Funding Beyond Financial Statements

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Um, ready to get the inside scoop on equity funding? Tune in to TBJ Equity Funding Insiders Podcast for an in-depth look at what it takes to access financial capital and maximize your investment. Hear from experienced professionals, including bankers, underwriters, loan officers, and industry experts, as they share their unfiltered stories and valuable lessons on securing funds.

Jacquelyn Jackson 0:44

Welcome to another show of the Giving Power to the Business Owner series. I'm your host, Jaclyn Jackson. Now, today we're talking about non-financial proof that makes the bank and the lenders see you as a safe bet, okay? Even if you just start now. So the series GPPO is all about equipping, evaluating, elevating, and empowering business owners with the tools, strategy, and mindset needed to take control of their vision and build sustainable success. Here we focus on real conversation, practical insights, and the kind of knowledge that moves you from working in your business to truly owning your business. So GPOs, GPPO stands for more than just a title. This is where business meets ownership and ownership meets power. Now let's get in today's conversation.

Meet The Credibility-Led Branding Guest

Jacquelyn Jackson 1:40

I'm excited to welcome our guest, Catherine Tuwamy, the founder of the Catless Brand Strategy. It's a boutique PR, a communication agency built for credibility-led founders and impact-driven brands. Okay? With over a decade in the game, Catherine has corpus-driven entrepreneurs and wellness, health, and mission-led industries turn complex ideas into clear positioning, credible media visibility, and long-term authority. Now she plans data-driven strategy with human-centered storytellers. She's passionate about her entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in general, and she's inclusive leadership, mental health, using technology to build healthier workplaces. Today we're going to dive into her experience, her perspective, and the and her insights as she has that she's gained through helping build brands and to build trust with people. And unpack the lessons that you all can apply directly to your own business today. So let's get started. First of all, Catherine, welcome to our show.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Thank you so much, Jacqueline, for such a warm and star introduction. I'm really looking forward to the conversation today.

Jacquelyn Jackson 2:57

You are definitely deserving it because a diamond in the rough is what I say about people like you guys. You have so much knowledge, and I know you work so hard on your business and work with your clients, but it's great that you took time out today, you know, to say, hey, let me talk to your audience and give them some feedback. Because one thing people believe that sometimes, and you and I have talked about this, Captain, that they believe it's all about the paperwork, you know, my financials and about my credit report and all of that. And that's not necessarily true. So that's why we have you here today. So before we start, let's do this. Can you tell us um who you are, what Catalyst Brand Strategy does, and how you went from big company marketing, working with all those to helping now small businesses look more fundable?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Absolutely. So, in short, I run a uh communications and public relations company called Catalyst Brand Strategy, and we specialize in the health and wellness industry, but also highly regulated uh sectors. And one of the things that we support our clients with is understanding how to position themselves as a thought leader in their industry while also emphasizing the credibility of their brand. So this can be through public relations such as media, podcast, broadcast, television, radio, print, and digital. And we really help them unify their marketing ecosystems through a clear through line and messaging.

Jacquelyn Jackson 4:19

Okay, great. That is great. And that's what we're looking for today. So we want to show how people can see that the branding and funding and their reputation and how they look all goes together. For some reason, people want to separate, you know, and we're like, uh no, you might want to look at that again. So, with that said, when you look at small businesses trying to get funding, okay, what's the biggest disconnect between how they see themselves and how you think the lender, the bank, the banks, or even the public may see them?

Build A Clear Founder Narrative

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Absolutely. A big issue that clients come to us with is how do I really explain what my unique value proposition or why me? Why should we get the funding instead of someone else? And this can be really hard to look at if you're looking at it just from your lens. And so having an outside person come in and really see the whole picture of your brand and your whole story, it becomes easier to then find that sort of gem and key message that you can then share to cut through and emphasize what really does make your business unique or what is that moat. And so this is often what can help grants, funding bodies, et cetera, choose you over someone else like a competitor. And one of the ways that we start to approach this is by really understanding your full career history and how that relates to what you're doing today. So, what we've come to realize is many founders they have had a point in their life where they said, this isn't right, or this industry, this sector, this uh project I'm passionate about needs to change for this reason. And so, in a storytelling moment, this is like an inciting incident, which means that you've realized that the previous way of things working isn't working anymore, and you want to be part of that change. And so this moment is part of what highlights your unique value proposition or part of a reason why someone should invest in you. And we really want to unearth this moment for you and taking that to a different layer, we also want to figure out how does this moment relate to your entire body of work. So, a lot of our founders they have decades of experience in their industry, in their sector, or sometimes they have uh fragmented histories across multiple different sectors. And a question that they come to us is how do we truly summarize this in a way that is meaningful for our current mission or initiative? And the way we approach that is by saying chances are throughout all of these different industries, throughout decades of your knowledge, you have come to realize this specific message or this specific narrative that ties directly into the brand that you're building. And so what we want to do is pull out those key bits and figure out what is that one link that has connected you across your different industries, your different roles, even your if if you've stayed in the same role, decades worth of being in that role and how it's led to this aha moment. So it all feels like one cohesive story instead of fragmented bits.

