Igniting Passion with Next-Level Branding
Have you ever wondered how a brand becomes more than just a logo? Spoiler alert: it's an inside job, and we're revealing the blueprint! Join us from the virtual Lemonade Stand as we unravel the power of internal branding, where your team's environment becomes a living, breathing extension of your brand's heartbeat.
0:08 - Internal Branding
6:25 - Building a Strong Identity
13:13 - Piecing Together Your Elements
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We’ll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Speaker 1: 0:08
What’s up, Lemon Heads? Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Emily and I'm Crystal, and we are going to embark on a little series of next level branding how to take your brand to the next level and so today we're going to specifically focus on your internal branding and utilizing that with your team.
Speaker 2: 0:25
Right. So lots of ways to take your brand to the next level. But, personally, like, we've gone through some internal things for several of our clients and we really wanted to share about those today. So let's zip some lemonade, let's do it All right. So when we talk internal marketing, it's always one of those things like oh, here we go again. We're. Crystal and Emily are asking us to spend money. We are, but it's one of the best places to spend money. That I also think is a little underrated. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 1: 0:54
You know, the last forgotten piece of your own team and getting their buy-in and on board, like making them become your advocates and believing in the mission of vision and values. And if they're not doing it, then no one else will.
Speaker 2: 1:07
Yeah, and you know, like when you're, when you want to learn a foreign language, they say the best way to do that is to immerse yourself in the language, like abroad programs and things like that. So it's the same situation. Whether you are in a tiny office, a warehouse, it doesn't matter. You need your team members and even yourself to be surrounded with who you are as people Sure. Sure. So even like living seat office, hardly any of our clients come to our office on a consistent basis. Yeah, very rarely. During our conference they might come in and see it, or if they happen to be driving through this area or something. But we, we are decked out in there.
Speaker 1: 1:41
Sure, like we spent a lot of time and energy and effort into how do we make our office where we actually come to work every day, how do we make that a creative space, a collaborative space, but where we can still work really hard. But it looks very much like the lemon seed office. Like you walk in there like, oh yeah, I can definitely tell this lemon seed, just with how we decorated it, the signage that we put up, the things we want to be constantly reiterating. It very much feels like a part of us. If we were to drastically move and just go work, I would be like this isn't right. Yeah, we're missing something.
Speaker 2: 2:14
Yeah, and people come in and like, oh my gosh, this looks so fun and it is fun. It is fun. But we, we used a lot of thinking and I say we Emily really is the creative mind behind those things so we collaborated together like, what do we want our team to know and feel and do? An experience, and then you know you have to bring them to life. So, again, to take your brand to the next level, what are some things that we can do to constantly expose our own team? And so one of those things that I think is a great place to start is the mission, vision and core values. So a lot of you get sick of hearing that, but we had to stop a year ago, a little bit more than a year ago now, and like, define those things for lemon seed, because not mainly really need to practice what we preach here. So we sat down and and created what we feel like are is a really good mission, vision and core value court list of core values. So, but the best thing I think we did is number one. We related those to our brand of who we are. So like our core values are zesty it's an acronym for zesty, yeah, so that was so we had to change a little bit of the words. About the end of the day, it was the same meaning that we were getting across.
Speaker 1: 3:19
Yeah, and then one thing that I love because, like, mission, vision and values can often just take a backseat, like I mean, like that doesn't affect my day to day doing of anything. Like I'll get to it, I'll get to it. But in reality, like we had this come up where we were having to have a hard conversation with an employee and one of the biggest talking points was like hey, you are not being a servant minded advocate that is the S of our zesty acronym is a servant minded advocate and it really gave us some ground to stand on in what could be just kind of like a wish you wash. You. Like it wasn't a complete performance thing, like yes, she was still getting her tasks done on on time and still meeting deadlines for these things. It was like, hey, but your attitude and how you work with the other teammates isn't part of our core values, and so it gave us a leg to stand on. It kind of hit home with her like, hey, this is how we're going to do business. Yeah, because we are limited, this is what's important.
