S2, Ep 14 | Clara Bow, Taylor Swift, & Becoming a Legend of Your Industry

This episode of the podcast discusses the importance of having a personal brand in the business industry. It uses the examples of Clara Bow and Taylor Swift to illustrate how a powerful personal brand can make you a legend in your industry. The host also shares her positive focus, which is the renovation of her master bathroom. She emphasizes the impact of design on mood and shares her personal experience with creating a moody and comfortable space. The main points of the episode include who Clara Bow is, the similarities between Clara Bow and Taylor Swift, becoming a legend in your industry, and lessons from Clara Bow and Taylor Swift. The host provides a brief overview of Clara Bow's career and her influence on the flapper style and art deco era. She also mentions that Clara Bow's story has been depicted in movies, including the film "Pearl." The host encourages listeners to visit the podcast's blog for more information on Clara Bow and Taylor Swift. Hello, hello. Welcome back to your Conversation Pit. Pumped to be here with you as usual. Our episode this week is what's taking over the internet at this point, I'm sure. It's all about Clara Bowe, Taylor Swift, and becoming a legend of your industry. And if you are in the online business industry, I'm assuming you are because you're listening to this podcast, but we do help a lot of brick and mortars as well. But even if you do have a brick and mortar, I want you to really listen up. If you are even thinking about selling your business at some point, or it's going to be a legacy business and you're giving it to one of your children, you are going to want to fall back on your personal brand. So becoming a legend in your industry is synonymous with having a personal brand that reminds people, this is who you are. A lot of people know a lot of different folks, but they don't know what their businesses are because they're so interested in the character of the person that's running the personal brand, that is being the person in the personal brand. And a lot of folks may not know anything about Taylor Swift's albums, music, her history, her lore, but they do know Taylor Swift and they always, always will because she has such a powerful personal brand. But today you get to meet Clara Bow, who is one of my favorite people that has ever lived. So before we get into all of that, let's talk about positive focus. I was like, what is my positive focus today? There's so much happening, so much going on, but it's such a renovator's positive focus, LOL. We've done so much to the House of Harmony, but will soon be a vacation rental in Asheville, North Carolina. And we have rented, excuse me, we've renovated, rented, we're hoping to rent ASAP, but we have renovated our master bathroom. And it feels like a little mini spa each time we shower. And I'm more of like a bath girl, I will always like do the whole thing. And it's not like, oh, I have like a really long bath once a week. And then the rest of the time I take showers. I'm like a bath girl every single day, because that's the vibe. And I've always known how much design affects someone's mood. But my personal childhood was just peppered with a lot of moving, a low income lifestyle, two parents working a lot of jobs very young when they had me. And I didn't notice how much my mood changed by design until I started visiting my grandmother's home and really noticing it. It was designed to the nines. Like, it was one of those homes where you had to be careful where you sat, because you weren't sure if like that was a sitting couch or just like a looking couch. And she'd have these moody red walls and sculptures of women centrally like holding a glass of wine and being the life of the party. Her backyard was always a tropical paradise with a pool and a hot tub just like nestled in banana trees and perfected landscaping because they owned, my grandmother and her husband owned a landscaping business for a long time together. And I took a page from her book and started saving up my money from babysitting at 11 years old to buy thrifted pieces to put in my room. So when we had to change out the carpets in our home after a house fire, I begged my parents to let me choose the color of the carpet for my room. And what I chose was maroon red. All of the paintings in the room from then on had touches of maroon and black and white and green to coordinate the feeling I wanted in the room, the feelings I wanted in the room, moody, passionate, energetic, warmth, comfort for me to write and read amongst. It just had this stability that I really leaned into on hard days. And though our home was far from luxurious in the low income area where we lived, stepping into my room, I had this touch of elegance that just couldn't be taken away. And now I feel like I'm on one. But back to the positive focus, my mini space in, I'm going to redo that. Back to the positive focus, my mini spa master bathroom now feels like it has that same touch of elegance and luxury to lean into after a long day's worthy work. And it just feels so wonderful. We're so, so close to getting this on the market to be a vacation rental. And we're definitely going to have an episode just breaking down everything that it's taken to bring this to life and to bring it to market, but not yet. So let's move on to this episode. So just as a reminder, the episode is called Clara Bell, Taylor Swift and becoming a legend of your industry. And I'm freaking pumped to talk about it. So if you're a Swifty or not, this episode is for you. If you're not a Swifty, it's still going to have very obvious points for you to take into your own hands to influence your personal