Powerful Branding Tips by Wendy Barr

• Powerful branding can be a game-changer. It can catapult your business to new levels of success.
• I think that some small business owners think that they can do a DIY logo or a Fiverr logo to save themselves some money, but honestly this tactic really only costs them money.
• You’re ready for professional branding when you have a proven concept.
• [Branding] is not about you. [It] has to do with communicating your business concept to the consumer in an effective way to attract them into your business so that they actually purchase something from you.
• Put a survey out there, and make sure that you’re really clear on who your target market is.

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POWERFUL BRANDING TIPS WITH WENDY BARR

Powerful branding can be a game-changer. It can catapult your business to new levels of success.

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Doug:                    Welcome back. This is another episode of Real Marketing Real Fast.

Today I think you’re going to really enjoy our conversation. I’ve got joining with me in studio Wendy Barr. I met Wendy at the New Media Summit conference in San Diego. She is an expert on branding. She has a master’s degree in design branding, package design and 15 years experience as a college professor teaching graphic design. She started her own company called Barrcode. It’s branding out of a passion to serve small business owners. This company operates on an international level and focuses on bringing big brand strategy to small and mid-size businesses to get a jump-start and to attract the ideal client they need to make more money. I’d like to welcome Wendy to the podcast today.

Wendy:                Thanks for having me, Doug.

Doug:                    Excellent. That’s a basic background and a bio, and I couldn’t help but notice on the top that you’re the daughter of an outlaw. I’m not sure how that ties in. Do you want to expand on that, or did I miss anything in your introduction?

Wendy:                No. I am. I am the daughter of an outlaw. The outlaw brand archetype, that is. We do a lot of work with regards to narrowing down our client’s archetype to really get a better understanding of who they are and what they stand for; what they represent in the world.

When you met me I did a talk about my mother being an outlaw. The reason for that was because my mother believed that rules were made to be broken and that the rules certainly didn’t apply to her. She proved that when she broke out of the nursing home that we had her in by strategically waiting until the time was right and pulling the fire alarm so that … Seriously, I’m not kidding. When they evacuated all of those residents … And this is like 9:00 at night. All of the residents were already tucked into bed. Most of the nursing staff had gone home for the night. That’s why I said strategically she pulled the fire alarm. Yeah. As they evacuated all of their residents, that’s when she made her escape. She was in an electric wheelchair. They found her a few blocks away at the bus stop.

Doug:                    That’s so funny. And good for your mom for having the forethought and the energy to do that. I think that’s a great story.

Wendy:                I have a million of them, Doug. She was something special.

Doug:                    Thanks for sharing, by the way. I do remember that part of our conversation. I remember how interesting it was. I could just imagine, I can visualize that happening. That would make a great scene in a movie, I’m sure.

Wendy:                Definitely.

Doug:                    Moving on to what you do and your superpower. You help people to reach their ideal client and make tons more money. Do you want to share a breakthrough or a success that you’ve had and maybe the tactic that you used to accomplish that, whether it was for yourself or a client’s company?

Wendy:                Sure. Sure. Powerful branding can be a game-changer. Truly. It can catapult your business to new levels of success. Today’s consumer is very savvy. You know, they’re inundated with visual stimulation and you have to find a way to really stand out in a sea of notable brands.

Doug:                    That totally makes sense, and not only stand out in a sea of brands but the big brands, if you’re thinking of the big ones, they have a pretty much unlimited budget as a comparison to a small or mid-size company.

Wendy:                Absolutely, and we have noticed that, in the marketplace, there was a real need for a branding agency to come in and really serve the small business owner by bringing those big brand business strategies to the small business owner, and that’s what we specialize in.

Doug:                    Tell me, or tell our listeners, how does that work? I get the McDonald’s, the Coca-Cola’s, the big brands that are icons. I can see their logo, the IBM’s. How does a small business or a mid-size business build a brand to a place where they get their recognition that they deserve.

