February 12, 2023 • 34 mins
Are you the niche/brand? 👀
In the world of Creators, influencers, thought leaders, and personal brands - one trend is growing in popularity and that’s the “anti-niche” Creator. What does that mean? That you don’t have a niche, you ‘are’ the niche… or you ‘are’ your brand.
In episode 03 of I’m lost, so what? Cassandra explores this concept with a critical and anti-capitalist lens and how being the ‘niche’ and ‘brand’ is actually toxic AF. You get to meet her alter-ego, “Sassy Cassie” who doesn’t hold back.
In this episode, Cassandra covers:
- Her personal story of how she was the ‘brand’ and what happened
- What she believes happens when you are the ‘niche’/’brand’
- And questions (of course) to consider if you’re currently on this journey
If you are building a personal brand or want to position yourself as a thought leader, or need help to get your company or organization more visible - learn how to amplify your message, rally your community, and create inclusive, awesome content with the support of The Quirky Pineapple Studio. Learn more about our services here: https://thequirkypineapple.com/
Connect with Cassandra elsewhere:
- Cassandra’s Personal Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cassandratle/
- The Quirky Pineapple Studio Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thequirkypineapplestudio/
Additional resources mentioned in the episode and for Thought Leadership:
- 5 Biggest Social Media Trends in 2023 from Vanessa Lau: https://youtu.be/yuL4Ror87VU
- “Why Thought Leadership is Important and How to Establish It”: https://thequirkypineapple.com/blog/2022/07/08/why-thought-leadership-is-important-and-how-to-establish-it%ef%bf%bc/
- “3 Thought Leadership Examples to Avoid Being a “Bro”: https://thequirkypineapple.com/blog/2022/08/10/3-thought-leadership-examples-to-avoid-being-a-bro%ef%bf%bc/
- “LinkedIn vs. Instagram: Which Platform is Best for Thought Leadership?” https://thequirkypineapple.com/blog/2022/08/04/linkedin-vs-instagram-which-platform-is-best-for-thought-leadership-content%ef%bf%bc/
“How to Use Your Brand Message Strategy with Thought Leadership” https://thequirkypineapple.com/blog/2022/08/31/how-to-use-your-brand-message-strategy-with-thought-leadership/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And in my personal opinion that nobodyasked for, but this is my podcast,
so you're gonna get it, is that ifyou are believing that you are the
niche / brand, it is toxic as fuck.
It is so fucking toxic.
And let me tell you why.
Hello?
Hello everyone.
I'm Cassandra Le, and you'relistening to, I'm Lost, so what?
(00:21):
The podcast exploring betweenbelonging and carving your own path
for all the peeps out there who kindof know what you're doing, but still
question what the fuck is going on?
Yeah, I'm with you.
Welcome, welcome and hello.
Hello to I'm Lost.
So what?
In this episode we aretalking all about you're, the
(00:42):
brand / niche is toxic as fuck.
So in today's episode, I amtotally putting on my sassy hat and
introducing you to my very, very pettyand alter ego named Sassy Cassie.
Sassy cassie comes out whenever I've hadone too many drinks or when I'm honestly
(01:04):
just either feeling extremely petty or I'mjust extremely just done with your shit.
So today's episode, I wanted to diveinto something that is quite niche and
is really for people who are exploringpersonal brands, thought leadership,
or people who want to be creators.
(01:26):
So if you are one of those, or if youare interested and curious about these
things or work in this field, or you wantto learn more, this episode is for you.
This is also for you if you are asmall business owner and you feel
like you need to grow your personalbrand or thought leadership, or you're
wondering, uh, do I need to turn intoa creator to show up on social media?
(01:49):
So this entire episode is really for you.
We're just gonna dive intoit because there is a.
a lot to go through and yes,it is going to get sassy.
You are going to get a fuck ton of myopinions and I know this is a podcast,
but if you don't agree with my opinions,send me a message and let me know why.
(02:10):
I love talking about this.
I love learning and seeing whatother people's perspectives are.
So onto the topic at hand.
So currently there's a lot of talkabout nicheing or building your brand
around you to grow and get visibility.
I've been seeing this a lot moreon TikTok and I've also been seeing
this a lot more on Instagram.
(02:31):
I think with the new wave of creatorsand more people wanting to become a
creator or have a personal brand andthey're seeing the opportunities around
it, this idea of nicheing down orbuilding your brand around you has got
like, really gotten a lot of traction.
This is something that I've been.
I mean, in the world of personal branding,I've been working in this for over 10
(02:54):
years really and kind of like seeinghow this industry has grown and evolved.
So this concept is not necessarily new,but I do think with this new wave of,
you know, people becoming creators, it'sdefinitely taken on a different spin.
So I wanna reference a couplethings here and a couple of people.
Uh, the first person is Vanessa Lau,who is a creator and entrepreneur,
(03:15):
who is a business coach.
She shared in one of hernewest videos called 5 Biggest
Social Media Trends in 2023.
In this video, she talked about howthere is a anti -niche trend going
around thanks to TikTok, if you wantto watch that video, I've linked
it in the show notes, but yeah.
(03:37):
Go there because I'm not gonna likefully explain what she said, but she does
talk about this concept of not havinga niche because TikTok is not niche.
Then one of my other friends, GeorgiaSmith-Marr, hey Georgia, who is also the
podcast editor for, I'm Lost, so what?
She shared a TikTok with me wherea creator was saying that to
build a personal brand and getvisibility, we don't pick a niche.
(04:00):
We are the niche and I've gotthoughts about that I will share
next, but I have another examplescrolling through Instagram stories.
The other day I saw a personal brandand coach share in their stories that
if you want to build a personal brandand get more visibility, connect
more with people, show up authentic.
All of that stuff, then we haveto think that we are the brand.
(04:21):
And before diving into all of my opinionsand getting Sassy Cassie out here, I wanna
say that there's nothing really wrong withthis advice and strategy because, It does
work like the way that social media andcontent is moving in the world right now.
People are less niche.
They don't necessarily have a niche.
(04:42):
We are showing up more all aroundmulti-layered humans, and we're able
to show up and share all parts of ourpersonalities and lives outside of the
things that we do for work or what we dofor our business and all of that stuff.
So I think that's really awesome.
I think the fact that, you know, theway social media moving is moving
now we have the opportunity toshow up as our full selves and more
(05:04):
people want to see our full selves.
They don't wanna just seethis like version of us that
we've curated on social.
Also, another thing is thatconsumers are becoming smarter.
So if you are a consumer, and weall are, if you're the person that
scrolls on social media, if you'rethe person that gets targeted for
ads, then you are the consumer.
I am also a consumer, but consumers arebecoming smarter to marketing tactics.
(05:26):
And they don't want tojust consume one thing.
People are looking for connectionand they're looking for connection
with other people more personally,especially in the realm of creators
and personal brands and like thoughtleadership and all of that stuff.
