Top 3 Signs you are Ready for a Rebrand

Is your brand holding you back from your next level of growth… and you don’t even realize it? 

If your brand visuals feel a little disconnected from the business you’re becoming—that’s a sign it’s time to evolve. 

Today, I’m joined by Maria Platusic—award-winning brand strategist, designer, and messaging expert—who’s here to break down the top signs that it’s time for a rebrand… and what to do about it. 

Maria has over 25 years of experience helping businesses evolve their brand identity—from Fortune 500 companies to coaches and consultants ready to scale. 

If you’re trying to reach the next level in your business but feel stuck or out of alignment with how your brand shows up online, this conversation is exactly what you need.

Connect with Maria Platusic

Maria Platusic is the Founder and Creative director behind Platusic Design Creative Studio. An award winning branding designer, brand strategist, messaging expert and Wordpress magic maker, she has been at this game for over 25 years. She started her journey working at corporate agencies, helping fortune 500 businesses develop their brands. Now she focuses on helping small business owners, such as, coaches and consultants, at the scaling phase. Starting with an effective brand strategy, and then crafting gorgeous branding visuals to achieve their big vision goals.

Free Logo Effectiveness Guide: https://platusicdesign.com/free-logo-guide/

Free Brand Clarity Session: https://calendly.com/platusicdesign/clarify-your-message/

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Chapters

• 1:25 Is Your Brand Limiting Growth
• 2:29 Meet Maria: Strategy Before Design
• 5:56 Sign One: Brand Embarrassment
• 11:06 Deadlines Beat Someday Syndrome
• 14:24 Rekindling Pride Through Rebranding
• 19:56 Sign Two: Attracting The Wrong Audience
• 27:34 Serving Multiple Audiences Clearly
• 32:09 Sign Three: Silent Pivots Cause Confusion
• 39:46 Bring Your Audience On The Journey

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:43

Is your brand holding you back from your next level of growth and you don't even realize it? If your brand visuals feel a little disconnected from the business you're becoming, that's a sign that it's time to evolve. Today I'm joined by Maria Platusic, award-winning brand strategist, designer, and messaging expert who's here to break down the top signs it's time for a rebrand and what to do about it. Maria has over 25 years of experience helping businesses evolve their brand identity from Fortune 500 companies to coaches and consultants ready to scale. If you're trying to reach the next level in your business but feel stuck or out of alignment with how your brand shows up online, this conversation is exactly what you need. Let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. Welcome back to the show. So today we have a special guest with us today, and her name is Maria Platusic, and she is the founder and creative director at Platusic Design Creative Studio, which is an award-winning brand designer, brand strategist, and messaging expert, and a WordPress magic maker. So welcome to our show, Maria.

Maria Platusic: 2:20

Well, thank you so much for having me, Carrie. I'm happy to be here.

Carrie Saunders: 2:24

So I just gave a little bit of a snip of who you are. So tell the audience a little bit more about who Maria is and what you do and how you serve people.

Maria Platusic: 2:34

Yeah, sure. So I'm a textbook case. I started, I went to school for advertising, graphic design, um, then worked at corporate design agencies across the Toronto GTA area. And from there, um, I started uh doing some freelancing on my own. And I haven't looked back. It's been about almost 15 years, me kind of um helping small business owners at that same caliber, that same level. Uh when they came to me to design some items, um I realized there's a big gap here because when I would ask them, okay, what is your branding? What is your visuals, your colors? Um, and then the bigger picture of why are we creating this piece? Who's it for? And what's the bigger mission? They wouldn't have those answers identified. So it was more so, okay, we need to push pause, take a step, a few steps back and build out those strategies for them. So I start with strategy first, then I do the actual visuals based on data and facts, and not because, you know, someone likes the color blue, but more so what we're what we're trying to trying to create, that bigger vision. And then from there, we implement everything across all platforms. So their websites, socials, any marketing collateral they need created, I can help them through that. So I become their essentially their partner on the rebranding journey from start to whenever that finish line may be. And um, it's just something that I love supporting small business owners through and with because it allows them to have the voice where the people who are really good at marketing, who are not necessarily as good as what they do at their job, um get all the noise and get all the attention. So I like helping those that have the actual talent receive that same caliber and that same attention.