Wendy:                We do some very thorough brand strategy on the front end so that before we even get started, we’re really clear on who your target market is, who your competition is, the personality of your brand. We really go deep at that level. Once we’re clear, we have an extremely professional team that digs right into your branding. There’s absolutely no difference between our team at our price point and the team that’s working on Coca-Cola’s brand.

Doug:                    That’s cool.

Wendy:                Yeah. There’s absolutely no lack of skill or education or experience. We have an incredible team. We’re talking design managers that come to the table with decades of experience and master’s degrees.

Our goal is to create, not only a visual identity, but an understanding of how to position your brand in the marketplace. It’s a very well-rounded experience so that you can hit the ground running and your brand will be notable.

I think that some small business owners think that they can do a DIY logo or a Fiverr logo to save themselves some money, but honestly this tactic really only costs them money. Without full-spectrum branding, you’re really not attracting your ideal client and therefore you’re always in struggle-mode, and it’s a vicious cycle.

Doug:                    It’s interesting now, especially with so much business being done online. If you’re running a bricks and mortar business, people are going to come in, they’re going to physically see your presence. Online, they can only see what’s been visually presented to them and based on that they have to make some assumptions on whether you’re a successful business or not.

Wendy:                Truly. I think you have nine seconds to really grab the consumer’s attention. I usually tell people that, if you’re a new business, really professional, powerful branding can help you skip the newbie stage altogether and jump right into reputable success, which is what you want.

Doug:                    That’s interesting. You said that and I remember back, at a company I was doing some work with. We were doing a new start-up in the investor relations space. We had to design some business cards. We used an old tactic of engraving and had gold engraved cards. The cards were literally just picked up from the printer and the ink was probably still wet and we’d gone to our first meeting and someone said, “Oh, yeah. I’ve heard of you guys.” I’m thinking, “No you haven’t. These cards are like 10 minutes old.” But the brand and the look gave the impression that the company had been around a long time, which was exactly the message we were trying to convey.

Wendy:                Exactly. I was at a conference just last week. I was amazed at how many people said that to me. Of course, I want to see their business card and look at their branding when I meet them. They would pass me their business card, I would look at it, and I would say, “Oh, okay. Did you have a professional brand agency work on this brand for you?” “Oh no, I just called Vistaprint and I took whatever they had available.” I thought, “Really?” That’s how you’re going to hit the ground running. Certainly, you can see that a professional brand would help you stand out in this crowd. There were 400 people there.

Really, how are you going to stand out? And how are people going to remember you, because I’m going to keep that business card, and then when I think about calling you, I’m going to look at that business card and I’m going to say, “Oh, they’re probably not at my level yet.” Or, “Yeah, let’s wait a while and see if they enjoy any success before I decide to do business with them.”

Doug:                    Sure. No. I understand that. I hear it often when I’m talking to clients about marketing and the marketing strategy, the whole strategy, just not a tactic in isolation. Often it comes down to, “Well, maybe we can save money by doing this.” It’s like, “No, don’t do that.” I often talk people out of rebuilding their websites and talk them into spending more time generating new sales first before they dive into three months or six months of rebuilding a site. You can go a long way meeting people and using a good business card.

Wendy:                Absolutely. You bring up a good point, Doug. A lot of people ask me, “How do I know if I’m ready for professional branding? When am I ready to make that kind of an investment?” My answer is always the same. You’re ready for professional branding when you have a proven concept. When you’ve gone out there and you’ve made the sales, you’ve tweaked your business concept according to what you’ve discovered your clients need, and you are absolutely sure this is the direction you’re going with your business. Then you’re ready for professional branding.

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Powerful branding can be a game-changer. It can catapult your business to new levels of success.