Jacquelyn Jackson 7:07

Okay, so basically what you're saying to help them with their image or their look is start with the value proposition. You want to make sure they have that set up and consistently, which you know, some people, and you know we talked on it, people just start a business off the hill, off the hill. We just we're gonna just start a business. We don't think about what's the value or the proposition or where am I positioning? We just start business. So that does affect because, like you and I talked about that, lenders look at your whole overall. Do you understand your industry? Do you understand what you're offering? And nobody wants to support a business that doesn't look like it's gonna make it. You know what I'm saying? So that's where you come in, it's great. You come in that's wonderful. So great for that answer. I love that. All right, the next question we have. So you say capital follows confidence, right? Because basically, you know, they got confidence in you, they they're willing to go further with the application. That's true. In practical terms, how does brand credibility affect whether a bank or lender would say yes or no when it comes to brand? Absolutely.

Clean Up Your Digital Footprint

SPEAKER_03 8:10

So, on a practical level, there's a few things that you can do quickly to sort of boost your uh, I guess, overall perception. So, one of the things that's often requested is proof that your business truly exists and that it's not floating, it's not an idea, it's tangible. And so when it comes to gathering these proof elements, something as simple as hiring an office and taking a picture of that office space and your brand name in front of that office space, that is a simple example of proof metrics that you can use to verify that this is legitimate, the funds will go towards somewhere meaningful, and it is operational. Another example is making sure that your presence across all of the different social platforms are cohesive and consistent. If you're saying you're working at one company here and then doing something else there, when someone's starting to audit your account and figure out how serious are they really about building this business and they see these fragmented profiles, they start to wonder, are they really all in on it? Can we really trust them with our funds and finances? So you do need to make sure that your brand messaging is cohesive across each of these different platforms and almost run this self-audit. The other thing that's that we encourage early on is to look through, and perhaps this is a deeper level, but look through layers of what you've posted or what you've advocated for in the past, because you never know when that could come come back to bite you if it doesn't directly support what you're currently building today. So if in the past you sort of advocated for something else and now you've changed your perspective on that topic, you need to be careful about your public persona and what's already been shared about you. And so while you're going through the due diligence of making sure your brand is cohesive, you also want to go back and maybe delete some things that no longer apply or delete some things that could sort of work against your application and dilute the quality and professionalism of what you've built.

Jacquelyn Jackson 10:01

Okay, I think that's great. And that's goes with when some people kind of realize, like what you're saying, that whoa, I need to rebrand and I need to reach out to Christine. I need to reach out to Christine because I need to rebrand. I think they don't realize let's change the old stuff, you know, and bring it to what you are now because your position could be different. So I think that's a great thing that you notice that people have to take that in consideration. And everybody knows, like I tell them, you all you're on our referral page where people can come to you as well. And then, like I said, definitely we want them to know how to get in contact with you. Because we don't want to just have you on the show, you just talk, but we want people to reach out to you because you are the one that can really help them. So we want to thank you again for being here. So, our next question then, let's talk about the small business. Well, you've seen a business that actually did what you think should have done in order to look more credible or consistent or coherency throughout the uh time frame. So, can you walk us through a real example where two small businesses had similar numbers, but one got a better response from a funder because of the brand and the reputation?