brand's growth. And you don't have to know all of Taylor Swift's extensive lore to understand it, I promise. I don't even understand the lore. This album release is probably the first one that I've been like, I am in it. Like I am a Taylor Swift, Swifty. I take all of the names. I am that person now. But I've always watched from afar in terms of marketing strategies. She's, you know, such a leader in marketing strategy. But to be here and to be a part of this and to feel it like I am so excited for this album. Crazy. It's very different. Shout out to Paige Hulse, our lawyer, our past client, very dear friend. She was the one that was like, you got to watch Reputation on Netflix, the tour. And afterwards, like you have to be a Swifty and she was right. So even if you run a business portfolio that's aimed to be sold in the future, like I've already shared, your personal brand will be what you fall back on with every exit. The best exit strategy is a personal brand. And I feel like a lot of people talk about exit strategies or personal brands, but they don't necessarily fuse them together. And perhaps that's just maybe they haven't been on the back end of seeing a business sold. But working with a lot of clients that have been approached to be to be bought out of their business. There's been a lot of conversation of like, it's too close. It's too close to your personal brand. We don't think we can take this product, this business model as it is and turn it into a profitable business because it's so close to your personal brand. So having if you know that you want to sell at some point, or you're interested in even potentially selling at some point, and just exploring that option, then the best exit strategy is to have a personal brand that is detached enough from your entity, that you could sell it. And not to say that you have to sell it, it might be a legacy brand, it might be a brand until you decide to close it, and all of those options are perfectly fine. So here are our main points this week. Number one, who is Clara Bow? Who is this chick that Taylor has named a whole song after? What are the similarities between Clara Bow and Taylor Swift? Number three, becoming a legend in your industry. And number four, lessons from Clara Bow and Taylor Swift. So first and foremost, I just want to say I wrote a dizzying amount of information about these two, and it's going to be in the blog of this podcast episode because I am not going to put our incredible producers through another very long episode. I won't do it. Shout out to Laura Greenland from Enflo and Grow. We love working with them and I am constantly like, I spoke a little too long. I'm so sorry. So I'm not going to talk a long time this time, but if you want more information, the density of Clara Bow's history, I'm going to scan it here, but go to thecheetahcompany.com slash blog, and you will be able to see this podcast episode in blog format when it's up. And if you follow us on any of our socials or you're on our email list and you get our monthly newsletter, you will be reminded. So don't worry too much. But I don't want you to have to go searching because I got all of the best information here. So first and foremost, just giving you an overview, Clara Bow was the actress that made It Girl the thing we know today. So when you say that that girl is the It Girl, it is because of Clara Bow. She made that iconic with her first movie It. She starred in it and it was a silent film and it, I mean, just took off. Everyone was calling her the It Girl and therefore that's where we get it from. She made the flapper style as iconic as it is and she was a dazzling representation of who a woman could be if she dared. She had a very futuristic, forefront thinking. I'm going to do that again. She had a very futuristic, innovative view of what and who a woman could be in a society that very much said, stay small, do not do this, do not do that. Even to the point that she asked if and negotiated to not have a moral clause in her contract with the partner that she was with, which if I remember correctly was Paramount, but I might be lying to myself and it might be MGM. But she was able to negotiate that out and that essentially means that she was able to do whatever she wanted and the studio could not drop her and a lot of the times actors and actresses of the time, mostly actresses, were not allowed to have immoral behavior and if so they were cut immediately. So she loved to gamble. She loved to have several boyfriends at a time. She was wild to say the least. And the art deco and flapper era art that we see today has been very inspired by the essence of Clara Bow. She was coined as being a youthful rebel that was inspired to be modern and to push against societal norms with a new vision of femininity. And she's inspired so much more than Taylor Swift. If you're into horror movies, this isn't the first time you've been exposed to the story of Clara Bow's iconic career, even if it's the first time you realize it. The movie Pearl, directed by Tai West and distributed by A24 and Universal Pictures starring Mia Goth, was inspired by Clara Bow. Goth's character was inspired by her career amongst other influencers. Goth's character was obsessed with stardom, the glitz and the glamour of early Hollywood cinema and these were direct nods to Clara Bow as well as the contest that Mia Goth's character tries to win inside of Pearl. That is actually how Clara got her stardom, which I don't know if we really notate in here. Maybe so. Yeah, she was a native of Brooklyn and Bow grew up in poverty and got her start in pictures after she won a contest sponsored by a magazine and her prizes were an evening gown, a trophy, and a promise to