Watch This Episode of MwahTV About A Female Fitness Brand Transformation
LAURA: Do you remember this episode?
Yup, that’s right when I dressed up as a cowgirl on the search for some businesses to experience my Branding Strategy Services?
Well, Jill from Jill Huskisson Fitness was one of the applicants who took advantage of this offer.
Work It Out For Your Business
If you have always wondered if branding strategy is really something you need to invest in, then by the end of this episode you’re going to get a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how this has worked on transforming Jill’s Female Fitness Brand.
With Jill's DiaryCams
I got Jill to record some diary cam footage throughout her Brand Strategy journey with me.
Let’s roll the tapes!
At Jill's Studio in Maidenhead
JILL: Hi there, I'm Jill Huskisson and welcome to my studio. I'm based here in Bray, which is near Windsor, Maidenhead area and this is my studio. And this is where I teach my online fitness classes to women over 40. And I have just signed up for Laura's amazing brand strategy offer.
I honestly, I'm so excited, I cannot wait to get the Laura treatment. Up until now, I've literally been doing everything myself. In fact, there's no literally about it, I have been doing everything myself.Â
DIY to Delegation
JILL: I cannot wait to get Laura's input and expertise on how to create my brand and how to position it.
I'm ready for that next level because you can only do so much yourself and I really feel that I'm ready to push into that next bracket.
It feels exciting, but I'm definitely nervous because having been the one that's just done everything, it almost feels quite hard to hand it over but I know that if I want to progress and get better, and actually help more people, more women, then it's exactly what I need to do.
So yes, Laura, I can't wait for your magic treatment.
Let's do this.
Female Fitness Brand Transformation Feelings Before
LAURA: Jill was keen to get going but she shared there that she felt a little bit nervous. And this is actually really common when somebody's about to embark on a branding strategy journey with me.
Let's see how she felt after we did a full-scale audit of her brand together.
DIARY-CAM: After The First Meeting
JILL: I just had my first meeting with Laura this week for my branding strategy and Laura's asked me to do a video cam just to keep you up to date with how it's all going.
So this week we've been...
We've started going a bit deeper into how to break down my brand so that I know how to build it back up because when you're in the thick of it when you're in your business, it's so hard to see all the different pieces.
The Audit Part
JILL: We did this internal brand audit checklist and I just felt like a bit of a spanner on that because even though there was just this list of things to do and I've got ideas about my branding, just to really break it down into these little different components and how it all feeds together, oh, it was just amazing.
It was just a "mind-blown" moment!Â
I cannot wait to see how it all comes back together cause that is definitely something that I struggle with.
I've got "the big idea" but then how to put the pieces together to make it come off the paper and pop on social media, on my website and even just how I speak, and how to get that across much more fluently so I just can't wait.
Mwah!
The next Stage of this Female Fitness Brand Transformation
LAURA: Once we had a good clear picture of exactly what was going on and working well or not working well for Jill's brand, it was time to take a look out into the wider world.
I wanted to get a really good understanding of exactly what strategies were in play in Jill's marketplace.Â
How this bit ALWAYS Feels
LAURA: This bit always comes with a lot of feelings of resistance from my clients and I think that's because everyone thinks that everyone else out there has this whole business thing figured out way more than they do and they're actually the imposter in their space.
See how Jill felt at this stage?
DIARY-CAM: On The School Run
JILL: All right, so just out of another amazing meeting with Laura and it's straight on the school run. It is just go, go, go. Honestly the joy!
So the meeting today was all about, Laura did a deep dive on some competitors and that always feels a little bit icky cause you don't want to be snooping around.Â
Delegation Freedom
JILL: But it was amazing and Laura also found people in my industry that I hadn't even heard of, which was a bit unusual.
I don't even know who these people are but then, not many people maybe know who I am yet, but it was just fantastic.
And Laura, oh my goodness, does Laura know her stuff! It has been amazing just to be able to delegate this side of building a business and branding away because it is hard work and it's just busy trying to do everything when you are a self-solopreneur.
CUT! To The Follow Up Chat
JILL: Let me just say that so we've got some context, I'm not just a crazy reckless driver.
I don't want people to think that I'm just driving around and filming like an absolute...
It was safe as a busy mum, I can tell you that when I'm driving and filming that is a lot less distracting than trying to keep the kids amused and occupied in the backseat-
LAURA: And obviously Jill, I mean you had that phone positioned in a safety holder, I mean it would've been worse if you were driving like with the phone on the wheel, wouldn't it?
