to find yourself in all sorts of situations. You're going to have to

situations. You're going to have to adapt and evolve uh you know to to the to the issues in front of you. A bit bit similar to me not being able to work LinkedIn live today uh due to the tech.

You know, you've got to be able to to kind of get on with a diversity of work.

Um there's a lot of intellectual challenge. Um, and you know, sometimes,

challenge. Um, and you know, sometimes, you know, it's it's not easy. So, if you like rigor and and intellectual challenge, this is for you. You've if

you like a flexible schedule, if you want to travel, I think I traveled in the last couple of years. I've traveled

all over Europe. I've gone to the US.

So, it's it's it's a great uh way that you can potentially travel. um if if you kind of want to uh scale not necessarily

with bandwidth or or or doing more stuff but with value in other words getting paid more then this is for you. Um if

you want autonomy and control this is again for you. Um which I love about what I do. I don't have to do anything.

I can I can stop at any moment or choose to take a client or not or even choose to do something at that particular moment or not. I've got a lot of of autonomy. Of course, I've got to deliver

autonomy. Of course, I've got to deliver on what I've promised, but but nonetheless, um it's a great chance to make a big impact uh in organizations and

businesses. Um appearing alongside CEOs

businesses. Um appearing alongside CEOs and so on is is is is an amazing privilege and you can make huge differences particularly in growth for for organizations. Um if you want to

for organizations. Um if you want to continually learn and develop, this is for you. That's why I love doing it. I'm

for you. That's why I love doing it. I'm

constantly being challenged. I get to work with with people at the top like you know as I say seuite which is great um and I get to balance my work with um

with my life and as I say like uh about five years ago we bought a farm out here in Wales so I live on a farm. I do a little bit of I'm not a very good farmer but I do a little bit of stuff on the

side. Um and I balance that uh and my

side. Um and I balance that uh and my work with my family and my church and so on with uh with my lifestyle um which is my lifestyle. I balance that with my

my lifestyle. I balance that with my work. So it it does give you a good work

work. So it it does give you a good work life balance um if you do it well. Um I

can see some people jumping in the chat.

Um yeah, feel free to um to ask questions. Somebody's just asked, "Will

questions. Somebody's just asked, "Will the recording of this session be shared?" I think I'm going to have to

shared?" I think I'm going to have to because I've made such a mess up of the whole LinkedIn live thing. So I will share it. Um and I will also share that

share it. Um and I will also share that link on the brand consulting uh approach again uh afterwards. So um yes I will do that said viha. Okay now let's keep

going. So the other thing is is what is

going. So the other thing is is what is the role though of of a brand consultant? Well really you you've got

consultant? Well really you you've got quite a few hats and and some consultants might specialize in one of these. I kind of tend to find I I I span

these. I kind of tend to find I I I span across all of them. I'm a discoverer. I

like to unearth insights and and information. I'm an adviser to to to a

information. I'm an adviser to to to a key stakeholders usually a CEO. I'm a

strategizer. You know, I really help leadership teams come up with ideas and plans to kind of move forward and grow their businesses and position their brands and so on. Massive part of what I

do is facilitation. This is usually because I'm trying to align leadership teams. You can't just plow on alone. Um,

you often have to make sure you carry everybody with you, particularly if you're doing big changes within organizations. So, you know, I got to

organizations. So, you know, I got to you got to that's one of the roles that I I kind of have as a as a facilitator, a connector. As I say, I don't often

a connector. As I say, I don't often deliver on projects myself personally, but one thing that um being in this game for a number of years now, um I've got

is a big network. And so often if a project requires, let's say, a copywriter, I've got a kind of a handful of like eight or nine amazing copywriters that I've worked with in the

past that I can connect my client with.

And I do that frequently across projects and over the years. And um in fact, one of them very kindly sent me uh in Cornwall here in the UK. There's a lady that I've worked with quite a bit and I

recommended her and she she sent me some uh some Cornish pasties. If you know what those are, you know what those are.

It's a very it's a delicacy from from the location of Cornwall here in the UK.

Yeah. So the point is is that you you know I recommend people and I bring them into projects and uh that's that adds value to them as well as to as well as to me and as well as to my client. The

other thing is to be a great communicator. I probably communicate too

communicator. I probably communicate too much. Um but nonetheless I know that uh

much. Um but nonetheless I know that uh that's something that I I do a lot for my clients. I often become the face of

my clients. I often become the face of the project, the face of change if you like and support the leadership team with communicating as we go through either via town halls or wherever it

might be um to help them make change happen as smoothly as possible. But for

me that that's the role of a brand consultant and through all of that basically uh what the the brand consultant is doing is improving a client's uh brand through expert advice

and guidance.

Now, quick other thing around types of businesses that kind of could really use brand consulting. Um, if you're thinking

brand consulting. Um, if you're thinking of getting into this space, there's a number of areas you could possibly specialize in. Um, there's obviously on

specialize in. Um, there's obviously on the screen is a typical kind of flow of how a business uh would flow and grow.

