Overcoming Adversity, Becoming Unemployable, and Building A Powerful Personal Brand With Bijal Patel

Kinsey Machos: 00:07

Welcome to Captivate and Close. I'm Kinsey Machos, business consultant and marketing strategist. And I'm going to show you how to attract and enroll high paying clients using my break through online marketing strategies, all without having to rely on complicated funnels, disingenuous clickbait, or spammy sales tactics. These are the messaging marketing and selling secrets that virtually no one is talking about. So let's dive in. Hi, welcome back to another episode, I have the most amazing guest with me today. I'm so happy to have you Bijal Patel, who is a brand strategist and CEO and founder of launch Bijal say, hey, hey,

Bijal Patel: 00:59

Kinsey, I'm so excited to be here. So fun to be on a podcast with a badass bred entrepreneur where I respect so much. So I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Kinsey Machos: 01:09

So excited. So there's so much that we can talk about because we have all the different types of combos. But we're gonna do our best to keep this super focused and in some sort of timely manner. But Vishal, you and I met what over a year had been over a year ago. Yeah, now maybe two years? Oh, my gosh, yeah. I think that first Yeah, my first impression of you was when I went to my very first mastermind in person experience, I talked about this on the podcast all the time, where I thought I was gonna die of anxiety. And my husband had to like, I had to call him and I would like, I would not walk out of the room, into the conference room downstairs. Because I was crying, I was so anxious, right. And he had to, like, talk me off the ledge. It's just so interesting, when you look back at those experiences, you know, when you see yourself how far you've grown, but I remember walking into that room, and seeing you and your energy, you have a very powerful, but also welcoming energy about you. And but I was like, there was just this like very, I was definitely intimidated. Because you're you're a powerful female. And me I was like, What the hell am I even doing here. Um, but it was, that was the first experience. And then of course, over time, we got to know each other a little bit better. And you are the best at connecting with people connecting other people to other people. Like, I just love that about you so much. And you have really been able to, you've been a huge impact in my journey will say that. So I'm just so glad to have you here.

Bijal Patel: 02:51

That is so awesome. And I remember meeting you there and not noticing or feeling any of that. But excited to have you there. And I've been in the same positions you have walking into rooms. And sometimes I still get those butterflies in my stomach where I do linger in the hotel room longer than necessary. Or I'm like get out into the room. So that still happens. And yeah, I didn't notice that at all. So it was amazing to connect on that from now the other side living back.

Kinsey Machos: 03:22

So funny. It's so funny. Okay, so I would love for you to talk about Well, first, we were just talking about like, what direction we want to take this because we could definitely we could unpack so much. I think given your expertise. And what I know, you know, I think there's a lot of different directions to take this. But really what we know is that the online marketing, the online industry is shifting. And we've been talking a lot about just like what to keep an eye for how do we shift with the industry? How do we shift with the economy, but all that to say, I would love for you to just share your own journey, because I think your story is also very powerful and how you came in to what you do. And really what that looked like, because I think that could be very encouraging for other women.