Speaker 2: 4:09
You know you say like, oh, those people just don't fit your culture. Well, what is your culture? So, basically, your mission, vision and core values is going to kind of set the tone for that. So, servant hearted, servant minded advocates advocates is a is a good representation. Like I have always in the when I met Emily, she's very, very similar in this we, we wake up every day like looking to serve, not just ourselves, of course, but our husbands, our kids. But we're trying to serve our employees and we're trying to serve our team members at the same time. So we fully expect our own team to be serve at minded, meaning your job is to serve. So if you have a problem Literally serving people, meaning like you at you do what they ask you to do, for the most part within reason, then this is not going to be for you. If you want to bark orders or you want to be this big Delegator, then this is just not going to be the place for you, because we're a collaborative and More servant-minded place. So that was a really good example and you know, I feel like the reason that it takes it next level. What I would consider next level is people say, oh my gosh, we love everyone from your team. Well, number one, we are selective about who goes out in the community. Yeah, we're selective about who we take to shows. Not that, I'll be honest, anyone from our team could go to any shows. I'll be. I would say that all day long. I think the goal here, though, is we've identified like who embodies the spirit of who lemon seed is, and we work hard at that, and even even identifying things like yellow right. So if you walk into the lemon seed office, there is no. Does that no doubt in your mind that yellow is our predominant color, and when we go to shows, yellow is our predominant color, and so we talk a lot about.
Speaker 1: 5:50
Yellow and sometimes, like we can get so like gosh another, I have to buy another yellow shirt or something like some, as we're so Inundated in it that we're like, ah, let's do something different, but in reality, like that is a signature thing, like if we're not wearing yellow to show like people are upset like where's your yellow?
Speaker 2: 6:05
Are you not on the team? You're on a team player and I'm like, if y'all any new? Yeah, how hard, it is fun.
Speaker 1: 6:10
But like when you can kind of find that signature. So like we just had to teach ourselves like, embrace it, like, so we don't wear yellow, like we're not at a show, that often we save it, probably the show times and stuff.
Speaker 2: 6:18
Yeah it is it. You are gonna have a hard time catching me in the yellow shirt here because they are saved for travel, but the mission, vision and core values. What I like to encourage contractors here is look at your brand. So if you've had this really cool brand created, how can you now push that over into your mission, your vision and your core values and have it reiterate and play into the same brand? Get some posters. We have actual nice like. What is the material of our signs? Pvc, half-inch PVC. So it's, it stands off the wall, it's very, it's very, it looks very durable signage.
Speaker 1: 6:49
It is very durable signage, but it looks really good.
Speaker 2: 6:51
It helps when you're married to a signage guy, yeah, but we have some good signage up in there, but you don't have to go that elaborate like you literally could get just a poster print of it. You could get an 8 by 10 of it. I mean something to get it posted so that your company, your team members, are constantly exposed to those things. So we have a roofing client that's local to us, that's a newer client on our team, but she isn't in our town, and so I Went to Emily because I work on this account personally and I went to Emily was like we really need to do something cool on this wall, and so what did you come up with?
Speaker 1: 7:25
Well, I was like, why are we not putting roofing shingles on this wall? And they're like what we never thought about. That. I'm a smart, emily, I'm like to me. That's like the easiest thing, but like one, it provided some like actual texture, so it makes that wall like visually interesting. It is their actual product and it's just like Reinforcing what they do in a creative way. So, yeah, we had them shingle the whole wall and then we put some cool PVC signage on top of it, like it kind of stands off the the texture and stuff. But we made those signs out of their core values, which was an acronym for shells, so they have an, an armadillo, as their mascot and so they are known for their hard, sturdy shells of protection, and so that's where we built our acronym around on there and it's so. It's very unique and when people come into there it's like it's a talking point right off the bat and it just gives them something of how they can connect to Eminem roofing, like why they are choosing them over any other roofing company.
Speaker 2: 8:18
You know, she's a fairly young company. She acquired the company and, like when we got, when I got the company, it was just very, it was very simplistic, just like you would think, just like HVAC and plumbing companies. You know, somebody's dad said oh, you know what'll work, eminem, my name is my, your name is Michael, let's be Eminem roofing, you know. And so we kind of took that, took that challenge in, rebranded them, created Rufus the Armadillo and she went all in Now she has been invested in this and I say this what? you are going to laugh at this, like she, my favorite type of client, because she don't really question Crystal.
Speaker 1: 8:53
She did not. No, and that was what I think, what one thing that made it so successful. She's like y'all say, to do this, I'm doing that.
