Enthusiastically Self-Employed: business tips, marketing tips, and LinkedIn tips for coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, solopreneurs & small business owners

How to Stand Out in a Hyper-Messaged Marketplace with Orly Zeewy Ep 116

• Brenda Meller • Season 1 • Episode 116

Share episode

Ever wondered how to make your voice heard in a sea of constant noise? Join us as we sit down with Orly Zeewy, a fellow member of Innovation Women, who has mastered the art of helping solopreneurs and startups rise above their competition.

Links Mentioned:


Orly delves into the importance of owning your unique superpower and crafting a message that is more about your clients than yourself. She offers invaluable insights into why understanding your ideal audience is the cornerstone of any successful business. This isn't just about survival; it's about thriving by attracting the right audience through clear, compelling communication.

Throughout the conversation, we tackle the critical steps to refining your business messaging for genuine success. Orly emphasizes the necessity of thorough research before launching any venture and shares practical tools like Survey Monkey and Google Forms for gathering pivotal feedback. With startup failure rates being what they are, she underscores the importance of continuously honing your message to stay relevant in this hyper-competitive market. For those just starting out or looking to pivot, Orly’s advice could be the game-changer you’ve been waiting for.

In our final segment, we explore the fascinating role of AI tools like ChatGPT in enhancing both creativity and productivity. Orly provides a balanced perspective on how these tools can be incredibly useful, yet still require that irreplaceable human insight. She also walks us through her various brand-building packages tailored for solopreneurs and small businesses, including LinkedIn rebranding and workshops. Whether it’s mastering your pitch or harnessing the power of storytelling, discover how Orly’s expertise can help elevate your brand, while reminding us all of the timeless value of emotion, relatability, and humor in effective branding.

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE

LinkedIn "Power Hours" (Single Session, x4, x12)
Each package includes: 

  • LinkedIn consulting / coaching, personalized to your needs and focusing on your questions.
  • Review of LinkedIn profile / company page to provide guidance / advice / recommendations

https://www.mellermarketing.com/powerhour 

**************************************
My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

Visit mellermarketing.com

Let's connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendameller
(click MORE to invite me to connect and mention you listened to my podcast)

Speaker 1:

I'm delighted to be welcoming with me here today a very special guest, a fellow friend and member of Innovation Women, Orly Zui. Hey, Orly, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing great. It's so nice to be here, brenda, really looking forward to our conversation.

Speaker 1:

I am as well, and for those that are joining us, you can see the topic above. I'm going to read it out loud for those that are listening to the podcast here but it's how to stand out in a hyper-messaged marketplace, and I am super excited about this topic. Orly, before we jump in, though, I know a little bit about you through Innovation Women, but I'd love to give you the opportunity to tell our guests a bit about your business. So can you tell us what do you do, who do you help and what do you help them with?

Speaker 2:

So I like to say, I like to start out by saying I have one superpower I make fuzzy clear and the way that shakes out is that I help solopreneurs, founders, startups, clarify and communicate their zone of genius so they can attract more of their ideal clients and grow their business.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, very succinct, and you did it and I think you did exactly. You illustrated exactly what you just said.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, women are. Friday meetings have been a great way to really hone in on my pitch. But yes, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Do you do? And for people who aren't familiar with Innovation Women, it's a group that was created by Bobby Carlton because she saw a need for gender diversity among speakers and panels and things like that and she created this really great collaboration of women across the country actually across the world now that I'm thinking of it, but through the program, every Friday we do a Speaker Friends Friday and the first 15 minutes is introductions and it's like a 15 second introduction. So Orly was just practicing her introduction with us. I'll tag Bobbi at Innovation Women in Comments in case folks are interested in learning more.

Speaker 2:

I'm just saying hi to Bobbi just in the virtual world, because she's been such a great influence on all of us and what she's built has been just an amazing platform for speakers and authors.

Speaker 1:

Completely agree. And we're heading into the month of March and I think we've got International Women's Day coming up, so hopefully there's organizations thinking about booking women speakers throughout the year and not just in the month of March, because we're here. Excuse me, but at any rate I want to jump in and get back to our conversation early. So we're going to be talking today about how to stand out in a hyper-message marketplace and I just want to give you the floor. So what advice do you have for folks about standing out?