Bijal Patel: 04:06

Oh, yeah. Love. Yeah, I'd love to Absolutely. I'll try to keep it brief because it's a windy point to that. But basically, you know, I had done commercial interior design for many years, like 13 years at this point in time. And like a lot of women you know, I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. So I wanted to have the thriving motherhood side of my life and with my husband and my family and all that and I also wanting to have, you know, but like, like really aspirational career at work and I'm gonna climb the ladder and I want to make the six figures and have like the nice power suits and all that stuff I want to build and so I was sold on that tree. So when I had my first child, my daughter things like it was hard, but I was able to make it manage. We managed to get a nanny identity daycare for a while and we've got one kid you have two parents so you can kind of work it out. And then afterward I ended up having You know, a couple years later, and when I ended up going back to work after that second child, and I was still breastfeeding, and I was pumping, and I was doing all those long things, you know, because I learned it get to a year of breastfeeding, like I had done with my first child. And it was important to me, it was important to me more than my husband was important to me as a goal. That's when things started to fall apart at work, and I remember distinctively, I had come back, I had won this major design award, which me and my boss who used to be chummy, I just noticed that like, it was kind of a weird congratulations about it, because he wasn't on that design project. And it got a lot of notoriety in the Houston community. And it was a big award show. And a lot of other people, we're going to work one awards to do. But our firm had won this major award, and I was the chief designer on it. And he didn't come to the show. Kinsey he didn't come. He was like, that's all kind of busy that night. I'm like, Okay, are you washing your hair, you know, because they don't have hair. So it's like, he was just busy and didn't come. And I actually believed him. These were really close ended period of time. And then then right after about that, things started to fall apart. And you know, I was still breastfeeding. My son who was like, you know, like 10 months, 11 months old, and a couple months went rough. And I just felt like I kept getting criticized by him. And nothing I did was good enough. And he kept like, getting, like, critical over my design choices. And I was like, you know, I was just questioning myself. I'm like, maybe, maybe I'm not good at this. Why did I pick this color? And this is ridiculous. Like, why would you do this. And I was starting to internalize some of those conversations. And I remember one day, I got pulled into an office and I had never been into, and I've been in this office close to two years. I was like, his right hand, like a storm blade, doubled in CERAM, opposite never bitten comes in with someone else, I could just feel the air. And they told me that I was no longer a fit. And I literally was like, no longer I fit for what? And they're like, We think you're no longer a fit here. And I was like, Oh, you mean on that project? Yeah, I agree. I think we should give that to one of the junior designers. And they're like, No, be Joel. We don't think you're a fit for the company. But like I do get it like so imagine breaking up with a guy. And him like really not getting it. That was me. So the moment that happened, I literally thought they're going to come in with cameras, and that this was going to be like a blooper or one of those like TV show jokes, because the year prior no joke. Kinsey, I was pregnant. And he was going to come to my performance review with a champagne bottle to topes me for the amazing efforts I had made in my year, the performance I'd given and I got a huge salary on top of already be the top paid designer. So the minute that happened, I literally when it finally hit me that they were saying like, we don't think you should work here anymore, which I think they shouldn't use that language. Like, what happened to your fired like I did that language, because I didn't get it. And so I literally was like, What about the 20? I've had just one than this project. So I asked him, What about the $25 million project, they just want us downtown. Like I distinctly remember he lives in he is like, we really appreciate you for that. We really do. We love your personality. And I was like, Oh, okay. And they're like, Hey, you don't have to pack up your own stuff like, well, you know, people generally get really upset. we'll pack up your stuff, or you can come pick it up tomorrow. I remember going back to they left the room. They just kept me in the room. And I remember feeling this overwhelming feeling of relief. Like I felt this like weight off my shoulder. And like I could read and that was just not what I was expecting. So I went back to my desk and this is one of those subconscious states. I had come back from maternity leaves like five months earlier, I kept all my boxes still packed. I barely had anything that was actually on my desk. So you know what I did Kinsey, I grabbed my bosses and I went straight to my car and took my own stuff because no one was not falling apart. No I was not coming back tomorrow and they will ask the best thing that ever happened to them. So I walked out the door with myself packed my car and felt like Angela Bassett and like the movie waiting Day Sale, she's burning her husband's clothes I was like be gone and then I get in the car and started driving home and then I'm like oh my gosh, crying hysterically and I literally thought I died I was like I literally died because we were dual income household and I have never failed so big in my life and I literally got I got an F on the test and I just didn't know how to recover Wow

Kinsey Machos: 09:48

incredible and I actually know two of my close friends have recently this Cid like similar scenario where they completely unexpectedly got let go in a very Top tier leadership position in a corporation where they just decided, for whatever reason, I mean, the reasons are, you know, can be assumed but they just, it wasn't wasn't a quote unquote good fit. And that's actually what was the launching pad for their own business. So what happens? So then what happened next?