Speaker 2: 8:58
Yes. So I'm like, hey, we need to get a mascot. It's going to be, you know, $6,000 done. And I'm like, what do you think about Rufus? Love it. So you know, it was just very creative. And she's she knows that she's front loading her investment, sure. And then we're slowly but surely, even now we're kind of dialing back some of our things, but we're all about building collateral. Other collateral pieces which is going to be another one of the series is that we're going to offer in one of the episodes in this series that we're talking about now is going to be around collateral. But so we did that. And then, you know, I said, hey, you know, what's really important is that we start building your mission, your vision and core values. And so I kind of interviewed her and then we sit down and wrote those things. And so when she was trying to design this office, we were like, you know, you need to put this up in front, and her team was so excited to work on that.
Speaker 1: 9:44
Yeah.
Speaker 2: 9:45
And I use acronyms a lot so that I can memorize and so she used that same concept and so it was really cool place. But she also went ahead and posted her mission and her vision on the wall in the, in the main area of her, of her office. I've also been to several shop tours. Those of you that tour a lot of shops where they have just like banners hanging up in the warehouse that say, like the best team in East Texas, right, the best comfort advisors in Louisiana, you know. So what could you do to really like accessorize?
Speaker 1: 10:19
I know that sounds so corny but, sure, well, like you want people to be proud to come to your office and excited to come to work there and stuff, and so I think just kind of like touting how great you actually are and again this is us suggesting that you spend more money but like having actual swag items that have your company. You know what you guys are proud of. Like your team will become proud to wear those apparel items, to take that cup and stuff. And then like giving them access to get it where their kids can wear a limincy shirt. Their kids could wear an Eminem roofing shirt and, like you know, when they go to school they have some pride to like. My mom works at Eminem roofing. You know like when, when you can give them the resources and allow them to show that progress, like we don't need no shirts, we ain't wasting money on that. Or yeah, contractors will be like they don't need no shirts, they don't need no hats, they don't need keychain and stickers Like again, all that is fluffy, if you will, I'm doing fluffy air quotes, um, but they're little kind of intangible things that you're not going to see a direct ROI from, but it does help build up the morale and the culture and the spirit of the company.
Speaker 2: 11:22
Yeah, the buy-in. Yeah, you know. So you know, um, we use a certain company, Sticker Mule, and when you get products from Sticker Mule, there's going to be two things in that box A big old picture of a donkey and a what A jar of hot sauce.
Speaker 1: 11:36
Jar of hot sauce.
Speaker 2: 11:37
They're meal sauce. 1000, we have 1000 of them, yes, but it's it's kind of a thing, it's like who they are and uh, you know they, they could look at cost cutting and be like you know, what we're going to stop doing is sending out the hot sauce. You know what they would probably get the most feedback around Where's the hot sauce, where's my hot sauce? And so I, just when you take your brand let's say you have a dog right as a mascot or some sort of inclusion in your office why do you not have, you know, access, um, accessibility to like, uh, to dog treats, or like, hey, take home dog treats. Or let everybody have a big board where there's pictures of all of their dogs. And hey, we know you had a rough summer, you know I mean uh, but all of that corny stuff. Let them participate in giving back to animal shelters, like your company taken afternoon where y'all go and play with the dogs at the animal shelter. That's how you expand your brand and that's how you get buy in from your existing team members, because there's nothing harder than to sell your own team on who you are. And uh, we were kind of laughing about this earlier because we were trying we always try to get better. So we were looking through some things and and, um, you know, when you, when you brand yourself something that isn't your true self, it's hard because really you're telling somebody else's made up story, yeah, and I'm not saying now listen, let me say I'm not saying that you can't add a little fluff to your existing story.
Speaker 1: 12:58
There's fictional stories. Yeah, the whole segment in the library.
Speaker 2: 13:01
Yeah, there's ways to get you there, but what's really more impactful is really discovering something in your life as an owner that you can't add a little fluff to your existing story Helps tell a story. So you know even things like I was thinking the other day, like even like where your grandparents are from, you know. So is that a play or an animal that you had growing up, or Something that your dad did or said? And there's lots of things like, honestly, when anybody says, well, my grandpa started the business, I start off. Did he wear anything special? Did he say anything special? Did he have a pocket watch, a handkerchief, a conductor's hat? Did he drive a train? Like what all did he do? Did he fly planes that he fixed cars? What? Because all of that information Really helps you build out your true authentic story. Versus you calling me and I say and you know what you need to do, you need to do a polar bear. I know you don't have a freaking clue about a polar bear, but you should do a polar bear and we're gonna make it. This whole fictional story, will it work? It will. It will probably work fine, but it's not a true, authentic story.