Carrie Saunders: 4:17

I love how you like have such an all-encompassing view of like what branding is and how you want to help them be successful. And you we sound like parallels, like similar parallels, whereas you're branding and I'm the web technology behind it. And it sounds like we both enjoy just kind of wrapping our arms around our clients, it sounds like, and really making sure they have a holistic solution that's going to benefit them a lot. And and as you're talking, I'm thinking, you know, there's probably a lot of listeners out here that are thinking, well, I didn't really do quite a brand originally, or or maybe I did and it was kind of rushed. And so, how for the listeners listening, how would they know if they're ready for a rebrand? Because it sounds like sometimes you're helping people realize they didn't even have a brand to begin with, but then we also have the flip side of they might have had a brand or thought they did, but they need a rebrand on it. So, how do you know when you're ready for that?

Maria Platusic: 5:13

That's a great question. And um, I think it starts to become very evident. There's a lot of signs that start to surface and show up for the business owner, and they might be scratching their head as to why are these things, you know, why do these things keep on happening on repeat? You know, I'm trying all the things, and and yet these issues or these struggles are still arising. Um, but it's that overall feeling of you know there's room or space for more, but you're never able to attain or get to that next level. Something's kind of holding you back, and you're not sure, you're not quite sure what it is. Um, it's that overall feeling. But there are some good tells, and I'm happy to share at least these are the top three that I've witnessed. And I there's a plethora of them, but these are mainly the top three that I'm happy to to share with you if you want to dive into those.

Carrie Saunders: 6:06

Yes, I'd love to have that because that I think that'll help really connect, you know, something that might seem abstract to some people to a bit more of a tangible, you know, here here's here's what I when I see these things, I know I need a rebrand.

Maria Platusic: 6:19

So the the first item on the list is one that most might not like to admit to. So, because it is it is a bit of a challenging one, is that they're actually embarrassed. They're embarrassed to share their web page, they're embarrassed to share their social media pages, they're embarrassed to share any of their marketing collateral or any of the spaces that they're present online because they feel that it doesn't represent them best. They feel that it doesn't um hold water, they feel that it just kind of it started off and it was it appears amateurish, or they're just not proud. Because when you are proud of your business and proud of your brand, you're like, go check out my website and you'll like share it with pride. And when you're hesitating, you're like, oh, and you say, my website's under construction, or we're gonna be fixing that soon. That's the hesitation. That's when you know that something needs to be repaired. Um, and that's one of the bigger signs. Um, and it's it's just one of those things that when you aren't putting your best foot forward, it's like you have one foot in your business and one kind of sitting out of it, and you're not all in. And then that becomes very evident when you get on sales calls, when you get on promotional calls, when you're trying to speak about your brand, but you're hesitant to share the website URL. Um, there that actually can be a big hindrance for your business growth and it kind of stops you in your tracks. So that's definitely one sign is that you're kind of embarrassed to share it with your audience. So I think some may be able to relate to that one.

Carrie Saunders: 8:00

Um, actually, I know that we can actually definitely relate to that one because being web developers ourselves, we don't have time for our own website. And sometimes I'm like, it's a little dated, but it's got different decent information on it. And like, you know, I honestly am a bit embarrassed on our main, you know, core business, BCS Engineering's website, because it is dated. It's it's something that we haven't um put the time into. And I know we should, and I know we can, and we have the resources to do it. It's, you know, just making that a priority. And and I think people listening, you know, it's a I feel like we should, you know, acknowledge that, you know, even if you are embarrassed about it, you can still do something about it now. And it's it's your foundation of your business. So it is something that we do need to address. And it's it's definitely in my quarter four to quarter one top of my list for my for our site. So I feel like we need to, you know, give the permission that if they are embarrassed, then then let's let's set a date, let's set a time frame when you are going to fix this because when it's a someday, it's a never day. You know, we need to make sure we give ourselves a deadline on fixing that. So then what would be what would be the second big thing that you see?