Bijal Patel: 10:20

So like I said, like, I sound like, I'm all cool. And like, I was just like, yeah, that's my next level. And then five minutes later, when a debit card like, is not okay, I don't get I don't know what happened here. And I need this job. And I felt terrible. I internalized it. And I felt very shameful. I felt embarrassed, I felt guilty. I literally thought I was going to die. I literally thought I was gonna die. I get home and I tell my husband, I'm like, they fired me. And he's like, who am I, the company. And he's like, it was like, it was like the same thing. Like, if you're just like, flipping out, well, he's he doesn't believe it. Because he knows the rep. He's like, You just won the $25 million. Severe breach. I'm just like, just like losing it, right. And it's like, I think about my children. And so I ended up interviewing a bunch of places on the down that wanted to interview me because I had won awards and no more than 10 years in their field. And this is, so I had all these opportunities. And as I looked around, I went to those interviews. I remember I like the authority company. I remember sitting in the interview and the guy interviewing me, and I just feeling like I'm in Groundhog's Day, and I'm like, I am not going to be employed by another 55 year old white male, I am not doing it, you are not riding like a donkey. And I'm going to have to like follow on your coattails. It's my design work, you want me to stay till seven every night doing the work. And you want to take credit when we get the win. And I'm like, remember sitting there in that second interview and being like, I can't do this. This is not what my life was meant for. I had never wanted to be an entrepreneur, I had no entrepreneurial goals. I never wanted to own a business. I didn't glamorize being a CEO, I didn't want any of that all I wanted to do was be a good corporate girl, climbing the ladder and like eventually become a principal we have which in the design field is basically like being one of the heads of the company. That's all I wanted to be a design director to then principal, it's equivalent to being like a vice president, that's all I wanted to do. And it was gonna be a long road to do that. But in that moment, I realized I can't do this anymore. And I can no longer be employed by a part of the demographic that has no idea what it's like to be my life. I'm gonna have to do something on my own. So I realized at that moment, I was unemployable. And when that happened, launch was born. So within a month after I launched launch, and that was in October of two thousand nineteen. And I like, No, I thought about launching in October of two thousand nineteen, I officially launched launch as I started to pre work for it in January or two thousand twenty. i Or no, I'm got my dates mixed up. That was October of two thousand eighteen. So my child had just turned one. And I decided to conceive like what launch would be by January of two thousand nineteen. I was like, had a company and we hit our first 10k month in that very first month. And I was like, oh my god, this is possible. And then by the end of two thousand nineteen, our first full year business, I did interior design, I did the same thing I was doing at a smaller scale. But I was still doing commercial and design. We had our first six figure year. So through that, I was able to prove to myself to be like, first of all, yes, I can do this. Second of all, I will outwork anybody that's out there. And now I'm doing it on my own accord. So why wait a bunch of other moms during that time, I paid other people like I wasn't just a solopreneur. So I made sure that I was really sure to cultivate the culture of moms supporting other moms and us making big and good money on our own terms, getting to work remote and living the lifestyle of having both and badass mom building empires getting to do both at the same time. So

Kinsey Machos: 14:26

that's so good. I love that so much. And I think too, I can resonate with like, I never had entrepreneurship in my in the life. Like, if same day, it was like I'm gonna climb a corporate ladder, I'm gonna prove everybody that I can do it. And that was it. And it just sort of fell out of my lap or fell into my lap and I think similarily but when you kind of discover these newer things about yourself, and I think that the entrepreneurship journey is really that is like a complete journey of discovering more about who you are, what makes you tick, what gives you life, what you're good at, etc. etc. That's an evolving process. And I think you're definitely the epitome of like evolving woman who's also really fine tuning your craft, and what that means to your team, what that means to your audience to your business. And it's really been an incredible from one I've known you and really seeing you on that journey been really cool to watch that. And I think that we I think it's important to note that it isn't unicorns and rainbows. And I think it's a very good what you said about like, I was totally fine. I'm going to pack all my stuff. And I'm like, you lost the best thing ever. And then you get in your car, and you're like, What the fuck is happening, and you're crying. And I think that's also like a really good depiction of entrepreneurship, you're like, on top of the world, everything's working. And then all of a sudden, you're like, What am I even doing? But you now have it, you just learn how to navigate that. And there's nothing wrong with you have you experienced that? You just ride the waves and you learn how to respond better, which is, obviously speaking of

