• Collaboration over competition with other businesses
• The difference between marketing and brand strategy
• How creating a brand story helps you connect with your audience
• Is niching something that needs to happen
• Darby’s brand strategy framework

About Darby

Welcome to Take Control with Nicole, as business owners we experience first hand the fine line between our personal and business lives. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Hello, hello and welcome back to Take Control with Nicole. Today I am speaking with the fabulous Darby Lyndon all about building an irresistible brand. Let’s first off introduce the fabulous Darby. So Darby is a brand strategist and content marketer, passionate about turning great businesses into irresistible brands. TThroughout her career, Darby has worked on marketing and brand strategies for some of Australia’s leading travel, property, and retail brands. A hurdle she continued to face in the marketing world was trying to support clients who were unclear on their brand strategy. They were unsure of their target audience, confused about how to communicate and didn’t know what made their brand unique. Now in her consulting business, Darby helps her clients get crystal clear on their brand strategy so that they can create effective marketing campaigns, connect with their audience on a deeper level, and have fun doing it! So that sounds pretty exciting and I’m so excited to have you onboard here. We had a recent conversation, and talked all things brand as well on your fabulous podcasts. I’m so excited to welcome you here today. Hello.

Darby Lyndon
Hi, Nicole. Thank you for having me. I’m very, very excited to be here.

Nicole Smith
Yay! Let’s talk about you a little bit more. Obviously, we’ve learned a little bit about your journey working in the sort of corporate land and navigating some of those challenges with those other brands over there. So what’s led you to here to start your own business and really hone in on supporting fabulous humans to create their own brands and connect with what that can be for them?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, well, as you touched on briefly, it it was a little bit of a hurdle that I faced in the agency land and corporate world is the fact that a lot of brands and in particular, big brands who look like they’re killing it, but on the back end, they actually aren’t very clear on who they want to work with, what makes them different, why customers should choose to work with them. So it meant that marketing campaigns that we were building, weren’t able to deliver amazing results, because you know, who are we going to target on the Facebook ads? And what kind of creative are we going to do to reach the right people? So it’s something I always struggled with and that’s why I kind of dived into the world of brand strategy and I really wanted to be able to help brands, unpack all the little things that are so important before you start creating these big marketing campaigns. And I guess I kind of always thought that I would be a business owner, my dad owned his own business and I always thought that was super cool. Like, on his shop front it said Lyndon on it and I was just as a kid, I was like, that’s so cool having your own shop front that has your name on it. So I think deep down, it was always something that I wanted to do and helping small businesses as well. So eventually, I landed in the small business world wanted to build my own brand, and then teach other people how to do it as well. So that’s my story and where I am today.

Nicole Smith
I love it. I know that I’m on that journey at the moment with the brand connection. I just had a conversation with my fabulous OBM this week actually about just reconnecting in I know who my audience are, I know who you are out there. But what I haven’t done is the connection piece with the campaigns and actually helping direct our humans towards ways that we can actually support you, which is a big part of campaigns, right?

Darby Lyndon
Yes and the target audience piece is a big one, and I think a lot of people have a vague idea about who their target audience is but sometimes it’s that need to go deeper and go into the psychology of things and what they need to hear and feel and see because branding and marketing, it’s not just a logo like it used to be, it’s all the emotions that sit behind it. And people need to hear those juicy things that they don’t even know that they need in order for it to really stand out because it’s really hard to stand out when there’s so many people fighting for the attention of your target audience. And that connection piece is why it’s so important to do this brand strategy work, I think.

Nicole Smith
It’s the experience, isn’t it? It’s a brand experience that you’re creating and the connection, being able to be human in the way that we operate in our businesses and talk and it’s not just sales focused, even though that is a beautiful outcome. It’s really about well, we are here, and this is how we support you and we know that you as a human are our people. And this is how we know that. Things like I say fabulous all the time. Not everyone’s gonna like that right, you know?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah and that’s the thing, you know, that’s become synonymous with your brand and having these little things that you can connect with your audience on and really, yeah, making relationships with people who are on your same wavelength, and that who are your dream clients, because you’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea like no one is. And that’s the whole idea is being able to find your people and find your sweet spot and that’s where the magic happens.