Maria Platusic: 9:15

I I wanted to get into that, but I just wanted to raise my hand and say, hi, I'm also the cobbler and the shoes. And if I can just be honest and frank, it took me almost like eight years. I I just recently rebranded my business and I'm a rebrand strategist. So like I just want to come out and say it. Um, I've been building, I don't know, hundreds, if not thousands of different brands and websites and launching them on repeat. And I can get them done to four to six weeks, 10 to 12 weeks. But when it comes to our own, and you said it, Carrie, it's like you, it's always pushed to the back burner. It's so hard to put the CEO hat on and take the time to get your own work up to snuff. And I was just at the point where it's like, this has to change. This hat like the messaging doesn't relate to any like where I'm at and who I'm helping. It still worked and it was still functional, and people were like, oh, your website's beautiful. But to me, I knew it needed to be updated. And now I'm in love with my business and my brand all over again. So I just want to share that piece too, is it can rekindle that love for your business again if you're so proud of it and you're in your enamored by it once again. And that does happen. And I've witnessed my own clients, and it was I was excited because I did my own questionnaire and I went through my own journey and I went through all of I'm like, darn, I should listen to my own advice, and I'm sure you're the same. Like, maybe I need to listen to my own advice, and it's really good at sound advice. It's a great questionnaire that you go through. So sometimes we need to go through our own process and push pause and take the time to do it. And what made me do it was I invested instead of myself doing it, I invested in a copywriter to help polish up my copy for me, and I invested in a developer to do the back end. So it wasn't me myself doing it. And so sometimes when you put skin in the game, it gives you that motivation to actually get it done. And that was the motivation I needed. So the first quarter of the year, it's been, like I said, on the back burner for almost eight years. The first quarter of the year, we got it done, and I was so excited. So now I love it. Go visit my website. I love it. Um yeah, okay. So the second um common sign, sorry, I just wanted to share that because it's very relatable.

Carrie Saunders: 11:29

No, I loved it because yeah, it's totally relatable. And like I feel like it gives people permission to be messy sometimes, but just recognize it and then that's okay. Acknowledge it, recognize it, and then just set that deadline for yourself. Yeah.

Maria Platusic: 11:42

Yes, it's good to have those hard deadlines to just keep that, keep momentum going and and not let things fizzle away. So yeah, that's for sure a good, a good side note in all of this, anyways. Um, so the second item is also a common sign. Um, and then sometimes people have a hard time figuring out why it continues to happen. Um, but it is mostly when you are not attracting the ideal audience um or you want to attract a new ICAA, a new ideal client avatar, um, and it's not happening, right? So you need to ensure that all is in alignment and the right people um um you want the right people to find you, but it's a hard piece to rectify and isolate this problem. Um, for example, when you create a post or you put something for sale or um you're putting an offer out there and the wrong people keep on chiming in or paying attention, um, that's a big sign right there. When you're like, why are these people paying attention? I don't even offer this anymore, or I don't want them, I want this other tier of clientele to be working, uh looking for me and for my services. And that happens for a reason, um, because there is a misalignment in the messaging, in the visuals, um, via everything that you're putting out there. There's something that you're putting out there that's attracting the wrong audience. Um, and that's something to definitely pay attention to. So, for example, if it's a florist who originally worked with budget-friendly brides, um, but now you want to get like higher-end packages and offer higher-end packages, the messaging you originally had will not serve that higher tier. So, we do have to take a push pause and go back and revisit all of the brand strategy foundational pieces and make sure they're in alignment to serve that new ideal customer. Um, and that's something that you have to pay attention to. So, if you constantly are getting the wrong influx of the clients that you don't want to be serving or you want to target a new audience, that is an optimal time to revisit your branding for sure.