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Absolutely. So, one client that I think would be relatable for your audience, she had been in the consulting space for a while, but she hadn't quite figured out how to really uh amplify her message further and get the bigger consulting gigs. And so she was often kind of miscategorized as just a coach or just a small business, and um, her quality and credibility was diluted, and she was getting frustrated because by extension it meant that she wasn't getting these bigger deals that she knows she was capable of securing. So, what we did to support her is we ran a full uh brand audit, and what we discovered was her positioning was not accurate. So she was under the belief that who she wanted to speak to were people who were interested in living a luxury life and who were high-flying corporate um, I guess, corporate workers. But what we discovered was actually this messaging around luxury, luxury did not relate to both the corporations that she was pitching to and the audience who was interested in her overall offerings. And so we found this by going through a bunch of Reddit forums, online surveys, and really digging through public reports and research papers to truly understand who was her audience and who is she trying to speak to. And from there we noticed a trend. This one particular word came up over and over again, and that word was comfort. It turns out her ideal audience was not interested in luxury. What they really wanted was to feel more comfortable and was to and to live a life of comfort. And so what we did was across all of her messaging, her landing pages, her pitch decks, um her keynote talks, and the rest, we ensured that we continued to use this word comfort consistently to feel to help the audience feel as though she was speaking directly to them, but also to make sure that when she was pitching, it was clear she knew exactly who she was pitching and speaking to. And so when all that happened, when all that went through, what happened was she ended up getting the biggest contract she had ever secured from a corporate space. And um, she received more results than ever before. Her, I wish I had the numbers, but her click-through rate went up significantly from that landing page. And it was very clear to see that she was getting comments saying, it's like you read my mind, it's like you knew exactly what um you know I was struggling with, and and I feel like you can help me. And so this is just one example of how when you're really able to understand your audience and nail the messaging, that converts and leads to clear, lucrative up clear, lucrative opportunities.

Jacquelyn Jackson 13:36

Exactly. And like you gave an example of where it was just an opportunity they have. We've had the example where we've had a client that actually had a construction company, but what he did, he did not uh he had pictures and everything on Facebook of what they would do, but he didn't have a website, um, he didn't have, you know, the formal office set up and everything like he should have had, you know, which he could have had. Let me say that because I ain't gonna say shit. He could have had, he didn't have any of that stuff. So what happened was when he came in for us to do the loan, and we actually had to do the office, you know, the location visit and all that stuff, he didn't have it. You know, he didn't have the they they would have taken the digital footprint. He didn't have that. All he had was Facebook photos, which were really nice, but it wasn't enough to make them feel comfortable enough to give them the higher amount. Now, true enough, when he turned in his paperwork and we got his financials and all that stuff, he was a qualified for a month amount. But between me and you, Catherine, he was he could have gotten a lot more, but they did not feel to really make a bet on him for that long. Let's see how he does with this, and then we can look at so he basically cut himself off. Well, I had another one that had a construction company, and they did have the things that you talked about that he didn't have. They had social media, they even had a uh an email uh blog group that they sent out. They educated people on how to do rules and stuff like that, and they had a presence, you know, that was really consistent. They were offered millions for them, and they pretty much look stackable just like the other guy. Only different was they actually was set up a little bit better, and yes, they had more money coming in, but I believe the branding, and that's why we wanted you here, is so important that you can't start a business and do not think branding or positioning or value position is not important. That's why we wanted you here so people can know to reach out to you so that you can help them with that. So that's the experience we've had when it came to the funding part. So that's my story. So let's go to the next one. The next one, let's talk about the non-financial proof lenders look for, which people don't understand how that is. So, in this, when you talk about proof a business needs to look fundable or reflect, well, we don't say reftable, I want to say that. I don't even want to say credible. What do we say? That they can look consistent, coherent. That's what you said, cohesion all the way through. Okay, let's use that word, okay? So we talk about a proof of a business need to look fundable. What are the top three non-financial proof points most small business owners are missing? What's the top three?