Nicole Smith
It’s beautiful when you find it and lean into it, right? I’m imagining that some of your clients when they go on that journey of you know, first discovery, it can be a little, I guess, not confronting, confronting is not the right word, it’s like, I don’t kmow you tell me actually, you tell me your clients journeys, like when they first come to you and they’re like, I don’t know who my people are, like, how do you extract that out of them?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, it’s kind of that feeling of disconnection at the start and misalignment with the brand that they’ve kind of built. And a lot of people you know, the first couple of years with business, it’s a lot of DIY, and everything, as I’m sure you know. And you know, building your own website, building your own logo, doing your own messaging, kind of winging it with social media, it’s a lot of experimenting, which I think, you know, a lot of people look back on those first few years, and they cringe. But it’s actually a beautiful period where you just have to throw everything in and you learn so much. And it kind of helps form where you want to take the direction of your business as well. So I get a lot of people who after doing all that, they’re like, right, I now know, kind of where I want to take this business, I kind of have a vague idea of who I want to work with, how do I make it happen? So it’s kind of that that big feeling they get when they’re like, Oh, I’m just ready to kind of take it up a notch. But in terms of unpacking it all, it’s a lot of diving deep into the different layers that unfold and that sit below your brand in terms of where you are now, but where you want to be as well. So a lot of what we do is looking at, you know, the brand DNA, which is the brand vision, the mission and the values. So why does the business exist? What are you doing on a day to day to help create that purpose for your business? And what values do you live by everyday? So some people are building a business to create more time for their family, or maybe they want to travel the world, whatever it is, there is usually a value there. That’s true to them, as well as the reason why they do what they do besides making money. You know, why they helping people to live their dreams and build the businesses, of their dreams and all the things. So it’s often taking a step back and unpacking the different layers that sit underneath. And then when it comes to the target audience, it’s looking at over those first couple of years, who did you work with? You know, what kind of projects did you love? And how can we find more of those people? And how can we really uncover what that psychographic side of things is not just how old are they and where do they live? It’s like what do they do on the weekends? What cocktails do they order? What do they you know, if money wasn’t an issue, what would they do on the weekend? So it’s all the little things that can help really formulate a brand that as we said it’s a human element, not just a transaction, but people want to buy into your values and your purpose, and what you’re here to do, and yet finding the people who are on that page.

Nicole Smith
I don’t know if you’ve experienced this as well but I feel like this has really come front and centre over the last few years in particular, maybe it’s only because I’m newish well, when just ticked over three years now and I’m that point that it’s that okay, I know who I am as a business owner, I know how The Artisans has been working, where we want to go, I know who are my people, and who my other people are that I’m now just starting to attract and so all those pieces are connecting, but the last few years, or what I’ve noticed is that real focus on you are a human, I am a human. Let’s connect as humans and really understand am I your person? Because you know, when you first start business, and there’s this underlying, you can’t be friends with the person who just the same thing as you. I’ve never had that mindset, because I’m here to really create an enriching experience for me, first and foremost. And I’m surrounding myself with people who are like minded and, you know, I love geeking out on tech, I love geeking out on processes and systems and all those things, business ops, so I attract the people that are doing the things the same things like let’s celebrate that right. Sorry, diversion there but I think it’s important part of the discovery in those first sort of initial years.

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, and I am totally the same. It’s you want to be able to connect with people in your industry, not as a competitor, but as someone that you can talk to and, you know, as we said, not everyone is for everyone. So, you know, someone who wants to work on a certain project might be a better fit with someone else and that can be totally fine too. And you know, I’ve connected with plenty of people in my industry, and they’re at full capacity, and then they would recommend me and so it’s just, it is building relationships, not only with your customers, but also in your network and building a name for yourself, and a brand that is unique to your personality and your style. And yet what you want to be known for.