Speaker 1: 14:00
So you kind of have to and you're probably gonna have a little bit harder buy in on. Yeah, where did this come from? What?
Speaker 2: 14:05
the heck is this polar bear? Yeah, you know. But when we introduced, like sailor Mack from McWilliams, it was like hey, all of you know Mac, right, my grandfather like oh yeah, well, this is, oh my gosh, I love it, you know, and just Automatically the buy-in is better. So I encourage you guys to look into that and then incorporate him. So you know another. Another thing that I think through here is like even uniforms and things like that. So if you have a really upscale looking brand, I would assume that you're gonna look upscale when you get out of the van, sure do not be wearing shorts, just a t-shirt like.
Speaker 1: 14:40
Have them wearing like a Actual, some type of button-up or a polo or something which I find it funny.
Speaker 2: 14:45
Emily said shorts. So I there was a contractor and I cannot remember exactly who it is. I want to say they were in Florida and their uniform is shorts and Everybody at this show I was that was like there's no way I would let my guys wear shorts. Well, the name of his company was kind of like Relax AC or something like that. So he was like it's kind of part of who we are. So, you know, my branding man was like oh, I kind of get it, but my safety man was like y'all trying to get burned up and on the job injury. So no, thank you.
Speaker 1: 15:11
You're right if it could be a part of your brand story, like I'm actually thinking we're doing one. That's kind of a they want to, kind of Hawaiian vibe, and I'm like that actually would be kind of fun, like they were in some like Hawaiian, almost like surf shorts or shorts. Yeah, board shorts as their actual uniform, so shorts might.
Speaker 2: 15:25
Just let them come to work in flip-flops and lays like.
Speaker 1: 15:28
Visors, but then also like if you're trying to be relaxed, as you're, you know, heating, an air-condition coming, don't be all stiff and stuffy like in your uniforms and you know in your overall vibe and how you talk to people on the phone like it may not have to be like the most exact Professional regimented robot voice, but it'd be like a little bit like Aloha, you know a little bit more friendly.
Speaker 2: 15:50
Yeah, I mean. So let's talk about that. So what you might do is, when you launch your new brand let's say it's called Aloha, heating and air-conditioning, what's that is, I think, the name of some companies. You know, maybe everybody gets a Hawaiian shirt and maybe everybody gets a lay the day you announced it, like everybody's getting these really beautiful Lay's, and you figure out, like you've got Tiki music playing in the background, like you really run, run to the brand, sure, run into the brand, so that the team is automatically, you know, buying into that. And then you tell the story like my husband and I got married in Hawaii or it was our favorite place to vacation as children. I mean, you know it sounds like you had a bougie childhood, but that's fine, but you know.
Speaker 1: 16:32
Well, I mean my family. We vacationed in Hawaii, but because my grandmother was from there, you know.
Speaker 2: 16:37
I see it's else.
Speaker 1: 16:37
She has Hawaiian art like in her house and stuff like that's something that's very important to her. When we had her 75th birthday party, we brought in Hawaiian food, you know, because that that was her favorite.
Speaker 2: 16:47
So you know, basically mayonnaise and spam but well, I mean to each their own. No, no hard feelings there, the Hawaiians that are listening to your spam and mayonnaise, but you know, again, it goes to the fact of, like, you set the tone, Sure, so when we talk about next level branding, it will be. It kind of separates the men from the boys, right? So the real, the real people that are buying into a brand are going to make sure that their team is on board first, through doing these extra little things and it's and it's more than just saying here's our new look and feel, yeah, investing in those shock, like the wow factor and the buy-in factor and launch parties and things like that. I just think there is so much power to those. And then, and then also like, even like an employee portals or like an area where they get all their information. I would name it something like the Aloha Station or, you know, sailor Mac Communication Center, like somewhere where you're going to put all their information, whether it's a digital portal or a what do you call it? A corkboard type thing. You know owning those locations.