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Doug:                    That makes sense. I think, even right out of the gate … My experience as a small business owner, we grew our business to be quite large, but when we started, it was, “Hey, let’s craft the logo,” and get some black and white cards. Then you make some money. You think, “Okay, let’s hire a designer.” I tell people today what we originally paid for our first set of logos. They went, “Wow, you can get them done for fill in the blank.” “We spent … 15, almost 20 years, and we spent about $2500, $3500 to get logos done.” They went, “That’s a lot.” It’s like, yes, but we get lots of recognition and people would always go, “Wow, that’s a really cool business card.”

Given the chance, like you say, to stand out in an audience of your conference of 4-500 people … I go to a conference like that and of the stack of business cards, how many do I follow-up with? I’m looking, like you said, for the really cool ones, not one that somebody’s printed off on a laser printer and using a Gmail account. It doesn’t really look like they’re in business yet.

Wendy:                Right. I agree. Also, there’s the other piece. That is, you’re asking your clients to spend money on their business by working with you, but it’s clear that you haven’t spent money on your business.

Doug:                    Yes. That’s right.

It’s one of the questions I ask. Often I get calls, and I’m sure you do as well, from people who want to coach you in one area of your business or another. I say, “Who’s your coach?”

Wendy:                Right.

Doug:                    “Well, I don’t have a coach.” “Well, thank you for calling.”

Wendy:                Right.

Doug:                    You think I need a coach but you don’t have one. I don’t know why in business we don’t do that. Everybody obviously in sports has that. Whether it’s a coach or hiring somebody to do what you do. Whenever you can leverage your brand, your company and make it easier to get business and attract business it’s worth the investment.

Wendy:                Absolutely. I actually do have a business coach, and I actually do invest in myself and my team and my company. Daily. When I’m not working, I am being coached. When I chose my coach, I did exactly that. I made sure that I found a coach that was already extremely successful because how can you teach me to be successful if you’re not. Yeah. I definitely agree with that.

Doug:                    So with regards to branding, what’s the biggest myth do you think about this sort of tactic? I’m a small business owner, I’m starting out. You say, hey, I should have a brand. I’m going, “Yeah, okay.”

Wendy:                I think the biggest myth is that you can do it yourself and save money.

Doug:                    Okay.

Wendy:                Or that you can go to Fiverr and get a quick logo. What you have to remember about branding is that it’s much more than just a logo. Everyone has one of those. What you need to be successful is a brand. A brand is a strategy. The visual identity, yes. It’s very important. But if you don’t have the brand strategy to support the visual identity, then it’s useless. It really is.

Doug:                    Do you want to expand a bit on that? You mentioned at the very beginning the archetype. You’re talking about strategy, and I think one of the things that you also brought up there is probably another common myth is that branding is all about the logo, and you’re saying no, it’s about strategy, like an overall strategy, and the visuals are only a part of it.

Wendy:                Yes, because if you … A lot of people design their logo based on what they like. Maybe it’s the colors they like. Maybe it’s the typeface that they like.

The other day I was walking my dog and I saw a van drive by. It said “Paradise Pizza.” The logo was in a lovely script and it said, “Paradise Pizza,” and it had some birds-of-paradise, a birds-of-paradise illustration to accompany the brand. I thought to myself, what in the world does that have to do with pizza? Even the script font, it was lovely and elegant and feminine. What does that even have to do with pizza?

Doing the strategy on the front end, we really determine and we really help our clients to understand that this brand is not to attract you. It’s to attract your persona. This is to attract your clients. We make sure that our clients identify who their ideal client is. This is not for you. It doesn’t matter whether you like purple. It doesn’t matter whether you like birds-of-paradise. This has to do with communicating your business concept to the consumer in an effective way to attract them into your business so that they actually purchase something from you.

Doug:                    That’s a great point. I’ve never thought of it that way, but you’re right. I’ve seen those ads around, and I’ve seen signs on businesses the same. I’m thinking, in your example, if you’re the expert pizza guy, your goal really to be successful in your business and to serve your audience is to stay in business and to sell as many pizzas as you can. Why wouldn’t you want to look at that from a pure tactical point of view? What’s the best look, feel, fonts, colors, everything around my business that conveys I’m the best pizza choice in the given geographic area?