I think also with brands in general, like.
Literal actual businesses, peopleare looking to connect with brands,
people, business entities that aremore human like, we don't want to
(05:51):
just consume for, um, a businessthat is just here for profits.
Like the world is changing.
And we want to find businesses andbrands that have a social impact
mission as part of their business.
And because of this, and becauseconsumers are becoming smarter, it gives
us thought leaders, and personal brandsand creators, I think a really great
(06:11):
opportunity to share in a more free way.
Like we don't have to feel so boxed up.
We don't have to feel like, oh, Ican't share outside of my niche, oh,
I can't share like my personal lifebecause people won't find it useful
or they won't find it interesting,but actually, In reality, more people
want that stuff and I don't thinkthat there's anything wrong with that.
(06:32):
I think it's just human nature.
I think it's just the way that ourcurrent sociopolitical economic
society is growing and changing.
And I say I'm all for it becausethis idea of, you know, showing up
professionally on social media orshowing up and only doing one thing,
all of that stuff, like we're not.
(06:52):
Like we are full humans.
And I think after, you know, threeyears of a pandemic, more people are
realizing that there are layers toour humanness and we can show up.
It's not like, oh, you're lessprofessional, or you can't
be taken seriously if youshow up in a more human way.
So I will say like, I dothink that this is a great
(07:13):
opportunity to be able to share.
But I want to kind of think aboutit in a way that is more critical
thinking, adding a critical thinkinglayer to it in a different perspective.
And this is what I consider to bemore of a culturally competent and
anti-capitalist perspective actually.
So before we get into all of that,I wanna share a personal story
(07:34):
because like this is something thatI actually went through, maybe, mm.
Three or four years ago with my ownbusiness, The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
So before there was this brandthat is Cassandra Le, it first
started off as The Quirky PineappleStudio, which is my business, and
(07:55):
I was The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
So I was literally what I consider tobe the human embodiment of the brand.
All of my social channels were TheQuirky Pineapple Studio related.
Everything that I did wasquirky Pineapple Studio related.
How I showed up online wasQuirky Pineapple Studio related.
I was the human representation of TheQuirky Pineapple Studio, and it worked
(08:19):
because I was able to grow the brand.
I was able to grow the business,and I was able to make some
really awesome connections.
What happened though, was that I realizedthat it was limiting me personally because
with The Quirky Pineapple Studio, allI really wanted to talk about was brand
messaging, copywriting, and contentmarketing, and that was the goal,
(08:43):
because I wanted to sell my services.
But I wasn't really able totalk about other things, and I
felt stifled in my own brand.
So when I felt stifled in my own brand,this is when I started thinking, okay, let
me pull in more of the personal stories.
Let me be more of this niche.
This is what people are saying now,you know you like you are the niche.
(09:03):
And so I started pulling in more personalstories and more things about my life
sharing, about being location independent,sharing about travel, sharing about
my relationship, sharing about lotsof other things that were not related
to the business and the services thatwe offer, which is brand messaging,
copywriting and content marketing.
And like I said, it.
(09:24):
It worked.
It really resonated withpeople, and people were, you
know, connecting with me more.
They were sending me messages.
My Instagram account was growingand people were looking to me
for mentorship, is awesome.
But they also wanted to learn moreabout my personal life, and people
(09:44):
started asking me questions like,how did you meet your partner?
Where did you meet your partner?
How did you get a visa to stay in Spain?
How are you doing location independence?
All of these things.
And I realize that that'snot really my goal.
I don't share about my personallife for you to ask me how
I got a Spanish boyfriend.
I find that to be a littleinvasive, to be honest.
(10:06):
And people have asked me questionslike that, but my goal was to sell
my services because I wanted torun a service-based business.
I didn't necessarily want to teachpeople how to become location
independent or find a foreign partner.
That's not my spiel.
My spiel is brand messaging andcopywriting and content marketing.
(10:29):
And I think the biggest thing thatkind of was the light bulb switch for
me was when I wanted to collaboratewith other brands and other small
business owners, but they fell throughbecause I was the human embodiment.
And the representation of TheQuirky Pineapple Studio and The
Quirky Pineapple Studio was me.
And unfortunately, because I wasthe human embodiment representation
(10:52):
of The Quirky Pineapple Studio,these collaborations didn't work
because our brands didn't match.
And when that happened, I realizedthat I needed to remove myself from The
Quirky Pineapple Studio because I amnot the human version of the business.
And that realization was like ahuge shock to me, mainly because I
was like, wow, I'm not my business.
(11:13):
I am a human and I am a personthat has multicultural layers.
I have lots of layers and I have lotsof interests, and my interests can
change and my personality can change,and things can change in my life, but
the business is going to be more orless constant, and I didn't want to
kind of close myself off to potentialcollaborations with people because I was
(11:37):
the human representation of my business.
I wanted to have like, you know,opportunities for collaboration
with other people who were notnecessarily in brand messaging or
copywriting, content marketing, socialmedia and all of that stuff, but it
could be for lots of other things.
And that's when I realized, okay.
I need to create a personal brandmyself, the Cassandra Le as the founder,
(12:00):
CEO, speaker, writer, and creator, andthat's when I moved everything for The
Quirky Pineapple Studio into not justa separate profile on Instagram, but
a whole like separation of the two.
When I finally kind of positioned myself,if you are imagining this, as more of
(12:24):
like the umbrella, like it's me as theumbrella, and underneath the umbrella
is The Quirky Pineapple Studio, andthat was amazing because it gave me
more freedom to create what I wanted.
It positioned the businessas its own separate entity
and brand, which was awesome.
And it opened up opportunities for meas the CEO and founder of The Quirky
(12:46):
Pineapple Studio to do other things.
For example, like this podcast,this podcast is not necessarily
part of The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
It's in within the same realm as all ofthe other things that I do, but I'm able,
To have other projects and other thingsbecause I've created a personal brand.
So if you're thinking again about likethe umbrella that I mentioned earlier,
(13:09):
again, I am the Cassandra LE brandumbrella, and then underneath the
umbrella is The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
And now, uh, the, I'mlost, so what podcast?
So that's like my personal story and myown journey of separating myself from
The Quirky Pineapple Studio and creatinga personal brand that is, The Quirky
Pineapple Studio, but let's get intowhat is happening with the, you are the
(13:34):
niche / brand now, because I feel likeit's kind of what happened, or kind of
like my personal situation, but then it'sa little bit different because now people
are saying, that if you are building apersonal brand, you are the brand and
you are the niche., Like you can do somany things, and in my personal opinion
(13:55):
that nobody asked for it, but this is mypodcast, so you're gonna get it, is that
if you are believing that you are theniche slash brand, it is toxic as fuck.
It is so fucking toxic.
And let me tell you why.
Capitalism, capitalism, consumerism,privilege, ableism, classism, all
of the isms that you can think of.