PR, Media, And Word Of Mouth

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Well, one is public relations is um, well, stats show that word of mouth marketing continues to be the number one marketing avenue or channel. The reason I mention this is because word-of-mouth marketing is basically just you recommending the business to a friend or someone saying this in person to someone else as a recommendation. And so the fact that we have all these new social media channels now, these new platforms, these new ways of amplifying your business, getting funding growing, it's interesting to say that the still the number one platform is regular old word of mouth. And so the reason I mentioned that is because public relations, as is implied in the name, is about relationship building. And so, whenever I think about what is the most valuable way to shape your brand, you need to be thinking about the relationships that you're building. And so that can be both with funding providers, that can be within your network, that can be your previous colleagues who are offering a reference, or um, you know, even your regular family doctor who can kind of vouch for your consistency or your health or whatever it may be. You want to be building up a very strong network who, when the time comes, are willing to speak up and advocate for you and act as that reference point. This is extremely valuable and continues to be meaningful in today's day and age. And yes, of course, you can even pull some of these quotes and references and add that into your portfolio or case studies or website to strengthen your overall credibility and applications. So that's the number one. The second one that adds to this is uh when there are so much competition out there, one of the ways that you can help dis distinguish your brand or differentiate is by getting coverage in well-known publications that are respected. Now, you don't have to necessarily go for the biggest tier one publications, although we always welcome that. Um, yes, Forbes, Foss Company, all of those, they are absolutely open to uh unique stories and angles, and you don't have to be a celebrity, you don't have to have a large influence or following, you just need to have a really good story and enough facts to back what you're saying and a good pitching strategy. So, with that said, I would say do keep in mind the power of public relations and pitching yourself and seeing where that story can get picked up. And maybe you start locally. So that might be a local publication who's doing a piece on community news. It could be more of a nationwide publication that's uh requesting regular everyday stories or small businesses to speak up. There are a lot of different ways you can position yourself, but the value that this has is you're essentially borrowing the credibility of this bigger brand, this bigger authority, and then now leveraging that as an attachment to your brand name. And so that again helps establish a deeper sense of trust.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:02

And then the third piece to this to round it all out is really making sure you know what your end strategy is. So as Jacqueline touched on, some people just start a business because, you know, they they might think it's fun or because they're trying something new or whatever those reasons may be. It's so important to have your end goal in mind because if you don't know what the direction of the business is, that's going to lose trust with your funders, that's going to lose trust with any strategic partners that you build, and it's going to make it harder to shape your story in a way that is meaningful. And it could mean that you get uh sort of bitten later on if you choose to change or pivot. So we want to make sure that you're at least taking that time to do that bigger picture planning, which will then inform the communications that you can be putting out today, as well as how that seeds into that big picture vision and wider plan.

Jacquelyn Jackson 19:49

All right. Okay, great. Those are some great recommendations. And I know you say you believe that's your your top one. So let me ask you this. You know, and I've talked to you about it, when banks go online, you know, or they go on before meeting you, they're looking at um, what are they what do you think they're checking for quietly? So if a lender looks up a small business on land before a meeting, what are they quietly checking? You know, like the website, reviews, social media, stuff like that. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Exactly. I mean, I would think that it would be things like the website reviews and things like that, but also I think timing. You know, if you've just started this business one month ago and you're asking for funds and you have no track record of any previous business experience, no um online record of you know, uh paying pre payments on time or um, you know, a long history of regular payments maybe through your previous provider, um, it can then basically work against you. So you actually do want to have a digital presence of um showing that this you have a history of um, I guess, being trusted and qualified in this space and and somewhat maintaining that presence cohesively.

Jacquelyn Jackson 20:59

Right, exactly. Okay, so what's some of the red flags for its reputation that you think lenders may tight terms on, walk away, even if it's a financials okay? So, what could be the red flags, even if financials are okay, that they may walk away that you you think of?

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Yes, so one of the things that comes up a lot in public relations is crisis management, but also making sure that we're protecting that um person's thought leadership or public perception. So the reason I mention this is because there are occasions where our clients have had legal filings from a previous job that they've worked at, or they've had a legal battle from a personal marriage that fell apart, or they've been sued for X, Y, and Z. Basically, in any occasion where you have had some sort of legal incident occur, even if it has nothing to do with your current business, that can come up again when someone is looking through your credits, your history, and really evaluating the quality of your overall presence. So, with that said, it's really important to either be transparent about this to some degree so you can get ahead of that story and you recognize, yes, this happened and here's how we resolved it, or here's why it's no longer an issue, and speak privately with an expert who is representing you and can know how to best handle that. So, what we don't want to do is bury our head in the sand and pretend it never happened because it will get resurfaced. And when that comes, if you're not prepared on how to best address it, it can really work against you and potentially lead to uh that deal falling through last minute.