Bijal Patel: 15:58

that, it's like, you know, so then everything was great. And I felt again, on top of the world, like, first first month in business TENCATE, first year, six figures, I was just like, I mean, I was just like, call me, Steve Jobs. You know, when I'm the female Steve Jobs, like I had just like, made it right. After that years, January 2020. And I remember February of 2020. I have like a 1k month. And I was like, Oh, no What happened, you know. And then March of 2020, happened COVID. And I was like, Oh, my God. So I knew that interior design was going to be totally decimated with the commercial real estate market. And I knew I had to make a change. So I ended up in the mastermind that I ended up meeting new in, and a random guy called me from the internet and was like, Do you want to be in a mastermind coaching program, and I was like, I was either going to pay 10k for that, or I was going to build a fancy website that was going to bring all the clients by the way. So I had to make a decision, a 10k, or seven. So I ended up trusting the guy and jumped in, tried to bring interior design to the online space, fail, fail fail. So a couple months between February and April that were just dismal. And then I remember in May, I suddenly hit a 25k month after I switched to branding. And I remember thinking, I'm only going to do branding in the interim until this COVID thing is gone in a couple of months. And then I'll go back to REITs got ahold of us. And then I met the online space and organic by annuity, what organic marketing was three years ago, I used to post on Facebook once a day, I mean, once a week, a picture of my kid randomly. And then I learned this ball rolled up online coaches, consultants, service providers, and the IRS did this thing called Digital Marketing and people who actually knew how to use social media and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And so I learned about organic marketing. And that's how we started to build my business by branding business. Slowly and surely. And then after that, I realized, you know, I think this is important for the listeners here is to be honest, by that point, I had fallen out of love. And for my passion for interior design, I had done it 13 years, and it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I won some awards. And so there were some high of highs. There were also like I said, low blows, lots of hours consistently go hustling grinding, I felt like the industry was just going to eat me up alive. And I was actually in the top 5% of that industry. And I still feel like I couldn't squeeze any more joy out of it. It was all slave driving, all in the effort of designing art and the notoriety. And I started to see for what it was and it started to fall out of I started to fall out of love with it. So I like to always share with people that you know, you're allowed to have a new dream. I want the listeners to really hear me here that you are allowed to happen you train. So if you needed permission, and you want it from somebody who is successful and has walked that walk, I can assure you when I finally admitted to myself that I was done with interior design, my heart wasn't in it. And I went all in on branding. Like I said I had 25k month a month after 40k month, where immediately it's like the universe or God wherever you believe in, conspired in my favor. The minute I let an old dream go that was weighing me down. And it's just crazy how that ended up happening. And I think that that concept of addition through subtraction, and allowing ourselves to say, Hey, I love the ride magazine. I'm grateful for it. I enjoy parts of that season. There are parts that I learned from but I'm ready for a new chapter. You were allowed to believe in yourself and be ready for a new chapter. It is okay to and I have found my own science, you're easily rewarded when you start to pick in favor of what your soul's purpose is.

Kinsey Machos: 19:55

Yeah, and I think it's important to talk about that for a minute because I think some people get to hear this and say So I think one of the common challenges I think, in our industry is like, which niche do I focus on which offer do I focus on and so opposite to, you know, clarity and direction, we get sort of this, like, doing all the things, trying to be all the things to all the people. And a lot of people think they need more clarity first in order to gain more of that direction or create those results. But what you did that allowed you to then change and pivot was you were taking the action and gave you that feedback of like, Ooh, this is not working for me anymore. And this is where my this like, this is actually where I'm evolving to. And I think I resonate with that, too. I didn't start in the niche that I'm in now. Right, it was in a different niche, but I was just taking, it was like the action I just kept going until I started to get that feedback loop. And I let that sort of help me kind of guide me and fine tune me into that niche. So making sure because this is a common challenge I hear is like this picking like the perfection around picking the perfect niche, picking the perfect offer that you just got to take, you just gotta go. You just gotta move. And I think that's what like you definitely embody this, like, yes, we're going to lean in, we're going to align. But I'm also going to take you're going also going to take massive action in accordance to that. And with that, I would love for you in context to even organic marketing and branding. What led to having that first big month in your brand new business, what led to those? Because I know that's what everybody's wondering, how do I get that? What do I need? It's probably not what most people think. And also what, because this was a couple of years ago. So if there's anything that might be a little bit different in context to today's industry, what might you shift? And I think this is specifically for those listeners that are growing to that first six figures.