Speaker 2:

So first of all, let me paint the picture right. So the picture is this we are being messaged at and this is under, I'm under-representing this at the rate of 12,000 messages a day. Even at that underrepresented number, that translates more than 4 million messages a year. Just to give you the context, in 1985, that number was 1,500. So we have literally increased our messaging intake by more than 1,000%. And what that means is it means that we are, it's as if each of us is standing in the middle of Times Square hoping to be heard. Right, we are literally like and I use Times Square as my, it's been an image I've used for over a decade because it is the advertising capital of the world. It's literally the perfect storm of advertising, and if you were to stand in the middle of Times Square, you would be surrounded by more than 250, I think about 250 messages, and of those maybe you would see half, maybe, and remember only a handful. And that's because we identify with, we remember, we connect with the things that mean something to us, which are aligned either with our own mission, with our own vision, which have something to do with who we are and what we care about.

Speaker 2:

So all that to say that what I focus on is, first of all, in order to stand out, you need to first understand who you are. So when I work with my clients, the first thing we talk about is what's your superpower? And, interestingly enough and I have found this often to be a difficult thing to identify, because so many people don't even recognize their superpower and if you don't recognize your superpower, then how do you embrace it, how do you own it, how do you stand in that superpower and speak from that place? And so that's the first step. The second step is remember, it's not about you, right? It's not about you.

Speaker 2:

Even though you're speaking about you, what you're really doing is speaking about something that matters to the people that you are trying to connect with, your ideal clients. So if you don't understand who they are and if you don't understand what's keeping them up at night, then you really don't know how to message in a way that's going to get them to say wow, I need to talk to Brenda Meller, I need to talk to Orly Zeewee, because she gets it right, she gets my issue, and I know from my own experience and having worked with hundreds of startups, that the number one issue is. I don't know how to succinctly say what I do. I don't know how to attract my ideal clients. I don't know how to succinctly say what I do. I don't know how to attract my ideal clients. I don't know how to do that consistently.

Speaker 2:

And so the process is figure out who you are right, own your superpower, understand who your ideal client is and, more importantly, what's keeping them up at night. And then think about how to position what you do from the perspective of what do they get when they work with me. So it's who are you, who are they and what do they get and what typically happens. And the reason why it's so hard to stand out is that you sound like everybody else. And remember, you don't have a lot of time. And, by the way, one of the things I've loved I've actually been posting about this is that in 2000, the average human attention span was 12 seconds. I'm sorry, yeah Was 12 seconds, yes, 12 seconds, and today it's eight seconds. The average attention span of a goldfish is nine seconds.

Speaker 1:

So goldfish are getting better than humans at attention spans. That's a sad fact, Orly.

Speaker 2:

Very sad and, interestingly, as our intake has grown, our attention span has gone down, and on LinkedIn you don't even have 12 seconds. I've got maybe six seconds, maybe even less, on a homepage. When I land on your homepage, you have six seconds for me to make a go no-go decision, which is why, on your homepage, you want to make sure that you're actually giving somebody information that they want to learn more about. And here's the other mistake people make. They try to tell you everything. Oh my gosh, I have 12 seconds. Let me tell you everything about my business, right, and all that does is it shuts people down and they remember nothing. So instead, think in terms of you are leading somebody into a conversation. We do not buy. When me saying I do these things, that I help you clarify and communicate your zone of genius, they're not going to immediately say sign me up, let's do it right now. No, it's. The purpose of your pitch is to start the conversation and what you want to hear is tell me more.

Speaker 1:

You're really trying to engage them in the conversation and I love the point that you made about we try to put everything out there, and I see a lot of people, especially when they're just getting their business started. I don't want to miss anything, so let me tell you about everything I could possibly do. And then the person walks away and says I don't know what they do.

Speaker 1:

And you're like I just told you everything, so what's your advice for people they're struggling with? I need revenue, I need income, so I need to tell you about everything that I could possibly do. What's your advice for them?

Speaker 2:

So I know that sounds like that should be the right way to go about it, but that's actually the opposite of what you should be doing. That's why we go back to who's that client, and I don't mean just everybody, because, okay, yeah, maybe couldn't everybody use someone to help make their fuzzy clear? Sure, but if I try to talk to everybody on the planet, I would have no clients, because it's not how it works. So, understanding who that person is, and again going back to this idea of what's their pain point, what's the problem that you're trying to solve them? It doesn't mean that you can't down the road, do other things and help other people, but the goal is to be known for one thing that you do incredibly well, better than anyone else, right? And once you're known for that, then people are gonna say, oh, orly, you're an expert in helping startup build their brands. That's great, but hey, could you help me? Because we're struggling, we're still trying to figure out.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't mean I can't help other people, and I think that's the thing that people have to get over. That it doesn't mean that you will never do things for other people. It just means that, especially in the beginning, when you're trying to launch your startup and, by the way, the first step is you have to build brand awareness right, because brand awareness leads to brand loyalty, which eventually leads to brand equity, which is the value of your brand. So if you can't get people to remember who you are, they're not, they can't find you. If they can't remember you, they're not going to buy you. So you want to really be thinking and it's almost like you're reverse engineering the idea.