Wendy:                Exactly. Oh, and the logo was in blue. Blue is the least appetizing color in the color palette. That’s why McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, they all use those warm colors like reds, yellows, and oranges. Honestly, if you want to lose weight, paint your kitchen blue. And, boom.

Doug:                    There you go.

Wendy:                Your diet will work.

Doug:                    That should get you an interview on one of Oprah’s episodes.

Wendy:                Right. You didn’t know you were going to get weight loss tips too.

Doug:                    No, but I mean that’s funny because you’re right. Whether we like it or not, colors do convey certain feelings with people and emotions. I try my very best to take myself out of the equation, thinking I’m a survey of one. When we run ads, specifically, and we do multi-variant testing, I don’t really care who’s right. What I want to figure out is what’s the best ad. Not who chose the headline or the logo. How we measure that, obviously, is through analytics and people putting their credit card in. You’re right. Survey of one, and if I’m not my own customer for my business then it doesn’t really matter what I think.

Wendy:                Right. And oftentimes we’ll have clients that will say something to the effect of, “Well,” … We might give them three choices. We might have narrowed it down to three choices for their branding and they’ll say something like, “Well my husband really likes number one, but my 12-year-old nephew thinks number three nails it.” I’ll say, “If you’re going to show your branding, and you’re going to try to … Show your clients. Ask your clients. Not your husband or your 12-year-old nephew because you really have to figure out who your client base is.

Doug:                    That’s so funny. I remember once working with a designer on some water brochures for a company that was going to export Canadian water into Asia. I got feedback on the final artwork. The feedback was, “My girlfriend looked at the brochure and she doesn’t like those water droplets on the front.” It’s like, “Wow, I didn’t know your girlfriend was in Asia and a buyer.”

Wendy:                Right.

Doug:                    “I thought she lived with you in Vancouver and she’s Caucasian. Interesting.” But that’s the client’s desire. Yeah. I think we’re obviously influenced by people around us, but they’re not necessarily the right people to be asking those questions.

Wendy:                Yes. Who’s your target market, and that’s really important to know.

Doug:                    Yep.

Wendy:                Even if you’re doing … What I would suggest, and I suggest this to my clients all the time that come to me, especially newbies, is to do a survey. Put a survey out there, and make sure that you’re really clear on who your target market is. What do they look like? Are they male or female? What’s their demographic? How much money do they make? What do they need you for? And we go through all of this in the brand audit that we do on the front end, and our brand strategy that we do on the front end so that when we start the actual tangible design work, we’re clear on all of those aspects of the brand.

Doug:                    And that makes sense. Who are they? Where do they live? Do they have kids? Are they married? How much money do they make? What sports teams do they support? What are they involved in?

Wendy:                Right.

Doug:                    Where is this person? If I went to phone them or drive up to their home, where would I find them? Not, “@ell everybody’s my audience.” Well, no. Not everybody’s your audience.

Wendy:                Exactly. Exactly. I don’t know that that’s going to be clear to the Fiverr designer that you hire for 50 bucks.

Doug:                    Yeah, and I really don’t know what to say to that, other than I was just in a meeting just a couple days ago and had that exact discussion around video. The client’s going, “Well I can get a video done on Fiverr.” I’m thinking, “So we’re going to launch a brand into the U.S. with a million and a half dollar budget as a test budget, and you want to have somebody on Fiverr do a storyboard video because you can get it done for less than 500 bucks. Doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Wendy:                Right. Again, it goes all the way back to if you’re not investing in your company, how can you expect others to. If you’re not investing in your own business, how can they invest in you?

Doug:                    Having said that, I’ve used guys on Fiverr to design Google ads. I take a little bit different approach. Contrarian. I’d say, “We’ve hired five or six people at the same time. Given them the messaging and the image and let them go away and create it. We paid all five or six guys for the stuff and then we’d pick and choose and then run tests on them. But I don’t think I’d leave my high-end branding to someone who doesn’t have the experience.