Bijal Patel: 21:55

Yeah, totally. Well, I think first of all, I think that, and I really am specific about giving some tactical advice here because I believe that you can listen to a lot of motivational, inspirational stories and get hype and then still end up after this a musical. And then now what for me, and I think one of the things that I see that and people don't often talk about so when you give something that most people want say is you really got to listen to that inner ish, there's an inner ish within you. So when I hear anytime someone's trying to optimize for perfection, I like smashing it. As a recovering perfectionist myself, and I say recovery for a reason I'm not recovered. If you are a perfectionist, you are never done. Like you are a recovering perfectionist, I smashed it out of them. Because that perfectionism, you might as well put handcuffs on you behind your back, and then throw yourself into the back in the pool, and then go ask yourself, I guess we're not going to move forward with that. And I think we as women, expect perfection. First, we expect the accolade and the success first, and then we will do the action because we don't want to be an imposter. And whereas as we know, most men are like, Oh, no, I feel like I'm kind of good enough to be a coach. And, you know, I talked to one guy, Billy Bob, when he was 10. And you know, kind of helped him out on the slide and stuff. So I'm actually really good at what I do. And then boom, they go, and they leave, they leave person thing. And so I invite the female audience to kind of lean in and explore and play with some of the masculine energy. Some of the masculine energy is required when we're talking about meaning. And I think a lot of times the feminine energy really great at being and we need both in business, the big band and you need both. But if you find yourself stuck in the realm of perfection in your mouth moving because you're waiting for clarity, you're waiting for an answer, just remember that getting in exploring that masculine energy, the doing is going to require like tinkering, and it's going to require playing, it's going to require coloring outside of the lines. You might break a glass or two. But I take it back to the first time you ever cooked a dish, you probably sucked at it. Like I remember the first time I made guacamole. And you know, I'm a Texan now, but I was in Florida and my dad was like, This is not good. And I was like, I don't wonder why he couldn't keep that internal, you know, but he didn't like it at all. It really did taste terrible, but like, I don't know if anybody was everybody. Guacamole is a very complicated eight ingredient endeavor.

Kinsey Machos: 24:27

Oh my gosh, that's the only thing I can make really well.

Bijal Patel: 24:30

Okay, well, there you go. So your boss, boss and now I'm now ready to do like a block off. I'll do like a block of I can like I can mail a guacamole. But how many times did it take me before I actually understood how bland and avocado really could be those things really, really needs all? And so understanding that it wasn't the first time they did it. But we've done what what about the first time we had a kid? What about the first time they showed up for an interview? None of those first times You didn't eat? They were perfect. So we can invite Get everyone to think back to one of those memories that were like resonates with you. First job interview first day on your first job, first date, first child, first guacamole, you weren't great, a you weren't even near perfect. So stop anticipating expecting yourself to be at a level that you're not, all you need to do is show up and do the thing and just expect this probably not gonna be awesome. That's so good. Same is true for your first offer. Same is true for your first niche. You don't actually even need a niche, you can have a niche. If you want a niche, you can also have a target problem. But what I wanted by a listeners to do is I want you to tune in to what I said, What's that pitch that's bugging you, I want you to tune into that because God the universe gives you signals everywhere all the time. And especially as women we're adept at our intuition ears are bigger, and we're more sensitive, almost like dolphins, to hearing things. So want to invite people to say, where are you supposed to lean in. And that additional where you want to go might require a subtraction of an old identity, an old dream, an old person, an old idea, but ordination or mentor, whatever you want to say it might require subtraction, so that you can get to the next step.

Kinsey Machos: 26:19

So that's a really good Bijal of like, okay, if I'm heading in this direction, what do I need to unpack let go of like, there's always going to be that ebb and flow when you're adding something in likely letting something go as well. But so good. So at the highest level, when you think about hitting even that first six figures, you were really leaning in to what even like you are good at, and also what you were what your audience was asking of you. What are some tactical level things that they should be considering in regards to even leveraging the online space to, you know, attract people to them and convert them into clients?

