Speaking and Communicating Podcast

Speaking and communicating podcast focuses on improving your communication skills

>> Tanya Eberhardt: So we need to make sure that whatever that point or points of differentiation are that we come up with and say, hey, this is what Roberta wants to be known for. We need to make sure that that is really significant and meaningful to your ideal customers. And when you nail those two things, that's really the beginning of. Okay, we're ready to develop this brand now.

>> Robert Sandleila: Welcome back to the speaking and communicating podcast. I am your host, Robert and Leila. If you are looking to improve your communication skills, both professionally and personally, personally, this is the podcast you should be tuning into. Communication and soft skills are, uh, crucial for your career growth and leadership development. Now, in this exciting month of May, we have an amazing lineup of guests for you. On Mondays, our special guests will be helping us with our inner communication. On Wednesdays, we have public speaking experts helping us with becoming better public speakers. And on Fridays, our guests will be showing us how to reach global audiences. So stay tuned, share these episodes with those who will benefit from them, and log on to Apple and Spotify and leave us a rating and a review.

Roberta Kaplan welcomes Tanya Eberhardt and Michael Carr to the podcast

Now let's get communicating.

>> Robert Sandleila: Now let's get communicating with Tanya Eberhardt and Michael Carr, who are, uh, co founders of Brand Face LLC, which is a personal branding company that is focused on coaches, consultants, and experts to become sought after authorities in their industry. Since this is a communication focused podcast, we will hear so much about how you can brand yourself and communicate your brand to the rest of the world from these experts. And before I go any further, please help me welcome them to the show. Hi, Tanya. Hi, Michael.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Hi, Roberta. Thank you so much.

>> Michael Carr: Hello. Hello, hello. We're so excited to be here.

>> Robert Sandleila: My absolute pleasure. And I'm excited that you guys are here. It's not always that I have a couple that is on the show, so this is going to be a really interesting conversation going back and forth between the three of us. So welcome.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Uh, thank you so much. Yes, it is unusual for a lot of people, but I look at that as one of our main points of.

>> Robert Sandleila: Differentiation, which you will share with us how we can differentiate ourselves as well, right?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Yes, ma'am.

>> Robert Sandleila: Absolutely.

Give us your background before the work part, if that's okay

Now, please give us your background. And when I always ask that question, people jump to work. Please don't do that yet. People want to know, do you love pizza? Have you been anywhere else in the world? People want to know the human part before the work part, if that's okay.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And we just discovered, um, before we hit the live button, that we are probably only about an hour, maybe an hour and a half apart. Uh, so you're south of Atlanta. We're north of Atlanta. I actually grew up in Dawsonville, Georgia, which is a small town in a little farther north from where we are now in Jefferson. And, um, that little small town was known for making moonshine and starting the stock car racing industry. So a little bit of tidbit about my background. A lot of my family members were actually in the moonshine trade, and that goes back a long, long ways. And including my grandma and my grandpa, were both in the moonshine business. And so another little cool tidbit. I know you said not to launch into career just yet, but I have to add this because it's very unusual. Roberta. Once I came out of high school, I started selling vacuum cleaners door to door and paid my way through college doing that. As far as personal, I'm a big adventurist. You know, Michael and I, we love to travel. We love going to all different parts of the world. We love getting in the car and not knowing where we're going to end up. We're big campers, kayakers, hikers, cyclists. We, uh, just love getting outside and enjoying new adventures. So that's a little bit about me.

>> Robert Sandleila: Absolutely wonderful. Michael, your turn.

>> Michael Carr: Yeah. I was raised in Gwinnett, north Gwinnett, a little town called Hog Mountain. Now it's called Hamilton Mill. About the time I was a senior in high school, they developed that property, and they, um, Fred couples designed the golf course, and they refused to call it Hog Mountain. So we changed. They changed it to Hamilton.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Can you believe him?

>> Michael Carr: And, uh, I live a little bit further north than that now. In Jackson county, in Jefferson. I came up here, like, 2006. Not much to say about me personally, other than, you know, I've been a serial entrepreneur all my life. I'm a, um, bit of a rebel. I'm an auctioneer by trade. That's how I got started in my professional career and did, uh, that right out of high school. Had an opportunity to be an engineer. But I didn't want to be an engineer. I told my mom I wanted to be an auctioneer. She cried and said, how you going to make a living? And now we look back and laugh at that and stuff. Um, and like Tanya said, uh, we're outdoors people, so we just love anything to do with water, kayaking, skiing. I, uh, like rabbit hunting, things like that. So we like riding side by sides. Motorcycles, four wheelers. That's about it.

