Jan. 4, 2022

6 Steps to Master Your Messaging & Differentiate Your Brand w/ Jen Kem

6 Steps to Master Your Messaging & Differentiate Your Brand w/ Jen Kem

If you’re ready to become more visible as you grow a business, today’s guest is definitely for you! As a leadership and marketing expert, Jen Kem specializes in getting entrepreneurs seen, heard, and paid for being themselves. Her marketing systems & ideas help brands captivate their ideal clients.

Are you struggling to understand why your current marketing isn’t working as effectively as it should?

If you’re ready to grow a business by harnessing your unique voice and increasing your visibility, today’s guest is speaking straight to you!

As a leadership expert and the creator of the Master Brand Method, Jennifer Kem specializes in getting entrepreneurs seen, heard, and paid for being themselves. Her methods and marketing ideas truly help brands stand out and captivate their ideal clients!

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL WALK AWAY WITH: 

  • The #1 marketing system you must master if you want your brand to be more visible
  • The biggest mistakes online entrepreneurs make with their messaging when trying to grow a business
  • 6 simple marketing ideas to differentiate your brand and set yourself apart from your competition

Get your FREE brand assessment as Jen’s exclusive gift to you for being a loyal listener at masterbrand.me/systems (a $250 value!).

 

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Transcript

Courtney Elmer 

Welcome back. It's the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast. This is episode 103.

 

[Intro Track]

 

Courtney Elmer

I learned that archetype is a pattern or a model that emerges amongst groups. I was intrigued by this quiz. At this point in my business, I was working to figure out my brand voice and my messaging, I kept hearing, you got to master your marketing, you got to have your marketing dialed in. And I didn't know what that meant, or how to do it. I knew that I wanted to do it, because I wanted to learn how to speak to my ideal client, and how to connect with them. So I took the quiz, then it spit out a 40 Plus page report that I went through with a fine tooth comb because it was so immensely valuable. It was the thing that helped me get clearer on how I needed to be showing up marketing within my brand. And my guest today, Jennifer Kim was the creator of that brand archetype quiz and rapport and she was one of the pivotal influencers, in my own life in business, who was responsible for helping me begin to cultivate and then later refine the brand voice marketing that we have today. 

 

Courtney Elmer

In case you've never heard of Jen, before, she's amazing. She is a branding and leadership expert who specializes in getting entrepreneurs seen and heard and paid for being themselves. Something we all want. She is the creator of something called the master brand method, which she is going to share with you in a moment. And she has used this marketing method that you are about to hear in the next few minutes to help brands stand out in the minds of their ideal clients, from big brands, like the Oprah Winfrey Network, and Steve Harvey, and major corporations like Verizon, to emerging entrepreneurs and influencers and personal brands, like you and me. So today she's going to share some of the biggest mistakes that online business owners are making with their marketing and messaging. And she's also going to reveal why your current marketing isn't working as effectively as it should.

 

Courtney Elmer 

She's going to give you those six simple steps to her mass Your Brand method that you must follow if you want to differentiate your brand, and set your marketing apart from your competition. Jen, welcome to the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ podcast. I am so delighted that you're here today.

 

Jennifer Kem 

Oh, I'm so happy to be here, Courtney Elmer.

 

Courtney Elmer

I have been following Jen since back in the day, and I'm talking like five plus years ago at the infancy of my own business. Jen was one of those influencers that crossed my path. And her message resonated with me when I needed to hear it, I was at the early stage of my business where I had no idea who I was talking to, I had no idea what I was talking about them with, you know, or talking to them about. And I knew that I wanted to help people, but wasn't quite sure how to package that and how to begin marketing myself as that go to solution for that person that that I wanted to help. 

 

Courtney Elmer

Jen was one of the people who helped me get clarity on that. She had a quiz at the time that I took. And it helped me identify some of my strengths in my brand that I could highlight for marketing myself and standing out online. Jen, it's like a full circle moment to have you here. I'm delighted that you're here on the show to share with our listeners about how they can do the same thing, marketing themselves in a way that is memorable. I think that's one of the biggest frustrations that we as online business owners face is how do we stand out with marketing, we pour ourselves into creating content, we pour ourselves into getting in front of people sharing our message. 

 

Courtney Elmer

But at the end of the day, if that's not converting into sales, if that's not generating revenue, we wind up burning out. I've been there many times in my own business where I'm ready to throw in the towel. I don't know if anything that I'm doing is working. For those listening, who might be feeling that way right now, they don't know how to brand themselves for marketing. Jen, where would you tell them to begin?