Nicole Smith
Exactly, not everyone loves headbands, but I love them. It was an unintentional thing and it’s now just my everyday so I love it. Now, let’s talk about brand strategy. If I come to you and I’m like, no idea, where do we start? Like, what do we actually do? Obviously, we’ve talked about the the audiences and the humans we’re talking to, but what else does it involve?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, so a lot of people think brand strategy is marketing strategy but they are quite different. So brand strategy is all about shaping the way that people think and feel about your brand and really transforming your goods and services into that living, breathing entity so that you can connect with your customers on that emotional level. So I mean, when I do my brand strategy projects that we do over six weeks one on one, like it’s quite a deep process, but we do start with that brand DNA and really unpacking what your vision and your mission and your values are, and what the core of your brand is, because that’s where everything needs to start. We talk about the target audience, and who they are and how you can actually start connecting who you are at the core with your target audience. And then the marketing side of things is how you actually connect your brand, with your customers and all the content that goes into that. And through that, we also talk about making sure you’ve got your brand personality. So for you, you know, your headbands, and the word fabulous and all these little things that over time, you can really build into something where someone sees a headband, and they think about Nicole. All these things that get overlooked and you don’t think about but building a personality that people can recognise as soon as they see your posts like that’s Nicole. So personality and brand voice is also a big one because a lot of people can speak about the same things but when you say it in a different way, and in your own way, it becomes something that is unique to you and something that can really speak to those feelings that your customers are having. So there is a lot that goes into a brand strategy but it is important to know that it is all about shaping the way your brand is positioned and then the marketing side of things is about actually getting that brand out there into the world. So I do like to use when I talked about this, the dating analogy. So marketing, I like to say is more of the flirting, whereas branding is the reason that they’ll fall in love with you. So if you don’t have a brand strategy in place, you probably going on a million dates and not getting anywhere, but you aren’t clear on a who you are, you know what your values are what you want out of your life, you know that vision mission values, and then you’re not clear on your target audience and who you really want to date and you’re just dating anyone who pops up in your Tinder or whatever it is. And then you know, your personality, you might be unclear on who you really are and your style and how you like to communicate and you know, what kind of experiences you want to have with the person you’re dating. So it’s that side of things helps my clients understand the difference. And then the other way around, if you’re clear on your brand strategy, but you don’t have your marketing, it is a confident, amazing at what you do, but you’re not putting yourself out there and you’re not getting any dates because you’re not you know, going on the apps or whatever that is. So that analogy helps people kind of understand the difference. And it’s something that a lot of people are still getting their head around brand strategy is something that you know, outside of my industry people like what and it’s something I’m passionate about educating people on through my content as well because it is so important if you want your marketing efforts to pay off and that’s why a lot of people will put you know if if things aren’t going well we’ll blame it on the marketing but sometimes you just need to take that step that deepest step to really build the foundations before you before you go out.

Nicole Smith
You took the words right out of my mouth. The foundations, right this is exactly what I was. I was going to say it comes really back down to connecting with you, yourself and your brand. So if you’re an individual or business profile, so same same same mob different, obviously. But anyway, I won’t go into that but once you know what and who and how then the execution of the sharing with the world, the the focused campaigns as you you know, you create as well for your clients to support them to do that it makes more sense and it’s easier. I remember when I wasn’t connected properly. Marketing wasn’t an enjoyable exercise, it was something I had to do. It was a had to do where now, like, I love getting on there and doing the talking and doing the posts. It’s all about priorities as well and delegation, we’re just in a whole conversation about where should Nicole be in the business? But if you do get to that stage, where you are about to delegate out some of your social media and your marketing activities, having the brand in place, having a tone of voice, knowing who your humans are, how they’re connected through to how you operate as a business is a really important part that if you try and engage a social media manager, for instance, if you don’t have those foundations, you’re probably not going to see the results that you want to experience. Right?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, absolutely and that’s why you know, the brand voice side of things is very important for a social media manager, as an example, you know, knowing how you explain what you do, what emojis using the captions, or using short, sharp, funny captions, or using long, thoughtful. So it’s, yeah, that’s where it really pays off, you’re not wasting time explaining things, everyone who joins your team, you have a document there, and you just want them to be able to click and be like, Yes, I get it, I know who you are, this is this is great. And that applies to all employees, it doesn’t have to be marketing people as well. It can be customer service, you know, when they’re talking to clients, the client experience of your current customers needs to be just as brilliant as the potential clients. So all touch points of your brand, is supported by having a strategy in place and making sure that growth chapter is as seamless as possible.

