Business Challenge:

Although Eleni Gage had been writing for many well-known publications – including
Travel & Leisure, People, Allure, Elle, Instyle, and Real Simple – for years, she did not have a strong, cohesive brand presence. She wrote travel and beauty articles as well as personal essays, and she also taught writing and wrote books, but there was no easily perceivable link between the various types of writing she did, so it sometimes seemed like she was “all over the place” careerwise. To make matters worse, her website was outdated, and did not project her offline savvy. Eleni’s Personal Branding 360 results (how others saw her brand) demonstrated how highly respected she was amongst her peers and colleagues, who saw her as a dedicated professional, but the challenge was to spread that message farther, and to define what made all the different kinds of writing she did part of the same “brand”.

Because her work was entirely for print publications, Eleni had also never thought of blogging as a way of building her business as a writer. Eleni’s first novel, Other Waters, was due to hit the stands in early 2012, and she wanted to capitalize on this opportunity,and to bring together all the work she did into one creative whole.

Our Solution:

We delved into a thorough 12-week personal branding program and uncovered Eleni’s
strengths, and differentiators and tied those into the strong voice she had developed through the years as a writer. Once we defined what made all of Eleni’s work unique—her background as a folklorist, her sense of humor, and her way of looking at the world,we created a blog – TheLiminalStage.com –where Eleni could explore these ideas further and also start building an online community.

We helped Eleni “connect” the dots between her print career and her online writing
with a new branded website and logo that reflected her Greek heritage, her love and knowledge of culture, mythology and folklore (her B.A. is in Folklore and Mythology).

Before

After

We worked with her, helping to use the power of social media marketing to grow and
engage a community that can also translate to sales for her upcoming book release.

Results:

Eleni now has a central headquarters: A branded location to showcase all of her past and current writing. It has become very easy for editors, publishers and media to see the scope of her work and has inspired editors who became familiar with her voice through her blog to assign her different types of writing. Consumers and readers can get information about her books as well as see where to buy or pre-order them. Using social media, she has been able to encourage book reviews and interact with her readers.

I came to Rachel Gogos and brandiD when I needed to professionalize my website, include highlights from the book I was launching, and tell the story of who I was and what I had to offer. brandiD was able to artfully capture my message and align it to a design that displayed my essence. Thank you Rachel and brandiD for creating a website that I am proud to show to the world.

Susan Chritton

Author, Personal Branding For Dummies and Executive Career Coach

SusanChritton.com

“The value added to my business by working with brandiD became immediately evident after our first project together, an e-newsletter campaign. Soon after the first communication was sent – the positive feedback and increased business came rolling in.

Since then, Rachel continues to draw upon the best resources and most current technologies to efficiently engage me and my time into building a successful online business.

brandiD brings to my business many talented and project specific graphic design options, editorial assistance and a focused strategy around the right social media.

It is always a pleasure to work with a professional like Rachel and her team. I look forward to providing her with all my online marketing needs because they are increasingly vital to the growth of my business.”

John Vardis

Owner, Alithea-New York

Testimonial:

I am blown-away with the final product from brandiD. Their design process for creating a website that totally represents me was very different than any other company I researched. Starting with a personality survey and deep analysis of color and fonts produced a space that has captured my speaking and teaching essence. brandiD really listened to me and took those random wishes and desires and put them into functional use on the website. My site used to be a random blog interface and you couldn’t tell who or what I did. But now, wow, it is clear and focused!

Creating the First Multi-Media Online Personal Branding Destination

Client:	PersonalBranding.TV, William Arruda
Profession:	Personal Branding
Years Practicing:	10+

Business Challenge:

Personal Branding Guru, William Arruda approached brandiD to create a cutting edge, multi-media website. He had three goals in mind:

• Continue to stay ahead of the innovation curve. His company, Reach Personal Branding has always been “first to market” for many branding services.

• Create a new tool for the hundreds of people that have been certified in his personal branding certification program.

• To create some buzz around his company as well as create a new space where some passive advertising revenue can be generated.

William essentially came to us with a few design requirements – logo, needs to showcase multi-media copy (audio and video) and the details of the navigation bar. One other requirement – adding new content had to be simple. We had a blank slate and we were given carte blanche creatively – a dream client!