Um, and actually a brand consultant could find themselves adding value throughout the whole of a business life cycle. So, for and I've worked in all of

cycle. So, for and I've worked in all of these areas. So, for example, um you've

these areas. So, for example, um you've got kind of like a startup phase here on on stage one. You know, startups really need help with kind of forming an identity, positioning themselves, you know, making sure that what they're

doing can go to market. You've kind of then got growing up, you know, as as sort of they start to scale. Um they

need sales. So, it's all about how they're kind of going to differentiate themselves in the in the industry or the sector they're in. uh how they're going to recruit and scale their team, how they're going to kind of uh make sure

that they have the the principles and the guidelines set as they go through and scale as a as a company. Um and then as you get kind of bigger, there's a lot lot of need for kind of a leadership

alignment piece. I often find after a

alignment piece. I often find after a business has been around for about 10 years, you know, the original kind of intent that the the the the original founder had, maybe they've moved on or

maybe it's started to get diluted as the company has scaled. So, you need to kind of bring everybody back together and talk to them about putting the customer at the heart of everything. The brand is absolutely key. Maybe they've got a

absolutely key. Maybe they've got a portfolio and so often that needs rationalizing a little bit. At that

stage, they're often looking at culture uh because, you know, the way that the brand appears on the outside often is reflective of how people think on the inside. They sometimes need a lot of

inside. They sometimes need a lot of customer insights. Uh why are people

customer insights. Uh why are people still buying or not buying? Customer

experience is massive. They've often

been quite successful, but then as time goes on, little cracks and gaps appear.

Customers also change. So there's a load of kind of stuff particularly as businesses get a little bit bigger uh they can see some value in there and then as they get huge like I've worked

with some massive organizations um you know they still need to kind of uh think through employee experience or the employer value proposition or employer brand as it's called um to make sure

that they're recruiting the right talent for what they need. They need help often with innovation and sparking new ideas.

And if they've got a big portfolio, often that can get quite clumsy and and need some help. So if you think about all of those things, and these are not exclusively for each one of these kind

of types of business. I'm just sort of given a broad picture. If you think about that, a brand consultant can add value to a lot of different businesses

um at any particular stage. Um I tend to really work in stages three or four. Um,

but I started off, I guess, with the majority of my early work was in in stages one and two. Uh, which is where I kind of was born in the fire and and learned a lot and and failed a lot along

the way. But, you know, hey, it doesn't

the way. But, you know, hey, it doesn't it doesn't mean to say that you can't kind of start um a little bit further up uh as well. Um, the the other thing to think about is kind of what types of

businesses need it. Well, to be honest with you, all verticals need brand strategy. They need brand consulting

strategy. They need brand consulting because any business that's trying to create a customer, which is all businesses according to Peter Ducker, um

needs to kind of have a thinking within it which puts the customer at the heart of what it's doing. You know, a lot of businesses and business leaders make the mistake of of kind of surrounding themselves with a lot of kind of I call

them onion rings, right? They they kind of sit in the middle, but there's a lot of rings between the leadership and the end customer. And at the end of the day,

end customer. And at the end of the day, all of these businesses need to put customers at the heart of what they're doing if they're going to drive value and scale.

So, couple of other things. Oh, I don't know why this slide's coming up like this, but basically, I often like to think about um who who really um kind of

how does it really work? Oh, let me just mute that. Sorry everybody. Again, I was

mute that. Sorry everybody. Again, I was doing quite well with muting everybody as they come in. If you're just joining us, sorry for the mess up with LinkedIn Live. I've been uh having a few tech

Live. I've been uh having a few tech issues. Um so thanks for joining uh via

issues. Um so thanks for joining uh via um Zoom. Um appreciate that. So this

um Zoom. Um appreciate that. So this

slide really is illustrating just simply like that a lot of what brand strategy and brand consulting does is this question of alignment, right? It helps

to bring sense and a narrative and a glue if you like to those focused within the organization and those teams and departments really can kind of that are

looking within such as HR for example and it gives that that kind of glue that connects what they're doing to also those teams that are thinking and looking at things without in other words

for the customer customer perspective.

And so sales teams for example are really important. They're looking

really important. They're looking without. They're looking to sell. Um

without. They're looking to sell. Um

those focused within like the people team, they're thinking about culture, rewards packages, employer value. So

that if having a good brand consultant should stick all of those things together really help leadership to make change happen to to deliver value to the market to grow their businesses and that

is the secret of good branding.

>> I got you. Bye.

Let me just mute again. Okay. So, the

other thing is is inside these organizations, you know, who are the sorts of people that I'm dealing with mainly with CEOs, chief people officers.

I've done a lot of projects for them.

Chief marketing officers, chief operating officers, also heads of product, heads of customer services and customer success. Um, chiefs of

customer success. Um, chiefs of innovation, directors of brands. A lot

of some companies now, particularly bigger companies, have got brand as a kind of a function within the leadership team. And so, you know, being an adviser

team. And so, you know, being an adviser and a strategist within those is is super helpful and they're the sorts of people that we're talking to if you want to get into this space.

So, the benefits to the to the client, as I've mentioned, alignment, this is a big one. You will be surprised how many

big one. You will be surprised how many companies are not aligned. You know, you can find this out quite quite early on.

A lot of my engagements. I do a lot of kind of surveys early on. I might do a quick survey to all employees. And you

will find that a lot of companies are you know everybody's pulling in different directions. Um so that's not

different directions. Um so that's not helpful. So being you know being a brand

helpful. So being you know being a brand consultant means I help companies align around a a kind of a clear strategy going forwards so they have clarity. I I

also denote uh give them knowledge around the principles of branding, positioning, differentiation, all of that kind of good stuff. Uh energy this

is a big one. Um I often ask clients um you know why did you hire me? Right? And

and the word that came up more often than not when I asked that question is, "Oh, we we just like your energy, Matt."

So energy uh is important. Um it's hard to sell. You can't say, "Hey, hire me

to sell. You can't say, "Hey, hire me for energy." But that is nonetheless

for energy." But that is nonetheless some some value, particularly businesses going through change or having just gone through a lot of change. Um it's helpful to kind of give a bit of energy and

direction.