Wendy:                In all fairness, Doug, you’re a marketing guy. If you were to put that out there, you would still be able, whatever the outcome was from those designers, you would be able to determine whether it was effective or not. But to the layman that is not a marketing or design expert, are you really going to be able to make that call?

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Doug:                    Sure. Remember? Like you just said. I’ll ask my wife or my friends what they think.

Wendy:                Right. Right. Ask the dog too.

Doug:                    The advice that I heard years ago by a speaker was never asked anybody for advice who hasn’t done what you’re going to do or is willing to pay the price that you’re willing to pay.

Wendy:                That’s great advice. Absolutely.

Doug:                    I find that advice is always cheap. I remember once sitting in a board meeting of a public company and they’re trying to raise some money. I said, “Hey, why don’t each of you as directors, why don’t you each write a check today for $1,000 and invest it in the company.” None of them did. These were wealthy people. I went back to my guys, the venture capital guys, and said, “This company’s not going to move forward.” He said, “Why not?” I said, “We’ve got retired board guys who have lots of money and we can’t get them to write a $1,000 check. They just want to take the options. They’re not buying it.”

Wendy:                Right.

Doug:                    “So why are we taking their advice?”

Wendy:                Right. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you don’t put money into your business, then you’re not going to reap the rewards. I really stand firm on that piece. Absolutely.

Doug:                    Walk me through the process that somebody would get started with yourself or your company. I’m your customer avatar, I have a small business. Let’s say I’ve been in business for a couple of years and I really need to step up my game. What are the things that would be next steps for them? I’m not asking you to do your work for free on the podcast.

Wendy:                No.

Doug:                    What are the next steps that they would take to say, “Okay, fine. I’m interested in branding. What do I need to do to do that?”

Wendy:                Okay. If you’re not really sure, we do offer a complimentary profit booster brand assessment. That’s what we call it. You can take that by going to my website, www.barrcodebranding.com. Barrcode has two r’s. Barrcodebranding.com. Sign up to do the profit booster brand assessment. Now that’s a complimentary assessment that will result in a call with a brand specialist. That will really give you an idea where you’re at. That’s if you’re on the fence.

If you’re very clear that you need branding, there’s a booking calendar on that same website. Just book a call with a brand strategist, and we’ll take you through the process.

To answer your question, Doug, once they’ve done that and we bring them in, we send them a self-directed brand audit that they fill out. Takes them about two hours because it’s really in depth. They fill out that piece and then we schedule a 90-minute call. The 90-minute call is very thorough. It’s myself, my project manager who is also our copywriter, so she can help with naming, she can help with descriptive text, she can help with marketing taglines, et cetera. We’ll also bring on the design manager. We have a pow wow. We sit and we talk on Zoom, face-to-face about your branding. I’ll share my screen. We’ll look at your website. We’ll look at all of the design assets you have in place. That piece is very thorough. If we need to have another call, we do that. Typically we can get started after that call,

The next thing that happens is our team goes to work. My designer starts with pencil sketches, which you never see. That’s all internal. I believe that conceptually if they start with pencil sketches, the design will feel free and creative and less stagnant. The design manager basically looks at the pencil sketches and will make the call. “Okay, let’s move forward with these concepts.”

Then we move into black and white digital. That’s when the client gets to see their designs. They’ll see the black and white digital so that they’re not swayed by color. This is when we start exploring the layout, we start exploring typography: fonts used, et cetera; terminology; descriptive text, et cetera. From there we move into color palettes. After we determine the color of the brand, we move into tangible assets, like business cards, brochures, et cetera.

We just added a really exciting feature, and that is an animated logo. Once the logo is completed, we will create some motion graphics, a digital animation of your logo, for those people that … You could put it in your Facebook header. You can use it if you’re a speaker, trainer, author, coach. Anybody that gets on stage for example. You can use it in your intro video before you speak. It’s really an exciting addition.