(14:16):
That is why you are the niche / brandis toxic because when you position
yourself, these are my opinions,so like if you don't agree,
whatever, but this is what I think.
So really, when you are theniche slash brand you become what
happened to me, the human embodimentof this like entity, right?
And that's great.
(14:37):
But because we live in a capitalistsociety that is extremely consumerist
and there are layers to our privilege,we live in a world that is ableist.
We live in a world where there is economicdisparity between people, classism.
We live in a world that you know favors.
(14:58):
White skinny bodies over fat,disabled black and brown bodies.
That is why it is toxic as fuckif you are the niche / brand.
And what I believe happens when you becomethe niche and brand is a few things.
I've got bullet points here.
Let me read through them first.
We mine our lives for content.
(15:19):
If you are the niche slash brandyou are now basically mining your
for content to see what else youcan share to relate to people.
You're now looking for things that arelike, oh, is this a story I can share?
Oh, is this like apersonal moment in my life?
I can share, oh, is this somethingthat I can like turn into content.
And as creators, as somebody who worksin social media, as somebody who works
(15:43):
with like personal brands and thoughtleaders, yes, we have stories to share
and yes, we wanna do storytelling andyou know, share lifestyle clips and
stuff, but when does it become toxic.
I honestly think when we don't putboundaries around what we actually share
and what we're open to sharing, that'swhen we mine our lives for content.
(16:06):
That's when we're minding ourlives to find certain stories and
experiences and things to put onlineso that more people can consume our
content so that we can sell more.
Something else that is also happeningis, this is something that I was
talking about with my partner and thenalso with Team Quirky's copywriter.
(16:29):
This is a concept I, we didn't reallysay this, but my partner did, and he
was saying, when we become the niche/ brand and we are mining our lives
for content and trying to figure out,okay, can I share this aesthetic photo?
Can I do this?
Can I do that?
What can I share online that, youknow, has me showing up authentically.
(16:54):
We are basically selling privilege.
I'm thinking about all of the aestheticreels and all of the aesthetic
TikToks that I see right now and it'sreally selling privilege because.
You're looking at all of thesethings and you're like, damn, I want
that, or, damn, I don't have that.
(17:17):
And I'm thinking about a, a certainsituation that I went through with
one of our clients in a mastermindprogram that we used to host
called The Use Voice Mastermind.
One of our clients came through becausewe offered scholarship opportunities
and for BIPOC business owners, uh,disabled business owners, queer business
(17:40):
owners, and one of our clients came inand she comes from a low income family.
And I remember when, you know, I wastalking all about like these visibility
strategies and you know, show up oncamera and do more videos and, you
know, show people your life and likewhat you're eating for breakfast.
(18:04):
All of the things that, you know, apersonal branding coach would say.
And she totally like blew my mindbecause she told me, what if I
live in a low income household?
What if I don't have the beautiful whitewalls and like the crisp light coming
through and beautiful glasses and likea matcha to share on Instagram stories?
(18:28):
What if I'm sharing a space with,you know, seven different people
and I live in a multi-generationalhome and all of these things, like,
it's not aesthetically pleasing.
It's not, you know, beautifulto consume on social media.
What do I do then?
And this is the concept of, youknow, we are selling privilege.
(18:51):
And I'm not saying, you know, like,don't share these things because I, I'm
not like the Instagram content policethat tell you don't do these things.
But I do think maybe think about thesethings before we share because like, what
is the goal at the end of the day, right?
Like, is it to get more views or, youknow, get more deals or whatever else.
(19:13):
Is it really to inspire people?
Is it to like influence something,share impact, whatever that reason is?
I, I, I don't know.
I'm not gonna tell you it's a rightor wrong reason, but I do think, okay,
I need to come in with this lens ofwhat is my content really sharing?
(19:36):
And it's not just, oh, I'msharing my coffee today.
It could be totally something else.
What is the lifestyle and the, notthe aesthetic, but like what is,
what is the impact of the contentand am I mining my life for content
and am I also selling my privilege.
(19:58):
Those are two big ones.
Uh, the other thing is when youare the niche / brand, this is
similar to what happened with meand The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
We cannot remove ourselves from thebusiness because we are the business.
If you are the niche / brand, Youwill always be the niche / brand.
(20:19):
How will you remove yourself fromthe business if you potentially
want to sell your business one day?
If you want to bring in partners,if you want to get investors, if
you want to do whatever it is, howwill you remove yourself from the
business if you are the niche / brand?
And that then also brings me to my otherpoint, which is the business becomes
reliant on if we are the niche / brandto always be present because the business
(20:44):
will always run through our brain.
Sounds amazing.
Sounds like wow.
So many opportunities.
This is awesome.
So much inspiration, butit isn't sustainable.
Not really because thereis no room for rest.
And I remember in the TikTok thatI mentioned in the beginning of
this episode that Georgia sent tome, this creator was saying, oh
(21:07):
yeah, this is way more sustainable.
It like, you know, is moreauthentic and all that stuff.
But really if you think about it,it's not sustainable because if
you are the niche slash brand,you will never be able to stop.
Because you will always like yourbusiness and your brand will always
be relying on you, and that doesn'tgive us room for rest, and that
(21:29):
doesn't give us like the sustainablesystems that we need to support this.
The other thing is that I think itcreates, you know, this expectation
of aesthetically pleasing things.
This is similar to selling privilegeand I think lifestyle market is
something that really plays on privilege.
(21:51):
Uh, I can't go into lifestylemarketing in this episode.
I think that I'll have to like gointo that in a different episode.
But lifestyle marketing is basicallytrying to sell you a lifestyle, and it's
a lifestyle that you aspire to have.
It's a lifestyle that you know,really feels grand and amazing.
And that is inherently capitalistand classist because it doesn't
(22:13):
take into account privilege.
And when you're selling this likeaesthetically pleasing lifestyle and
you know, this whole thing, we, wedon't have the opportunity to kind of
pause and say, oh, is this possible?
Do the systems that we havesupport to this, and most of the.
(22:34):
, they don't because we live still in acapitalist, racist, sexist, ableist world.
, unfortunately, and I thinksocial media heightens that.
And the other two, the last two pointsthat I want to share about what happens,
in my opinion when you become the niche/ brand, is that the first one is it gets
(22:55):
confusing because we are now thinkingthat we are the brand and business.
Which is similar to what I wassaying before about like the
business becomes reliant on us.
And really we are not the brandedslash business because we are the
human behind it, and we need rest.
We need to exist without consumption andwithout capitalizing on all the things.
(23:16):
Because when we start capitalizingon all the things, when we start,
you know, just mining our livesfor content and figuring out, okay,
what else do people want to see.
Who do we become?
We basically exist for consumption,and that is not healthy.
That is not sustainable.
That is not okay because we're humans.
(23:39):
We're not necessarily supposedto exist for consumption.
We're, we're here to exist tolike bring art, creativity,
joy, love, laughter into the.
Not for somebody else to consume.
