Emily Paulsen on Mastering Your Brand: A Minimalist Approach to Entrepreneurial Success

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, building a strong brand can feel like an uphill battle, especially for entrepreneurs transitioning from corporate roles to launching their own ventures. The "Less House More Moola" podcast recently hosted Emily Paulsen, founder of Electric Collab, a psychology-based brand studio, to demystify brand strategy and offer a refreshing, minimalist approach to building a business that truly connects and converts.

Emily's Links
https://www.electriccollab.com/
https://www.instagram.com/heyemilypaulsen/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hey-emily-paulsen

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Transcript

Laura Lynch, CFP® (00:54)
Well, welcome to Less House More Moola podcast, Emily Paulsen This whole thing about podcasting is so selfish because I get to learn so much, from guests. you here is definitely gonna edify my education around brand and brand strategy. So thank you so much for joining me today.

Emily Paulsen (01:16)
Thank you for having me. It was a thrill to talk with you on my podcast. I feel the same way, like the learning, the self-development, that's the joy in this. So I'm thrilled to talk about branding.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (01:26)
So your brand is Electric Collab right? And you help people with brand strategy.

Emily Paulsen (01:29)
Yes.

Yes, yeah, we do comprehensive branding. I often say that it's a psychology-based brand studio because really we're focused on language, design, and a digital presence that are all rooted in consumer behavior. So we're building brands that work for us and connect and convert the right people.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (01:52)
Yeah. And I think that is something that, just confession time has been such a struggle for me in terms of when you go from, working for another brand, someone else's larger brand leaving corporate and launching your own story. It's hard to figure out some of these things that we're going to talk about today. It's hard to figure out, kind of the persona that you're trying to reach and what is the language that's going to reach them and,

what is the overall strategy and it also takes so much time when you're trying to build something from a national presence because you're just really reliant upon the algorithm, upon SEO, upon different things than you were maybe when you were, working in your, corporate life. And so you're trying to tackle a whole new world that you've never tackled before. And it's changing incredibly fast right now in terms of

AI pulling from SEO and really making recommendations now at the top of search and there's just so much going on and it's it's really an uphill climb.

Emily Paulsen (03:00)
Well, I appreciate that confession. And hopefully on the other side of this episode, people feel like it's a little less uphill because there are things we can do, right? And it's also not unusual for anybody who's an entrepreneur, a small business owner to feel ⁓ confused or just frustrated by these elements of building a brand. How do we message ourselves? How does our messaging translate to different marketing tools? What platforms should we be on?

Are we beholden to the algorithm? And the truth is we have a lot more control than I think sometimes we think we do. And when I started this business specifically for entrepreneurs as my audience base, I wanted to bring all of the lessons that I learned working for really big companies. I worked in corporate branding for 14 years before I did this. Those companies have it all figured out because the stakes are really high.

So they're investing a huge amount of resources, people, money, time, energy, research into sustaining and growing their brands. So being in that environment and being someone on those teams and kind of seeing what works and what's kind of fluff and fun that we don't necessarily have to do, being able to translate that to the small business space and help people focus on what matters most and leave those distractions behind.

That's the goal of the work I do really. And hopefully through this conversation, people feel a little bit.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (04:30)
Yeah. And I think that, kind of segues into our topic today of minimalism and brand strategy and leaving that fluff behind. I've been tracking my, my metrics, for a couple of years and just picking out, Hey, this doesn't seem to really moving the needle. So I'm spending a lot of time on it. And so maybe I'll just, leave that behind, but it's hard to figure out in the beginning or, really anywhere in the journey what you should,

reposition from a time perspective or from a resources. So tell us, let's go back, tell us a little bit about your brand strategy and the story behind your brand.

Emily Paulsen (05:10)
Sure. Yeah. So I mentioned that I really wanted to support entrepreneurs. And to be honest, I liked working in corporate. I felt like it was the devil that I knew. And I had kind of figured out what's necessary for promotions and team dynamics and all of that stuff. And I worked for large companies like Abercrombie & Fitch and the Wendy's company.

And then that was all happening in Ohio. I wanted to move to Chicago. It's like the biggest city in the Midwest. I had so many friends moving here. And I also wanted to go into the more small business kind of startup space. So then I went to a hospitality company that was building ground up concepts. And through that process, especially in just making more friends here in the city, I felt like the people who I was connecting with and who I felt were the most interesting and cool and like doing these really fun, passionate things with their lives.

They were mostly entrepreneurs who had started some sort of company. But then through those conversations, when we would get to business and I would hear the things that they were struggling with, or I would ask them at a party, like, well, what is your business? And how do you help people? Who is this for? It would either be like crickets. know, like, well, I wasn't expecting to be asked that at a cocktail party. Or they could explain it to me, but it would take like 30 minutes.