>> Robert Sandleila: So. So all Georgia natives, I never heard of rabbit hunting. It's interesting that both of you have had this entrepreneurial spirit.

Selling is something that most people are afraid of or skeptical about

Like I said, tanya, as you finished high school, you started selling, which is something that the majority of the world population is, I don't know, should say afraid of or just we are skeptical about selling. What is it about selling that gets us so worked up?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Oh, my gosh. That's such a great question. I always wondered that. And what I teach our clients, because, you know, we build the brand, which, uh, we'll get to in a moment. We build it to be profitable, and then they freeze, like, you know, deer in headlights. It's like, sells who? Who sell? Do I have to sell? It's like we're all selling. We are all, in effect, sells people for what we do. But I try to teach them it's not really about selling something. It's about having a conversation about how you can help somebody achieve a, uh, goal that they're trying to achieve. And that's simply it. I tell people, I don't sell. I provide you options. So if there's a way that I can help you, I'll give you a couple of different options about how I can help you get that goal accomplished. And if that works, great. If not, hey, we leave today as friends, and we just met a new friend. So that's the way I look at it anyway.

>> Robert Sandleila: That sounds so much better. I provide you with options to see if any of them can solve your problem. And if not, we stay friends rather than buy my stuff. Otherwise, please, please, please. You know, would you agree that some of these does come up that way and that's why we're afraid to do it? Because I don't want to sound desperate for a sale.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Oh, yes. Yeah. Desperation is something everybody's afraid of.

>> Michael Carr: Yeah, I think so. And I think that people look at sales like, um, there's a different way of saying what Tanya said is, you know, I'm trying to convince somebody to do something, and I find the older I get, especially people are already convinced of what they're going to do. They're looking for that person that agrees with that. You know what I mean? They already know. I mean, most of us know very intelligent, and, uh, you know, they can figure out what it is that they want to do. They may not know this step, that step, the next step to get there, but they're already convinced of what they want to do. So it sales people that take it on that, well, I've got to convince somebody to do it my way, or I've got to convince somebody you're approaching it wrong. Right. Off the bat, I think, uh, whoever you're talking to on the other side always has something, a goal that they want to accomplish. And your job is to, if you can, help them with that accomplishment, and you'll find that that's the easiest sales ever. Right.

>> Robert Sandleila: I.

Brenface was one of the first people in the radio industry to have website

So how did Brenface get started?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: After my stint in vacuum cleaner sales, I did that for about three years, and then I actually sold a vacuum cleaner to a guy who was an engineer at a radio station. And he said, you should really apply for a job in sales for the radio station that I work for. And so I did. And let's say fast forward 18 years later, I was still in the media world. This was before brand face was born. Early on, Roberta, in the media world, I noticed right away, I mean, if you can imagine getting the door slammed in your face over and over again, trying to sell vacuum cleaners in somebody's home, well, I thought that was bad enough, but it actually got worse when I got to the media world because I was young. I was maybe in my early twenties by that time. And when you're in your early twenties, all the really professional business owners want from you is really a, uh, free lunch or tickets to the big game, because they don't think you know anything else, right? They don't think you have anything else to offer. Well, I was determined to make sure that I knew my craft and that I could offer solutions. And I had a creative mind and I knew how to position myself, so I began to do that. I was one of the first people in the radio industry to have my own website in the United States. And so that was my first foray into positioning myself really well. It worked really well for me. And so I thought, well, gosh, if this works for me, why can't I do this for my clients? So I began choosing my clients, selectively, bringing them into the studio one at a time, helping them craft their message, tell their story, make it compelling. And then along the way, local celebrities began to emerge, local business celebrities. And that's really the fuel behind brand face. So 18 years of doing that in the media world, and that common thread was really my strength, was personal branding. And so one day in 2012, I sat myself down and said, hey, it's time to do something new. What do you really, really love? And personal branding was at the top of the list. And so that's where brand face came from.