Carrie Saunders: 13:55

I think that makes a lot of sense. And as you're talking towards that, you know, I'm thinking about our business over the past 20-some years. And, you know, we originally were helping um, you know, more of the smaller businesses and things like that. And then I had a goal of not leaving them behind because I still wanted to help them, but I also wanted to make sure that I'm also attracting the more enterprise type of people because you have a bit more stability there. And and I do like to recognize that the ones that are just starting out may get there too. So I wanted to serve them too. So like I had to find how do I balance this? How do I market to kind of both? Like I wanted to market mostly to the more enterprise, but not feel like I'm leaving the others behind. So I feel like when you know what who you want to market, you you can get there, but sometimes it can be tricky on figuring that out and figuring out how to do the messaging right and the the colors and the you know, the aesthetics and the feel of it. Um, would you say that's kind of the case where it can sometimes be a hard balance if they want to target more than one? Because I do run into a lot of people who like to target more than one type of people.

Maria Platusic: 15:05

Yes. So um there's two things about it there. One is like if you're empathetic and you're like, I don't want to leave the start the startups behind or those at the beginning phases behind, but I also need to create a sustainable business for myself. And I know that this model won't necessarily serve me. You have to be realistic, right? Like you really have to think, comes down to numbers and um it comes down to, you know, we're all into business to make money, like, you know, great, we can serve a greater purpose and all those things, yes. But at the end of the day, we do want to make money and we're not doing that, we're no nobody's a charity here unless you are. But um, this is that's the greater purpose. So you have to be realistic with is it sustainable for you to support certain demographics or certain tiers of businesses? And when I was first starting out, I did have different tiers and I had multiple tiers to help multiple people. And then as I was progressing and growing, I realized I am an all-in personality. I can't gatekeep stuff and put something behind a paywall. If you ask a question and I have the answer, you will receive the answer. What I was doing for my top tier, I was still giving to my base tier. There wasn't the, I suffer with boundaries, so there was no boundaries there. So I realized I can't effectively and sustainably and ethically do this because I'm an all-in-personality. So I had to draw the line and say, here are my offers, here's who they for, who they are for. But I do have freebies, opt-ins, um, courses, things to serve and get those at the lower tier ready to eventually work with me. And so there's ways to go about it. There's absolutely, so you said what if you have multiple audiences? Majority of my clients have multiple offers and they're for different audiences. So you do create different uh uh ICAs for each of them. The key piece is to understand that overarching message. So if your main brand and that overarching message that you're sharing has to be able to fill all the buckets underneath. So they all have to be related. One can't be completely far right or far left if they aren't related or correlated. So that overall arching brand message has to feed all the buckets, and then you can have unique messaging for each of your offers to target to those specific audience. And you absolutely would want that because this particular offer is for XYZ, you want to call them out directly. And this one is for a different audience, you want to call them out directly. So you have to have TA1, TA2. Sometimes I have TA3. There could be a variety. I try to limit it realistically to three, because then you will confuse the heck out of your audiences, and you're gonna be left with confused non-biers in your pool of things. So it you have to be very strategic with the messaging for each of the dialed-in audiences. But that's a great question, yes.

Carrie Saunders: 17:58

Yeah. Well, and I think that's very helpful to hear you say too, because it's it's definitely something we've struggled with. And and I feel like we're doing it in the manner you're saying. So, but I think that it's great for listeners to hear how do we do that? Because a lot of people we do run into have, you know, multiple target audiences, or it's it might be the same target audience, just at a different stage of their business or their whatever journey they're on. So I think that's really great on how you um put that all together for us to help make sure we're understanding how it all fits and how all the pieces fit together. So that being said, then what is your main third item? We we covered, you know, the first two, which I thought were great, where you know, you're embarrassed, um, and then the second item, and then so what is the third item that you think is a really, you know, hot red flag for them?