Nicole Smith
So good one, you have a reference document. Love us a SOP. Surprise, surprise, my brand information is in ClickUp. It’s great because when I do have someone new come onboard or you know, we’re looking to do something slightly different, I’m like, here’s the link, have a read through, connect with how we talk over here. Because we do have the very unique way, who am I the royal we, I have a very unique way of speaking that’s been curated and created over the last three years. Connecting with the fabulous Kathy Rast, you know it’s very language has been at the forefront of my thing. And that’s part of how I connect with people because I make it fun and easy to understand. Because business ops can be boring, can be grey, do a document, create a process, like no, let’s make a fabulous and imagine when you done it. That’s all comes back to my brand experience that I’m creating over this side.

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, and you can tell that that’s a part of your brand and what makes you different is the way that you talk about what you do and how not only how passionate you are, but how fun you make it because I agree I don’t think operations is the sexiest topic, but when I hear you talk about it, I’m like, I’m inspired. So it’s it’s being able to like, and obviously that means understanding your target audience, but making sure that your brand is really, you know, oozing through all channels and making sure everyone else is across it.

Nicole Smith
I do remember when I first started, I had to learn the skill of holding back the excitement a little. You probably remember when you first maybe heard me speak I was like, man, we can do this. And then you press this button. And now I’m getting more concise around, okay, what’s the purpose of what we’re doing here? Little micro moments, let’s create those micro moments. I’d love to talk about brand story in particular. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is? And how does one even shape a brand’s story?

Darby Lyndon
Yes, brand story is an interesting one and it’s a communication strategy or tool to help communicate in a way that really resonates with the journey that a customer is going through. So rather than just presenting information, the way it is, it’s shaping a journey that takes them from where they are now to where they want to be and really picturing themselves in your brand experience. So stories can be crafted in a number of different ways. You know, even starting with how and why you started a business is a good story to start with because often the reasons why you started your business are related to why you’re passionate about what you do or your brand values. You know if you started a business to make life easy for your clients so they can spend more time with their family for example, that will help inspire your audience who in that boat to be like, Oh my god, I really want to work with that person, because they get me they’ve been through it, they understand. But rather than just, you know, saying, this is why I do what I do, crafting the story from where you were, how did you feel when you first started a business, or where you were at the start, and what that transformation was. Was it, you know, if I use the example of a personal trainer with a, you know, had they gone through an experience where they were feeling, you know, really self conscious, and anxious, and then they went on their fitness journey, the transformation that they made in terms of their confidence, not only how they look, but that feeling of what they went through at that time, or, you know, business owner who was going through burnout, what they went through their emotions, even the hospital visits, like all the different highs and lows that they went through. And now they’ve built a business where they help others overcome burnout. So it’s just creating that story that customers can relate to, before they before they come and work with you. And how you can tap into that. And it’s not only your stories, but it could also be your customer stories, and you know, in your industry or what, what you think about certain issues. So there’s so many different ways that you can story-tell and it doesn’t have to be, you know, just a social media post, it can be even jumping on stories, Instagram stories, and talking about something that happened that day and how it changed the way you think about something or why this happened. It’s just bringing your customers in on your journey so that they can tap into those little elements of your brand, that make up those foundations, and really start to understand how they can be a part of it.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, and it’s also a really good reflection and connection for you as a business owner as well. Like I was just talking to Nicole, not me, but we like to keep things really easy here, so there’s me and then there’s Nicole, who’s my fabulous human in my team here helps with all our client work, and I was saying to her, we are a business that is here to support business owners to discover the way that they want to work but to make it easy and fun, right. So we don’t want things to be like burnout, I don’t like that word out there, whatever you know what I mean like, creating it really easy. We’re in a period of growth, significant growth right now and I said to Nicole, we’ve got to be living, what we’re supporting our clients to do. Let’s connect back in. We need more humans. It’s time and so I’m an action taker. So I’ve already messaged someone and hopefully that’s in the works too but without having that opportunity to connect that in with the story. The why? Nicole said, why did you start your business? And I said, blah, and then I’m like, Oh, hang on us and micro. We need more people.