>> Robert Sandleila: When you started with your own website, they weren't this common as they are now.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Absolutely not. It was in 1997 or eight. I think I purchased my first computer in 1995. PCs at the time. They were ahead of Macs at the time, pretty much. They were beginning to be personal computers put into homes in the mid nineties and so forth on a mass basis. It began around that timeframe. They were fairly big computers.

>> Robert Sandleila: I remember I started my first corporate job in 95. You remember dos, the black screen with the screen where it's going?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Ms Dos.

>> Robert Sandleila: Yes, Ms Dos. So, yes, that's when I started my first job as well. But for you to have the foresight, to think, to distinguish myself, I need a website. When it wasn't this common to go online to look for information of someone, how did you have that foresight?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: I lived amongst some technical people and I thought, hmm, this sounds pretty interesting. Uh, this is a way that I can set myself apart and showcase, not necessarily me, but what I can do for clients. And that's one thing we teach people about personal branding, too. Personal branding is not about look at me, look at me. It's look what I can do to help you. And so that's really what the website was centered on. And it was just one piece of the puzzle. But it was a unique piece of the puzzle, because almost nobody in the radio industry had one of those at that point in time. It wasn't that people didn't have websites, but very few in the radio industry had any, including radio station. Radio stations were just beginning to build websites at that point in time. And so it became a credibility tool for me. Much like writing a book becomes a credibility tool for a lot of people. And we did that. We wrote a few books together. But around that timeframe, that's what I needed. I realized if I wanted people to view me differently, I had to change the way I presented myself. And that's what we all have the ability to do, is change the way we present ourselves.

>> Robert Sandleila: Right. And how do you present yourself differently, Michael?

>> Michael Carr: Great question. So a little bit of background with me. I met Tanya, um, because I opened up a real estate brokerage in Jefferson with a lady. It turned out to be her aunt. And then right after we opened up the broker, she's like, hey, our marketing is horrific and we need help. And you need to talk to my niece, which is Tonya. I was traveling all over the country at the time as an auctioneer and a real estate broker. And we were selling off the Bear Stearns residential portfolio when they went under. And I ended up licensing 30 something states. Had an office in Irvine, California, Seattle, Washington, uh, New York, Dallas, Texas, here in Atlanta, we were all over the place. When we finished all of that work, I came back and bought a piece of property. She said, let's open up his brokerage together. This was 20 1010, 1112, actually. And so when Tanya finally reached out to me, she, uh, hired her for my marketing agent, right? And what she sold me was marketing, but what she taught me was branding. And I didn't know it at the time, but she had. There's many, many years, uh, two decades worth of formalizing what personal branding looked like and the difference that it makes in any service industry. So it worked so fantastically for me because the way that she showcased the. Why I did what I did, the experience level that I had over the past 20 years, how that applied to the brokerage, to the local people that I would be reaching out, uh, to my clients, how she showcased that to differentiate me from all the other realtors that were also still in business in town. And it wasn't like it is now, but we still. There were a lot of real estate agents still survived the mortgage debacle, and we're still in business. And so differentiation has always been a massive key. And then I began to see how that works so well. Our business quadrupled the first year. It's nearly doubled every year since. There's only been one year in the past 13 that we did not surpass or double the year that we did before. We've, uh, run the 22 agents now all across the Atlanta marketplace. If you look at Atlanta like a pie, we cover everything but the southeast corner. And the only reason we don't do that is because it's just hard to get down there from traffic. As you know, living here, traffic has just gotten worse and worse and worse and worse. As everybody figures out how great Atlanta is and Georgia is. A light bulb went off with me, and I went, man, this differentiation thing, like, really works. And so I was lucky enough that she asked me to join the company, and I did. I joined the company, helped her write the sale book, uh, which was focused directly on real estate agents. And then we wrote another one for entrepreneurs. We wrote another one for home improvement. So then we moved to consultants, coaches, you know, anybody that is an expert in their field, because the differentiation that you have to do to show yourself is different than everybody else, uh, is the key to how you stand out.