So you could This is how you really improve the client's condition. you're

helping to grow their customers, get them more revenue from existing customers, retain their customers, increase their profit, recruit talent, or retain their talent. So, there's a

lot of kind of benefits that a brand consultant can offer to those types of business. And the great news is is that

business. And the great news is is that there are no barriers to entry to be a consultant. Literally, anybody can say

consultant. Literally, anybody can say they are a consultant. But warning,

trigger warning, you might want to be careful before you just go out there and say, "Hey, I'm a I'm a consultant." Um,

you might like to have the following in place if you want to become a consultant. I I would strongly advise

consultant. I I would strongly advise people to not kind of go out there and do some of the things I'm about to talk to you about. Uh, unless you have some

experience, I I would suggest five years plus. Like this isn't for people who've

plus. Like this isn't for people who've just stepped out of university who have no experience with business at all. You

need some experience. Um you need knowledge of your value. You need to know yourself, what you're good at, what you're not so good at, how you can deliver value. You need a support

deliver value. You need a support network around you. Um be that from a professional perspective, but also I would say from a personal perspective.

It's not easy sometimes. And so um my lovely wife and family are very supportive of me. That's really helpful.

You need a positive mindset. Like I'm a forever an optimist and that's helpful.

Um I would say that's a good thing if you're a consultant to have. Uh you need obviously expertise in the domain or the area that you're entering.

This one's a huge one. You need sales and marketing skills. This is why you need probably a bit of experience. Um

and I would definitely say experience in selling stuff. If you've never sold

selling stuff. If you've never sold anything or marketed yourself, um to become a solo consultant is very challenging. You are constantly in the

challenging. You are constantly in the marketing game. So, um you know, that is

marketing game. So, um you know, that is something that you need. You need some probably some financial cushioning. I

would suggest it's it takes a bit of the pressure off. If you can make sure

pressure off. If you can make sure you've got your bills covered for a good few months before you jump into this or you can kind of phase your way in and uh perhaps I can talk about that later. Um

you really need to put in effort. It's

it's not People might kind of I don't know sometimes look at me and go, "Oh, you've got it like absolutely made."

It's a lot of effort. You have to work hard. Like some days I'm working long

hard. Like some days I'm working long hours. Yeah, I have loads of benefits as

hours. Yeah, I have loads of benefits as well. I don't have to do that all the

well. I don't have to do that all the time, but you still got to put a lot of effort in. You've got to wi be willing

effort in. You've got to wi be willing to learn and you've got to be willing to wear lots of hats. You know, you've got to deal with tax and accounts and invoicing. You've also got to do

invoicing. You've also got to do marketing and sales and deliver the actual kind of client work as well. So

this is me just basic hopefully not putting you off but just preparing you that if you are looking to transition into this space it it's not easy.

There's a lot to do and a lot of information that um that that that you'll probably need to get into your brain to uh to make it a success. So

that's kind of my um my overview of the introduction. I still got some more

introduction. I still got some more stuff though to share with you. Um I

wanted to kind of ask some I thought to myself like what would the big questions that people have what would they be? And

some of these people have asked me as well. So this is the kind of the set of

well. So this is the kind of the set of questions I'm going to try and answer at least at a high level in the remainder of our webinar together today. How can I break free from low impact work and

become a brand consultant? How can I do higher paid work? How can I attract clients who value real branding and strategy? And what competencies do I

strategy? And what competencies do I need to develop? Right? These are the the kind of the big questions that hopefully I'm I'm going to be able to help you with. Um, so hopefully that that's helpful. I can see a lot of

that's helpful. I can see a lot of people jumping in. Um, and uh, yeah, as I say, feel free to to ask any questions. I've got one here from

questions. I've got one here from Katherine. This is great. Would you say

Katherine. This is great. Would you say working physically together with clients is essential or how do you see this kind of job working out remotely? So, yeah,

interesting question, right? I I do a lot of remote work. As I said, I live in quite a remote remote area here in Wales in a little place called Kamarvin. Um,

so I don't travel an awful lot. However,

I found in um and and I found in COVID uh that basically I could conduct my whole business remote. But nonetheless,

um I do think that um there is a lot of value when you're working with senior people of getting them in a room, right, of of spending time physically with

them. So it's not essential. Um so you

them. So it's not essential. Um so you could uh make a success of being a consultant, I would suggest um without traveling and be doing it remote. But if

you want to add more value, which I'm going to talk to you about in a minute, I think you might need to consider um having to travel. So, you know, I tend to travel once or twice a month um at the moment. But you don't have to do

the moment. But you don't have to do that. You can set yourself up

that. You can set yourself up differently, but that's that's something that that that I think is is important to think through. Okay. So, before I carry on, I also wanted to a little bit

of a little bit of a plug. um because of the interest in my uh ebook I have thought well hey I there's a lot to get through there's I'm gonna obviously try and get through as much as I can in this

webinar but the truth is that um there's a lot so what I was thinking was hey if you're really interested in um in becoming a brand consultant and if

you're keen to kind of um invest in yourself this year um in February I'm going to run this course it's basically a four-part course I'll talk about it a bit I thought I'd sort of give it a heads up

uh at this point in in in the in the webinar just so that you're aware. Um

it's 499 UK plus UK VAT. Um and it also includes a free 3month uh membership of my mastermind community which is awesome. I'll talk about that a bit

awesome. I'll talk about that a bit later, but you know, grab that that URL.