And the last one is that if you planon, you know, selling your business
or you know, at least just removingyourself from your business in some
(24:00):
sort of way, it's really hard to dothat if you are the niche slash brand.
Like if you want to scale, if youwant to rebrand, how can you do
that if everything is reliant on.
So if you're listening to thisand you're like, oh my goodness.
There are a few things that I, Iwant all of us to think about when
we are approaching personal brandingor thought leadership or you know, if
(24:23):
you're thinking, oh, am I the niche?
Am I the brand?
Uh, and I have five questions for you.
I always have lots of questions to share.
And the first one is, what is thebusiness entity and the thing that
does the service or sells the products,because that's technically the business.
For example, the quirky Pineapple Studiois the business because The Quirky
(24:45):
Pineapple Studio sells the services.
Yes, there are people behind it todo the work, but that's the thing.
That's the service.
It's not technically me.
The second question, what isyour role as the CEO, thought
leader and personal brand?
Because your role is really different.
It's not necessarily alwaysgoing to be in the business.
(25:07):
Now we're getting intolike business strategy.
Your role as a CEO isa little bit different.
Your role is to make surethat the business works.
Your role is to grow.
Or not, or to maintain, whatever that is.
The third question, what is yourbigger vision with the business?
The entity that carries outthe work, because that's gonna
(25:28):
be a little bit different.
The vision that I have with The QuirkyPineapple Studio is really different
than the vision I have of who Iam, how I show up, what my message
is as a personal brand or the CEO.
The vision I have with the businessis that, you know, we are stable.
We are sustainable.
We're able to pay people well and growan awesome team and do awesome work.
(25:55):
. The vision that I have with mypersonal brand is that I'm able
to write a book, host a TV show,continue with this podcast.
Who knows?
But my bigger vision with the business,the entity that carries out the work
is really different than my biggervision as the personal brand, the person
leading the vision of the business.
(26:16):
And that is the fourth question.
What is your bigger vision withthe personal brand as a person
leading the vision of the business?
And the last question is, areyou mining your life for profit
slash content or is there a story/ message to share with the world?
Can't tell you if your answeris right or wrong, but it's
(26:39):
something to definitely consider.
So if you wanna answer those questions,if you wanna journal on them.
Awesome.
Let me read them one more time.
The first one is, what is the business,the entity that is actually doing
the services or selling the products?
Number two, what is your role as theceo, thought leader and personal brand?
(27:00):
Number three, what is yourbigger vision with the business?
The entity that carries out the.
What is your bigger vision withyour personal brand, the person
leading the vision of the business?
And number five, are you minding yourlife for profit / content or is there a
story / message to share with the world?
(27:20):
Now after all this, here are my 2 centson personal branding as the business brand
and vice versa are the niche / brand.
Personally, I would say you are notthe niche / brand because I still
think that that's toxic as fuck.
I think there is one (27:38):
is the business which has economic goals
and needs, and it carries out theservices or sells the products.
It is the physical.
Entity.
And then there's another thing,which is the personal brand.
This is the person whohas a vision and goal.
The economic goals and needs arerelated to not just like business
(28:02):
things, but it's related to living life.
It's not related to operationaland logistic maintenance
that goes with a business.
It's related to, Hey, Iwant to invest in hobbies.
I want to take a vacation.
I want to redo or renovatemy kitchen in my house.
Those are personal goals andthings, not business things.
(28:27):
And the other part of the 2 cents.
So maybe that was like now 6 cents.
I don't know, 8 centsof my personal opinions.
In a capitalist society, it's reallynormal to want to think that you are
the brand slash niche because in acapitalist society basically, our worth
is tied to productivity, and our valueis also tied to productivity, what we
(28:53):
can give to the world, but what doesthat do to how we view ourselves?
If we are the brand slash niche in acapitalist society, what does that say
about our association to our worthand our value if we're not producing
(29:14):
and creating something for consumption?
Because if we're the brand/ niche, we're always producing
something for consumption.
And if we don't produce for consumption,we aren't valuable to society.
We aren't worth something to society.
And that really fucks with your head whenyou think that you're the brand / niche
(29:38):
because you're always thinking that youhave to do something, when you don't.
You could be like chilling, resting,eating, sleeping, creating for fun, doing
horrible art, making an ugly sweaterbecause you don't really know how to knit.
That is a personal experience story.
(30:00):
Something like that.
In a capitalist society, if we are alwaysthe brand slash niche, everything that
we do will be tied to our value or worth,and that really messes with your head.
So my recommendation, if you'rethinking about personal brand,
(30:21):
business brand, thought leadership,creator, all of those stuff have both.
If you want to, you don't have tolike, this is my recommendation
that nobody asked for.
But I think having both makessense because a personal brand
is centered around you as theleader, the creator, and visionary.
Somebody who has a very specificmessage to share with the world.
(30:42):
A business or community brand is theentity that actually carries out all of
these awesome things that you want to be.
You can remove yourself from the business.
You can have this like greater vision andthen, the business or community brand is
the thing that actually carries it out.
And next thing is, when do youbuild and actually grow your
(31:06):
business or your personal brand?
Like what comes first?
The personal brand or the business brand.
Or the business brand, orthe personal brand, and.
I honestly don't think I have like themost correct answer, but I will say I
think you have to do it at the same time.
Is it sustainable?
It's pretty hard, but I really thinkhaving both kind of allows you to separate
(31:26):
like so many different aspects of personalbrand and business brand and it helps
you create almost like, boundaries foryourself in your head, or literally on
Google Docs or however you plan yourcontent, or just like your vision,
mission, message, all of that stuff.
When you have both, you can say,okay, this goes to the personal
(31:47):
brand because this is me.
I'm the leader, I'm the CEO.
I'm the person who is bringing thismessage or wanting to share this
message, and the business brand isthe one that is carrying it out.
The business brand is theone that gets to do the.
You get to rest, thebusiness gets to work.
That's what it is.
That's what I recommend.
(32:08):
Having both and buildingthem at the same time.
Is it difficult?
Yes.
It kind of gets confusing sometimes.
Has it helped me separate myself fromthe business and not work so much?
Also yes.
Has it also given me opportunitiesto explore other things?
Yes.
Has it also helped me to not mind my lifefor content and also create boundaries
around what I am comfortable sharing?
(32:29):
Yes.
So this was, um, a lot of things.
I feel like there's just somuch to go into with like this.
Are you the niche / brand?
And I really do think that if there aremore people who are able to have both
and business and personal, it createsmore opportunities to do other stuff.
(32:51):
It doesn't tie you to one thing, andit also doesn't make you believe that
you are the person that needs to bedoing, doing, doing, doing, doing.
You're actually able to rest.
You're actually able to.
kind of separate yourself and likeuntie yourself from capitalist
standards, which I think is awesome.
So my ending question for you,I have two questions of course,
(33:17):
is what's your message as theCEO and leader behind the brand?
