Interview: Build a Brand That Makes You Money
Bret Gregory of AttractCustomersNow.com interviews Re Perez as part of 22Social Live Hangout in San Diego, CA
In this interview, Bret interviews Re Perez to learn more about branding and how Re brings Fortune 500 branding practices to help entrepreneurs and small businesses create game-changing brands. In addition, Re shares his “Good, Better, Best” Framework to help you make it easier for customers to buy from you.
Here’s a snapshot of the interview:
BRET: Hey, everybody. It’s Bret Gregory and we’re live in the 22Social offices as always with some amazing content. We got a great show for you today. I’m here, Bret Gregory from Attract Customers Now and it’s always an honor to host the 22Live Show. We are going to be talking today with Re Perez of Branding for the People who’s got some awesome, yes, there you go, there you go. He’s got some great content for you. Make sure if you haven’t done it so far, like our page. Today, we want you to leave some comments below. Re, thanks so much for being with us.
RE: Absolutely. Thank you.
BRET: Thanks so much for being here and tell us a little bit about your company BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE and what you do?
RE: Sure. Listen, I started BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE just a little over three and a half years with a vision to help entrepreneurs and small businesses to gain access to the same branding principles as Fortune 500 companies. I’ve worked with some of the top brand consulting firms and just really lost the passion of really being able to use my talents, insights and thoughts to help those companies and I really wanted to bring that to entrepreneurs, just like you and me, who are really out to make a big impact and make a huge difference.
BRET: I love that concept of taking that Fortune 500 knowledge and bringing it down to the small business owner and the sole entrepreneur because there’s a lot of secrets that you guys have that we don’t normally have access to as solo entrepreneurs. I know you’ve worked with some of the biggest brands out there. I’m really excited about the information that you have for us today. Tell us about the genesis of it. It’s been three years in the making, but where were you before that?
Before that, quite honestly, I was working in for a top branding firm in Dubai, in the Middle East and through a series of personal events brought me back to New York. I had left that position. I actually went through a personal breakup but also my story was that I really took several months off trying to figure out what the hell I want to do with my life?
BRET: That’s a great thing for all of you out there. If you ever get the opportunity to take several months off, do it! Because did that help you?
RE: It helped me. I was doing a lot of other things. I was doing yoga every single day, I was working out, I picked up a book called The 4-Hour Workweek (I don’t know if anyone who’s living the 4-Hour Workweek just yet).
BRET: True.
RE: I will say, it put me on a journey to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to live my life. Inside of that four to six months that I was brainstorming and doing yoga. I’m from New York and there’s this yoga studio in Brooklyn that someone was telling me go and check out. It’s hot yoga and the name of the yoga studio is Yoga to the People. Then, I was in San Francisco and I was working out at this Equinox Fitness Club in San Francisco and then I was journaling and I came across this sign that said “food for the people.” Through my creative brain process, I was like what about BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE? Then boom, I checked the domain to see if it was available.
BRET: It’s pretty awesome. I’ve done that a lot of the same time.
RE: Yeah, it’s just been non-stop since.
BRET: You don’t know this about me, but I actually had purchased a big piece of property in Costa Rica to start a yoga retreat and wellness center there and my wife is a yoga instructor. I love yoga. Anytime I hear yoga, my ears always perk.
Perfect.
RE: That’s awesome.
BRET: Yoga to the people, food for the people, BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE. What is BRANDING FOR THE PEOPLE?
RE: My brand has evolved over the past few years but if you really think about it, it’s quite a descriptive company name. I do branding and I work for the people. It’s kind of like what I was saying earlier — really bringing Fortune 500 branding principles to entrepreneurs. But, I will tell you that the positioning of our brand is really about helping entrepreneurs create game-changing brands. That really is our point of differentiation. Why? Because we believe that it’s not enough just to have a brand. In fact, you can pick up any paper, watch any news channel, read any magazine and they’ll talk about the importance of branding.
We’re not just looking to give you a prettier version of what you already have, but what’s going to create your own category of one? What’s going to truly differentiate you in a highly saturated (sometimes crowded) market? Game-changing plans is really what we’re most passionate about.