JILL: Oh no, we're not doing that. It's a magnet, it's amazing. Yeah, it just stuck right on there. Yeah, it's really cool.
And Into Creative Direction
LAURA: The next bit that we worked on together, Jill, was into creative direction, right?
JILL: Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah.
LAURA: Shall we have a look at this footage of your reaction then?
JILL: Let's do it.
Applying Creative Direction to this Female Fitness Brand Transformation
JILL: Here we go, just had the creative boards, the briefing back from Laura and honestly I'm absolutely fizzing and buzzing with excitement. Let me just dive right in.Â
I mean this is being through the months of previous months of working and deep diving, and Laura's just pulled out all this amazing juicy data just bringing together all my thinking, what makes me tick and how I want my brand to look and oh it's just phenomenal, look at this. So, here we go. This is the one-pager that will go off to the designer and Laura's just broken it down into different sections. It's just so easy for me to understand and just so easy for the designer to understand but it actually just gets better.
And Into Creative Direction
Take a look at this and then you... You've got the mood boards, I could look at them all day!
So you've got the colour and then,Â
Coming in on the graphics and the textures and again it is just... Oh, we love a bit of animal print and all the tapes, and the glasses, I love it all.Â
And then my people, Cheetara, She-Ra bit of Jane Fonda, the Gladiators.
It's just so fun and just amazing.Â
So Laura, you absolute genius! Your absolute genius is how you've managed to... it is just my brand, it's just everything I wanted and I can't wait to actually have this in action.
Thank you so much, you are the best.
A Quick Female Fitness Brand Transformation Re-Cap
LAURA: You've just seen there that progression from getting an honest take on:
- what's going on inside the business,
- doing a bit of exploration, in an objective way of the outside marketplace so that we can start getting really strategic on
- coming up with a genuinely unique creative direction.
What Could Affect your Brand Strategy Process
Now, this was a pared-back brand strategy project that we did with Jill based on exactly what her needs were.
Not all brand strategy projects look the same. It really does depend on business-to-business cases on exactly how you go about getting that unique creativity in place. It can be:
- factors to do with business content creation,
- it can be history,
- or, it can be what else is going on in the marketplace.
It really is quite a bespoke process to get involved in.
Here's me and Jill having a little bit of a chat about the impact that all of this work has really had on her business.
Catching Up A Few Months Later
JILL: Oh, it's so good to have a catch-up, Laura, I just feel like I've got so much to update you on since we last spoke about my branding.
LAURA: That's exciting, let's get into this then. So firstly, tell me what on reflection, how has this process made you feel about your business as a whole, would you say?
Reflecting on the Feelings
JILL:Â From the start, I did feel quite vulnerable, quite nervous, got to be honest about that.
When we sort of got together at the beginning I just didn't really feel very connected with what I was doing, or really enjoying it as much anymore. I think a few reasons for that.
Lockdown, I think there's so much change for all of us in lockdown and adapting everything to being, having to work from home, it was just such a huge pivot and turn in what we were doing and I just felt a bit burned out with it all.
Yeah, so I just really felt I'd got a bit stagnant and stale and we were being forced in the new direction and I wasn't quite sure how to grab hold of it really.
The Lockdown Hangover
LAURA: Yeah, I can absolutely relate to that. I've started calling that the lockdown hangover.
JILL: Yeah, totally, totally. But with you and getting that fresh perspective on things and all the different facts and data that you went off and collected. It just really gave me that boost of energy that I needed, it just really helped sort of channel and get that focus back again.
LAURA: That is amazing to learn, that's why I live, Jill. Most people find that snoopin' bit on the competitors when I suggest that we're doing a competitive audit, they can find that a little bit triggering, would you agree with that?
Competitive Snooping
JILL: Totally, yeah. It felt really, really weird that you're going off and just looking, I just... It's not... I couldn't have done that, even though I knew it was the right thing to do, strategic business-wise, I just couldn't do it.
That level of research that you went off and did for me and just how you brought all that data together. Just to know that that was being done and delegated, and was just fabulous. And knowledge is power and it just felt amazing and it wasn't... I think when people think of going off and researching you feel like you're being snoopy and sneaky, yeah. but it wasn't at all.
It was really just amazing to just see how other female fitness people were going about their business. What worked really well for them, what I liked but actually wouldn't be good for my business so it was just a real gathering of such amazing detail and it did give me a bit of a confidence boost that I was or I am in the right area and just needed a bit more fine-tuning, a bit more tweaking and you!