Bijal Patel: 26:59

Yeah, absolutely. So let's go to our Alrighty, so braving obviously, in two thousand twenty is going to be different than it wasn't wage Majorie. But here's where I don't want to get hung up. I don't want I want you to know enough of what's happening in the trends to know Hey, the winds are in this direction. But just because it's raining outside doesn't mean you don't go in your car and go to where you need to go. So why don't you kind of think of it as like the both am situation, I'm not saying go to the beach. But it does mean you still get in your car and you drive to where you need to go. So us as women don't need to be altered. And to feel so much like we need to follow what everyone else is doing. So what I want to teach is on the personal brand front, is I want you to do two things, I want you to one identify one person that you really enjoy their personal brand. They can be somebody who's aspirational and somebody who has a really big name, or it can be somebody who's even a contemporary who was like around your beer, and it's a friend of her friend or you would potentially meet them or they would become your mentor coach. And we didn't identify one person who that looks like I would actually invite you for it to not be somebody enormous like somebody's enormous in the space like Leila or mosey. I don't want somebody who's so big and aspirational, that you feel like a tiny peasant, excellent. Contemporary is somebody I think that you're like, Oh, I'm in spitting distance of them, I could meet them. I'd be excited. I'd be a fan. But I wouldn't had a slight sense. You want to think of somebody like that. And I want you to examine what it is that you actually enjoy about your personal brand. Is it their style of content? Is it like that they do reels is that they do care sauce is the mixture? Is it that they invite their family as a part of their stories? How is it that they talk about their clients and their client wins? What is it about their teaching and their methodology? The way that they do it that resonates with you? Is it their words, their actual message is is their tone of voice? How they said it? And is it they're like the way that they dress and your style? I mean, my marketing specialist just starting today, and he's like, Hey, I just read someone's comment that they watch your stuff for your clothing. And I was like, Well, that sounds like Adam's car. So I'm glad someone said that. But like, I don't care about that like one bit. And so that's not important. I like clothes and I like style, but like you're not going to come and follow me for like, what I'm we're up like I'm just not into that. That's not my thing. And I'm an interior designer. So like I do have a sense of taste, if not what I want my brain to be built around. So I want to invite you to find the actual parts and pieces again, back to guacamole. But think about how much salt is it how much pepper is do we have jalapeno do we have Serrano? We have no pepper? Are we into onions? No onions are the yellow. Are they purple? Are they are we doing a tomato? Are we not doing tomato? So like, I want you to kind of look into the composite of what you like. Because what this will allow you to do is if you could pull the ingredients of what you like from someone's personal brand, you can then make your own special guacamole and that's really where people shine and what I what I coach him when I teach on your personal brand and will shine and feel most authentically like you most aligned to who you are and most energetic, like most of energetically aligned is when you are using what I call your empowered voice. So you're empowered voice is when you show up as the best version of you that's unafraid to speak your truths out into the world.

Kinsey Machos: 30:23

I love that Bijal and that is so good. That's such a good representation of like, how to start thinking about your own brand. Because I think brand, this idea of brand is very, I think, sometimes misunderstood. Can you give us a quick summary like what is brand and specifically personal brand, because I think that's really where you lean is. But I know that you also work with, you know, corporations and companies that may not even have a personal brand either. But tell us what the differences and yeah,

Bijal Patel: 30:51

totally okay, so let's talk about what brand is in a really quick quote by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, he's quoted to say that your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room. So again, your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room. And so that really puts an interesting perspective on it. And I like to start actually defining what branding is not because that really helps people. Branding is not just your logo, not just your fonts, not just your colors, not just like your icons, and like not just your branded photography, so people really get caught up in the visuals of a brand. And that is a part of your brand strategy. It's the branding. But if you were to picture a pie chart, it's about 10% is what you can see. But most people confuse it, because what we can see is what we can believe, and it's easier to digest. It's very tangible. You can remember a logo, that kind of thing. But that's not it's important. It's 10% important, but the other 90% is what are the feelings behind the brand? How does the brand message like what do they talk like? What are the topics they include? How do they sound? What is the tone of voice, what's the positioning in the marketplace? What's the differentiator, and that might sound like a lot of fancy words. And if you're just starting out, I want you to like that all of that out. And just remember your personal brand is you the unique you that you are, and you decide to curate what you're going to put out in the world. So much like when you go on a date. And for me, it's a bombing dinosaur a billion billion years since I've been on a date, they remember, first time you've been on a date, or you're still dating, it'd be like you believe this more, you're going on an interview, right? It's like that version of you that you put out, right, you go to an interview, you're gonna show up a certain way you gonna be dressed a certain way, you're gonna use certain words, you're gonna make sure your energy is light and make sure you're put together nails done, and you want to put your best version of you, your personal brand is a curated best version of you, that you will put out in the world, because you want to attract your most ideal avatar to be to get them to be interested and curious and want to be a part of your programs and your different offers. So that's what you're doing, you're creating a basically a magnetic field of getting people to want to be around you just like you would in an interview, you want them to give you an amazing offer that's at the best rate that they're willing, on a date, if you like a date, you want to be offered a second date. So that's kind of how you're looking at it from a personal brand point of view.

