- Please tell us about yourself and your business background.
Melissa Matson, 34, from Hertfordshire is a mum of two and the founder and strategist behind EMBR™ a boutique brand agency helping ambitious entrepreneurs to get out of their own way, unlock their hidden potential and build magnetic authority-positioned brands that attract a premium clientele.
Unlike traditional design-lead agencies who keep the strategy process to themselves and often focus on delivering something that just ‘looks good’, EMBR™ builds brands from the inside-out.
Because we know that the real power is in education and understanding what it takes to build a cult brand.
Our solution provides ambitious founders with the tools, strategies and resources they need to build their own powerful brands now and into the future.
As an ex-corporate rebel having previously worked at Mars, Starbucks and 20th Century Fox, I understand the power of brand strategy and the positive impact that it has on driving the bottom line.
But I also know that the big brand players like to work with the big agencies at even bigger prices. Traditional agencies are the gatekeepers to knowledge and present outputs without explaining the process taken to get there. Therefore, brand strategy excellence is kept as an industry secret. Out of reach of the smaller businesses that would really benefit from it the most.
And I want to change that.
EMBR™ was created with ambitious entrepreneurs in mind. An agency founded on certified brand strategy excellence, with education and empowerment at the heart of everything we do.
An agency for firestarters like you.
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
We work with the ambitious ones. The action-takers. The thought-leaders, founders and purpose-led CEOs who have a vision to change the world. The ones who believe that they’ve got what it takes and are going to let nothing stand in their way.
They’re usually experts at what they do, but they also know that they need a little support and the expertise of others to help them make their dream a reality.
Whether it’s a brand new venture, an existing business that needs a refresh or support taking your existing brand to the next level, we’re here for it all.
- What is the most common problem faced by inexperienced business people and how can this be overcome?
The number one problem I see new entrepreneurs making is that they have an idea, register a business name and then run head first into marketing their product and services without any real strategy underpinning it.
From a branding perspective, this could look like creating a quick (usually cheap) logo and choosing a colour palette that ‘they like’ without having any idea about what their brand is really about or who they are really trying to speak to. When branding is done without any long term strategy, businesses will often go through multiple branding changes and ‘refreshes’ whenever the business owner gets bored of the current scheme. Not only is this costly in terms of time, money and energy, it also has the potential to damage a brand’s reputation and impact.
Building a brand is all about the long game.
Consistency and repetition are key.
If a business constantly changes their visual aesthetics, it makes it very difficult for your brand to gain the recognition and trust needed from an audience in order to build up brand loyalty.
Another common problem that new businesses make is in their communication and messaging. When launching something new to the world, business owners are often so excited to share their product or service that they’ll simply talk ‘at’ their customers, listing all of the features and benefits that they think could help solve their audience’s problems, instead of engaging in a dialogue that makes them really feel heard and understood.
And to be blunt. No one really cares about what you do.
They only care about WHY you do it.
And they care about the WHY because it goes deeper into our human psychology and speaks to our basic human need to connect with others. We want to feel like we belong to a bigger purpose, a collective of similar like-minded people or tribe that ‘get us.’
Who think like we think.
Who believe what we believe.
Think about this for a second….Martin Luther King had an ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. He didn’t have an ‘I Have a Plan’ speech because he knew that people buy into a cause, a belief, a vision, a mission. If you want to galvanise people into action, you’ve got to give them a bigger reason than simply listing the one-dimensional surface-level benefits of the product or service that you want them to buy.
Let me give you another example…Apple’s marketing message always leads with ‘we believe in thinking differently.’ So anyone who also thinks differently or sees themselves as a ‘misfit’ or a ‘challenger’ to the norm, often wants to be a part of that tribe. And guess what. Because of that tribe mentality that Apple has been able to create, people are willing to queue up for 12 hours before the latest iPhone is released or simply buy anything at all that has the Apple logo on it. Crazy when you think of it logically right? But great brands aren’t created through logic. They’re created through evoking emotion.
Apple has cracked the code.
Apple knows how to build a tribal brand.
Apple knows how to galvanise action.
And how do they do it?
They start with WHY.
So let me just repeat a fundamental truth of brand building….
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
So rather than marketing all the features and benefits of your products and services, you want to be speaking to your audience’s beliefs and desires. You want to be connecting to them at that deeper emotional level. At the level that activates a response, ie. that makes them want to take action and buy from you.
Truly great brands understand this distinction.
- What are the most important things to consider before starting your own business?
There are so many different things that a new business owner should consider when starting up but for me, there are a few key things that I believe should be top of the list.
- What’s your vision?
When you’re just starting out it can feel like everything is an opportunity and that everyone out there needs exactly what you do. Therefore, it’s really easy to get distracted without the ‘shiny object’ syndrome and dilute your attention away from the key actions that will really move the dial.