Darby Lyndon
And even even sharing that story with your audience and being like, you know, we’ve welcome this new team member, why did we need to make this call and talking about how that story affects your clients journey, tapping into that and helping them understand when it’s time for them to do the same thing.

Nicole Smith
And the other thing I had a realisation of recently was we have stories that we forget ourselves sometimes until they’re triggered. So if someone asks you a question, like I sing, obviously, if we you may know, so just saying it you today Hello, yes, this is standard Nicole experience, but yeah, people don’t may not have realised that I had a scholarship to high school for singing. And you know, so sharing those stories, and how that kind of threads on through a part of your journey as well may not seem connected exactly but each experience we’ve had through our life, our own journey brings us to this exact point.

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Darby Lyndon
And it’s often I find those little quirks that your customers really connect on. Like, on my website I have that I love pasta, Pilates and Pinot Noir. And then I have potential clients always say I saw that on your website, the I love Pilates. And that becomes kind of something we have in common. So I think it is, again, coming back to making everything human. But talking about these little things that people appreciate and they can understand like, I’m sure you get people chatting about seeing all the time and headbands and, and all the things that you like to talk about.

Nicole Smith
People sing at me too. So I had a recent client, the world small world of the universe, right Melbourne’s not a big place. We ended up connecting that I was from a musical theatre community. My client was from the musical theatre community, one of their team is in musical theatre. So we’re literally like on our zoom with all the team, they’ve got singing at me, like welcome to the team. I’m like, you’re my client. Knowing who you’re paying for, you’re gonna sing at me like, you don’t have to sing me, by the way, but I’ll sing it here. But you know, those things that you think, Oh, that’s a little bit random to bring into the business context. But connecting back with the humans, right?

Darby Lyndon
I love it. I love that. I mean, you definitely don’t want to hear me sing. But I love that’s part of your brand.

Nicole Smith
Everyone has their own unique thing, right? Niching is that an important part of your brand story, or your brand experience?

Darby Lyndon
Yes, and niching comes back to the brand positioning side of things, which is how you want to be perceived in the eyes of your customers. I don’t know how you feel about this conversation but it comes up a lot in my circles. And it’s a business strategy but it’s also a brand strategy, because it’s how you want to be known and whether you want to be known for a specific thing, or you want to be known for everything furnishings, you know, all that having a specialisation rather than being the jack of all trades, being a specialist in a certain area. And they talk about two different areas of niching, one being target audience and niching down our target audience, whether it’s you know, only working with ecommerce, business owners or whatnot. And then there’s the idea of niching your services, which is more of a business strategy, but specialising in, you know, instead of being a specialist in marketing and be specialists in SEO, for example. So I think, you know, as part of the brand strategy process, it is super important to discuss what this looks like and be clear on exactly what you want to be known for. But I don’t think everyone needs to have a needle that doesn’t suit everyone, especially in the first few years of business, when you’re still figuring things out. I think it’s important to have that space to experiment a little bit, especially at the very beginning, not unless you are super clear on exactly what you want to do. And you have a specialisation, opening it up a little bit to give yourself the opportunity to learn what might suit for your services and your target audience. And then some people just have a personality that doesn’t suit niching and specialisation. And I’ve just I’ve had some clients and they’re like, who just can’t do it. Like I just want to, I just love doing X Y, Z and working with, you know, a broad group of people. I’m like, you know what, that’s fine. It’s your personality, you do you. And that will work for your brand, because your brand is you. But it does help in the sense that it does create that area of specialisation, where you become known as an expert in what you do. So you know, if, for example, you’re getting married, and you’re a photographer, you’re probably going to search for wedding photography, you’re not just going to find any old photographer. So being clear on what that looks like, and whether that will benefit your brand. But it is something that is definitely a personal decision. I don’t think there’s any formula. It needs to be something that you chat through with your business strategy and your brand strategy. And looking ahead once you know kind of roughly where you want to be and how your brand positioning is going to help you get there in terms of who want to work with and what you want to be known for. But it is a tricky one. I go back and forth sometimes.