And the second question is, what'syour brand's message and vision?
Let me repeat that.
What's your message as the CEO andleader behind the brand and what's
your brand's message and vision?
(33:37):
Let me know.
Send me a message on Instagram@CassandraTLe and let's talk about it.
Also, if you like, totally disagree withthis, let's also talk about it because I
would love to know why you believe other.
This is an open conversation.
I am not the know all, be all.
All right to y'all.
I will see you in the next episode andyeah, let me know what's your message as a
(34:03):
CEO and leader behind the brand and what'syour brand's message and vision Ciao..
If you're hearing this message, that meansyou made it to the end of this episode.
Yay.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode and thoughtto yourself, whoa, it to me, I'd love
if you could share this with others.
Post about it on social mediaand or leave a rating and review.
(34:26):
Don't forget to subscribe to.
Wanna hang out with me inother areas of the internet?
You can follow me on Instagram at@CassandraTLe for brand message and
content marketing tips and resources.
Check out my business@TheQuirkyPineappleStudio.
Thanks again and seeyou in the next episode.
Stay fierce fam.
And in my personal opinion that nobodyasked for, but this is my podcast,
so you're gonna get it, is that ifyou are believing that you are the
niche / brand, it is toxic as fuck.
It is so fucking toxic.
And let me tell you why.
Hello?
Hello everyone.
I'm Cassandra Le, and you'relistening to, I'm Lost, so what?
(00:21):
The podcast exploring betweenbelonging and carving your own path
for all the peeps out there who kindof know what you're doing, but still
question what the fuck is going on?
Yeah, I'm with you.
Welcome, welcome and hello.
Hello to I'm Lost.
So what?
In this episode we aretalking all about you're, the
(00:42):
brand / niche is toxic as fuck.
So in today's episode, I amtotally putting on my sassy hat and
introducing you to my very, very pettyand alter ego named Sassy Cassie.
Sassy cassie comes out whenever I've hadone too many drinks or when I'm honestly
(01:04):
just either feeling extremely petty or I'mjust extremely just done with your shit.
So today's episode, I wanted to diveinto something that is quite niche and
is really for people who are exploringpersonal brands, thought leadership,
or people who want to be creators.
(01:26):
So if you are one of those, or if youare interested and curious about these
things or work in this field, or you wantto learn more, this episode is for you.
This is also for you if you are asmall business owner and you feel
like you need to grow your personalbrand or thought leadership, or you're
wondering, uh, do I need to turn intoa creator to show up on social media?
(01:49):
So this entire episode is really for you.
We're just gonna dive intoit because there is a.
a lot to go through and yes,it is going to get sassy.
You are going to get a fuck ton of myopinions and I know this is a podcast,
but if you don't agree with my opinions,send me a message and let me know why.
(02:10):
I love talking about this.
I love learning and seeing whatother people's perspectives are.
So onto the topic at hand.
So currently there's a lot of talkabout nicheing or building your brand
around you to grow and get visibility.
I've been seeing this a lot moreon TikTok and I've also been seeing
this a lot more on Instagram.
(02:31):
I think with the new wave of creatorsand more people wanting to become a
creator or have a personal brand andthey're seeing the opportunities around
it, this idea of nicheing down orbuilding your brand around you has got
like, really gotten a lot of traction.
This is something that I've been.
I mean, in the world of personal branding,I've been working in this for over 10
(02:54):
years really and kind of like seeinghow this industry has grown and evolved.
So this concept is not necessarily new,but I do think with this new wave of,
you know, people becoming creators, it'sdefinitely taken on a different spin.
So I wanna reference a couplethings here and a couple of people.
Uh, the first person is Vanessa Lau,who is a creator and entrepreneur,
(03:15):
who is a business coach.
She shared in one of hernewest videos called 5 Biggest
Social Media Trends in 2023.
In this video, she talked about howthere is a anti -niche trend going
around thanks to TikTok, if you wantto watch that video, I've linked
it in the show notes, but yeah.
(03:37):
Go there because I'm not gonna likefully explain what she said, but she does
talk about this concept of not havinga niche because TikTok is not niche.
Then one of my other friends, GeorgiaSmith-Marr, hey Georgia, who is also the
podcast editor for, I'm Lost, so what?
She shared a TikTok with me wherea creator was saying that to
build a personal brand and getvisibility, we don't pick a niche.
(04:00):
We are the niche and I've gotthoughts about that I will share
next, but I have another examplescrolling through Instagram stories.
The other day I saw a personal brandand coach share in their stories that
if you want to build a personal brandand get more visibility, connect
more with people, show up authentic.
All of that stuff, then we haveto think that we are the brand.
(04:21):
And before diving into all of my opinionsand getting Sassy Cassie out here, I wanna
say that there's nothing really wrong withthis advice and strategy because, It does
work like the way that social media andcontent is moving in the world right now.
People are less niche.
They don't necessarily have a niche.
(04:42):
We are showing up more all aroundmulti-layered humans, and we're able
to show up and share all parts of ourpersonalities and lives outside of the
things that we do for work or what we dofor our business and all of that stuff.
So I think that's really awesome.
I think the fact that, you know, theway social media moving is moving
now we have the opportunity toshow up as our full selves and more
(05:04):
people want to see our full selves.
They don't wanna just seethis like version of us that
we've curated on social.
Also, another thing is thatconsumers are becoming smarter.
So if you are a consumer, and weall are, if you're the person that
scrolls on social media, if you'rethe person that gets targeted for
ads, then you are the consumer.
I am also a consumer, but consumers arebecoming smarter to marketing tactics.
(05:26):
And they don't want tojust consume one thing.
People are looking for connectionand they're looking for connection
with other people more personally,especially in the realm of creators
and personal brands and like thoughtleadership and all of that stuff.
I think also with brands in general, like.
Literal actual businesses, peopleare looking to connect with brands,
people, business entities that aremore human like, we don't want to
(05:51):
just consume for, um, a businessthat is just here for profits.
Like the world is changing.
And we want to find businesses andbrands that have a social impact
mission as part of their business.
And because of this, and becauseconsumers are becoming smarter, it gives
us thought leaders, and personal brandsand creators, I think a really great
(06:11):
opportunity to share in a more free way.
Like we don't have to feel so boxed up.
We don't have to feel like, oh, Ican't share outside of my niche, oh,
I can't share like my personal lifebecause people won't find it useful
or they won't find it interesting,but actually, In reality, more people
want that stuff and I don't thinkthat there's anything wrong with that.
(06:32):
I think it's just human nature.
I think it's just the way that ourcurrent sociopolitical economic
society is growing and changing.
And I say I'm all for it becausethis idea of, you know, showing up
professionally on social media orshowing up and only doing one thing,
all of that stuff, like we're not.
(06:52):
Like we are full humans.
And I think after, you know, threeyears of a pandemic, more people are
realizing that there are layers toour humanness and we can show up.