 

Jennifer Kem

I love this question Courtney Elmer. If you're listening right now and saying, punching the air or yelling into the void or wondering, I'm doing all these things. And I hit a certain level, and I'm proud of the level that I've gotten to but does it have to be this hard? I love that question. Because the first thing I want to say is we need all of you who are listening here today, we need you to continue to create and to let people know how you can help them because that's what simply marketing is marketing definition for me is how you're letting people know how you can help them. And most people don't have a marketing problem. Okay, you don't have a marketing problem.

 

I know some of you're like what are you sure, no, you don't have a marketing problem, you have a messaging problem. Because messaging is the DNA of marketing. it is the actual circulation that makes marketing work. Otherwise, marketing is I like to say it's a dumb system. It's like literally having a computer that doesn't have an operating system in it Courtney Elmer. So what the operating system of marketing truly is, is your message. And so what I love to share today is a little system, it's a messaging system that helps all of you differentiate yourself so that you can stand out in a very noisy marketplace and malicious acknowledge it is noisy. And it's also acknowledged, it's going to get noisier. And instead of feeling despair around that, what I'd like to offer is that there is room for all of us period. And this little system that I'm about to share with you helps you focus your marketing efforts. 

 

So that whatever you put this messaging model into it'll supercharge and superpower any of what I call your tactical marketing efforts, whether you're like creating funnels or you're building social media content, or let's say you're even pursuing podcast invitations or however you're wanting to get seen and heard so that you can get paid. This model works Courtney Elmer. So I'm going to jump right in. So we call it the unique marketing messaging model. So it's called a MA for short.

 

There are six things that only set you apart especially if you're a coach, consultant, speaker anything in the services arena, these six things are what are going to set you apart. The first thing is something that Courtney Elmer alluded to where she discovered me and see, so I had something that I had put out there that spoke to a great human, you know, my Courtney Elmer. it is called the brand archetype influence mix. Now, I know those are a lot of words. So I'll call it the AI archetype influence mix. And what this specific diagnostic does, is it helps you understand the truth of your voice and the character of the story that you're trying to tell in your brand. And it's so important that you hone a voice and a character. 

 

When I say a character, it is you the Courtney Elmer, the founder of the person who is charged up and is wanting to make this difference in the world. But you've gotten lost because you're listening to a lot of different characters voices instead of your own. So this specific diagnostic helps you hone in what your true voice is, and gives you tools, actually, in these reports, because if I went into it, this would be a whole 20 minute conversation.

 

Courtney Elmer, I'm going to give everybody the full reports as a gift to your audience today. This brand archetype influence mix, again, is it's a set of reports based on Carl Jung's psychology that big companies use to determine what advertising and campaigns and marketing efforts they do. So one of the things that makes me different is that I came from the corporate world I worked there for over a decade, and then I became an entrepreneur. And what I noticed in the entrepreneurship state See, phase or stage is that entrepreneurs aren't using the same best practices that corporate companies are.

 

Now Courtney Elmer, I'm not saying that you want to build the next Apple, if you do, that's cool, too. What I'm saying is that whatever stage or kind of lifestyle choice, you want to build using entrepreneurship, it's the rules still apply, you still need to have a brand voice, that people are magnetize to you. So the good news is, we're going to give you that diagnostic. And once you take it, you'll understand more what I'm talking here, because I have five more to get through. So I want to make sure that get to them. So the second is that no one else has your story. No one, like people can resonate with your story, people can see themselves in your story, but they actually don't have your exact story.

 

So the exploring the experience, story sequence means that there's two stories that you have to be telling every day in your content. And that is the authority story, and the approachability story. So the authority story is the story that tells the listener or the reader or the person that you want to know about you

 

Jennifer Kem

what your experience in the field that you're talking about is and for some of you, that's going to make you nervous. It could be a client you've worked with. And one other trick is you can borrow authority stories from other fields that are related to yours. For example, let's say you're a coach that specializes in somatic embodiment, let's pretend that's what you do. 

 

There's a lot of research on Google that has stats and science and even Google, whatever you're into on that work. And you can speak to that statistic in your storytelling by citing that as a source. A lot of people don't do that. But it helps create authority because people love when we do them favors and gather research and information for them. And that creates reputation for you. So that's the authority story. The approachability story is the one that most people know what to do, but they're afraid to share it and that is your personal experience, ? Things that have happened in your life reasons that you got into the work that you did, even if you know it's about your family or your lifestyle. And of course, depending on your brand and the goals of your brand. You don't have you definitely shouldn't share every single story because I don't believe that transparency is the same thing as authenticity.