Um I can put it in the in the chat there as well. I think I've got it on I

as well. I think I've got it on I haven't got it. I'll I'll pop it on there later. Right. So, oh, someone's

there later. Right. So, oh, someone's asked another question. So, uh, Ayal, I am a senior art director working for 10 years with consumer brands. I've always

been on work working on client side, never agencies. Would you con consider

never agencies. Would you con consider it a disadvantage? And if so, how would you bridge that gap? Interesting

question. Um, so I don't think that that's a disadvantage at all. In fact, I would turn that into an advantage if I was you. Um, the only disadvantage is

was you. Um, the only disadvantage is perhaps you're not used to selling or marketing. Uh, so as long as you kind of

marketing. Uh, so as long as you kind of plug that skilled uh that that that gap if if you have got it then I think that's that's the gap that you would need to to kind of think through like you know you've got to really put yourself out there when you work uh

agency side and then when you work as a consultant so that's something that I would just kind of be a watch but you could turn it into a massive plus uh particularly if you're in a niche and you can become a consultant specifically

to to specific um uh kind of uh uh types of clients. So have a think about that.

of clients. So have a think about that.

So yeah. Okay, I'm going to keep going.

So the big question, how can I break free from low impact work?

All right, so here's the big question.

Why do we get paid, folks? Like why is it that somebody out there puts their hand in their pocket, pulls out some cash, metaphorically speaking, and gives

it to you? And the answer is because of perceived value. Little emoji. So if I

perceived value. Little emoji. So if I perceive that you can add value, I will invest in you. I'll buy you. I'll I'll

I'll I'll buy your product or whatever it is you're selling if it if it adds value to me. And that's the secret. And

it sounds sounds so simple and it sounds so obvious, but it absolutely is crucial to get your head around because you get paid for adding value. Why do we get

stuck in low impact work? Um well,

because of a mindset. We forget that it's about adding value. Uh we we wait for people to brief us. We think the that that that we do this great thing and people should just come on and just

buy it from us. But if it's not of much value to them, then they're not going to pay lots of money and they're not going to kind of think about that from a, you know, in terms of they're not going to

perceive it as being high uh value.

They're not going to think it's high impact, so they're going to think it's low impact. They're going to pay for low

low impact. They're going to pay for low impact. And and I saw this very much um

impact. And and I saw this very much um even in myself about 20 years ago, you know, uh if you said to me, "Who are you, Matt?" I I would think, well, I am

you, Matt?" I I would think, well, I am a I'm a I'm a designer, right? Like, I'd

see myself in that way. Um, and that's not particularly a great way of of kind of thinking about oneself from a value perspective. And I'll come on to that in

perspective. And I'll come on to that in just a minute. Um, so this is the thing, right? If if that's your sort of

right? If if that's your sort of perspective or yourself, if that's what you're taking to market, then you know really particularly if you're thinking about delivering on preset projects, uh

it it becomes low impact. Whereas what

you really want to do is is is add high value is add big answer big problems and really kind of help uh help leaders visionary leaders. I think one of the

visionary leaders. I think one of the key issues is that people get stuck selling or uh basically departing value to a particular type of audience like

deliverers of projects and they just need a little bit of help uh getting it over the line. Well, that's fine, but that's low impact because there's lots and lots of people that could do what you you're offering and that's a

challenge. You know, it's considered as

challenge. You know, it's considered as low low value. Whereas what you want to do is kind of really ideally become a like a really like um like the only choice for somebody so they're like,

"Oh, this I need I need somebody. I need

Larry because Larry is the only one that's going to be able to help me um with this with this vision I've got. Um

and I I need him to do high impact work.

I highly valuable work. It's going to solve big big problems for me." So the the key is is if you want to do higher impact work, you know, you need to solve

bigger problems. you get paid for for the value that you offer. So solve

bigger problems. I've talked to you at the start of this webinar in the introduction around some of the the challenges and the problems that I solve for. They're big. You know, if you've

for. They're big. You know, if you've got a leadership team that are not aligned, that's huge. Um and it's very hard to solve that. You know, you need the right person, you need the right thinking, you need the right

personality. So that's a big problem

personality. So that's a big problem that I can potentially solve. Therefore,

I'm higher value. Um whereas if you need just going back to my example as me Matt being a designer if you want a brochure being designed right like there are a million people on the planet that could

design you a brochure. So I'm now being compared to a million people whereas you know if I it's if you can get yourself in a situation where you're not being prepared compared to lots and lots of

people that is that is really the secret and that's what a brand consultant sort of uh positioning can begin to do for you.

So um I'm going to keep going. What's

the next question? How can I uh do higher paid work? Which links to the first question in a way? And that really is again around this question. Why do we get paid? As I mentioned, it's because

get paid? As I mentioned, it's because of perceived value. If you want to get paid more, you need to add more value.

And I very much like to talk about this.

I think I might have found this out through uh through a chat called Alan Vice. I think he uses this phraseiology,

Vice. I think he uses this phraseiology, but I've sort of adopted it. Um, I've

been trained by Allan actually. Um, and

he wrote a book called Million-Dollar Consulting, which was really, really great. Uh, but very focused, um, not in

great. Uh, but very focused, um, not in our in our brand world in in a different sort of focus. I think it's in sales.

But, but he used this phrase and I've used it ever since because it's so helpful to think about it. Uh, you know, are we being kind of a pair of hands or a brain to a client? So, if you're

hands, you're all about delivery.

Deliver this brochure, deliver this website, deliver this logo design. uh

you're producing stuff. Whereas, if

you're a brain, if you're hired by a client to be a brain, you're you're really about a solution to a problem.

You're adding more value, you are you're really assisting them on solving the big problems. And the key here is that if you can shift yourself and think this through to stop really being seen as a

pair of hands and behaving like a pair of hands and start behaving like a brain, you'll see there's a huge value shift. People are willing to pay more

shift. People are willing to pay more for brains than they are for hands.