After that, we look at the next steps. We talk to the client about, “Okay, where are you going to use this logo? Where do you need your branding the most?” And we help them with their marketing strategy. We might refer to a resource that they might need. It might be a PR person. It could be a social media management person. A marketing person. Whatever resources they need to move forward strong.

Doug:                    Okay. That’s a pretty logical approach. One of the things that came to mind as a small business, I remember when we met. Meeting you, who’s a branding expert and me giving a business card to you and my website, it’s kind of like going to a dinner party and meeting someone who’s a psychologist and wondering if they’re going to analyze me and see all of my flaws that nobody else can see. They’re going, “Oh, crap, is this person, are they going to see all the flaws in me?”

In building out your customer avatar, how do you help people overcome the idea, “Well, I don’t want to miss any customers.” If you ask me who my target audience was for my email side, I can be very specific of exactly who they are. However, there’s a little bit of me saying, “Well, what about me fitting in the small businesses? What about this, and what about that?”

Wendy:                We try to, in the brand audit, we really look at three or four avatars. We don’t limit to just one. There’s a very logistical piece to that. We ask them, “What is the percentage of business that you’ve gained from this number one avatar? How much business do you get from the number two avatar? How much do you get from the number three?”

We don’t want to discount those avatars, but we want to know who the primary is, and the secondary, and then we know, basically, how to move forward.

Doug:                    I like that approach because it’s really concrete. I’m listening to you here and I’m thinking, Okay. I know who my primary customer avatar is. I know what percentage of my business comes from them. Yet in the back of my mind, I’m thinking it’d be nice to have business from this place and this place but they currently don’t produce any revenue or very much revenue. I think once you do what you’ve done, go through that exercise of identifying maybe your two or three or four avatars, and then breaking it down to the percentage of business, that kind of the writings on the wall, so to speak. It’s clearly telling you, “This is where your business is coming from.” Now if you’re not happy with that, then I guess there’s a chance to say, “I want to change direction.” But if you are, then why wouldn’t you just go full steam and leverage that space?

Wendy:                Truly. And we’re aware that your business model is going to evolve anyway. Whether you come to us as an established business, and you’re really just trying to up your game, or you come to us as a new business. We are aware that your business model is going to evolve no matter what. We try to make sure that we don’t limit you by the imagery we use or the typography we use. Make sure that maybe your avatar right now is primarily female buyers, but you really want male buyers. And I’m just generalizing.

Doug:                    Sure.

Wendy:                We would make sure that your branding isn’t too feminine. Feminine enough that it’s approachable, but not so feminine that you would repel a male audience.

We’re really strategic with regards to that respect.

Doug:                    Would you say, and I’m just asking this because I don’t know. Would you say that an established business, someone who’s been in business maybe five years or more, would get the most lift out of a re-brand, as opposed to somebody just starting, just because they already have a larger audience?

Wendy:                Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I had mentioned that I just got back from a conference, and the conference was a Suzanne Evans event. I don’t know if you know who she is.

Doug:                    Yes. Yes.

Wendy:                She’s an amazing coach and, incidentally, she’s my coach, so I don’t mind plugging her here.

Doug:                    There you go.

Wendy:                She’s already successful. She has, what, a six or seven million dollar business right now. She rolled out her new branding at this event, and she made sure to tell everybody that was there that this is her new branding, number one, and number two, that every couple of years, even if you’re a successful business, every couple of years you really need to sit down with a brand strategist and make sure that you are still on target, and maybe even do a little facelift.

Doug:                    That was my next question, was, how often. I was thinking, so excuse me for thinking as a marketing guy, but that’s kind of who I am. I’m thinking marketing, I’m thinking, okay, you’re an established business, you’re spending money in advertising. You’re growing your business. A re-brand would also give you an opportunity to go to all the people who aren’t currently buying from you as well as your existing customers and have another conversation that isn’t about buying my stuff. “Hey, we’ve re-branded, we’re improving our communications, I’d like your feedback.” It’s another way to, I guess, leverage the brand differently to re-engage an audience and have a conversation. Yeah.