Jacquelyn Jackson 22:35

Last minute. And thank you because I'm so glad you said that because people think just sitting on it is just gonna go away and it's not. Like I said, it's gonna come up at some point in time. So it's best to have someone like you already with a plan that can kind of help them maneuver it. And that's what the fear comes in, I think. And and I've said it to our team here that people are fearful because they're basing it on them. They don't understand that there's help out here. You don't have to do it by yourself, and that's what we want to show them with you that you're available. All right, so next question if a small business owner has 60 days before they talk to a lender, what is a quick brand or reputation upgrade, reputation upgrade they should tackle first to look more fundable? What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Only six days. 60, 60. I'm giving you 60 days. Oh, got it. 60 days. Oh, six days. No, 60.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Got it. Yes.

Your 60-Day Credibility Upgrade Sprint

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Well, um, I'm assuming that this person might be maybe they're new to having a digital presence or they haven't, they might, they might be starting from scratch in terms of um best representing themselves. One non-negotiable is to make sure you have a functioning website or digital presence. These days it's just uh unavoidable. Even if you're a brick and mortar business, even if you're a business that doesn't necessarily rely on websites for sales, it is still important from that public perception standpoint. To complement this, we also strongly recommend having a Google My Business presence. So you can do this by basically signing up to a Google account and then looking up how do I set up my quote unquote Google My Business, and then it'll take you through a few steps. The reason why the second piece matters is because Google, as the huge conglomerate that it is, in order for you to set up a high quality Google My Presence, they require you to submit real documents to prove you're a legitimate business. So this is another high-level trusted brand known as Google vouching for you and saying this is a real business, and they now have a Google My Business presence on Google. So this is the second piece I strongly recommend doing, especially if you are a brick and mortar business or a business that relies on local traffic coming through. And then the other piece that you can work towards is making sure, as I sort of touched on previously, that the communications is cohesive across all the other social media channels. Now I don't mean to go ahead and start posting every day and rushing to become the next kind of social media influencer. That's not necessary, but at least making sure you have some presence. So if you can only commit to doing, say, two posts per week, great, that's more than enough to sort of show this business is alive, it's active, they have something going through and showing some digital presence that relates to what they've said on their website. And then the final piece that might add to this is really building up your proof bank or your records. So as I said, that can be through qualitative proof such as endorsements, references, quotes, reviews, and it can also be through quantitative metrics. So that can be in more of the numbers that I'm sure Jacqueline works with, which might be things like um, you know, revenue metrics, client flow, estimations, and all the rest, you want to kind of compile all these different assets to really work um as part of your strengths.

Jacquelyn Jackson 25:51

Okay, great. And I want to say this at this time too. If you are doing a business with digital presence, uh, which is great, you want to do that. If you're that, or let me put it this way, if you're doing an app, let's say that, that's where I'm gonna go to. We're finding out that they want, when they want to look at you, not only the branding they go to, which they do for digital uh technology, they go straight for the branding and see what it looks, it's strong there. But they also look at is your customer base. So if you have a new app, they like to know well, how many people tried your app. So the only way you can get people to try, besides, like you said, the word of mouth, you have to build your brand up and make people want to be a part of that. You know what I'm saying? That's what they're looking for, not looking for money, they're looking at well, how many people have tried and liked it. So that's where you come in at that you want to build that up before you kind of jump in and start talking about how many month how much money you're gonna have. They want to see the proof of how many customers you have. So I think that's something good I want to put in so everybody can understand that. Thank you for your answer as well. All right, our next one. Um, we have for owners who feel like I'm just a small business, okay? Um, I don't need a brand. How do I explain the difference between basic branding and the kind of credibility? And you have probably said this, that actually affects the valuation in deals compared to just a plain one.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Absolutely. I think there are so many misconceptions about what is brand or what is branding these days. Um we're not encouraging someone to go out and be an influencer, we're not encouraging you know big celebrity campaigns and kind of splashy um uh logos and things like that. In fact, these days, thankfully, branding can be done in such a lean way. You don't have to hire the top designer to create a huge website, a complicated page, um, you know, a fancy logo, any of these things. In fact, we would recommend, especially if budgets are tight and you're really focused on um getting to that next phase of your business, try and keep the branding as lean as possible. So that can be as simple as um hiring a freelancer online to do a mock-up of a logo and just one page. So not even the full website, but just like a brief about who you are, what you do, who you serve, and maybe some of those numbers and stats. That's it. And that can probably get done in uh 48 hours, maybe a week, if they take you know the back and forth, and that's it. And it's done and it's affordable and it's reasonable, but it gives you that kind of digital proof asset that you can kind of lean on time and time again. And also from a logistics perspective, it's tiring to go through all these applications, whether it's grants, whether it's funding rounds, whether it's you know banking. And so if you're able to have this asset that you can basically plug in every single time you're doing an application, that saves you time and it gives them more um reassurance that you have your materials together and you're at a place where you can be trusted with the next funding round.