help the aspiring young actress gain entry into the film industry. This is according to Bow's biography from Turner Classic Movies and we received this from Variety and her big break came with a small part in 1922's Beyond the Rainbow and Mia Goth's character certainly wanted to win that contest in Pearl and she... I won't spoil it for you. If you haven't seen it and you want to see it, go see it. It's very, very good. Don't know where it's streaming right now but it definitely had me shocked. If you like horror movies, you'll love it. If you don't, please stay away from it. So, as well, you can see the essence of Clara Bow in Babylon from Paramount Pictures with Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt taking the stage. Robbie's character Nellie quickly becomes the It Girl of the times, noting that she could cry on cue in silent films because all she had to do was think of home. Very much a true line from Clara Bow herself and I thought of Taylor Swift very much with that too, especially just with the leaks and the such that we could see of what this album was going to look like and it's just... I mean, it's insane to watch Taylor Swift go through what she's gone through in her personal life and still be able to take the stage and do the work that she's meant to do anyways and I very much see that in the history that we know about Clara Bow of having such a rough childhood and even having very tough experiences with her mental health, which we talk about a little bit later, that she was able to really use this fuel for her career and allow for her essence and her charisma and her character to come to life in silent films, which, can you imagine how difficult that would be? So, I share more where she's referenced in the blog in terms of other novels and movies, so check out the blog for all of that, but another note from Variety that we will touch on a little later in terms of the mental illness, men, and self-imposed isolation, Clara Bow starred in the first movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture, what even? And by 1930, she'd made 45 movies in six years, unheard of, and by 1933, after struggles with men, scrutiny from media, the public spotlight, and scandals are us, it was insane, and mental illness, Clara Bow decided that she was going to take some time away from her Hollywood career and ultimately take care of her mental health. So, what are the similarities between Clara Bow and Taylor Swift? There aren't few and far between, there are many. They both amassed a following that has been unheard of still to this day. Though Clara Bow's career kind of slipped behind time's gates, her essence still continues to be felt this day in our 1920s parties, flapper decor, and outfits, and just iconic, the iconic Cupid's bow of the time. Taylor Swift is no stranger to red lipstick, of course, and there are dozens and dozens of TikToks that show us all how to get the distinct Swift lip, and this quote from today.com says it all, Swift's attraction to bow seems clear, though the singer hasn't spoken about it yet, but there are parallels, a young woman with a unique talent who captured the eyes of the media and was attacked by tabloid press. As for theories and summaries of what Taylor Swift is sharing with this song, I am personally going to leave that to the armchair experts on TikTok that have the Swifty lore tattooed on their minds. I'm new to the club, but I am no stranger to being ridiculously obsessed with Clara Bow. My 21st birthday was a 1920s affair. Maybe I'll slide this into our newsletter this month. I had everyone gather in a backyard party. There were so many thrifted elements and yada yada that just made this backyard party feel very 1920s-esque. I was going for, like, Great Gatsby type of vibe without the hoopla. We didn't even have drinks on site for my 21st birthday, and I don't really remember why, but I just remember that being what I didn't want to have. But we did have an amazing punch. My mama can make a crazy punch. I can't even remember what's in it right now. I can only think of raspberry, but I realized, like, I wanted to have a 1920s vibe for my 21st birthday. We had it in the backyard. My husband Chris and I had just started dating not terribly long before that, and I was in, like, a white dress, and he was in an old-school tux that had, like, elements from the 1920s. And we posted this picture to Facebook, and people literally thought we got married in the backyard and told no one. And we were crying, dying, laughing so hard when we got comments that were, like, did you guys get married? Oh my god! So yeah, maybe I'll share that in the email list. But my 21st birthday party was inspired by the Great Gatsby and the silent films of Clarabelle when I first realized she was the reason. We all had a dazzling obsession with the flapper girl mood, and it's just, like, I really wanted to do a Cupid's bow. I remember that, and I really wanted to do my hair very similar to hers. I just couldn't rock it. My hair was so long. I was like, it's not gonna work. We're gonna have to have too many bobby pins. The humidity of Florida, it's just not working. But another quote from Variety But another quote from Variety is another, like, hot striking iron. Clarabelle's messy private life led to rumors about her behavior and sexual activity, which spurred aggression and attention from the tabloid press. In those years, Bo was making movies at a breakneck pace, as chronicled in the pages of Variety. She was among the few silent movie stars to make a successful transition to talkies, which is what we just now know as films, with sound and music and also speech. There are so many similarities between Clarabelle and Taylor Swift. I