You basically, you pulling all that out.
Into INFORMED Creative Direction
LAURA: That is what it's all about, Jill.
JILL: Yeah!
LAURA: That is the beauty of getting the information, the information doesn't lie but when you've got the information, that's when you can get really super crystal clear on what your strategy's going to be and it always makes people feel like that. So in the beginning, they're usually a little bit triggered or freaking out about snoopin' on people but then afterwards they're like, "Yes, I know where I stand."
JILL: Yeah! and "I know what makes me different!"
LAURA: And I have to say that that diary cam that we just saw, I love the energy in that diary cam. So when, like thinking back then, so when you're looking at the mood boards and the creative direction side of thing, let's just talk a little bit more about that.
That Blows Minds
JILL: I mean it literally blew my mind. Honestly, I'm not even joking, I could still... I'm still buzzing from it. It was just amazing and as far as I'm concerned that is your like super magic power, the way you're just able to draw all that out and then present it back to me was just like, "Wow." I could just like, I could never have dreamed that up but it just hit all the spots, I just loved it.
And I think that is why the mood boards and why everything is where it is, and how it all fits together, separating it all out but then how that then becomes the whole unity of everything.
LAURA: Wow, Jill, that is music to my ears. Again, I love that sort of feedback, thank you. It's worth saying though that the creativity and the unique direction that I came up with would never have been possible if you weren't as open and vulnerable with me throughout the process.
That is always a big part of doing a project like this.
If you are open and vulnerable about the way you are seeing things and we had those regular points to meet up and talk about the facts and findings.
JILL: Yeah!
LAURA: That's when I feel like I've got all of the ingredients to then do the creative bit.
JILL: Definitely, definitely. I mean the way that we did have those conversations and there was just no judgement, it was just a sharing of ideas and there was no idea that was silly or daft and it just all came together, it was fantastic.
When it's NOT About the Logo (yet)
LAURA: Oh fantastic so tell me then, Jill, what's going on for you now these months later? How would you say that the brand strategy project that we did together has carried on working in the business? Has it still had an effect?
JILL: Yeah, absolutely. Not necessarily in the ways that I thought it would but it definitely has really helped me to step up cause I just remember just feeling so nervous, I felt kind of trapped and locked in and then yeah, doing all this branding work with you just really helped me to stop being so stiff. I think as much as you... I can get up and do a class and everything, but when it came to actually putting it into my business I did go a bit stiff and stale, and I didn't really feel my words and everything were projecting of me. I just had my old English literature degree firing out all the time and like you just...
LAURA: That's so not your personality. I'm in The Fitness Lounge and I love it your style of doing things and explaining things is so unique to you. I'll be working out and I sometimes I'll be cursing at you because you're making me... So I'm going and it hurts. But then half the time I'm crackin' up on my own with the cat in the living room and I know that everyone else in there is cracking up as well because you've said something silly, it's just your style.
Jill's Membership - The Fitness Lounge
JILL: Yeah.
LAURA:Â We made some strategic decisions at the very end about what was next for you.
JILL: Yes.
LAURA: And I think this is sometimes a little bit different to what people think they're going to expect when they go in or brand strategy project so do you want to talk a little bit more about that?
JILL: Yeah cause obviously we were like going to be pushing and it will happen like the logo and the website overhaul but we are just taking the decision just to put that on a little bit of a pause just for me to increase my membership base in The Fitness Lounge, so we're just growing and then developing, and growing and developing and it just feels much more steady and I guess the safe way to do it really, yeah.
LAURA: Exactly and that is being absolutely strategic. You don't have to go push, push, push, push, push.
Some people do want to do a massive full overhaul in one go but I think it's very important to say that for the type of women that I love working with who have small businesses, sometimes you have to be a little bit more agile and you have to be a little bit more careful about the way that you're going to invest in this.
JILL: Yeah!
Business Strategy AFTER Branding Strategy
LAURA: And I think that's unusual. So I wanted to just kind of put a bit of a spotlight on that. It's got a... You still have this plan of what your next investments are going to be for your brand.
JILL: Yeah.
LAURA:Â But we know that we're going to be waiting for the membership to grow so that it pays off. So where are you at with that right now? How is the membership growing? Do you want to share what's the latest?