Now, the reason for that is because well, a couple of things. Let's just

take it take an example. If you're a pair of hands, you might be asking like, "Can you send me a brief or a statement of work, right? That's that might be your default position when you have a new sales conversation, for example."

That's what a hand would say if it could speak. Uh bear with me on the on the uh

speak. Uh bear with me on the on the uh on the symbology, right? Um that's what a hand would say. But a brain says something different, right? A brain

says, "Look, I know you you want this thing, but like what are you actually trying to achieve, client? What's the

real challenge here? How would your situation improve if we achieved this?

Why are you doing it now? What would

happen if if you didn't do this?" You're

asking more intelligent questions.

You're trying to get to the root problem so that you can add value and make sure that what you're doing solves that problem. Um, the biggest challenge I

problem. Um, the biggest challenge I find is that if you're behaving like a hand, really you're assuming that the customer already knows what they want.

And customers sometimes do think they know what they want. But if you start behaving like a brand, a brain, sorry.

Um, it's higher impact because you assume you will help them find a solution to a problem. And it's slightly different. So another analogy that you

different. So another analogy that you could use is imagine you're a doctor.

Someone comes to you and says, "Um, doctor, I've broken my leg and I need uh a plaster to go around the leg." Right?

What does a doctor do? Doctor doesn't

go, "Oh, okay then." and put a plaster on you. No, the doctor says, "Look,

on you. No, the doctor says, "Look, before we do anything, I'm going to send you down to the X-ray department and double check that you've got a broken leg before I prescribe a plaster or any

form of treatment for you." You that's a consultant's approach. And in fact,

consultant's approach. And in fact, doctors are called consultants, right?

So that is that is the value that they add. They don't assume that you know the

add. They don't assume that you know the problem. They assume that they've got to

problem. They assume that they've got to investigate and determine the best way forward based on their expertise. That

is how a consultant be behaves. And so

really this is a mindset shift. If if

you are if you recognize that you're a pair of hands and you want to become a brain, you've got to change the way you think, the way you speak, the way you position yourself, the way you show up, and what you deliver. So, it can be

quite a big change for some for some people to get their heads around.

Here's a bunch of questions. I'm not

going to go through them all. Um, if you join that course that I showed you earlier, you you'll get a ton of like highv value questions. But the bigger questions that you want to ask uh around projects are look, you know, if you had

a set of pri set some priorities now, what three things must be accomplished?

What kind of profitability will you be expecting? Have you done anything like

expecting? Have you done anything like this before? What happened? Did it fail?

this before? What happened? Did it fail?

you know um you might ask at the end uh well another thing is I love to ask people particularly in the early days is like well what does this project mean to you personally um what you find is is

there's two levels of of value one is the the value to the business it might be they want to grow customers or or or branch out into a new region or something like that that that's of value to the business but there's also value

that you find I call it soft value for the actual person who's going to make the decision the buyer maybe they're just sick of spending time with a scrabbling leadership team. Maybe they

just find it really really tedious or very very stressful. If you can come and take away some of that soft pain from them, then again these are all layers of value that you can offer. So often it

comes with if you want to do higher paid work, you need to ask bigger questions.

You you really also need to position yourself as a person that has the answer to some of those big questions, has an an opinion, a perspective, something of value to offer. So, you know, you really

need to start thinking about how you're showing up across, you know, your various channels. Um, and as I say, if

various channels. Um, and as I say, if you're in this game, you're going to be in a marketing game, right? So, you got to really think about the strategic content you're creating. Maybe you've

got to do some speaking or podcasting.

Maybe you've got to write about the change that you that you can give clients in their businesses and the benefits and the value that you're you're doing uh for for existing clients and can offer. You've got to show up

with clarity and confidence. And you've

really got to have the answers to those kind of big questions that you're saying that you're going to you're going to actually uh solve. Um you're basically what you want is for all of you put

you're putting out that perception into the world so that your ideal customer really kind of has the impression like wow this this person could really help me solve some challenges and level up my

business like they're the only person that I can I want to hire. That's really

what you want to get yourself into a position for. Now, why is it a massive

position for. Now, why is it a massive challenge today uh with with being a pair of hands? I'll tell you why. Um and

uh you know, a webinar in 2025 or 2026 or any business event wouldn't be the same unless we mentioned the the the the AI buzzword, but basically technology is

is obviously doing away with a lot of the traditional ways that we would kind of craft stuff. So, you know, I saw this a lot when I ran my agency back in the

uh the sort of 201s. What we found was that we were coding websites back in the day. I had a whole team of uh developers

day. I had a whole team of uh developers who were code coding HTML, PHP, CSS by hand, line by line, right? And and we were creating the UX and the UI for that. And it was kind of great. It was

that. And it was kind of great. It was

it was flourishing. We did a lot of WordPress websites and stuff like that in the early days of WordPress. But as

time went on, what we realized was was that the uh the bottom of the market was being eaten up by technology. So

Squarespace came along, Wix came along, WordPress became a lot easier for clients to actually manipulate and do their own kind of layouts and design and publish pages and so on. Uh plugins

became available. So technology started to take over and it really hit our kind of bottom line a lot because we were we were doing a lot of startup work at the time and you know the average startup

founder couldn't just spin out a website very quickly. They needed a small team

very quickly. They needed a small team like ours to do that at the time. So you

know I saw it happen a lot. So

technology is going to start doing that.

If you're a pair of hands and AI can do your work like I'm not look I'm just being kind of brutally honest about it.