mean, have we seen Taylor Swift stop her memorial reign in today's society? Not really. As Taylor described it, she took a self-imposed isolation around 2016 to 2017, and this is a little heartening to Clarabelle and the end of her Hollywood career when she decided to take isolation, get out of the public eye, and focus on her mental health. And this happened for Taylor Swift following a series of high-profile incidents, including her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, and her split from Calvin Harris, amongst all the other things that we now know. During this time, she stepped back from the spotlight to just focus on herself, and she did not make any public appearances. And it was around that time that she decided to become more private, to really let the lore of Taylor Swift become lore and not define, describe, communicate, or promote what her private life had. And this break preceded the release of her 2017 album, Reputation, which addresses her experiences and the public scrutiny she faced during that time. And the album really marked a significant shift in her music style, her public persona, and reflected the personal transformation she underwent during her time away from the limelight. And later in Clarabelle's career, again, there was a self-imposed isolation of sorts as she focused on her mental health after media scrutiny, a high-profile scandal that was so rough. I personally don't want to get into it here, but if you feel called to go and explore more, there was a great podcast episode from, I think it's called Heart Beats Faster. That's what I want to say it's called. It's like a true crimey horror podcast. It's very, very good. If I can remember the name, I will slide it into the show notes. And it was all about old Hollywood and how this high-profile scandal just really created so much pain for Clarabelle and her tumultuous personal life and the transition to sound films just kind of all aggregated in one place. And she just was unable to continue, and she chose what was best for her to self-isolate. And she'd been struggling with her mental health on and off for some time, as did her mother and grandmother before her. And it's said that she may have had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. And in those times, folks certainly wouldn't have been supported well as they navigated those mental health conditions, and she just really needed to take some time away. And though Taylor Swift didn't step away from the limelight because of her mental health per se, she certainly stepped away to care for herself, even though we don't know how it was totally affecting her. But after the aforementioned high-profile incidents that can still be found to this day in the lyrics of her songs from past and present, she's releasing those emotions that were attached to those experiences and really letting the story tell itself. And the conversation of similarities the conversation of similarities between Taylor Swift and Clarabelle is where we meet personal branding and the frontier where these two pioneers meet. And we'll start to apply these into your brand in the next section of the podcast. But for now, we'll just go through these parallels between the two starlets. So Taylor Swift and Clarabelle have consistently embraced, number one, their unique authenticity. Number two, being media savvy. Number three, trailblazing and pioneering. Number four, resilience. Number five, empowerment. And number six, and number six, cultural impact. Clarabelle was a pioneer in personal branding, and she has not discussed or showcased nearly enough, and I'm so glad that she's getting so much of the public eye right now. She showcased her authenticity and relatability easily, her ability to connect with audiences through her genuine personality, and her unique style really teaches all of us the importance of just staying true to ourselves and embracing our individuality and branding, no matter how easy it is to see our peers, what others may refer to as competition, doing what they're doing in their brands and in their businesses. Claire really demonstrated the power of charisma and how it can captivate audiences, leaving a lasting impression, even while acting in silent films. So very similarly, if we went to a moment in time with marketing where everything was flat, and we didn't have video, and we didn't have sound necessarily, and it was just a flyer, or it was just a post, or something on a bulletin board, how could you allow for your personal brand to really scream, for lack of a better word right now, off of that paper and really get into the subconscious of your ideal clients and partnerships and the folks that you are meant to be influencing with what you bring to the table? All of this can be seen in parallel with Taylor Swift in so many ways, especially with her lyricism. She may stay silent on a topic for a while, but we all know she's preparing to leave a lasting impression, and her silence is loud at the forefront for a reason. Additionally, Bo's savvy use of media and public relations helped shape her image and solidify her place in pop culture, highlighting the significance of strategic promotion and personal branding, even decades and decades after she's gone. It's 2024, and she is still being discussed today, and her essence is within everything. So, so much of what I just shared about Clara Bo, we can see Taylor Swift within, but I really wanted to point out that lasting impression, because it's very much talked about, and I'm not saying that I disagree, but it's very much talked about in the online business space and within online business in general, that it's important to share your hot takes and all of these really intense