It's not like, oh, you're lessprofessional, or you can't
be taken seriously if youshow up in a more human way.
So I will say like, I dothink that this is a great
(07:13):
opportunity to be able to share.
But I want to kind of think aboutit in a way that is more critical
thinking, adding a critical thinkinglayer to it in a different perspective.
And this is what I consider to bemore of a culturally competent and
anti-capitalist perspective actually.
So before we get into all of that,I wanna share a personal story
(07:34):
because like this is something thatI actually went through, maybe, mm.
Three or four years ago with my ownbusiness, The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
So before there was this brandthat is Cassandra Le, it first
started off as The Quirky PineappleStudio, which is my business, and
(07:55):
I was The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
So I was literally what I consider tobe the human embodiment of the brand.
All of my social channels were TheQuirky Pineapple Studio related.
Everything that I did wasquirky Pineapple Studio related.
How I showed up online wasQuirky Pineapple Studio related.
I was the human representation of TheQuirky Pineapple Studio, and it worked
(08:19):
because I was able to grow the brand.
I was able to grow the business,and I was able to make some
really awesome connections.
What happened though, was that I realizedthat it was limiting me personally because
with The Quirky Pineapple Studio, allI really wanted to talk about was brand
messaging, copywriting, and contentmarketing, and that was the goal,
(08:43):
because I wanted to sell my services.
But I wasn't really able totalk about other things, and I
felt stifled in my own brand.
So when I felt stifled in my own brand,this is when I started thinking, okay, let
me pull in more of the personal stories.
Let me be more of this niche.
This is what people are saying now,you know you like you are the niche.
(09:03):
And so I started pulling in more personalstories and more things about my life
sharing, about being location independent,sharing about travel, sharing about
my relationship, sharing about lotsof other things that were not related
to the business and the services thatwe offer, which is brand messaging,
copywriting and content marketing.
And like I said, it.
(09:24):
It worked.
It really resonated withpeople, and people were, you
know, connecting with me more.
They were sending me messages.
My Instagram account was growingand people were looking to me
for mentorship, is awesome.
But they also wanted to learn moreabout my personal life, and people
(09:44):
started asking me questions like,how did you meet your partner?
Where did you meet your partner?
How did you get a visa to stay in Spain?
How are you doing location independence?
All of these things.
And I realize that that'snot really my goal.
I don't share about my personallife for you to ask me how
I got a Spanish boyfriend.
I find that to be a littleinvasive, to be honest.
(10:06):
And people have asked me questionslike that, but my goal was to sell
my services because I wanted torun a service-based business.
I didn't necessarily want to teachpeople how to become location
independent or find a foreign partner.
That's not my spiel.
My spiel is brand messaging andcopywriting and content marketing.
(10:29):
And I think the biggest thing thatkind of was the light bulb switch for
me was when I wanted to collaboratewith other brands and other small
business owners, but they fell throughbecause I was the human embodiment.
And the representation of TheQuirky Pineapple Studio and The
Quirky Pineapple Studio was me.
And unfortunately, because I wasthe human embodiment representation
(10:52):
of The Quirky Pineapple Studio,these collaborations didn't work
because our brands didn't match.
And when that happened, I realizedthat I needed to remove myself from The
Quirky Pineapple Studio because I amnot the human version of the business.
And that realization was like ahuge shock to me, mainly because I
was like, wow, I'm not my business.
(11:13):
I am a human and I am a personthat has multicultural layers.
I have lots of layers and I have lotsof interests, and my interests can
change and my personality can change,and things can change in my life, but
the business is going to be more orless constant, and I didn't want to
kind of close myself off to potentialcollaborations with people because I was
(11:37):
the human representation of my business.
I wanted to have like, you know,opportunities for collaboration
with other people who were notnecessarily in brand messaging or
copywriting, content marketing, socialmedia and all of that stuff, but it
could be for lots of other things.
And that's when I realized, okay.
I need to create a personal brandmyself, the Cassandra Le as the founder,
(12:00):
CEO, speaker, writer, and creator, andthat's when I moved everything for The
Quirky Pineapple Studio into not justa separate profile on Instagram, but
a whole like separation of the two.
When I finally kind of positioned myself,if you are imagining this, as more of
(12:24):
like the umbrella, like it's me as theumbrella, and underneath the umbrella
is The Quirky Pineapple Studio, andthat was amazing because it gave me
more freedom to create what I wanted.
It positioned the businessas its own separate entity
and brand, which was awesome.
And it opened up opportunities for meas the CEO and founder of The Quirky
(12:46):
Pineapple Studio to do other things.
For example, like this podcast,this podcast is not necessarily
part of The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
It's in within the same realm as all ofthe other things that I do, but I'm able,
To have other projects and other thingsbecause I've created a personal brand.
So if you're thinking again about likethe umbrella that I mentioned earlier,
(13:09):
again, I am the Cassandra LE brandumbrella, and then underneath the
umbrella is The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
And now, uh, the, I'mlost, so what podcast?
So that's like my personal story and myown journey of separating myself from
The Quirky Pineapple Studio and creatinga personal brand that is, The Quirky
Pineapple Studio, but let's get intowhat is happening with the, you are the
(13:34):
niche / brand now, because I feel likeit's kind of what happened, or kind of
like my personal situation, but then it'sa little bit different because now people
are saying, that if you are building apersonal brand, you are the brand and
you are the niche., Like you can do somany things, and in my personal opinion
(13:55):
that nobody asked for it, but this is mypodcast, so you're gonna get it, is that
if you are believing that you are theniche slash brand, it is toxic as fuck.
It is so fucking toxic.
And let me tell you why.
Capitalism, capitalism, consumerism,privilege, ableism, classism, all
of the isms that you can think of.
(14:16):
That is why you are the niche / brandis toxic because when you position
yourself, these are my opinions,so like if you don't agree,
whatever, but this is what I think.
So really, when you are theniche slash brand you become what
happened to me, the human embodimentof this like entity, right?
And that's great.
(14:37):
But because we live in a capitalistsociety that is extremely consumerist
and there are layers to our privilege,we live in a world that is ableist.
We live in a world where there is economicdisparity between people, classism.
We live in a world that you know favors.
(14:58):
White skinny bodies over fat,disabled black and brown bodies.
That is why it is toxic as fuckif you are the niche / brand.
And what I believe happens when you becomethe niche and brand is a few things.
I've got bullet points here.
Let me read through them first.
We mine our lives for content.
(15:19):
If you are the niche slash brandyou are now basically mining your
for content to see what else youcan share to relate to people.
You're now looking for things that arelike, oh, is this a story I can share?
Oh, is this like apersonal moment in my life?
I can share, oh, is this somethingthat I can like turn into content.
And as creators, as somebody who worksin social media, as somebody who works
(15:43):
with like personal brands and thoughtleaders, yes, we have stories to share
and yes, we wanna do storytelling andyou know, share lifestyle clips and
stuff, but when does it become toxic.