Speaker 2:

So, if I know that I'm helping, let's say, executives in large corporations who are doing a pivot from working at a corporation to starting a company, I need to understand that what they're really looking for. Yeah, they need to find clients right away, and that's true, they need to keep the lights on, but they also need to build a culture, ultimately, where they can bring other people into their company, because if you're looking to scale, you need to have the right people on your team. And, by the way, just FYI, the number two reason that startups fail is because they have the wrong team.

Speaker 1:

And that can be shocking and what they say. So many businesses fail within the first five years. And I don't know about you, orly, but even with my own business, when I got to the five-year market, it kind of came and went and I'm coming up on year seven right now and I'm like what's me doing? Because I didn't feel, didn't feel it. I definitely had highs, my highest of highs, and my oh my gosh, I can't believe this month happened. And then I've had I call them bad months, I call them soft months, months where, okay, things aren't quite where I'd like them to be. We did have a pandemic in the past few years. Let's not forget that. But I think it's also remaining relevant and also I think it's a little bit of a blend of what you offer and I love your point of what's your superpower and really doubling down on that but also knowing your audience. There's probably some people that are watching right now that are struggling with this concept of knowing their audience. Any thoughts or advice from them?

Speaker 2:

So, if you're just starting out, you may not know who your audience is, but you do know what you offer, and what I suggest is do some research, and I'm thinking of in my book. I interviewed 25 founders and one of the things that I found out is the ones who are successful are the ones who did the research before they launched, and we don't always, of course, have that option. But as much research as you can do, even among, like friends and family or people in your network, send them. You can send them a, an online questionnaire. Ask them three questions like what's your number one thing that you're struggling with, which is what I did, which is how I found out that the number one thing is I don't know how to say what I do in a quick way.

Speaker 1:

OK, so what do you use for that Is it. Do you use like a, like an online survey tool or a Google survey?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I like Survey Monkey. I know there's way more now that's what kind of what. When I started, that's what I was using Any kind of online survey that gives you analytics, because it's really nice to be able to look and see. Oh, 15 people answered and out of those, 10 of them said this. It gives you a sense of critical mass. But I've done it with Google as well Google Forms, and they've gotten more and more sophisticated.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they work, it works and this is all free. It doesn't have to be expensive At the beginning. Your time isn't really worth that much, right? When you're first starting, it's not until later that then it's become. Then hopefully you have a VA and somebody else who can do this for you. I did want to say, because you had mentioned about the failure of startups so it turns out that by year five, 70% of startups will fail. By year five, 70% of startups will fail. The good news, but there's good news yeah, the good news is, if you make it to year five, then your chances of success increase exponentially. But I believe it's like by year three it's I believe it's year three it's 20%, and by year five it's it's 50%. So altogether it's 70% by year five, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So seven out of 10 will fail by year five.

Speaker 1:

Is that right? And I sat right out trying to take it out because you're right in it, because I know some people are processing what we just said and sometimes it's helpful to see up on screen and that sounds right. It's a very high percentage and I was curious too, like when you were sharing those stats.

Speaker 1:

I'll continue to be successful, but what would you say about, as it relates to and we're here talking about how to stand out in a hyper message marketplace. Do we need to continually refine our message over time, or, once we have it, do we just keep doubling down on it? What do you think there?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question, brenda, and here's the thing a company, a brand, business, it's a living, breathing organism. So it's like asking do I dress my four-year-old the same way that my 16-year-old is going to walk out the door? It's all different. So it's what doesn't change. So here's the difference that what doesn't change is your core value, and your superpower does not change.