responses right as they're needed, right as you have this experience with someone in comments or someone from another business, and I think we can all take a lot of notes from Taylor Swift's capability to stay silent and move in silence until she's ready to powerfully share her side of the story, and or to never mention again, because it may not be important, and we'll talk about that more in the media savvy area, but we're moving on to becoming a legend in your industry. So, this is how you can start to apply all of this to your personal brand. Becoming the girl of your personal brand and a legend in your industry begins with all of the points from our last section. To embrace your personal brand, number one, embrace your unique authenticity. Number two, be media savvy. Number three, be a trailblazer, a pioneer. Number four, your unyielding resilience is what's going to keep you going. Number five, your passionate empowerment is what's going to be noticed more than anything else within your brand, and number six, your unmatched cultural impact to be felt for years and years and years. I want to give you implementable information here to use all of these points in your personal brand by the end of the week. Like, I want to dare you to use this by the end of the week. Don't let this just be another thing that you listen to. I hear about folks listening to a podcast a day while they get ready every morning, and I say this with the most love and all due respect. I just can't help but think about how loud their brains must be without the application and implementation of the information they're learning, and I've been there before, especially at the beginning of my career when I was trying to understand, especially while pre-selling really expensive power bikes, essentially Harley Davidson's, Kawasaki's, Suzuki's. I was hyper consuming instead of executing, but this is your year to execute quickly and move swiftly. I couldn't help but get a swifty joke in there. Okay, but for real, this is going to take you less than 30 minutes to quickly write these out, and I want to help you start applying them as quickly as you can as you can craft them. So, number one, your unique authenticity. I want you to consider your personality instead of your perfectionism. Your fear of being called out or canceled or that ever-edging persistence of being perceived. You are never going to outrun the potential perception of anyone. With 1 million followers or 200 followers, there will always be someone that only has a very skewed lens that they are perceiving you through, and you can't control that lens. We are going to talk about controlling the narrative when we discuss being media savvy, but without you actually getting out there and trying, you're never going to know. So, I just want you to really consider, no matter where you are in your business, you could be 10 years in and you're probably still not being as authentic as you could be for some kind of fear that you're going to be called out or that you've set the stage for your brand at this point and you can't deviate from that. Your personality will shift and change as you grow, and thus, your personal brand will ebb and flow with you as it should. So, make a list of your personality traits. Are you friendly, authoritative? Are you naturally hilarious, empathetic, sensitive, innovative in every way? Are you harmonious and elegant, like you always seem to have your ish together? Are you gentle? Are you kind, caring, audacious, ambitious? Choose the traits to highlight that you want to carry throughout your career, your current brands and your future brands, and aim to show those again and again through stories and storytelling that highlight those traits. And consider where in the Venn diagram between you and your ideal clients and ideal partnerships do you meet to have that similar personality trait. I can tell you that all of my clients are secretly hilarious. I don't necessarily find myself to be secretly hilarious, but I know that other people do. I just think that I'm, like, being myself. And I know that so many of our clients are gentle with themselves, or they want to be, or they're very kind and caring, but they're nervous to share their sensitivity because it's been made fun of before or it's been poked at as not being a great use of their energy within a career, let's say corporate, higher education. And I've experienced that, too. So that's where I can meet clients in the middle to show you can be sensitive, you can be empathetic and gentle and kind and naturally hilarious, and it be a part of your personal brand, and you're still professional. It's still going to come off well, and it's going to make you memorable. So, for example, if you're sensitive and empathetic, you may reflect understanding in your content communication with clients and customers with words like, I recall from our last conversation that you were experiencing X. How are you feeling now? Or you may find yourself following up about a big presentation you knew they were going to have. I've mentioned this before. We followed up with potential clients that have turned into two to three to four X buyers just by asking them, hey, I saw that your dog was sick on your stories. How is your dog now? Can I send you a Starbucks gift card just to bring a smile to your face for a second? How is your grandma? I saw that she was sick. Or how are you feeling after the death of your father? Is there anything that we can do to support you? Can we send you something in the mail? And you may express compassion and offer support, flexibility, and be really accommodating in other ways that folks within their businesses may not because their personality types don't swing