I honestly think when we don't putboundaries around what we actually share
and what we're open to sharing, that'swhen we mine our lives for content.
(16:06):
That's when we're minding ourlives to find certain stories and
experiences and things to put onlineso that more people can consume our
content so that we can sell more.
Something else that is also happeningis, this is something that I was
talking about with my partner and thenalso with Team Quirky's copywriter.
(16:29):
This is a concept I, we didn't reallysay this, but my partner did, and he
was saying, when we become the niche/ brand and we are mining our lives
for content and trying to figure out,okay, can I share this aesthetic photo?
Can I do this?
Can I do that?
What can I share online that, youknow, has me showing up authentically.
(16:54):
We are basically selling privilege.
I'm thinking about all of the aestheticreels and all of the aesthetic
TikToks that I see right now and it'sreally selling privilege because.
You're looking at all of thesethings and you're like, damn, I want
that, or, damn, I don't have that.
(17:17):
And I'm thinking about a, a certainsituation that I went through with
one of our clients in a mastermindprogram that we used to host
called The Use Voice Mastermind.
One of our clients came through becausewe offered scholarship opportunities
and for BIPOC business owners, uh,disabled business owners, queer business
(17:40):
owners, and one of our clients came inand she comes from a low income family.
And I remember when, you know, I wastalking all about like these visibility
strategies and you know, show up oncamera and do more videos and, you
know, show people your life and likewhat you're eating for breakfast.
(18:04):
All of the things that, you know, apersonal branding coach would say.
And she totally like blew my mindbecause she told me, what if I
live in a low income household?
What if I don't have the beautiful whitewalls and like the crisp light coming
through and beautiful glasses and likea matcha to share on Instagram stories?
(18:28):
What if I'm sharing a space with,you know, seven different people
and I live in a multi-generationalhome and all of these things, like,
it's not aesthetically pleasing.
It's not, you know, beautifulto consume on social media.
What do I do then?
And this is the concept of, youknow, we are selling privilege.
(18:51):
And I'm not saying, you know, like,don't share these things because I, I'm
not like the Instagram content policethat tell you don't do these things.
But I do think maybe think about thesethings before we share because like, what
is the goal at the end of the day, right?
Like, is it to get more views or, youknow, get more deals or whatever else.
(19:13):
Is it really to inspire people?
Is it to like influence something,share impact, whatever that reason is?
I, I, I don't know.
I'm not gonna tell you it's a rightor wrong reason, but I do think, okay,
I need to come in with this lens ofwhat is my content really sharing?
(19:36):
And it's not just, oh, I'msharing my coffee today.
It could be totally something else.
What is the lifestyle and the, notthe aesthetic, but like what is,
what is the impact of the contentand am I mining my life for content
and am I also selling my privilege.
(19:58):
Those are two big ones.
Uh, the other thing is when youare the niche / brand, this is
similar to what happened with meand The Quirky Pineapple Studio.
We cannot remove ourselves from thebusiness because we are the business.
If you are the niche / brand, Youwill always be the niche / brand.
(20:19):
How will you remove yourself fromthe business if you potentially
want to sell your business one day?
If you want to bring in partners,if you want to get investors, if
you want to do whatever it is, howwill you remove yourself from the
business if you are the niche / brand?
And that then also brings me to my otherpoint, which is the business becomes
reliant on if we are the niche / brandto always be present because the business
(20:44):
will always run through our brain.
Sounds amazing.
Sounds like wow.
So many opportunities.
This is awesome.
So much inspiration, butit isn't sustainable.
Not really because thereis no room for rest.
And I remember in the TikTok thatI mentioned in the beginning of
this episode that Georgia sent tome, this creator was saying, oh
(21:07):
yeah, this is way more sustainable.
It like, you know, is moreauthentic and all that stuff.
But really if you think about it,it's not sustainable because if
you are the niche slash brand,you will never be able to stop.
Because you will always like yourbusiness and your brand will always
be relying on you, and that doesn'tgive us room for rest, and that
(21:29):
doesn't give us like the sustainablesystems that we need to support this.
The other thing is that I think itcreates, you know, this expectation
of aesthetically pleasing things.
This is similar to selling privilegeand I think lifestyle market is
something that really plays on privilege.
(21:51):
Uh, I can't go into lifestylemarketing in this episode.
I think that I'll have to like gointo that in a different episode.
But lifestyle marketing is basicallytrying to sell you a lifestyle, and it's
a lifestyle that you aspire to have.
It's a lifestyle that you know,really feels grand and amazing.
And that is inherently capitalistand classist because it doesn't
(22:13):
take into account privilege.
And when you're selling this likeaesthetically pleasing lifestyle and
you know, this whole thing, we, wedon't have the opportunity to kind of
pause and say, oh, is this possible?
Do the systems that we havesupport to this, and most of the.
(22:34):
, they don't because we live still in acapitalist, racist, sexist, ableist world.
, unfortunately, and I thinksocial media heightens that.
And the other two, the last two pointsthat I want to share about what happens,
in my opinion when you become the niche/ brand, is that the first one is it gets
(22:55):
confusing because we are now thinkingthat we are the brand and business.
Which is similar to what I wassaying before about like the
business becomes reliant on us.
And really we are not the brandedslash business because we are the
human behind it, and we need rest.
We need to exist without consumption andwithout capitalizing on all the things.
(23:16):
Because when we start capitalizingon all the things, when we start,
you know, just mining our livesfor content and figuring out, okay,
what else do people want to see.
Who do we become?
We basically exist for consumption,and that is not healthy.
That is not sustainable.
That is not okay because we're humans.
(23:39):
We're not necessarily supposedto exist for consumption.
We're, we're here to exist tolike bring art, creativity,
joy, love, laughter into the.
Not for somebody else to consume.
And the last one is that if you planon, you know, selling your business
or you know, at least just removingyourself from your business in some
(24:00):
sort of way, it's really hard to dothat if you are the niche slash brand.
Like if you want to scale, if youwant to rebrand, how can you do
that if everything is reliant on.
So if you're listening to thisand you're like, oh my goodness.
There are a few things that I, Iwant all of us to think about when
we are approaching personal brandingor thought leadership or you know, if
(24:23):
you're thinking, oh, am I the niche?
Am I the brand?
Uh, and I have five questions for you.
I always have lots of questions to share.
And the first one is, what is thebusiness entity and the thing that
does the service or sells the products,because that's technically the business.
For example, the quirky Pineapple Studiois the business because The Quirky
(24:45):
Pineapple Studio sells the services.
Yes, there are people behind it todo the work, but that's the thing.
That's the service.
It's not technically me.
The second question, what isyour role as the CEO, thought
leader and personal brand?
Because your role is really different.
It's not necessarily alwaysgoing to be in the business.
(25:07):
Now we're getting intolike business strategy.
Your role as a CEO isa little bit different.