Speaker 2:

Now, as you grow again, depending on how big the company is but let's say you're still a solopreneur and maybe you have a couple people contractors they need to understand what your value prop is, and that's another thing that people don't spend enough time thinking about, which is why, by the way, by year three, they hit that wall because they've run out of referrals. If you're really focusing on referrals, you need to constantly offer ways for people to refer you as well, and that's where the messaging comes in. But the messaging can be tweaked, but it's still related to your superpower and the problem. You're still solving the same problem, but the problem expands, and so maybe, as you get larger, you have a different set of problems, but you're still there's still some very basic things that don't change, and as a company, as a brand, you don't want to constantly be changing your value proposition, because then people get confused about who you are.

Speaker 1:

True and I think about even for what I'm doing right now.

Speaker 1:

I serve multiple audiences and my my catchphrase and you've probably heard this on Innovation Women I help and I'm stopping because I'm like I'm gonna make sure I get it right for all of you my brain just jobs. We're solopreneurs and employees get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie, and I've at times I've said I think I'm only gonna do this group but like I'm only going to work with solopreneurs, but I really do love supporting people in career transition. So I don't want to walk away from that and maybe I don't talk about employees anymore. But I have team training, which I do team training on LinkedIn and that it's a very good market out there and I love doing it. I love being in front of corporate teams. So what I've always tried to do is like figure out what the common denominator is helping them get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie. And then it's the who do I serve, and I think that can work well as long as it makes sense like how you serve them.

Speaker 2:

Would you agree with that or would you suggest anything? So tell me again who are the audiences that you served?

Speaker 1:

You said solopreneurs, and I'm with job seekers solopreneurs and employees get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

Speaker 2:

Okay, this is again you're just kidding my my take on this right, I'll touch you, mom.

Speaker 1:

This is like really on the fly. I'm in the hot seat and I'm open. Please open the feed, okay.

Speaker 2:

Cause I, you know, I'm always very careful, cause you never know how some people, how they, feel about this. But for me, like a solopreneur versus an employee is a really different thing and I think a slice of the pie. Personally, I think for an employee, that doesn't resonate because employees just need to be on LinkedIn, but their purpose is to actually help elevate their company's brand. And to me, like getting a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie, that makes sense for a solopreneur and someone who is looking for a new position, because they need to connect with HR directors and people looking to hire, looking for talent, and I think it's what 90% 9 out of 10 HR directors go to LinkedIn to find talent. I think it's about that, and 8 out of 10 new business for B2B business comes from LinkedIn.

Speaker 2:

Yeah true, yeah, and.

Speaker 1:

I hear what you're saying too and I'm always like, open to the feedback. But you've been self-employed. For how many years have you been working for yourself? Now 25 years. So I want to make sure that feedback, because you're saying I'm not sure if that makes sense as an employee, but you've been a solopreneur for so many years. Like I'm curious if there's anyone watching who is an employee of an organization, does that statement make sense for you?

Speaker 2:

We'll do a little mini survey during this. There you go. Why not? Why not? If you could do a poll? If we were on Zoom, we could do a poll right now.

Speaker 1:

Actually, you have inspired me early. I'm going to do a poll on LinkedIn later this week and I will put that statement out there and I will ask people does this make sense to you and, if so, which audience do you identify with? And I'll put job seeker, solopreneur or employee and I'll see what the poll results come in at. But I think it's important, as we're talking through, and we're here talking today about how to stand out in a hyper-message marketplace. But I think we, as small business owners and solopreneurs, we need to be open to feedback. What I did just right there is I made myself vulnerable. I'm talking to Orly, who is an expert in messaging and communications. Why wouldn't I ask her? Why wouldn't I ask her, when she's here sitting next to me, for any feedback? I think that's an important thing to do.

Speaker 1:

What I'd like to do now, orly, if it's okay, is we're going to open the floor for the audience and bring them into the conversation. And, guys, we've got Orly with us here today. So say, guys and ladies, gentlemen and ladies, we have Orly with us here today. If you do have any questions for her about your message out there in the marketplace or how to stand out in this hyper message marketplace. Feel free to drop your questions into comments below.

Speaker 1:

I'm buying a little bit of time here because it takes about 30 seconds from the time that I say it until they hear it, and then another 30 seconds to a minute as they're typing in the responses. But I don't want you to be shy about getting into the conversation, or if you have any data or other stats you'd like to share with us, feel free to do so. I'm going to pull up one comment to start us off here. This is coming from Michelle. Hey, michelle, thanks so much for watching. Michelle says Orly, I like to tie back to the value and superpower as you focus to constantly change the message.