Wendy:                Exactly. I tell people that too. The first thing you want to do, right after we finish their branding, I say the very first thing you want to do is send an email to your entire client base and let them know. “Look what I did. I’m spending money on my business, and you should too.”

Rolling out a really strategic campaign on social media announcing your new brand.

Doug:                    That makes sense. After we connected I looked at your website. I looked at your information online as well. You’re right. That’s where people go. They want to see, “Are you spending money? Are you telling me to do this, or is this where you’re spending your money?”

Often I’ll mention direct mail. People will go, “You still do direct mail?” I’ll say, “I do.” When it comes down to spending money, my own cash stash, I will still use direct mail as part of my marketing strategy because it works. It’s kind of do what I do.

Wendy:                Absolutely. You know, I have on my wall behind my desk, postcards that I’ve received from Suzanne Evans team. One of her team members that I work closely with is Amanda Evans, which is Suzanne’s sister. Every single time I agree to sponsor an event or enroll in a program, she sends me a physically written postcard. And I love it. I tape it to my wall. I think the paper is not dead, and snail mail is okay.

Seriously, it’s not going to grab their eye unless it’s well-branded.

Doug:                    Yeah. I hear you. That’s really cool. Good for you. I interviewed a guest recently for the podcast, and that’s what we were talking about, she was in the printing business originally. We talked about the fact that we’re still sending direct mail, yet a lot of clients are going, “Well, that’s not the latest trend. That’s not what everybody’s talking about.” It’s like, it’s part of the strategy. There is not one holy grail or everybody would be there. It’s a strategy like you said that includes branding, which is more than just image It’s across all different media types.

Wendy:                Absolutely. I’ve noticed that a few of the events that I’ve been to lately … I went to Traffic and Conversion in San Diego and there were a lot of millennials there. They don’t even have business cards.

Doug:                    No, that’s right.

Wendy:                I thought that was really interesting. I thought to myself, “Okay, I’m going to create a digital business card for myself that I can exchange with millennials. I did that, but honestly, there’s something very real about holding a physically printed, visually interesting business card. Holding it in your hand and feeling it is tactile. It’s got eye-popping graphics and colors. You want to keep that thing.

Honestly, I wouldn’t skip that step. I personally think that I well-designed business card is critical to gain their interest in that first nine seconds.

Doug:                    Yep. I think so. It’s just another way to communicate. Not to say that you wouldn’t connect with people on social and email and all the other ways, but again, it’s about seven to nine contacts with somebody. How can you do that as quickly and effectively as possible. It might be a business card and a direct mail piece and an email and a social media post. Whatever it takes to engrain your brand into their minds so that you’re top of mind next time they need a product or service that you sell.

Wendy:                Absolutely. You make a lot of good points, Doug. I actually do listen to your podcast.

Doug:                    Thank you.

Wendy:                I hang on your every word, with regards to your marketing strategies. You are the expert. No two ways about it.

Doug:                    I’m one of many people in this space. I just love what I do. I get an opportunity every day to spend most of my days looking at and testing new technologies. Most of them, honestly, don’t work, but a few do so we put them aside and use them.

What are you most excited about, say, in the next six to 12 months? There’s lots of stuff happening online. Lots of changes happening. You’ve just done a re-brand yourself. What excites you in the next coming months?

Wendy:                Oh my gosh, well I’m excitable by nature.

Doug:                    You did say you were going to come with bells on this morning. I haven’t heard the bells yet.

Wendy:                Absolutely. That’s me.

We really have some exciting clients in-house. We have about a six to eight week lead time, and I’m an immediate gratification kind of guy, so it’s really a lesson in patience for me when I’m waiting for the branding, when I start working with a new and exciting client, but you have to wait for the branding to be completed in its own time. I can’t wait to see their shiny new brands hit the marketplace. Truly, that’s what I’m excited about over the next six to 12 months.