Kinsey Machos: 33:25

Yeah, and I think the exercise that you gave everybody, Now what that does is you're starting to pay attention to how you experience brands, because I think, as this is, it's easier for us to do this, like how to integrate this strategy when we know or when we're more aware of, of how we experience other brands and what we're paying attention to. And so that exercise is going to help people, I believe, really start to feel into okay, this is how I'm experiencing it. And like even these little things that you may not even consider before it's like oh, and now you get to take that what you like that sensory experience. Take that and apply it to like how do I want people to feel? What do I want this thing to look and feel like and I think that's really really cool.

Bijal Patel: 34:10

And what that does what I realized as you were talking about it is women especially when we're trying to get to our first six figures, I remember that moment I remember how important it was because for me I mean straight up be honest with you, it was totally revenge. I was like, I was driven by this like feeling of revenge like I will tell you what I do and I'm like they don't even know like I just was out on this mission to create revenge because I was super you know, had some healing to do. I assume trauma related to it. But what this does end up solving is that when you can get too obsessed with like and I can't even remember I mean all there's all these amazing, powerhouse elegant manner. Francis is one that I hear often and then there's that other girl, Melanie and Leia who some people are into isn't my particular genre, but some women are in general And you can start getting obsessed and be like, well, I want to have Gerbrand. But I'm like, but you're not for. And so when you end up obsessing over these people who are far they have 100,000 200,000 500,000 million followers. And it's easy to feel like an impostor. And it's easy to feel inadequate. So what I want to make sure is that we're only pulling the ingredients of these people. So you get to make your own custom recipe, and your personal brands not going to ignite overnight. Don't believe anybody who says it is you earn, every single follower that comes through, no one has 10,000 followers overnight. If they do, I promise you that they're bots, and you do not want to buy your followers. That is not a tactic you want to do. And so you just need to show up as you get to learn who you are like, I love Kinsey that you alluded to that, that this process of entrepreneurship is like about riding the waves, and learning more about who we actually are. I promise you this, when you show up authentically as who you are, and you like you, other people will like you too, but when we're out there, and we're trying to foster and put on a show and put on a charade, and now we're doing all these things, because we think our aspirational figure, so and so does it and it doesn't fit in alignment test, we're always going to feel like an imposter. So it's a part of that is to make sure that we can actually take the right action, because you're willing to take action when you feel like you're being authentic to who you are. Yeah.

Kinsey Machos: 36:33

Oh, that's so goodness. Authenticity is such a buzzword. We talk about this a lot. And they think you really can't be authentic unless you know who you are. And what is it like

Bijal Patel: 36:44

to live who you are with all the balmy all the features, what that is, you know, like, none of us are perfect. And you got to understand that even everyone who you aspired to be online, they're all human, they have all their insecurities. They have all their impostor. They all like don't like a facial feature about them in the mirror. And in all that glitters isn't gold. And so like, when you see those, that social media highlight reel, I don't want you to beat yourself down, I don't want you to ask yourself, well, when's my turn? How could I have gotten here, because that's all defeating language. And it's like, instead, it's like remembering that your journey is yours. Remember, there's this Oprah podcast that I listened to about 50 times it was on, motivate platform. And I really loved it. Because there's one I loved a lot about it. But there's one line in there that she said that you can only run your own race, you can only run your own race. So you're not running my race, you're not running Kinsey's race, you're not running your friend Sarah's race, you can only run your own race. And when you give yourself permission, that your journey is right on time, right on sequence for what your life was intended to be, you will allow yourself the grace and the patience to allow yourself to buy into the next level that you were meant to.

Kinsey Machos: 38:09

That's so good. That is so good Bijall, I think there's so much here. And again, we could take this so many directions, I definitely want to be I want to honor your time. To wrap us up though, I want you to give a good visual of how you work with your claims and the work that you do. So really, I know you focus more on those those, you know, growing personal brands, corporations that are you know, multiple six, seven figures, what do you do with them from a brand strategy perspective? And what are you helping them focus on?