And the only way to kind of capture their big vision and all of the different audiences they could serve and all these products or services they had available was like this really long story. like, you know, if we're friends at a cocktail party, I'll sit there for two hours. But potential customers aren't going to do that. They need to understand who we are really quickly. So Electric

Collab started really around brand strategy. And I was just working with businesses that I had a connection to and helping them refine that. How do we distill this down? How do we make it more specific? How do you answer in 10 seconds or less what your business is, who it's for, and why it's valuable? That sounds so simple.

But it's hard because we are multi-passionate people and we have a really robust career history and we want to serve as many audiences as possible. So we get really in our head and we're talking a lot about all this different stuff we can do and the audience has already mentally checked out. So that's really how it started with that brand strategy piece. And then I had experienced just through my career doing all the...

fun, sexy stuff of visual design and website design and development. So we brought those things in to really give that cohesive brand ecosystem. ⁓ But yeah, like that's what the brand stands for. And my strategy in continually bringing that to market has been so much about my own brand clarity, unique value, like why are we different from any other brand, studio, brand agency out there, and relationship marketing.

And we can talk about any one of those that you want in more detail. But I think the relationship marketing piece is something that really gets skipped over by entrepreneurs because we have so many other shiny things we think we should be doing with Instagram and LinkedIn and paid ads and SEO and actually just talking to people, like getting clear on who you are, having conversations with others about that. That usually leads to those first few years of sales.

Once that's mastered and your revenue is crushing it, then we can add on some of these paid to play avenues as needed. But I think the relationship piece is so critical to the brand conversation and very rarely discussed.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (08:48)
and I think that that especially in a world where we're all trying to build a broader audience, maybe through, digital tools, the relationship isn't the same process or, or doesn't look the same, or maybe we forget it in our, you know, trying to create the best social media ad or what have you. But we do do business.

person to person, right? And, and people do business with people. And so it's kind of a unique challenge that we have, I'm out in the middle of a canyon in New Mexico, my community is small. It's not the same as it was hanging the shingle in your town, when you're trying to build a digital brand. So definitely, we should dig in more to the relationship piece.

But before we get to that, think it's useful to just define what is a brand because it can be kind of nebulous when you first get started. Am I just myself? Should I create something bigger than myself? How do you define brand and how do you guide people when they're trying to differentiate? Is it me or is it something bigger than me?

Emily Paulsen (09:44)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Our brand is the way people understand us. So think of it as your first impression and your lasting reputation. People usually interact with our brands before they interact with us. They have seen a post that we've put out somewhere. They found our website through SEO. A friend mentioned us, so they went and looked us up. They heard us on a podcast like this, and they went and Googled us. So whatever they find out about us out there on the internet,

That's all part of our brand. And people use that interaction, you know, is it clear to them, like, again, who you are, what you do, what is this all about? Is this a company or an organization that feels like it would be for me or not? We're making, we're forming an impression based on those very initial interactions. And we're using that to decide, do we want to engage further? Do I want to hit follow or subscribe? Do I want to keep scrolling on your website?

Or do I feel like, meh, like this brand hasn't really captured my attention, I'm just gonna click away. A lot of that is happening subconsciously too. Most people won't tell you like, I didn't explore your product because of your brand. They don't even know that, but it's those early touch points, the language, the design, how intuitive is your site or this post that really formed that impression. So our brand is the first thing people experience.

On the other side of a transaction, once somebody has become our client or a customer, or they've kind of stepped into our ecosystem, our brand is our lasting reputation. It's really the way that we're remembered. So I like the example, if you're driving on a road trip and you stop at McDonald's and end up getting food poisoning, the next time you're on a road trip, you're not going to want to go to McDonald's, even if that McDonald's is 300 miles away from the one that gave you food poisoning.

you've connected that experience, positive or negative, to the brand overall. So when we think about it from that lens, our first impression and our lasting reputation, our brand becomes really important. And I don't say that to scare people. I hope that it excites people because our brand is something we can control. having, and maybe some listeners do have a brick and mortar location, unlike having something where you're really beholden to like how many people are walking by

my storefront or coming down my street every day and know, traffic patterns change and weather or whatever. Our brands, especially in the digital world, that is our way to tell our story. We control the message, the imagery, the narrative. What are the next steps for people when they want to get to know us better? So I think this is a really encouraging thing to kind of put the ball back in our court and think about this as the representation of

who we are as an organization. And we can talk more about business brand versus personal brand if that feels helpful, but I'll pause there.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (13:03)
Yeah, I think we should talk a little bit about business versus personal. because for example, in my world, as a financial planner, it's often suggested that you not, use your own name, perhaps in your brand because if you ever want to market your business later on down the road and sell it, then having your name attached to it is perhaps a disadvantage. And so,

when I started my firm, I really thought about that. Like, what is the concept that I would be, potentially marketing in the future? But yet at the same time, I feel like when people are looking for me, they're really looking for my name. And so it kind of makes me feel a little bit torn about whether or not my brand is really that impactful or really if it's it's me, that is the brand.