We really did just re-do our website. Our website is so much fun. We brought on a new web designer. We brought on a few new motion graphics designers and our team, really our team just rocks. And our pricing is about a third of our competitor. We are affordable to the small business owner.

Doug:                    So you can look like McDonald’s without paying the McDonald’s price.

Wendy:                For sure.

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Doug:                    There you go. Excellent.

Who’s one guest that you think I should have on my podcast?

Wendy:                Oh, well, I’ve been thinking about that, Doug. There are a few people that come to mind. It’s hard to narrow it down to one. Do you know who Maria Andros is? She’s amazing. At her conferences, she does a lot of work around Facebook and Facebook Live and marketing funnels. I always pick up nuggets from her. I think she would definitely be someone to have on your show.

Then, I’ve been learning more about PR and media. A friend of mine has an incredible business called The Media Maven. Her name is Christina Nicholson. I find her to be so impressive. She’s well-spoken and she comes from a place of understanding. You get it. I didn’t really understand PR until I started watching some of her material and then I, bingo, I get it.

Christina Nicholson the Media Maven or Maria Andros. I think those would be really great people to have on your show.

Doug:                    Excellent. Hey, thanks so much for that. What’s the best way for people to track you down?

Wendy:                If you need to get ahold of me right away, you can certainly email me: wendy@barrcodebranding.com Or jump on my website, www.barrcodebranding.com, and don’t forget, Barrcode has two r’s. Schedule an appointment with me. Again, my booking calendar is on the website, so it’s really easy, and that way you can schedule it around your busy schedule, and we’ll jump on a call.

Doug:                    I like that about your site. I mentioned that to you before we started recording this episode, that I like that fact that you’re so accessible. On your website, I can go in and book an appointment. We don’t have to start this email conversation or worse yet, fill in a form on somebody’s website and wonder if they ever get it.

Wendy:                Right.

Doug:                    I don’t have that on my website. I’m going to have to change that. I do use the booking link in my LinkedIn, where people request to connect with me, just as a “Hey, what do you connecting about” conversation. It works really well.

What about social media? I see that you’ve got a couple platforms that you’re on. What is your favorite one for people to communicate to you on?

Wendy:                Facebook. I love Facebook. By all means, please, go and like my page on Facebook. Of course, it’s Barrcode Branding. Head in there and like my page. I do my very best to post really interesting content on there. I actually just brought on a team member that will be creating and rolling out a social community strategy for Barrcode Branding so we can be more present. I’m very excited to start posting new client logos and branding on all of the social media channels, but I’m busy. I haven’t had a chance to really get out there and start doing that, so I hired somebody.

Doug:                    There you go.

Wendy:                You’ll be seeing more of me out there in the social channels.

Doug:                    That’s really cool. There you go, listeners. Wendy Barr. Barr with two r’s because she’s twice as good as everybody else. Check out her website and the show notes, as you’re listening, will be posted up on our website, and we’ll make sure we include all the details on how to reach Wendy and her team and find her on social media. Don’t be shy. Subscribe to our podcast. If you like the episode or these episodes, make sure that you leave us a comment or a review. Thanks again for tuning in, and we look forward to catching up to you on the next episode.

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Get in touch with Wendy

Wendy on LinkedIn

Email – wendy@barrcodebranding.com

Web – Barrcode Branding

Find out more about Wendy:

• Wendy (Barrcode Branding) on Facebook
• Wendy (Barrcode Branding) on Instagram
• Wendy (Barrcode Branding) on Twitter

Links to other related podcasts and or blog posts:

EXPERT TIPS ON HOW TO BUILD A POWERFUL PERSONAL BRAND

DEVELOPING EXPERT STATUS GENERATES NEW LEADS AND SALE

POWERFUL BRANDING TIPS WITH WENDY BARR

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