towards compassion and being empathetic and sensitive. So in your email campaigns to mass audiences, you may simply choose to use simplistic language to lower the barrier for confusion. So you might empathize with the reader to have the least confusion as possible while they're reading. You might tailor messages to specific needs and behaviors and previous interactions to your past clients and desired clients that you've had so you can influence ideal clients to see themselves through your content communication because you're going to attract like-minded people if you're speaking from an empathetic stance. Folks are going to be attracted to that if they are also empathetic. So you might encourage responses and care more than maybe an innovative brand. I love an innovative brand and we are innovative as well. But innovation by design does influence the sentiment that we're always moving forward and therefore we're kind of always moving. And some of the niceties and mannerisms and moments of service and connectivity might be missed in the process of constantly moving and constantly moving forward. So you might share stories that reflect real life scenarios of how your product or service has helped other people through case studies, testimonials that illustrate the value of what you offer. But it also influences the reader to consider how much attention you must be paying to your clients to notice them this much. So our next point is being media savvy. These are all lessons that we can learn from Clara Bow and Taylor Swift and take into our personal brands. So in relation to Clara and Taylor, they both experienced high profile interactions that created a need for themselves and their PR teams to consider an approach and response that values kind of the nuance of public sentiment. So if you're managing this on your own, even if it's just on one post on your Instagram page that's kind of having its own controversial moment, it's kind of controlled within that comment section. But then you would want to consider, is this going to get bigger? Is this going to maybe expand out? Are potential clients going to see this? How am I going to respond healthily to what's happening on this post or another post or lots of responses to your stories? Whatever it might be. And or if someone is maybe creating what would be called user-generated content to speak about your brand in a not so great way, you really just want to analyze the sentiment. What are you getting from the comments? What can you pull that is actually saying this is how I feel? And then look at it from a public statement of if we aggregate this data, how many people are for you or against you? Quantify that impact. Start to identify the key themes and contextualize this within your career. What is this going to do to influence your career right now and in the future? Highlight notable reactions if possible or necessary. And address media coverage if there is any. And forecast, again, those future implications of what it can do to your career, to potential clients, peers that may be great partners and or just partnerships in general. And consider what to strategically do next for follow-up actions or adjustments to your personal brands and your PR strategy. Knowing when to make a statement and when to stay silent is a skill that is not unique to celebrities. You've seen this on personal brands throughout TikTok and TikTok culture. People are canceled. People are just blasted on their comments. And so it's kind of controlled, in essence, within their comment section, but not really because it's going to start to expand, especially with, like, stitching features on TikTok. It is so easy to think that something is small and then it becomes really, really big. And, again, knowing when to stay silent or when to speak up is just a really needed skill, even as online service providers, professionals, consultants, coaches, agency owners and the like. We need to understand when it's valuable to say something and control the narrative in a healthy way or to create silence in a very powerful way and not feed energy directly to what is occurring until it's absolutely necessary. Not every word or problem needs a response. And if you can handle things privately, that's better. The one who talks the least wins, as PR consultants and lawyers alike agree. So being media savvy without PR scandals is most likely what you're experiencing versus what Clara and Taylor experienced in their careers. So with that said, a few ways to show that you're media savvy to your ideal clients, peers, and partnerships without the PR scandal is by staying informed, current, and relevant, by understanding trends and changes in your industry, and in relation to media, so social, traditional, and emerging. Being able to leverage multiple platforms and create high-quality content for each platform also shows that you're media savvy without really needing to say so. And engaging with your audience and your communities, innovating and adapting ways of listening to public sentiment and reviewing analytics shows how savvy you really are. So moving on to the next point, being trailblazing and pioneering. I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. High-quality thought leadership content showcases your expertise and forward-thinking approaches. And you're not just being like a thought leader. I used to roll my eyes at that when it really started to come into play in my industry. I'm just like, this is – I mean, everything feels thought leader-y now, but you're pioneering. This especially happens when you can lift and shift strategies from other industries to combine with your industry. So consider leveraging thought leadership content through articles, blog