Emily Paulsen (13:53)
Mm-hmm. Yes. I get this question a lot. I think people feel unsure about which path to take, business brand or personal brand. And for the sake of this conversation, let's say personal brand is really built around an individual's name, so your personal identity. And a business brand means that you are ascribing a different name. You're building a business that the founder could be as involved or uninvolved publicly as they want to be. And we'll talk about the nuance of that. So there

There is a series of questions that I usually ask clients if we're trying to decide which direction to go. You mentioned a great one. Do you see yourself selling this business in the future? Do you want to franchise this business? Do you have a vision where you would license components of your business or frameworks or pieces of that to go into other businesses? Do you have a goal of having a team so big that you don't really do client work?

one day. Like maybe you're the owner, but you have a hierarchy of team beneath you who are account managers or advisors who report to you and a team and somebody could come in and hire your organization and never meet you and never work with you. And maybe that sounds really dreamy because your goal isn't to do client work forever. Your goal is to build something where you're taking money from every transaction without having to be personally involved. If the answer is yes,

to any of those questions, then a business brand tends to make more sense because that's gonna give you the freedom and the flexibility to separate your personal identity from the value that is baked into the brand. So like as a financial advisor, if you had a vision where you were like one day, I don't really wanna be the one interacting with clients, I'm gonna have a team that does that and I've taught them, I've educated them, I've vetted them.

So I know that they're going to represent my values and they're going to do an incredible job. It's just not going to be me who's doing all the meetings. A business brand would be more, it would make more sense to the customers because if they come in and they want to work with Laura Lynch advising and they never meet you, they're automatically going to be like, well, where's Laura Lynch? You know, I thought I was hiring her. I thought she was going to be personally managing my accounts because that's what

the sign above the door, know, the digital door says. So now we have to do some education there on like, well, it's the Laura Lynch method, but Laura doesn't meet with every client. And that's a little bit of a harder hill to climb. So on the other side, if you're a person who really wants to be visible, you want to be known as a thought leader. You love the idea of speaking on stage. You want to author a book one day. Maybe you want to have a podcast. And sure, you don't want to do like

every single detail within your business forever, you can absolutely still have a team when you have a personal brand, but you like the idea of kind of being the face of the business and being the visible one that's focused on that business development. Then a personal brand probably makes more sense. And there's pros and cons to both. I would say on the business brand side, it takes time to establish that name.

Laura, as you said, we automatically connect with people before we connect with companies. So if you're starting a business from scratch right now, in those early years, you still have to have a presence as the founder. Otherwise, people are not going to know what this is. Like it could be AI for all we know, right? So that founder presence is important, but that can wane over time. You can start to focus on your frameworks, focus on the team, other pieces. So then the founder presence is less important. On the personal brand side,

That gives you a lot of flexibility because you could start a personal brand today that's all about financial advising and you're working with individuals directly as their advisor. Then you could transition that where it's coaching for financial advisors. Then you could transition that where you're a speaker that goes in and speaks to women's groups about the importance of financial advising. And we don't have to like rebuild the business every time because the whole time it's been you and you're just you're keeping your reputation. You're just evolving your service suite.

So I could go on and on. There's reasons to do both. There's no wrong answer. I think it just requires some soul searching on what is the big vision? Like, what are you gonna be happy with five, 10 years from now and trying to tap into that feeling when you choose your business direction now?

Laura Lynch, CFP® (18:23)
so helpful. wish I had had this podcast episode like two and a years ago. Yeah.

Emily Paulsen (18:27)
You can change. If you're

in one of these camps listening, yeah, I'll just say that and you're like, crap, well, if I would have known this, I would have gone the other way. You can change. I do that with clients a lot. It takes a little more strategy, but it can be done.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (18:41)
Yes, which gets to a whole other topic, which you've been writing about recently, which is rebranding. Yeah, which we're not going to get into today, but definitely something that is some of the content that you've been putting out recently about rebranding. ⁓ So let's go. Let's go back to my my thoughts around running ourselves ragged. It's I have taken Facebook and Instagram off my phone.