Speaker 2:

Orly would you like to add anything on to that? Yeah, I think again always. The value proposition, by the way, for me is more of like how we do business, and so if you think about the value proposition, this is, I'm sorry. The core value is how we do business. And so if you think about the value proposition, this is I'm sorry. The core value is how we do business and your value proposition is what differentiates you, the difference. You have to really be front and center. So I'm always on. This is part of why you always have to look outside. You can't just always assume that everything stays the same. So, yes, in terms of changing the message, there's also the culture around you that changes, so words have different meanings, and so, as society changes, as cultural norms change, you have to be aware that is your message still resonating, Because sometimes a message that worked 10 years ago may be offensive today or may not really connect with people in the way that you want them to.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's a really great distinction, because we don't. We're not static as a society and things are growing and evolving and even things, trends, are impacting things nowadays, and, gosh, I can't tell you how many conversations I've had over the past few weeks alone about AI and chat, gpt and all these other tools.

Speaker 1:

What are your thoughts there on using some of those tools? I'm going to ask you that what are your thoughts on using the AI and the ChatGPT and there's a bunch of different ones? Angela Pitter was on with me a few weeks ago. We were talking about some of the different technologies. What are your thoughts on that, especially for people that are maybe struggling with their brand message?

Speaker 2:

So here's the thing If you're struggling with your brand message, I don't think that chat GPT can help as much as if you're trying to clarify your message right. There's a difference. So if I'm trying to come up with a whole new thing, you're asking a bot to help you come up with what's important to you and help you identify your value proposition, and that's that's really why I developed this whole process. And for me, the, when I work with Chad GPT which I do it's only to help me jumpstart my ideas, but not necessarily to tell me what to say. It also doesn't tell me how to build my brand. It doesn't tell me how to attract my ideal clients, what it can do, and maybe it will. Maybe in some I will become obsolete. I'll have to find something else to do.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I'm hoping that people always need someone to help them make their fuzzy clear. But the key for me is in what five seconds I can get 20 different ways to say something. And that's great. When I am, I just need to expand my, my headspace and think about how can I say this differently. And so I do use it for that reason, especially when I'm trying to come up with a title, because in fact I just I just I'm posting one today, another article, and so the idea of coming up with a title that's going to resonate, and sometimes you get some really great ideas. So I'm not saying don't use it. I think it's a wonderful tool.

Speaker 1:

Just be aware of its limitations about this AI and chat, gpt and all these other tools, and the analogy was think about it like a calculator. You still have to understand math because you can input numbers and it will calculate and give you something, but you have to understand. Does that logical, does it make sense, and do you? Can you plug it back through to make sure? Because you don't just want an answer, you want something that makes sense for your business, and I see we did have a question come in from Tony. Thanks so much for watching here, tony. And Tony is asking how do you get into an industry and he's saying film production industry where the message doesn't matter as much as the messenger? Can you challenge Tony on that, because I think the message is still important? Orly, what do you think? Any thoughts?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm sorry, tony, thank you for that question, but I am going to push back in the sense that the messenger is only as good as the message that they're delivering. So even though the messengers and I'm thinking that you mean like using an influencer or movie star or somebody who has 5 million followers on TikTok or what have you I'm assuming that's what you mean but there's still a message there. They're not just standing there saying a bunch of nonsense. So I do think that it's important to always have because, again, here's the flip side of this having the right message helps you attract the right messenger.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a good point. By the way, tonyony, I want to just point out your little gray, your gray headshot photo here. I'm seeing it on linkedin as well and I want to make sure, tony, that there's a setting inside of linkedin that you can adjust so that we can see your photo through stream yard. It's through the third party tools or it might be your public profile settings. If you need some help with that, tony, visit profile, click on more and connect with me, and then I'll send you a link to figure that out. Little sidebar there. All right, I see our friend Annette Richmond, but Annette is sharing that she loves Chachi Beauty for brainstorming outlining and other ways to say stuff, and it sounds like that's the case for you as well.

Speaker 1:

Maybe just for brainstorming is how you're using it early.

Speaker 2:

And I love that because it's like you have another tool to help you brainstorm without having to be in a group of people and brainstorm. It's a kind of a shortcut to brainstorming. So yes, I totally agree with you on that. That's a good point.

Speaker 1:

I'm curious are you using ChatGPT or are you using other? I think they're all similar in terms of the different softwares that are out there early, but are you using ChatGPT? I?