Maria Platusic: 18:47

So when you realize that you've pivoted your business so far from where you originally started, that is a big red flag because it a couple of things happen. There's overlapping things you'll see. You'll still you'll be attracting the wrong audience because they still think you offer X, but you don't necessarily offer it anymore. Um, so if you've pivoted the product or services that you originally started out with and don't offer those items anymore, um, and your your messaging and your positioning and your website and all of your meth, everything is the same, that's where you will get severe confusion um in your audience because you have to actually acknowledge the pivot, acknowledge the change. And a lot of the times people do, I call it silent rebranding, where they're like, I'm just gonna test out this new offer in the background, which is great. I'm not gonna downplay um testing because you absolutely need to test things. But once you're like, no, no, I'm gonna be offering this from now on, you need to shout it out, you need to share it, you need to actually embrace it into the rebrand and make it a part of your, I guess, evolution of your business. Um, so a lot of the times they do the pivots happen, but we're still trying to keep everything the same when in fact it's not. So the people who know you from five years ago, um, offering, for example, if you offered um, you know, one-to-one uh coaching or consulting, but now you don't offer one-to-one anymore, you only do group programs and group coaching and offer in group settings, then they'll be sadly disappointed because that's what they know you as. And and a lot of the times when you're known for X, it feels like we're cemented here forever and we can, we're not allowed to leave. And I've witnessed that happen too. Like that's the other case where it's like you've done really well. People know you for X, they're referred to you, you're highly renowned for providing X, and you're like, I actually don't want to do this anymore. How do I get out of here? And I've had clients come to me in that scenario as well. And I'm like, you're actually at the perfect spot. This is a great place to be because it's not all about, and and you get that feeling like majority want to kind of burn it all down and start over because they're just overwhelmed. And I'm like, I'm here to tell you, please don't ever do that. Don't ever burn it all down. Um, unless it's like bad rapport and you purchased a business that has, you know, bad PR or whatever, and you need to rechange the name and start from scratch. Very rare instances and from corporate to individuals. Um, but when it comes to your individual business, you're in a beautiful spot because now you can take your audience along with you on that new journey, on that rebranding journey, and let them know of your pivot and let them know of the changes they're gonna be seeing in the upcoming months and what to expect. And people can discern for themselves. Do I want to continue following? Cool. I think this is great. It's exciting. I do want to see what's happening, or oh, I don't want to be a part of that anymore. And they weed themselves out, which is the exactly what you want to have happen. So you get to take that gorgeous audience, they get a weed themselves out, you invite them along the journey of your rebrand, and then you get a launch to an audience that's actually excited to be there, as opposed to one that's like, what's going on? I don't understand what you don't offer this anymore. You're letting them be informed. Um, and rebranding grants you the permission to televise, share, launch, express all of these things. So that's where it's like one of the most important times to rebrand is when you fully pivoted, you need to let your people know that you did.

Carrie Saunders: 22:35

And I love how you said you you let them be informed. And when my mind, after you said that, what came to my head was like, you're letting them be informed, not let down. I think is what I feel like you're implying. Yes. Right? Because like if you don't inform them and you don't offer this thing anymore, and then and then they find out, they may be very disappointed. Whereas if you brought them along on the journey as you're discussing, they can either decide for themselves that they want to keep going along the journey. Maybe they're a good referral. Even if they're not a good match, maybe they're a good referral, you know, and they can refer somebody that would be a good match for your new journey. So then I think that helps create brand loyalty and trust when we're very upfront with a a rebrand like that and a change, because then the people who've been following you for a long time can feel supported, even if you're not the perfect match anymore. They still, you know, see you as this, you know, human being that's being, you know, forthright and you know, letting them know here's here's my thoughts, here's where I'm going, and and why. And then they can follow that journey and be excited with you, no matter whether they're still a good fit or not. And then they could either weed themselves in or weed themselves out. Um, I love how you give us permission to do that because it can be very scary, especially if you had something successful that's no longer serving you and you want to jump to another, you know, market or whatever. It's it can be scary. So giving that permission to bring them along with you, I think is very important for listeners to hear on here.