Your role is to make surethat the business works.
Your role is to grow.
Or not, or to maintain, whatever that is.
The third question, what is yourbigger vision with the business?
The entity that carries outthe work, because that's gonna
(25:28):
be a little bit different.
The vision that I have with The QuirkyPineapple Studio is really different
than the vision I have of who Iam, how I show up, what my message
is as a personal brand or the CEO.
The vision I have with the businessis that, you know, we are stable.
We are sustainable.
We're able to pay people well and growan awesome team and do awesome work.
(25:55):
. The vision that I have with mypersonal brand is that I'm able
to write a book, host a TV show,continue with this podcast.
Who knows?
But my bigger vision with the business,the entity that carries out the work
is really different than my biggervision as the personal brand, the person
leading the vision of the business.
(26:16):
And that is the fourth question.
What is your bigger vision withthe personal brand as a person
leading the vision of the business?
And the last question is, areyou mining your life for profit
slash content or is there a story/ message to share with the world?
Can't tell you if your answeris right or wrong, but it's
(26:39):
something to definitely consider.
So if you wanna answer those questions,if you wanna journal on them.
Awesome.
Let me read them one more time.
The first one is, what is the business,the entity that is actually doing
the services or selling the products?
Number two, what is your role as theceo, thought leader and personal brand?
(27:00):
Number three, what is yourbigger vision with the business?
The entity that carries out the.
What is your bigger vision withyour personal brand, the person
leading the vision of the business?
And number five, are you minding yourlife for profit / content or is there a
story / message to share with the world?
(27:20):
Now after all this, here are my 2 centson personal branding as the business brand
and vice versa are the niche / brand.
Personally, I would say you are notthe niche / brand because I still
think that that's toxic as fuck.
I think there is one (27:38):
is the business which has economic goals
and needs, and it carries out theservices or sells the products.
It is the physical.
Entity.
And then there's another thing,which is the personal brand.
This is the person whohas a vision and goal.
The economic goals and needs arerelated to not just like business
(28:02):
things, but it's related to living life.
It's not related to operationaland logistic maintenance
that goes with a business.
It's related to, Hey, Iwant to invest in hobbies.
I want to take a vacation.
I want to redo or renovatemy kitchen in my house.
Those are personal goals andthings, not business things.
(28:27):
And the other part of the 2 cents.
So maybe that was like now 6 cents.
I don't know, 8 centsof my personal opinions.
In a capitalist society, it's reallynormal to want to think that you are
the brand slash niche because in acapitalist society basically, our worth
is tied to productivity, and our valueis also tied to productivity, what we
(28:53):
can give to the world, but what doesthat do to how we view ourselves?
If we are the brand slash niche in acapitalist society, what does that say
about our association to our worthand our value if we're not producing
(29:14):
and creating something for consumption?
Because if we're the brand/ niche, we're always producing
something for consumption.
And if we don't produce for consumption,we aren't valuable to society.
We aren't worth something to society.
And that really fucks with your head whenyou think that you're the brand / niche
(29:38):
because you're always thinking that youhave to do something, when you don't.
You could be like chilling, resting,eating, sleeping, creating for fun, doing
horrible art, making an ugly sweaterbecause you don't really know how to knit.
That is a personal experience story.
(30:00):
Something like that.
In a capitalist society, if we are alwaysthe brand slash niche, everything that
we do will be tied to our value or worth,and that really messes with your head.
So my recommendation, if you'rethinking about personal brand,
(30:21):
business brand, thought leadership,creator, all of those stuff have both.
If you want to, you don't have tolike, this is my recommendation
that nobody asked for.
But I think having both makessense because a personal brand
is centered around you as theleader, the creator, and visionary.
Somebody who has a very specificmessage to share with the world.
(30:42):
A business or community brand is theentity that actually carries out all of
these awesome things that you want to be.
You can remove yourself from the business.
You can have this like greater vision andthen, the business or community brand is
the thing that actually carries it out.
And next thing is, when do youbuild and actually grow your
(31:06):
business or your personal brand?
Like what comes first?
The personal brand or the business brand.
Or the business brand, orthe personal brand, and.
I honestly don't think I have like themost correct answer, but I will say I
think you have to do it at the same time.
Is it sustainable?
It's pretty hard, but I really thinkhaving both kind of allows you to separate
(31:26):
like so many different aspects of personalbrand and business brand and it helps
you create almost like, boundaries foryourself in your head, or literally on
Google Docs or however you plan yourcontent, or just like your vision,
mission, message, all of that stuff.
When you have both, you can say,okay, this goes to the personal
(31:47):
brand because this is me.
I'm the leader, I'm the CEO.
I'm the person who is bringing thismessage or wanting to share this
message, and the business brand isthe one that is carrying it out.
The business brand is theone that gets to do the.
You get to rest, thebusiness gets to work.
That's what it is.
That's what I recommend.
(32:08):
Having both and buildingthem at the same time.
Is it difficult?
Yes.
It kind of gets confusing sometimes.
Has it helped me separate myself fromthe business and not work so much?
Also yes.
Has it also given me opportunitiesto explore other things?
Yes.
Has it also helped me to not mind my lifefor content and also create boundaries
around what I am comfortable sharing?
(32:29):
Yes.
So this was, um, a lot of things.
I feel like there's just somuch to go into with like this.
Are you the niche / brand?
And I really do think that if there aremore people who are able to have both
and business and personal, it createsmore opportunities to do other stuff.
(32:51):
It doesn't tie you to one thing, andit also doesn't make you believe that
you are the person that needs to bedoing, doing, doing, doing, doing.
You're actually able to rest.
You're actually able to.
kind of separate yourself and likeuntie yourself from capitalist
standards, which I think is awesome.
So my ending question for you,I have two questions of course,
(33:17):
is what's your message as theCEO and leader behind the brand?
And the second question is, what'syour brand's message and vision?
Let me repeat that.
What's your message as the CEO andleader behind the brand and what's
your brand's message and vision?
(33:37):
Let me know.
Send me a message on Instagram@CassandraTLe and let's talk about it.
Also, if you like, totally disagree withthis, let's also talk about it because I
would love to know why you believe other.
This is an open conversation.
I am not the know all, be all.
All right to y'all.
I will see you in the next episode andyeah, let me know what's your message as a
(34:03):
CEO and leader behind the brand and what'syour brand's message and vision Ciao..
If you're hearing this message, that meansyou made it to the end of this episode.
Yay.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode and thoughtto yourself, whoa, it to me, I'd love
if you could share this with others.
Post about it on social mediaand or leave a rating and review.
(34:26):
Don't forget to subscribe to.
Wanna hang out with me inother areas of the internet?
You can follow me on Instagram at@CassandraTLe for brand message and
content marketing tips and resources.
Check out my business@TheQuirkyPineappleStudio.
Thanks again and seeyou in the next episode.
Stay fierce fam.
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