Bijal Patel: 38:37

Yeah, totally. So we usually work with people who are at least at like 500k of revenue a year is a good a good point, we might work with people who are at 250k. But we don't know, a year, but we don't get wrapped up into all the visuals at that point. So what I really like to do is focus on what I call the brand foundations. So we want to talk really about like, Hey, what is your personal brand versus your business brand? And how do these two things overlap? So a lot of times, if you're starting out, you're just gonna use your personal brand, right? But then once you're getting bigger, and you're after multiple six, you need to start thinking about it as a business because we want to eventually add a team. And so we look at that hybrid, and we're really just buying brand foundation. So what is your mission? What is your vision? Have we put that into a statement that you and all your team members can remember? What's the tagline for the brand? Do we need to rename the brand because you've outgrown it? What are your core values, we do something specific on core behaviors and we make a custom fit for each branch. It's a code of ethics and behavior that you and every person on your team knows to emulate. And we take many steps further than that we go into positioning, how you fit in the industry, differentiation. How are you different than everyone else? What's your secret sauce? How often do people ask what you do? And you cannot demonstrate or say succinctly what it is you do in a really quick manner that captivates people's attention. You're a curious curiosity in demand. So we help do that. And then we help with all of the messaging point of view. What are your brand halls? How do we get people into your content, like in your context, so you can get more visibility. So you could own the authority that you have, but it's not demonstrated outside of your client containers. So we do all that with all the visuals, everything regular, to the logos, to multiple formats of it, to the colors, to the fonts and to everything visual that you see multiple font families, so can you do banners, all that stuff, even to a website, like we website content, we do all of it now. So we go full throttle with it, we really take people's businesses and make them actual words.

Kinsey Machos: 40:40

That's so good. And I think that up until that point, what you've given our listeners, if you're not at, you know, 250 k or 500k, yet, how we start to think about personal brand is just for the exercise you've given us. And also, how do we show up in that way that's authentic to ourselves authentic to the way that we want to serve and reach the people that we want to help. And we do this through the most simple means, right? Whatever that looks like for you. And like you said, it's going to, it's going to differ based on you know, what platform you use, you know, your industry, etc. But I think that sensory experience is something that people need to be more aware of, especially with the way that the industry is moving. And the influx of everybody coming online, we need to be more cognizant of that long term game. And you do this so well. So I just

Bijal Patel: 41:29

want to remind people that no matter how much you feel like everyone's doing what you're doing, everyone's a coach, everyone's a provider, everyone, I always hear that all the time. And I just want to challenge that thinking a little bit to say, but that's only because it's your current reality. And there's a lot of space for that. And coaching is in more demand than ever. And so don't take the current conditions of the economy and two thousand twenty-three and start booing yourself down, like, how is this going to work? How is this going to happen, all that I actually want to encourage you and say people need more help than ever, because if the economy is laying people off, they're gonna need to know means of how to get their business going, and they're gonna need a coach for that they're gonna need your services. If you have an agency agencies are a really high demand because people are tired of working full court processes, they want agencies to take on that done for you work for them. So whatever your specialty is, just remember that the demand that what we're doing the online space is only increasing people are more enthused by content, because AI, not less. So when AI made more and more and more volume of content. Now people don't know what good content is, and they need your guidance there. So whatever your specific focus area is, I always wanted to you into the perspective of hope, and that you're exactly where you need to be right on time. So remember that and I know some of what I talked about was very mindset orientated, very energy oriented. But I promise you these things if you focus on that age, that chapter earlier, what does that each tell you? Where do you need to go pay attention to that? The second thing is asking yourself the question Do you like you? And if you can figure out do you like you and work on that? And then the very third pieces is you're allowed to have a new dream if you focus on those three days, I promise me I promise you that you will get to the next place where you will need branding and continue to suffer to get there. Boom,

Kinsey Machos: 43:21

mic drop so good my friend so good. Tell us where can people find you?

Bijal Patel: 43:27

You can find me on Facebook or Instagram @bijal.launch. So la Have you MCH.

Kinsey Machos: 43:35

Awesome and we'll include that in the show notes Bijal it was so amazing having you thank you again for your time and your brilliance. I just love you and your expertise and the way that you serve is so beautiful. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me Kinsey. Yay. Bye, guys. Hey, you guys, thank you so much for listening. It's an honor to be able to pour into the hearts and minds of like-minded entrepreneurs all over the world. But my most favorite part is being able to connect with you in real life. If you love what you heard here, head over to the community where thousands of female CEOs just like you are changing the world one human at a time. We go deeper into the topics you discuss here and giveaway tangible roadmaps to help you crush your revenue goals to join this high-caliber free community head over to kinseymachos.com/community. I'll see you there