Maria Platusic: 24:08

Yes, it's a matter of we can oh, it rebranding is never, as I mentioned earlier, it's never burning and starting from the ground up. It's actually building off of everything you've created and done this from for this this whole time, right? So, like everything you've built and created, you're building off of that. So you can take what you need and bring along with you. And the stuff that's not serving you, you can leave behind. It's actually a beautiful way to refine all the pieces of your business and and create something that doesn't have to stand start at zero, it doesn't have to start at year one. And that's something I explain to a lot of my clients too, especially when you're transitioning from one place to another. If you're a former therapist who's now becoming a life coach, or you're starting you had a uh uh you worked at a facility and now you want to create your own private practice or whatever it may be. They're like, oh, well, I'm I'm starting at ground zero, I'm starting at year one. And I'm like, no, no, no. You have 25 years experience. It's year 26. You're starting at year 26 because you're not leaving all that behind. Everything, all the knowledge, all the everything that you've learned, like the plethora of everything that you've grown and learned and become, that's all coming along with you. You're not, you're gonna bring that to the table with your clients. You're not leaving it behind. So that's I just like to re reframe that for them as opposed to starting at year one. No, you're starting at year 16, year 25, year 26. I mean, it's not, it's not ground zero, it's not year one. So, um, and that they find that piece helpful.

Carrie Saunders: 25:47

So I think that's very important and helpful for a business owner to hear that because I feel like a lot of um branding strategists don't help them with their mindset. I mean, that's kind of more of a mindset shift to give them that confidence to do this rebrand. And I feel like that's so important that you have that in your, you know, business and your company to help support their mindset. And that's one of the things we do here with the technology side is I try to help them with their mindset around the technology because a lot of people are afraid of technology. And and once we become unafraid of whatever it is new we're doing, whether it's a rebrand or or technology trying to implement something on our website, we be we can see the ways of it being possible. We can see the ways of it succeeding. So you putting that in their minds, I think will help them see the ways that their rebrand will succeed and that this new, you know, thing that's coming out of whether it's a refresh or a total new rebrand, they will be able to see the possibilities from it, which will help them be more successful. So I think the fact that your company has that mindset behind the strategy of the rebrand is very key for success in the rebranding process.

Maria Platusic: 27:04

Yes, it's it's not something that I advertise or share, but what the main piece after the rebrand and what people extract after having it, you get clarity, you get cohesiveness with your brand, absolutely. And the main piece is confidence. So when we started from the beginning, we're like, oh, we're not, we don't want to share our brand because we feel embarrassed, we feel like we we want to hide it, it's it's not making us proud. After the rebrand, and we go through all your accolades, everything you've achieved, all the things that you've been amazing at, and we kind of revisit all that and share that. Um, the confidence is the biggest piece they walk away with, and they're proud to share their brand, proud to share their website. They have all of this information and data and messaging that they can now come out and share with everyone that it becomes um just like a big sense of pride. And it's it's hard to knock them off their horse because they're really up high on there. And I love that because it grants them permission to play at that higher level right away. They do not have to wait. They can play at that highest level right away, which is amazing. Like we're working towards those big pictures and goals, but they have permission to play there right away. Um, and it in it and that shows itself in a lot of ways too, in regards to um, you know, asking for a certain uh pitch deck or a to pitch on a podcast where they may have been hesitant to share before, but now they feel confident enough to request to go on that podcast where they never would have requested that before. Or it's just it's it's different ways that it shows up in regards to being able to immediately, I want to say almost 90 to 100% of my clients immediately charge higher for their services. After their rebrand, the immediate ROI is now that they're look completely polished and professional and they're confident and they know that they can deliver what they deliver, they increase their prices for all of their packages. And I'm like, well, there's your R ROI right there, right? So there's a lot of ways that rebranding provides so much positiveness towards business ownership that I know it can feel scary and daunting in a certain light, but my my goal is to remove all the trudge, unnecessary trudging that you you don't have, there's so many parts you don't have to trudge through. If we can remove those for you, I'll absolutely try my best to do it.