Speaker 2:

am. It was the first and it just became the de facto leader because it was. That doesn't always happen. Sometimes the the tools that are the apps or whatever that becomes the most well used, are not necessarily the first one because you work out all the bugs or whatever. But when you have something that's so different, like an ai bot helping you with content, they were just there right there in the beginning and so that's, I think, most people. It might even become generic like Kleenex. It could be that chat GPT will just become that's AI. That's usually what happens.

Speaker 1:

It may get a lot easier because, as we're referring to these tools, sometimes I'll say AI tools we're referring to these tools, sometimes I'll say AI tools, and sometimes we are referring to tools like ChatGPT, but other times, like, ai tools can refer to things like Grammarly, and if anyone has used Grammarly, you type something, in a lot of times when I'm working with clients, they'll be typing something in on their profile and Grammarly like fixes it or offers suggestions right away, and that really is an AI tool. And we've been accepting of these tools all along. They're getting smarter and more refined and I think we as consumers and as business owners are starting to get more comfortable with them. I think it would make it a lot easier for us really, from a brand perspective. We could just Kleenex, the chat cheapy team.

Speaker 2:

Annette also says that she's hearing a lot about perplexity AI, which I have to say is not a great name. That's a really hard name to say. I wonder how. I bet they're gonna change it down the road.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have a nice line on that, but thank you for shouting out and, by the way, if anyone else is watching, if you're hearing of other tools that are coming on the scene in the chat GPT bucket, feel free to drop them in. We have another question from Michelle Orley for a person who has interest in two different career areas. How would you message on LinkedIn? Or is it as simple as pick one and stay with it? What do you think?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question, michelle. Thank you for that. So I need to know what the two career areas, because sometimes, even though they're different career areas, they are in the same industry or there's some common thread that you can focus on. So it's a little hard for me to answer not knowing that. But I think what's important is, on LinkedIn, to have you can message on one but talk about the other, like you could have in a way, that's you've got a whole profile right and I'm just thinking right now we're just looking at the header, the kind of what I call the brand identity panel, which is your header, and then your title and then, of course, your headshot. So those three things are the first thing people see, and so you might want to focus on the more dominant one. I'm wondering is one of them more dominant right, or one that and which is the one that you would really like to speak to? And again, I think for me the important thing is and this is also how I thank you for bringing up my profile, brenda, because the way I look at this is at the very top that banner tells me something. It tells me that this is somehow Orly talks about something to do with how to stand out in a noisy world. Now, if I don't care about that, I'm probably not going to keep reading, but it gives you a sense of what's coming.

Speaker 2:

I think what a lot of time what people do is they try to again, they try to tell you everything, and I think of everything in terms of a conversation. So we read in this culture top to bottom. So at the top there's a, there's an image of Times Square, there's a message, there's a kind of a tagline, if you will, and then then there's really what I do. What do I do? I take your messaging from fuzzy to clear so you can attract more of your ideal clients and grow your business. That's the goal, right? So it's not because I love making fuzzy clear, right? I think sometimes people think, oh, they just want to show how passionate they are, and the reality is, I don't really care about that. I care about what happens when I work with you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it, and I love that you're illustrating on your LinkedIn profile the very same concepts that we're talking about, and I love even how you have that tagline is incorporated as a part of your headline Such a great thing. Are you open to folks connecting with you early? Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would love to yeah, absolutely. Just when you do connect with me, please tell me how you, how we met. Mention Brenda's LinkedIn Live so I know where you came from.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, and I'm just going to spell her name for those that are listening to the podcast later. It's O-R-L-Y-Z-E-W-Y. I will have the link inside the show notes so you can check that out as well. And as we start to wrap up our conversation here, I know that we had talked about this a little bit earlier, but tell us a little bit about your business and people who are interested in working with you. Tell us a little bit about the services that you offer, or even as a speaker, what are some of your signature talks all about?

Speaker 2:

So if you go to elevate your brand, that actually has my actually you don't have to, but that's where my services are. Yeah, elevate your brand, because for me, everything I do is about elevating your brand, because if I elevate your brand and more people know about it and that's part of what in terms of in terms of being successful, people need to know who you are. So I have I have a package specifically for small businesses, for new businesses, which is a brand building for solopreneurs and small businesses. I do a LinkedIn rebrand. That's really about the, about the profile itself, not so much about the engagement.