Like you've got to start thinking about changing the other thing. um is that um particularly with the rise of the with the internet, we've got uh a ton of competitors, right? We're in a global

competitors, right? We're in a global economy and therefore if you're a pair of hands and literally you're following a set of instruction or something like that. Um you know, somebody can easily

that. Um you know, somebody can easily find someone else perhaps cheaper. I'm

in the UK. We're very expensive here. A

lot of businesses in the UK, for example, if they they they figured this out, they started to go to other parts of the world that where they could pay a lot less for the same thing and sometimes even better value. So, it's

really tough uh to be a pair of hands.

You've got a lot of competition. So,

this is the brutal fact folks like the perceived value of delivery of being a pair of hands is decreasing. And so it's a great time I would suggest if you are thinking about going into consulting

consulting to think about doing that now. Um there's no time like the present

now. Um there's no time like the present if if that's somewhere you want to you want to end up.

Um so you got to ask that kind of reflective question. Why are you

reflective question. Why are you currently being hired? Are you being hired as a pair of hands or as a brain?

Um if you're being hired as a pair of hands that's your problem. Uh you can only command low fees. Whereas if you're being hired as a brain, then you will be

able to conduct higher fees because you're solving bigger problems and really helping to add a lot of value. So

I've seen a couple of other questions.

Um there are I don't know there's a load of them in there. I don't know if I'll be able to get to to to all of them. So uh

please forgive me if I don't. I'm just

going to kind of get to just one of the latest ones. So Sonia, you've said if

latest ones. So Sonia, you've said if the client problem is money, they need more profit. How can you guarantee that

more profit. How can you guarantee that promise? Basically, how can you

promise? Basically, how can you guarantee anything you promise? Great

question. The truth is you can't always guarantee that, right? What you can say is is typically clients that work with me um grow profitability, but because I

get I I get that sometimes to be honest.

I think the clients that really uh know what they're hiring and and buying uh don't ask that question. They they what they are looking for is someone to help

them enact a plan or come up with a plan that they as a leadership team or they as an individual with their team will help form with you in a collaborative way. So that's one thing to bear in

way. So that's one thing to bear in mind. So I never guarantee that. I do I

mind. So I never guarantee that. I do I do kind of say look you know a lot of people uh increase their profits after working with me for 12 months plus and I can show case studies of that within

within um within my work but it's really tough to guarantee it. I think the other thing to say on that is to say look I can't promise that you'll be profitable.

All I can promise is that I will work collaborative collaboratively with you and your team um to maximize the chances of profitability. And I think that's the

of profitability. And I think that's the honest answer um that you can give clients, right? That's the genuine

clients, right? That's the genuine honest answer. And and so I would always

honest answer. And and so I would always advocate for honesty. Uh it's always the best policy. Um and but the thing is is

best policy. Um and but the thing is is I guess the other thing you can you can guarantee is things like um I'm definitely going to help you you get a plan together. I'm definitely going to

plan together. I'm definitely going to help you uh align your team. I'm

definitely going to kind of uh understand more of what your clients are thinking. I'm definitely going to

thinking. I'm definitely going to understand how aligned your people are.

So there are things you can be definite about, but on exact profitability, the complexities are huge. Every business is different and you never really know the business until you you get in and pop

the pop the hood as we would say in the UK and look under the bonnet. Um, every

industry is different. I'm a generalist.

I don't specialize in an industry. Maybe

I will one day, but for now it's fine being a generalist. So I find every industry is different, every business is different, every product set is different. So you you can't guarantee uh

different. So you you can't guarantee uh particular things uh like like profit.

Um so maybe I'm just awful at that. If

anyone's got any other ideas and they think they can, then that that's quite quite bold. I'm not that bold. Uh so

quite bold. I'm not that bold. Uh so

there we are. So hopefully that's help helpful, uh Sonia. Okay, I'm going to keep going. So here's my hot tip to get

keep going. So here's my hot tip to get paid more. Ask bigger questions. Just by

paid more. Ask bigger questions. Just by

asking those questions in the mind of the potential buyer, you become a brain, not a pair of hands. So, it's crucial.

All right. So, next question. Um, what

time are we? Uh, oh, I'm nearly out of time, right? I'll I'll try and hurry

time, right? I'll I'll try and hurry this along. We started a few minutes

this along. We started a few minutes late, so hopefully that's uh I'm not insulting everybody by carrying on. Um,

how can I um how can I attract clients who value real branding and strategy?

Well, this really comes down to your positioning. Um, again, like you've

positioning. Um, again, like you've really got to understand your value.

You've got to build a compelling offer.

You've got to reposition yourself to be appealing to those right buyers. You've

got to show up in front of them. You've

got to kind of say the right things.

You've got to be top of mind for when they're they're ready to buy. And you've

got to plan your growth so your business works for you. Um and all of those things are key things that I'm going to talk about in that fourpart course which I mentioned um at the top of this

webinar. So you've got to another hot

webinar. So you've got to another hot tip I would say is is um to kind of really start moving into that the space is you've got to show yourself in action. These are the two principles I

action. These are the two principles I teach a lot of. Show yourself in action and demonstrate your value. These are

crucial crucial principles for anyone wanting to become a brand consultant.

Um, showing yourself in action shows that you are actually doing what you say you're doing. And demonstrating your

you're doing. And demonstrating your value really kind of speaks about the problems that you're solving. Um, so uh I think this I pulled this together some some months ago. These are like random posts for example that I've done on

LinkedIn. If you check out my LinkedIn,

LinkedIn. If you check out my LinkedIn, you'll see that I'm frequently trying to do this show myself in action. Here's me

running a workshop. Here's me on a stage. Here's me doing this. It seems a

stage. Here's me doing this. It seems a bit big-headed to the British mindset.