Carrie Saunders: 29:33

It sounds like you have such a great holistic approach, I feel like, to rebranding, just listening to you talk and getting to know more about what you and your uh business does. Um, now I know that some listening might be thinking, well, they might be thinking now, well, maybe I need to rebrand. Um, and I know you have a free guide on how to check how effective your logo and your brand really is, attracting the ideal audience. So tell us a little bit more about that free guide that people can use to determine is it the right time to rebrand now or not?

Maria Platusic: 30:05

Yeah, so this is um mostly for the visual aspect of things because sometimes it's like I hate to be the bearer of bad news when you when someone's like, Well, how does this look? My friend designed this logo. And I'm like, I I did, I just didn't want to take ownership on letting people down and saying, Oh my goodness, it's actually not that good. Um, so and I just I hate confrontation. So I created a freebie to do that for me. So what it does is there's six easy questions, and you go through it and it gives you a scaling grade. Like you can grade yourself in regards to ask the question, and in and it gives you a scaling grade of like, you know, how is this appearing? What would you grade your logo on this front? Is it clear? Is it um responsive? Is it um is it straight to the point? You know, like all of these questions it goes through. And then you get a score at the end. So you can see for yourself. Well, I don't have to tell you, you can see for yourself if you're if your brand and your visuals are representing you and your business best. And then from there, you can be like, oh, I got a pretty crummy mark. I need to maybe look work at this again. Or someone's like, you know what, I'm doing pretty good, but I know there's room for for more support. Of course, I can support you that way too. Um, so it's just like I said, this is my it's like a guide or a key to be able to check for yourself. So you don't have to wait for someone to c tell you, because I know it can feel kind of icky um for someone to share their their tree. And and I and the problem is I can't like I've learned I cannot lie. I'm a terrible, terrible liar. So if someone flat out asks me that and they do it on purpose, they know that I'm gonna tell them the truth. So this way it does the hard speaking for me, it does the hard work for me. So that's what this guide will get you. You can do it yourself. So yes, that's brilliant.

Carrie Saunders: 31:53

And we will have the link to that guide. And I'm going to I'm gonna tell you listeners right now, I'm gonna be going through it for both of my brands. So the link to that guide will be in the show notes at smarteronlinebusiness.com. Um, and then you also offer a brand clarity session for those who want to check in with branding efforts, and I'd love to hear about that because the guide, it sounds like it does more of the visual. Um, what is your branding clarity, the free session? How does how does that work?

Maria Platusic: 32:22

Yeah, for sure. So this is more of me taking a look at your messaging and how you are showing up online via the messaging and positioning. And we all in our brains, we know what we want to say, we know what we do, and it's very clear to us. But sometimes when we're trying to relay that message to our audience, it can get jumbled or fragmented and might not be as clear as we think it is. So I invite you to share, like there's a couple questions when you fill out the form. I invite you to share a little bit more about you and your business and what you do and what your overarching message is to your audience. And then I take a look at some of the places where you're showing up and how that message is being perceived. And then I review it. And a lot of the times it's actually just, you know, we can tweak things. It's like minor suggestions that I'd offer up, and it's minor little tweaks that just reword it or reframe it in a way that makes it a little bit more clear. And some sometimes it's like a little bit disjointed. I'm like, well, when you're saying that, what are you actually meaning? And then when they tell me face to face, it's clear. But when it's written, it's not. So it's bringing that alignment back. And so it's this quick little check-ins that I do and I offer those up for free. Um, I have a limited amount each month that I do. This, these, so these are the things I do as my little give backs for those um that are, you know, looking for a little bit of support. So I do do these for my give back. So yeah, so that's what that check-in call is. And I'm happy to take a look at anyone else's uh messaging when they when it's out there and give you some quick pointers on that.