posts, videos, and podcasts discussing emerging trends that blend with the timelessness of your brand. So really balance trends and timelessness. And consider innovative ideas, but make sure you're tying it back to the heritage of your industry and how those can be combined so we're not just constantly throwing out old ideas. And consider your unique insight that you can come to the table with because you have more time and experience than someone else. Not to say that I really don't believe in competition, to be quite frank. Everyone is a comrade, in my personal opinion. And so you're just a bit further on the same line that your peers are going down. And if you can very much impact their lives plus your clients, your ideal clients at the same time, it's a win-win for everyone. So just taking your high-quality thought leadership content a bit further beyond traditional media, move into speaking at events, speaking engagements, into intimate conversations and spaces to dialogue the way that old philosophers did at armchairs. And continue to learn and adapt instead of saying the very same in your industry. And be loud about it. It is up to you if you want to hide behind your fear of being seen or to decide that your service to the world is more important than fear that can be healed and released. So moving on, your unyielding resilience is key. Unyielding resilience comes through keeping a track record of delivering high-quality results even in the face of adversity. So consistency in your work and the ability to meet or exceed expectations regardless of external circumstances shows your resilience and your reliability. I'll share more about this in the coming months, but being able to continue to work with our clients around the world as a company while I was grieving the loss of my brother-in-law in early 2023 gives me the ability to show that though I am one person and we do have several team members, our impact is felt in our unyielding resilience to take care of ourselves as humans and deliver the support and results that we said that we could. So I love how you can see Taylor Swift's resiliency track record with every album that she puts out. It's easy to see where she could have been harmed and just stayed down. It's easy to see where those with envy and jealousy wanted her to stay silent, and it's easy to see why she didn't. She had a story to tell, and she told it in her own way. And you doing the same, being transparent with your communication to your audiences and communities about setbacks and obstacles and the transformations you're seeking or exploring and or have achieved, that's really where you start to breed and foster community. No one wants a perfectionist, and no one cares about the constantly gleaming social content that shows that you're living a perfect life. Hiding challenges and hiding your personal information, I'm saying this with nuance, like obviously be careful about how you take this, but hiding your challenges is a surefire way to come off as inauthentic in a world that's desperate for authenticity. So you can show this through case studies of even though this was happening internally, we were still able to do X, Y, and Z alongside of our clients. And you can separate those two messages too, so it doesn't feel necessarily like this is a direct correlation, but being able to show through your personal brand, hey, I've been experiencing anxiety, and this is how I'm helping myself, and we're still moving forward in initiatives internally and externally alongside ourselves and our clients. It really shows your resilience without you having to say, I'm resilient. So moving on, your passionate empowerment, no matter what your industry is, you can infuse philanthropy into your mission and your values. We've done this since the beginning of our brand by consistently donating a portion of our revenue to the shelter that supported me after I experienced a violent crime in 2016. We have created marketing campaigns around the anniversary of that crime that's driven our community to donate to the shelter to support, empower, and help other survivors resiliently rise after what was probably the worst night of their lives. So sharing your personal stories and experiences that highlight your journey towards empowerment and how those experiences have shaped your personal path is so important. Authenticity resonates with audiences, and it helps build trust in a way that nothing else can. Consider sharing the mentors that you've worked with and what you've worked through or the obstacles you faced in year one, two, three, four, five, or even 20 of your business. Consider how motherhood changed the way you approached business. Consider how your divorce helped you consider, wow, I need to start that over. Consider how your divorce changed the way you approached business. Consider how grief imploded your life and what you did to ensure that you could grieve and heal and still have a harmonious life and business that didn't affect your clients in a negative way. Consider sharing content regularly that empowers a segment of your audiences to see something different, to think differently, and embrace a new perspective that is delivered on a silver platter to them from you. Consider where there are injustices and spaces that you can foster more inclusivity to have a welcoming brand and environment. Taylor Swift does this so well. Do the research, take a peek at what she's done, and really just seek to follow in her footsteps, and you cannot go wrong. You will then have what our last point is, unmatched cultural impact, not just for your clients, which we'll talk about in a moment, but also for the world. If we can leave society better than we found