Jacquelyn Jackson 28:50

Okay, exactly. I think that's some great advice. So you have a keynote that you have is ethical marketing is not an oxymoron. How does the ethical ethical marketing actually help a business attract better quality funding and partners instead of holding them back?

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Hmm, that's a great question. Well, the way we define ethical marketing is I think a lot of people have been burned by whether it be marketers, salespeople, you name it. And so we recognize that there is a need to be much more transparent about the use cases for marketing and to be able to quantify the value that marketing brings in terms of a direct ROI. And so a big part of what we do is we want it to be accessible. We don't want to use these jargon terms so that the founder doesn't understand what's happening and everyone just feels like I've given my money, but I don't know anything to show from it other than maybe this glossy page. And so we want to walk founders through that journey and really make sure that they're always in the driving seat when it comes to the decision making, but also that they feel that their marketing spend really is bringing back returns. Now, what those returns are can vary according to campaign. Some might be more focused on audience growth, as you touched on. Others might be more focused on just get me the credibility. I want the logos of the magazines, I want, you know, the references, the endorsements. And others are very much geared towards I need sales and foot feet in the door. So we want to make sure that we're clear about what those objectives are from the get-go and then reverse engineer the campaign based on those outcomes. And that really ensures that, of course, the clients are happy with the end outcomes, but it also means that they're able to clearly measure what we call impact and income. So, yes, the income's coming through, but what is the long-term impact in terms of how it fits in with their wider vision?

Jacquelyn Jackson 30:42

Right, right, exactly. It makes a lot of sense. So if a listener did a quick uh fundability, I guess a brand, we're gonna say brand audit, okay, uh, on their business this weekend, what five things would you tell them to check step by step? Sorry, just cut out for a second. Oh, okay. The question was if a listener did a quick fundability branding audit on their business this weekend, what five things would you tell them to check?

SPEAKER_03 31:14

Oh, yes. Well,

DIY Brand Audit Plus Final Advice

SPEAKER_03 31:16

in terms of a branding audit, top five things I would say make sure them the numbers actually add up. We get this all the time. So if you've said you have X amount of customers in one document, but somewhere else you've said something else, that discrepancy immediately dilutes your authority and it makes people sort of skeptical over do they know their numbers? Is this truly accurate? What's happening here? So you want to cross-check as much as you can for these discrepancies. We also see discrepancies in terms of names. So that would be the second one. Check your titles, check what you've gone by and the um, I guess, the references that you've linked, because again, if you called yourself a doctor on one page, a researcher on another page, a founder on a third document, that again just leads to confusion and it's not very clear who that decision maker really is. The third thing I would check early on is um um this kind of goes without saying, but links often do break. So whether it's a, if you've created a document, whether it's a link to an old, you know, a Google Drive, a Dropbox, whatever it may be, you actually just want to go through again with a second pair of eyes to make sure that every single one of those links actually does open. It's not locked, and someone's able to kind of review that carefully and see it through. Um, if you're presenting a document and it has any of these broken links, error pages, or um issues, again, that can just lead to a sense of skepticism. I'm sure we've all um reached a point where we may have received some sort of spam message and it led to a broken thing or led to a warning pop-up and then immediately triggers to someone, oh, is this spam? Is this legitimate? And so you never want to be in a position where people are questioning um the value of the brand. And then uh the fourth point would be around your um core story or or why. So I think it's very easy to forget that at the end of the day, we're always speaking to another person at the end of that line to some degree. So whether it's an application, but you don't necessarily see that person, um, and even if it goes through AI to start, eventually it will hopefully reach a human pair of eyes. And in that moment, you want to make sure that your story, the why, the kind of heart or um mission behind the brand is very clear and compelling. So never forget that kind of human at the other end of that conversation. And um if you're unsure about you know what to how to approach this, the feedback I always give the team is would you read this? Is it interesting to read? Um, are you like proud of how professional this is? If no to any of those things, then don't submit it, go back and rework it. And it sounds very simple, but it's true. If it's if it's kind of um not professional to you, then it's not likely to be professional to them either. And then lastly, in terms of checks, I would say from a brand guidelines perspective, the other thing you would just want to make sure is that um going back to the cohesive piece, uh, branding also does include the visual elements. So if your website is one color, one perception, and then when you're applying for something, it's a whole other thing. And when you're social media, it's you know, you're posting about fashion or whatever it may be, and it's three totally different colors, totally different topics. Again, that's gonna raise the same questions around well, what are they really doing and how serious are they? So you want to make sure that visually it's cohesive as well when you're refining that final piece.