It's uh takes some getting used to. It's

not something that comes naturally to a lot of us. Um but it's something that I've had to embrace. Um and then you've got to demonstrate your value. You know,

you've got to really kind of show the problems that you've solved. Um like if you jump on my LinkedIn and look at the testimonials I've got, you can't fake those testimonials. hundreds of

those testimonials. hundreds of testimonials from clients that I've built up over years. That is how you do it. It's a a long-term play, but it's

it. It's a a long-term play, but it's something that that that is very hard to replicate. If you if you want a quick

replicate. If you if you want a quick silver bullet, I'm afraid brand consulting you might get a few kind of kind of wins, but really you've got to think long term constantly.

Um, interesting. What do you do about NDAs?

interesting. What do you do about NDAs?

Says Andy. Yeah, I sign NDAs all the time. I often don't mention clients in

time. I often don't mention clients in my posts. I often don't um kind of uh

my posts. I often don't um kind of uh promote uh in fact I don't promote I I'm redoing my website at the moment. It's

about about to launch a new one. But up

until this point and as I say I've been doing it for seven years. I haven't

actually had any case studies uh on my website which is uh you know quite strange. When I was a designer we the

strange. When I was a designer we the first thing you do as a designer is have a portfolio right here's all the stuff that I've done. Um whereas as a consultant I never did that. I I kind of uh uh found that that that actually was

detrimental. I wanted people to kind of

detrimental. I wanted people to kind of inquire rather than kind of think that they knew what I did. Um, and as soon as you put a logo, a set of colors, and a font on a on a on a on a portfolio or a case study scenario, you know, if you

don't do it right, people just think you're a pair of hands. Where, as I say, you want to think about the big problems that you solve, and that often isn't a visible tangible thing. It's advice

you're giving, support, change management programs, that kind of stuff.

It's very different. Um, someone else has put uh Leon's put, is it possible to reposition yourself as a brain and not hands to present clients to present clients or is this much harder to do?

That is really hard to do, can be done.

Um, I've done a lot of kind of coaching over the last few years as well and there are people in my mastermind community who have phased it and it's taken them longer than they thought, but

they c you can do it. So if you've got people that trust you and have seen you in action and and you know see value in you, it it's really a positive thing to say, look, I'm also doing this kind of

work. Um and then obviously you you'll

work. Um and then obviously you you'll have to enter into a conversation. It's

much more helpful if you can say, I know you're trying to achieve X, for example, because I've heard that in the work I've done, and actually I've got a solution for you, which might look like this. It

might mean we do some workshops. It

might mean we kind of go through a six-month program. So you can do it. uh

six-month program. So you can do it. uh

Leone, but it's it's it's difficult if you're not set up right because they don't perceive you as a brain. They just

think of you as a pair of hands. Um I

know we're a little bit over time, folks. I'm going to keep going if that's

folks. I'm going to keep going if that's okay. Um I've got a little bit um more

okay. Um I've got a little bit um more to kind of get through. So hopefully

this has been helpful uh for for folks because I've got this last question.

What competences do I need to develop?

Um, here's some competencies that I I I've been reflecting on that I think are needed if you want to become a brand consultant. You've got to be very

consultant. You've got to be very collaborative with your clients, right?

You've got to be articulate. You've got

to be able to communicate ideas and inspire people around them. Um, that's

just part and parcel of being a brand consultant. You've got to be visionary.

consultant. You've got to be visionary.

You've got to see things the client is not seeing um and help them see it.

You've got to have huge empathy. Um, you

might walk in a room, you've got to read the room. You've got to understand,

the room. You've got to understand, particularly when you're working with leadership teams. Um, you know, I always like to find the guy or girl in the workshop who's kind of got their arms folded like this and they're really kind

of negative and miserable. Um, and uh, I like to find those people and try and empathize with them and understand their perspective and hopefully win them round to uh, to the to the project that we're

doing together. You got to be curious.

doing together. You got to be curious.

You've got to be creative. You've got to basically be influential. You've got to be driven. Um being driven is a really

be driven. Um being driven is a really kind of key thing. Uh as I say, you're gonna have to uh really kind of push a lot of uh a lot of effort into this if you do want to transition.

Okay. So, um hopefully that's helpful, but here's a hot tip. Um and I I I believe this in in any any stage of of your career or life anyway, but like you should always be working on yourself,

right? you should al always be

right? you should al always be reflecting um and thinking well um how how can I be better how can I add more value how can I uh improve things so becoming a brand consultant is is very

much like that it's a journey of improvement it's a it's kind of uh an interesting uh an interesting ride and but anyway I hope all of that stuff has been of interest I really appreciate you

joining my webinar as I say let me just tell you a little bit about this course that I'm planning on putting on um I've done some of these like this in the past. Um, I'm kind of in the way, aren't

past. Um, I'm kind of in the way, aren't I, of the URL. I have to move to the to to that side there. I'm going to put this out afterwards on the on the comments. I can't do it now because I'm

comments. I can't do it now because I'm sharing my screen. Um, and it's all a bit chaotic with the change of the LinkedIn live drama or whatever, but hopefully I'll get this out to you and you'll see it on my channels. If you

want to become a brand consultant and you want to join a cohort of people also kind of looking to do that, as I say, I've got this course. It's going to be in February. All being well. Um the

in February. All being well. Um the

every Tuesday in February, so four parts. We're going to have at least one

parts. We're going to have at least one hour together uh with an opportunity to to spend time with me and ask questions afterwards. Um you uh basically we're

afterwards. Um you uh basically we're going to go through these four weeks.