 

Transparency is like tell everybody everything and I don't believe That actually is of service to your potential clients Courtney Elmer. What's of service to them is understanding your authority and your approachability, that speaks to what they are trying to achieve in their life. And so the first way to start, we call it a story banking system. In our company, we use this thing called a story bank. It sounds fancier than it is y'all. It's literally a Google spreadsheet or whatever, Google Sheet. And I have one column that says approachability story, another column that says authority story. And every single day, we I have that tab open on my screen. And if I, for example, now I have an authority story that I'm speaking right now, which is I'm on the Courtney Elmer podcast, that's an authority story? 

 

So now that's a little marker for my team to go okay, not in sharing this podcast with our own audience. But also like in the future, when I would like to get another podcast, I could market the Courtney Elmer podcast as a podcast I've been featured on, that's an authority story, it allows other people to see what you're up to. And I think every day, you actually probably have an approachability or authority story that you're not capturing using this simple system. And you can use that marketing in all your content. Okay. The third thing that makes you different is your offer.

 

I've noticed from a messaging, marketing perspective, is that you are not clearly communicating how your offer helps people. Your offer is set up mainly for you and not your audience. And that's a big problem if you want to stand out, your offer has to has to succinctly show the results of what the people want from it, because our offers are not about us. They are but they're not they're about allowing the person to see that they can get a transformation in their life as a result of working with us period. If your offer is not signaling that you have to relook at your offer. So the main question that I want you to write down as you're listening to these steps, is ask yourself, Am I clearly marketing the transformation that my potential client will have with this offer? If the answer is maybe, or no, you want to relook at your offer, and you want to edit it down. 

 

Marketing has best practices, and also marketing shifts, especially since with, Courtney Elemer, you know, the advent of social media, it's caused, people to feel like they always have to react to everything.

 

Jennifer Kem 

They will buy your offer. But a lot of you are puffing them up with a lot of bonuses and like a ton of features and a ton of benefits. And don't get me wrong, that was the old way marketing it. But people are tired. And they also start to think there's no way I can accomplish what you're marketing. Because there's too much.

 

So err on the side of simplicity, editing, and also ultimately answering the question that I put in front of you when marketing, which is when they ask themselves, what's the transformation? I'm going to get at this and they won't actually ask it like that. They're going to ask, Can I do this? Will I actually will this actually help me? Will this help me not fight with my husband anymore? Will this help me grow my business to seven to eight figures, you know, whatever your marketing offer is, make sure that the transformation to them is the first thing that you focus on.

 

The fourth thing in the unique marketing messaging model is knowing who you're marketing to. The way to find people is actually not fully on how I think is being taught online right now. You find them on social media use paid marketing.

 

Let's say podcasting is one of your goals in marketing, meaning getting on as many podcasts as possible, because you can share your maketing message with their audience and create synergistic value like Courtney Elmer and I are doing right now. If that's your goal, don't hit up podcasts that don't have your audience.

 

Jennifer Kem 

The fifth and the sixth go together. So they are your method by which you do things. So we call that a use case, which is number five. And use case stands for unique solution expertise. And the sixth thing is your diagnostic use case. So let me explain what they are. So unique solution expertise is simply your framework for how people move through their transformation. So in this case, as I'm sharing with Courtney Elmer and her listeners, I have a use case called the unique messaging model. 

 

It allows me to show you that these are the six things to focus on. And if you're interested in increasing your marketing messaging, it's something that can help you get that transformation. The diagnostic use case, which is the sixth thing in this model is an assessment of how they can get there or where they currently are and where they need to go. 

 

Next. It's a prescriptive assessment that allows them to understand what point A is to point B. So for example, the archetype influence mix, which was number one in here, and Courtney Elmer took it back in the day. That is one of my diagnostic use cases. It's a quiz. And it's an actual assessment that was certified by the University of Monterrey that is all about brand psychology and how to create the characters in your story. 

 

That's one of my diagnostic use cases that allows the person the prospect the client to see themselves where they stand, and then they it asks them where they want to go next.

But you can start with if you know, there are three different avatars in your rich niche, which was number four. In this method, I'm going through with you all, you can say, let's say you're a stage one entrepreneur, a stage two entrepreneur and a stage three entrepreneur, because you teach entrepreneurs how to make more money, let's pretend your diagnostic assessment or your diagnostic use case is give your stage one, this is what that looks like. If your stage two, that's what this looks like Edinburgh stage three, this is what this looks like. 

 

Courtney Elmer, my offer supports stage one moving to stage two or my offer support stage two to stage three. And when you can paint this picture for your prospects, and you create all of your marketing efforts around these six messaging, pieces of the model, it will simplify and actually probably get you excited to create all of the marketing content that you have going forward. So those are the six ways to stand out.