Speaker 1: 17:58
Well, and I think the main thing here is, you just have to be very intentional to define it, to define what your brand is, to define what your culture is, because if you're not, they will, your employees will. They are setting a tone, they are setting a culture, they are setting a brand, whether how good it is or not. That is run a muck, if you will, or that has no strategy and consistency and anything. So you have to be the one to define it. If you're not defining it, something or someone else, is yeah.
Speaker 2: 18:28
one one-star review or they try to rip you apart will define it for your chain. So that's the internal things. The last internal thing that I'm going to visit on a little bit about your brand is and I see people's struggling with this right now is like buying into your offers, going into the thing. So some of you don't do offers. That's fine, but a lot of you are like man I, you know I really need to do something unique and stand out, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, what that's going to be about is that's going to be where you end up telling everyone on your team like hey, for Q1, we're giving away, you know, ring doorbell sets, and each of you, after you sell five systems, you get your own ring doorbell set right, like getting people in. But then what? How does that reflect back to your brand? and who you are and what your specials are and social media and things like that, and so, again, to take your marketing next level and your branding fully next level, I really feel like internal is a really good place to start. So I want you to stop and I just want you to look at your company Visually is your office space your trucks? Is the inside of the fans, is the break room, warehouse, whatever your facilities look like, do they match your brand and if they don't, what are some cost-effective ways to start introducing the brand into those locations?
Speaker 1: 19:47
I mean, another easy one is just like you know we all have like employee of the month or you know some things like that, but like you could even like name, you know awards that you give out in your company, or what do you call your review? So like we had a client does kind of exploring like a musical theme and brand and so like we want to call their reviews like they're standing ovations. And you know, here at Limitsy we wanted to get some client testimonials. So like you know Rachel here, though she's like what if we named it zestimonials? it's like yes yes, but you know, maybe if you have like in your character he's, he has a waving hand in your branding or something like. Maybe you call those your high fives or something.
Speaker 2: 20:25
So so if you even could do that, like with naming your own team like the comfort crew or the the blue crew yes, I mean all those things, guys, what we're trying to get you to understand is like some of this costs zero dollars, sure, sure, some of this cost is a more investment signage, wall wrap, things like that's more of an investment. But honestly, at the end of the day, it's about the intentionality behind it. It's about making sure that your team really buys in. So if you're not bought into your brand, that's where you got to start.
Speaker 1: 20:53
But then eventually getting your team bought in and really launching some cool stuff so that internally, everyone bleeds your brand yeah, yeah, I mean, sports fans are some of the biggest examples of, you know, brand buy-in, and so, yeah, I think you could take a lot of inspiration from that, you know.
Speaker 2: 21:09
So, again, I live in the Bible Belt, but you know some people, like one of one group that I think does a good job with this is like churches. Now remember, I live in the Bible Belt, so everybody calm down, but you will see people now like if they are very involved in their churches, like they become like brand ambassadors for their own churches and that's what it's. I mean, I some of that's like this is great brand loyalty, like these people are loyal and what it is is the churches. They've created an identity and a place of belonging, and so there's it's the same concept with a company like one of the limited, just like every other company we have. People leave for better options, not always on super great terms, like maybe they weren't performing, maybe the job wasn't what they thought so, but one of the things that always makes me proud in their off-boarding interview, which is one of the things that's important to us, is an off-boarding interview and, yes, you take it. You take a gut punch sometimes like we failed them there or we knew that was coming, but honestly, one of the proudest things that Emily and I talk about this is most of the time people say I absolutely adored the culture that we had at Lemon Seed. Now we've got other things we always need to work on, just like everybody else, but culture a lot of times, and it's because we really try to embody servant-minded advocates for our own team. So I just encourage you here, guys, so you can take your brand next level with some intentionality, with some purpose and with very little financial investment, and you really can take it to the next level with some good financial push behind it. So well, thank you guys for listening to us. This was series. This was part one. This is gonna be a three-part series coming really soon. So make sure you stay tuned, because we think there's at least two other ways that you can take your brand to the next level that are a little bit non traditional ways, and so if you've enjoyed listening to Emily and I which it should be, your favorite thing to do every day is listen to Crystal and Emily I know it's our husband's favorite things. If you've listened this far, we must be doing something right for you, so we would love to see a review from you or a nod on social media. We love seeing you when we're out and about it shows, so make sure you come up and tell us hi. But thank you for listening to another episode of from the Yellow Chair. We'll see you next time. Bye.