Speaker 2:

I know you you and I both do some work on LinkedIn but this is really more about that LinkedIn rebrand process which I'm actually doing with a client now. That actually helps them identify who they are, who they work with and what those people get. So we just today, literally just today, right before I got on our podcast here, I was working with a client to help them take all the stuff that's in their resume, all the stuff they've ever done, and identify what is this thing and how do you use your experience to help people understand who you are and what you do? And so that's the second one, and then I also do day long, half day and day long workshops for organizations where the goal there is to get everybody aligned under a shared vision and at the end of the day you have your key messages, because ultimately, it's not just about understanding who you are and who they are, but you need to be able to then message around it in a way that somebody gets this and says, oh yeah, this is something we really need to do.

Speaker 1:

And then I want to yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry, oh sorry. I wanted to apologize when we were first on her homepage. Did you all notice what just happened there? She was like if you go to elevate your brand and I was thinking you were wanting me to go to another site elevate your brand you know landing page.

Speaker 1:

I'll say that next time when you're hosting and you're piloting and co-piloting. I'm trying to. Can I keep the show running? Listen to the audience, watch for the comments. In your brain. Sometimes it just goes one trend and I'm like I heard elevate your brand and in my mind I thought you said elevate your brandcom. And then I thought, oh, did she tell me to load that one up? And then I felt embarrassed because we did in the pre-show. She gave me all these links and I had them all loaded. I'm like I don't have a load. And then I realized after you were talking that you had a tab on your website called elevate your brand. And the reason I share this right now, orly, is I like to show people I'm a real life person. I have learning experiences. I don't make mistakes. I have learning experiences.

Speaker 1:

And this is a learning experience for me when my guest is talking, read what's on the page instead of just hearing outline inside of there. At any rate, I did pull up it's a zoobrandscom is the webpage and then slash brand packages or when you click on elevate your brand, you can get on into there. I was going it's fine.

Speaker 2:

It's fine, brenda, ever since the pandemic. I will say that I think we have all gotten to the point where we get that we're all humans, we have our learning experiences, we have our challenges and it's okay. That's how we all learn and grow. I did want to say one thing, which is that, in terms of my speaking, if you go on my website, if you scroll all the way down, there's a whole speaking schedule. Then there's a page that has all the speaking, so it'll tell you it actually will tell you where I've spoken and some of the titles, that different things that I've talked about, and so what is here for today Look at that You're there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I actually have two more coming up this month which I need to upload. But mastering your pitch, which I call switch the pitch, which is really about understanding the difference between a sales pitch and an elevator pitch. So that's when I do a lot on I talk about in product for product. We did a whole segment on naming and how to know if you have the right name. If you scroll down, oh yeah. If you scroll down a little bit more, oh. How to avoid death by PowerPoint, oh, okay.

Speaker 1:

So these are just showing some of the topics that.

Speaker 2:

And then and yeah, and basically, I mean I also talk about storytelling and how do you storytelling to elevate your brand? Because we're humans and we love stories and we relate to stories. So anyhow, yeah, there's, there are some of the topics there.

Speaker 1:

You know you might run into somebody who's looking for a speaker and I want you to kind of plant that seed in your brain right now about Orly and some of the topics that she just talked about.

Speaker 1:

And we're here today talking about how to stand out in a hyper message marketplace, and you do work with small business owners and with solopreneurs and helping them with that process, but it sounds like you also work with organizations as well as speaking at conferences and events to help them, and I think this is a time pack that will never go away. You're not going to think you're ever going to be replaced by AI and chat, gpp and all these tools, because we still need human beings. We still bring emotion, we bring the ability to versionize our message for the audience to make it relatable. We bring humor. There's a lot of things that we as humans can do that AI cannot, so I think our value is definitely still out in the marketplace as we start to wrap up our conversation. Orly, if people are interested in working with you, the best place to go is to your website.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you can go to my website and on my website you can actually download. One of the things I offer as a freebie is 10 tips to build your personal brand, so you can download that. Join my email list, then you can, and you can, and at the end of that list you can book a discovery call, which is a complimentary 20-minute discovery call.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there you go and I'll make sure to drop those both into the comments on LinkedIn and we'll put those links into the show notes for folks that are interested. Thank, you.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that. Before we wrap, I just wanted to shout out, give a shout out to Christopher, my buddy, christopher Johnson, and so nice to see you on here.