Jacquelyn Jackson 34:38

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for that. So I got my last question, this one came in. Uh, they want to know what is one mistake you see business owners make when they tell their story to a bank or investor, and what's a better way to present that story so it builds confidence instead of doubt?

SPEAKER_03 34:58

I get this question a lot. Know your numbers. So ultimately, yes, the story is very compelling and it's and it's helpful, but at the end of the day, you want to be able to pull apart your numbers. So they're gonna ask you if you're saying the size of my market is this, or our audience base is X, they might ask, well, what portion of that audience um is actually purchasing, or what portion of that audience comes back, or you know, what portion of that audience actually is in your region, and et cetera, and so forth. So you want to be able to actually analyze your numbers and think if someone was to kind of critically assess and think, are these numbers true? What do these numbers mean? And um, and if you were put on the spot and required to answer those questions, you need to know what they are. So it's very tempting in today's age to kind of use Chat GPT or um Google something and try and use these kind of quick numbers to fill in the gaps. But if you're not able to back those numbers, that will quickly fall apart in any secondary conversation. So do take the time to really understand what those numbers mean and almost quiz yourself on um on what how it impacts your business specifically.

Jacquelyn Jackson 36:05

Okay, great. That sounds really good. Thank you so much. If you would, before we leave, I would like for you to say, is it anything that you would want our audience to be aware of? First of all, I do want you to mention how to get in contact with you, even though we're gonna have it. I want you to mention it. But also, is it anything you want them to know and to reach out to you about? Give you that chance to tell us that now.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Well, I would say that what maybe the biggest thing that we often hear is I don't know where to begin. Isn't that true? It's like it's so overwhelming. It's like, you know, there's social media, there's branding, there's marketing, there's getting people through the door, there's applying for grants, there's funding. It's almost like this constant overwhelm where people are truly like, I know I need help, but how do I even start? And so working with a marketing strategist can be really helpful because they can make it digestible and they can break it down into clear next steps so you know exactly what to focus on and why it matters for you. And then you can slowly start implementing that um in a way that's going to meaningfully move the business forward. So that's my number one advice. If you're feeling kind of overwhelmed or unsure in general, do reach out to a consultant. Most of us are happy to do um, you know, a 30-minute check-in or complimentary session to just give you a ballpark on here's what you might be struggling with, and here's the suggestion on how to move forward.

Jacquelyn Jackson 37:23

Okay, so what's the best way they need to get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Yes, so we do have the complimentary session, and you can find this on our website, which is uh www.padalistbrandstrategy.com.com.

Jacquelyn Jackson 37:36

Okay, so we'll have it where she's available for you guys to reach out to her as well through our website, which is www.tdj equlc.net. So we definitely so we want to thank Miss Catherine for being on our show today. We know, like I said, you came out of your day, and I know you're so busy, but I really do appreciate you taking time to come in and talk to our audience today. Okay? Of course, likewise, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Jacqueline. Oh, yes, I love it. And to my listeners, as always, I want to thank you guys for tuning in. We love your comments. We do get a lot of comments from you guys that you appreciate the show and you kind of like follow along, and we appreciate that as well. So we want you to know you can reach out to us at TDJquitylc.net. You also can find us on any the any of the plat podcast platforms. We are there, as well as our YouTube channel, which is TDJ Equity Funding Insiders. So you all can go and see the full episode of her and others that we've had as well that can help you along with it as well. So until next time, thank you guys, and all of you guys take care.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

We hope you enjoyed this episode of TDJ Equity Funding Insiders Podcast. If you'd like to be a guest or get in touch with us, please visit our website at TDJquityLLC.net forward slash podcast or email us at Podcast at TDJ Equity Funding Insiders.net. Until next time, take care.