JILL:Â Yeah, I'm really happy to report that we're on a steady incline, which for this time of year I think it's quite unusual cause of what's going on with the cold weather and the climate and what's happening in the country. But yeah, we're moving on up. I think because we're all kind of used to this hybrid way of working and working out, that it just fits so well into people's lifestyles and so it's a really good thing to have. And also, you can't lie keeping moving and getting your circulation going, you're going to keep yourself a bit warmer. You're not going to need to put the heating on as much.
LAURA:Â God knows we all need the tricks at the minute, Jill.
JILL: I know!
Cheeky Nutrition
LAURA: That is a really good piece of advice. Does it mean I can drink more red wine cause apparently that's good for circulation, right?
JILL: hmm... Tomatoes work just as well.
LAURA: Okay, right tomatoes and workin' out.
JILL: No, that's boring, we're not doing that. But no, but honestly I just think the incline really has been a direct impact on what we've been doing cause it's just boosted my confidence, to be more consistent in how I approach things and making sure that what you see, say on my social media or in my website, vlogs, is what you get in The Fitness Lounge.
There's a much better connection and I just feel so much happier putting that out there because I hate selling, I hate that hard sell, just not what I'm about. So the way that we connect it or the way that you help me connect my personality to what I'm doing and delivering, it's just made the whole thing so much easier. It doesn't even feel like selling, it's just... It's just so much more in line.
LAURA: That's when a business really pays off, I think when you have it in this way that is truly attuned to who you are.
Brand-Aligned Selling
JILL: Yeah
LAURA: I love the way that you sell but you don't sell. A great example of this is, you'll say, "Okay we're using this piece of equipment today, "If you don't want to do it you can do... "You can use this." You might have a tin of beans or something, or you could say, "You can use this." But straight away, when I first joined I was like, "Oh well that's Jill-recommended I'm going to buy it." So that's a great example of like upselling once you are in the membership. But you do a really cool thing with a trial don't you now?
JILL: No, that's boring, we're not doing that. But no, but honestly I just think the incline really has been a direct impact on what we've been doing cause it's just boosted my confidence, to be more consistent in how I approach things and making sure that what you see, say on my social media or in my website, vlogs, is what you get in The Fitness Lounge.
There's a much better connection and I just feel so much happier putting that out there because I hate selling, I hate that hard sell, just not what I'm about. So the way that we connect it or the way that you help me connect my personality to what I'm doing and delivering, it's just made the whole thing so much easier. It doesn't even feel like selling, it's just... It's just so much more in line.
LAURA: That's when a business really pays off, I think when you have it in this way that is truly attuned to who you are.
An Invite to Try Out The Fitness Lounge
You can come and try out The Fitness Lounge for a week and I think that's just a really good way you can come in, see the workouts, and get a feel for the other members, there are good conversations going on.
Check out what's in the files, the recipes, the plans, and just see if it's the right fit for you because I want you to be in there and be a happy member enjoying it, and getting full benefits of it.
Before you hand over your hard-earned money and sign up for the month. But what I find is that once you do join, you don't want to leave.
Honestly, my members, they stay and that's fantastic. And I'm just so, so proud of that and just love all the members in that community that we have in there, it's amazing. It is really amazing.
Who This Is A Great Fit For
LAURA: Let's go into a little bit more specifics, Jill, about who you are looking to work with. Cause I think this is something we got crystal clear as a result of working together.
JILL: I work with women who are over 40 and just want to improve their mobility, and their strength, and be a bit more proactive about their health. But we are not forcing anybody into a crazy drop-down two dress sizes in a fortnight plan. It's not about that at all. It's really about finding those right, right long-term strategies that you can fit into your life.
Okay, we're busy, we don't need to be limiting ourselves or doing crazy fad things. It's all about better nutrition, whatever that is for you. Cause it isn't a one-size-fits-all. We do focus a lot on sleep because if you get your sleep as well as you can then you know the rest, everything else will just fall into place and it's just about that right kind of fitness that you can build into your busy lifestyles, and maintain and enjoy. Because if you're not enjoying it's just becoming a chore and you're not going to want to keep doing it.
There are many different levels and you could be in there for different reasons but it all just comes together in this beautiful beautiful bubble.
The beautiful bubble of fitness. Fab, Laura, so the link, if anyone wants to come and try out The Fitness Lounge is here.
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Timestamps for this Episode of #MwahTV
Concerned You Totally Skipped/Forgot Your Brand Strategy?
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