Speaker 1:

It's so fun to see when your friends know each other. I'm like Christopher. I feel like when you Christopher back and we're both in Metro Detroit and he and I met originally through Toastmasters International, he was like a. I think he was a judge at a contest I was competing in and we've continued to weave in and out of each other's professional lives and we've been to events together, but it's, I feel, like all the nice, cool people are connected, so it makes me happy to know Christopher as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I don't remember. I know that we connected through a member of Innovation Women and I don't know we just I actually he has this great free ask me anything about Zoom. Yeah, cnn, I know he's fabulous and he will answer your Zoom questions and it's been super helpful. So that's something. I wanted to just give a little shout out to Christopher on that.

Speaker 1:

Christopher Johnson is doing an office hour. This has become the Christopher Johnson hour right now.

Speaker 2:

Just so you all know, I believe it's.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure if it's once a month or once a week, but I have it on my calendar. It's on Thursday, so it must be the first Thursday of the month. 530 to 630. Christopher, we're making it up as we go.

Speaker 2:

You're welcome to put the link in the chat.

Speaker 1:

Christopher, I'm giving a shout chat because everybody's like getting to these office hours, so feel free to drop the link. And but I think, like orly, you and I are very similar in that we we have an abundance mentality. We believe in social media karma, we believe in sprinkling out names of our friends and connections, and we know that we all achieve more by supporting and building up each other. I think that's a blessing to share. Yes, absolutely Awesome. So, as we wrap up our conversation today, I just want to thank everyone who's been joining us and who's been watching us today and, if you have enjoyed this conversation, I want you to do us a favor.

Speaker 1:

As soon as you're done watching, you're going to see at the bottom of the video a share symbol. It might say like repost or share, but I do want you to click on that and share that along on LinkedIn, and this is a really great technique, especially if you have not yet posted in the past week, in the past month or, gosh, in the past year. You haven't posted in a long time. Go ahead and get started.

Speaker 1:

No time like the present and getting more message out there to the marketplace and share and tell people why they should watch the playback here. When you do, make sure that you tag Orly and myself and to tag remember, use that little at symbol and start typing in our names until you see it appear in the dropdown and then we'll get notified that you tagged us in and we will add a thoughtful comment back there as well. If you enjoyed the discussion, we'd love your comments as well, so feel free to drop those into chat and Orly. As we wrap up, any final suggestions or thoughts for people on how to stand out in a hyper-message marketplace.

Speaker 2:

I think, like I said, I feel like the first thing is you need to know what makes you different. Thing is you need to know what makes you different and try to stay away from generic language like coach, consultant, strategist. We don't know what that means, so try to think about how can you get more focused on again, because if you really focus on who that person is and what you're helping them to do, it will be a lot easier to understand, right? So I call myself a facilitator of light bulb moments because ultimately, that is what happens when you make your fuzzy clear. I literally it's. I watched the light bulb going off in someone's mind and that, and I love that. That's part of why I enjoy so much doing this work. And I could call myself a brand consultant and most people would be like eh, so think about your title as this, almost like a little door that you can open into. Oh, this is something interesting. It makes me curious. I want to learn more about you. So that's the tip I would leave you with.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Great advice and I'm so glad that we had this chance to have the conversation today. My gears are already turning and I'm thinking like there's some people I could refer to you who maybe aren't as clear in their brand message. I just like to wait if they ask me, if they say can you help me with this? I really do specialize in LinkedIn, just really building LinkedIn profiles and training people how to use the platform more effectively. But coming into that, they need to have a brand message and sometimes they don't have that clearly articulated and I wish I had more folks I could refer them out to. So now I know you early and I'll be able to send them your way. Thank you, brenda.

Speaker 2:

And actually I have somebody else going to refer to you for cause they really need help just getting started on LinkedIn and I think that you would be a really great resource for them. So there you go.

Speaker 1:

See, it's a referral party over here we're referring. Thank you so much. Will I see you on the Friday? Speaker friends Friday this week, I don't know yet.

Speaker 2:

I think so, but I know I've got a couple of things coming up on Fridays, but hopefully I will see you there. Yeah, I always try to. I try to make it because I really enjoy seeing my old buddies, my old Friday friends, speaker friends on Friday mornings.

Speaker 1:

Likewise, we will try to see you there on Friday and I'll drop the link to the show in the chat as well for folks to watch it Early. Thank you so much for being on. We really do appreciate you today. It's been really fun. All right guys, with that said, stay safe and be nice to each other out there, and we will see all of you on LinkedIn.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Brenda Meller

Host