Just how do you create a strong brand?
This is a question that Jamie Joslin King, more popularly known as The Slay Coach, struggled with at the onset of her coaching career. She knew what she wanted to do; she wanted to help other women build and scale successful, passion-based businesses. She knew how to do it. Her past work experiences have provided her with the technical knowledge she needs to assist others. But how does she start with a bang? With hundreds of other successful coaches having had an earlier start and hundreds more trying to make it into business, how does she cut through the clutter and separate herself from everyone else?
“When I learned about coaching, I knew it was something I was always meant to do. I was very confident about what I could offer clients. But the challenge was how to get people’s attention. That’s not very easy, especially for someone who has so much yet to prove,” Jamie tells me during one of our regular calls earlier this month.
I’ve known her for years but have never had the chance to learn about this part of her story. Her statement prompted me to ask, “So, how did you do it?”
“There are certain things you need to consider when you are creating a brand. Everyone who has worked on marketing will have an idea about this. But personally, I believe that the two most important factors that will determine your brand’s success is its purpose and what makes it undeniably eyecatching. Now, more often than not, the purpose exists separately from the wow factor. But in my case, it was the purpose of my coaching business that helped shape what separated me from the rest.”
What Jamie means by purpose is her desire to break the idea that a woman has to look and speak a certain way to be successful. She wants to use herself as an example of someone who can defy all odds, succeed, and help others find their success story whilst staying true to her genuine self.
“I am different. I know that. I have a very vibrant and unapologetic personality, which when I was working a corporate job, worked against me. But it’s also my greatest strength. I never apologize for being true to myself and the things that I believe in. When I realized that, when I realized how many people out there try to change themselves so they can fit in or find their definition of success, it made me realize that that is my wow factor. I am unapologetic. So I took that strength of mine, married it with my purpose and that’s how I founded The Slay Coach.”
Since its founding, Jamie Joslin King’s business has grown immensely. Aside from personal business coaching, she now also offers business courses and even has a podcast of her own. When asked about any advice she could give to anyone who is looking at starting their own brand, she has the following words.
“You need to understand your strength. What makes you different? To do that, you will need to look both outside–to what your competitors are doing. You also need to look inside and find what it is about what you offer that can make you stand out. Not everyone goes through the same journey when identifying that wow factor and some just have to work a little bit harder than others, but it can be done. Once you’ve found your strength, you just have to make sure that it reflects back to your purpose. It’s this winning combination that will help you get your brand off the ground and skyrocket to space.”