Emily Paulsen (18:48)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Laura Lynch, CFP® (19:09)
because I feel like that when I look at those platforms, I go, ⁓ crap, I should be doing this and I should be doing that and I should be doing so many things and as it is, I'm already working more than I want to be working. And so it gives me the sense of like, I'm not doing it well enough because I'm not on social media all the time. And for listeners, whatever it is that, you know, you think that you're supposed to be doing, right? There has to be actually

an effective strategy that can be kind of narrow focused and doesn't have to be all the things all the time. So let's talk about minimalism and brain strategy and make sure that we take that back to the relationship piece. But what are your thoughts on, on the, on the minimalist strategy, like what's, you know, manageable, especially as you're first getting started.

Emily Paulsen (20:02)
Good for you for taking those things off your phone because it can be a real toxic loop of feeling like we're not doing enough. We need to be doing more. And those platforms are built on comparison. They want us looking at other people and getting distracted by that. And now we're on for eight hours and they're making money off of us. So good for you for stepping away. I do. I love this topic of minimalism. And I loved it when you brought it to me because I think all of these platforms, all these bells and whistles and things we

could be doing distract us from the most important thing we should be doing, which is really straightforward, getting super clear on your specific brand message. And what I mean by that is exactly what is your business, exactly who is it for at a very specific level and exactly why is it valuable and why is it valuable in a way that's different from others in your space. So

We could use either of us as an example, but Laura, for you, you're a financial advisor. OK, what does that mean? What type of financial advisor? Are you working with just anybody who needs financial advising support? No, you have some sort of parameters on who your ideal client is. So we want to be super clear on financial advising for whom, for what. And then what's the point of that? Why does anybody need a financial advisor? What value does that bring to their life?

And how are you delivering that value in a way that's different from every other financial advisor they've ever met and that they could move forward with. Those pieces can sound a little, ⁓ not philosophical, but those can be hard questions to answer because they really require us to like sit down and really streamline all the stuff that we want to talk about in our business and just get clear on those core foundational

pieces. But that like unsexy step of forcing ourselves to sit down and do it, that is the cornerstone of making any future marketing effective. I see people jump to the tactics a lot. Like they'll say, well, I have this business and I hired a social media intern and I'm paying her a lot of money and she's putting content out all the time and we're getting no sales. Like nobody is converting. Then I ask them these questions like explain to me why you're different from anybody else. Explain to me

What is going on with your target target audience at an emotional level? They can't answer those questions. So no wonder your content isn't specific enough. It's not it's not cutting through the noise, right? Because we don't have these specifics in place. So I think those early questions are so critical, like getting that down in writing and then using that as the filter and kind of the platform to think, OK, if I'm going to take the time to craft any piece of messaging, whether it's a blog post or

Facebook post like it doesn't matter the modality it's not going to cut through the noise and stand out with your person unless you know very deeply who you're talking to and what that core differentiator is that they need to know about you.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (23:15)
Yeah, I think this is one of the reasons that I launched my own firm was that ability to be more specific because there was this saying going around in my world about, when you're a generalist, you're saying, nothing important to anyone. And that you have to be a meaningful specific. so in my industry, niching down is

kind of there's some religion around that. And so that was really important. And yet at the beginning of any business, you're still figuring out who you are talking to and what that person looks like because your first few clients perhaps will tell you exactly what the needs are. And so you're kind of iterating as you figure that out and what that message is. so the, brand strategy, the minimalism element to

Emily Paulsen (23:49)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (24:07)
kind of reiterate what you're getting at is just really understanding deeply who you're talking to and focusing on that person. Is it also about figuring out where they hang out and how to get to them?

Emily Paulsen (24:20)
Yeah, I always talk about branding as the soul of your business. So branding is figuring out that core of who you are as an organization. What do you stand for? What makes you different? Why is this work meaningful to you? As a founder, whether it's a business or a personal brand, why do you care? Why are you giving your free time? Why have you stepped outside of corporate boundaries or the ease of working for somebody else? Why are you taking on this heavy

path of being an entrepreneur, you have to have some passion within you. You see something broken in your industry. There's a norm that you want to shift. You see a gap of people who aren't being served. So pull from that passion, right? And figure out, like, again, this foundation of who am I? Why do I care? Why should other people care? And then when we talk about understanding the audience, I mean, like,

at an emotional level. So not just like I serve people who are in their 20s or I serve moms or entrepreneurial women. Like we want a list of the fears, frustrations and anxieties, the things that they're embarrassed about, the things they're ashamed about, really get a full picture of their emotional problem state before they have a solution like you. So that you know really clearly

What's going on with them when you're trying to talk to them? Like we're fighting for their attention and wherever you decide to place your marketing. Okay, well, let me understand like how are they coming into this equation? How can you meet them where they are and have language and design that calms their fears and makes them feel seen and validated and invited in to the solution you have. So I think that emotional component is so key.