 

Courtney Elmer 23:32  

This is fantastic. And I can imagine for someone listening now, they probably are getting excited because this is different than what you see online. This is different than what you see a lot of let's air quote marketing experts talking about right or messaging experts talking about. And that messaging has so many different facets to it. And so I can also imagine for someone listening that they might be feeling a little overwhelmed at this point, because they're like, I'm excited. 

 

Courtney Elmer

And this is different. This sounds doable. Yes, I want clarity on all of these pieces. And I'm also overwhelmed because I don't know where to start. What should I start with? So do we start with step one, Jen. And we would move through these sequentially? Yes, I think is the best practice. Okay, what would you recommend there?

 

Jennifer Kem 

Absolutely Courtney Elmer. I love that. And I know this podcast is about takeaways. And so the first thing is, as I mentioned, we're going to give everyone a gift, everybody. When you take this assessment, I think it's going to I hope change your life a little bit because it's going to clarify how you speak your brand voice. And it doesn't matter if you remember your archetype influence next five years and out from five years from now, because what's gonna matter most is that you're embodying it, ? So if you go to Master brand.me, forward slash systems, you can take the assessment, I will say it'll take you 20 minutes, and you're going to get three deeply, very thick reports and I want you to spend some time with it. And there's also a video for me explaining each one of your archetypes to you And we're gonna give that to you every day, people come into our funnel, and they pay $250 for this complete assessment, and we want to give it to the Courtney Elmer listeners.

 

I want you to deeply read the reports and the reports, prompt you with some questions around, are you currently messaging through this brand voice, and then allows you to do a little audit of what you're currently doing, and see where you can shift your marketing it to be more brand aligned. And then the second piece of advice that's already a big assignment, but is the story banking thing that I mentioned, simply set up a Google Sheet, name it, you know, insert your name, or your company's story bank as the title. 

 

And start with seven authority stories and seven approachability stories. And every single one of us even if you're starting out has seven, believe it or not, because I gave you already a tip, if you're starting out, you don't have to feel any imposter syndrome. Because literally, you can go to the research online and point to that to make the case for why you and your offers could be a great next step for the person you're trying to reach. Okay, so those would be my two things. And then after that, you're going to get a ton of clarity, then you can move into the other four parts.

 

Courtney Elmer 

I love this. And you know, Jen, as you're sharing, it's, I'm getting excited because we're at a position now in our company where we've built we've built we've built a foundation. And we are moving into an evolving into kind of this next stage of our greater brand vision and marketing. And so this is work, I'm sitting here going, I want to go back and retake that assessment for myself, because I don't remember what my archetype was from five years ago. And I'm curious to see how I've been embodying that over the past five or so years to get to where we are now. And what needs to change and where I might need to hone in or tweak or some more stories or different things that we can now bring into the mix to begin building to the next phase of our vision. 

 

Courtney Elmer

So this is even helpful for me sitting here and hearing you share this step by step because that's what I always say to you know, for those listening, pick one thing to start with, you know, like Jen said, go take the assessment, start there. And the steps will begin to unfold for you as you go. The key is taking that first action step. So, so important. So Jen, is there anything else that you would like to leave our listeners with today, I mean, you've already delivered so much value and shared so much with them, action steps that they can get started with any final word of advice, or anything you would like to leave them with in terms of helping them understand that they are worthy of differentiation, they are worthy of their message being heard and shared.

 

Jennifer Kem 

Absolutely Courtney Elmer. So first of all, no one grows alone, no one grows alone. So the fact that you're listening right now tells me that you are interested, even in having this virtual community that Courtney Elmer is put together, make sure you lean in. And it's very uncomfortable for me to ask for help. And I've been doing this for 25 years. But what we get to do is have the opportunity to showcase who we are and strengthen who we are through our marketing.

 

And I believe that once you get your marketing honed in and it's not, when it's as you message, you will get better at marketing. The marketing journey is always an open ended one, there is no point b to let you know, point B is a myth. We're always creating a new point A every step we take. So I encourage all of you to be brave and be bold. And I'm so excited that you're in the world, wanting so badly to help people and make an income from it. So congratulations on being you and know that being you is good enough. Hopefully this marketing model that I shared with you today will help you be able to express that better.