The way you showcase yourself is like a book cover

And so, like, Tanya taught me that the way you showcase yourself is like a book cover. And if we all just sort of look at our podcasts, our speaking, our other books that we've written our expert material, our stages, we want to get on. If we look at those things like a book cover and everybody else's a book cover, how does your client know I want to read that book? And that's sort of the best way to try to formalize the difference that what a difference differentiation makes. Because when you went into Barnes and noble years ago to pick out what book you wanted to, what did you do? You went to the section that you thought that you wanted to read. You look at the spine, you look at the color. There's all these elements that have got to catch your eye to say, well, you know what? Let me pull that book off the shelf and then let me open it up. Oh, let me read the prefix. Oh, I like that. What this book is going to be about. Okay, well, maybe I'll look for another one. People do that exact same thing when they're looking for the expert they want to work with. Right now, we keystroke it straight to Google or I, another search engine, and we look for the person that's got the knowledge that we're looking for, and it's at our disposal. But if you haven't worked on your brand to dial that in, then you're going to be this passed over for somebody else that has worked on their personal brand.

>> Robert Sandleila: Exactly. Differentiate yourself.

There are five critical questions that every great brand must answer

Tanya, you spoke of messaging your story, which is a really big one, especially when most people think, I don't have a story, or my story is not interesting enough. I haven't been through trauma, or if I've lived for 48 years, how do I know which part to pick in my story that makes it a story? So how do you do any of that?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: There's a couple of different things that I'd love to teach your audience. One is there are five critical questions that every great brand must answer. Inside the brand messaging. It is exactly who do you serve? How do you serve them? What qualifies you to serve them? How does it make their life better? And what makes you different from everyone else who is also trying to serve that same customer? So once those things are answered definitively, very clearly, concisely, uniquely. Right. Then you have the foundation for building your brand. So we start there with everybody. Then we take a look in the very early stages of the branding. It's like, how do you know which one of those things to pick? Right? So it's a magic formula, right? It is really, who are your ideal customers? What are their challenges and needs? So when you know that very clearly, which is one of the first steps you need to know, like, who is it that we're trying to attract? Then we take a look at our clients points of differentiation. And you nailed it, Roberta. Not everybody has multiple points of differentiation. There's not just one thing that makes us unique. So the magic formula is kind of the bridge that's built between the two. So if we say, okay, Roberta wants to be known for a, but your ideal customer wants b and c, well, then we've built a bridge to nowhere, right? So we need to make sure that whatever that point or points of differentiation are that we come up with and say, hey, this is what Roberta wants to be known for. We need to make sure that that is really significant and meaningful to your ideal customers. And when you nail those two things, that's really the beginning of, okay, we're ready to develop this brand now based on that foundation, just on that point.

>> Robert Sandleila: Because a lot of people struggle with this. You know how they say, speak as if you are in Tania's brain. If she's your ideal customer, how do I know? So, if I'm on point a, but Tanya's thinking of point b and c, how do I know what's in her brain to position myself?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: That's a great question. So, a lot of times when we're working with people, they have the experience and the history already in working with those ideal customers. And they say, okay, I know a lot of the pain points because they've shared those pain points with me. They've shared some of the things that they're looking for out of an expert or a professional like me. And so that's one thing is looking at the experience and what people are seeking to solve their problems. The other thing is, if you don't know that, let's just say you're just starting out. If you don't know that, ask. That's why social media. That's why we have, like, hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of followers, right. We post a question, we ask, we figure out, what is the main challenge that you face as blank, and people will absolutely share that with you. Third thing you can do is go to AI, pop it in, and it will give you several different sources and answers about what does this industry or people in this industry who do this, what challenges do they have in common, and what are they seeking solutions for? And you'll absolutely find it. A lot of times, it'll be expert information or research that's shared by maybe an association that represents that industry or something. So there's three different ways, right? There, Roberta, that you can find out what people are seeking and where the problems lie.

>> Robert Sandleila: Mhm.