Getting clarity on your long term vision and the reason why you do what you do will really help you to keep that laser focus and prioritise more effectively.
So ask yourself now, where do you want to be in 10 years time? Do you want to have a freedom-based lifestyle travelling the world? Or maybe you would love to build an empire, managing teams of people from an office in central London? Whatever the vision, get clear on it before building the right strategy to support you in getting there.
It’s very easy to get sidetracked and start comparing your journey to others, so the more robust your vision and strategy, the more likely you are to stay in your own lane.
- Do you have a solid success mindset?
The entrepreneurial journey is a rollercoaster and the best tool that you can have to set yourself up for success is a robust success mindset. Resilience and determination are often the foundation for most successful businesses, so it’s great if you’re prepared with the right mindset tools and a rock solid support system from the outset for when times get a little rocky (which they undoubtedly will!).
If you want to become a master of any industry, you’ve first got to master yourself.
- What are your superpowers?
When you start a business you have to wear many different hats, some of which you may never have worn before. Product design, content creator, finance officer, social media manager, procurement, HR, web design, the list is endless. And whilst in the beginning it might be tempting to do it all, I’d always encourage new start-ups to really consider what their superpowers are and where their time is best spent.
I invite you to ask yourself the following questions:
- What exactly are people going to be paying you for?
- Where do you thrive?
- What drains your energy the most?
- What would you delegate tomorrow if money was no object?
Now look at these answers carefully and consider how you can maximise revenue by leaning into your superpowers and delegating the rest. The faster you can do this, the quicker you’ll be able to grow and scale.
- What is the best way to recruit / hire members of your team? For example, should you recruit based on their attitude or experience?
I am a huge believer in hiring niche experts who have a complimentary skillset to myself as the business founder and CEO. If you want to grow a business, you have to have a solid team who you can trust to run with their specific area of the business without having to micromanage every detail.
That being said, I don’t believe experts have to have years of experience. I’m also a huge believer in hiring potential. My main hiring requirement has always been passion and someone’s ambition to be the best in what they do, regardless of their starting point.
Skills can be taught.
Experience can be gained.
But drive and enthusiasm is innate.
I believe that people buy from people who are passionate, so I would rather have a team of magnetic individuals with a desire to deliver outstanding results for my clients, than an academically perfect CV.
- How has the pandemic changed business?
Since the pandemic, there has been a boom in the number of new online entrepreneurs who now believe that it is possible to build a flexible business working from home. While this is an incredible opportunity for new enterprise, it’s also become much harder for new businesses to stand out online due to the saturated market that we now operate in.
From a marketing perspective, it’s no longer good enough to have an amazing product or service. It’s no longer good enough to have great customer reviews. It’s not even good enough to rely on having the best sales teams out there.
Why?
Because there are now millions of amazing businesses out there, doing exactly what you do, probably doing it in exactly the same way as how you do it.
Since the pandemic, the most effective way to stand out from the crowd is by having a powerful brand that stops the scroll. That sets you apart as an industry authority and as an expert in your field. A brand that people can trust and that gets the attention of your audience in a noisy online world.
Without a powerful brand strategy, you will simply be competing to shout the loudest through your marketing, wasting time and money with endless campaigns that never really move the dial.
An understanding of what it actually takes to build a cult brand that connects and converts an engaged audience is now not only desirable, it’s a necessary part of running any business in 2022 and beyond.
- What is the most important lesson you have learnt as a result of your business? This may also be advice you can offer to budding game changing business professionals.
The most important thing that I’ve learnt since running my own business is that you don’t have to have it all figured out from the start.
Having a business plan and an overarching strategy in place is great, but always remember that nothing is set in stone. In fact, for me one of the amazing things about having my own business is that I get to change direction or evolve into something else whenever I want to!
Your strategy should be seen as the compass guiding your overall business direction, but any tactics or reactive decisions are the postcodes in your Sat Nav taking you to a new short term destination, albeit heading in the same general direction as your compass. Both your compass and your Sat Nav should be an expected and necessary part of any business growth journey.
It’s really important to have flexibility and agility in your business because if you’re only working from a fixed business plan, you may not be able to react to market changes or new opportunities that come your way. In essence, you’ll have ‘the blinkers on’ and may miss the right turning for growth.
The pandemic is a great example of an unexpected market change that impacted nearly every business in the world in some capacity. Agility, business pivots and new ways of working were essential for business stability during that time, all of which could never have been predicated as part of a business plan, but were absolutely essential for business survival.
So in summary, expect the unexpected and always be prepared to react, change and evolve in response to new circumstances or ideas.
As a business owner, you get to call the shots. As long as the decision you make is aligned to your business vision and brand strategy, there really are no rules as to how to play the business game. In fact, the entrepreneurs who dare enough to think differently and carve their own path are the ones who usually succeed.
So be brave.
Be bold.
Lean into your strengths and don’t be afraid to just do it anyway.