 

Courtney Elmer 

So good. Jen, I do have one final question for you. And I asked this to every guest who comes on the show. Because as you may know, our company, the effortless life is about it's I call it the anti hustle mentality. And it is about working intentionally knowing what your zone of genius is spending the bulk of your time in your zone of genius so that you can have the greatest impact. And we talk about this idea of living in effortless life. And so what's been interesting to me is as we have guests here on the show, I asked him that question, what does it mean to you to live an effortless life? Because never once happy the answers been alike. So I'm curious to hear your take on that.

 

Jennifer Kem 

Well Courtney Elmer, I live a life based on a philosophy called values driven and that philosophy means that I don't seek results anymore. We live in a society where results are the only metric to live by and I actually live by my values. And it's helped me a lot make what I call clean decisions on what I want to focus on. And what that also means is, I have five core values. And it's also the values of my company. And they are autonomy, ice, generosity, leadership, and legacy. 

 

And they all have descriptions under it. And when we make a decision to create a new offer, or frankly, create more space for ourselves on our leadership team, we always ask the question first, is this in alignment with our values? And if it isn't, it's a clean No, because we believe maybe is the devil. Okay, we like yeses or nose. And it has it keeps us in decision mode. So I also like to say that I work on the right heart things. So to me, what an effortless life looks like is that when I have to work on hard things, I batch them, I work on them when I'm the most productive, which is for me. In the morning, I work on hard things in the morning, even though I absolutely hate it. 

 

Let me be clear, I absolutely hate it and building a business. And actually, ultimately, building a business that you can design a life that matters and is meaningful, to me is whatever is the hard thing that I don't want to pursue, I try to get it done, done first. Because what's crazy is once you unlock that boulder, all of this flow happens right after it and then your life is micro hard things and macro flow. And that's what we're always looking for so and I believe that particular system of being values driven, making those decisive moves, has helped me create that type of life Courtney Elmer.

 

Courtney Elmer

Absolutely. And I like what you said about clean decisions, you know, without having to look back without having to waffle back and forth without all of the overthinking that we sometimes have a tendency to do when it comes to making a decision or when we don't have the clearest answer, knowing what your values are, first and foremost. 

 

Courtney Elmer

And then filtering everything through that letting that be the filter through which you do everything else. It won't steer you wrong, because it will always be in alignment with who you are at your core. Beautifully said Jen scary it is but oh god. Absolutely I know, we'd be remiss not to admit that it is scary. But also so rewarding to in the end. Jen, thank you for being here today. Where is the best place for people to connect with you on social media online, your website where we will definitely link up to your marketing gift. Thank you so much for that for our listeners. We'll link to that in the show notes. Where else can they connect with you?

 

Jennifer Kem 

Well Courtney Elmer, My favorite place to hang out is Instagram. So please follow me there at Jennifer Kem and DM me once you get your aim results, I would love to hear it and hear what your marketing takeaways were. And the other place I like hanging out is on LinkedIn. So you can find me at Jennifer Kem there. And one more place is YouTube right launched a YouTube show. And I share a lot of breakdowns of tips around messaging, marketing, building your brand and the type of team and leadership that you have to embody in order to make that brand seen, heard and paid. So I would love for you all to visit me in those places. Thanks, Courtney Elmer.

 

Courtney Elmer  

Absolutely. We will definitely link up to that. Jen. Thank you again so much for being here today.

 

Jennifer Kem  

Thank you Courtney Elmer.

 

Courtney Elmer 

Coming up next week on this show, we are talking about something called the lean out method, what that is, why you need it, and how it's going to help you get clarity on the specific tasks that are worth your time, especially when it comes to marketing and visibility in your business. So that is all coming up next week. I'll see you back here next time. Until then, go live your EffortLESS Life®.

 

Jennifer KemProfile Photo

Jennifer Kem

Brand Futurist and Founder of Master Brand Institute

Jennifer Kem is a San Francisco Bay Area-based brand building and leadership expert who gets entrepreneurs seen, heard, and paid for being themselves.

She’s the creator of the Master Brand Method: a framework to develop powerful brand archetypes that win customers’ hearts, leveraging Jennifer’s 20 years of corporate experience and her launching of multiple companies.
She uses the Master Brand method in strategic consulting for emerging entrepreneurs, celebrity brands like Oprah Winfrey Network and Steve Harvey, and major corporations including Verizon, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Bank of Hawaii.

What she is most passionate about in her work today is her legacy project: Femmefluence, a platform that supports women leaders to fully rise into their influence and affluence, so they can make an even greater impact in the world.

Jennifer serves up straight talk wrapped in love, because she understands entrepreneurs’ challenges: She built a retail business and became a millionaire at 32, only to lose it all in the recession two years later. She is now the successful owner of three million-dollar brand-building businesses and the mother of three children.