After

Our Solution:

We were able to breathe life into an unused domain name PersonalBranding.TV, that William owned for several years. After researching several great video sites like Vimeo.com, YouTube.com, etc., we developed a design that would showcase several great videos at once while making it intuitive for the end user to find and navigate a variety of categories. Built entirely in WordPress, it is also remarkably simple for William’s team to update the site.

The audio archive for the popular “Reach Personal Branding Interview Series” is entirely housed on the site. Reach-Certified Personal Brand Strategists are also highlighted on the site with their own branded sub-category on a navigation drop down.

By creating a distinct branded dock-bar, each of William’s other corporate entities are easily associated with him, found and one can quickly navigate to. It also adds a sense of cohesiveness to William’s personal branding empire.

Results:

brandiD helped William achieve and exceed his initial goals. PersonalBranding.TV is the first and largest web resource featuring personal branding advice and support. The contemporary design is on-brand and on-message, but equally as important it is incredibly user-friendly. The site acts as a showcase for William’s Reach-certified personal brand strategists, and the numerous unique monthly visitors can easily access the quick-to-load videos. In the short time since launching, the site has become extremely popular and now boasts hundreds of incoming links.

I chose to work with brandiD because of Rachel’s professionalism and savvy in the arena of the web and personal branding. She is smart and strategic, yet practical with her clients. I expected to have a more interactive website that was more Foogle friendly. One that I could easily update. A site that was blog compatible. I got all those things and more! I like an organization that is super at communicating. I’ve been told that I ask the questions that some people think about but would fear asking. Rachel and her team embraced all my questions and helped me understand each piece. Rachel gave me great encouragement along the way when I was stuck with the writing piece. Her advice was to hire a copy-writer. This was incredibly valuable. I was concerned about the investment and she coached me through it. It was a great choice for me.

Jen Bertsch

Entrepreneur Coach

www.MoxyCoaching.com

Thinking Globally, Acting Locally

Business Challenge:

Betsy turned to brandiD to help her increase visibility for her services, conceive a brand for a product line, develop a longer-term business strategy and create her own online space. A practicing homeopath for over 20 years, Betsy has been working out of the Pittsburgh Nuin Center – a premier holistic and integrative wellness center. Betsy had a page on the Nuin Center’s website when we began our engagement. While her business was doing well Betsy knew it could do better.

As a result from a Personal Branding 360 review we conducted it became clear that Betsy’s clients viewed her as Pittsburgh-centric, despite her extensive world travel, global homeopathic certifications and studies with internationally renowned practitioners Rajan Sankaran, Jayesh Shaw and Divya Chambra. She needed a fresh, and dynamic, platform to showcase her global, homeopathic expertise and her new product lines.

After

Before

Our Solution:

After the eye-opening results of the 360 review, brandiD’s research identified Betsy as the ONLY certified homeopath in the Pittsburgh region and one of 10 people in the country who are schooled in Rajan Sankaran’s Vital Sensation Method and are faculty at the American Medical College of Homeopathy.

We created a long-term vision and strategy for Betsy and her product line by developing an appealing corporate name, Daffodil Labs. We designed a logo around her name Betsy, to continue to build Betsy’s personal brand as a homeopathic wellness leader. Additionally, brandiD created a WordPress website built to highlight her many accomplishments, showcase her business and to give her a space to start blogging.

Results:

Now that Betsy has a place on the web to share her vast knowledge she is one of Pittsburgh’s most recognized homeopathic wellness practitioners. Site sections like “Flu Care Guide” and her blog, help position her as an industry expert and educator. Her online visibility and reach has greatly increased, as her new site has first page Google rankings for both her name and her company name, expanding her visibility across the web and around the world.

Rachel’s process for personal branding produced amazing results for my business.
As an entrepreneur with many disparate interests, working with Rachel enabled me to bring all of my passions and goals into one cohesive, impactful brand. In fact, one single observation Rachel shared with me revolutionized my business and clarified my path.

Rachel’s coaching style is personal, warm, compassionate, yet direct and challenging. She’s an expert in the personal branding field and will gently push you to dig deeper, work a little harder and come up with better solutions. Because of Rachel, I have a strong personal brand and some great marketing strategies to go out and spread the word.

Ashley Acker

Entrepreneur

www.EntrepreneurJungle.com