it, if we can use your craft and your brand and your specific voice to move society forward, that is end game. Not to just slip a Taylor Swift song right in here, but that is truly end game, and that is what has always driven me to business and entrepreneurship from such a young age, just being very motivated to change the world in some small or major way through my craft every single day. And you can do the same by giving your time, giving your energy, giving your voice to unseen injustices that people aren't necessarily thinking of as much as you are. So unmatched cultural impact, create case studies around the impact you've created in the form of an annual summary. If you want to see ours for an example, you can go to the cheetahcompany.com slash summary and download it there. We've done this for several years, and I picked it up from my time in higher education at a law school. Combining our case studies, testimonials, a bird's eye view of initiatives internally and externally within our business, and showing how our brand impacted and transcended cultural boundaries to make a meaningful difference on a global scale has really allowed for this summary to constantly be a way that we support past clients to be seen in our brand story and also create retention because they feel like they're being spotlighted and entice new clients to join us because they loved our perspective. I usually pepper in founder letters and just perspectives of things that went on that annual year from a personal and business perspective. You can measure the outcomes of your work and don't be afraid to get analytical and emotional within the information that you're aggregating. I don't just share within that summary that we help clients reach 30, 50, 90, or 350k campaign launches. I also shared screenshots of client words that said thank you for giving me permission to go slower today, and thank you for reminding me that I don't have to have notifications on all the time to be a good business owner, and thank you for reminding me to date my partner and have an intimate and spicy life together. If we're close, we're going to discuss that, but even if we're not close, I'm going to be like, hey, have you dated your partner recently? Lessons from Clara Bow and Taylor Swift. There are so many that we can pick up from here, but a few more that haven't been described in this podcast. They both rise above adversity. They foster independence, especially as women. They shape a future for the modern woman to be the vision of femininity that they want to be, and they embrace challenges and let them fuel their successes. They connect with their audiences intentionally and constantly inspire others with their gusto and their creativity. And a final quote from time before we move on to the conversation topic of the week, but Clara Bow, the woman and star, makes her appearance only at the beginning of Clara Bow, sung by Taylor Swift. The two other women referenced in the song are Stevie Nicks and Swift herself, and it becomes clear that the song is partly about self-possession and knowing the worth of your beauty, but perhaps even more about the worth others see in it, and their almost reflexive desire to market it. And that's where the story of Clara Bow comes in, and that's where your story starts as well. If you don't have a reflexive desire to market your own self-possession and what you bring to the table, knowing the worth of your work, the way that you shape the world with your insight and with your ideal beauty that only you have, the only way that you can see the world that we then get to see the world through your perspective, through your insights, through your authenticity, through your thought leadership and the content you produce from it, that's where I want you to get to. I want you to have a reflexive desire to market it. What a juicy way to say that. Thank you, time. That's where the story of you comes in. So I'd love to see what you create from this podcast episode. Please reach out to me anywhere you can find me. Usually I'm hanging out on Instagram the very most, but your conversation topic of the week is to ask five of your closest friends to describe you as a person offline and outside of your business. Consider the words that populate. Are those the words that you're oozing and being the essence of in your personal brand? Do you think your clients and customers would describe you the same way? Or are you potentially hiding behind your professionalism in your online business or your brick and mortar business? Because I know we have a lot of y'all listening to you. And if you have any questions, if I can support you in any way, we are currently supporting new clients and welcoming them in for the end of quarter two. So I would love to support you and can't wait to support you. And if you're just looking to get started with a lot of what we talked about in this episode, I invite you to reach out for an intensive. That's a very easy way to get started with us. 90-minute session, two weeks of support off of that call. So you can have resources in hand, strategy in hand, but you also have me in your back pocket to discuss whatever comes up as you're implementing and executing, which to me is the most important part of a consultant relationship is making sure that I'm there on the back end so you can be supported to bring everything that we work on to the front end in your marketing and your sales and in your business overall. So would love to support you if you need any support. And I guess this is it. Clara Bow and Taylor Spitz, I'm becoming a legend of your industry. I hope it was a blessing and it supported you this week. Have the best week and we'll see you back in the pit soon.