And there's a million emotions, right? It doesn't just mean that we're pulling heartstrings and like tearful kind of stuff. No, it could be joy, excitement, humor. Like you can have a really fun, playful brand. You can have a brash, like badass rock star brand, or you could have a really warm caregiving brand. There's a million ways to execute that, but understanding where the audience is is such an important piece. So once those pieces are in place and we think of that as like the soul of your organization,

Marketing is the mouthpiece. And I don't say that to diminish it because we need marketing. Every business needs marketing. So then it's deciding like, OK, I know who I am. I know what I have to say and I know who I'm talking to. Where's the best place for me to do that? And then you want to think about there's two key pieces. There's where is the audience? Where are they spending time? You know, at a high level, we think that if we're targeting ⁓ businesses or executives, corporate professionals, then

They spend more time on LinkedIn. If we are targeting people with something that is fun and very visual, like I have a client right now who's a personal stylist. She does incredibly well on Instagram because it's colorful, it's fun, it's vibrant. People go to Instagram to look at outfits. So that's a perfect place for her to be. So you wanna think about where your people are spending time. And of course there's more than social media. There's long form content through blogging. There's long form video on YouTube.

You can write a sub-stack newsletter. There's a lot of different modalities. So you want to think about where your people are. But you also want to think about what you enjoy. If you have a moral objection to social media, do not be on social media. You don't have to, especially in the early years. If your business gets big enough, maybe you hire a team, either in-house or out-of-house, to build a social media presence for you. But that's to get even more business.

You don't have to have social media to get those initial clients. So thinking about what brings you joy? Do you like to write? Do you like to speak? Do you like to be on video? Or do you hate to be on video? How can you use relationship marketing? Do you enjoy reaching out to people? People you know. I'm not talking about cold messaging. Tapping your college network, whoever has followed you on Facebook for 10 years. Joining business communities.

and taking the initiative to reach out and say, I saw your organization. I was just reading your website. That sounds so cool. I'd love to know how you get started. Like, can we do a one-on-one? That kind of relationship marketing is super effective in getting sales, especially in the early days. And that doesn't require you to put out a single post or be on, you know, record some video for the internet at all. So it just really depends on what are you actually gonna execute? Like, what are you gonna do?

And what are you going to do well because you like it? And how does that match with where your ideal person is spending time?

Laura Lynch, CFP® (29:05)
Sometimes I say things like, you have to figure out what you're willing to do every day for five years. Like what can you get up for every day for five years and be excited about because, even in the beginning, if you start, some sort of process or newsletter or whatever, if you're just not that into it, like your momentum is going to dry up. And so you have to figure out what is naturally and authentically true for you and kind of build your.

Emily Paulsen (29:11)
Mm-hmm.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (29:34)
your strategy around that it sounds like.

Emily Paulsen (29:37)
Yeah, and if you're not that into it, it's gonna suck. You know, if you hate writing your newsletter every week, it's not gonna be the world's best newsletter because you just, that energy translates through our keyboard, right? It's not gonna be effective. ⁓ And I think what you said there is true. Like think about what can you do on repeat? And I also just wanna reframe marketing for entrepreneurs. I sometimes talk to people and my focus is really on the brand development. So I work with clients to...

build out all the pieces of the brand so you know what to say and you have all the components just go out and share the amazing value of your work. But I talk to people and they're like, like, I started this because I love wedding planning. I love financial advising. I love being a fitness trainer. I love booking luxury travel. I didn't start a business because I love marketing. I hear that. But if you feel really proud of the work you do,

If you genuinely believe that your service or your product is gonna help somebody else, you have to see marketing as an upside. Like that is your opportunity to share your gifts with the world. If you're delivering results for people, this is your path to create even more results in the world and change your industry and change lives for real with the services you deliver. So I think if we can come at it through that lens, like marketing isn't this.

pain in the butt task on our to-do list every day, it is in service to the people who need you the most. That lens has helped me a lot. And I think when you bring that energy, not only is it easier to do, it is more effective because you're showing up with the confidence that like, I have something really great here and I want people to be able to experience it. That translates and people feel it on the other side.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (31:25)
which going back like rewinding the whole scroll of what just happened there, it's when you launch a business at the very beginning, you've got to figure out what is the work that I really want to be doing in the world that I'm going to be proud to talk about because it can be very easy in these moments where people are are pressed out of their employment. We've got, layoffs and there's a big

Emily Paulsen (31:39)
Yes.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (31:52)
community of Gen X trying to make this transition away from corporate, away from the risk of having one employer launching their own firms and

yet at the same time, like if you launch with the wrong thing, or you come up with the wrong idea, that's not necessarily the work that you really want to do in the world, then it becomes really hard to show up for it and continue to talk about it. So before we even develop the brand strategy, we have to really know ourselves deeply and the and the mission, the impact, the vision that we have of what we want to do.