Michael has sold more properties than any other real estate broker or auctioneer

And let's use Michael as an example with real estate. What was his story that differentiated him from every other real estate agent?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Okay. Yes. Okay. So this is the part that I loved the most, because when I found this out, like, it was like angels sing, right? Uh, I thought, you're what? And he said, I've actually sold more properties in the United States than any other real estate broker or auctioneer. I. So he was a licensed auctioneer and a licensed broker in up to 33 states in the US at one point in time, and at the time that we met, was actively involved in over 65,000 transactions, real estate transactions. And I thought, wow, like, this is like a silver platter. This is pretty easy, pretty awesome, right? But then we had to ask ourselves, okay, how does that parlay into a local brand? Like, yes, he has a national footprint. He's very well known. He's actually America's top selling real estate. Estate auctioneer. That was the first brand identifier that I gave to him. I said, okay, this is what we're going to market you as. This is what you are now. We have to make the connection for why that matters to the people in your local marketplace and other agents, because Michael actually has two sets of ideal customers, which most people do. His primary would be the people that he and his agents serve. They want to buy or sell a home. His secondary would be the agents that he wants to attract into his brokerage. So that was really the easy part. It's like all this experience. So one of the first descriptive taglines that we put on his billboards was the confidence of over 78,000 transactions. Well, it was 65,000 at the time. Then it jumped, bumped to 78. Now it's 81,000. So, as you can see, we don't do that. We don't up it every year. We waited two or three years, and then, okay, it's time to kick the number up again, right? Because you have to change it so many places. But that was on billboards, that was on his website, that was on all of his marketing materials. So if I'm driving down the road and I see the confidence of over 78,000 transactions as a potential customer, I'm going to think, okay, I'm in good hands. Like, the experience is there. And whatever kind of debacles or craziness that has ever happened in real estate, that guy's probably likely to have seen it and taught all his agents how to deal with it. And so that was really the story behind it all in the beginning. And then being very community oriented and caring about the community and being very, um, involved, that was on a grassroots level as well. So both those things combined made a huge impact. Thank you for that.

What else do you think created so much success as a real estate broker

>> Robert Sandleila: What else do you think created so much success, especially distinguishing you from every other auctioneer, every other real estate broker?

>> Michael Carr: I think the way to communicate why that matters to the client is the most important part. Because if you're buying a house for your family, right, it doesn't matter how many houses I've sold before. You're really only interested in that one. And Tanya was able to pull a lot of that information out of me. It wasn't easy, like, and it's been interesting to help other people do it, right? Because we're not taught, really, by our parents to say, hey, look at me, and brag about ourselves, right? We're sort of like, stay humble. Like, uh, good, traditional families are all like, you know, you got brothers and sisters and cousins, and you're not the only person on earth that does it. And so even I was at first, was like, well, look, I don't want to be in everybody's face about this. And then Tanya taught me. She goes, no, no, no. That's not what it's about at all. And she said, what is about is taking your experience level, matching it for people, recognizing your face, which is very important. Why that is important to them. That is the most important thing. We spent a lot of time in interview sessions where I told her what it was like in my career and growing up. And it's interesting now, because if I talk to somebody that has looked me up like I was in a Costco the other day, and this lady just, she kept looking over at me, looking over at me, and I was waiting in line, and she come over to me and she goes, can I ask you a question? I knew what it was going to be. And I went, yeah. And she goes, are you the real estate guy that's got the billboards? And I'm like, yeah, that's me. And she said, I just know. I recognize you. She goes, you know, you helped me buy my first house in Atlanta. You helped my daughter buy her first house. And then her cousin bought her first house through Jennifer fast, one of my agents. And I said, well, of course. That's so awesome, you know, and that sort of thing. But she went on to say, like, really what captured her was the story of what started me as an auctioneer, and that was Tanya. That was the messaging you're talking about. So what people are interested in and the reason why personal branding is so powerful is we really want to know about the person. It doesn't matter about the accolades. Those are just good things that show experience. That's important. That's a portion of it. That's why you should have it. But what they're interested in when they look you up online is who is that person I'm dealing with? And so when I run into people like that, they always talk about how I got started as an auctioneer, which I was young. I was like seven years old. My dad was a car dealer. We go to the car auction, he takes me with him. Of course. I'm a seven year old son thinking this is the awesomest thing ever. Anyway. But when we're walking up to the auction house, this cadillac drives up and this guy parks in the first parking space. He gets out, he's got a trench coat, he's got a Rolex watch, he's got a big diamond ring, he's got a suit and tie. I'm like, dad, what does he do? And he's like, he's the auctioneer. And I'm like, that's what I want to be. Right? And people, people love that because they know, they get. They learn a little bit about who Michael is. And now that it's easy to do business with Michael, we really applaud in our business. When people call and they say, hey, I've looked you up and I want to do business with you. And we have them say exactly that. And when you start getting those things, you know, you're getting your messaging dialed in and you're getting what personal branding.