Nicole Smith
It’s funny, because when I hear niching, there was always industry, they’re always talking about, okay, what industries are you working with? I’m like, well, I don’t I’m not industry specific. What we do here is business specific. It’s you know, it’s about humans, how you run your business, not industry, but also the other thing is sometimes it gets picked for you. So, I am known for ClickUp. Right? I don’t intentionally go out to become known for ClickUp. It’s that I love it. I can see the potential way past just the basic tool and how it can be designed customised for the way that you run your business be that solo or corporate right? And I think with complementing that, and my experience, you know, ClickUp is the thing, okay, I need to build ClickUp for my business, go to Nicole at The Artisans because that’s what they specialise in. And then once they’re in the door, or they have the conversation, they realise what we actually do, ClickUps just the tool of execution. So yeah, it’s interesting how that kind of just organically snowballed and created itself. I love ClickUp don’t get me wrong.

Darby Lyndon
I think you know, that probably happened in the first couple of years, when you were just talking about a lot of things and a lot of people really resonated with the ClickUp. And I didn’t know anyone else talking about ClickUp so yeah, that’s, again, why it is important to just kind of figure it out in the beginning, and now you own it.

Nicole Smith
Well, I love it, I think it is, we’re not gonna make this ClickUp, but such a good tool, anyhow, back to, oh, my goodness. We’re on our journey, we’ve, you know, we’re maybe just starting, or were a couple of years in, and we’re starting to feel that momentum of things happening, we’ve tried and tested the things, what’s the important things that we need to know to really create that strategy that connects, and is right for right now, because I’m assuming these things evolve as well, right, and not set in stone.

Darby Lyndon
So the first two steps, I will go through the first two steps of my brand strategy framework, which are the things that I think are the most important from building from the ground up. So the first one we’ve already touched on, which is the vision, mission and values, but it’s important to be aware of why you do what you do, and what you’re working towards, and who you’re helping and why. So those foundation questions that will influence any brand strategy and any business strategy as well, I think it’s, it’s so important to be clear on who you are. And, as we said, It’s hard until you get to a point to work on that. But I do actually have a freebie that will help people, your audience to work through it. So I can give you the link to that one.

Nicole Smith
Amazing, we’ll put that in the show notes.

Darby Lyndon
That is the first thing and the second thing is getting clear on your target audience. And this one takes a bit of work but I do always encourage people to get away from the demographics and go deeper into the psychology side of things. And it could even be doing some market research, you know, once you get to that point where you’re like, Alright, I’m ready to kind of level up a bit, and do some calls with a few clients who you would call your ideal clients and who you want to keep working with, and really unpack, you know, how they were feeling before they started working with you? What was what was the pain point? You know, what was their experience during and after? And looking at, you know, what are the things in their life that lead them to connecting with you, and how you can kind of replicate that moving forward. So, do market research is something that I think gets overlooked quite a bit. But, you know, I have people in my network, who I’ve jumped into their market research questionnaires before and jumped on calls with them to help them, you know, understand their target audience in a bit further detail. And I know that when clients love what you do, they’ll be more than happy to help in terms of answering those questions. Because, you know, when you love working with someone, you want to support their business and their growth. So I think if you’re in a position where you still a bit unsure on, you know, some of the deeper questions that you want to ask your target audience, ask them to jump on a 20 minute call, write down all your questions and start to formulate what that ideal customer actually looks like, not only on the demographic side of things, but on the emotional side of things as well. And from there, you know, there are so many steps after you figure out those two, but I think as a starting point, it’s your brand DNA, branding, eight and your target audience. And from there, you can kind of use the creativity and the crafting to build that tone of voice and the personality and the brand positioning. And then finally the marketing.