Emily Paulsen (32:27)
What you said earlier about ⁓ kind of how you start with those first early clients and that kind of helps you figure out what is your niche or what is the audience you want to focus on. That I think is so critical and I really see the first two years of entrepreneurship and not that that's a perfect number. People move at different paces. I see the first two years as an experiment. And when I was in my first two years of entrepreneurship and people use the word experiment, I found that deeply offensive.

I was like, this is not a freaking test. This is my livelihood. This is my life. This is my professional reputation. Like there's nothing experimental about this. I was taking everything so seriously. And I think most of us do. I don't think that's a bad thing. But what I mean is there is no way of knowing. Like as well as you know yourself, as long as you've worked in your field, when you're out there doing it on your own, you might think like, I am starting this to serve this very specific group.

You have six clients in that group and you freaking hate it. Or you start thinking like, I'm going to run group programs. I'm going to teach. You know, I'm not going to execute. I'm going to teach other people how to execute for themselves. Turns out you hate teaching and you're like, ⁓ God, it would be so much easier if I could just do it for them. You know? So that's just the only way to learn those things is action in my opinion. And I've seen this play out with every entrepreneur I know.

I don't even work with entrepreneurs who are just starting their business from a brand perspective. I think that you should get that experience, get those early clients through your network, do the work, get proof of concept, get proof for yourself that you even enjoy this and that you know these are the people you want to serve. You know that it's going to work for them. Then hire somebody to take your messaging and your digital presence to the next level. But just so much changes. And I think that should be embraced. It's so much better to figure it out.

in those first two kind of messy years versus like committing to something, investing tons of money to build something. And then 18 months in feel like, no, I don't think I like it. But now I'm too scared to go back because I've kind of put this out there. I think that's worse. Now you've kind of painted yourself into a job that you work so hard to leave. So just giving permission to play in those first years of business.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (34:50)
Super valuable. Thanks for sharing that.

So Emily, people in this stage of like figuring it out, must make some crazy mistakes, right? I'd love to know what are some things that you see people doing with their brands or doing on social media or whatever that kind of make you cringe.

Emily Paulsen (35:11)
Yes, I try not to be judgy, but there are of course things that I see and it makes me cringe because I think like, oh, you're making it worse. You're making it worse. You're muddying the magic that I'm sure you have, but now I can't see it. So a couple things come to mind. One is website specific. I do think that people, and this can be a gradual thing in those very early days, but I think there's an idea out there that in 2025, you don't need a website.

and you can use a social media profile, like just send people to your LinkedIn. I agree with that for the first few months when you truly are just helping your very first clients and you're really just trying to figure out what do I want to sell? How am going to price it? How am going to deliver it? Sure. Like get that early revenue before you invest a dime. I think that's smart. But once it's like, okay, this is a real business now. We're helping people. We want to serve more people. We want more clients. You absolutely need a website.

People expect that and that's not gonna go away. They search for you, whether that's on Google or chat, GPT, AI search has really changed the game in 2025 and we're learning new things about that all the time. That's kind of phase two, right? Of making sure that your website is working, but you need that digital home and that's the perfect place. We talked about that interaction people have before they know you personally, that is your place to set up.

who you are, why you're different, really speak to the audience, help them feel like, it sounds like she understands exactly what I'm going through or exactly what bothers me about the finance industry, exactly why I haven't hired help with this yet, because I have these fears about it, or I feel I don't get it, or you know, whatever those pain points are for your people, this is your place to tell that story. And to make it super intuitive for them to see how they get help from you. So skipping a website altogether makes me cringe.

Not to mention that we actually don't own any of our data on any of those platforms. LinkedIn could go under overnight. Your Instagram page could get deleted. If you built a whole business around that, and it doesn't matter what the platform is, everybody is, you know, sub stack, is, ⁓ nobody's invincible to the wares of the internet. So don't put yourself in that position where you don't have anything that you own that's out there online. So that's one. One that really

drives me insane is people using fear tactics in their messaging or going really negative. Like, here's five reasons most brand agencies suck. And then at the end, you kind of say, and we're totally different, right? Work with us instead. That to me just shows your character as somebody who's spending their time thinking about what others are doing wrong or

the negative parts of your industry, the mistakes you've seen other financial advisors, other wedding planners, whatever, the mistakes you've seen others make, you're highlighting the negative piece as your core message. It's so much more effective to just highlight what you do really well. We don't need to bring anybody else into it. Why are we talking about other people anyway? This is between you and the potential client. So I really hate that negative stuff.