>> Robert Sandleila: Really means, the relatability factor. Because when people know something personal about you, it's like you're in the same community. As you said, Tanya earlier, it's the community. If you're like, oh, yeah, I remember being seven and seeing something on tv and saying, I want to be that. When they hear your story, there's relatability as well. That also creates that connection with people.

>> Michael Carr: Yes. That personal connection is the key. Because if you think about it, Roberta, even big corporations, huge corporations that trading billions of dollars for services or they're buying a product. You're Boeing, right? And you're contracting with another company that's going to make your turbines so you can put them together in your motor. Right? At the end of the day, there's two humans on the end of that multibillion dollar deal. And those two humans establish a trust and rapport between each other that their two companies can produce what they're supposed to. So the end outcome is what everybody needs. So it is always about the human connection, whether there's dozens of zeros behind the deal, or whether it's a ten dollar widget that you're buying off of Amazon. We always need that personal connection. And if you're in a service industry, if you're a coach, a consultant, a podcaster, you need this because people are going to listen. People, your listeners listen to you because of the value that you bring and your relatability to them in bringing it. And that's how your audience grows. And every business is the same. And that's why personal branding should be the first thing people look at when they start their business, or when they want to revamp their business, or when they say, why is my business not taking off? You probably need to take a really hard look at your personal brand so you find that relatability to your crowd.

>> Robert Sandleila: Mhm.

Marketing is using different marketing vehicles to reach your ideal customer

Tania, what would you say now with so many websites and uh, literally everybody has a website now, what would now be the distinguishing factors with your online presence for your personal brand?

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Well, a lot of people would tell you it's the different widgets and the slick shiny new things. And I can remember over the years, and being somebody that was an early adopter to Internet and all kinds of technology, people would say, oh well, now the virtual business card has come out and now the one page website has come out. Now we have this type of video and everybody thinks that that particular piece of or type of marketing vehicle is going to be the savior for their business. Right? But I think it just still all comes down to authenticity of who you are and what's the message. And it doesn't really matter that much what the vehicle is. In fact, that is very simply the way we define the difference between marketing and branding. Marketing is just using a different marketing vehicle or channel to get a message and image out to your ideal customer. But the message and image that goes into that marketing vehicle, well that is your brand. So you can buy billboards all you want. What if they're blank? Right? What goes on to that billboard? That's your brand. And so that determines who we attract, how we attract them, how well we attract them, all of those things. So I don't know so much that it matters the vehicle, except to this extent. Make sure that whatever advertising or marketing vehicle you're using to get that message out, make sure that your ideal customers are on the other end of that. So, for instance, you know, if you are somebody who is selling, let's just. Let's say, Volkswagens, right? You want to be on a radio station.

>> Robert Sandleila: There you go.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Oh, nice. Okay, so you want to be on a radio station. Well, I don't really know the profile of who buys Volkswagens. I don't know if it's more male, more female. I don't know what age groups. It really doesn't matter.

>> Michael Carr: So.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: But let's just say it's college kids, right? I. But let's say that's what it is. You want to go for marketing platforms that target college kids, like music that they listen to. That would be, you know, radio or wherever. You're likely to find them more on Instagram and TikTok than you would have them on Facebook or LinkedIn. And so those are the things we have to keep in mind. And, um, those are surface level. Those are really easy to figure out. Once we figure out who the ideal customer is, the hard part is, what do we say? What image do we portray to get them to react and be attracted to us and the solution we can provide to.

>> Robert Sandleila: Because, like you say, you made the distinction between the vehicle and the actual brand. We get those two very mixed up a lot of the time.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Oh, my gosh. Yes. All the time. All the time. Every chance we get to, like you say, okay, it's this simple, right? We try to do this in every interview we do, because there are people that have spent millions on marketing, and they still don't really quite understand that distinction. And it's not necessarily their fault. It's just that's not their job. Right. Their job is to do whatever they do. Their job is not spending their time in marketing, advertising, and branding.

>> Robert Sandleila: And would you say, the speaking, the podcast, the book, everything, those are the vehicles. Because at the end of the day, your story is what you said, the brand is the messaging and your story behind that.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Yes, absolutely.

>> Michael Carr: Yeah.