Nicole Smith
It’s all data, isn’t it? Data, understanding the data, the information of what is working, what is not, who you want to be surrounded by, who you don’t want to be surrounded by etc. And sometimes what I’ve discovered is things that pop out that you wouldn’t have thought initially would be something that would be really important. Like for me, my clients, the ones that I really connected with are the really human focused people, so people that are building their businesses to support their team, to be the best people that they can be, and the systems and processes that support them to do that. I found when I work with those humans, I love it. Like I’m just lit up, but in the conversations flow, and the designs are beautiful, and like, you know, just really isn’t a connection point. And that was something that became aware. few clients last year all just tick that box, it was like, oh, there’s a repetitive theme here. I’m creating surrounded and supported experience. And by doing that I’m attracting people that are creating that same experience. And that comes back to values.

Darby Lyndon
Yes, it does and that’s why it’s important once you get clarity on that, then you can start weaving that through your messaging as well, to continue to attract the right people. Because you once you have it, it’s then how can you use that knowledge to grow this even further?

Nicole Smith
Such a beautiful experience when you’re connecting. It can be a little like going through the forest. Once you’re on that yellow brick road dancing to the Emerald City in getting your makeover, it feels like do do do do do do – like that right?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, totally because it can be quite stressful when you’re working really hard and it’s not cutting through and the words that you’re putting out there and the brand that you’re putting out there isn’t attracting the right people. So when it does happen, it’s just a huge relief. And then you know that you can do it again, because you know what you’ve done is on the right path and when you’re attracting the right people and those brand messages are hitting home, then, yeah, it’s a whole nother feeling.

Nicole Smith
Hold it lightly as well. I think that’s the theme for me. Definitely over the last six months and onwards is the moment I hold something tightly, it’s a bit harder, then when you let it go a little bit, and you just lean in and you’ve let the experience happen around you as well, it’s just, yeah, that would be my my thought on that.

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, I love it.

Nicole Smith
Anything else you’d like to share with us about brand and creating your brand strategy and how we’re connecting it into campaigns and marketing and all of its pieces?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, well, one conversation that I’ve been having a lot lately is that a lot of people spend a lot of time stalking their competitors and getting really caught up in what everyone else is doing. But I think with brand strategy, it’s it’s all about connecting in with your core brand and then your target audience. It has nothing to do with what other people are doing although it is important to know in perspective, what’s happening in your industry. But people get too caught up in what’s going on what content people are sharing, what they’re talking about what services they’re building and I just think it is so important. And I just realised this over break as well, because I wasn’t consuming social media as much. The magic really happens when you are in your own flow. And it’s really hard to focus on building your own brand when you’re distracted by what everyone else is doing. So I would just encourage everyone to disconnect a little bit from what their competitors are doing and not to get caught up in the overwhelming world of social media. Rounding because it really does come back to you and what you’re here to do in this world and how you can support the people that you want to support. So that’s just a thought that I’ve been having over the last couple of weeks that I think is really important to mention.

Nicole Smith
Dance in your lane. Dance beautifully, dance fun and your partner’s, you dancing partners, will find you and gravitate to you and want to be part of what you’re creating.

Darby Lyndon
Yes, I love that analogy – dancing partner.

Nicole Smith
It’s another ballroom dancing and when I first started my business, I was one of the stories we were talking about with Kathy Rast when she helped me craft my my tone of voice, my business voice, was that I danced with my people. And when you dance with someone, as a lead, so when you got a partner, your lead isn’t there to hold you up. You’re lead is there to dance together around the dance floor. So you’ve got your own independent things and you’re supporting each other to work around. So it’s a beautiful connection point for me that it always I channel back into that when I’m thinking that you’re dancing is all the things dancing, singing that’s all fun and games over here.

Darby Lyndon
I wish I could dance and sing.

Nicole Smith
Everyone can do it. Just go and have some fun. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I’ve got three questions that we always ask our fabulous guests. Let’s go. Okay. What is your go to app that creates ease in your day?

Darby Lyndon
Well, my favourite is Canva because I just think what would I do without it these days? I think it’s just made life for business owners so much easier. I know there’s obviously requirements for designers when building a brand but in terms of putting content up putting words over graphic It has just made life so much easier. So I am obsessed with Canva. And the other one that I love is Toggl for my time tracking. Because I know the importance of understanding where my time is going in terms of efficiencies and profitability and everything like that. I just love the little tool. It’s connected to ClickUp. It’s connected to my phone. It’s everywhere and it’s just the reports are great. It’s I love that one.