I've seen coaches out there who teach kind of a fear tactic marketing model where it's all about urgency and you're really hammering the pain points like, you know, if you don't work with me, you'll go bankrupt or if you don't work with me, you'll die with nothing or your retirement won't be there. you know, these are really emotional heartstrings that some people pull on. And even if somebody says yes to that and people do like they teach these things because there is some there are some results there.

even if they say yes, that means they're stepping into your partnership or your program in a complete state of fear. That's not gonna be an incredibly fun interaction for you or for them. And I just don't wanna put people in that state. I wanna make them feel relieved and safe and excited that like, oh my God, there's a solution.

We know they're already worried about dying with nothing or whatever the thing is that's their deep emotional concern. They already have that deep down in there. We don't have to poke at that more. Let's just talk about the upside of working with us. So those things drive me nuts.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (39:33)
it's very interesting whenever you go, you hear someone speak at a summit or conference, right, and you sign up for their thing and then they show up in your inbox.

And then just to kind of observe, like, what is the the email sequence that you're getting? And, how does it make you feel? It's interesting to sort of differentiate, those folks that are making you feel empowered and, and excited versus those folks that are really, tapping into, or at least trying to tap into that fear. And maybe you don't even have those fears, right? And so then they're really missing the mark.

Emily Paulsen (40:07)
Yeah. Totally.

Yes, it's like, I'm not scared of that. What are you talking about? It's just so off putting to me. And especially for those listening who sell a more premium product, like if you have a premium service or engagement or program where you're charging a significant amount of money for your expertise, which is worth it, those tactics really don't work on high ticket sales. Like, sure, maybe somebody will buy a $15

program or a $15 pair of like, I don't know, sunglasses or something, because you've made them feel like they're less than if they don't get it. But that really doesn't convert at the 10, $15,000 level. And again, even if it does, now you've committed to a client who is stepping in because they're focused on all the negative pieces. And it's gonna be really hard to make that feel successful.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (41:00)
Yeah. So you mentioned AI and we've touched on relationship, marketing earlier and I want to definitely come back to that as

things are changing so rapidly at this time for someone who is really, just getting started or maybe even in their first, couple of years of their brand or their entrepreneurship journey, what are some key things that you suggest at this moment in time?

Emily Paulsen (41:29)
related to AI or just in general.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (41:32)
just in general, but make sure you come back to AI because that's the thing that's happening really fast.

Emily Paulsen (41:40)
Yes. Okay, so first two years of business, I would say, think about those personal and business brand questions that we went through. So the name that you're gonna go out there into the world with, which again, you can change, we do it all the time, it's possible to change. So it's not like you're signing your life away forever, but you wanna come out with some intention. So think about whether you're gonna have a business name or you're gonna do this under your own professional name at the beginning.

Get those early clients, which I think the easiest way to do that is to tap your network, focus on getting testimonials from them, get reviews, get results, really document those things. And it's super helpful. This is something I didn't do at the beginning for a long time. Ask, get some stats when you start with them. So again, we'll use financial advising at the beginning of that relationship once they've signed on to work with you. On a scale of one to 10, how do you feel about your finances right now?

How many different accounts do you have? How often do you look at your accounts? If I asked you to spell out your fine, tell me where all your money is in five minutes, could you do it? Try to get a picture of where things are, because then you can tell a really nice story on the other side once they've worked with you for a year, or they've completed your course, or whatever you're selling. Then you can compare, and you kind of have a case study there to say, hey, I served Pamela.

And here's how she felt at the beginning. Look at her now, right? And that's because of our work together. So capturing those data points on those early clients just helps you get more and more clients. And if you feel like, okay, I've been doing the relationship marketing, like that's working, I'm doing that, but I want to build my network more, then I would think about, okay, what's one layer, one layer further you can go with your message. Now you've been doing this for some time. You know how you want to charge people. You know what you want to offer.

You have a sense for who you're talking to. Hopefully you've done that exercise of making a big list of all the feelings they're experiencing. And you have a story to tell about why your work works because you have that real data. Then pick a platform or a modality. If you're gonna do a blog, make sure you're optimizing it for SEO. If you're gonna do a YouTube channel, make sure you have an understanding of what works on YouTube. It's different than every other platform. So there's gonna be some learning about whatever modality you choose.