Carrie Saunders: 33:56

That sounds perfect. And we'll have that link to in the show notes at smarteronlinebusiness.com. And so to wrap up, Maria, like I just feel like we've had such a great conversation about what we're what rebranding is, why you might need to do it, and the signs about it. Is there any one last thing that you want to um share with the audience about rebranding and when you know it's the right step, or how to pick the right um person to help you rebrand? Either of those would be great as to help us wrap this up to help people who are listening and are like, oh, I think I might need to do this, um, their next steps and what they should do.

Maria Platusic: 34:33

So I have I'm just gonna share two things. I actually have a link to a blog post I just created because that was a question that came up a lot is how to select the right brand and website designer for me. So I I can send you that link. It's on my website, it's a blog post and it highlights the you know the three ways to determine the best fit for you. And I even share these on my own strategy and consult calls because I want, like I'm always about the best fit for the job and the best person for the job. Um, so um I share these openly on my consult calls, but I don't want to take up too much time there. So there is a blog post for that one. And then overall, I just I want people to realize that you needed to start somewhere. So don't be feel like you did anything wrong. Like we all need to start. We all needed that quick little, you know, Fiverr Canva logo that we created. We all needed that quick website that you either did it yourself or paid someone, you know, quickly to get it done. That's how you built your business. That's how you created and generated money. And that's 100% okay. Just realize that when you get to a certain point or certain level, it might not be able to support you at that next level. And that is the optimal time to rebrand. That's the optimal time to speak to someone and figure out your best approaches to rebranding your business to make sure your messaging is clear, to do a competitive analysis, to see where you are on the playing fields and are you lined up with that to review your offers, review your audience, um, get to your core values, make sure they're enlisted there, see how sustainable this is over time, um, and to see, you know, what is it that you truly want from your business, that bigger vision and mission. Sometimes we need to push pause and go back and figure out what was the main reason that we started this. And are we are we veering from that? Are we even happy anywhere with what we've created? So I would say your permission granted to start at some point and do the thing, and it's perfectly fine. And in I'm a logo and branding designer and website designer. I'm like, you don't actually need a logo to start your business. You can go ahead and do it without. But when you get to that point where it matters, where people will be paying attention, that's when you need to, you know, before that point, you need to start um figuring things out.

Carrie Saunders: 36:55

I just love that. I love how you gave people permission to be okay with what they decided in the beginning because you're right. It's it you were the steps you knew and could take at that point in time. And when you're at, you know, when you're ready to take that next level, you know, it's fine if you need to rebrand and there's really no shame in it. And it's just part of business, it's just the next steps that are here for us. So I love how you did that and helped with that. Thank you. So thank you so much for being on our podcast, Maria. I really appreciate it. And um, I I'm looking forward to trying out some of your free guides myself and uh just assess my my own branding because I know it is out of date and I know I need to get that, you know, on my calendar and do that. So I totally appreciate all the information you've given us today.

Maria Platusic: 37:46

Well, thank you so much for having me. This has been fun. And as an introvert, I always find it like I get a little bit of anxiety before I do these things, but now when it's speaking about things that you want to speak about, um, it makes it much easier. And you made the conversation flow easily. So thank you.

Carrie Saunders: 38:04

Oh, you're welcome. So good to have you. I hope you found that conversation with Maria as eye-opening as I did. I know that I want to dig into our website. I know it's definitely something that's been needed for a while, and I think this is going to give me the gumption to do so. And if you're feeling that tension between where your business is going and how your brand is currently showing up, like I do, this might be the perfect time for you to do a check-in as well. Maria has two amazing resources to help you take the next step: her free logo effectiveness guide, as well as her free brand clarity session. So be sure to grab those at our show notes website, smarteronlinebusiness.com, and just search for Maria. And as always, if you want more tips like this, you can always join our newsletter while you're there, and we send out weekly tips each week to help you have a smarter online business. Thanks for listening, and we will see you next week.