What do we do in the four weeks? Um

we're going to ask four big questions like what does it take? Um what skills do you need? What mindset will you need to become a brand consultant? I'm going

to go into how I have developed that uh and how I think and and what I you know what help I can and offer you if you do want to do it. Um what do you offer right like how do you package up a highv

value offering? How do you sell

value offering? How do you sell retainers? How do you sell highv value

retainers? How do you sell highv value uh product offerings in terms of like you know project offerings like what does that start looking like? Do you how do you sell them like um and how can you

get it you know to a point where uh you can earn really good money off of it. So

the offering is key. I'll talk to you about that uh in terms of of what to package up and how to put that out there. How do you land clients? You

there. How do you land clients? You

know, what's the sales process? Um when

I've run sessions like this before, one of the most um highly valued areas was my proposal documents which I share some templates on. Um and I'll do that at

templates on. Um and I'll do that at work week three. Um really really helpful just for that. I would suggest um you know it's I I know I'm blowing my own trumpet here, but I know that they

that that took me many many years to get my head around how to to structure the sales process, price things and sell things. And then finally, how do you

things. And then finally, how do you grow? Like how do you get that

grow? Like how do you get that stability? The secret is retainers, but

stability? The secret is retainers, but how do you kind of keep them going? How

do you kind of make sure that you you kind of extend client life cycles maybe from a year to two years and plus? How

do you do that? Um, I'm going to sort of teach you all of those things. As I say, it's every Tuesday uh in February 2026, Tuesday the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, same time as this webinar. So, if you join

this, hopefully it's helpful time for you. 400 p.m. British uh GMT. Um, I'll

you. 400 p.m. British uh GMT. Um, I'll

also give you replay recordings, tools, email support from myself, and I think I've got worksheets. Yeah, I've got worksheets for every single one of these kind of four uh sessions. It's kind of

like an accelerator program, right? And

I will help you put into practice a plan to really kind of become a a brand consultant and get your first consulting um um uh client. So that's the main aim

of this. Um the other thing it includes

of this. Um the other thing it includes thrown in uh as part of the bundle is I run a mastermind group which meets once a month um full of I think we've got about 70 brand builders from around the

world. Some of you actually on the call

world. Some of you actually on the call I can see here. Um and they uh basically uh we meet we we we have various we have special guests we have problem solving sessions we have presentations we have

discussions all around issues to do with brand and brand consulting. It's worth

90 quid because you get three months free. Um beyond that if you want to stay

free. Um beyond that if you want to stay on as part of that mastermind community um it'll be about30 pound a month uh from then on in. If you don't that's fine as well. You can step out and

that's absolutely no no obligation. So

that's a kind of an opportunity for you there. So, book your place by jumping in

there. So, book your place by jumping in over there. Any problems, give me an

over there. Any problems, give me an email, ping me on LinkedIn. Um,

absolutely. This is more information about my mastermind. Um, which I've talked to you about already. So,

hopefully that's of interest as well.

And so, even if you don't want to be a brand consult, go on to the brand consultant course, but you think, hey, I wouldn't mind joining a community who who uh meet regularly and kind of learn off of each other and share, then uh

check out the mastermind. You can go to my website. There's a tab at the top

my website. There's a tab at the top that will take you to the mastermind. I

wanted to share also just one other kind of proof point. Uh as I say, I ran a course like this and did some coaching through that course a few years ago.

Now, this is what one person said. They

didn't want to be uh out there in public, so I just call them JR. Uh they said, "Shortly after my coaching, I converted an inquiry for marketing help into a brand consulting conversation. I

ended up securing a 10-month 50k uh contract with that client. I'm truly

over the moon and having the guidance you provided was instrumental in making that a reality for me. When I signed up to work with you, I did not actually believe I would secure my first consulting client anytime soon. I just

thought I was gathering information to file away for later, but in fact, I ended up needing it almost immediately.

I had the request for a proposal the day after one of our meetings. Couldn't be

happier. Much gratitude for your willingness to share knowledge so generously. So, what I'm saying here is

generously. So, what I'm saying here is is like, you know, you never know when you're going to need to be prepared to make a sort of a sale uh and a particular high value sale from a

consulting perspective. So, uh so feel

consulting perspective. So, uh so feel free to uh to to to be inspired by that quote and hopefully do that. As I say, I've uh this is the the other thing.

There's a free ebook I've got here. I'll

ping that out. Most of you have got it anyway. And finally, um do connect with

anyway. And finally, um do connect with me if we're not connected already on LinkedIn. There's my book, Story

LinkedIn. There's my book, Story Strategy. And for sure definitely uh pop

Strategy. And for sure definitely uh pop in your earbuds just branding uh as a podcast if you haven't heard of us already. Me and Jacob Cass in Australia

already. Me and Jacob Cass in Australia uh have been running that I think we're in the seventh season. We've got some amazing guests lined up for this year.

So definitely do that. Totally free of course to to to do that. Okay. So um

I've got kind of a ton uh of questions here. I'm also going to probably do some

here. I'm also going to probably do some posts and stuff based on these questions because I don't think I'm going to get time to do them now. So, everybody that has asked a question, I really want to thank you for that. I'll try and either

get back to you or do a post or something that will address all of those questions as we go through. So, thank

you very very much. I appreciate it.

Right, I'm going to um kind of end that there then. Uh it's been awesome hanging

there then. Uh it's been awesome hanging out with you guys. Um take care. I'll

I'll um and all the very best. So, happy

new year, I guess, that we would say at the end of a a webinar like that. And

thanks for all the positive comments as well. Really appreciate it, guys.

well. Really appreciate it, guys.

Cheers. All right. See you later. Bye.