But you can add one thing on and you could just do that for the next two years. Right. We only need to add these pieces when we need them. I want us to forget about the pressure of being everywhere just because I think that's part of this minimalism conversation. We don't have to do it all. We don't have to have a huge mansion just because our friend Sally has a huge mansion. We don't have to be on Pinterest and Facebook and Tick Tock and Snapchat because some other big business is it might not be necessary for us. So I think cutting out that noise, focus on what's working.

measure your results and talk about them all the time. I think that's the way. For AI, if you're not using AI, I would start playing with it yourself and just like go in there, go into chat GPT or Claude or perplexity and see like what is the processing power here? If I put in a prompt, what do I get out? ⁓

AI is changing all of the time and it's important to understand the privacy around AI and how our IP kind of gets sucked into the black hole of AI when we put certain pieces in there. So I would be careful about uploading your entire framework or a proprietary method that you think you might want to license or copyright one day. I would be careful about putting all of my Intel in there, but

It can be really interesting to use it as a sounding board, use it as a thought partner, have it double check things for you. I put things into AI to have it proofread things all the time. And sometimes it'll just say like, hey, you missed a period here. Sometimes it'll say the sentence could be structured differently. And then I see it and I'm like, oh, yeah, that is a better way to phrase that. So I would just get comfortable with it yourself. It is not going away. our moral

opposition to it is, and I have some of that myself. I think if you're gonna have a business for the next five, 10, 20 years, AI is gonna be part of it. try to embrace it now.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (46:01)
So helpful. So I think that all of that is, really good wisdom for folks that are getting started or just in those first years. It's interesting because as soon as you create a website or an email address, you're going to get inundated with salespeople who have the greatest strategy for you. And it is

a constant and so you have to constantly be batting back the FOMO, right? ⁓ if I don't take that person up on their offer to get me on, 100 podcasts in 50 days, then I'm going to be missing out or if I don't take that person up on that opportunity to get my book published or if I don't take that person up on that opportunity.

Like in you can, and I did a lot of this, I spent, through any any profits that I had, I was spending them on all the different strategies. And yet at the same time, it is still a people doing business with, people business. And so really, where you see success, you don't know in the beginning, but grabbing every shiny thing is not necessarily going to get you moved that much further that much faster.

Emily Paulsen (47:00)
Yes.

Totally, and I think using data as you gather it to make those decisions because what you just said is a perfect example. Like I'll get you on 100 podcasts. Okay, if you've done five podcasts because of just friends or your network, people who have invited you on and absolutely nothing happened from that, why would 100 make a difference, right? Double down in the areas that have worked in the past. If you have been...

focused on LinkedIn and you're posting every day and it's working and you've signed some really great clients from LinkedIn, then maybe one day you do want a VA that will do your LinkedIn for you. And that you can feel confident in that investment because LinkedIn's already been working, you already have proof of that. So I think doubling down in the areas that are working versus always feeling like we have to try something new is important. And also don't underestimate your intuition, especially when it comes to hiring coaches, mentors, thought partners.

If you feel like, and you have to like sit with yourself and I think step away from your computer, know, go take a walk, step away from the finances and all of that of your business and ask yourself like, is this mastermind or this mentor gonna solve my most critical problem right now? Is the thing that I know is my number one roadblock, is that their specialty? Do I really believe to my core that if I give them this money,

they're gonna get me through this and it's gonna be worth it on the other side because our options to spend money are endless and you know, they're all marketing themselves with intention. So it's super tempting and that's always that's helped me. And when I didn't do that and I invested, that's when I regretted it. When I felt like, well here's some shiny new thing that maybe I should try. I had no proof that I was good at it, that my audience would care. It wasn't on my radar until this person came into my sphere.

Those are the investments I regret. But everything else I've done, when it's just kind of amplifying the efforts, that's worth it.

Laura Lynch, CFP® (49:11)
I'm glad that we captured you today because everything that you have said has been so spot on and so valuable. And I hope this episode reaches lots of people who are in this space because there are a lot of people in this space right now that are trying to create something new or trying to use it as a side hustle to insulate them against job loss or, you know, any number of things. There's a lot happening in the solopreneur space. So thank you, Emily, for that. So

Tell us where we can find you and reach you.

Emily Paulsen (49:43)
Yes, thank you for having me. It's been such a pleasure. My website is electriccollab.com and you can always find me there. That's the best place to see work or get in touch with me. You can email me, emily@electriccollab.com or I spend most of my marketing time on https://www.instagram.com/heyemilypaulsen/

Laura Lynch, CFP® (50:05)
Thank you, Emily. Great to have you.

Emily Paulsen (50:07)
Thank you for having me.