Tanya: People often ask me what came first in personal branding

Tanya, we get a question a lot of times, and people are like, well, I have a podcast, you know, so don't I need a brand for the podcast? And I have a book. Don't I need a brand for the book? And my business is this. Don't I need a, uh, brand for the business? And Tanya's always like, okay, what came first? You. The podcast for the business, for the book. And, of course, the answer is me. And then she's like, you're the brand. You're the brand that has a book. You're the brand that has the podcast. You're the brand that has the business or the consulting or whatever that your service that you're selling to. So all of them are the same brand because you are, uh, the common denominator to that. And then why you ended up doing the things that you. Why did you end up writing the book? Why did you end up starting the podcast? Why did you end up doing the consulting? That is what your ideal customer is going to be most interested in. And then that's the connection that they come and they have. I like. I like Roberta's voice. I like Roberta. She's a beautiful lady. I like her content. I always get something out of it, you know? And then they become loyal followers, and that's how the whole system sort of worked. It's an ecosystem, and you are the reason you do those things. And so they should all fall under that one umbrella.

>> Robert Sandleila: Right? We will get to you guys telling us about your podcast, but any questions you feel that I didn't ask you were hoping that our listeners will be benefiting from that knowledge regarding personal branding?

Why do you do what you do? Tell us about your motivation

>> Tanya Eberhardt: I think just one, maybe, is why. Why I do what I do. And it wasn't just about the experience in selling vacuum cleaners and the experience in. In the media world that actually started everything. But it was just a few years ago that I really came to understand the deeper reason why I do what I do every day. You know, as I was growing up, I was surrounded by a lot of alcoholism and addiction. You can imagine a town that's known for the moonshine industry, right? Also brings some negative aspects to it. But I was surrounded by that. And as a child, I was always very curious, why do people do this? And yet they know the outcome, and then they continue to do that and continue to get the same outcome. And I was pretty nosy kid, so I was always asking questions like that. But then later on, it became very clear to me that sometimes the only difference between a young person waiting on the next drug deal and a young person headed off to college, perhaps with a bright future, is self worth. And so if we can see the uniqueness and the specialness about ourselves and be able to shine that outward to the world and showcase how we can help other people, it gives us a whole sense of self confidence, self worth, all of those things. And I think if the world had a little more of that, then we would have less trouble in the world.

>> Robert Sandleila: So, well said. Thank you.

Michael Carr: Be bold about putting your brand out there

Any last words of wisdom, Michael?

>> Michael Carr: I always tell people that the one thing that I would change about my life is I would have been bolder about the things I do sooner. So I encourage the one listener that might hear this are thousands that would listen to it. Be bold. Put your brand out there. Somebody cares about it. You are special, I promise you. And you have a life experience is very valuable to somebody that is seeking it. So be bold about putting it out there. There.

>> Robert Sandleila: Have a strong y and be bold. Words of wisdom from Tanya Eberhardt and Michael Carr.

Roberta: Tell us about your podcast and about your books

Thank you so much. But before you go, as I said, please tell us about your podcast, which is one of the vehicles you have in order to market, and also about your books as well and more information on them.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Sure. So the name of the podcast is be bold branding. We're very grateful to have a top 1% podcast for a couple of years now, and we do a couple of different things on the podcast. We spotlight coaches, consultants and experts and tell the story behind the face, behind the business, like why they started, what they're doing, who they're serving, et cetera. And we kind of get a really good feel, much like what you did with us today, Roberta. And then we interview all of our clients once they go through the personal branding program with us. And then we also do some solo episodes where we're just teaching. We're teaching anybody who is looking to get an edge or differentiate themselves with their personal brand. And then the website is Brand Face star star.com, brandfacestar.com. and that's where you can learn about our brand face series of books as well.

>> Robert Sandleila: Brandface star.com. thank you very much. Brand Face LLC co founders Tanya and Michael. This has been so really wonderful. I've had such a great time with you guys. Thank you for being on the show today.

>> Tanya Eberhardt: Uh, thank you so much.

>> Robert Sandleila: My absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the speaking on communicating podcast once again, please log on to Apple and Spotify, leave us a rating and a review and what you'd like for us to discuss on the show that will be of benefit to you. We encourage you to continue to get communicating and let us know how communication skills continue to improve your life professionally and personally. And stay tuned for more episodes to come.