BRET: I love that concept. I mean that got my attention immediately, whenever you hear game changing. That doesn’t have to mean game changing for billions of people. You could be a game-changer for one person, which could massively make a difference in your career, your life, your fulfillment. I want to just take a pause because we’ve got a few people who are mentioning here writing in your comments. I want to make sure everybody writes in the comments let you qualify for your free gift. We got Frank who’s checking in from Charlottesville. Hey, Frank. John Pierre from Brisbane, Australia, all the way from Brisbane.
We got Miguel from Carlsbad. All the way from Carlsbad. Marco from Vancouver. Hey, thanks guys for tuning in. The other thing that we want you to do is, do you want to talk about this couple of free giveaways that we’re going to have. Then we’ll get into these in more detail. Tell us a little bit about one of these free giveaways?
RE: Yes, we’re going to obviously have some teaching content but for everyone who is going to participate in this Hangout, I put together this 10 brand behaviors to increase sales e-report. Why do I do this? Because I know, as entrepreneurs, one of the most important things that you should be focusing on whether you’re starting out or whether you’re an established entrepreneur is focusing on sales. Put aside your website or your business card. But, how you behave and how you interact with people really has a direct impact on what converts people to buy. These are rooted in best practices in psychology, neuroscience, branding, marketing and advertising.
BRET: I love the concept that you’re getting into psychology here and customer behavior. A lot of people don’t realize what it is that motivates your prospective customers to actually make a decision. A lot of times people think it’s let’s list all the features of our products or let’s list all of the benefits of our products. Really, that’s not where a lot of the decisions are made. A lot of the decisions are made on the gut level. On the level that doesn’t include language inside of our brains.
RE: The overall reason why this report would be valuable is if you think of one thing is that as human beings, every single purchasing decision that we make is based on some form of emotion. There’s a neurologist that says the biggest difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action whereas reasons lead to conclusions. If you want to know the fastest path to cash, if you want to know the best way to convert people is to connect with people on an emotional level. At the end of the day, we all buy from companies, products and services that we trust admire and respect.
That’s the intent behind this e-report. Obviously, you have to practice these behaviors. You can’t just read them and suddenly you’re behave in a particular way. But if they’re in your awareness and in your consciousness, then you can practice those and you’ll notice that your energy will shift when you’re talking to prospects or even existing clients.
BRET: What’s really interesting when I’m talking to a lot of entrepreneurs and I say, okay, I get it. Our buying purchases are based on emotions and actions but then when I look at their marketing content or their sales page or their buy page, it’s all logic. It doesn’t work.
RE: It doesn’t work. Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up. Listen, design and branding is going to trump copy as you move forward. Copy is important. If you think about just one piece called color. Between 60 to 90 percent of the reason why we buy certain product is based on color.
BRET: Can you say that again? Between 60 and …
RE: Between 60 and 90 percent of the reason why we buy products on a daily basis is based on color.
BRET: I didn’t know that.
RE: Now, most of it’s subconscious though. Because there’s a lot of meaning towards certain colors but if you think about it, when you go to the store and you buy the shampoo or you buy the toothpaste or you buy the toilet paper or even just the clothes that you buy, all of it is based on some form of color. What’s your feeling towards that color? What’s your reaction? How is the color make you feel? Does it instill confidence or trust?
BRET: That’s all that emotional …
RE: All emotional
BRET: I never knew how, 60 to 90 percent. I had no idea. I would have guessed a fraction of that.
RE: I’m glad I mentioned this. Most importantly, to let you guys know because you cannot, there’s a lot of color here too. The whole orange of 22Social. That has very warm and inviting color as well. I’m sure there’s a reason why people are coming to you.
BRET: Let’s talk a little bit about something that our listeners can take away with today. You had mentioned what I thought was really interesting and how to position your brand and your products in a way to help increase your sales for the solopreneurs and the entrepreneurs out there?
RE: Sure. Two things I’ll say, the first thing is before you can even hear the rest of what I’m going to show with you, I have to first define what is brand because most people have a definition that brand is your logo or it’s a tagline or its marketing or its design. In my mind and how I’ve been talking about brands, and how I’ve been trained as a consultant is that brand is….. [watch the interview above to learn more]