Nicole Smith
Again, data is key. I think Canva is like the go to app for every business owner. Right? And they’ve had some new features out, haven’t they? I think I saw a document something or other in there the other day.

Darby Lyndon
There’s always new features coming out. So obsessed.

Nicole Smith
Love it. Fabulous. Are you an online, paper or hybrid To Do List lover?

Darby Lyndon
I am hybrid will primarily online on my ClickUp. So I’ve got everything in there. But I do have a notepad every day that I keep handy. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to separate from a notepad as good as online systems are it just helps reinforce what I’m doing for the day.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, yeah, everyone has their own beautiful way of doing it. And I’m the same I love to write, especially if I’m on a call, I have a big A3 piece of paper just in front of me. And just so I can process because my brain does lots of things up there. And sometimes I need to just get it down so I can get it back out again.

Darby Lyndon
Yes, yes. No, it’s yeah, notepads are wonderful. But again, I couldn’t do what I do without ClickUp either, because it’s all where all my long term projects, the subtasks all the things. So it’s a good balance between both.

Nicole Smith
Beautiful. And final question, what would you do if you created more space in your world?

Darby Lyndon
At this stage of my life could be more travel. Over summer I went travelling and I just loved it. I was just thinking this is just what I want to do more of so definitely travel would be if I had more space. But you know, it’s easier said than done. And I think that’s why the work that you do, for example, is super important to be able to streamline and make it possible for people to be able to go away and take leave without having to stress too hard about the business. So but yeah, in the ideal world, it would be more travel.

Nicole Smith
Amazing. I’d like to go to New Zealand, potentially, there’s a conference over there, I’d like to attend. So I’m just throwing the balls up in the air and when you got a family and you know, a one year old brutal to work out. And your partner works full time as well. You know, you’ve got to just juggle it all and see where it lands.

Darby Lyndon
Oh, hopefully you can get to New Zealand.

Nicole Smith
This has been fabulous. Thank you so much. I think brand is and you know, connecting again with what it is and what it means to you and your business is such an important part that I think when we first start, it might be overlooked by the doing getting the getting the focus on getting the clients getting the work, doing the thing, doing the thing and that hard push where sometimes if we take that step back, get those foundations in place. It all just starts to flow, but you’re getting the messaging out. So really appreciate your time today and giving us some ideas on what to get started.

Darby Lyndon
Oh, beautiful. Thanks for having me.

Nicole Smith
Wonderful. Now finally, where can we find you? Where are humans going to be able to connect with you?

Darby Lyndon
Yeah, so I’m mostly on Instagram @darbylyndon. My website is darbylyndon.com and my podcast is called Brand Chats. And I did interview you Nicole on my podcast, episode 22. So listeners can go check that one out too.

Nicole Smith
You’ve had some fabulous guests on your poddy so far.

Darby Lyndon
It’s lots of fun. I am looking forward to season two. We have some amazing conversations lined up about all things brand, business. All the things, love podcasting.

Nicole Smith
It’s fun, isn’t it? I always say the most favourite activities I’m able to do in my business is connecting with humans. And yeah, I just love talking. To get to talk, it’s so much fun. So yeah, that’s wonderful. We’re gonna put all those details in the show notes. So please pop on over and connect. You’ll also have your freebie there to go and download so you can get started with creating your brand strategy if you’re yet to do that. Thank you again for joining me. It’s been such a fabulous conversation and connecting with your brand strategy. Let’s go ahead and do and have some fun.

Darby Lyndon
Beautiful thanks so much Nicole, I had a blast.

Nicole Smith
Wonderful for everybody who’s out there listening. Have a wonderful rest of your day, and enjoy creating space and time freedom. Bye now. Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on social jazz? If not, please come on over. Say hi, I’m on all the platforms at the artisan solutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I’d love it if you could leave a review. And of course, share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, that everyone have a fabulous rest of the week and until next time, see you then.